Despite a blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the biggest polluter on Earth Day—Apr. 22—was the earth itself, following the earlier eruption of a volcano under Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier with an ash plume up to 11 km high.
Crude prices broke through the psychological $80/bbl barrier in April and show little sign of slipping back, "despite the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' usual (but misplaced) concerns about second-quarter weakness," said analysts at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, London.
There is no better time than the present for oil and gas companies to consider the dramatic and aggressive enforcement of antibribery laws globally and the harsh consequences that often ensue.
BP PLC and Transocean Ltd. worked to contain an oil spill from the Macondo exploration well off Louisiana following an Apr. 20 explosion, fire, and subsequent collapse of Transocean's Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible rig (OGJ Online, Apr. 21, 2010).
The $3.1 billion that oil and gas producers paid the federal government for leases under the 1995 Deep Water Royalty Relief Act was only the beginning of the law's benefits for the US economy, two studies commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute said.
Increasingly restrictive federal land policies are reducing activity in the Rocky Mountains, the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States said. A recent survey of its members shows how, and by how much.
US Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) quit discussions with Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on compromise climate-change legislation after Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) would not agree to consider the issue before immigration reform.
American Petroleum Institute Pres. Jack Gerard said he is optimistic about the Obama administration's announcement that it favors a US Outer Continental Shelf strategy to open new areas for oil and gas development.
Ukraine's opposition politicians were on the attack even before ink was dry on a new agreement between Kiev and Moscow for heavily discounted supplies of natural gas.
Saudi Arabia said it will increase oil exports to Indonesia to 325,000 b/d from 200,000 b/d in 2010, underling a rising trend in exports that analyst BMI sees taking place elsewhere in Asia.
Oneok Partners LP, Tulsa, will invest $405-470 million through yearend 2011 to expand gathering and processing in the Bakken shale in the Williston basin in North Dakota and the Woodford shale in Oklahoma.
McMoRan Exploration Co., New Orleans, has moved drilling rigs onto two more Gulf of Mexico shelf wells to explore ultradeep potential beneath the listric fault or salt weld.
Venezuela's National Assembly has approved the creation of two joint ventures between state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA and two consortia of international oil companies for the development of projects in the Orinoco heavy oil belt.
Calgary independents Bridge Resources Corp. and Paramax Resources Ltd. have completed a third indicated discovery in western Idaho's nonproducing Boise basin and expect to start completion of the first well in May.
Aggressive applications of biocide, use of hydrogen sulfide scavengers, and multiple pig runs can quickly eradicate even major infestations of sulfate-reducing bacteria in a repaired subsea natural gas pipeline following seawater incursion.
Low-sulfur Ormen Lange condensate arrives in multiphase (natural gas, condensate, water, and monoethylene glycol) through two 30-in., nearly 75-mile pipelines on the western Coast of Norway.
