While much can be said about the energy achievements of Brazil, Latin America's economic dynamo does not, with one exception, represent a model for energy policy-making in the US.
Less important than 11 families changed forever yet fateful all the same are two other legacies of last year's Macondo tragedy with which the offshore oil and gas industry will contend for many years.
On the defensive shortly into his reelection campaign because of high gasoline prices, President Barak Obama had Atty. Gen. Eric Holder form yet another task force to "round up the usual suspects," the alleged villains manipulating and defrauding the oil markets.
Iraq's 2009 announcement that it planned to increase its oil production by 10 million b/d attracted global attention but received broad dismissal by oil observers.
EPRINC has estimated that Kurdistan is on a path to produce 400,000-500,000 b/d by 2015. But higher rates are possible as the political rivalry between Baghdad and Kurdistan continues to thaw.
Government and industry officials cited substantial progress in improving offshore oil and gas operations on the first anniversary of the Macondo deepwater well accident and oil spill.
BP PLC board members and top executives emphasized safety improvements at an Apr. 14 shareholders meeting in London that drew protesters while fielding many questions about the 2010 Macando oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A court-imposed Apr. 20 deadline in a New Orleans federal court prompted a flurry of claims and counterclaims as BP PLC filed litigation against Transocean Ltd., Halliburton Co., and Cameron International Corp. regarding the Apr. 20, 2010, blowout of the deepwater Macondo well.
The US Coast Guard's National Pollution Funds Center, which administers the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund established under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, had obligated or incurred $625.9 million in costs involved with responses to the Macondo deepwater well blowout and oil spill as of Mar. 31, the Government Accountability Office said in an Apr. 18 report.
Independent oil and natural gas producers and other commodities market participants have been urging the administration of US President Barack Obama to move carefully in imposing limits on energy market speculation as it implements the Dodd-Frank financial reform act.
Current levels of global demand for oil would buffer the impacts of Japan's nuclear crisis on Kuwait, according to Abdelatif Al-Houti, Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) managing director for world marketing.
Saying 2010 was an "indifferent year" for US LNG imports, FACTS Global Energy, Singapore, also said in a review of the US market that rising unconventional gas output has helped contain US LNG demand while higher natural gas production has helped depress US gas prices.
Amerisur Resources PLC said Platanillo field in Colombia's Putumayo basin averaged 452 b/d of oil in the last 9 months of 2010 compared with 180 b/d or less in 2009 even though limited zones are in production.
Dubbed "girlie gas" by skeptics in the early 1990s, Australia's coal seam gas (CSG) sector has risen in the space of 2 decades to be one of the country's major energy resources, particularly in the eastern states.
In its recent analysis of floating production systems, International Maritime Associates, Washington, forecast the petroleum industry will add 120-175 new units during the next 5 years.
Inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) vessels have provided operational support off West Africa for such work as installation of jumpers and the maintenance and installation of subsea trees.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (FPCC) reduced the mass flow rate to regeneration and increased the absorption and regeneration capacity at its amine treating regeneration system after replacing diethanolamine (DEA) with methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)/DEA blends on line.
Advanced pipeline-pressure isolation technology allowed Shell Philippines Exploration & Production to replace an export riser shutdown valve at an offshore natural gas production platform without the time and expense of depressurizing and purging the entire export pipeline.
A new methodology assesses the risk of upheaval buckling and determines the required profile of the trench bottom as a bed for both subsea and onshore pipelines.
A new method to determine yield strength based on hardness could be used in storage facility pipes with results more conservative than outlined in CFR Title 49 Part 195.106.
