Covering oil and gas industry news is anything but dull. This year was no exception. In what has become akin to tradition for this editor, over the last 6 years this space (about this same time each year) has been used to highlight the top 10 OGJ news stories based on the number of impressions received from followers of OGJ’s Twitter feed.
The list, which follows, is quite interesting. One observance is the varying areas of news coverage; there appears to be equal balance of upstream, midstream, and downstream news stories. Also, if this year’s top-tweeted OGJ story is any indication, industry is still very much interested in upstream projects and their delivery times. Have a look.
The list
The top 10 news story tweets posted during the 2018 calendar year (thus far) receiving the most impressions, in reverse order, are as follows:
10. June 18: Libya’s NOC reports damage to oil storage. (Libya’s National Oil Corp. confirmed the loss of two storage tanks at Ras Lanuf port terminal on June 18. NOC declared force majeure on crude oil loadings from Ras Lanuf and Es Sider port terminals starting June 14.)
9. Oct. 25: BOEM approves Liberty project off Alaska. (Hilcorp Alaska LLC received conditional development and production approval from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the Liberty oil and natural gas project offshore Alaska. If the company proceeds, the production facility would be the first in federal water off Alaska.)
8. Sept. 14: IEA: Oil market tightens on falling Venezuelan, Iranian exports. (The price of Brent crude oil fell close to $70/bbl in early August and is now climbing back to $80/bbl. According to the International Energy Agency’s latest Oil Market Report, two reasons for the swing are that Venezuela’s production decline continues and the market is approaching Nov. 4 when US sanctions against Iran’s oil exports are implemented.)
7. Aug. 31: Total to shed Chinese polystyrene business. (Total SA has agreed to sell its polystyrene business in China to Ineos Styrosolution. The deal includes Total’s production plants in Ningbo and Foshan, each with a polystyrene production capacity of 200,000 tonnes/year.)
6. Aug. 23: LyondellBasell starts construction on $2.4-billion Gulf Coast PO-TBA plant. (LyondellBasell Industries NV officially has broken ground on what it is calling the world’s largest propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant at the company’s complex in Channelview, Tex. LyondellBasell said the $2.4-billion project is the single-largest capital investment in the company’s history.)
5. July 17: Marathon renews, expands hydrogen-supply contract for Galveston Bay refinery. (Marathon Petroleum Corp. has renewed and expanded a long-term contract with Praxair Inc. for supply of hydrogen to Marathon’s 571,000-b/d Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City, Tex. The newly renewed and expanded contract entails long-term delivery of hydrogen supplies to support production of clean fuels at the refinery.
4. Feb. 26: BP Energy Outlook: Crude products continue transportation-fuel dominance. (Crude oil products will continue to dominate global energy demand for transportation through 2040 despite surprisingly strong growth in electric vehicle sales, BP PLC said in its 2018 Energy Outlook.)
3. Nov. 6: Ethylene furnaces delivered for Zhejiang Petrochemical complex. (Wison Engineering Services Co. Ltd. completed delivery of all nine ethylene-cracking furnaces to be installed as part of the naphtha cracking unit at the first phase of Zhejiang Petrochemical Co. Ltd.’s 800,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex currently under construction in Zhoushan, China.)
2. June 13: Congo (Brazzaville) advances licensing. (Congo opened registration for the second phase of licensing of 18 open blocks, including five in shallow water, five in deep and ultradeep water, and eight onshore. The Ministry of Hydrocarbons is taking internet registrations and in September will open the call for tender, which will close next June.)
1. Aug. 14: Study: Upstream project delivery improving. (Execution of upstream oil and gas projects is improving, says a new study by Wood Mackenzie. Midsize-to-large projects in growing numbers have been delivered on target during the past 12 months. “This includes areas previously notorious for cost blowouts, such as the Arctic and Caspian,” WoodMac said. “Examples of improved execution include deep water [BP’s West Nile Delta and Atoll, Eni’s Zohr and Cape Three Points], LNG [Novatek’s Yamal], shallow-water gas [BP’s Shah Deniz Phase 2], and subsea tie-backs [Woodside’s Persephone and Wintershall’s Maria.”])
