Even if both Iraq and Venezuela suffer serious disruptions to their respective oil production through the rest of this year, "crude prices would likely be in the $30-40(/bbl) range but would not 'go ballistic,'" veteran market analyst Stephen Smith, president and founder of Stephen Smith Energy Associates, Natchez, Miss., reported last week.
New Orleans, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Tidewater Marine LLC, has promoted Richard "Monty" Orr to vice-president, international sales div.; and Christopher W. Orth to vice-president, domestic sales div.
The global oil market will closely observe members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries this year as they maneuver to maintain prices and market share as demand fluctuates and geopolitical tensions affect production.
Demanding requirements of transporting dry bitumen in the 12-in. OD MacKay River Pipeline in Alberta led to development of an innovative coating system.
To realize a much better recovery factor, Norsk Hydro ASA selected pressure maintenance with gas and water rather than water alone for developing the heavy-oil (19° gravity) Grane field in North Sea Block 25/11, off Norway.
By applying advanced predrill modeling combined with real-time model updates, ChevronTexaco Corp., San Ramon, Calif., successfully drilled three extended-reach wells to 19,000-ft horizontal displacement in the Petronius field of Gulf of Mexico's Viosca Knoll Block 786 (Fig. 1).
The visual data mining process, seen in the first part of this two-part article, revealed patterns in four dimensions between cumulative gas well production and independent variables. "Jump discontinuities" in visual plots led to use of data mining decision trees as an ideal form of analysis useful in obtaining a profit exploration pattern from the British Columbia database.
