1995 world oil market chronology

*January 14: Mexico pledges profits from state-owned Pemex's $7-billion-per-year oil revenues in an effort to secure United States Congress approval of $40 billion worth of loan guarantees. Subsequently, U.S. President Bill Clinton approved a $20-billion U.S. aid package for Mexico.
*January 30: Norway's Statoil announces that a newly-formed consortium of 11 oil companies will develop a plan to supply Norwegian natural gas to the European continent. Three Norwegian companies signed a contract with Gaz de France to bring convert|1.4|Tcuft|km3 of Norwegian gas to France between 2001 and 2027.
*February 28: The Pentagon announces that it monitored Iranian installation of surface-to-air Hawk missiles in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians also took possession of and fortified the nearby Abu Musa and the Tunb Islands, which are claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
*June 14: After OPEC's bi-annual meeting in Vienna, President Ida Bagus Sudjana] discloses the organization's intention to roll over its present crude oil production ceiling of convert|24.52|Moilbbl/d|m3/d. The announcement is followed by a trip to Norway by Saudi Arabian Oil Minister [Hisham M. Nazer. Upon arriving, the Saudi Minister asks Norwegian Minister of Industry and Energy Jens Stoltenberg to restrain his country's oil production in the hopes of stabilizing world oil prices.
*June 30: Exxon signs a $15.2-billion deal to develop oil and gas fields near Russia's Sakhalin Island. The Sakhalin I project will develop the offshore Shayvo, Odoptu, and Arkutun-Dagi fields that together are estimated to contain convert|2.5|Goilbbl|m3 of crude oil and convert|15|Tcuft|km3 of natural gas. Exxon has a 30 percent stake in the project.
*July 6: Venezuela's Congress approves the country's first investment law allowing for foreign participation in oil exploration and production. The newly-passed "model agreement" authorizes the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA) to offer 10 exploration blocks to foreign investors. If oil is discovered, the government will maintain a majority stake in any joint venture formed to develop the new fields.
*July 27: Saudi Aramco awards the giant Shaybah oil field development project to U.S.-based Parsons Corporation. The $2.5-billion project will develop the convert|7|Goilbbl|km3|sing=on field, including the construction of crude oil production facilities, gas-oil separation plants, and a convert|372|mi|km|sing=on pipeline. The Shaybah field is located on the Saudi-United Arab Emirates border and is expected to produce convert|500|Moilbbl/d|m3/d after it comes on line in 1999.
*July 28: Norwegian Finance Minister Sigbjorn Johnsen says that Norway should not lower its crude oil production in an attempt to boost world oil prices. Norwegian Oil Minister Jens Stoltenberg believes production cuts may be necessary if prices begin to fall. Minister Johnsen's remarks follow last month's visit by Saudi Arabian Oil Minister] Hisham M. Nazer, who asked Minister Stoltenberg to cut Norway's crude oil production.
*August 2: Saudi Arabia's King Fahd issues a decree replacing all members of the Council of Ministers who do not have blood ties so the royal family. While most of the Council's top positions are unaffected by the reshuffling, Oil Minister Hisham Nazer is replaced with Ali bin Ibrahim al-Naimi.
*August 14: Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reports that Iran has been unable to sell convert|200|Moilbbl/d|m3/d of crude oil since the imposition of a unilateral oil embargo by the U.S. Iran increasingly has sold its crude oil on spot markets as opposed to long-term contracts. Larger purchases by France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Pakistan, and Thailand have failed to offset decreased demand by German and Japanese refiners. Before the U.S. embargo was announced in April 1995, U.S. companies were buying between 400,000 and convert|450|Moilbbl/d|m3/d, down from roughly convert|600|Moilbbl/d|m3/d in 1994.
*August 28: Kuwaiti Oil Minister Abdul Mohsen al-Medej announces that his country will increase its oil production capacity to as much as convert|3.5|Moilbbl/d|m3/d by 2005.
*September 13: The Kuwaiti Oil Ministry states its intention to seek a convert|200|Moilbbl/d|m3/d|sing=on increase to its current convert|2|Moilbbl/d|m3/d|sing=on crude oil production quota at the November 1995 OPEC meeting in Vienna. The announcement comes amidst growing non-OPEC oil production and weak oil prices.
*November 22: OPEC states that it will roll over its current oil production quota of convert|25.42|Moilbbl/d|m3/d. The roll-over was widely anticipated because of slack world oil demand, rising non-OPEC production, and weak prices.
*November 29: President Clinton approves legislation lifting a 22-year-old ban on exports of oil from the Alaskan North Slope (ANS). The ban was imposed after the oil embargo by Arab oil producers in 1973. The lifting of the ban opens up about one-quarter of U.S. crude oil production for export. The ANS legislation also waives royalty payments on deep water oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
*December 12: Speaking in New York during a U.S. visit by Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, Joaquim David, president of the state-owned oil company , Sonangol, states that Angola will increase its crude oil production by 10 percent per year over the next five years, reaching convert|720|Moilbbl/d|m3/d by the end of 1996 and convert|1|Moilbbl/d|m3/d by 2001. The statement comes amidst sporadic violence involving government forces and the rebel group UNITA, less than a year after a peace accord was signed ending the country's 20-year-old civil war. At the end of 1995, Angola had raised its crude oil production to convert|690|Moilbbl/d|m3/d.