Steven Poruban
Managing Editor-News
In what has become an annual tradition for this editor, this column will highlight the top 10 news stories, based on the number of impressions*, posted to Oil & Gas Journal's Twitter feed for calendar year 2015. The topics covered by the stories on this year's list, much like years past, spanned the breadth of OGJ's coverage of the oil and gas industry (OGJ, Feb. 9, 2014, p. 16).
During 2015, the 10 top-most tweeted stories covered topics including health, safety, and the environment; the US rig count; access to federal acreage for exploration and development; industry outlooks, specifically for US crude oil production; the UK offshore industry; and specific development projects offshore Australia, central Africa, and in the Caspian Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
One common thread running through all 10 stories could be surmised: searching for direction. This would make sense given that 2015 was not such a banner year for the oil patch, leading many to question: "Where from here?"
Considering certain oil prices alone, light, sweet crude for front-month delivery started last year at $52.69/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange. By yearend 2015, the price had fallen to $37.04/bbl. Similarly, the ICE contract for Brent crude at the start of 2015 was $56.42/bbl and ended the year at $37.28/bbl. And the average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of 12 benchmark crudes at the start of 2015 was $51.91/bbl, and the price finished the year at $31.26/bbl.
The US rig count, meanwhile, as reported weekly by Baker Hughes Inc., started 2015 at 1,811 and ended the year at 698.
The Timeline
The list
The top 10 news story tweets posted during the 2015 calendar year receiving the most impressions via Twitter, in reverse order, are as follows:
10. Jan. 16: EPA proposes amendments to oil-spill contingency requirements. (The US Environmental Protection Agency said dispersant manufacturers will be able to use a new, well-tested and peer-reviewed laboratory method for determining the effectiveness of their dispersant on two types of crude oils at two temperatures.)
9. Feb. 6: BHI: US rig count down 87 units in 10th straight week of losses.
8. Feb. 9: Association presidents want more access in next 5-year OCS plan. (The presidents of three major US oil and gas trade associations urged the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to keep more of the US Outer Continental Shelf available for oil and gas leasing.)
7. Feb. 17: BP Energy Outlook projects global energy demand to jump 37% by 2035. (Global demand for energy is expected to rise by 37% from 2013 to 2035, or by an average of 1.4%/year, due in large part to ongoing economic expansion in Asia, particularly in China and India.)
6. Feb. 2: Pessimism mounts over UK offshore industry. (A quarterly survey by Oil & Gas UK registered a sharp decline in assessed business confidence.)
5. Feb. 4: Inpex starts development drilling at Ichthys field. (The development campaign for the gas-condensate field in the Browse basin about 200 km offshore Western Australia will target the Brewster reservoir with 20 production wells more than 4,000 m beneath the seabed.)
4. Nov. 2: Lianzi oil, gas flow begins offshore central Africa. (Chevron Overseas (Congo) Ltd., started oil and gas production from Lianzi field in a unitized offshore zone between Congo (Brazzaville) and Angola.)
3. Jan. 20: Noble drills dry hole via gulf's Madison exploration well. (Noble Energy Inc. reached the targeted upper and middle Miocene objectives but did not encounter commercial hydrocarbons in the Madison exploration well in the Gulf of Mexico.)
2. Feb. 6: NCOC lets $1.8-billion pipeline contract for Kashagan field. (North Caspian Operating Co. let a $1.8-billion engineering and construction contract to Saipem SPA unit ERSAI Caspian Contractor LLC for two 95-km, 28-in. pipelines to serve the Kashagan field project in the Kazakh section of the Caspian Sea.)
1. Aug. 11: EIA: US crude output declines to continue through mid-2016. (Total US crude oil production declined in July compared with June, according to the US Energy Information Administration's Short-Term Energy Outlook. Global consumption of petroleum and other liquids will average 93.6 million b/d in 2015, EIA said.)
*Impression: The number of times a user is served a tweet in their timeline or through search results.