Conventional Oil Production

The United States is awash in shale oil. Iran, once OPEC’s second-largest producer, is slowly ramping up production. Oil consumption in the Western world has been flat since the 2008 financial crisis. The “peak oil” theory has pretty much vanished, along with The Oil Drum, the bible of peak oil believers. Rest in peace. Or […]

Looking past the death of Peak Oil

Production has not peaked, but prices could be volatile Peak Oil is dead. The news that US output of liquid petroleum has regained its previous peak, reached in 1970, is enough to read the last rites over the idea that a region’s oil production will follow a shape like a bell curve, rising to a […]

OPEC Update and news from Iraq

The new OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report just came out with their Crude Only production numbers for May. All data in the OPEC charts are in thousands barrels per day. There was very little in production changes and no surprises in the May data. Total OPEC production was up 142,000 barrels per day and that was […]

Canada lowers oil expectations

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said 2014 estimates for oil production to 2030 are down more than 7 percent from the previous year. CAPP said oil sands are the primary source of production growth from Canadian reserves. Production from those deposits is expected to increase to 4.8 million barrels per day by 2030, down […]

OPEC Keeps Output Level Below Second-Half Demand Forecast

“We don’t need to worry about anything, this is the best time for the market,” Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, told journalists in a briefing before the meeting began. “Everything is good, stable and everyone is happy.” OPEC, which supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude, kept its production target unchanged in a […]

IEA Investment Report – Stumbling on the Real Story

Recently, the IEA published  a “Special Report” called World Energy Investment Outlook. Lets’s start with things I agree with: 1. World needs $48 trillion in investment to meet its energy needs to 2035. This is certainly true, if we assume, as the IEA assumes, that world economic growth will actually improve a bit, from 3.3% per year in the 1990 […]

Tech Talk – Optimism is becoming harder to sustain

For some time the nations of OPEC have been suggesting that demand for their oil will remain relatively stable in the near future, as increased production from the non-OPEC nations is expected to more than meet demand increases. Thus, for example, in the May Monthly Oil Market Report OPEC anticipates that global oil demand will […]

Canadian Oil Producers’ Group Cuts Oil-Sands Production Forecast

A lobby group that represents Canada’s oil industry is still expecting the output from Canada’s oil patch to almost double over the next two decades, but the growth is a little lower than previously forecast. The Calgary-based Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said in its annual forecast Monday it expects Canada to produce 6.4 million […]

Shell: Only a fraction of Big Gas Export Projects Will Be Built

Only a fraction of the natural gas export projects being developed around the globe will become reality as high costs and weakening gas prices torpedo those that until recently promised huge returns on investment. Large natural gas field discoveries on and offshore have prompted several countries to plan liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, including […]

OPEC Struggles to Cope With Libyan Oil Shortfall

Six months ago, one of OPEC’s concerns was whether a U.S. shale boom might upend crude markets by providing too much oil. Today, the group of some of the world’s largest producers has a more short-term worry: How to compensate for lost Libyan crude at a time of rising demand and tensions between Russia and […]

The World’s Five Most Important Oil Fields

Much has been made about the role that hydraulic fracturing – or fracking — has played in revolutionizing the energy landscape, unlocking vast new reserves of oil trapped in shale rock. This “tight oil” is pouring into the global pool of oil supplies at a crucial time, preventing oil prices from spiking in an age […]

US shale boom is over, energy revolution needed to avert blackouts

I hate to say I told you so, but… In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that the US would outpace Saudi Arabia in oil production thanks to the shale boom by 2020, becoming a net exporter by 2030. The forecast was seen by many as decisive evidence of the renewal of the oil […]

US gas production setting records

U.S. natural gas production from the Lower 48 states in May beat a monthly high set in April by 0.6 percent, analysis shows. Bentek Energy, the forecasting division of energy website Platts, said May production reached 67.7 billion cubic feet per day on average. That beat the previous monthly record set in April. Production peaked […]

Oil could be $15 more per barrel without more Middle East investment

Global oil prices could go up by $15 per barrel in about 10 years, if the Middle East doesn’t invest more in its oil fields, the International Energy Agency says. The IEA also reports the world may find itself more reliant on Middle East investment for shale oil production. If the Middle East fails to […]

Iranian oil exports on course to blow past limits

Iranian oil exports are on course to run well above the levels the Obama administration said they would when the U.S. agreed to allow some crude shipments in exchange for limits on Iran’s domestic nuclear program. Iran’s exports are running at an average of 1.3 million barrels per day since December, about the time sanctions […]

In North Dakota it is Mostly Just One County

North Dakota publishes crude oil production numbers for each county. The problem is these numbers do not include confidential wells. Their totals for all North Dakota do include these wells however. I have figured out a way to estimate, pretty closely I believe, each county’s share of those unreported wells. That is take each county’s percentage […]

Oil, gas wells often keep operating despite violations

Ohio has more than tripled its number of inspectors of oil and gas wells in the past five years. But even with the extra eyes, wells cited for violating state law often stay active for years without fixing problems that could be harmful to the environment. A Dispatch analysis of more than four years of […]

We will see if Opec will ‘move over’

Demand for Opec oil is expected to be 29.76 mbd in 2014 as compared to 30.21 mbd in 2013 For almost two years now, the oil market has witnessed a relative stability rarely seen before. The price of the Opec reference basket of 12 crude oils moved in a narrow range of between $104 (Dh381.68) […]

Libya hopeful about its oil sector

The chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corp. said the government aims to hold an auction for new oil licenses once political hurdles are cleared. Companies interested in investing in Libya, once a premier North African oil producer, have said the nation’s troubled security sector and tough contractual terms are keeping them at bay. NOC […]

Alberta Bitumen, crude oil production up in 2013

Alberta’s bitumen production increased 8% in 2013 while crude oil production increased 5%, according to an annual report from Alberta Energy Regulator. The province’s total oil production in 2013 was 974 million bbl. Raw crude bitumen from oil sands accounted for 761 million bbl and crude oil, 213 million bbl. Alberta’s remaining established crude bitumen […]

Big Oil keen to go big in Alaska again

A Big Oil spending spree in Alaska could reverse a half- decade of declining oil production as companies plan the largest energy project in the state’s history and a series of other investments to rejuvenate its biggest oil fields. Unless, oil companies say, state voters in August dismantle a new oil tax regime that Houston-based […]

Has Technological Progress Made Peak Oil Theory Irrelevant?

In 1956, Marion King Hubbert, a prominent geologist for what is now Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A  ) , made a bold prediction. Based on an extensive analysis of reserves and production data, he concluded that U.S. crude oil production would peak at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s, after which it would […]

Peak Coal: Will the US Run Out of Coal in 20 Years or 200 Years?

“Most U.S. coal is buried too deeply to be mined at a profit.” U.S. coal production has peaked, and the miscalculations that have led to estimates of a 200-year supply could create a serious electricity deficit for the nation, according to a new report from advocacy group Clean Energy Action. “The belief that the U.S. […]

“Will continue exporting oil, not yielding to Baghdad”, Kurdish spokesman

Kurdish spokesman Sifin Muhsen Di’za’i announced today that the Kurdish region will continue exporting oil and will benefit from the revenues to provide the salaries of the Kurdish officials. He confirmed in a statement today, copy received by Aswat al-Iraq, that the Kurdish region will not yield to Baghdad. Di’za’i re-iterated that the Kurdish region […]

US Individual States Production, Bakken Area and GOM

The EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly has been published with production data for all individual states and offshore areas.  All data is Crude + Condensate and in thousand barrels per day with the last data point March 2014.   Since the Bakken occupies part of two states, North Dakota and Montana, I have combined their production in […]

Shale EROEI Failing

Rigzone, which reports new finds and plays in the fossil fuel industry, complains that, US Shale Debt Increases as Drillers Push to Maintain Gains: Shale debt has reportedly doubled over the past four years, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of 61 shale drillers, while revenue has increased just 5.6 percent. Many are spending at least […]

Map and Report on Oil-By-Rail, “Booming Bomb Train Industry”

A new report and website released today by Oil Change International provides a comprehensive overview of the current oil-by-rail industry in North America and it isn’t a pretty picture. The report and interactive map of the “booming bomb train industry” capture the alarming scope of this very recent development.  As the report points out, 70 times as much […]

China’s Massive Disputed Oil Rig Near Vietnam Is Now Drilling

A giant Chinese oil rig has finished its first round of drilling in South China Sea waters also claimed by Vietnam and moved to another site in the area, the rig’s operator, China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL), said on Tuesday. In a statement, COSL said exploration would still take place off the Xisha islands, China’s name for the disputed Paracel chain, suggesting […]

Iraq Oil Revival Stalls Again as Violence Pinches Growth

The revival in Iraqi oil output has stalled. Again. Production forecasts for 2014 are getting less optimistic. The Oil Ministry’s official target is 4 million barrels a day by the end of the year. More likely it will be 3.75 million, Thamir Ghadhban, an adviser to the prime minister, said in an interview May 14. […]

A Closer Look at Saudi Arabia

A press release from The Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program at MIT,  December 6, 2013, Bold mine. Uthmaniyah Fact Sheet: Commercial EOR using Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Company/Alliance: Saudi Aramco Location: Saudi Arabia Start Date: 2013/2014 Size: 0.8 Mt/yr CO2 Source: Hawiyah gas plant Transportation: 70 Km onshore pipeline Oil Field EOR Storage Site: Ghawar field Reservoir Type: Jurassic Carbonate limestones Comments: The objectives […]

« 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