Oil's decline slows with Tropical Storm Fay.
Oil prices increased slightly Monday as Tropical Storm Fay in the Gulf of Mexico forced some oil workers to evacuate, The Telegraph reported.
The fierce storm has wreaked havoc throughout the Dominican Republic and Haiti and now looks like it is about to enter the Gulf of Mexico.
Royal Dutch Shell evacuated 400 workers from the eastern and central parts of the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution.
Though Shell claims its offshore oil production has been unaffected, investors' and speculators' concern over potential disruptions pushed the prices of Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate up a little more than $1 after weeks of falling prices.
Though Fay is expected to avoid most of the offshore production areas in the Gulf, there are some models that predict otherwise.
The year's first two storms, Hurricane Dolly and Tropical Storm Edouard, did little damage to offshore production, only slightly affecting prices. Worry over storms hitting the Gulf is common since U.S. offshore oil and natural gas production provides 25 percent of U.S. oil output and 15 percent of U.S. natural gas production.
Germany's Wintershall plans UAE explorations.
BASF's oil and gas unit Wintershall Holding, based in Germany, has announced plans to explore for crude oil in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf Times reported.
Wintershall is currently in talks with Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co. about possible oil and gas projects that could begin next year, said Bernhard Schmidt, a Wintershall board member.
Reportedly the German firm already has signed a preliminary agreement with IPIC and plans to bring a more significant portion of its revenues from the Gulf area, Schmidt said.
Though the area is known for holding some of the world's largest oil reserves, there is heavy competition there from some of the world's largest oil and gas companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil Corp. and Total.
Wintershall lost a $10 billion sour gas development deal to ConocoPhillips just last year.
But the company is already involved in Libya and has exploration and production project plans in Qatar, Iraq and Egypt, Schmidt said.
PetroKazakhstan strikes oil and gas.
PetroKazakhstan, majority-owned by China's energy giant CNPC, announced it has made new oil and gas finds in two exploration blocks, the South China Morning Post reported.
The joint venture firm said its new find in its Karaganda block has a daily oil output of 203 cubic meters of gas. It is reportedly the first commercial find in the area.
At its Doshan block, its exploration well Doshan-14 had oil and gas flow equivalent to 109 cubic meters of oil a day, and its exploration well Doshan-15 put out 34 cubic meters of oil flow and 173,100 cubic meters of gas a day.
PetroKazakhstan is two-thirds owned by CNPC, parent of PetroChina and, the rest is owned by Kazakh state oil company KazMunayGas.
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Closing oil prices, Aug. 18, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $110.82
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $113.36
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