The US dollar at record lows against the euro, China’s robust demand for diesel, and market concerns about supply and demand have pushed up oil prices more than 18% so far this year, said analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & Associates Inc. in mid-April.
Capital spending for oil and gas projects in the US will increase this year, buoyed by growth in upstream, midstream, and downstream developments and maintenance.
Record high crude prices, combined with the declining value of the US dollar and growing signs of a recession, make increased US oil and gas production necessary not only for the nation’s energy security but also for its economic survival, a leading advocacy group told reporters Apr. 17.
Three weeks after winning Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval, a large floating liquefied natural gas terminal and regasification facility proposed for construction in Long Island Sound was rejected by New York’s state government.
The 2008 Atlantic Basin hurricane season could be as active as ever, with 15 named storms expected, two Colorado State University scientists predicted on Apr. 9.
Coal-to-liquids appears to be one of the more credible alternatives to oil “for the long-term supply of transport fuels,” said Institut Francais du Petrole Pres. Olivier Appert, in a keynote address concluding the World Coal-to-Liquids Conference in Paris Apr. 3-4.
Centurion Pipeline LP launched an open season to determine interest in a proposed reversal project that would deliver heavy Canadian crude from Cushing, Okla., to West Texas.
Earlier this month, Australian engineering and construction firm Clough completed float-off of the Maari wellhead platform in New Zealand for OMV New Zealand Ltd. on behalf of Maari joint venture partners.
The US Department of Energy provided technology that helped Australia launch the Otway basin pilot project, which will inject carbon dioxide into a depleted gas field in southeastern Australia.
Turkmenistan will allow international oil companies to develop Caspian Sea offshore deposits under production-sharing agreements, said Tacberdi Tagyyew, deputy chairman of the Turkmen council of ministers.
Sudan’s National Petroleum Commission (NPC) has mapped out a new oil concession in the southern region of the country, calling it Block Ea, according to officials.
Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Dallas, estimated that its properties in the Spraberry Trend in West Texas contain 1 billion boe of net resource potential in addition to the 481 million boe of proved reserves the company had booked at the end of 2007.
A Jurassic Haynesville shale play in Louisiana, with only a few wells producing gas so far, could eventually be worth 7.5-20 tcf of recovery net to Chesapeake Energy Corp., the company said in late March.
Terminal commissioning has been ongoing at two Texas Gulf Coast LNG terminals this month, as the region begins to complete and start up the first wave of new US import capacity.
Between 2010 and 2012, barring a drastic decline in the price of natural gas that would curtail the current growth trajectory of US production, incremental domestic production, combined with some nominal volume of increased LNG imports could exceed pipeline capacity out of the Southeast-gulf region.
