Table of Contents

International news for oil and gas professionals

Refinements to marine seismic work through broadband acquisition and processing are improving the precision of geophysical interpretation and the imaging of deep features.

Southern California oil producers have long faced the added challenge of making exploration and production compatible with urban life.

Azerbaijan contains a large number of undiscovered hydrocarbon deposits of probable commercial value.

Oil and Gas Journal's semiannual Worldwide Construction Update shows an increase in petrochemical construction activity compared with the previous edition of the update (OGJ, May 7, 2012, p. 32).

Canada's Duvernay shale play is gaining the attention of more investors, including ExxonMobil Corp., which recently announced plans to acquire Celtic Exploration Ltd. in a move that will give ExxonMobil access to the play in west-central Alberta.

Energy is clearly on voters' minds as the 2012 elections approach, American Petroleum Institute Pres. Jack N. Gerard declared.

Careful strategic decisions soon after crude oil was discovered off its coast in the 1960s helped Norway dodge the "resource curse" that often plagues other countries with similar sudden fossil energy wealth, a political advisor to the Labour party in Norway's parliament said on Oct. 25.

BP PLC has capped and plugged an abandoned piece of subsea equipment known as a cofferdam that was believed to be the source of a recent surface oil sheen observed near Mississippi Canyon 252 Block in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana.

Under criticism from Azeri officials about production declines from the ACG oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea, BP PLC has held meetings in London and Baku with representatives of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to discuss remedies.

Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), Sugar Land, Tex., has sought responses by Dec. 18 to its October release of the remaining four 2011 ultradeepwater program request for proposals to award $14 million in oil and natural gas research and development projects offshore.

Press reports indicate that India's government has decided in principle that the price of gas from the D6 block offshore in the Krishna-Godavari basin can be raised, said minority owner Niko Resources Ltd., Calgary.

At about the time in the mid-20th century that the Fort Worth basin of North Central Texas was being abandoned by the major oil companies as a worn-out backwater area, a young man named George Mitchell began drilling there for Pennsylvanian-age Atokan (aka Boonesville Bend) sandstones and conglomerates.

The early Pennsylvanian Marble Falls formation has recently been determined to be a fractured carbonate reservoir much like the famous Barnett shale.

This article urges action by government or the petroleum community to inform policymakers better (and confuse them less) about two energy information basics

Public concerns about flaring of natural gas have led to suggestions that the practice be prohibited in booming North Dakota even if it means permanently or temporarily halting crude oil production.

Using downhole pumps to lift interfering liquid from gas wells is not a new activity. Using these pumps at very low surface pressure is also not a new activity.

All major supply hubs in US and Canada had surplus inventory of propane at the end of winter 2011-12. Propane markets in North America are dynamic, however, and possess various mechanisms to accommodate surpluses and shortages.

Analysis of Alaska natural gas supply and demand shows an Alaska in-state gas pipeline is critically needed. An LNG plant is also necessary for an Alaska in-state gas pipeline project to accommodate strong seasonal swings in Alaskan natural gas demand.

Pipeline reliability analysis requires selection of a defect growth model that will accurately predict both the time evolution of corrosion defects and the probability of these defects' failure.