Japanese company Inpex Corp. expects to begin gas production from Ichthys field wellheads in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia as early as next week or the week after. The company says it is now on track to dispatch the first shipments of condensate, LNG, and LPG by the end of September. Source: News

PJSC Lukoil has started production of road bitumen complying with new national standards requiring extended life and advanced durability of materials at subsidiary OOO Lukoil Permnefteorgsintez’s 13.1 million-tpy Perm refinery in Russia’s North Urals region, on the north bank of the Kama River.  Source: News

Cluff Natural Resources PLC, London, has 6 extra months during which to find financing for drilling on two promote licenses it acquired in the southern North Sea during the UK’s 28th licensing round in 2014.  Source: News

Vedanta Ltd. has won a court decision supporting an extension of the production-sharing contract covering its prolific Rajasthan Block in India. The Delhi High Court instructed the Indian government to extend the contract for the Barmer basin block to 2030. The contract was set to expire in 2020.  Source: News

US President Donald Trump signed proclamations removing exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs for Canada, Mexico, and the European Union as of June 1. The presidents of the American Petroleum Institute and Interstate Natural Gas Association of America separately criticized the president’s May 31 action. Source: News

Mexico’s Pemex, through its processing subsidiary Pemex Transformacion Industrial (formerly Pemex Refinacion), has let a contract to a partnership of Saipem and Mexican subsidiary Saimexicana for works to be carried out on the heavy oil plant at Pemex’s 215,100-b/d Miguel Hidalgo refinery in Tula, Hidalgo state.   Source: News

Light, sweet crude oil prices fell by more than $1/bbl for both the July and August contracts on the New York market May 31, but the Brent contract for July gained more than $1/bbl in London. Source: News