Persian Gulf Producers Delay Oil Projects

Persian Gulf oil producers are delaying oil projects and squeezing contractors for hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, as the pain from low crude prices spreads to state-owned energy companies struggling to pump at full tilt. Saudi Arabian Oil Co.—known as Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest crude producer—has pushed back by a year the […]

Saudi carbon storage project may boost recovery rates

Saudi Arabia’s first carbon capture and storage pilot project, located at its Ghawar oilfield, may boost oil recovery rates by 20 percentage points, oil minister Ali al-Naimi said. Carbon storage schemes are being promoted around the world as a way to slow global warming by preventing the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But […]

Only 1 Percent Of Bakken Shale Is Profitable At These Prices

Only 1 percent of the Bakken Play area is commercial at current oil prices based on my analysis that follows. Only 4 percent of horizontal wells drilled since 2000 meet the EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) threshold needed to break even at current oil prices, drilling and completion, and operating costs. The leading producing companies evaluated […]

Oil Megaprojects Won’t Stay On The Shelf For Long

One casualty of the oil price downturn could be the megaproject.  For years, as conventional oil reserves depleted and became increasingly hard to find, oil companies ventured into far-flung locales to find new sources of production. Extracting oil from these frontier areas required more advanced technology and a lot more capital: Ultra deepwater, Arctic offshore, […]

OPEC’s big favor to the world of oil

OPEC’s spare production capacity is estimated by the US Energy Information Administration at 1.54 million b/d, a mere 180,000 b/d above the level reached in 2008 when oil prices hit their record high. But don’t panic! Oil inventories are at very high levels. The International Energy Agency puts global oil stocks at 147 million barrels, […]

Russian Oil Output Hits Post-Soviet High

Russian oil production, the world’s largest, hit a post-Soviet high in October, rising 0.4 percent month on month to 10.78 million barrels per day (bpd), Energy Ministry data showed on Monday. Russia has been raising output despite low oil prices as the weak rouble has helped to offset oil companies’ reduced profits. The country is also trying to […]

Current Technology Can Meet 2050’s 2.5 Trillion Barrel Demand

The oil and gas industry will be able to meet the world’s consumption demand of around 2.5 trillion barrels of oil and gas in 2050 using current upstream technology, according to BP’s Technology Outlook report, which was launched at the energy firm’s London office Monday. BP’s report shows that, by using the best available technologies […]

Harsh realities finally push US champions of shale oil into retreat

Prolific output from US shale formations in recent years have thrown the world oil market off balance. But a long market slump is now forcing shale producers to retreat. US crude oil output hit a 44-year peak of 9.6m barrels a day in April then began to decline. By summer next year it will have […]

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

In 1944, Saudi Arabia and four American oil producers jointly founded what they called Aramco, short for Arabian-American Oil Co. Earlier, the business had been called California-Arabian Standard Oil Co. In 1980, the Saudi government nationalized it and changed its name first to Aramco and eight years later to Saudi Aramco. Today, the company is […]

If the global energy industry innovates, the oil age may not have to end

Societal demand to move beyond fossil fuels has become mainstream almost overnight. This leads us to the question: What comes after oil? As someone who hunts for novel energy technologies for a living, I have been in search of the answer. To mark Earth Day in April, the Earth League, a network of institutions working […]

Oil Companies Have Cut Back Everything Except Crude Production

A year after the bear market in crude began, oil companies have cut workers, are using fewer rigs and have less money to spend. But they’re still pumping more oil. BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Corp. and Hess Corp. are among the companies producing more crude than a year ago. In the U.S., shale explorers […]

Shell Halts Construction On Alberta Oil Sands Project

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will not continue construction of its 80,000 barrel per day Carmon Creek thermal oil sands project in northern Alberta because of the lack of infrastructure to move Canadian crude to market, the company said on Tuesday. Shell said the decision to halt the project was also the result of “current uncertainties” […]

Is it the Beginning of the End for the Alberta Oilsands?

A new report from Oil Change International challenges industry’s common assumption that the continued production of oilsands crude is inevitable. The report, Lockdown: The End of Growth in the Tar Sands, argues industry projections — to expand oilsands production from a current 2.1 million barrels per day to as much as 5.8 million barrels per […]

The North Slope puzzle: more gas means less oil

During this week’s special session in Juneau, most lawmakers have been focused on whether the state should take a larger stake  in the Alaska LNG project, which would build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope. But on Monday afternoon (Oct. 26), the Senate Resources Committee met to hear about another crucial, if little-discussed […]

Feds approve drilling permit in Arctic reserve

The Bureau of Land Management announced on Thursday it has approved a drilling permit that could set the stage for the first oil production on federal land in the nation’s largest reserve. The federal agency also said it has granted right-of-way access for the ConocoPhillips’ Greater Moose’s Tooth 1 project in the Indiana-sized National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.   “It’s […]

Why the Bakken Boomed

A Williston Basin Primer In my previous article Addressing the World’s Flare Gas Problem, I discussed my current project, which recently took me to the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana. Today, I will discuss the region’s shale oil boom in greater detail. In Part 3 of this series, I will conclude by delving into […]

Security in Oil, Gas: The Threat from Within

Since the Second World War, one of the realities of the upstream oil and gas industry is that it often has to operate in dangerous parts of the world. Being a precious commodity that much of the modern world relies upon in order to function, access to oil itself is a driver of political turmoil, […]

OPEC Has Stalled The Shale Revolution

The resilience of U.S. shale producers has surpassed all expectations as they have wrung extra efficiencies out of their operations and pulled rigs back to the most prolific sections of existing plays. The shale sector’s ability to cut costs and sustain their output in the face of plunging prices has been extraordinary and testament to […]

A Pessimistic View On Big Oil

Summary A macroeconomic view on the future of Big Oil in my lifetime. Declining reserves of economically viable oil create a pessimistic view for Big Oil companies. Political initiatives to cut reliance on oil for energy security. ‘Big Oil’ is described as the Supermajors of the oil companies that operate around the world. This list […]

Saudi Arabia’s fiscal break-even oil price to be around $US 100

The latest IMF Article IV consultation report on Saudi Arabia was published on 9 September 2015. http://www.imf.org/external/country/sau/ Extract: Government spending has increased substantially in recent years. Consequently, the breakeven oil price rose to $106 a barrel in 2014 from $69 a barrel in 2010. As a result, with the large decline in oil prices, the […]

Hauling crude oil may be causing train tracks to fail

The only sign of trouble aboard a Norfolk Southern train, hauling roughly 9,000 tons of Canadian crude in western Pennsylvania last year, was a moderate sway in the locomotive as it entered a bend on the Kiskiminetas River. The first 66 cars had passed safely around the curve when the emergency brakes suddenly engaged, slamming […]

Kenya has a billion barrels of oil that might not be going anywhere

Fidgety oil companies and investors heaved a sigh of relief in August when Kenya and Uganda announced they had picked a route for the world’s longest heated pipeline. Finally, there was a plan for getting the estimated 1 billion barrels in Kenya’s remote northwest out of the country. The proposed route cut from northern Uganda’s […]

US Cancels Sale of Two Arctic Oil and Gas Leases

Citing low oil prices and lack of company interest, the Obama administration moved Friday to prevent oil and natural-gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean. The Interior Department announced Friday it was canceling a pair of offshore oil and natural-gas lease sales it had scheduled to hold next year and in 2017, and said it was […]

Research Shows Promise for Economical Deepwater Production

When it comes to offshore advancements, Australia is on the cutting edge of developing technology aimed at lowering the costs of deepwater production. One of those advancements is mobile mudmats, or offshore foundations that gently slide along the seabed rather than remaining in place – much like a skyscraper slightly bends with the wind. During […]

Mexico And Brazil Oil Auction Failures Are Further Proof Of Peak Oil At Current Prices

Summary Mexico’s first attempt to open up its oil industry to foreign companies was a failure. Its auction only attracted $2.6 billion in potential investments, compared to $17 billion maximum potential. Brazil had a similar failure more recently, with only 10% of its blocks being auctioned receiving viable bids. These latest failed auctions, coupled with […]

Oil glut up by half a billion barrels in 2015

The world’s big oil exporters pumped more than half a billion barrels more crude than needed in the first nine months of this year, industry data gathered by Reuters and major energy market forecasters show. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped an average of 31.20 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) between […]

Bakken Production Down plus IEA Predictions

The Bakken and North Dakota production data is in. Bakken production was down 19,502 bpd in August while all North Dakota was down 20,552 bpd. Here is an amplified chart of Bakken and all North Dakota production. Bakken barrels per well per day is now 112 while all North Dakota gets 94 barrels per well […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: When?

For those following the world oil production situation, it has been clear for some time that the only factor keeping global crude output from moving lower is the continuing increase in U.S. shale oil production mostly from Texas and North Dakota. Needless to say once the fabled “peak” comes, oil and gasoline prices are certain […]

Saudi Arabia oil output up by 7%

Global oil prices were marginally improved in September but the combination of oversupply and sluggish demand continued to bear on WTI and Brent prices, Jadwa Investment said in its latest edition of the monthly Chartbook. However, from a regional perspective, Saudi crude oil production increased by 7% on comparable 2014 levels. It is envisaged that […]

Historic Failure For Brazilian Oil Auction

Brazil just held an oil and gas auction, and judging by the results, few companies are interested in developing the country’s oil and gas reserves right now. The state-owned oil company Petrobras, which is still reeling from the corruption scandal, did not participate in the auction. The unusual absence was due to the company’s massive […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy