Oil & Gas Journal Articles, Mar 2011

Regular Features
- OGJ Newsletter
  International News for oil and gas professionals
- Letters
  - Joint spill planning
    As Cuba and The Bahamas develop their deepwater oil and natural gas potential, the possibility of an accidental oil spill demands proactive joint planning by both countries and the US in order to minimize or avoid such a disaster in a spirit of cooperation and not confrontation in order to protect our fragile shared marine environment.
- Journally Speaking
  - Chinese budgets strengthen, too
    An energy outlook survey of chief financial officers at US exploration and production companies found that concerns about increased dependence on foreign sources of oil persist in light of US President Barack Obama's proposals to eliminate certain tax incentives for US-based producers.
- Editorial
  - Reporting alarm
    To an incendiary story the New York Times published Feb. 27 on hydraulic fracturing, there are proper and improper ways to respond.
- EQUIPMENT | SOFTWARE | LITERATURE
- SERVICES | SUPPLIERS
- Advertisers Index
- The Editor's Perspective
  - Shale plays show how resource work helps economies
    The economic goodness of resource development is, or should be, axiomatic. With inputs of labor and capital, resources yield wealth, the generation of which creates jobs, incomes, and tax revenue for governments.
- Market Journal
  - Libyan fight favors refiners
    In the last full week of February, front-month crude posted the largest weekly gain in 2 years in the New York market as turmoil in Libya shut in 850,000 b/d of crude production.
General Interest
- Special Report: Capital budgets to rise this year in North America and worldwide
  Capital expenditures for oil and gas projects in the US will increase 5% this year, according to OGJ's annual spending report.
- Highlight: individual company plans and price expectations
  Many companies, flush with cash after posting hefty profits on last year's strong oil prices, are ready to boost spending in order to ramp up production.
- Oil prices drive earnings in fourth quarter 2010
  Higher oil prices in the fourth quarter of 2010 resulted in higher earnings for oil producers in the US and Canada, and full-year profits posted even sharper gains from 2009.
- Gadhafi threatens revenge as Libya's output plunges
  Uncertainty continues to prevail over Libya's oil and gas industry, with each side in the developing civil war claiming to be in control of the country's oil fields, pipelines, and ports.
- BOEMRE approves first deepwater drilling permit since accident
  The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement approved the first deepwater drilling permit on Feb. 28 since the Macondo well accident and crude oil spill.
- Watching The World: LNG booms in Asia-Pacific
  While much of the oil and gas industry's attention was consumed by events in Libya last week, delegates at an energy summit in Indonesia heard extremely good news about natural gas and LNG.
- Industry still skeptical after first drilling permit since Macondo
  Issuance this week of the first deepwater drilling permit since the Macondo blowout last year is "not a return to normalcy" but rather a show-and-tell exhibit for US Department of Interior Sec. Ken Salazar to display when he testifies before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Mar. 2.
- Helix Energy outlines oil spill response system
  Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc. has assembled a Helix Fast Response System (HFRS) that some independent producers are citing as their oil spill response plan in applications for offshore drilling permits being filed with state and federal authorities.
- US industry expects higher costs following Macondo
  US oil and gas executives are concerned that changing regulations could boost drilling costs, making some exploration projects uneconomical, Grant Thornton LLP said.
- INGAA prepares for comprehensive pipeline safety legislation
  The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America anticipates congressional passage of a comprehensive federal pipeline safety bill in 2011, laying out a number of aggressive goals and delegating the details to the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration, an INGAA official said.
- Watching Government: NTSB's limitations
  The National Transportation Safety Board does not hold a hearing about every pipeline accident that it investigates.
- Study lists Alaska Arctic OCS development's potential benefits
  Development of resources in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska's Arctic coast would create an average 54,700 jobs/year nationwide with a $145 billion total payroll and generate $193 billion in federal, state, and local revenue over 50 years, according to a study by Northern Economics Inc., Alaska's largest private economic consulting firm, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research.
- Brigham's Bakken operation accelerating
  Interpretation of microseismic data from one 18-sq-mile area appear to support the drilling of eight Bakken and Three Forks wells per 1,280-acre spacing unit in the Williston basin, said Brigham Exploration Co., Austin.
Exploration & Development
- Continent below the oceans: how much and how far? The future for deepwater exploration (and geopolitics)
  Sandrea1 discussed possible reserves remaining to be found in the world's deepwater areas with a most likely scenario for discovery of 50 billion bbl down to 4,000 m of water "beyond which most parts of the world do not carry sediments."
- Shale gas, oil, minerals processing offer synergies in Brazil's Amazon basins
  The Amazon region of Brazil is a trove of hydrocarbons and world class mineral resources, and the use of hydrocarbons to process its mineral resources could be the basis for sustainable economic development.
Drilling & Production
- Forecast expects continued multiphase flowmeter growth
  A forecast based on the trends in sales and installations worldwide indicates that the upstream petroleum industry will install many multiphase flowmeters during the next 5-10 years.
- CLOSED-LOOP CIRCULATING—4 (Conclusion) Data benefit completion design, field development
  Pore pressure and well optimization data from closed-loop circulating provide synergies for managing the production life of a well.
Processing
- SPECIAL REPORT: Capacity, complexity expansions characterize China's refining industry past, present, future
  China currently has the world's second largest refining sector behind the US.
- SPECIAL REPORT: EU REFINING—3 (Conclusion): Capacity upgrading to cut gasoline exports by 2030
  This is the third and final article in a series that presents elements of the European Commission's "Commission Staff Working Paper: On Refining and the Supply of Petroleum Products in the EU."
- Nelson-farrar cost indexes
- US OLEFINS — SECOND-HALF 2010: Ethylene markets return to normal
  After the turmoil in operations and pricing during first-half 2010, US olefins markets were nearly normal during second-half 2010.
Transportation
- SPECIAL REPORT: Global LNG capacities rising to meet increasing demand
  Taken together, 2010-11 may represent that point in the evolution of natural gas trade when gas comes into its own among hydrocarbon fuels.
- SPECIAL REPORT: Is LNG a global commodity...yet?
  The global LNG industry will become increasingly flexible as the number of players willing and able to participate increases and LNG volumes and infrastructure grow.
- SPECIAL REPORT: Conditions improving for floating LNG production
  Historically LNG has relied on a small number of land-based production and regasification sites, but this is changing.

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