In March, Schlumberger Business Consulting (SBC), the management consultancy arm of Schlumberger, released the 2010 Oil & Gas HR Benchmark Study (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2011).
For anyone who thought US President Barack Obama might treat oil and gas resource development as helpful in the nation's budget struggles, two words should be enlightening: fat chance.
The crude price slumped as the New York Mercantile Exchange reopened Apr. 18 with Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali I. Al-Naimi claiming the global oil market is oversupplied.
Improved pipeline safety is a continuous process requiring full participation not only of operators and federal and state government regulators, but also local officials and developers of housing and business projects, participants at the US Department of Transportation's 2011 Pipeline Safety Forum emphasized.
Immediate access to technology, equipment, and personnel to promptly cap and contain offshore crude oil spills is essential, participants generally agreed during a day-long international forum at the US Department of the Interior.
The biggest headline as Congress, on the eve of its spring recess, passed a continuing budget resolution was that a federal government shutdown had been averted and the government would stay in business through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2011.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement is considering an expansion of its regulatory reach beyond offshore oil and gas well operators to drilling contractors and service and supply companies, BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich said on Apr. 12.
The US Bureau of Land Management began its review of commercial oil sands and tar sands plans issued during President George W. Bush's administration by publishing a notice of intent to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) governing allocation of such resources in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
Energy officials attending the 4th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable in Kuwait have heard from leading Middle Eastern oil ministers that higher oil prices could threaten the world's economic recovery.
The chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp. sent a letter of protest to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries about the help fellow member Qatar is giving to Libyan rebels with sales of oil.
The oil and gas industry isn't averse to airing its views as Chevron Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Watson showed in the UK last week when he spoke loudly and clearly in opposition to new taxes.
Aggressive investment plans of large oil companies in liquids-rich shale plays will sustain the cost advantage of North American ethylene producers in relation to European competitors "for some time," says Fitch Ratings.
