International news for oil and gas professionals
With pointed words sure to puncture sensitivities to the south, the Canadian government has declared its intention to inoculate the national economy against environmental paralysis funded by outside provocateurs. Bravo.
Worldwide crude oil consumption will increase by 1.3 million b/d this year and by 1.5 million b/d in 2013, with the higher demand met by increased production both from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and from non-OPEC producers, the US Energy Information Administration said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook.
A slower permitting pace in the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Macondo deepwater well incident and spill and subsequent moratorium is reducing investment in new projects and costing jobs, a new study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute concluded.
McMoRan Exploration Co. plans to flow-test its Davy Jones-1 ultradeep discovery well on the Gulf of Mexico shelf as soon as it recovers a fish lost in the hole as it prepared to run production tubulars.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer ordered operations halted at a fluid injection well near Youngstown on Dec. 30, 2011, after scientists from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory found a possible link to mild earthquakes.
Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. asked the US Environmental Protection Agency to extend the time period for accepting comments on EPA's draft report about whether hydraulic fracturing in Pavillion field natural gas wells might be responsible for odd odor and taste in drinking water around Pavillion, Wyo.
The Centre for Global Energy Studies, London, said Russia's oil production for 2011, which topped 2010 by a whisker, reached a record high for the post-Soviet period.
China's state-owned PetroChina will be 100% owner of Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s MacKay River project at a total price of $2.5 billion (Can.) after paying a further $680 million (Can.) for the remaining 40% of the firm's shares.
A Phase 1 final investment decision is the next step now that Eni, Repsol, and Petroleos de Venezuela SA have signed a gas sales agreement for commercial development of supergiant Perla gas-condensate field in the Gulf of Venezuela off Venezuela.
Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell called for an expanded natural gas system as one of seven legislative proposals aimed at making the Old Dominion the Energy Capital of the East Coast.
Iran's oil diplomacy was in full swing last week, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting several Latin American countries, led by his talks with Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez.
Statoil said the Norwegian Continental Shelf, where it made the world's largest 2011 oil discovery at Aldous, will remain the company's backbone for years.
Fidel Castro has raised his revolutionary voice against a well-completion method revolutionizing production of oil and gas.
