Oil & Gas Journal highlights various vital industry statistics each week in the US Industry Scoreboard. Data are gathered primarily from the Energy Information Administration's Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR).
Investors and large oil companies have steered onto paths so divergent that Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. says, "The market is declaring the Major Oil model dead."
Crude prices dropped $2-3/bbl Mar. 11 at initial reports a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan—"the sixth-largest earthquake recorded anywhere in the world since 1900 and the largest to hit Japan since records began in the 1870s," said analysts at the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London.
Rising gasoline prices in response to political unrest across the Middle East and North Africa show that the US should get moving on a comprehensive energy strategy that pursues more production as well as conservation, US President Barack Obama said in a White House press conference.
Dangerous radiation leaks from four stricken reactors after a tsunami hit Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant last week may be "the death knell" for a pending "nuclear renaissance," increasing demand for natural gas, residual oil, and coal to fuel electric power generation, said several industry analysts.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered officials to accelerate development of the OAO Rosneft-led Sakhalin-3 oil and gas project to help meet projected demand coming from Japan.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has helped the world weather a number of crises over the years, but it continues to be mistrusted, if not outright maligned.
The International Energy Agency said Libya's oil exports have ground to a halt due to the conflict between rebels and pro-government forces, and that it might be "many months" before the country's crude oil reappears on world markets.
Long interruption of production represents the largest threat from political turmoil to the financial stability of oil and gas companies with operations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) but remains unlikely, an international credit-reporting agency says.
US House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said he will introduce legislation "to put the Gulf of Mexico back to work" as he opened a hearing on community and economic impacts of the Obama administration's new offshore oil and gas policies and regulations.
The US Chamber of Commerce issued a study on Mar. 10 that identifies 351 stalled energy projects it says costs the US economy $1.1 trillion in gross domestic product and 1.9 million jobs yearly, which it says could be created during the projects' construction phases alone.
Muse Stancil & Co. has updated the basis for the refining margin series that are reported each month in Oil & Gas Journal. Margins are reported for each of six world refining centers: US Gulf Coast-Houston; US East Coast-New York; US Midwest-Chicago; US West Coast-Los Angeles; Northwest Europe-Rotterdam; and Southeast Asia-Singapore.
