Ivan Sandrea's argument (OGJ, July 26, 2004, p. 18) that the deepwater oil discovery rate may have already peaked and that deepwater oil production may peak within 10 years, rests not upon a thorough analysis of deepwater discovery histories and field size distributions, but upon an assumption that the larger fields tend to be discovered early in the history of exploration of a given area.
From a then-record closing price of $48.70/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange Aug. 19, near-month contract prices for benchmark US light, sweet crudes plunged to $42.12/bbl Aug. 31 as speculators locked in profits, only to rebound to $44/bbl Sept. 1 on reports of a large drop in US crude inventories.
Although US gasoline prices are almost as high as they were in May (OGJ, May 24, 2004, p. 15) this once-hot topic has lost some of its allure with the driving public and local newscasts.
Tenaris SA
Luxembourg, has announced acquisition of Tubman International Ltd., the company holding over 84% equity in the Romanian company, S.C. Silcotub SA, and controlling interest in three minor subsidiaries.
A drop in prices brings new attention to the necessity of buffer supply in the oil market—and to the issue of who does and who doesn't contribute to it.
For China, the energy challenge is clear but formidable: It must find additional sources of energy, both domestic and foreign, to fuel its growing economy.
China, where personal incomes have quadrupled in recent years while the country's burgeoning economy has grown fivefold, currently is consuming energy at a pace surpassed only by the US (see related article, p. 20).
Japan's reliance on oil and liquefied petroleum gas will drop, both in the near and distant future, while its reliance upon nuclear energy will continue to increase significantly, according to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in its latest energy supply-demand outlook for fiscal year 2010 and FY2030, said Tomoko Hosoe of FACTS Inc., Honolulu, who summarized METI's outlook in a recent report.
A ConocoPhillips plan to expand its western North Slope Alpine field satellites development in Alaska moved forward following a decision Aug. 31 by the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.
US Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham met Aug. 24 separately with French Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian and International Energy Agency Executive Director Claude Mandil in Paris.
OAO Yukos announced "stringent cash conservation measures" Aug. 23, including cutting capital expenditures and trimming its 2004 oil production target from 90 million tonnes to 86 million tonnes, the company said.
Russian Railways claims that China has offered to guarantee payments for railroad deliveries of crude from OAO Yukos, but Chinese government officials have yet to confirm that.
To comply with new regulatory requirements, Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) modernized the process control on its Merluza offshore platform in the Santos basin, off Brazil.
Ceremonies early last month marked official start-up of the Malvinas gas plant, export pipelines, and Pisco fractionation plant for Peru's Camisea natural gas project with the plant sending out first gas to Lima in one of two new export pipelines.
Brazil's sixth oil and gas licensing round began under heavy stress for representatives of the 24 qualified companies due to an injunction of a supreme court justice that would have suspended concession holders' rights to the oil they find in exploration blocks.
Apparent high bids totaling $171.4 million were offered for 351 offshore tracts at Lease Sale 192 for the western Gulf of Mexico, the US Minerals Management Service reported.
