The April contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes blew past $61/bbl to a 7-week high in intraday trade Feb. 22 in New York, following reports of a precipitous drop in US gasoline inventories and stronger defiance by Iran of the United Nations deadline to end its uranium enrichment program.
The top oil and gas pipeline regulator in the US wants operators to use inspection programs that do the best job of determining their systems’ condition.
Government and industry are making progress in increasing the number of qualified petroleum professionals in the US, says the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission in a new report.
US Department of the Interior Insp. Gen. Earl E. Devaney intended to mention reforms that have been implemented as well as problems he has identified at DOI when he came before the House Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 16.
Oil prices should remain at the $50-55/bbl level over this year and possibly part of 2008, interspersed with periods of tension, and thereafter continue to rise on the back of strong demand, constrained supply, and continuing refining tensions, reported Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP) in its 2007 Panorama presented in Paris last month.
Three Vetco International Ltd. subsidiaries pled guilty to violating antibribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay $26 million-the largest criminal fine in an FCPA prosecution by the US Department of Justice so far, Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul J. McNulty reported Feb. 6.
In a meeting with Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso last week asked Russia to ensure Japan’s supply of LNG from the Sakhalin-2 oil and natural gas project.
The global refining industry faces the challenges of upgrading its capacity to produce less-polluting fuels while processing increased volumes of poorer-quality crudes, Standard & Poor’s said in a recent special report on fluctuating oil prices.
Software installed in several Shell operated oil and gas fields transforms real-time data from commodity instrumentation via supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and distributed control systems (DCS) into estimates of oil, water, and gas rates for all wells continuously.
Resizing pumps, installing rod-pump controllers (RPCs), and monitoring and analyzing wells remotely with software specific for that purpose increased operational efficiency in Balam South field on Sumatra Island, Indonesia.
On Jan. 3, 2007, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would eliminate its “once in, always in” policy on maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards.
It is essential that pipeline regulators considering risk-based remediation plans understand early the nature and complexity of the risk assessment to be performed as part of abandonment and whether or not this approach is conducive to unconditional closure of a site.
