Tidying and simplifying the rules on decommissioning oil and gas facilities in the UK North Sea is one of the pressing issues facing John Hutton, the new minister to lead the Department for Business, Enterprise, and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), formerly known as the Department for Trade & Industry.
The August contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes pushed past $70/bbl June 29 on the New York Mercantile Exchange to its highest level in 10 months due to declines in US gasoline and distillate fuel supplies despite an increase in refining capacity.
Geologic knowledge can provide vital information for scientists modeling the climate, said Eric J. Barron, dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas, Austin.
The withdrawal of ExxonMobil Corp., ConocoPhilips, and Petro-Canada from Venezuela under government pressure to nationalize private industry in that country could potentially limit the development of four heavy-crude projects, that could produce 600,000 b/d from the Orinoco reserve, analysts say.
Seismic data that are not several decades old are needed before the US Minerals Management Service’s new 5-year plan for Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing is acceptable, a House subcommittee chairman said as he opened a hearing on the plan.
The US Minerals Management Service’s crude oil and natural gas royalty in-kind program continued to exceed its goals during fiscal 2006, reported the Department of the Interior June 28.
Linn Energy LLC agreed to buy certain natural gas and oil exploration and production operations in the US Midcontinent from Dominion for $2.05 billion.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned home last week, fresh from visits that sought to strengthen political ties with fellow oil producers Russia and Iran.
Located in the northern edge of the Qilian Mountain fold belt in western China, the Jiuxi basin is a Mesozoic-Cenozoic foreland basin with Lower Cretaceous source rocks and Tertiary-Cretaceous reservoirs.
Refiners in the US and operators in Canada are adding capacity to handle additional volumes of bitumen and synthetic crude oils from increased oil sands production.