Later this month, Biden has announced that the US would restart oil and gas drilling on federal lands, offering leases for sale to fossil fuel producers later this year. The new leases would open some 144,000 acres of federal land, scattered across nine states, to oil and gas drilling. According to Michael Freeman, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, “these leases are going to cause billions of dollars in social and environmental harm. Watching these lease sales move forward is particularly puzzling given Biden’s consistent promises on the campaign trail to end all oil and gas drilling on federal lands.” For a while, it looked like the administration was set to keep those promises: As one of his first acts as president, Biden issued an executive order pausing the oil and gas leasing program, including accounting for the “climate costs” of the program. A coalition of oil and gas-friendly states promptly launched a lawsuit against the order, and a judge sided with those states last June.

London-based Neptune Energy and partners have announced a new oil&gas discovery at the Hamlet exploration wells in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Volumes discovered in the Hamlet structure are estimated to be in the range of 5-11 million standard cubic metres or 30-70 million barrels of oil equivalent. Work is continuing to confirm potential recoverable resources, but Neptune’s preliminary estimate is 8-24 mmboe. Located 58 kilometres west of Florø, Norway, at a water depth of 358 metres, Hamlet will be considered as a tie-back to the Neptune-operated Gjøa semi-submersible platform. Hamlet is a new discovery in the Gjøa area, where Neptune already operates two fields. The Wintershall Dea-operated fields Vega and Nova are also tied back to the Gjøa platform.

Saipem beat expectations for first-quarter earnings as an upturn in global oil and gas spending lifted the energy contractor’s core business, putting it on track for a better year. Adjusted core earnings in the period rose 65% to 145 million euros, above a Refinitiv consensus of 103 million euros. Orders in the three months were up 48% at 2.36 billion euros. The results come a month after the company announced a 2 billion euro capital increase in a rescue plan that scaled back its green ambitions to focus on more traditional oil and gas business. “Results are confirming the good momentum in investments in oil and gas in the market… particularly for our offshore activities,” Saipem Chief Executive Francesco Caio said in a call with analysts.

The application collection in view of the next edition Human Knowledge Lab has started. There will be time until May 25 to participate in this year’s edition that will be held in presence at the Cà Foscari University of Venice, from July 11 to 17 July. The Human Knowledge of Eni’s school for business is an itinerant and thematic path dedicated to teams made up of at least two people. HK Lab provides a 7-day full-time presence commitment, with an engaging approach in which theory and practice alternate. During the course, the contributions of startuppers, internal Eni experts and experts from the innovative ecosystem, Business School and academic contexts of excellence will alternate. Participants will have tutors and coaches available to support the process of individual growth and development. The working groups selected for the final phase of HK Lab will be able to collaborate with the polihub, Energizer, Open Badge Joule that certifies the skills in sustainable entrepreneurship for all participants.

Energy group Equinor ASA has made an oil and gas discovery close to the Troll and Fram fields in the North Sea. Based on preliminary estimates, the size of the discovery is between 4 million and 8 million standard cubic meters of recoverable oil equivalent, or 25 million-50 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. This is the sixth discovery in this area since the fall of 2019. Equinor plans to drill another exploration well in the area this year, the company said.

Eni has achieved an important milestone for the oil and gas sector in Mexico. The company has offloaded and exported the first cargo from Miamte FPSO operating at the Mizton, Amoca, and Tecoalli fields in Area 1 in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil&gas giant is the first international energy company to develop a complex offshore project being able to export the oil to the international market. The first offloading and export from Miamte FPSO comes following early production from Mizton in June 2019 and after less than 3.5 years from the final investment decision of the Area 1 Project.

Saipem has signed two five years-contracts for offshore drilling in the Middle East and in West Africa.
The contracts are worth more than $400m in total. Saipem aims to deliver two high specification jack-up drilling units. These include one Saipem jack-up unit, as well as one new high-specification jack-up unit that has been chartered from CIMC Group for the project. Each of these contracts has the option to be extended for two additional years. With these additional contracts, Saipem consolidates its presence in a strategic area, expanding the jack-up fleet from three to five units.

GreenIT, joint venture between Plenitude (Eni), CDP Equit for the production of energy from renewable sources, and CI IV, a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), have signed an agreement to develop two floating offshore wind farms in Sicily and Sardinia. The 2 projects are situated about 35 kilometers from the coast and have a total capacity of approximately 750 MW. The agreement refers to the development, construction, and operation of a project off the coast of Marsala, consisting of 21 turbines with a power of around 12 MW each for a total capacity of around 250 MW. The second wind farm is to be developed in the sea area facing the south-western coast of Sardinia, consisting of 42 wind turbines with a power of around 12 MW each for a total capacity of more than 500 MW.

UK will join USA in releasing more oil from its reserves as part of a joint effort to lower prices and reduce reliance on Russian supplies. US President Joe Biden on Thursday said his plans to release a million barrels of oil a day for six months would lay the foundations for the States to achieve energy independence from foreign suppliers. He also said he expected allies to release as many as 50 million barrels from their own stocks. For comparison, a month ago, IEA members agreed on a 61.7-million barrel release, with 30 million coming from the U.S. and 2.2 million from the U.K.

The German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck has raised the first of three alert levels concerning the emergency plan for gas supplies. But what does it mean? Does it involve Italy as well? This first level does not yet provide for any restrictions on state supply, but indicates that the federal government must “increase precautionary measures to be prepared in the event of escalation by Russia”. The decision, then, is in the context of the declaration of the preventive alert level: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that Russia would supply gas to Germany and other “hostile states” only upon payment in rubles. The G7 Group of Economic Powers and the EU oppose ruble payments for gas, but Russia remains adamant. There are three crisis levels. The early warning level means: there are “concrete, serious and reliable indications” that an event can occur that will likely lead to a significant deterioration of the gas supply. It follows the alert level and the emergency level. At the emergency level, the State intervenes to ensure the gas supply of “protected customers”. Private homes, but also hospitals, firefighters and police.