Coal competing with oil and gas for space on rail

In 2010, Chuck West, manager of coal procurement for one of the country’s largest power generators, American Electric Power, rode a train down from the coal fields of Wyoming to Denver. Out the window, he took note of the many empty coal cars parked along the tracks. Coal shipments have been on the decline since […]

Sustaining oil boom a logical step

One of the economy’s good-news stories is the oil boom, a derivative of the natural gas boom. When the drilling techniques used to tap vast new reservoirs of natural gas were applied to oil, they yielded similarly astounding results. Since 2008, U.S. oil production has increased from 5 million barrels a day (mbd) to 8.3 […]

Searching for the Good Life in the Bakken Oil Fields

I rode into the Bakken in a dusty car with Minnesota plates and “Highway to Hell” blasting on the radio, looking for a job where they wouldn’t ask too many questions. The oil boom had drawn thousands of capitalists, laborers, and fortune-seekers—more than a few outlaws, too—who had arrived with much the same purpose over […]

Israel’s natural gas bonanza is an illusion

The national consensus holds that the discoveries of huge offshore natural gas fields in recent years amount to an economic revolution, one that will put the economy on easy street for generations to come. A leading British energy expert, however, says it’s an illusion. “Exporting gas as LNG [liquefied natural gas] is very expensive. Israeli […]

Kenya: The Next Big Oil Exporter

Not even the specter of a spillover of Islamic extremism from Somalia can dampen the atmosphere in Kenya, where commercial oil production is expected to begin in 2016 and discovery after discovery has made this the hottest and fastest-paced hydrocarbon scene on the continent. When it comes to new oil and gas frontiers, today it’s […]

Saudis Said to Maintain Oil Output After Biggest Cut Since ’12

Saudi Arabia, the largest crude producer in OPEC, plans to keep output steady until the end of the year, a person with knowledge of the country’s oil policy said. It made the biggest cut in 20 months in August. Output through the end of the year won’t differ much from August, when the country pumped […]

New shale methods could yield huge results

A Wednesday report for energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie finds emerging shale technology could add at least 1 million barrels per day to U.S. output. Primary recovery from oil deposits in the United States relates to natural pressure in the reservoir. Secondary recovery involves water or gas injection into the well to increase production. Enhanced […]

Shale Revolution Deniers Face An Inconvenient Truth

  Despite turning the U.S. into the world’s largest producer of natural gas and driving a 3 million barrel per day surge in U.S. oil production in just the last three years, the shale revolution still has its doubters. They couldn’t be more wrong. The Montreal-based Centre for Research on Globalization recently dismissed shale fracking […]

US Tight Oil Technology Could Boost Output by 25%

There continues to be great potential for surprises to the upside in production of U.S. tight oil according to Wood Mackenzie’s latest integrated analysis. “Growth in U.S. tight oil continues to impress as development technology and techniques have yet to mature beyond adolescence,” said Phani Gadde, Senior North America Upstream Analyst for Wood Mackenzie. To […]

The great new oil and gas frontier of Myanmar, warts and all

Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country still called Burma by many people, is rapidly emerging from almost 50 years of military rule and related economic isolation. The country, which is slightly smaller than Texas and home to more than 50 million people of many ethnicities, religions and language groups, has great potential. Apart from known and […]

Iran plans to increase natural gas exports

Iran plans to increase its natural gas exports to 10 billion cubic meters per year, says an Iranian official. Hassan Montazer Torbati, the planning director of the National Iranian Gas Company, said Saturday that Iran’s annual gas output will increase by up to 100 million cubic meters by March 2015, Shana news agency reported. The […]

Exxon grabs more Permian shale

Exxon Mobil said it added to its portfolio in the Permian shale basin in Texas in exchange for a portion of its field operations in California. Exxon under the terms of a non-monetary exchange with LINN Energy gets 17,000 net acres in the Permian basin in exchange for 500 acres at its Belridge field in […]

Is the Shale Revolution a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ or the End of Peak Oil?

A lot of folks are fervently forecasting that shale gas and oil production is a bubble about to pop, possibly producing an economic collapse similar to the one in 2008. Earlier this week, the left-leaning Center for Research on Globalization in Montreal dismissed the shale revolution as a “Ponzi scheme” and “this decade’s version of […]

Up or down in OPEC, its oil supply all comes back to the Saudis

Oil prices have found some support from the potential for lower production from OPEC next year, as suggested by the group’s secretary general, Abdalla el-Badri. Speaking to Platts by telephone from Vienna earlier this week, Badri was at pains to stress that he was not predicting the outcome of OPEC’s next scheduled meeting on November […]

Exxon halts Arctic oil well drilling on sanctions

Exxon Mobil Corp has halted drilling an offshore oil well in Russia’s remote Arctic just a few days after the United States and European Union barred companies from helping Russia exploit Arctic, deep-water or shale-oil fields, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The United States and European Union were planning to stop billions of dollars in oil […]

Libyan Oil Sector Suffers Output Setback

Output Falls Below 700,000 Barrels a Day After Insecurity Forced Largest Oil Field to Shut Down Libya’s energy recovery has suffered its first major setback, with output falling below 700,000 barrels a day after insecurity forced the country’s largest oil field to shut down, oil officials said Wednesday. The North African nation’s oil production had […]

World Oil Production According to the EIA

A few days ago the EIA published the latest update to its International Energy Statistics. The data is updated through May 2014. The data on all charts below is through May unless otherwise stated and is in thousand barrels per day. Also, all data is Crude + Condensate. World C+C production was down 72,000 barrels […]

New Standard Aims to Certify “Responsible” Oil Sites

A wellhead at the Colombia drilling site recently certified as responsible by Equitable Origin. (Photograph courtesy David Poritz) In the Orinoquia region of Colombia, two oil fields run by Toronto-based Pacific Rubiales Energy last week became the first to be certified as “socially and environmentally responsible,” according to a new standard. The two sites produce […]

Denmark – the last of a dying breed

Denmark is the European Union’s (EU) only net exporter of oil. The Nordic state’s oil exports totalled approximately 13.7 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2013. This is in stark contrast to the EU’s only other significant oil producer, the UK, which became a net importer in 2004 and has experienced a steep decline in […]

One Millionth Barrel Delivered from Arctic Field Offshore Russia

Almost a year on from an environmental protest on its Prirazlomnoye platform in the Russian Arctic, Gazprom Neft reported Monday that the Prirazlomnoye field has produced its one millionth’s barrel of oil. Located some 40 miles offshore northern Russia in water depths of up to 65 feet, the Prirazlomnoye oilfield is estimated to contain some […]

Oil and Gas Production – Has oil reached its peak?

To make petroleum takes millions of years and a lot of dead compressed animal and plant matter. Now unless there is a mass extinction on the horizon, then petroleum is clearly a non-renewable product. Knowing how much oil we have left has caused a fierce debate amongst many scientists. The oil companies say there is […]

How Technology is Revolutionising the Oil and Gas Industry

When a compressor at Chevron’s massive Sanha gas field off the coast of Southern Africa showed subtle signs of overloading, the first person to notice was not one of the crew on site but rather a drilling expert sitting in front of an array of screens and monitors high up in a Houston office tower […]

Saudi Reports Oil Cutback As OPEC Again Cuts Demand View

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia told OPEC it reduced its oil output in August by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), a cutback coinciding with a drop in oil prices towards the kingdom’s preferred level of $100 a barrel. In a monthly report issued on Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries also cut its […]

US Boosts 2015 Oil Forecast As Shale Powers Push To 10 MMbpd

The U.S. government on Tuesday jacked up its forecast for oil production next year by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) as the boom in shale oil drilling continues to confound expectations of slower growth. The U.S. Energy Information Administration now expects domestic output to rise to 9.53 million bpd, growing by around 1 million bpd […]

Russia Sees Oil Output Edging Down In 2015

Russian oil production, a major source of government revenue, may decline slightly next year, having risen steadily since 2009, the Energy Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said oil production in 2015 was seen at 525 million tonnes (10.54 million barrels per day) compared to an expected 525.3 million tonnes this year. Last year’s oil […]

Iran launches Mideast’s largest LNG storage facility

Iran announced the launch of the Middle East’s “largest” liquefied natural gas storage facility in country’s northeast bordering Turkmenistan at an inauguration ceremony Sunday. The  liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility named “Shourijeh” can supply 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas and aims to reduce gas imports from Turkmenistan. Iran plans to boost its natural gas production […]

Iran-Iraq Gas Pipeline Complete

“Iran’s gas will be fed into Al-Mansoureh power plant once the pre-startup tests on the pipeline (built to transport natural gas to Iraq) are complete,” an informed Iraqi source, who asked to remain unnamed, told FNA on Saturday. He said the supply of Iranian gas supplies should have already started, and explained that the Islamic […]

Ghana to Double Oil Production by 2017

Ghana will double crude production by 2017 as offshore deposits being developed by Tullow Oil Plc and Eni SpA start producing oil, Minister of Energy Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said. Tullow’s TEN development will produce about 80,000 barrels a day by then, the minister said by phone today. Eni’s Sankofa Gye-Nyame deposit will pump 50,000 barrels, […]

North Sea Oil and Scottish Independence: where does the truth lie?

How much oil and gas is left in the North Sea? 16 billion barrels oil equivalent (boe) according to Sir Ian Wood or 24 billion boe according to Oil and Gas UK? The correct answer for official proved+probable reserves is between 8 and 9 billion boe, a figure that both DECC and Oil and Gas UK agree […]

Saudi Arabia Oil Sales to U.S. Imperiled by Shale Boom

After years of keeping the price of crude sold to the U.S. low enough to maintain market share, Saudi Arabia is losing ground as the shale boom leaves U.S. refiners with ample supplies of inexpensive domestic oil. Arab Light crude for sale in the U.S. averaged 48 cents a barrel less than Light Louisiana Sweet, […]

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