As a business reporter covering the peak of the dot-com craze years ago, I wondered how start-up companies intent on making a fortune off the internet could attract millions of venture capital dollars while oil and gas companies could raise little, if any, VC financing.
Questions during a US House committee hearing about the fatal 2005 refinery explosion in Texas City, Tex., hinted at toughened plant inspections and an end to voluntary industry standards.
More than 2 years later, shock waves from the Mar. 23, 2005, blast and fire that killed 15 people and injured 180 at BP America’s Texas City installation are increasingly being felt in plant safety.
Despite current emphasis on “talent gaps” within the petroleum industry due to the loss of experienced older workers, global labor trends indicate an adequate-or even excess-supply of entry-level workers over the next 5 years, said Bob Orr, Houston-based director of oil and gas consulting practice for Mercer Management Consulting Inc.
The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration expects to have 280 staff members trained to conduct process safety management inspections by August, Assistant Labor Secretary for OSHA Edwin L. Foulke Jr. announced.
David Miliband, the UK environmental secretary, has proposed legislation to enforce a 26-32% cut in carbon emissions by 2020 which could have significant implications for energy companies.
US natural gas reserves increased for the eighth consecutive year in 2006 as producers drilled a record 30,000 wells, the American Gas Association reported in its latest annual estimate of domestic supplies.
Giant fields (estimated ultimate recovery of 500 million bbl of oil and-or 3 tcf of gas or more) exist in every major region of the world, and have been discovered throughout the history of the petroleum industry.
A multiphase meter used for testing wells producing heavy oil led to increased production and improved the understanding of reservoirs in the Yombo field, off Congo (Brazzaville).
A new correlation calculates the water solubility for a wide variety of hydrocarbons found in a typical crude oil-alkanes, olefins, diolefins, acetylenes, cyclopentanes, cyclohexanes, benzenes, mercaptans, thiophenes, and sulfides.
The Feb. 14, 2007, opening of the first leg of Kinder Morgan’s Rockies Express (REX) pipeline between Wamsutter, Wyo. and the Cheyenne Hub in northeastern Colorado, will narrow the Opal-to-Cheyenne pricing differential even while increased gas-on-gas competition in the region forces regional price differentials lower until completion of REX Phase III in 2009.
