December 2007 has been an active month for the climate change issue. Negotiators from around the world met in Bali, Indonesia, under auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change seeking a successor to the Kyoto Treaty.
As was generally expected, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Dec. 5 not to raise crude production since commercial oil inventories remained at comfortable levels.
The collective third-quarter earnings for a sample of US-based oil and gas producers and refiners declined from earnings a year earlier, softened by lower production volumes and weak downstream margins.
US Congressional Democrats passed a reworked energy bill in the House by 235 to 181 votes on Dec. 6, only to see the measure stall in the Senate the following day.
Marc W. Smith arrived in Washington, DC, from Denver for his latest visit on Dec. 3 as the US House leadership announced its latest energy legislation.
Global capital expenditures for exploration and production companies are expected to increase 11% to $332 billion in 2008, according to the latest spending survey released Dec. 10 by Lehman Bros.
Longer horizontal laterals in Devonian Woodford shale appear to be improving estimated ultimate recoveries in the Arkoma basin in southeastern Oklahoma, said Newfield Exploration Co., Houston.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently stopped in Portugal and offered to become a main supplier of oil and gas to the small Iberian Peninsula nation.
Concerns about global oil peaking due to declining reserves at Saudi Aramco’s Ghawar oil field may be overstated, according to Bernstein Research commenting on the results of a recent satellite survey.
Oil and gas companies and other energy producers are being looked to for assistance in finding a solution to the climate change problem, an energy expert said at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.
The Chinese government has called for the safety of its oil workers in two African countries, citing the dangers to operations posed by antigovernment rebels in Sudan and Ethiopia.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s development plans for ultradeepwater Tupi oil field off Rio de Janeiro state include a 100,000 b/d early production system to be built by 2010-11, said company Pres. and Chief Executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli De Azevedo Nov. 13 at the World Energy Congress in Rome.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim claims that a new oil discovery off Brazil underlines the need for his country to develop a nuclear submarine for protection.
Only 10 years ago, unconventional gas was an emerging resource; now it’s a core business of many large independent producers and a growing number of major operating companies.
As part of the Upgrading Expansion Stage 1 (UE-1) project completed in 2006, Syncrude Canada Ltd. revamped all existing five hydrotreaters and installed an additional diluent recovery unit, a fluid coker, and an aromatics saturation unit for light gas oil. The UE-1 project substantially increased production capacity and improved product quality, such as diesel cetane number and jet fuel smoke point.
Sluggish European LNG demand helped relax supply tensions in the first half of 2007, despite numerous liquefaction plants producing below nameplate capacity.
The frontier of coiled tubing-related technology in the well intervention business is shown being tested in the Last Frontier state as Western Well Tool loads its drilling tractor into a well at the site of the Nordic Rig No.
