Regular Features
- OGJ Newsletter
- Journally Speaking
  - Anticipating the rebound
    In April, OGJ published its annual oil and gas capital spending outlook, which reported a cut in spending worldwide (OGJ, Apr. 27, 2009, p. 26).
- Equipment/Software/Literature
- Services/Suppliers
- Advertisers Index
- Editor's Perspective
  - Lands bill a new package of horrors for US oil and gas
    As horror follows horror in Washington, DC, the US oil and gas industry needs a scorecard to keep track of threats building against it.
- Market Journal
  - Hope floats oil prices
    The brief May 28 meeting of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries essentially “was over before it started” after Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali I.
General Interest
- Editorial: SECOND OF TWO PARTS: The climate bill’s costs
  In case anyone missed the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association estimate for costs awaiting US refiners from climate-change legislation approved last month by a key House committee, here it is: $58 billion/year.
- Proposition: global effort to model largest oil fields
  Oil is the world’s most important commodity, and the need to understand the long-term supply is widely recognized.
- API opposes efforts to federally regulate hydraulic fracturing
  Proposed federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act could add $150,000 to deep-well costs and reduce drilling, American Petroleum Institute officials warned on June 3.
- US House panel studies proposal to alter federal leasing
  A legislative draft that would substantially change federal oil and gas leasing has been circulating around the US House Natural Gas Resources Committee since last May.
- WATCHING GOVERNMENT: Smart policies key to gas
  Natural gas utilities often face different issues than producers and pipelines. But keeping domestic supplies abundant and affordable by resisting rash legislative proposals was very much on Chris McGill’s mind as he prepared to visit Houston.
- Georgia objects to Rosneft agreement with Abkhazia
  The government of Georgia has criticized Russia’s OAO Rosneft for signing an exploration and development agreement with the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia, calling the document a violation of Georgia’s laws and territorial integrity.
- WATCHING THE WORLD: Pouring oil on rebellion
  The oil and gas industry is not often thought of as a vehicle for making peace. But in Turkey these days they are thinking otherwise following the start of oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan.
- Brazil, Venezuela see end to impasse over joint projects
  Major disagreements preventing joint projects by Brazil’s state-owned Petroleo Brazileiro SA (Petrobras) and Venezeula’s Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) will be cleared up in 3 months, according to the presidents of the two countries.
- Deloitte: UK Continental Shelf to see activity drop in drilling
  Drilling activity on the UK Continental Shelf may fall by half in 2009 and drop again in 2010 despite the new incentives and tax changes introduced by the Chancellor in April, Deloitte LLP has warned.
- COMPANY NEWS: Shell plans major organizational revamp
  Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced plans for major restructuring of its organization, with its 200 most senior managers initially affected (see Personnel Moves, p. 36).
- PERSONNEL MOVES AND PROMOTIONS: Shell changes senior management structure
  Royal Dutch Shell PLC has made changes to its senior management structure effective July 1 (see Company News, p. 34).
Exploration & Development
- ExxonMobil group outlines Hebron development details
  The Hebron project on the Grand Banks off eastern Canada should start producing by the end of 2017 and recover 566 million bbl of oil over a 30-year productive life, said project operator ExxonMobil Canada Properties.
- Iceland’s first licensing round nets two bidders
  Iceland’s National Energy Authority (NEA), which recently launched the country’s first-ever licensing round, said it received bids from two companies for exploration rights to the northern Dreki area.
Drilling & Production
- Special Report: Simultaneous operations develop Piceance tight gas
  Williams Exploration & Production in recent years has changed the way it is developing the tight gas sands in the Piceance basin of Western Colorado.
- Special Report: CFD techniques determine gas-lift valve behavior
  A novel approach using computational fluid dynamics techniques provides a way for determining the characteristics of gas passing through a gas-lift valve.
Processing
- LIQUIDS ENTRAINMENT - Conlusion: In-line cyclonic technology remedies compressor liquid ingestion problem
  This is the final of three articles that describe BP’s experience with reciprocating compressor damage from liquids intrusion at two facilities, in Oklahoma and Alaska.
Transportation
- CORROSION CONTROL — Conlusion: Integrity management must include practiced failure plans
  Reliance on integrity management policies, processes, and practices can lead to a false feeling of security.