Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expect to increase their total production capacity by more than 1 million b/d in 2006 through new discoveries and increases in existing fields.
Recent increases in oil and gas prices have pushed the chemical industry to a “strategic turning point” for the use of coal to produce chemicals, said officials at Nexant Inc.
Total SA named Charles Mattenet senior vice-president, Asia and Far East, a position formerly held by Michel Seguin, who was promoted to senior vice-president, Americas.
Shell Oil Co. and Texaco Inc. did not violate federal antitrust laws by unifying gasoline and other product prices in their Equilon Enterprises downsteam joint venture, the US Supreme Court ruled Feb 28.
The first commercial offshore production in the Perth basin off Western Australia will begin shortly when one of the country’s smaller oil fields is activated.
April crude futures prices jumped above $63/bbl during trading Feb. 24 in the New York market after Saudi Arabian security forces foiled a suicide attack on the kingdom’s Abqaiq production and processing center.
Saudi security forces Feb. 27 killed five men suspected of involvement in a Feb. 24 terrorist attack on the Abqaiq oil processing plant, the Interior Ministry said (OGJ Online, Feb. 24, 2006).
The foiled terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia Feb. 24 offers a probably unnecessary reminder that the militant form of Islamic jihad has multiple targets.
Australia gradually is slipping behind in its attempts to maintain self-sufficiency in oil despite a rally during 2005-06 as a result of new on-stream production, principally from Mutineer-Exeter field and the coming Enfield development, both in the Carnarvon basin off Western Australia.
Central Asia has traditionally fallen within Russia’s sphere of influence, but as China seeks oil and gas to fuel its energy-hungry economy the growing level of Chinese energy investment in Central Asia is challenging Russia’s economic dominance in the region.
A flexible development plan and careful reservoir management carried out by an integrated team succeeded in implementing a high-concentration polymer flood pilot in Daqing oil field in northern China.
Simulation of NGL recovery from natural gas streams of wide compositions and for different turboexpander process configurations has revealed that the gas-liquid subcooled process (GLSP) yielded an overall average ethane recovery of about 80% and, in the case of a location with variable feed compositions, GLSP would yield the highest average ethane recovery.
A major testing campaign and research program conducted around the Ormen Lange project off Norway sought to develop subsea long free-span design procedures in compliance with Det Norske Veritas standard DNV-RP-F105 design philosophy in an effort to minimize free-span intervention costs.
