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International news for oil and gas professionals

Natural gas appears likely to supplant coal as the world's second biggest energy source—after crude oil—by 2025, ExxonMobil Corp. said as it released its 2013 Energy Outlook.

Advanced technologies will increase US oil production more quickly than previously forecast, the US Energy Information Administration said as it released its 2013 Annual Energy Outlook reference case. Production will rise more quickly than demand as more stringent motor vehicle efficiency standards take effect, it indicated.

Increased natural gas exports would broadly benefit the US economy, a Dec. 3 report commissioned by the US Department of Energy concluded.

From the outset, the discussion's question seemed provocative: Can the world live without Iranian oil? Panelists at the Dec. 5 event at the Atlantic Council agreed that global prices haven't shot up because the country's production has fallen so far in recent years.

Federal support of early-stage energy research and development in the 1980s and '90s led to technologies responsible for today's US oil and gas renaissance, witnesses reminded a US House Science, Space, and Technology subcommittee.

Noble Energy Inc. plans to invest $1.7 billion in the Denver-Julesburg basin, primarily in northern Colorado, during 2013, and the company estimates its net reserves in Wattenberg and Niobrara at 2.1 billion boe.

Wood Mackenzie Ltd. calculates oil and gas companies will spend $28 billion in the South Texas Eagle Ford play during 2013.

The Canadian government approved two acquisitions by international state-owned energy companies for Canadian oil sands and shale gas assets but indicated that approval for future transactions by other state-owned enterprises for petroleum assets would be approved only under exceptional circumstances.

Enbridge Inc. has received sufficient shipper support to advance its Light Oil Market Access Program.

The Canadian oil and gas industry improved safety and environmental performance last year in most but not all categories covered by the annual Responsible Canadian Energy progress report of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.