Oil and gas companies have let a declining number of contracts in the downstream sector to engineering and construction companies during the past 4 years.
Mexico's state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos plans to drill five deepwater exploratory wells in the Gulf of Mexico during the next 7-10 years, a company official indicated at a deepwater technology conference in Houston in mid-September.
The availability of 0-100% water-cut measurement devices and accurate flow measurement meters has improved the results of portable well testing units in the Kern River field in California.
The good news is that US drilling activity is up a record 41% from year-ago levels, but the best news is that day rates are up, too, and likely to continue rising with the available rig fleet at an all time low, reported officials of Reed-Hycalog, a unit of Schlumberger Ltd., in its annual rig census.
The formation of an industry group can help develop standards for the processing industry better to manage the reclamation of precious metals from catalysts.
New permitting requirements, primarily under US federal operating permits program of Title V of the 1990 Clean Air Act, and the changing scope and extent of air policy and rulemaking have affected US oil terminal operations and challenge today's terminal operator.
As the country debates President Clinton's decision to release 30 million bbl of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and we wait to see what effect, if any, it will have on heating oil prices, it might be worthwhile to take a look at what may happen a year from now.
At an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries summit meeting outside Algiers in March 1975, the conference host, Algerian Pres. Houari Boumedienne, proclaimed that oil was "not merely a fuel, but the source of life itself."1 That rhetoric, while grandiose, contains more than a grain of truth.
The US presidential election draws near, with candidates of both major political parties noticeably quiet on what should be a defining issue. Their positions are clear enough.
Houston, announced it has created a new company, eProduction Solutions Inc., which will provide turnkey solutions for production management, automation, and optimization.
Unocal Corp.'s Spirit Energy 76 unit started production from its Muni gas find on Ship Shoal Block 295 under budget and in less than 10 months after discovery.
Instead of the oft-predicted global surplus in supply of methanol and resulting soft prices, the market has seen a tightening supply-demand balance that occasionally yielded spot prices higher than the prices for volumes under contract-a good indicator of a robust market.
In a world that should see continued robust growth in oil and gas demand for the next 20 years, Latin America offers some of the most appealing prospects for petroleum company investment, according to Jon L. Thompson, president of Exxon- Mobil Exploration Co., the chief upstream unit of supermajor ExxonMobil Corp.
State-owned oil and gas firms that face deregulation, privatization, and other changes at home continue to diversify their asset portfolios internationally.
So fundamental has the North Sea industry's contribution been to Europe's oil and gas supply-and economies-over the last 30 years, that one can become blinkered to the broader significance of hydrocarbons being produced in the waters off more than 130 countries worldwide.
The US Senate has finally passed a bill reauthorizing the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the law under which the 571 million bbl US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is operated.
