As the New York Mercantile Exchange resumed trade Jan. 20, following observance of the US holiday for civil rights leader Martin Luther King, energy futures prices jumped because of an explosion at the Skikda LNG complex in Algeria, threats of another strike by oil workers in Nigeria, and forecasts for extremely cold weather in the US Northeast and Midwest.
A group led by Vaalco Energy Inc., Houston, made a potentially commercial oil discovery on the eastern flank of the Ebouri prospect on the 3,073 sq km Etame Marin block offshore.
Here's a patented, compact, static mixer for offshore rigs and other applications requiring the blending of gases into liquids at high pressures and high temperatures.
Darleston, UK, has appointed Gary Sears as its new business development manager to drive the development of its business in Malaysia, Singapore, China, and other Far East territories. Sears, an engineer, is based in Brisbane, Australia.
At $35/bbl, OPEC still frets over price plunge
US oil futures prices have passed the $35/bbl threshold again, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries still frets that a price collapse may loom in the second quarter.
Part I of this article addressed the widely different projections of the timing and magnitude of peak production of conventional crude oil and natural gas and of their remaining recoverable resources.
Permit progressions
US President George W. Bush's administration is generally succeeding with its effort to streamline the public land drilling permit process, producers say. Delays still happen, but more often it's because of a judge or a state official rather than someone from the Department of the Interior.
Even as energy prices surged Jan. 20, analysts downplayed the danger of any immediate fuel shortages following an explosion early that day that destroyed three of six trains at the Skikda, Algeria, LNG complex, some 500 km east of Algiers.
Halliburton Co. subsidiary KBR will continue its work to restore Iraq oil infrastructure, but only in the southern part of the country under a new US Army Corps of Engineers contract awarded Jan. 16.
Texas oil, gas production down, but value up
The volume of oil and natural gas produced in Texas declined slightly in 2003 compared with 2002, but the value of that production rose dramatically, said the December 2003 Texas Alliance of Energy Producers-Wells Fargo Energy Group Petroleum Index.
Royal Dutch/Shell Group Chairman Philip Watts has written a letter to employees, reassuring them that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing involved in the company's recent reserves revision.
Premcor to buy Motiva's Delaware refinery
Premcor Inc., Old Greenwich, Conn., agreed to buy Motiva Enterprises LLC's Delaware City refining complex—Delaware's only refinery—for $800 million, plus the value of petroleum inventories at closing.
If oil production growth outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries continues apace, then members of the organization will be forced to curtail output this year in order to avert a supply glut—that is, if the International Energy Agency's demand projections are on target.
Daewoo International Corp., Seoul, and Korea Gas Corp. discovered 4 to 6 tcf of recoverable gas on Block A-1 in the nonproducing Rakhine basin shelf in the Bay of Bengal off northwestern Myanmar and plans to pursue other similar objectives on the block.
Analysts expect oil and gas companies to increase land drilling worldwide and boost offshore drilling abroad in 2004. In addition, shallow water drilling will be stepped up in the Gulf of Mexico and in both shallow and deep waters outside the US.
Improved reservoir-characterization insights allow operators to custom-fit stimulations and completion practices in the highly variable Barnett shale reservoirs.
A simulation study of five ethane-recovery processes showed that significantly higher ethane recovery results in turboexpander processes that have a gas-liquid and gas-gas exchanger and use the gas to provide required bottom reboiler duty.
