Table of Contents

The oil and gas industry enters 2003 uncertain about geopolitical events, doubtful about markets, yet equipped with technology advancing rapidly on many fronts.

US producers expect to increase their North American production of natural gas this year, but even at today's higher commodity prices, oil field service companies see no signs of increased drilling activity yet, industry representatives said late last month at a Houston conference sponsored by Deloitte & Touche LLP, the US arm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Despite recent surveys revealing that exploration and production companies' worldwide E&P spending for 2003 will be flat to slightly elevated compared with last year, a recent research note released by Raymond James & Associates Inc. RJA stated that outlays would in fact likely be more than 20% higher than originally anticipated.

Escalating Middle East tensions are not tempering industry interest in the region, especially in Saudi Arabia and Iraq where the potential for profit is high.

If US-led forces remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, then the administration of US President George W. Bush must make it clear to the world that the US has no desire to become the de facto ruler of Iraq or its oil reserves, an independent panel concluded late last month.

US policymakers are worried that the widespread strike by Venezuelan oil workers could impact US energy markets if the situation isn't resolved soon.

In a swap for future crude oil deliveries from Venezuela, Petroleos Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has provide 520,000 l. of gasoline to Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) to relieve the fuel shortage caused by a general strike that has virtually shut down Venezuela's national oil company.

Invest-Oil—an affiliate company acting in the interest of Russian oil firms Siberian Oil Co. (Sibneft) and Tyumen Oil Co. (TNK)—has bid for and won a 74.95% equity stake in OAO Slavneft for $1.86 billion.

Spatial variations in fluid compositions within reservoirs have been reported in fields in many parts of the world.

Expandable-profile liners have successfully isolated and protected permeable hydrocarbon zones in Russian oil wells, minimizing formation damage from invasion of drilling fluids and cement slurries.

Several Russian oil field case histories have demonstrated that expandable-profile tubulars or pipes have proven to be an effective way to control formation caving and sloughing problems in directional and horizontal wells.

Mating the topsides to the hull of the seimsubmersible Na Kika production unit required a superlift on land.

Installation of the Aux Sable Liquid Products LP (Aux Sable) plant¹ near the terminus of the Alliance pipeline (OGJ, July 2, 2001, p. 48) south of Chicago was a significant change from Alberta operators' traditional practice of locating a straddle plant in the producing region.

Nelson-farrar cost indexes

Refinery fuels costs have endured an unsteady course since 1999. As shown in the accompanying table, most of the PADD residual fuels' increases in costs occurred in 1999 and 2000 for all of the five PADD districts.

In the last two decades, results obtained from structural reliability analysis (SRA) have increasingly led to formation of strategies for future safe operation of corroding oil and gas pipelines.^1-8

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