To no one's surprise, ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries voted July 31 to maintain their oil production quotas at the current total of 25.4 million b/d.
Thank you for addressing the issue of "sustainable development" (OGJ, July 7, 2003, p. 17) which has become the latest buzzword in environmental circles. As you correctly noted, environmentalists have generally interpreted this term to mean development that uses up nothing and disturbs as little as possible. Unfortunately, those who loudly proclaim this gospel conveniently exclude population growth but apply it to everything else. Let me cite two examples.
Summertime is in full swing in Houston and elsewhere. School-age children now populate the city streets during the daytime hours, temperatures climb in a seemingly direct correlation to residents' electricity bills, and those employed by the oil and natural gas industry become more difficult to reach by phone or e-mail due to their taking time off work for much-needed vacations.
Unocal Rapak Ltd. completed the Ranggas-Selatan 1 appraisal well, extending deepwater Ranggas oil field to the south on the Rapak production-sharing contract off East Kalimantan.
Natural gas markets are changing worldwide, and although the pace of change varies by region, the overall challenge for energy companies is to deliver a market model with investment incentives, customer demand, reduced costs, and competitive prices, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a recent report.
In a letter presented July 24 to the US House of Representatives, American Petroleum Institute Pres. Red Cavaney addressed the plight of the supply of natural gas in the US in the coming years.
Many oil-producing countries with the biggest reserves don't measure up to international standards for open governments and human liberties, putting US oil companies at risk of possible governance violations through their operations in those nations, Petroleum Industry Research Foundation Inc. (PIRINC), New York, reported.
Technology keeps the US onshore appealing to oil and gas producers and drilling contractors, says the chief executive of a company active in both businesses.
The petroleum system (PS) is today a paradigm of hydrocarbon geology and has become a reliable and basic tool for oil and gas explorationists and geoscientists worldwide.
Tropical Storm Bill had little effect on drilling and other oil field operations as it moved through the central Gulf of Mexico and came ashore in Louisiana on June 30, but it remains to be seen how the industry will weather the recent drop in natural gas prices.
Recent experience in an Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) well off Albania shows how custom design and manufacturing of bits allow drillers can optimize each application.
A recent study for a grassroots 30,000-b/sd hydrotreater that can produce ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) helped assess the critical process design issues for meeting future ULSD requirements.
