As OPEC oil ministers prepare to meet in Vienna this week, all signs are indicating that the group will stick to its plan to curb oil production through March 2000.
Winston Churchill called it "the best kept secret of the war." In 1943, 42 American roughnecks departed the U.S. for an unlikely destination, the Eakring oil field in Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England (OGJ, June 24, 1991, p. 30). What came of this mission showed how oil men from opposite sides of the Atlantic can work together, even under the worst of conditions.
Accolades to Chief Technology Editor Warren True for his column about his Capitol stroll to the Washington monuments and for reminding us of the words of wisdom that inspire us engraved there (OGJ, Aug. 23, 1999, p. 23).
I can state my contention with Craig Marxsen's comments about dealing with leaking underground fuel tanks with a simple analogy (OGJ, Aug. 9, 1999, p. 21).
ENI units and Enterprise Oil plc look toward eventual gross production of more than 100,000 b/d of oil from the Val d'Agri development in the southern Appenines.
This article is adapted from the author's comments during a joint conference of CGES and Oil & Gas Journal on the oil price challenges of the next century, held Sept. 9-10, 1999, in Houston.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' successful efforts to rein in production are keeping oil prices at 2-year highs-and poised to go higher-but are also setting the stage for a recovery in non-OPEC oil supplies next year.
The much-discussed U.S. federal budget surplus could be endangered by an economic slowdown stemming from efforts to comply with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Elf Exploration Angola and partners made another oil discovery on Block 17 off Angola (see map, OGJ, June 7, 1999, p. 33). Orquidea 1, drilled to 2,500 m TD in 1,200 m of water about 200 km northwest of Luanda, cut 157 ft of oil-bearing sands.
The world's largest semisubmersible drilling-production platform has been handed over to Petroleo Brasileiro SA, after 2 years of modifications in a shipyard at Davie, Que.
The high pressure and temperature nature of the Shearwater field, offshore U.K. North Sea, presented significant engineering challenges as well as those inherent in producing a sales-quality gas offshore.
The area west of the Shetland Islands was the U.K.'s hottest play for some years, but a paper presented at the recent Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen confirmed that things have cooled.
Petronet India Ltd., a nongovernment holding company set up to implement pipeline projects, is planning to lay four multiple-product pipelines in India in the next 3 years, through joint ventures and subsidiaries. The pipe- lines will transport gasoline, kerosine, high-speed diesel, aviation turbine fuel, and naphtha from refineries and import terminals to demand centers.
After decades of selling and transporting natural gas as a single, bundled service, Mexico's state-run petroleum company Petroleos Mexicanos has begun to separate out transportation as a distinct service with its own price, thus opening the country's gas market a step further.
Award of a $4 million, 2-year line pipe coating contract has prompted British Steel Ramco Pipeline Services Ltd. (BSR), Hartlepool, U.K., to undertake a major upgrade at its coating plant.
A subdued suggestion that global oil production be managed on the basis of reported inventory levels deserves more attention than it probably will receive. It came from an unidentified official of Saudi Arabia speaking in the press run-up to this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The source-someone representing the world's premier oil producer and therefore OPEC's most important member-makes the idea especially intriguing.
Several dozen operators are forging ahead in the burgeoning Powder River basin coalbed methane play, one of the largest U.S. drilling programs in terms of number of wells.
At the beginning of 2001, BASF Corp., Mount Olive, N.J., and Fina Inc., Dallas, will own the largest single train olefins capacity in operation in the world.
To ensure that exploration wells deliver maximum value, Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, Okla., has developed MaxWell ("Maximize Well Value"), a set of well-management processes and tools designed to guide well planning, drilling, evaluation, and completion.
As oil and gas prices rebound and deep offshore reservoirs beckon operators, timing could not be better for new additions to the deepwater rig fleet. Several successful- and some not so successful-stories played themselves out over the past year, including the implementation of next-generation technologies, disrupted long-term contracts, and on-time building schedules:
