The May 12 explosion of terrorist bombs that killed 34 people, including 8 US citizens and 9 suicide bombers, in Saudi Arabia also rattled energy markets worldwide as traders worried that more attacks, targeting Middle East oil production and export facilities, might disrupt global oil supplies.
Your Editorial (OGJ, May 5, 2003, p. 21), issue is right on mark, up to a point. In my opinion, the war in Iraq was not over oil, it was over the lucrative contracts to be had in developing the oil fields (see Issam al-Chalabi's article, (OGJ, Mar. 24, 2003, p. 42), long neglected, as well as the reconstruction contracts.
Putting 'Pee-ay' on the map
While anxiously anticipating a fast-approaching 6-day trip to visit the eastern Pennsylvania stomping grounds of my childhood and early adulthood, this OGJ staffer, now a faithful—and gratefully much warmer—Houstonian transplant, got to thinking about the crucial role that the Keystone State played in the early history of the oil and natural gas industry.
New PTX 300 Series offshore pressure transmitters come with operating ranges of as much as 15,000 psi and are fully submersible with an ambient pressure rating of as much as 4,000 psi.
Producer and consumer groups told federal energy regulators that an industry-led price reporting process remains the most effective way to ensure natural gas price transparency.
The US Congress may send the White House a comprehensive energy plan before Labor Day. Or it may not. Public interest is not a motivating factor these days, given today's retail gasoline prices.
Stability is a word that arises quickly and often in conversation with the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Álvaro Silva Calderón.
OPEC grappling with postwar Iraq questions
Postwar Iraq commands center stage on the agenda of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, but the issue remains surrounded by questions.
US officials want the United Nations to quickly lift sanctions on Iraq and phase out an oil-for-aid program. The program would extend past its scheduled June 3 expiration, under the US proposal, but would be phased out over 4 months.
Thousands of former employees of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, fired for participating in a 63-day general strike aimed at toppling Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, still hope to return to jobs with the state-owned oil company under "a new leadership, a different leadership" in that country, said a former PDVSA executive at the Offshore Technology Conference earlier this month in Houston.
Venezuelan officials say they have program to improve PDVSA
Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is a reliable supplier of oil and petroleum products to the US, and this market a good opportunity for the $43 billion it needs to increase its oil production to 5.1 million b/d by 2008 from a current annual average of 3 million b/d, said PDVSA Pres. Alí Rodríguez Araque May 5 in Houston.
Lean energy management is a methodology for efficient "manufacture" of oil and gas using software to enforce process rigor and discipline in order to dramatically cut costs and improve cycle times.
The upward trend in US drilling activity since the start of this year is likely to continue through the summer and boost day rates for premium offshore rigs in the second half of the year, said industry analysts.
Plant operators can improve plant maintenance strategies by implementing a well-structured, integrated, and comprehensive approach to equipment reliability called "enterprise asset performance management" (EAPM).
Advanced regulatory control strategies at El Paso Field Services Co.'s Thompsonville, Tex., gas plant have optimized plant performance for the past 9 years with little or no required maintenance, according to John R. Phillips of El Paso Field Services Co., San Antonio, and Barry D. Payne of Barry D. Payne & Associates Inc., Stafford, Tex.
