Regular Features
- OGJ Newsletter
- Letters
  - 'Peak oil' a myth
    In "Oil, gas supply trends point to tight spots, higher prices," Rafael Sandrea observed, "Global crude oil production has…remained flat at 71 million b/d since 2004" and went on to comment that three-digit oil prices may be "lurking on the horizon" (OGJ, Nov. 23, 2009, p. 37).
- Journally Speaking
  - Is this the year?
    Energy prognostications at this time of the year are as common as weather forecasts but often less accurate.
- Equipment/Software/Literature
- Services/Suppliers
- Advertisers Index
- The Editor's Perspective
  - Europol: Emission trading fraud costs Europe €5 billion
    By the time it ended, the Copenhagen climate summit had become farcical enough to obscure an instructive disclosure that emerged in the confab's early days.
- Market Journal
  - A 'virtual' oil price gain
    The front-month contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes traded as high as $80/bbl before closing at $79.36/bbl Dec. 31 in what many described as a 78% price jump during 2009 and its biggest surge since 1999 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
General Interest
- Health care and energy
  The political shenanigans contorting reform of US health care show, yet again, the towering virtue of governmental self-restraint.
- Third-quarter 2009 earnings fall sharply from 2008 peaks
  Lower oil and natural gas prices and depressed refining margins resulted in a sharp reduction in the third-quarter 2009 earnings of oil and gas producers and refiners.
- Keep OCS sale on schedule, Va. governor-elect tells Salazar
  Robert F. McDonnell, who will become Virginia's governor this month, has asked US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar "to do everything in your power" to ensure that a planned 2011 sale of federal oil and gas leases off the state's coast stays on schedule.
- Watching Government: 2009's reasons to chuckle
  Before the season to be jolly completely slips away, let's look back at some of 2009's amusing moments in government and issue this column's annual "Watchy" awards.
- EIA 2010 forecast sees falling US oil imports
  A significant increase in US biofuels production could make the nation less dependent on imported oil, the US Energy Information Administration said in an early release of its 2010 Annual Energy Outlook reference case.
- House move promised against EPA's GHG finding
  A US House Republican energy leader said he plans to introduce a resolution expressing disapproval of the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas emission (GHG) endangerment finding.
- NPRA suggests alternatives to EPA's proposed GHG regulations
  The National Petrochemical & Refiners Association recommended three alternatives on Dec. 23 as it submitted comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency opposing EPA's proposed greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act.
- House members ask DOI for care in polar bear action
  Thirteen US House members asked Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to consider economic and energy security consequences of adopting a US Fish and Wildlife Service recommendation proposal to place critical habitat for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
- Alaska officials file objections to polar bear habitat proposal
  The State of Alaska filed strong objections to the US Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal to designate 200,541 sq miles in the state and adjacent ocean as critical habitat for polar bears.
- IOGA of New York urges governor to remain committed to Marcellus shale
  The Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York has urged Gov. David Paterson to remain committed to his draft State Energy Plan, which supports the expansion of natural gas exploration in the Marcellus shale.
- Watching The World: Investors target Sudan
  If India and China thought their oil and gas industries would have favored status around the world, they were mistaken.
- Mexico's natural gas imports to soar by 133%
  Mexico's demand for natural gas will continue to outstrip production, with imports to cover the country's requirements set to rise by 133% during 2009-24, according to government figures.
Exploration & Development
- Umiat: a North Slope giant primed for oil development
  Alaska's giant Umiat oil field, discovered in the late 1940s by the US Navy in search of new sources of oil after World War II, remains undeveloped to this day.
Technology
- OGJ FOCUS: Rig-site equipment determines drilling fluid weight material sag
  A series of experiments determined the equipment needed for finding the degree of sedimentation or sag in various drilling fluids at a rig site.
- Separations technology improves amine system's overall reliability
  Expansion and modifications at Marsulex Montreal Inc.'s sulfur-handling plant in Montreal have increased the plant's overall reliability through improved amine quality, improved the plant's operating costs as a result of a longer interval between cleaning, and yielded better hydrocarbon recovery.
- Nelson-farrar cost Indexes
- Yearly refinery construction indexes listed for 80+ years
- Pipeline operators underusing potential pipeline rehabilitation
  By selling recovered line pipe into the structural market instead of rehabilitating it for its own use, the pipeline industry is underusing a potentially valuable asset.