As someone who has been a consultant to the oil and gas industry over the past 30 years, with particular emphasis on Saudi Arabia, I was appalled to read your editorial (OGJ, Aug. 4, 2003, p. 17) "The Saudi-US Quarrel" in part because OGJ has generally not stooped to slurs when addressing issues of serious importance to the industry.
ABB, Norwalk, Conn., has announced that Dinesh C. Paliwal has been appointed economic advisor to his excellency Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong Province, Peoples Republic of China.
From the politics by which the US Senate passed comprehensive energy legislation this month, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) extracted the promise of a vote on a climate-change bill they sponsor.
MMS proposes changes to federal oil royalty rules
The US Minerals Management Service Aug. 22 proposed industry-supported changes to its 2000 oil valuation rule that the agency said it considers to be technical rather than philosophical in nature.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has clarified the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) regulations concerning what constitutes a material change to refineries and other industrial plants.
US refiners expect fuel supplies and prices to remain volatile over the next few years, as refineries work to produce fuels at near-capacity levels in response to rising demand for petroleum products, according to a recent study by Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank RAND Corp.
Sources close to Brazil's Mines and Energy Minister Dilma Rousseff, who played a key role in recent partnership agreements between Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and Petróleos de Vene- zuela SA (PDVSA) for joint deepwater exploration (OGJ Online, July 29, 2003), told OGJ that the minister sees this as a first step towards creating Petroamérica, a coalition that would unite oil, gas, and electric power companies in Latin America in a comprehensive consortium.
Facing a likely recall referendum, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is looking to improve goodwill at home and with some neighbors. One way he hopes to boost his credibility is through the revival of a decade-old plan to create a Latin American energy cartel called Petroamérica.
BP PLC, the Alfa Group, and Access-Renova (AAR) completed the deal to combine their Russian and Ukrainian oil and gas businesses, which will serve as the final step in the formation of TNK-BP, a new company owned and managed 50:50 by BP and AAR.
Canadian oil and natural gas companies benefited from robust oil and gas prices and continued growth through production in the second quarter, according to a report released Aug. 26 by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
The end of June 2003 witnessed public "roadshows" in London and Houston for the inaugural licensing round of the 35,000 sq km Nigeria-Sao Tome e Principe (STP) Joint Development Zone.
The US rig count plunge during the first week of August—the biggest 1-week loss since early November 2002—prompted questions as to what part, if any, Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. may have played in that fall.
PetroChina Co. Ltd. improved production safety, realized greater oil production, and saved energy costs after implementing model-free adaptive (MFA) control on its steam generators in Liaohe oil fields.
Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC's Texas City, Tex., refinery reduced fouling and cleaning frequency in its lead slurry pumparound heat exchanger by installing a coke trap.
Federally regulated US oil and natural gas pipeline companies in 2002 reported another profitable year, according to annual report filings with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, even as the natural gas pipelines in that group scaled back construction plans from levels of recent years.
