August 2009 Archives

The bi-annual North American Prospect Expo may not be as well-known as some other energy gatherings, but it has been well-attended since starting up in 1993 and has served as a pretty reliable gauge of industry's health.

The most recent NAPE last week showed, perhaps not unexpectedly, that the industry's pulse is a little weak and its temperature a bit short of the normal 98.6 degrees, but its overall vital signs still appear robust.

A month before the US bombing of Libya in April 1986, the world's media descended on Libya in anticipation of a military strike after then US president Ronald Reagan accused Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi of backing terrorist attacks and ordered his navy to sail for Libya.

As the weeks dragged on with no military action, visas expired and most of the assembled hacks left the country, leaving behind a small group of diehard news agency reporters.

Pipeline safety managers who want to gauge the dollar costs of hypothetical hazardous liquid pipeline accidents may now be able to do so in a relatively straightforward way.

The US Chamber of Commerce says it wants to put the science of climate change on trial. It has petitioned the US Environmental Protection Agency to hold a public hearing to weigh the evidence about the claimed impacts of climate change on human mortality, health and the environment, and on extreme weather events.

It would be the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century, reported the LA Times, quoting Chamber officials. ""It would be evolution versus creationism," said William Kovacs, the chamber's senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs.

August 27 marks 150 years since the first commercially-successful oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania. With that well, the state racked up production in 1859 of a whopping.... 2,000 barrels. 

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma is facing his first scandal as he attempts to respond to the findings of the Donen commission into the role of several South African companies in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal.

The recession has taught downstream market watchers to be skeptical of any new refinery ventures and one of the latest rumors appears to be especially unlikely.

Several media outlets recently picked up a story from a Middle East news site that said Kuwait and Louisiana were taking another look at a joint venture refinery in the US Gulf Coast state, citing unidentified sources. The report said Kuwait was mulling the plan as compensation for dropping out of a more than $17 billion petrochemical deal with Dow Chemical late last year.

Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 210 was a record of sorts for several reasons. Not only did it rake in the lowest dollar-total of apparent high bids ($115.5 million) on the fewest blocks (162) in a decade, but it was the first sale in at least 13 years where not a single bid was received for tracts in the 200 to 400 meter water depth range.

That water depth, which has no formal name but may be characterized as deep shallow waters, has not been heavily bid in recent years. But it has yielded some notable finds. Shell's Bullwinkle platform, which started up in 1989 at a cost of half a billion dollars, was just over 400 meters deep. 

Global independent oil trader Vitol announced August 19 that it signed an agreement with Malaysian shipping group MISC Berhad to set up a new joint venture to own a planned oil storage terminal at Tanjung Bin in southern Malaysia.

Just another oil terminal project in Asia, some would say. Or is it? Start tracing back the headlines and you begin to see a trend -- Malaysia is pouring billions of dollars to grow its oil industry. 

Imports of gasoline into the US from Europe, notably to the US East Coast, are probably only going to recover only if the continent's economies visibly claw their way out of the ongoing global recession.

It may seem counter-intuitive that exports of an economically-sensitive product like gasoline would rise as a region recovers. Conventional wisdom is that exports of such a product would increase only in reaction to slumping domestic demand.

Hey -- who says you can't go home?

Bon Jovi had a hit song contradicting Thomas Wolfe's iconic warning by screaming that question. Now, it seems, Occidental Petroleum's Ray Irani would join Bon Jovi's chorus after announcing yet another impressive discovery right there in his own backyard.

Despite the upturn in global equity markets and oil prices in recent months, oil market fundamentals remain in a pretty bleak state, according to the latest estimates and forecasts from the International Energy Agency.

The IEA's latest report released Wednesday contained only minor revisions to its key demand and supply data. It raised its estimate of oil demand in 2009 by a bit, and the corresponding number for 2010 by a little bit less.

With earnings season past, oil markets have become more reliant upon macroeconomic and oil data for direction.

Oil futures on NYMEX and ICE went into a lull following the release of the Energy Information Administration's weekly petroleum data August 5 and the monthly US employment situation report August 7 despite a string of more positive economic releases in America and China.

Projections for a pick-up in the global economy in the second half 2009 were becoming a reality, but oil markets appeared to have prematurely priced-in the return to positive growth rates.

One of the most promising natural gas shale plays in the US has high well rates, lots of potential and some of industry's biggest players digging into it. And yet few in the energy patch outside of Wall Street write about it.   

Ever since shale bull Petrohawk Energy announced its success in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas last year, operators have quietly amassed acreage there and turned up early drilling successes. But some of that lustre has paled among the bigger news of slashed E&P budgets and lower quarterly earnings.

It's that time of the month again. Some estimates of OPEC production have already appeared and the next few days will see those of the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration.

The latest Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts shows that OPEC volumes have risen for the fourth consecutive month. Total output, including that of Iraq, is estimated to have risen by 100,000 b/d to 28.57 million b/d in July from 28.47 million b/d in June.

It might be ok for the Indian government to bail out loss-ridden national carrier Air India, but it is preposterous that private airlines in which the government has no stake should scream "me too."

India's airline industry has totted up losses of about $2 billion in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2009 of which Air India accounts for more than half. Of course, private airlines account for the rest of the losses.

LUST may be the sexiest name ever given to a government program. And under the federal stimulus package approved this year, the initiative is set to receive a $200 million boost.

But in what could be taken as a sign that bureaucrats indeed have a sense of humor, LUST is actually a clean enterprise devoted to fighting a dirty problem.