The Mar. 10, 2003, issue of the OGJ, p. 10, included a letter to the editor from Mr. John B. Somers II, president of High Plains Petroleum Corp., entitled "Limits on federal land."
Despite continued uncertainty over oil supplies from Nigeria and Iraq, oil futures prices dipped last week after the US Department of Energy and the American Petroleum Institute reported increases in total US inventories of crude and primary petroleum products.
While trying to define a topic for this column, I was torn between discussing the current military conflict in Iraq or its related oil price volatility effects on the US. After review, it became apparent that the two topics dovetailed.
A desperate governor has good reason to overplay Federal Energy Regulatory Commission findings of market manipulation during California's energy crisis of 2000-01. The rest of the country shouldn't be fooled.
Subsea wellhead pressure-temperature transmitters The new PTX 400 Series underwater wellhead pressure-temperature transmitters have been specifically designed for long term use in subsea locations.
Iraq has formally rejected a United Nations Security Council resolution, passed unanimously Mar. 28, that authorizes UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan to administer the oil-for-aid program under which Iraqi oil sales are monitored.
With Japanese financial backing, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil-exporting states have confirmed they will provide Jordan with crude and fuel oil, replacing supplies from Iraq that stopped on Mar. 20, the first day of the US-led war against Baghdad.
The oil and gas industry is becoming much more interconnected and moving towards "mutual interdependence," according to Sharaf Salamah, president of Saudi Refining Inc.
The US Senate, on a 56-43 vote Mar. 25, rejected efforts to revive an expired "Superfund" toxic waste tax on industry. Before 1995, oil and chemical companies were charged a fee on their products that went to a special cleanup trust fund; the excise tax on crude was 9.7¢/bbl. Superfund taxes also included a corporate environmental tax of 0.12% on taxable income over $2 million.
The regulatory hangover from the Enron Corp. debacle and the California power crisis continues (see Editorial, p. 19). Last month the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission took steps to adjust how much money power marketers and generators owe California consumers because of natural gas index price manipulation.
Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, has completed late last month the long-awaited sale of its 25% stake in Sudan's Greater Nile Oil Project (GNOP) to New Delhi-based ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), the overseas arm of India's state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC).
Anadarko, El Paso Corp. name new CEOs
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and El Paso Corp. both recently named new executives to head their respective companies.
While US spending is flat, worldwide exploration and production expenditures will increase modestly this year, according to a handful of analysts conducting E&P spending surveys.
Petroleum Geo-Services recently acquired a regional, 3,660 km nonexclusive 2D seismic survey over the deepwater Orange basin off the west coast of South Africa (Fig. 1).
A pilot project in Saudi Arabia aims to determine the benefits of remote monitoring technology with an integrated web-based system for lowering operating costs, maximizing production, and ensuring high health, safety, and environment (HSE) standards.
Iran's long-held dream of becoming a major export route for oil from the Caspian Sea has taken another step forward with the completion of the first phase of a new pipeline from its Caspian Sea port of Neka to the Rey terminal outside Tehran. Upgrading of the country's northern refineries to process sour Central Asian crude is also underway.
