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Defending the Oil and Gas Industry Against Cyber Threats

Defending the Oil and Gas Industry Against Cyber Threats

The oil and gas industry is one of the most powerful financial sectors in the world, critical to global and national economies. Above all, this industry is a valuable target for adversaries. Therefore for those who are seeking to exploit Industrial Control Systems (ICS) vulnerabilities. That is why defending the oil and gas industry should be of top priority.

As the recent increase in attacks against ICS demonstrates, adversaries with a specific interest in oil and gas companies remain active and are evolving their behaviors. Protection against cyber-attacks is essential to the worldwide economy. What particular challenges does the industry face and how can security teams prevent them?

The Industry’s Basic Structure

The industry has three segments: upstream, midstream, and downstream.

Upstream businesses are concerned with resource exploration and production. These companies explore the globe for reservoirs of raw materials and drill to extract them.

Firstly, midstream businesses are focusing on transportation. Secondly, they are responsible for transporting the extracted raw materials to refineries to process them. Further, these firms oversee the shipping, operating pipelines, and storing of raw materials. Downstream businesses refine the raw materials. They remove impurities and convert the raw materials to products for the public. Examples are gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil, and asphalt.

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Source: Security Intelligence

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Gas Utility

Gas Utility, Largest in the U.S., Sues California Over Climate Policy

Gas utility company Southern California Gas Co is suing the California Energy Commission. It is over the state’s climate policy and attempts to phase out natural gas as a source of heating and cooking.

Southern California Gas Co, owned by Sempra Energy, is trying to shield itself from policy actions. This could ban the hook-up of natural gas for all new homes.

The California Energy Commission, for its part, is promoting building efficiency and emissions-cutting rules for new construction, encouraging home developers to build all-electric buildings in the state.

For example, last year, Berkeley, California, passed an ordinance requiring all new homes to be all-electric. Meaning no gas hook-ups beginning in January 2020. Berkeley’s primary motivation for the gas hook-up ban was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They want to promote the use of clean energy.

Climate activists say that natural gas is a fossil fuel and is responsible for a large part of emissions from buildings, while natural gas companies are pitching natural gas as an affordable and stable ‘bridge’ fuel toward all-renewable electricity generation.

“Natural gas and renewable gas are clean, affordable, resilient, and reliable sources of energy on which millions of California consumers and businesses depend,” Southern California Gas Co said in its lawsuit, as carried by the Los Angeles Times.

 

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Source: Oil Price

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natural-gas-plant

The Permian Could See Record Gas Production In 2021

The pandemic has curtailed associated gas production in the Permian basin, temporarily relieving some gas flaring, but the basin could return to record gas production levels by the end of 2021. By 2023, the rate of gas flaring could increase substantially.

Starting next year, drilling activity begins to resume in the Permian, assuming WTI stays above $45 per barrel, according to Rystad Energy. The increase in drilling leads to more associated gas output. The pandemic has knocked gas production down, but by late 2021, Permian gas production will be back to pre-pandemic levels – and it will continue to rise from there.

Rystad expects gas output to continue to rise, reaching 16 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) by 2023, which, to be sure, is 2 bcf/d below the firm’s prior forecast from earlier this year.

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Source: Oil Price

oil-gas-spending

World’s Largest Economies Are Still Spending Big On Oil & Gas

Spending on oil and gas, and coal is still higher among members of G20 than spending on renewable energy, a data update from the Energy Policy Tracker has revealed. Across the group, since the start of the pandemic, governments had pledged at least $160.95 billion in fossil fuel investments, versus $123.75 billion in renewable energy investment, the tracker, which updates government spending data on energy every week, said. This translates into $35.10 per capita in oil and gas spending, and $26.99 per capita for cleaner energy spending.

Most of the so-called unconditional fossil fuel investment was on oil and gas, unsurprisingly, with just $10.20 billion of the total allocated for coal. While this may sound like ten billion dollars too much to spend on the most polluting fossil fuel, G20 governments also allocated $38.44 billion on unconditional renewable energy. This was, however, the smaller portion of the total renewable energy spending; the bulk was pledged for so-called clean conditional energy, the Energy Policy Tracker said.

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Source: Oil Price

Saudi Arabia Oil

$40 Oil Isn’t Enough For Saudi Arabia

There was a recommendation of the OPEC+ JMMC to ease the oil output cuts by 2 million bbl/d. With that, oil markets maintained their bullish sentiment over the past week. This is as Brent was trading above $43 while WTI was trading above $40. A surge in COVID-19 cases in several counties including the US, Spain, and Australia capped oil price gains.

Bullish figures from the EIA

Markets were primarily supported by a continued withdrawal in commercial crude inventories. This declined by 7.5 million barrels w/w to stand at 531.7 million barrels. Gasoline inventories also declined by 3.1 million barrels w/w reflecting a significant rise in demand levels. Along with the decline in inventories, crude imports fell by 1.83 million bbl/d w/w and are currently standing at 5.57 million bbl/d, which may be part of the reason for the drop in inventories. The other reason for the decline in inventories is the balance in the markets where demand now exceeds supply, something we had anticipated, last April, to take place in July.

We currently expect commercial inventories to continue to decline especially during July and August as these months historically are the peak of driving season. U.S. oil production continues to be fixed at 11 million bbl/d for the 3rd consecutive week. The decline in oil rigs continues, with the latest figure being 1 rig w/w, and it may have already reached its lowest level at around 180 rigs.

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Source: Oil Price

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noble energy cheveron

Chevron Acquires Noble Energy In First Major COVID Oil Deal

In the first major U.S. oil deal since the pandemic hit the industry. Supermajor Chevron announced on Monday that lit had entered into a definitive agreement. It is to buy Houston-based Noble Energy in an all-stock transaction valued at US$5 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Noble Energy shareholders will receive 0.1191 shares of Chevron for each Noble Energy share. The total enterprise value of the transaction is US$13 billion, including debt, Chevron said.

The rationale for the deal is a low-cost acquisition of quality Energy. It is proving reserves that will fit strategically into Chevron’s plans in the U.S. shale patch and abroad.

Chevron and Noble Energy’s boards have unanimously approved the deal. They are expecting to close in Q4 2020. It is subject to shareholder approval of Noble Energy shareholders, regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions.

Last year, Chevron bid to buy Anadarko. Moreover, there is an outbid by Occidental in what analysts now see as an ill-timed decision for Oxy to pursue such a huge and leveraged transaction.

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Source: Oil Price

Image Credit: David Herrera/Flickr

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goldman sachs oil

World Biggest Oil Majors Set Collective Goal To Cut Carbon Emissions

Some of the biggest oil companies in the world set their first joint target to cut their collective carbon emissions from upstream operations in a move that saw Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil joining European majors in pledging reduced carbon intensity.

The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), a CEO-led voluntary alliance of some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, said on Thursday that it would aim to reduce the collective average carbon intensity of member companies’ aggregated upstream oil and gas operations to between 20 kg and 21 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent (CO2e/boe) by 2025, from a collective baseline of 23 kg CO2e/boe in 2017.

The initiative’s members include BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental, Petrobras, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, and Total.

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Source: Oil Price

natural gas

Why The Hydrogen Boom Is Good News For Natural Gas

After decades of stagnation and multiple false dawns, the hydrogen economy is finally taking off, with some experts predicting that hydrogen could become a globally-traded energy source, just like oil and gas. A growing number of countries and industries are proactively investing in hydrogen technologies; none, however, can rival the EU’s zeal.

The European Union has set out its new hydrogen strategy as part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality for all its industries by 2050.

In a big win for the hydrogen sector, the EU has outlined an extremely ambitious target to build out at least 40 gigawatts of electrolyzers within its borders by 2030, or 160x the current global capacity of 250MW. The EU also plans to support the development of another 40 gigawatts of green hydrogen in nearby countries that can export to the region by the same date.

The EU aims to have at least 6 gigawatts of clean hydrogen electrolyzers installed by 2024.

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Source: Oil Price

moon-mining

Moon Mining Could Begin As Early As 2025

Plans to start mining the Moon as early as 2025 became more attractive this week. This is after a US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) team found evidence. First is that the Earth’s natural satellite may, underneath its surface, be richer in metals than previously thought. A team of researchers came to the conclusion that the lunar subsurface contains a higher concentration of certain metals. This is through using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Metals include iron and titanium than estimated.

The study, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, contends the most popular theory surrounding the Moon’s origins. The hypothesis contends the satellite was formed when a Mars-sized object collided with Earth, vaporizing large portions of the Earth’s upper crust.

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“By improving our understanding of how much metal the moon’s subsurface actually has, scientists can constrain the ambiguities about how it has formed, how it is evolving, and how it is contributing to maintaining habitability on Earth,” lead study author Essam Heggy said in a statement.

The evidence was discovered while the scientists were looking for ice at the bottom of craters in the lunar north pole region, NASA said. It means that fine dust found at the base of those holes are parts of the deeper layers of the Moon, ejected during meteor impacts. As such, this dust represents the composition in deeper Moon layers.

Source: Oil Price

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oil industry

Under new management, Texas Alliance of Energy Producers plans for growth

The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, one of the largest oil and natural gas industry associations in the state, named Jason Modglin its new president on June 3.

Succeeding John Tintera, who retired last year, Modglin is stepping into his new role as the coronavirus pandemic and industry downturn have resulted in tens of thousands of layoffs over the past three months.

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Source: Houston Chronicle