International News for oil and gas professionals
For many years, until the internet came along, Oil & Gas Journal's pipeline editor traveled to Washington, DC, annually to gather data for OGJ's Pipeline Economics Report.
For a government $15 trillion in debt running an annual budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, a government now with a select committee of legislators meeting in secret to find $1.2 trillion in savings, $16 billion doesn't sound like much.
Oil and gas industry association officials blasted a proposal sent by several congressional Democrats to the deficit reduction super committee on Nov. 2 to raise revenue by eliminating key provisions benefiting the industry.
US Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a proposed US Outer Continental Shelf program for 2012-17 with 15 potential oil and gas lease sales, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico and 3 off Alaska's coast.
The US Chemical Safety Board renewed its call for stronger security at rural oil and gas wellsites as it released a study identifying 26 explosions in the US that have killed 44 members of the public and injured 25 others under the age of 25 since 1983.
Can we learn from history? Hindsight gives us an advantage over those who were involved in important policy decisions back then.
The US is working with adjacent countries to develop effective responses to offshore crude oil spills that could threaten US coasts, a US Department of the Interior official told a US House subcommittee.
Syria's Oil Minister Sufian Allaw acknowledged that sanctions recently imposed by the US and the European Union have reduced his country's production of oil to 270,000 b/d or less from its normal rate of 380,000 b/d.
Oil prices could spike by as much as $175/bbl according to a new analysis of the impact on oil markets of an Israeli attack on Iran and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Atlantic Council this week convenes its 3rd annual Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum, where business and policy leaders will discuss Eurasia's leading economic and energy challenges.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said the group's varying spare capacity is set to double in 4 years when it will reach 8 million b/d.
Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel inaugurated the 1,200-km Nord Stream natural gas pipeline that will initially supply the European Union with 27.5 billion cu m/year of Siberian gas, and will later provide 10% of the bloc's annual gas needs.
European Union officials, eyeing the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico last year, have proposed new rules aimed at bringing offshore oil and gas drilling under a common policy.
In its monthly Oil Market Report, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries made no changes to its 2011 and 2012 oil demand forecasts.
As the US switches off Daylight Saving Time, Americans should wonder why Congress in 2005 didn't just fiddle with clocks and call it a day.
