TechnipFMC PLC said Thursday it had won a “significant” contract from Chevron Corp for a recently approved project to expand the Gorgon domestic and liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia. The integrated energy tech company will deliver its Subsea 2.0 configure-to-order suite of products for the Gorgon Stage 3 project. “This contract marks the introduction of the first seven-inch series of Subsea 2.0® horizontal subsea trees”, TechnipFMC said in a press release. “In addition, TechnipFMC will deliver flexible jumpers designed to increase production rates and provide flow assurance for gas applications”. TechnipFMC values a “significant contract” at $75-250 million. “We are proud to continue our 20-year partnership with Chevron on the Gorgon development through this latest opportunity”, said TechnipFMC president for subsea Jonathan Landes. Last week Chevron announced a AUD 3 billion ($2 billion) final investment decision to proceed with Gorgon Stage 3. The first in a planned series of tiebacks, Gorgon Stage 3 will develop the Geryon and Eurytion fields in the Greater Gorgon Area by connecting them to existing subsea gas gathering infrastructure and processing facilities on Barrow Island, according to an online statement by the Australian unit of Gorgon operator Chevron. Six wells are to be drilled in the two fields, located about 100 kilometers (62.14 miles) northwest of the island in waters around 1,300 meters (4,265.09 feet) deep. “The development involves the installation of three manifolds and a 35-kilometer production flowline among other associated infrastructure”, Chevron Australia said in the statement December 5. Chevron Australia president Balaji Krishnamurthy said, “Gorgon Stage 3 is a cost-competitive development which will optimize existing infrastructure and complement the well-progressed Jansz-Io Compression Project and previously completed Gorgon Stage 2 infill development”. Gorgon currently has a declared domestic production capacity of 300 terajoules per day, catered to the Western Australian market,

Clean Planet Technologies (CPTech), part of the Clean Planet Group, has secured patents in Saudi Arabia and the United States for its core pyrolysis oil upgrading process, part of its campaign to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from plastic waste. The process converts “low-grade, highly variable pyrolysis oils into ultra-low sulfur fuels and circular petrochemical feedstocks – a breakthrough that improves stability, reduces impurities and enables far more efficient downstream upgrading”, London-based Clean Planet said in an online statement. Involving fractional condensation, tailored hydrotreating and precision distillation, the process “allows CPTech to transform mixed waste plastics into an ultra-clean product suitable for further refining into sustainable aviation fuel”, Clean Planet said. “By securing patent protection in two major energy markets – including the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – CPTech strengthens its position to license, develop and protect its technology across jurisdictions central to global fuel production”, it added. “CPTech’s patented process solves long-standing challenges associated with raw pyrolysis oil, which is typically unstable, oxygen-rich, metal-laden and unsuitable for use in refineries or engines without extensive upgrading. “By increasing stability, controlling variability and removing sulfur, nitrogen and other contaminants, the technology produces a cleaner, more predictable intermediate oil – exactly what is required for advanced aviation-grade upgrading”. Clean Planet got its first patent for the process in the United Kingdom, as announced by the company September 7, 2022. It said last month initial equipment for a project to demonstrate its plastics-to-SAF program had arrived. It aims to commission the pilot facility in the first quarter of 2026. “The new facility will demonstrate the company’s proprietary process for transforming hard-to-recycle plastics into ultra-clean, low-carbon jet fuel”, Clean Planet said in a press release November 20. It said in the statement this week announcing the new patents, “With UK and EU SAF mandates

Oil closed at the lowest since October, weighed down by earlier losses in equities. West Texas Intermediate declined around 1.5% to settle below $58 a barrel while global benchmark Brent closed near $61 a barrel. Pressure from disappointing earnings offset escalating geopolitical tensions that had earlier lifted prices. US forces intercepted and seized a sanctioned tanker — a very large crude carrier — in a move the government in Caracas called an ‘act of piracy.’ The OPEC member holds the world’s largest oil reserves and exported about 586,000 barrels a day last month, which mostly went to China. Meanwhile, Ukraine attacked Lukoil PJSC’s Filanovsky oil field in the Caspian Sea, according to a person familiar with the matter, widening the scope of its strikes on Russian energy infrastructure even as the US presses Kyiv to accept a peace deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms. An end to the conflict would allow more Russian barrels into the market. “The weaker equity backdrop and steady Ukraine–Russia headlines are keeping sentiment soft, with only marginal short covering from the Venezuela story,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.  — Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) December 10, 2025 The increased tensions come against a bearish backdrop for crude, as more production from OPEC+ and the Americas is set to overwhelm tepid demand growth and lead to a glut. The International Energy Agency offered some relief from the gloom on Thursday, trimming its estimate of record oversupply for the first time since May. “All in all, for 2026, stock builds

Ukraine attacked Lukoil PJSC’s Filanovsky oil field in the Caspian Sea, according to a person familiar the matter, widening the scope of its strikes on Russian energy infrastructure just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is under US pressure to agree to a peace deal largely on the Kremlin’s terms. Ukraine’s long-range drones have hit the Filanovsky platform at least four times, halting output from more than 20 production wells at the offshore field, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bloomberg could not independently verify the information and Lukoil did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyiv’s forces have been intensifying their strikes on Russia’s energy facilities in the last few months, seeking to reduce the revenue that helps Moscow fund its invasion. Most recently, drones attacked Black Sea oil-shipping infrastructure and so-called shadow fleet vessels, which operate in secrecy to help Russia export sanctioned cargoes. The Filanovsky field in the Russian section of the Caspian Sea has a design production capacity of 6 million tons per year, according to the company. This is equivalent to around 120,000 barrels a day. Lukoil’s crude oil and condensate output in Russia last year reached around 76.5 million tons, which means the Filanovsky field accounts for less than 8% of the company’s total production in the home market. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Shell Plc is planning to dissolve a partnership with Russia’s Rosneft PJSC through which the two oil giants jointly own a stake in a pipeline from Kazakhstan. If the process is successful, Shell will still keep the stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium – rather than own it jointly with the sanctioned Russian energy giant, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin this week authorized the two producers to make transactions that may lead to “establishment, modification, termination, or encumbrance” of property rights in their Caspian venture.  Shell pledged back in March 2022 to withdraw from Russian oil and gas in a phased manner due to the war in Ukraine.  The Kremlin provided no explanation for the permission, raising speculation over potential changes in the shareholdering structure of the CPC project, the main export route for Kazakhstan’s oil.  Shell has no plans to quit the wider CPC venture, the people said. Shell’s total stake in CPC is 7.4 percent, according to the company’s website. That includes 3.75 percent through the venture with Rosneft, 1.75 percent through direct participation and 2 percent through its affiliate BG Overseas Holding Ltd. A spokesman for Shell declined to comment. CPC carries Kazakh barrels to the Black Sea coast through Russia, and its shareholders include several global oil majors, as well as Russia’s largest producers Rosneft and Lukoil PJSC, both sanctioned by the US. The Rosneft-Shell JV owns 7.4 percent in the consortium. In the recent months, the CPC infrastructure has been a target of multiple drone attacks.  The strikes have led to temporary halts and curtailments in oil loadings, and the latest attack shut in one out of three CPC moorings, key for the facility’s operations.  Ukraine didn’t explicitly take responsibility for the attacks, although

The International Energy Agency trimmed estimates for a global oil supply surplus this year and next for the first time in several months as demand strengthens and output growth slows. World supplies will exceed demand by 3.815 million barrels a day in 2026, which would still mark a record, but trims last month’s estimate by 231,000 barrels a day. It’s also the first reduction since OPEC+ started ramping up production in May, while an estimate for this year’s overhang was curbed for the first time since February. The revision by the IEA — whose forecasts are used by the global oil industry and governments alike — reflects several factors: last month’s decision by OPEC+ to pause supply increases, slightly reduced estimates for the group’s rivals and a stronger outlook for world oil consumption. “The projected global oil surplus in the fourth quarter of 2025 has narrowed since last month’s report, as the relentless surge in global oil supply came to an abrupt halt,” the Paris-based agency said in a report. Meanwhile, “an improving macroeconomic and trade outlook” are buoying demand. Expectations for a world supply excess — which top trader Trafigura Group warned could turn into a “super glut” — have been weighing on prices ever since the OPEC+ alliance led by Saudi Arabia agreed to open the taps earlier this year. Brent futures traded below $62 a barrel on Thursday, down 17% this year.  Despite the revision, the supply excess anticipated by the IEA next year would be unprecedented in annual terms, surpassed only during the depths of the Covid pandemic when demand crashed in 2020. The agency has said actual volumes may fall short of the overhang projected on paper, as crude producers make adjustments.  The accumulation of oil inventories to a four-year high — including a steep build-up of