Rig shortage hampers North Sea exploration

Oil and gas firms wanting to drill new wells in the North Sea are being told they will have to sit and wait indefinitely — because supply of exploration rigs has run completely dry. The last moveable oil rig on the market was snapped up, meaning companies desperate to start drilling are stranded on-shore. The […]

Runaway oil prices to slow global growth

Surging oil prices will shave between 0.25 and 0.5 percentage points off global economic growth this year, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund Rodrigo Rato said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday. “The economies of Asia, China and the United States are dynamic, while Europe and Japan are lagging behind.” So far, the […]

New Gas Discoveries Pathetic

HOUSTON, Apr. 5 — Estimates of US reserves of natural gas for yearend 2004 are expected to exceed 190 tcf for the first time since 1986, yet producers still are “running in place” keep up with demand, the American Gas Association (AGA) said. More than 23,000 gas wells were completed in the US last year, […]

Oil shalers should learn from the past

We are starting to see an apparent interest in oil shale development in our region. I attended a meeting in Salt Lake City on March 30, which in times past would have been one of those smoke-filled room meetings. But of course, now there is no smoking in conference rooms, and in Salt Lake you […]

U.S. oil giant acquiring Unocal to tap into Asia

ChevronTexaco on Monday agreed to buy Unocal, one of the largest independent U.S. oil companies, in a $16.4 billion cash and stock deal that will expand its global reach and could reignite a round of consolidation among midtier oil and gas producers. . The announcement, the largest for the industry in three years following a […]

Pakistan sees energy shortage by 2010

April 4: Pakistan will face a major shortage of oil and gas, source of 80 per cent of its energy needs, by 2010 unless it steps up exploration activity, a senior government official said on Monday. At a projected annual economic growth of seven per cent, Pakistan would face a shortage of about 20 million […]

Mexico, Indonesia Spurn Oil Companies as Global Oil Prices Soar

Mexico and Indonesia face declining oil production as government policies discourage investment by companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and ChevronTexaco Corp., limiting global supply and pushing prices to records. Output from Mexico’s Cantarell field, one of the world’s largest, may start to fall this year because of restrictions keeping out needed technology and funding, […]

Oil will hit $100 US a barrel by 2010, CIBC World Markets predicts

TORONTO (CP) – Growing demand from the developing world and the United States will cause crude oil prices to almost double to $100 US a barrel by 2010, economists at CIBC World Markets suggest. The report by Jeff Rubin and Peter Buchanan suggests that supply growth will lag consumption, pushing the price ever higher this […]

Lawmaker Wants List of Companies Exporting U.S. Oil

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon — often a critic of big oil firms — says information on the 268 […]

Oil Eases But Fall Seen as Temporary

Oil prices eased on Tuesday but few observers were willing to call a market top as investors continued to watch for signs that suppliers would struggle to keep pace with growing global demand. Analysts said the most likely reason behind the move was profit-taking after oil prices spiked to nominal all-time highs on Monday, shrugging […]

Saudi Arabia could add another 200 billion barrels to its huge oil reserves

RIYADH (AFP) – Oil giant Saudi Arabia might manage to add 200 billion barrels of crude reserves to its existing 261 billion barrels, which make up a quarter of the world’s total, Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said. “There is a possibility that the kingdom will increase its reserves by around 200 billion barrels, either through […]

N.J. is final state to suffer $2-a-gallon gas

Reuters via MSNBC NEW YORK – New Jersey on Tuesday became the last U.S. state to suffer an average retail price over $2 a gallon for gasoline, which keeps breaking nationwide records daily, the AAA motor club said. Pump prices in New Jersey hit an average $2.02 a gallon for regular, though gas stayed the […]

Greenspan: Energy Prices Should Stabilize

High oil and natural gas prices have put energy markets under a degree of strain that hasn’t been seen in a generation, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday, but he warned policy-makers against interfering with market forces he hoped would eventually stabilize prices. The Fed chief expressed hope that market forces would spur conservation […]

Not Just a Spike

Over the next five years, crude prices will almost double, averaging close to $77/bbl and reaching as much as $100/bbl by 2010. That’s over twice the previous 6-year high (1980-1985) following the second OPEC oil shock, when crude, in today’s dollars, averaged the equivalent of $65/bbl. Tomorrow’s price hikes won’t be triggered by sudden supply […]

Venezuela’s Oil Minister Says OPEC Running Out of Spare Production Capacity

Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is running out of spare production capacity, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Tuesday. “OPEC’s production capacity is reaching its limit,” Ramirez told reporters, adding that it is too early for OPEC to decide on a possible half-million barrel per day production increase. […]

Firms pocket millions for Shell work

Financial Director Kevin Reed, Accountancy Age 04 Apr 2005 Oil company Shell pays record-breaking amount for audit work during one of the most controversial periods in its history. KPMG and PwC pocketed $70m (£37m) for their work with Shell during its troubled last 12 months, according to the oil company’s latest filing with the SEC.The […]

Oilcast.com: Superspike report. Not so super?

Crude hits record highs, BP find oil in Angola, an announcement from OPEC, gas prices in the USA and Tony Soprano’s SUV.

Plus analysis on why Goldman Sachs’ `market moving` Superspike report may not be so super after all.

It’s all here with our oilcast nº 2. Oil audio on demand.
www.oilcast.com
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We’d welcome any suggestions/comments etc. We’re still in Beta testing mode.

You’ll need Windows Media player/Winamp/Real or even better subscribe to our RSS feed with iPodder (www.ipodder.org) or FeedDemon (www.feeddemon.com).

ChevronTexaco pays premium for Unocal

ChevronTexaco Pays More for Unocal Oil, Gas Reserves (Update1) Listen April 5 (Bloomberg) — ChevronTexaco Corp. is paying more in its acquisition of Unocal Corp. than it ever has before for new oil and gas reserves, after exploration failures cut output for three consecutive years. “This indicates they are having trouble replacing reserves at a […]

Big Oil’s Choice

Energy: Cynics will no doubt see something sinister in ChevronTexaco’s decision to buy Unocal for $18 billion. They should relax. The move is just a reflection of the cockeyed economics of today’s oil industry. With oil breaching the record $58-a-barrel level and seemingly headed higher, it’s not unreasonable to wonder when the market will work […]

How much crude oil is there to discover in the future? – The wolf is coming

Discoveries fluctuate from year to year obscuring the long term systematic trends. But a smoothed curve of discoveries over 10-year intervals gives a rather smooth curve. The following figure is smoothed such that the average discovery from 1956 to 1965 is attributed to 1960.

The peak around 1960 stands out clearly. The subsequent downward discovery slope is more logarithmic than linear, suggesting by extrapolation that about 134 billion barrels will be found over the next 30 years. That would not be a bad achievement, being more than double the North Sea, which is the largest new province found since the Second World War. But it comes far short of providing sufficient to meet the IEA scenario which visualizes the consumption of 1000 billion barrels over the next 25 years, even though some of it may be drawn from reserves left from past discovery. The growing gap between consumption and discovery looks like the jaws of a hungry wolf. We may conclude that, yes, “the wolf is coming”.

Peakoil.net

A Changing Landscape Is Driving Oil Mergers

“When those hit peak oil and production started to decline, [the companies] needed to find the next game to play,” Quoyeser said. The mergers that followed, he said, “were a recognition that the next wave of growth was going to come from different types of plays, like liquefied natural gas or tar sands, or in different places like Russia.”

LA Times

Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil

Eating Oil” was the title of a book which was published in 1978 following the first oil crisis in 19731. The aim of the book was to investigate the extent to which food supply in industrialised countries relied on fossil fuels. In the summer of 2000 the degree of dependence on oil in the UK […]

NSW govt to promote energy, water saving

The NSW government is to introduce new legislation encouraging water and energy conservation across the board. On Tuesday Energy and Utilities Minister Frank Sartor told Parliament an energy savings fund and water savings fund would be established under the legislation

Oil price may fall in second quarter

The average oil price in the three months ending June 30 may fall for the first time in eight quarters as United States inventories rise and China’s demand growth slows, a Bloomberg survey showed. Oil futures in New York may average US$49.50 a barrel in the second quarter, down from US$50.03 in the first, according […]

Yikes!

Russian Minister Says East Siberian Oil Fields Open to Foreign Investors

Russia has no plans to limit participation by foreign investors in projects to develop its oil and gas fields in East Siberia, Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said in an interview with the Vedomosti business daily published on Tuesday, April 5. Russia is gearing up to launch a series of tenders to sell off the […]

Lack of domestic refinery leading to higher oil prices (Vietnam)

In the wake of higher petrol prices, several authorities have urged the Government to speed up the construction of the country’s first oil refinery plant in the central province of Quang Ngai. “The oil refinery in Dung Quat District could process 6.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year. This is of great importance because […]

Crude oil prices surge past $58

The price of oil has moved more than $3 a barrel higher since last Thursday when investment bank Goldman Sachs released a report saying oil prices might have entered a “super-spike” period that could drive them towards $105 a barrel as demand outstrips capacity.

China, India oil demand frightening

Increased demand for oil in China and India is so large they have created a worrisome climate among the world’s energy producers, the chief of Saudi Arabia’s services company in the United States said on Monday. “This is the big gorilla. The demand by China and India together, if they continue to grow, it is […]

Western US States Plan Major Power System

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the governors of Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have agreed to build an estimated $20 billion electricity transmission system to meet rising demand for power, Wyoming’s governor said Monday. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said on a conference call the “Frontier Line” system would supply electricity-hungry California — where power demand is […]

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