Oil & Gas Journal's annual report on the performance of the top 200 publicly owned oil and gas firms in the U.S. has become something of an institution in the industry.
When business conditions sour, there can never be enough relief for companies and individuals devastated by the downturn. Yet economics, as it does with everything else, sets limits on relief. It is within this framework that U.S. oil and gas producers should assess government relief implemented in response to an 18-month price slump.
Objective commentary about Iran's oil and gas industry is difficult. One could get too enthusiastic about the achievements of the Islamic revolution since 1979 or be influenced by national pride.
Petroleos Mexicanos's long-term project to increase crude production at its huge offshore Cantarell complex, via a massive nitrogen injection enhanced recovery project, has come under unusual public scrutiny in recent weeks, following newspaper stories alleging work delays and corruption in the awarding of contracts.
The oil market is likely to experience a price crisis this winter; stock cover is still high, but it will take a big tumble in the second half of 1999.
A recent federal study in the U.S. may hint a shift in the Clinton administration's attitude toward Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) development-or it may be only posturing.
Canadian oil and gas merger and acquisition (M&A) activity showed a dramatic decline during the first half of 1999, compared with the first halves of the last 3 years.
Independent exploration and production companies have made some key gains during the first half of 1999, mostly due to rising crude oil and natural gas prices.
Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte. Ltd. and Germany's BASF AG formed a joint venture to build a $500 million petrochemical plant in Singapore. The JV, called Basell Eastern (Pte.) Ltd., will construct the plant on Singapore's Jurong Island. The plant will produce 550,000 metric tons/year of styrene monomer and 250,000 tons/year of propylene oxide. Start-up is slated for second half 2002.
French major Elf Aquitaine is bidding for several development contracts on Iran's giant South Pars gas field, according to a report in the French press.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in unusual cooperation with industry work groups, has chosen a streamlined approach to resolve synthetic-based mud (SBM) discharge regulations for offshore operations.
A U.K. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) task force aims to enable the development of 5.6 billion bbl of additional oil during the next 5 years from U.K. North Sea marginal discoveries.
A group led by BOC Group, Murray Hill, N.J., has completed financing of $623 million for building the world's largest nitrogen plant, part of an enhanced recovery project in Mexico's most important producing area, Cantarell.
A timer or pump-off controller (POC) can improve overall beam-pump efficiency for a well with a pump capacity greater than its production capacity. More than 400,000 wells in the U.S. operate with beam-pump artificial lift. Most of these wells pump 24 hr/day and have a pump capacity that exceeds the well's production capacity.
China has closed down 59 "teakettle" refineries as of the end of July, representing a combined capacity of about 10 million metric tons/year (200,000 b/d).
Subsea sound generated by seismic airgun arrays and other man-made sound sources in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico may be coming to the fore as an environmental issue during the next several years.
After an incident in 1998 during which a tank collapsed in its petrochemical manufacturing plant in Port Neches, Tex., Huntsman Corp. used a systematic way to investigate the incident and keep it from happening again.
The depth of the decline that hit the oil and gas industry in 1998 is reflected in the financial and operating results posted by the companies on the OGJ200 list of publicly traded oil and gas producing companies in the U.S.
The latest compilation of the top 100 oil and gas companies outside the U.S. reflects the continuing dominance of state-owned companies in terms of reserves and production.
