Regular Features
- OGJ Newsletter
- Letters
  - Widely held delusion
    Al Gore's recent well intentioned challenge that we produce "100% of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years" represents a widely held delusion that we can't afford to harbor.
- Journally Speaking
  - Pilots target bitumen
    Various companies put on hold several Alberta oil sands projects during 2009 in reaction to the global recession and lower crude prices, but other projects have continued including two proposed pilots in carbonate formations in the West Athabasca oil sands area.
- Equipment/Software/Literature
- Services/Suppliers
- Advertisers Index
- The Editor's Perspective
  - Iranian political mood swings back toward the brink
    Since the revolution of 1979, Iran's political mood has cycled several times toward and away from upheaval. Now, the Islamic republic finds itself yet again on the brink.
- Market Journal
  - Iraq, Nigeria oil output increasing
    After years of losses because of war and revolution, oil production in Iraq and Nigeria is starting to increase.
General Interest
- Editorial: Chad's resource curse
  An assessment of the World Bank's failed Chadian experiment confirms the intuition that poor countries with dodgy governments remain doomed to the resource curse.
- Special Report: Oil, gas reserves rise as oil output declines
  New estimates for Australia, China, and Turkmenistan have resulted in an increase in reported worldwide oil and gas reserves, according to Oil & Gas Journal's annual survey of proved reserves.
- Stanislaw: Shift energy focus from 'green' to 'clean'
  A global low-carbon future is possible if policymakers and economic leaders—including the oil and gas industry—shift focus from "green energy" to "clean energy," said energy expert Joseph A. Stanislaw Dec. 9 at the Deloitte LLP Oil & Gas conference in Houston.
- IEA medium-term update hikes oil demand projection
  The International Energy Agency has raised its projection for average global oil consumption during 2009-14 by 1.9 million b/d in an update to the medium-term market forecast it published last June.
- IHS CERA: Downstream capital costs turn upward
  Costs of designing and building refineries and petrochemical plants have ended a brief decline, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
- ExxonMobil: Global energy demand to rise 35% through 2030
  Global energy demand will be about 35% higher in 2030 than it was in 2005, requiring trillions of dollars of investment and a commitment to innovation and technology, ExxonMobil Corp. said in its latest long-term energy outlook.
- Watching Government: Ethanol and gasoline
  Two leading US House Republicans asked the Government Accountability Office to explore the impact of allowing more ethanol to be used in gasoline.
- Prospects uncertain for US climate-change legislation
  Prospects for US climate-change legislation in 2010 remain uncertain as 2009 enters its final weeks.
- Salazar outlines onshore leasing schedule for 2010
  As he announced that 38 onshore federal oil and gas lease sales have been scheduled for 2010, US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his department will continue to make constructive changes in the program.
- API's Gerard: Staff cuts part of broader reorganization
  A 15% reduction in its work force is only part of a major reorganization designed to modernize the American Petroleum Institute, API Pres. Jack N. Gerard said.
- CSB issues urgent recommendations in probe of Citgo refinery fire
  The US Chemical Safety Board issued urgent safety recommendations to Citgo Petroleum Corp., calling on the refiner to immediately improve the emergency water system at its Corpus Christi, Tex., refinery and to perform third-party audits of hydrogen fluoride units there and at its Lemont, Ill., refinery.
- ExxonMobil to boost unconventional focus by acquiring XTO
  ExxonMobil Corp. has agreed to buy XTO Energy Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at $41 billion that will be part of a strengthened focus by the energy giant on unconventional resources.
- Watching The World: Japan cheers Iraq deal
  Has Japan really succeeded in its long-term effort to secure a foothold in Iraq's oil and gas industry? Apparently so, especially after a consortium led by Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex) won the rights to develop Gharaf oil field.
Exploration & Development
- GULF MARGINAL PRODUCTION—3: Model tracks structures' transition from marginal to abandonment
  In the final part of this series, we estimate the number of committed assets in the Gulf of Mexico that are expected to be marginal over a 60-year horizon.
Drilling & Production
- Continuous well-flow estimates improve production allocation
  Evidence from several Shell operating units confirms that daily allocation based on continuous well flow estimates can be more accurate than the more traditional approach based on well testing.
Processing
- Special Report:Global refining capacity advances; US industry faces uncertain future
  Global crude distillation capacity in 2009 shot ahead of capacity for 2008, according to the latest OGJ survey of the world's refineries, extending in a big way the growth evident in recent years.
- Special Report: Climate change efforts to hit US industry hard
  Trends noted in this report—recently falling US capacity and utilization and rising Asian and Middle Eastern capacity—come at a difficult time for US refiners, as the US Congress prepares to craft climate-change legislation for debate in 2010.
Transportation
- Method provides welders new technique for avoiding arc blow
  A new method allows welders with little background in magnetism to reduce arc blow during DC welding of pipelines.