International news for oil and gas professionals
Great editorial: "Regulations and jobs" (OGJ, Nov. 28, 2011, p. 16). How intellectually dishonest of EPA to ignore the well-known economic concept of "opportunity cost" as they impose extreme restrictions on power-plant emissions!
Another year, another rash of resolutions. But this reporter long ago gave up futile vows to lose weight and become a better person. Now I just hope to understand some of life's greatest puzzles.
A growing mandate for sales of something nonexistent shows yet again why Congress must correct its errors on biofuel.
From the perspective of the oil and gas business, campaigns by liberal commentators to make President Barack Obama look politically conservative seem otherworldly.
US energy demand and economic activity in 2012 will gain some momentum from last year's doldrums, but growth for each will remain anemic.
Drilling activity should remain strong in the US and Canada in 2012 after substantial year-to-year gains in 2011.
Shale gas and tight gas offer many countries the best chance to move toward an affordable energy supply that promises an alternative to coal-fired power generation and potentially a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Royal Dutch Shell's executive director, upstream international.
The Dec. 29, 2011, completion of a draft programmatic environmental impact statement for 10 tentatively scheduled oil and gas lease sales in the central and western Gulf of Mexico was only the latest step in the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's proposed 5-year US Outer Continental Shelf Program.
Before the past year recedes further, it's time for this column's annual awards for dubious achievements and amusing moments in government: the 2011 Watchies.
Reduced refining activity in the US Northeast, as reflected in recently announced plans to idle more than half of the region's refining capacity, is likely to affect product supplies, the US Energy Information Administration said.
A federal district court in California blocked California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) after declaring the regulation unconstitutional.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed thanks to the government of Turkey for granting permission to OAO Gazprom for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline in Turkish waters of the Black Sea.
The new year had not even arrived before Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez appeared to have popped the bubbly, boasting that his country will soon become the world's top oil exporter.
Oil and gas production in Alaska has historically been limited to the northern and southern margins of the state, primarily in the North Slope and Cook Inlet, but recent drilling, seismic, and exploration data in Interior Alaska suggests potential for large oil and gas fields in rift basins near Nenana and Yukon Flats.
Popular movements toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya in 2011, and these uprisings are likely to have short and long-term impact on these societies with global ramifications.
Oil and gas production has declined in Serbia in the last 3 decades due to depletion of existing reserves and low level of exploration.
The Haynesville shale has grown into the largest gas shale play in the US due to favorable geologic conditions and technological improvements in drilling horizontal wells and stimulation treatment.
A complete and comprehensive reservoir management approach showed the benefits of waterflooding Ferdous field in the North Bahariya concession of Egypt's Western Desert.
A stimulation model helped optimize hydraulic fracturing of a sandstone-conglomerate (glutenite) formation in the Bohan oil field in eastern China.
Operational scenarios for two uses of a new refrigeration process for recovering NGLs from natural gas have shown it to enhance operability and reduce capital and operating expenditures when compared with the two more traditional process choices—straight refrigeration and turboexpander.
The solubility of water in cycloalkanes (cyclopentanes and cyclohexanes) found in crude oil as a function of temperature has been calculated.
A study of trends in Asian condensate trade released late last year by FACTS Global Energy, Honolulu, found that in 2010, total production of segregated field condensate reached about 2.5 million b/d, but only about 35% traded on the international market.
Economic analyses demonstrate the operational benefits of using particular energy recovery and scrubber technologies on natural gas transmission systems.
Historical data and multiple nonlinear regressions allow the development of regional and national compressor station construction component cost estimation models, capable of estimating cost components with respect to both different compressor station capacities and regions.
