Issam al-Chalabi's article (OGJ. Mar. 24. 2003, p. 42) regarding the Iraqi oil policy: present and future perspectives provided us with an excellent historical background of the Iraqi oil fields and a political plan to restart its production.
Prior to the Apr. 24 meeting of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, analysts predicted OPEC ministers would agree to cut overproduction by at least 1.5 million b/d, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait absorbing the bulk of any rollback.
While politicians from the legislative and executive branches of the US government jousted over war costs and tax cuts this month, the judicial branch made what should come to be seen as an historic improvement in the American business climate.
Much of the buzz about the future of the North American natural gas market centers on how much of a role LNG will play as a supply "bridge" to the arctic gas pipelines envisioned to come on line later in the decade.
Alaska's new freshman US senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, has a familiar face and name within the oil and gas community; she was a leader in the state's House of Representatives and championed efforts to expand leasing to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain and to build a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48.
Producers may face less bureaucratic hurdles under a new US Bureau of Land Management program that government officials say will speed up the oil and gas permit approval process for resource-rich public lands.
The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service may change its natural gas royalty rule but first wants to hold four public workshops this spring.
A top California state official last week called on the Department of the Interior to terminate its royalty rate-reduction program for stripper and heavy oil properties.
The United Nations and the US are expected to continue negotiating over the next few weeks possible updates to the UN's Iraq oil-for-aid humanitarian program, industry and diplomatic sources said Apr. 23.
Poland, a staunch supporter of the US-led war in Iraq, anticipates that US businesses will give its firms preferential treatment in picking partners to help rebuild the Middle East state, especially its oil sector, according to government and industry sources.
The Federal Trade Commission approved the filing of an administrative complaint against Unocal Corp. for allegedly committing fraud concerning the California Air Resources Board's efforts to develop its own RFG standards.
US retail gasoline prices are expected to average $1.56/gal during April-September, according to the latest short-term energy outlook released earlier this month by the Energy Information Administration.
Industry has made enormous technical improvements to reduce the environmental impact of oil exploration in Alaska's North Slope, the National Academies' National Research Council said last month in a congressionally mandated report.
Water-injection pressure maintenance may slow and ultimately arrest land subsidence in the Wilmington field in California by reducing the potential gradient that drives fluid out of the siltstones.
Higher normal natural gas prices in 2004-06 could lower the peak cyclical profits of US chemical producers of methanol, ammonia, ethylene and its derivatives.
A study of emission controls for non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at European marine gasoline-loading terminals shows that such controls would not be cost-effective even for terminals with the very largest throughput.
Compliance with US health, safety, and environmental regulations by petroleum liquids pipelines can be complicated, according to Barbara A. Carroll, TEPPCO vice-president for environmental, health, and safety.
