Table of Contents

International news for oil and gas professional

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), endorsed by US President Barack Obama and supported by oil companies as an antidote for corruption, is becoming as much a tool of interest-group politics as it is a mechanism of transparency.

Unconventional resource estimates, especially US natural gas resource estimates, have escalated in recent years. Simultaneously, debate about the accuracy of particular shale play resource assessments also has escalated because these assessments have varied greatly among assessors.

The Powder River Basin Resource Council (PRBRC) and other groups asked Wyoming's Seventh District Court to require the Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) in Casper to disclose more information about chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing.

Hydraulic perforating equipment malfunctioned during initial attempts to perforate and flow-test the Wilcox F sand at the Davy Jones indicated discovery well on South Marsh Island Block 230 in the Gulf of Mexico, said operator McMoRan Exploration Co., New Orleans.

The American Petroleum Institute launched a new campaign to educate consumers in seven states about the consequences of increasing oil and gas production costs as the US Senate headed toward a vote on legislation that would repeal federal tax provisions for the industry.

More pipeline capacity will be needed to handle changing US crude oil and refining markets, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines said as US President Barack Obama prepared to visit a major pipeline project at Cushing, Okla.

Establishing a regional low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) for 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US states would not establish its proponent's goals and would significantly increase gasoline prices and cause economic hardship, a study commissioned by the Consumer Energy Alliance concluded.

The US Senate voted overwhelmingly to proceed with debate on Sen. Robert Menendez's (D-NJ) bill to increase taxes on the five largest US oil companies by repealing several federal tax deductions they use.

The Silly Season has arrived earlier than usual in Washington—undoubtedly because gasoline prices have soared, and many members of Congress feel their constituents' pain more than usual because it's an election year.

World-class deepwater natural gas discoveries offshore in the Indian Ocean have turned the East African margin into one of the planet's hottest exploration theaters.

New federal safety rules on offshore oil and gas activities are among several developments making it very important for operators to have up-to-date information on chemicals at use at their locations.

If global LNG players looked to 2011 for clarity about and even solutions to some of their most vexing problems—a global imbalance in supply and demand chief among them—the year must have disappointed.

As a result of the disruption in nuclear power operations since Mar. 11, 2011, Japan's demand for LNG as well as low-sulfur fuel oil and crude oil for power generation increased significantly.

North Dakota began producing oil in 1951, and production in the late 1970s reached 100,000 b/d where it remained until the early 2000s.

This article was written to express a professional opinion regarding the use of available groundwater technology to reduce both real and perceived water quality impacts from shale gas hydraulic fracturing (fracing) operations, particularly in the Marcellus shale.

When the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) published the September 2011 edition of its Petroleum Supply Monthly, it marked the sixth month out of the previous 9 in which the US was a net exporter of refined products.

Turnarounds—also known as planned outages or shutdowns—are major events for refineries and other petrochemical facilities.

Continuing a trend starting in 1983, the Nelson-Farrar refinery construction index rose quickly to 2,378.1 in December 2010 from 2,281.6 in January that year (see table at right). Then it slowed and ended with 2,457.9 in December 2011.