Traders pushed crude prices well above $100/bbl in late February, turning from equities to commodities as a haven for investments as fear of a US recession sent the US dollar plummeting to record lows against the euro and other key currencies.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill Feb. 27 that proponents said would shift $18 billion in tax breaks from major oil companies to alternative and renewable energy projects and conservation and energy efficiency programs.
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Feb. 27 over whether ExxonMobil Corp. should pay punitive damages arising from the 1989 crude oil spill into Alaska’s Prince William Sound from its tanker, the Exxon Valdez.
US Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) could see a storm coming. The US House had just passed its latest bill to deny financial incentives to major oil companies and use the money to fund alternative energy programs.
Russia’s state-owned pipeline concern OAO Transneft will begin construction for the export terminal of the East Siberia Pacific Ocean oil pipeline this month, according to company officials.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is pulling out all stops in his effort to undermine the US, even calling on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to back his country against ExxonMobil Corp.
Shell Oil Co. Pres. John D. Hofmeister said his company proposes a 12-point energy plan, noting that he believes World War II was the last time the US had a “coherent, comprehensive” energy policy.
ExxonMobil Production Co. submitted the latest in a series of development plans for the Point Thomson Unit (PTU) gas-condensate lease on Alaska’s North Slope.
The global subsea oil and gas market will remain strong for the foreseeable future and is forecast to total $218 billion over 2008-12, reports Scottish Enterprise in a study to be released shortly.
Egypt’s gas production and exports are building with the recent opening of several pipelines, and BP PLC is sizing up its first discovery of deep Oligocene nonassociated gas offshore in the Nile Delta.
McMoRan Oil & Gas Corp. LLC, New Orleans, has entered into a multiwell drilling contract with Rowan Cos. Inc. that includes its reentering the ultradeep Blackbeard gas prospect on the Gulf of Mexico shelf.
EOG Resources Inc., Houston, plans to drill seven wells in 2008 and is shooting a 36 sq mile 3D seismic survey in a horizontal play for oil in Cretaceous Niobrara in Colorado’s remote North Park basin.
Partners in Usan oil field off Nigeria are moving to develop the 2002 discovery, which lies in 750-850 m of water on Oil Mining License 138, about 100 km off the eastern Niger Delta coast.
The calculation method proposed in this series, using actual gear ratio for the cones, allows the designer to determine and optimize kinematic parameters of drill bits.
Global crude distillation capacity will increase 10.6 million b/d during 2007-12—9.1 million b/d of new capacity and 1.5 million b/d of capacity creep—according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) entitled “Medium-Term Oil Market Report.”
Petrobras’ development of Cascade and Chinook fields in the US Gulf of Mexico will use a floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel in the initial phase.
