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More Oil & Gas Drilling and Production News

BLM releases draft plan to clean up NPR-A legacy wells

May 10, 2013

The US Bureau of Land Management’s Anchorage, Alas., office released a draft plan listing near-term priorities and actions to plug and clean up legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, but the draft quickly drew fire from the state’s senior US senator.

US drilling rig count up 5 units to 1,769

May 10, 2013

The US drilling rig count gained 5 units during the week ended May 10 to a total of 1,769 rotary rigs working, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That compared with 1,974 rigs working in the comparable week last year.

NEB sees 'holding pattern' in Canadian gas deliverability

May 10, 2013

Deliverability of natural gas in Canada is in what the National Energy Board calls a “holding pattern” because low prices have suppressed gas drilling.

House Republicans form group to examine Endangered Species Act

May 10, 2013

Thirteen US House Republicans formed a working group to consider ways the federal Endangered Species Act is working, how it could be updated, and how to make it more effective. ESA matters to oil and gas producers as petitions to list species as endangered are filed with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, sometimes with the potential to severely restrict or outright prohibit exploration, production, and development.

Mississippi cuts horizontal severance, EOR taxes

May 10, 2013

Mississippi has reduced the severance tax on hydrocarbons produced from horizontal wells and the sales tax paid on electricity for oil and gas produced via carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery.

Canada to EU: Don't penalize oil sands

May 9, 2013

Canada’s minister of natural resources has warned officials of the European Union against “discriminatory treatment” of fuels made from products of Canadian oil sands.

Deepwater well containment exercise completed

May 8, 2013

A test deployment of well control equipment was completed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Noble Energy Inc., and the Helix Well Containment Group (HWCG) to assess Noble’s ability to respond to a potential subsea blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

OTC: Petrobras emphasizes safety in FPSO design, operation in gulf

May 8, 2013

Safety was a priority for engineers planning the first floating production, storage, and offloading vessel installed in the Gulf of Mexico, Petrobras America Inc. executives told a May 6 technical session of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

ExxonMobil starts Julia ultradeepwater gulf oil project

May 8, 2013

ExxonMobil Corp. will develop a field with nearly 6 billion bbl of resource in place more than 30,000 ft below the sea floor in more than 7,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

OTC: Petrobras presalt output to reach 2 million bo/d by 2020

May 7, 2013

Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) plans to increase net production from its offshore presalt formation in the Campos and Santos basins to more than 2 million bo/d by 2020, from 311,000 b/d of oil as of Apr. 17, according to Carlos Tadeu de Costa Fraga, the company’s presalt executive manager. Fraga spoke May 7 to attendees of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Shale gas find declared in NWT Pointed Mountain area

May 7, 2013

Canada’s National Energy Board granted a commercial discovery declaration to Lone Pine Resources Inc., Calgary, with respect to the Upper and Lower Besa River shale intervals in the Pointed Mountain field area of the Liard basin in western Northwest Territories.

OTC: Deepstar focuses on subsea equipment

May 6, 2013

Advances in deepwater technology require financial commitment by oil companies and a willingness to form partnerships with vendors and regulators, panelists discussing the DeepStar research and development collaboration told an opening session of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Flow starts from Gulf of Mexico discovery

May 6, 2013

Energy Resource Technology GOM LLC (ERT) has started production from its Green Canyon 237 No. 5 discovery in 2,200 ft of water in Phoenix oil field in the Gulf of Mexico.

A new family member

May 6, 2013

A new member of the PennWell Petroleum Group family will come to you soon.

North American Resource Value — 2: North American tight oil play economics compared

May 6, 2013

This report is the second of two parts on the economics and fiscal competitiveness of North American tight oil resources.

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