Santos Ltd. has granted a consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. PJSC (ADNOC) more time to conduct due diligence for a potential acquisition of the Australian oil and gas company. The “process and exclusivity deed” signed June 27 between Santos and the consortium of sovereign investor Abu Dhabi Development Holding Co., Carlyle Group and ADNOC’s global investment arm XRG PJSC has now been extended to August 22, Santos said in a statement on its website. The parties announced a non-binding indicative proposal June 16, with Santos saying it intended to endorse to its shareholders the cash purchase offer of $5.76 per share. Announcing the extension of the due diligence review, Santos said, “The XRG consortium has now substantially completed due diligence in relation to the potential transaction under the process and exclusivity deed dated 27 June 2025. The XRG consortium has confirmed it has not discovered anything to date that would cause the XRG consortium to withdraw its indicative proposal and has confirmed its commitment to working constructively with Santos to complete the due diligence promptly and agree on a binding transaction”. “To complete due diligence and progress a binding transaction, the XRG consortium has requested a two-week extension to the Due Diligence and Exclusivity Period under the Process Deed”. The initial exclusivity period was to last six weeks from June 27. “The exclusivity provisions include customary ‘no shop’, ‘no talk’, ‘no due diligence’ and ‘notification’ obligations that apply during the exclusivity period”, Santos said June 27. “A fiduciary exception applies enabling the Santos board to deal with potentially superior proposals from competing acquirers from the date that is four weeks from today”. Confirming the extension, XRG said separately, “There remains strong alignment between both parties on the strategic rationale for the potential transaction, and the process to

Fluor Corp. plans to appeal against the Queensland Supreme Court’s decision favoring Santos Ltd. in a dispute on costs over the Gladstone LNG project, majority-owned by Santos. “The court affirmed that Fluor must pay approximately AUD 692 million to Santos and its co-venturers, with further sums yet to be determined”, oil and gas explorer and developer Santos said in a statement on its website. Adelaide-based Santos, which initiated the case in December 2016, and Irving, Texas-based Fluor had signed a contract for the construction of the coal bed methane-to-liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. Gladstone started producing LNG 2015 after going over time and over budget. Santos’ case alleges overpayments totaling more than AUD 1.4 billion, about AUD 140 million for a purported breach of the Australian Consumer Law and liquidated damages of AUD 15 million for an alleged failure of Fluor to reach mechanical completion by the contractual dates, according to the court judgment. “[T]he court will hear the parties on the appropriate orders and directions and on the calculation of interest, and on costs”, read the ruling, published on the court’s online library. The case is Santos v Fluor [2025] QSC 184. Fluor the parent company is second defendant while Fluor Australia Pty. Ltd. is first defendant. Fluor said in a statement on its website, “Further arguments and input from both parties will be heard by the court before a final judgment is delivered sometime later this year”. “Fluor maintains the contracting principles addressed by the court have wide-sweeping consequences in the engineering and construction industry”, Fluor added. “The company is reviewing the court decision and exploring its response including the timing of its appeal. “We are also working with our insurance carriers to address the obligations arising from the final judgment”. Fluor said, “The court generally accepted the recommendations

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they are forecasting that U.S. crude inventories will be up by 2.0 million barrels for the week ending August 8. “This follows a 3.0 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in the report. “For this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we model a minimal reduction in crude runs. Among net imports, we model a small increase, with exports (+0.3 million barrels per day) and imports (+0.6 million barrels per day) up on a nominal basis,” they added. Timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance, the Macquarie strategists warned in the report. They went on to state that, “from implied domestic supply (prod.+adj.+transfers)”, they “look for an increase (+0.3 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis this week”. “Rounding out the picture, we anticipate no change in SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] stocks this week,” the strategists said. The strategists also noted in the report that, “among products”, they “look for builds in distillate (+3.8 million barrels) and jet (+0.5 million barrels), with a draw in gasoline (-0.9 million barrels)”. “We model implied demand for these three products at ~14.3 million barrels per day for the week ending August 8,” the strategists continued. In its latest weekly petroleum status report at the time of writing, which was released on August 6 and included data for the week ending August 1, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by three million barrels from the week ending July 25 to the week ending August 1. That EIA report showed

ADNOC Gas PLC has reported $1.39 billion in net income for the second quarter, rising 16 percent compared to the same three-month period last year and setting a quarterly record for the company.  Last year, the gas processing and sales arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. logged its highest annual net earnings – $5 billion – thanks to natural gas demand in the United Arab Emirates. For the April-June 2025 quarter, revenue dipped to $5.96 billion from $6.08 billion for Q2 2024 as a weakening of commodity prices offset an overall increase in sales volumes, according to figures reported to the local stock exchange. Domestic gas sales rose to 611 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) in Q2 2025 from 580 TBtu in Q2 2024. Export and traded liquids slid to 252 TBtu from 266 TBtu. Sales from the ALNG JV, in which ADNOC Gas owns a 70 percent stake, increased to 65 TBtu from 56 TBtu. ADNOC Gas expects sales volumes excluding sulfur to land between 3,630 TBtu and 3,700 TBtu this year. “As with prior years, sales volumes should follow a seasonal pattern with an uptick over the summer period”, it said. “Furthermore, it is also important to note that in 2025 our shutdown activity will be higher than normal especially in the Q4 2025 period”. Meanwhile the quarterly average Brent crude price fell 20 percent year-on-year to $68 a barrel from $85 per barrel. “Conversely, JKM prices saw a significant increase of 31 percent, rising from $9.6/mmbtu to $12.5/mmbtu”, ADNOC Gas told the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. “LPG prices were slightly up on average despite the drop in crude oil price, with propane increasing from $592/tonne to $608/tonne and butane marginally down from $590/tonne to $588/tonne. Naphtha prices averaged at $533/tonne in the period representing a 14 percent

Chinese refiners are asking for less oil from Saudi Arabia, with the drop possibly pointing to a reshuffle of global flows as more Russian crude becomes available, according to Energy Aspects Ltd. A decline in so-called nominations for term cargoes from Saudi Aramco for September loading, led by trading-giant Unipec, indicated some Chinese refineries were holding back from purchases given the greater availability of Russia’s Urals, as well as comfortable stockpiles, the London-based consultant said in an Aug. 11 note, without saying how it got the information.  Indian nominations for September, meanwhile, increased from a month earlier as the country seeks alternatives to Russian crude following Western pushback. The global oil market has zeroed in on a possible reordering of some crude flows after the US and European Union ramped up pressure against India over its imports of Russian energy. Given there’s been no comparable move against China, that’s raised the possibility that more of Moscow’s oil will be taken by mainland refiners, including Urals, which ships from Russia’s west. Saudi Aramco is set to sell 43 million barrels of contractual supplies of September-loading crude to China, traders informed by the producer told Bloomberg. That compares with 51 million barrels a month ago, and a monthly average of about 45 million so far this year. Chinese interest in Urals is picking up given it remains the “most competitive” compared with similar Middle Eastern crudes, Energy Aspects said. Still, there’s a limit to China’s appetite given Russian imports account for 17 percent of overseas supplies, with 20 percent seen as a cap for a single country, it added. Sinopec, the Beijing-based parent company of Unipec, didn’t reply to an email seeking comment outside working hours. What do you think? We’d love to hear from you, join the conversation on the Rigzone Energy Network.

Venture Global Inc., one of the largest US exporters of liquefied natural gas, has prevailed over oil giant Shell Plc in an arbitration case over the sale of cargoes from its first export plant, capping a two-year fight. The Virginia-based company welcomed the favorable tribunal ruling in a statement Tuesday and said the decision reaffirmed the “plain language” in its contracts. Its shares rose 6.7 percent after the close of regular trading in New York.  The dispute between the two energy players hinged on deals that Venture Global negotiated to sell fuel from its first export plant in Louisiana, named Calcasieu Pass. The facility began producing LNG in 2022. But instead of providing cargoes to customers with long-term contracts, Venture Global sold them directly into the spot market where prices were at a record high. Venture Global said the move was justified as contracts permitted it to sell LNG into the spot market before the plant was fully operational and still in its “commissioning phase.” It nonetheless outraged companies that had signed 20-year deals. The win is a crucial one for the company – the first resolution in a series of arbitration cases that have pitted the LNG upstart against some of the world’s biggest energy companies. Other cases are pending. It already has implications for trades around the globe.  “It means that every LNG contract in the world was probably rewritten since this case began, to make sure this situation will be avoided in the future.” said Ira Joseph, a senior research associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Other arbitration cases against Venture Global were filed by Shell, BP Plc, Polish utility Orlen SA, Portugal’s Galp Energia SGPS SA, Spain’s Repsol SA, Edison International and China’s Sinopec. The initial claims against Venture Global totaled nearly $6