Business and personal travel often take OGJ staff to Louisiana, and this column could become a travelogue except for explicit directions from the editor to the contrary.
The health of the US economy is "one of the biggest risks to the oil market," which is likely to remain "biased on the cautious side while awaiting clearer signs" of recovery, said James Zhang at Standard New York Securities Inc., the Standard Bank Group.
Canadian oil sands could play an even larger supply role for the US, but the North American pipeline system will have to adjust to accommodate the additional supplies, James Burkhard, managing director of IHS-CERA Inc.'s global oil and gas group, told a US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.
In a remarkable contrast to the usual congressional hearing that describes problems with a regulation's implementation or enforcement, a US Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee recently heard about one where the federal government apparently is getting things right.
The US Department of the Interior will consider using geographically based market prices in an effort to streamline regulations governing calculation of royalties from oil and gas produced from federal tracts both on and offshore, US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announced on May 24.
BP PLC agreed to settle all claims with MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC and its affiliates, Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. Ltd. and MOEX USA Corp., regarding the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible drilling rig accident and oil spill following the Macondo well blowout last year.
Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) gave Norske Shell AS until June 1 to outline plans to improve well intervention and well control procedures following an oil well maintenance error in Draugen field that risked an oil leak into the Norwegian North Sea last year.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is acting to balance the global market and will continue to do so, according to Iran's OPEC Gov. Mohammad Ali Khatibi.
It should come as no surprise to the oil and gas industry that Osama bin Laden, erstwhile head of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, believed in targeting oil tankers.
