Mexico’s state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos is discussing plans to slash over 3,000 jobs in a proposed corporate restructuring that is expected to save the company millions as the indebted driller and refiner tries to shore up its finances and boost production. Pemex aims to cut as many as 3,114 tenured employees as part of a larger restructuring push that is expected to save the company around 10.5 billion pesos ($540 million), according to a company document dated April and seen by Bloomberg News. The cuts would amount to about 28% of the operational budget for tenured personnel this year, the document said. A Pemex spokesman declined to comment. An Energy Ministry spokeswoman didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. The document did not specify the state of the discussions or whether the plan had been approved.  While the savings amount to just over 2 percent of Pemex’s total $22.75 billion operating budget for 2025, the cuts help shore up the company’s balance sheet as it seeks to dig itself out from under a more than $100 billion debt burden and boost production. The restructuring would transfer 5.25 billion pesos from the company’s personnel budget to its exploration and production arm in a bid to boost output, according to the document. Pemex posted its fourth straight period of negative results last quarter, and roughly $30 billion in losses last year. Crude and condensate production has slumped to 1.62 million barrels per day, down 11 percent from a year earlier and near a 40-year low, largely due to Mexico’s maturing oil fields. The operation would also eliminate three sub-directorates with Pemex’s production arm, eliminate nine management areas and transfer their remits into other departments, remove duplicate jobs and streamline decision-making, according to the document.  The staffing cuts are a blow to Pemex’s

Preliminary official figures showed Norway produced 339.8 million standard cubic meters a day (MMscmd) of natural gas in April, down for the second consecutive month by both sequential and year-on-year comparisons. The figure beat the forecast by 1.3 percent or 4.2 MMscmd, according to the figures published online by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate. The Nordic country sold 10.2 billion standard cubic meters (Bscm) last month. That is down by 700 MMscm from March. According to the European Commission’s latest quarterly gas market report, Norway accounted for 50 percent of gas imported into the European Union by pipeline in the fourth quarter of 2024. In March Equinor ASA said it has put onstream the Halten East field in the Norwegian Sea, increasing Norway’s capacity to export gas to Europe. Halten East, a tie-in to be developed in two phases, holds about 100 million barrels of oil equivalent recoverable reserves, according to the Norwegian majority state-owned energy company. “We are starting up Halten East at a time where piped gas from Norway is in high demand and important for energy security”, Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for projects, drilling and procurement at Equinor, said in an online statement March 17. Earlier this month the European Commission released a roadmap to end all imports of Russian gas by 2027. Meanwhile Norway’s oil production in April averaged 2.03 million barrels per day (MMbd), up both month-on-month and year-over-year. The figure also exceeded the projection by 1.2 percent. In late March Equinor started producing oil at the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea, growing Norway’s production capacity by 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) at peak. Recoverable volumes are estimated to be 450-650 million barrels according to Equinor. “The Johan Castberg field will contribute crucial energy, value creation, ripple effects and jobs for at least

Oil and gas workers in Aberdeen have opened up over their job fears and uncertainty for the future. They spoke directly to Scotland’s Just Transition Commission which has warned the region is heading for an “unjust transition” away from fossil fuels. The commission, an independent advisory body that provides scrutiny and advice to the Scottish Government on how to deliver a just transition to a low carbon economy in Scotland, released its fourth and final instalment of briefings based a “people-and-place-based approach”. The Just Transition Commission said “urgent and ambitious action” was required to manage the shift away from oil and gas or there would be “harmful effects on workers” and the economy in the north Eeast of Scotland. Despite the end of North Sea production being “clearly foreseeable for decades”, the report said workers in the industry feared a “cliff edge” for their livelihoods. The commission’s co-chairman warned there was a “real risk” that North Sea workers faced the same fate as those in the coal and steel industries when their jobs disappeared. The commission said “more needs to be done to support good quality jobs” in offshore renewable developments to help mitigate the lost of oil and gas employment but admitted that “pay levels are lower in renewables”. Workers reported: Fears over a jobs “cliff edge” rather than a managed transition. Feeling a “profound sense of uncertainty about the future”. Belief that Scotland and the UK lack a plan for the transition. They told the commission – meeting in Aberdeen Thursday– that skilled jobs are already being lost to the Scottish economy in the move away from oil and gas to renewable industries. One worker said: “It’s happening now. We’re seeing redundancies on a big scale, perhaps 2,000 over the past two to three years. The skills are

A fall gas price drives has driven down the cost of household energy bills although they still remain high. Energy regulator Ofgem has announced a 7% reduction of the energy price cap for the period covering July to September 2025, the first drop for a year. The price cap, which is set every three months, sets a maximum limit suppliers can charge for energy. For an average household paying by direct debit for dual fuel the fall equates to £1,720 per year. This is £660, or 28%, lower than the height of the energy crisis at the start of 2023 when the government implemented the energy price guarantee. However, prices remain high, with the upcoming level of £152 still 10% higher than the same period last year. Ofgem said the recent fall in wholesale gas prices is the main driver of the overall reduction, accounting for around 90% of the fall. The remainder is primarily due to changes to the operating cost allowances energy suppliers can recover. Direct debit and prepayment customers will see standing charges fall by around £19 per year on average. The price cap – which sets a maximum rate per unit and standing charge that can be billed to customers for their energy use – will fall by £129 for an average household per year, or around £11 a month, over the three-month period of the price cap. Tim Jarvis, director of general markets at Ofgem urged consumers to “shop around” for deals on energy supply: “A fall in the price cap will be welcome news for consumers, and reflects a reduction in the international price of wholesale gas. However, we’re acutely aware that prices remain high, and some continue to struggle with the cost of energy. “The first thing I want to remind people is

Japanese oil and gas explorer and producer Inpex Corp. has secured rights to explore the Serpang Working Area offshore Eastern Java in Indonesia. Inpex said in a media release it had won the award in Indonesia’s second Petroleum Bidding Round 2024, hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Following the award, Inpex, through its unit Inpex Serpang Ltd., signed a Production Sharing Contract (PCS) with Indonesian upstream regulator SKK Migas, Petronas Energy Serpang Sdn. Bhd. and EO Serpang Pte. Ltd. The Serpang Working Area is located about 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of Surabaya, East Java’s capital, where multiple oil and gas fields have been found. This area is projected to sustain energy demand in the medium to long term, Inpex said. Together with its partners, Inpex is hopeful for a prompt shift to development and production if exploration efforts prove successful. Inpex expects its exploration endeavors in the Serpang Working Area to play a significant role in the growth of its natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector, as detailed in Inpex Vision 2035 announced in February 2025, along with the company’s operations in Southeast Asia, which Inpex identifies as a key business region. In Inpex Vision 2035, the company highlights the importance of a stable energy supply in the current geopolitical landscape, while remaining on the course toward net-zero. The company added that the use of natural gas and LNG as a transition fuel is becoming increasingly significant. Inpex said it will further expand its natural gas and LNG business. It also aims to provide low-carbon solutions through carbon capture and storage and hydrogen, and drive initiatives in the energy and resources fields. To contact the author, email [email protected] What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone

As we enter 2025, the energy industry stands at a pivotal moment in its history. Despite global economic headwinds and geopolitical uncertainties, we’ve witnessed unprecedented momentum in clean energy deployment and DNV forecasts that the world will hit peak emissions this year. DNV’s third edition of the UK Energy Transition Outlook presents the results from their independent model of the UK’s energy system. It covers the period through to 2050 and forecasts the energy mix, supply & demand, and provides insights on how the energy transition is developing in the UK. Register for your free spot here Agenda Introduction with Hari Vamadevan, VP Energy Systems Highlighting key results and perspectives from the UK ETO with Frank Ketelaars, Energy Transition Director for DNV energy systems in the UK & Ireland. Highlighting key results and perspectives from the UK ETO with Viken Chinien, Head of Enterprise Risk Management at Energy Systems. Moderated discussion with questions – Ed Reed, Editor of E-FWDQ&A You can download your complimentary report here.