In 1998, the rich, historic epic of the oil and gas industry entered a new era-one defined by mergers of breathtaking scope and scale and high-stakes positioning for the world-class projects of the future.
Computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM), aided by a versatile workforce, information technologies, and efficient queue management, has reduced polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bit production times by more than 50% over the last 5 years.
Energy Development Corp., a unit of Samedan Oil Co., has released details of its development plan for Amistad gas field in the Gulf of Guayaquil off Ecuador.
BG International Ltd. acquired a 50% interest in five exploration tracts in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel through a $10 million farmout deal with current operator Isramco Inc.
Owners of 40 leases off central California are being stymied yet again in their attempts to develop viable plans for tracts that the US Minerals Management Service estimates hold more than 1 billion bbl of oil and 500 bcf of gas.
US Vice-Pres. Al Gore has pledged that, if elected president, he will ban any new offshore drilling for oil and gas along the California and Florida coasts.
A simple, effective model is available for estimating filter cake lift-off pressure, an important factor affecting the productivity of horizontal wells.
Outer Continental Shelf hydrocarbon exploration of Lower Cretaceous carbonates began in 1968, with the James limestone and Andrew formation as targets.
Texaco Australia Pty. Ltd. and energy utility group CMS Energy Corp., Dearborn, Mich., have joined forces to study the commercial feasibility of a second gas pipeline along the coast of Western Australia, from Onslow to Geraldton.
In Al Gore's America, it's okay to drill for and produce hydrocarbons from marine locations off Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, but immoral to do so anywhere else. Al Gore's America is not one that Americans should relish.
Since BP Amoco PLC announced its planned takeover of ARCO in early April, the company has made few public pronouncements about the deal, which is pending approval by US, Alaskan, and European authorities.
On Oct. 21, environmental campaign group Greenpeace and a number of Inupiat activists from Alaska's North Slope area filed a lawsuit in the US in a bid to prevent BP Amoco PLC's planned Northstar field development.
In a move to strengthen its North American gas portfolio, the recently formed gas and power division of BP Amoco PLC bought for an undisclosed sum the shares in ProGas Ltd., Calgary, that it did not already own.
Collecting and recovering methane hydrates-the ice-like solids formed by the entrapment of natural gas molecules in ice at very low temperatures-and doing so economically has long been a major challenge for the oil and gas industry.
Petrochemicals -
Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co.,
a joint venture of Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and Mobil Corp., began start-up of a major expansion project at its complex in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.
A joint venture of Shell Nederland Chemie NV and BASF Nederland BV officially opened a new styrene monomer and propylene oxide (SM-PO) plant at Moerdijk, the Netherlands.
A second 2D seismic survey was starting in October on the 2.8 million acre Ras Tafelney reconnaissance permit in 100-2,000+ ft of water on the Tafelney Plateau (OGJ, Aug. 16, 1999, p. 90).
If the 1990s have been the "Decade of the Environment" as far as the petroleum industry is concerned, then the next decade is likely to be the "Decade of Human Rights."
