Table of ContentsRegular FeaturesOGJ NewsletterLettersAfter the chillThere is no doubt that while sea surface temperatures are rising and glaciers around the world are receding, as far as the global economy is concerned, we are in for a big chill.
Journally SpeakingWhat now for the oil price?Two questions loom heavily over the oil market: Where is the bottom of the price slide? And what level will prices seek once the bounce occurs?
Equip/Software/LitServices/SuppliersEditor's PerspectivePlunge refutes US view of what steers oil priceIf not for the political damage, uninformed bellyaching about oil prices would be amusing.
Market JournalOil, gas targeted for more taxesThere are “ample signs” that the US states and federal government will take a bigger tax bite from both upstream and downstream oil and gas operations to cover pending financial shortfalls in 2009, warned analysts at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co.
General InterestEditorial: The cost of energy anxietyThe US list of latter-day energy anxieties has a new item: labor. With Americans losing jobs faster than at any time in decades, the Obama administration proposes to make work by spending heavily on noncommercial energy.
Special Report: IOC challenge: providing value beyond productionIn their effort to access hydrocarbons, international oil companies (IOCs) face a major challenge: convincing national oil companies (NOCs) and host governments that they provide value beyond finding and producing oil and gas.
Clinton: Energy security a major US foreign policy elementEnergy security must be an important and integrated element of US foreign policy, US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton said as the Senate considered her nomination.
California, other states granted right to set their own air quality standardsUS President Barack H. Obama signed memorandums on Jan. 26 granting California and other states the right to raise air quality standards above the national level and ordering the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency requirements for automakers in the 2011 model year.
Watching Government: Blue jobs, green jobsSeveral congressional leaders are aggressively promoting “green jobs” as US President Barack H. Obama develops his New Energy for America plan.
Pemex reports 9.2% decline in oil production for 2008Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), eyeing continued depletion at its main oil field, said the country’s oil production declined by 9.2% in 2008 to just under 2.8 million b/d.
Newly formed NCOC takes over Kashagan field operatorshipThe newly formed North Caspian Operating Co. BV (NCOC), as part of earlier agreement, has replaced the Agip KCO consortium as operator of Kazakhstan’s Kashagan oil field development project, also known as the North Caspian Sea production-sharing agreement, or NCS PSA.
Watching The World: Contention in MadagascarMadagascar’s oil and gas industry received a blow last week when thousands of demonstrators, demanding a new government, hit the streets and set fire to an oil depot.
Libya threatens to nationalize its oil industryLibya may nationalize its oil industry to control production as oil prices have plummeted over 70% over the past year, said Muammar Qadhafi, the country’s leader.
Indonesia rejects ExxonMobil’s claim to Natuna D-AlphaIndonesia has rejected a plan of development for the Natuna D-Alpha block filed last week by ExxonMobil Corp., saying the firm’s contract expired in 2005.
Final EIA figures show US 2007 oil reserves grew 2%Proved US oil reserves rose by 345 million bbl, or 2%, during 2007 to 21.32 billion bbl from 20.97 billion bbl at the beginning of the year, reported the US Energy Information Administration on Jan. 28.
Semisubmersible Petrorig I on track for Gulf of MexicoPetrorig I—the first unit of a series of four Larsen Oil & Gas ultradeepwater semisubmersible drilling rigs on order with Sembcorp Marine Ltd.
IFP: Politics, money crisis to impact energy industryIn an unprecedented economic and financial crisis where “all reference marks have disappeared,” the president of the Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), Olivier Appert, ventured two “extreme” scenarios for the midterm oil scene.
Exploration & DevelopmentTamar wildcat finds subsalt gas off IsraelThe Tamar rank wildcat well in the eastern Mediterranean off northern Israel has discovered a resource at least equal to the predrill estimate of more than 3 tcf of gas, said operator Noble Energy Inc., Houston.
France awards permits in Mozambique ChannelThe French government awarded two 5-year exploration permits to midsized oil companies to explore offshore Juan de Nova, a tiny island possession in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and Mozambique.
Barrett starts Paradox Gothic shale gas flowBill Barrett Corp., Denver, started gas sales in December 2008 from Pennsylvanian Gothic shale in the Paradox basin, where the company plans to run one rig in 2009.
Seneca third largest Marcellus shale playerSeneca Resources Corp., third largest acreage holder in the Devonian Marcellus shale gas play, plans to emerge as an operator of record this year even as it continues a joint venture with EOG Resources Inc., Houston.
Drilling & ProductionBPZ Energy continues Corvina field drillingHouston-based BPZ Energy Inc. is testing the latest of six wells it has drilled in the 80 million bbl Corvina field off northwestern Peru.
OIL SHALE—3: Analytic approach estimates oil shale development economicsAn analytical approach estimates that the minimum economic price for developing the vast US oil shale resources to be $38-62/bbl of shale oil produced.
ProcessingUS OLEFINS—SECOND-HALF 2008: Hurricanes, economic turmoil push olefins production lowerThe combination of two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and a decline in global economic activity caused demand and production of olefins in the US to fall sharply in fourth-quarter 2008.
TransportationTesting eliminates crude line PPD useSolution gases and reservoir pressure can allow operation of offshore transmission pipelines carrying high pour point, paraffinic crude without pour point depressant (PPD), even during periods of prolonged shutdown.
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