The International Energy Agency's latest Oil Market Report includes an upward revision to some historical demand figures and a corresponding increase in the call on crude from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Oil is a finite resource.
Around this fact of nature pivots a debate as important as it is fascinating. It's important because it concerns future availability of the cheap energy on which industrial society depends.
As a result of recent discoveries in its deep and ultradeep waters, Angola is poised to jump its oil production to 2 million b/d by 2007, said analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
While it may have alleviated its oversupply problems for 2003, Turkey's take-or-pay contracts for natural gas are likely to outstrip its projected demand by 20% in 2006, said analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.
For the first time, Venezuela has agreed to allow some of its natural gas to be processed in Trinidad and Tobago as both countries jointly move to develop their cross-border reserves with the signing of a memorandum of understanding planned for Aug. 12.
Late last month the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) postponed a decision to provide a $75 million loan for the pipeline portion of the Camisea natural gas megaproject in Peru's Amazon rainforest.
Brazil's state-owned Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) plans to increase and diversify investments outside of Brazil, investing $800 million this year and $5.1 billion by 2007, Nestor Cerveró, Petrobras's international director, told OGJ.
Updating sanctions
An economic sanctions policy bill may reappear on the US congressional agenda this fall, with competing voices jockeying for the White House's attention.
ExxonMobil Corp., reporting its 14th deepwater oil discovery on Block 15 off Angola, said the company's resource base in Angola is now estimated to be more than 10.5 billion boe.
Independent Brazilian oil company Marítima Petróleo e Engenharia Ltda., a unit of Brazilian firm Synergy Group Corp. (formerly Rainier Engineering Ltd.), reported making a light oil discovery with a well drilled on Block BT-REC-3, which lies onshore in Brazil's Bahia state in Recôncavo basin about 120 km from Bahia state's capital of Salvador.
Quest Resource Corp, Oklahoma City, inked an agreement with Alcoa Inc. subsidiary Alcoa Fuels Inc. for a 1-year coalbed methane lease on more than 63,000 acres in Union, Crittendon, and Webster counties, Ky.
Early processing results are encouraging from a 380 sq km 3D seismic survey acquired earlier this year over the Dome Flore and Dome Gea salt dome heavy oil accumulations in the Casamance basin, said operator Fusion Oil & Gas PLC, Perth, WA.
During a recent visit to Brazil, Cuba's Vice-President Carlos Lage said that Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed strong interest in accepting the Cuban government's earlier invitation to explore for oil in the Cuban sector of the Gulf of Mexico.
Industry and government banded together in Alberta to improve seismic imaging and reduce overall oil and gas project costs in areas adjacent to protected places.
Utilization rates among mobile offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and worldwide got a boost with Houston-based Transocean Inc.'s mid-July announcement that it was removing five jack up rigs, a "midwater" semisubmersible, and a self-erecting tender rig from drilling service.
US petroleum liquids pipelines committed to greater safety and system integrity as long ago as 1998, according to David L. Lemmon, president and CEO of Colonial Pipeline Co., Atlanta.
