Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: Equinor's Mariner Starts Up, BP Expands India Business

It was a week where both oil and natural gas prices settled higher.

On the news front, Norwegian energy behemoth Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) announced the flow of first oil from the huge Mariner field in the UK North Sea, while British supermajor BP plc (LON:BP) (NYSE:BP) inked a new joint venture in India to set up 5,500 petrol pumps.

Overall, it was a good week for the sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures edged up 0.7% to close at $54.87 per barrel, while natural gas prices rose 3.8% for the week to finish at 2.120per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last ‘Oil & Gas Stock Roundup’ here: Eni, TC Energy, Pioneer Natural Q2 Earnings )

The U.S. crude benchmark logged a slight gain after the federal government’s EIA report revealed shrinking fuel inventories amid robust demand. Heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East also contributed to the increase. However, prices were kept in check by the impact of slowing global economic growth in the backdrop of the U.S.-China trade war. A second weekly build in crude stockpiles also curbed the upward trend.

Natural gas prices gained too as the market participants chose to focus on a smaller-than-expected increase in natural gas supplies, with an added push in the wake of favorable short-term temperature prediction.

Recap of the Week’s Most Important Stories

1. Equinor announced its first oil extraction from the Mariner oil field in Britain’s North Sea. The start-up was originally planned for 2017 but went through a series of postponements due to reasons varying from tough weather conditions to informal labor strikes.

Mariner, located on the East Shetland Platform of the UK North Sea, is expected to produce nearly 55,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), which might shot up to 70,000 bpd during peak production.

As one of the UK’s largest oil-energy projects, Mariner’s development activity is supported by a gross investment of US$7.7 billion, which is one of the biggest cash infusions for the industry in the last decade and is expected to generate 3 billion barrels of oil, an estimate above 50% of what was initially assumed. This massive endeavor is set to create 700 permanent jobs apart from 800 construction work opportunities worth $1.3 billion in the UK alone (Read more Delek Q2 Earnings Beat on Refining Strength, Up Y/Y )

Price Performance

The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over the past week and during the last 6 months.

Get The News You Want Read market moving news with a personalized feed of stocks you care about. Get The App Company	Last Week	Last 6 Months
XOM	-2.4%	-11.6%
CVX	-4.4%	-2.5%
COP	-4.7%	-23.7%
OXY	-5.4%	-33.2%
SLB	-5.2%	-25.7%
RIG	-3%	-47%
VLO	-0.9%	-6.7%
MPC	-4.5%	-26.6%

The Energy Select Sector SPDR – a popular way to track energy companies – was down 3.5% last week. The worst performer was Houston-based energy explorer Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) whose stock fell 5.4%.

Longer-term, over six months, the sector tracker is down 12.5%. Offshore driller Transocean Ltd. (NYSE:RIG) was the major loser during this period, experiencing a 47% price plunge.

What’s Next in the Energy World?

As usual, market participants will be closely tracking the regular releases i.e. the U.S. government statistics on oil and natural gas - one of the few solid indicators that comes out regularly. Energy traders will also be focusing on the Baker Hughes data on rig count.

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