Threats to oil production in Nigeria and slow recovery of Gulf of Mexico production shut in by Hurricane Ivan briefly pushed benchmark US crude futures through the "psychologically important" price level of $50/bbl for the first time in late September.
While starting the data-gathering process each year for the Worldwide Refining Report, this editor often comes across unique refining situations that, while not applicable to that data-intensive report, nonetheless bear pointing out for the interest of our readers.
Harken Energy Corp., Dallas, said its affiliate will complete two existing discoveries and further explore the 75,000-acre Rio Verde area in the central Llanos basin.
Newly developed B9 Emerald FRAQ fracturing fluid combines performance with benign environmental effects such as low toxicity and biodegradability. It's suited for offshore use.
Three statements of varying formality from the California Air Resources Board give clear perspective to the panel's Sept. 24 fiat on vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases.
Despite the wide disparity of views among experts about remaining recoverable hydrocarbon resources and the timing of peak production of conventional reserves, certain trends are not in dispute:
Rockies gas producers
The US Rocky Mountain region has great potential for natural gas reserves, but Houston-based Dominion Exploration & Production Inc. is growing frustrated with permitting delays and escalating costs of doing business.
Contrary to recent speculation about an imminent sharp decline in Saudi Arabian oil production capacity, Nasen G. Saleri, manager-reservoir management of Saudi Aramco, told participants at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Houston that Saudi Aramco is pursuing a strategy of maintaining low depletion rates in its fields of 1-3%/ year for at least 20-25 years.
Low-price LNG deals of recent years in Asia could be things of the past because the future direction of the US natural gas market will have a profound impact on the global LNG market, including Asia.
Developers of LNG projects in the US should not make terminal-site decisions based on regional natural gas price differentials, said ConocoPhillips Qatar Pres. Mike Stice at an LNG conference in Houston Sept. 24.
Worldwide upstream spending for oil and natural gas increased by 9% to $161 billion in 2003, rebounding from a 4.4% decline the previous year, according to the latest annual global review of upstream performance by John S. Herold Inc. and Harrison Lovegrove & Co. Ltd.
The latest ministerial statement from the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) held in Melbourne has approved 10 collaborative carbon capture and storage projects around the world.
An advanced 100% solids structural and rigid polyurethane coating was employed in rehabilitating the Dagang-Cangzhou gas pipeline in northeastern China.
