During the Q&A session that followed Royal Dutch/Shell's announcement recently in London of record half-yearly results, Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman of the Anglo-Dutch group's Committee of Managing Directors (CMD), was asked to comment on the risks inherent in recasting a corporate brand.
The Mafia Deep Offshore basin (MDOB) of southern Tanzania is one of several East African basins that resulted from the break-up of the Gondwana continent from the Middle Jurassic onwards (Figs. 1, 2).
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled a remotely piloted airship at Chandler downtown airport in Bakersfield, Calif., that will be used this winter to gather data on San Joaquin Valley oil and gas field air emissions.
At the end of the first quarter this year, Big E Drilling Co., Bellaire, Tex., completed construction of its Rig No. 5, bringing to five the number of rigs the company has working.
During 2000-10, supermajor ExxonMobil Corp. will surface as the most prolific upstream gas producer in Australia, according to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., Edinburgh (see chart).
Air emissions have delayed commissioning the 4,500-b/d first stage of the Stuart oil-shale pilot facility in Queens- land, Australia. Start up is now expected at yearend 2000 instead of the initial yearend 1999 target, according to James D. McFarland, managing director of Southern Pacific Petroleum NL and Central Pacific Minerals NL (SPP/CPM).
A 0.2-b/d fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) using a downer reactor has demonstrated the ability of its high-severity process to enhance gasoline and light olefins production.
The state of New York is studying the feasibility of using LNG as a back-up fuel to help ease disruptions in New York's rapidly growing natural gas market.
Three of the world's largest petroleum and chemical storage and terminal lessors and service providers-Oiltanking, Vopak, and GATX-have expanded their Singapore operations this year.
One of the world's largest bottom-pull installations, a 4.5-km pipeline bundle for Shell Eastern Petroleum, was completed in May in the busy Singapore harbor.
Offshore Europe has seen over 30 years of continuous exploration and development activity, culminating in these record numbers: 438 fields in operation, producing about 6.5 million b/d of oil and condensate-about one quarter of the world's offshore oil output-and 20 bcfd of natural gas.
TotalFinaElf SA unit Total Oil Marine PLC was recently supplied with two variable-speed drive packages to control multiphase pumps on its Dunbar platform in the UK North Sea; the pumps started up in late 1999 (OGJ, Nov. 15, 1999, p. 34).
The UK upstream sector is in transition from a focus on asset divestment to an emphasis on traditional exploration and production and high-grading portfolios.
Despite the maturation of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), there remain substantial reserve volumes yet to be developed, according to Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd., Edinburgh.
Oil companies in the North Sea have saved operating costs through use of innovative completion equipment such as full-bore isolation valves (FBIVs), placed in the tubing string and used to provide a downhole pressure barrier for suspending wells.
Development in Norwegian offshore areas is undergoing a shift from mature areas, which are becoming increasingly marginal, to the new "frontier" areas of Mid-Norway and the Barents Sea.
