A Pink Slip for the Progress Fairy

If you’ve ever wondered just how powerfully collective thinking grips most members of our species—including, by and large, those who most forcefully insist on the originality of their thinking—I have an experiment to recommend: go out in public and advocate an idea about the future that isn’t part of the conventional wisdom, and see what […]

Leave it to $80 crude to shake up US petrochemicals

There’s something about $80/barrel crude that gets petrochemical markets in the US all riled up. As the energy complex slowly emerges from its latest dip, let’s take a look at how some of these key markets fared over the past two weeks. We’ll start with the usual suspects — aromatics — and move our way down […]

One Third of North Dakota’s Natural Gas is Flared

According to the Energy Information Administration “about one-third of the natural gas North Dakota has produced in recent years has been flared rather than sold to customers or consumed on-site.” Meaning, that 33% of all of the natural gas in North Dakota is being burnt rather than collected. I’m guessing that 33% is not being […]

Increasing Oil Reserves and Peak Oil

In public lectures that I give about global energy, I often note that since the writing of A Cubic Mile of Oil the global reserves of oil have increased, not decreased, despite the fact that in the intervening time (i.e., between 2007 and 2013) the world has consumed about 7.5 cmo. In this post I […]

Combat robots to protect Russian oil and gas infrastructure in Arctic

 Undersea combat robots will be protecting Russian oilrigs and transportation networks in the Arctic region at some point, Deputy General Director of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, Chairman of the Foundation’s Scientific and Technological Board Vitaly Davydov told Interfax-AVN. “The Foundation is not designing robotic sharks but it is working on undersea robots […]

Oil makes the world go ’round

It’s just funny how everything has its time and place. What is right now is not comprehensible at a time in the past. We are expecting the Fed to put an end to quantitative easing next week, but many think that it deserves at least another few months. The oddest thing is that a few […]

Turkey: Ukraine crisis to affect natural gas supply

During a televised interview on NTV, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız answered questions regarding the possible troubles of Turkey’s natural gas supply, the effect of falling oil prices and the impact of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) on Turkey’s energy projects. Touching on the possibility that Turkey might encounter dilemmas […]

Swatshbuckling Total ‘peak oiler’ CEO Christophe de Margerie was like no other Big Oil executive

Total SA CEO Christophe de Margerie was like no other Big Oil executive, a fat cat swashbuckler who cut a striking figure in the industry stuffed with rather bland technocrats. He was plump and sported a walrus mustache, hence his nickname – Big Mustache – in France. He loved a good drink and made no […]

Saudi’s Policy Of Downplaying Oil Prices Will Backfire On Them

Saudi Arabia wants to use lower oil prices to pressure Russia to change its stance on Syria, to antagonize Iran, and to force US shale gas out of the market, Pepe Escobar explains the possible blowback… Via RT, RT: Russia’s economy is surely being hit by the falling oil prices. But what about other oil […]

How will Saudi Arabia respond to lower oil prices?

Oil prices (along with prices of many other commodities) have fallen dramatically since last summer. Some observers are waiting to see if Saudi Arabia responds with significant cutbacks in production. I say, don’t hold your breath. Source: FRED. When oil demand fell in the 1981-82 recession, the Saudis cut production by 6 million barrels a […]

“Anti-Petrodollar” CEO Of French Energy Giant Total Dies In Freak Plane Crash In Moscow

Three months ago, the CEO of Total, Christophe de Margerie, dared utter the phrase heard around the petrodollar world, “There is no reason to pay for oil in dollars,”  as we noted here. Today, RT reports the dreadful news that he was killed in a business jet crash at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow after the […]

Why Harold Hamm Isn’t Worried About Plunging Oil Prices

Count Harold Hamm, the billionaire CEO of Continental Resources CLR +1.34%, as one oil man not worried about the plunge in crude prices to $82 a barrel. “Notice how it happened all at once,” he says, starting off our phone call. The suddenness of oil’s plunge followed the Saudi assertion a week ago that oil […]

Who’s Afraid of a Russian Gas Cut?

How scared should Europe be of a stoppage in Russian natural gas supplies this winter? That depends on whether countries are willing to sacrifice for one another and unify in their response. As Russian President Vladimir Putin basked in applause at a Serbian military parade last week, he sent out a clear warning to the […]

Oil prices keep going down, but this is not good news

There is plenty of movement in the oil world: after five years of relatively stable prices, the legendary “barrel” is coming down from over $ 100 to under 90, and it looks like it will keep falling. What’s happening? Has anyone found new resources? Or is it Saudi Arabia using the “oil weapon” to bring […]

Innovation Needed for Gas to Bridge to Somewhere

A new research letter in Nature (McJeon et al 2014) concludes that globally abundant natural gas will not “discernibly reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions.” The paper models a scenario in which the US shale gas revolution is scaled globally. While natural gas displaces higher-carbon coal-fired power, zero-carbon power like nuclear and solar are also displaced, […]

Cutting back natural gas flaring in North Dakota hits a bump

North Dakota oil drillers appear to be losing ground in the effort to meet state-mandated requirements to reduce flaring of associated natural gas at crude oil wells due largely to persistently high flaring rates on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. While operators overall appeared to be close to meeting flaring reduction goals, the issue has […]

Why USA Will Remain World’s Dominant Economic Power

While the vast majority of pundits are looking at a future time clock marking the historical moment at which China will surpass America’s leadership in gross domestic product of goods and services, this inevitability will not be a true measurement of overwhelming global economic superiority. While the intrepid and justifiably successful Chinese growth, utilizing its […]

Lower Oil Prices Are Unambiguously Good

Steep stock market corrections often create shrouds of pessimism that do bad things to people’s brainpower. And one of the absolutely stupidest things I have heard in recent weeks is that the recent drop in oil prices is bad. You heard me right. Serious people on financial television are saying lower oil prices are a […]

fundaments of oil and gas accounting

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Is the oil price fall more than just a coincidence?

The recent drop in oil prices could be due to more than just lower demand, according to some analysts, who have suggested that the U.S. could be deliberately manipulating the market to hurt Russia at a time of geopolitical stress. Patrick Legland, the global head of research at Societe Generale, conceded that he had no […]

Bakken Oil Production by County

North Dakota production by county is posted here: ND Historical Barrels of Oil Produced by County Confidential wells are not included in that data however but that estimated data can be found here:Monthly Production Report Index Click on the latest month. This is a zero based chart and gives a better overall picture of production from each […]

We Need Ebola To Kill Off 90% Of World Population

  Is all of this just a coincidence? Back in 2006, award winning Univ. of Texas evolutionary ecologist, Dr Eric R. Pianka, publicly stated that the use of an airborne Ebola was necessary to kill off 90 percent of the world’s population, that war and famine wasn’t sufficient to get the job done. Pianka is […]

LEDs are a Bright Idea Whose Time Has Come

The day the Nobel committee began announcing its 2014 winners earlier this week, National Geographic published a list of Nobel should-have-beens. Dan Vergano’s contribution—Thomas Edison for the lightbulb—proved prescient. One day later, a Nobel for physics was finally awarded for the lightbulb. Unfortunately for the Wizard of Menlo Park, it didn’t go to Edison. The winners were […]

World Crude Oil Production and the Oil Price

In April 2012 I published this post about World Crude Oil Production and the Oil Price (in Norwegian) which was an attempt to describe the developments in the sources of crude oils (including condensates), tranches of total life cycle costs (that is [CAPEX {inclusive returns} + OPEX] per barrel  of oil) and something about the […]

Oil decline: Price makes the story

So oft in theologic wars, The disputants, I ween, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other mean, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen! —The Blind Men and The Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe When the world’s business editors sent their reporters canvassing to find out what is behind […]

Oil’s crash threatens to derail booming Alberta

“The biggest negative impact is the cutback in production in the three oil rich provinces, Alberta, Newfoundland and Saskatchewan,” Guatieri said. “Which means their economies will take a bigger hit than the national economy.” Those economies have been economic leaders over last couple of years, said Guatieri, with Alberta and Saskatchewan pumping out jobs and […]

No End in Sight for US Oil Production Boom

Falling oil and gasoline prices have sent oil company stocks tumbling, but oil experts say the boom in American energy production shows no signs of slowing down, keeping the market flush with crude and gasoline prices low. Even after a drop of as much as 25 percent in oil prices since early summer, several government […]

Airstrikes target Islamic State oil facilities in Syria

Airstrikes in Syria shifted from the besieged city of Kobani toward the oil facilities that fund Islamic State fighters who have seized portions of Syria and neighboring Iraq, the military announced Saturday. Two airstrikes were conducted near Kobani compared with six announced Friday and 14 in and around the city Thursday, according to U.S. Central […]

Peak Oil: The Ultimate Challenge for Transition

very interesting lecture from susan krumdieck Professor Krumdieck was asked – “what is the ultimate challenge?”. This presentation was given to the 2014 Leadership NZ workshop in Christchurch (Leadership New Zealand Trust).

Saudi oil pipeline briefly set alight after shots fired at patrol

A “limited fire” broke out on a subsidiary oil pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia on Saturday after assailants fired shots at a security patrol, the state news agency SPA said. SPA, citing the spokesman for police in Eastern Province, said authorities were at the scene quickly and had put out the fire. It said the […]

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