Table of Contents

Letters

• US House members launched their newly formed natural gas caucus on Oct. 21 with a hearing designed to rally support for a domestic fuel they believe could play an increasingly significant role.
• Incoming Chevron CEO touts 'lead by example' message
  The US should make more of its resources accessible if it expects other countries to do the same for major US oil companies and independent producers, Chevron Corp.'s incoming chief executive suggested on Oct. 27.
• Tax policy leaders urged to back high-paying energy jobs
  A coalition of 15 labor unions and the American Petroleum Institute urged congressional tax policy leaders to support proposals that would protect and encourage the development of high-quality US energy jobs while fortifying national energy and economic security.
• Cap-and-trade preferable to EPA regulation, experts say
  Congress should continue to make a carbon cap-and-trade system its top global climate-change legislative priority because it would be the most efficient and economically attractive approach, three experts agreed on Oct. 20.
• Watching Government: Congress forms gas caucuses
  Suddenly, members of Congress are talking about natural gas. It was one thing when US Reps. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and Dan Boren (D-Okla.) formed a gas caucus on Oct. 1.
• SEG: Energy R&D demands funds, collaboration
  Energy research and development challenges are becoming more complex, demand integrated and individual approaches, and are in need of wider funding sources, concluded a forum at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting in Houston.
• WoodMac: Carbon bill could be costly to US refiners
  Proposed legislation on carbon capture and sequestration potentially could cost US refiners $100 billion/year, threatening the sustainability of the domestic refining industry and giving undue favor to non-US refiners, said analysts at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., Edinburgh, in a recent study.
• Lawsuits point to climate change litigation threat
  A climate change litigation threat appears to be looming for the oil and gas industry in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision allowing the regulation of greenhouse gases as air pollutants.
• Watching The World: Hunt Oil's Peru problems
  Environmental concerns are growing around the world, putting increased pressure on the oil and gas industry. Consider Hunt Oil's problems in Peru.

• Satellite data can cost effectively show oil field thermal anomalies
  Exploration field geoscientists have reported the existence of negative thermal anomalies over oil fields and have suggested that thermal profiling can be a useful, cost-effective tool for oil exploration.

• Depressant replaces mechanical method for removing blockage
  A viscosity depressant proved effective for replacing the time-consuming mechanical methods for removing heavy oil blockages during the drilling of wells in the Tarim basin of China.

• US Propane—MIDYEAR 2009: Global recession, OPEC discipline combine to boost propane prices
  Two factors mainly influenced propane markets and pricing during second and third quarters 2009.
• Nelson-Farrar Cost Indexes

• Pressure isolation facilitates onshore, offshore maintenance
  Pressure isolation and hot tapping, traditionally used for repair, play an increasingly important role in the maintenance and expansion of both offshore and onshore natural gas pipeline systems.