SLB, the world’s largest oil-services provider, sees resiliency in the industry and remains constructive about the second half of 2025 despite uncertainties in customer demand.  “Despite pockets of activity adjustments in key markets, the industry has shown that it can operate through uncertainty without a significant drop in upstream spending,” SLB Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said in a statement Friday. “This has been driven by the combination of capital discipline and the need for energy security.” His comments came as SLB posted second-quarter adjusted profit of 74 cents a share, exceeding analyst expectations. SLB, which gets about 82% of its revenue from international markets, has mitigated some of the negative impacts facing smaller peers that are more levered to domestic production. The company is seen as a gauge for the health of the sector through its broad footprint in all major crude-producing theaters.  US oil drilling has dropped 12% this year to the lowest since September 2021, driven by demand concerns triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals and faster-than-expected increases in OPEC+ production. Government forecasters have trimmed domestic crude-production estimates for 2025, signaling a lower-for-longer activity environment for service companies. “Looking ahead, assuming commodity prices stay range bound, we remain constructive for the second half of the year,” Le Peuch said. Traders and analysts will also be listening closely to SLB’s quarterly conference call Friday for more details on the completion of the merger with ChampionX Corp. which the company announced Wednesday, according to a statement. SLB is a “leader in digital services for the energy industry and could soon become a leader in production services and equipment post the close of the acquisition,” Citigroup Global Markets Inc. analyst Scott Gruber wrote in a note to clients. SLB is the first of the biggest oilfield contractors

Oil ended the day little changed as traders weighed fresh efforts from the European Union to crimp Russian energy exports. West Texas Intermediate crude held steady to close near $67 a barrel after the EU agreed to a lower price cap for Moscow’s crude as part of a package of sanctions on Moscow. The measures include curbs on fuels made from Russian petroleum, additional banking limitations and a ban on a large oil refinery in India. The Asian country, which buys large amounts of Russian crude, is a major exporter of refined products to Europe, where markets for fuels like diesel have been tight. “While the EU measures may not drastically impact crude flows, the restrictions on refined products and expanded shadow fleet targeting are fueling concern in the diesel complex,” said Rebecca Babin, a senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. Oil has trended higher since early May, with both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. making the case that a buildup in global crude stockpiles has occurred in regions that don’t hold much sway in price-setting. Meanwhile, spreads in the diesel market are indicating tightness. The gap between the first and second month of New York heating oil futures climbed to $4.17 a gallon at one point in the session, up from $2.99 on Thursday. (Diesel and heating oil are the same product in the US, just taxed differently.) “The logic of diesel tightness propping up crude flat prices remains unchanged,” said Huang Wanzhe, an analyst at Dadi Futures Co., who added that the peak-demand season had seen a solid start. “The key question is how long this strength can last,” she said. In wider markets, strong US data on consumer sentiment eased concerns about the world’s largest economy, helping to underpin a risk-on mood. Crude

European Union states have approved a fresh sanctions package on Russia over its war against Ukraine including a revised oil price cap, new banking restrictions, and curbs on fuels made from Russian petroleum.  The package, the bloc’s 18th since Moscow’s full scale invasion, will see about 20 more Russian banks cut off the international payments system SWIFT and face a full transaction ban, as well as restrictions imposed on Russian petroleum refined in third countries. A large oil refinery in India, part-owned by Russia’s state-run oil company, Rosneft PJSC, was also blacklisted. The cap on Russian oil, currently set at $60 per barrel, will be set dynamically at 15 percent below market rates moving forward. The new mechanism will see the threshold start off somewhere between $45-$50 and automatically revised at least twice a year based on market prices, Bloomberg previously reported. The latest sanctions by the European Union are aimed at further crimping the Kremlin’s energy revenue, the bulk of which comes from oil exports to India and China.  However, the original price cap imposed by the Group of Seven has had a limited impact on Russia’s oil flows, as the nation has built up a huge shadow fleet of tankers to haul its oil without using western services. The EU has also so far failed to convince the US to offer crucial support to the lower cap. Discussions are ongoing with other G-7 members but the US opposition is making it hard to reach agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. The UK, however, is expected to be on board with the move, the people said. The EU’s move to restrict fuels such as diesel made from Russian crude could have some market impact, as Europe imports the fuel from India, which in turn buys large amounts of

Saudi Aramco is in advanced talks to sell a roughly $10 billion stake in midstream infrastructure serving the giant Jafurah natural gas project to a group led by BlackRock Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.  The consortium is backed by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners unit and could reach an agreement as soon as the coming days, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.  The deal will involve pipelines and other infrastructure serving the $100 billion-plus Jafurah project, which Aramco is developing to supply domestic power plants as well as for export. It’s an unconventional field, meaning the gas is trapped in hard-to-access rock formations and requires special techniques to extract. Reuters reported on Thursday that GIP was nearing a deal, citing unidentified people. Aramco didn’t respond to emailed queries outside regular business hours in Saudi Arabia.  Bloomberg News first revealed in 2021 that Aramco was considering introducing outside investors into parts of the Jafurah project. Aramco was approaching infrastructure funds to gauge their interest in the midstream assets, people with knowledge of the matter said the next year.  State-controlled Aramco has been seeking to bring in international capital and sell stakes in some assets as the government pursues massive projects to build futuristic cities and diversify its economy. The kingdom is pushing ahead with a vast expansion, including developing new tourism destinations and building up a manufacturing base, to prepare for a future in which oil demand will begin to wane. BlackRock was earlier among investors that bought stakes in Aramco’s national gas pipeline network.  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.

A breakneck rally in the shares of a German pipeline builder accelerated this week after the company won a role plugging LNG terminals on the coast into the nation’s gas grid.  Friedrich Vorwerk Group SE’s stock is up 24% since last Friday’s close, the biggest gain on Germany’s small-cap SDAX index. The bulk of the advance came after it secured a contract valued in the hundreds of millions of euros to build a 86km-long pipeline with a consortium of companies.  It’s an example of how European firms are benefiting from the wall of money Chancellor Friedrich Merz has unleashed to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure and military. The contract is the latest deal to help revive the fortunes of the builder of underground gas, electricity and hydrogen pipes, sending its stock price to a record high.  It’s “more like an add-on. It’s just nice to have,” said Nikolas Demeter, an analyst at B Metzler Seel Sohn & Co AG. For now, the company still has three buy ratings out of five from analysts. That may change because their targets trail the company’s current share price after this week’s contract win took its advance in the year past 200%. The shares now trade at almost 32 times forward blended earnings, compared with about 14 times for the SDAX index and the Stoxx 600 Index, the European benchmark. Labor Challenge Leon Mühlenbruch at mwb research AG, who has a valuation-driven sell rating on the stock, warns that Vorwerk’s full order book could become a problem. “Capacity constraints are becoming increasingly relevant,” Mühlenbruch said. “Further growth depends on expanding that capacity, a challenge due to the persistent shortage of specialized skilled labor.” But for now the Tostedt-based company is on a roll, and its rebound in recent years has been dramatic. After an initial

The United States has already experienced more wildfires this year than it has over same period in any other year this decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. With the risk of fire expected to grow due to climate change and other factors, utilities have increasingly turned to technology to help them keep up. And those efforts could get a boost following President Donald Trump’s June 12 executive order calling on federal agencies to deploy technology to address “a slow and inadequate response to wildfires.” The order directed agencies to create a roadmap for using “artificial intelligence, data sharing, innovative modeling and mapping capabilities, and technology to identify wildland fire ignitions and weather forecasts to inform response and evacuation.” It also told federal authorities to declassify historical satellite datasets that could be used to improve wildfire prediction, and called for strengthening coordination among agencies and improving wildland and vegetation management. Additionally, the order laid out a vision for consolidating federal wildfire prevention and suppression efforts that are currently spread across agencies. The White House’s proposed 2026 budget blueprint would create a new, unified federal wildland fire service under the Department of Interior. So far, Trump’s directive has drawn a mixed response from wildfire experts. While some said it could empower local governments and save utilities money, others said the order’s impact will be limited. “I think some people read into the order more than is there, and some people read less,” said Chet Wade, a spokesperson for the Partners in Wildfire Prevention coalition. “I don’t know exactly what will come of it, but getting technology into the right hands could be very helpful.” Fire prevention goes high tech Since the 2018 Camp Fire that bankrupted PG&E and set a nationwide precedent for suing utilities that trigger large fires, energy companies around