Libya Oil Disruption Worsens Amid Anti-Government Protest

The disruption of Libyan crude exports worsened as rebels shut down a recently re-opened oil port after protesting over the appointment of the country’s new prime minister. Petroleum Facilities Guards members aligned with federalist rebels stopped loadings at the Hariga oil port in eastern Libya, Oil Ministry Director of Measurement Ibrahim Al Awami said by […]

Sky Could Fall On North Dakota’s Oil If We’re Not Careful, Shale Boss Says

All parties with a collective interest in seeing the North Dakota oil experiment succeed need to work together because, right now, the boss at the largest stakeholder in the Bakken shale says opponents are drawing a bead on the region. And it’s not just exploration and production that’s a concern. Oil production from the Bakken […]

Canada oil will flow any way it can to U.S.

If Canadian crude cannot be transported to the United States because of delays in building pipelines, it will go by rail, Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said on Monday. Last week TransCanada Corp said it was in talks with customers about shipping Canadian crude to the United States by rail as an alternative to the […]

Oil and gas well costs surge

As ExxonMobil and partners Santos and Oil Search yesterday celebrated the sailing of a maiden cargo from their $US19 billion ($20.6 billion) PNG LNG plant in the Pacific, Australia’s peak oil and gas lobby has revealed a five-fold increase in the cost of locally drilled offshore wells. Based on industry data, the average cost of […]

Are Shales a Bubble?

Hype works. Particularly when monetary and economic benefits are promised. Hype has been the primary tool used by the oil and gas industry with regard to shales and it has worked brilliantly. There is just one problem. When considering shale economic viability, hype was the only aspect that actually existed. Interestingly, the past year has […]

Saudi Press: Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom

On a local economic affair, Al-Yaum quoted under the title ” Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom as saying that a report issued by Saudi Aramco recently indicated that the Kingdom’s reserves of natural gas rose to 288.4 trillion cubic feet in 2013, an increase from the rates which […]

Increased U.S. oil production has yielded transportation bottleneck

The increase in crude oil production in Texas and other spots in the U.S. has created issues in the transportation and refining sectors of the oil industry. Crude oil traditionally has been transported by truck and a network of sophisticated pipelines in Texas.  However, many crude oil acquisition companies are exploring rail to get large […]

Secrecy of Oil-by-Train Shipments Causes Concern Across the US

Emergency responders in Cincinnati know that trains full of crude oil have been rumbling through their city; they can see mile-long chains of black tank cars clacking across bridges over the Ohio River. But they don’t know enough to feel prepared for the kinds of fiery accidents that have occurred over the last 10 months […]

EIA Seriously Exaggerates Shale Gas Production in Drilling Productivity Report

“Natural gas output from US’ Marcellus edges closer to 15 Bcf/d: EIA” declared the headline in Platts that attracted my attention, since the latest data on the Marcellus shale gas play of PA and WV indicated production was less than 12 bcf/d. This headline was based on the latest issue of the EIA’s new monthly Drilling Productivity […]

How to Set Fire to Frozen Oil

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Fire in the hole. Crude oil ignites inside a block of solid ice in a laboratory test.   In the Arctic, climate change means melting ice—and unprecedented access to the oil once hidden beneath it. But with increased drilling comes a greater chance for oil spills in frigid places where the sun […]

JODI, the EIA and Their Data

There has been very little new data to report lately. The JODI, Joint Organizations Data Initiative, data for March came out a few days ago. JODI is very good as far as the data it reports goes. The problem is there is a lot of data they just don’t report. If a country does not […]

Russia Targets Shale Oil Boom By Next Decade

Russia wants a boom in unconventional oil output by the start of the next decade, and is prepared to look east for technology if its ambitions are hindered by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, Russian oil executives said. Russia is now pumping near its capacity of around 10.5 million barrels of oil per day […]

Iraqi Kurdistan defies Baghdad to load first pipeline oil sale

* Move likely to infuriate Iraqi government in Baghdad * First 1 million barrel cargo being loaded at Ceyhan, Turkey * Tanker scheduled to sail later on Thursday, buyer not identified (Adds SOMO reaction, background) Iraqi Kurdistan started loading oil from its new pipeline for shipment from a Turkish port on Thursday, defying the Baghdad […]

Oil Giants Set Their Sights on Arctic Waters

Big oil is eager for another crack at drilling in the oil- and gas-rich Arctic offshore. But that renewed interest comes amid intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Encouraged by higher crude prices, better technology and steep costs that pose barriers to entry for […]

Jean Laherrere’s Take, Plus Other News

Jean Laherrere sent me the below post and asked me to post it in reply to comments posted by Dennis Coyne and Political Economist on my post Bakken Update, March Production Data. But that was several days ago, the comments are stale. Also it was too large for a comment. So since we are a […]

Eagle Ford Update, Texas Condensate and Natural Gas

This is a brief update on Eagle Ford Crude plus Condensate (C+C) output through February 2014.  It can also be found at Peak Oil Climate and Sustainability.  Figure 1- RRC Data provided by Kevin Carter  I have used my usual method of estimation where I find the percentage of total Texas(TX) C+C output that is from […]

UK’s oil, coal and gas ‘gone in five years’

In just over five years Britain will have run out of oil, coal and gas, researchers have warned. A report by the Global Sustainability Institute said shortages would increase dependency on Norway, Qatar and Russia. There should be a “Europe-wide drive” towards wind, tidal, solar and other sources of renewable power, the institute’s Prof Victor […]

Iranian oil exports decline

Iranian oil exports for April were down by about 180,000 barrels per day and consistent with a gradual decline, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. IEA, which has headquarters in Paris, said in its monthly market report Iran exported about 1.11 million barrels of oil per day in April, down from the 20-month peak of […]

OPEC must hit its output target to balance oil market

* Global oil demand growth forecast raised slightly for 2014 * IEA demand forecast higher than estimates from OPEC, U.S. * Cuts estimate for 2014 non-OPEC supply growth by 100,000 bpd * Estimate of 2014 demand for OPEC crude by 200,000 bpd (Adds detail throughout)   OPEC needs to pump more oil this year to […]

Bakken Update, March Production Data

The Bakken production data, as well as the All North Dakota production data just came out with their production numbers for March 2014. Bakken production was up 914,003 bp/d, up 25,091 bp/d from February. All North Dakota production was 977,061 bp/d, up 24,006 bp/d from February. That was a new record for the Bakken but not […]

Eagle Ford Output and Texas Condensate and Natural Gas

This is a brief update on Eagle Ford Crude plus Condensate (C+C) output through February 2014.  February Eagle Ford C+C output was about 1200 kb/d by my estimate. Figure 1- RRC Data provided by Kevin Carter   I have used my usual method of estimation where I find the percentage of total Texas(TX) C+C output that […]

Waterjetting 21a – Of peat, coal and New Zealand

During the historical development of waterjets there was not a lot of change from the time of the Ancient Greeks, who found water flow being used to uncover and move minerals such as gold, and the Northern British miners of the 1800’s who were still using this tool in a form known as “hushing” as […]

Big Oil Under Serious Threat

Summary Oil majors face serious challenges, for decades, resource nationalization has kept them out of many of the cheapest fields. They’re struggling to replace existing reserves and production with new reserves and production. Climate change could present them with a staggering $28 trillion bill. They are amongst the biggest and most profitable companies in the […]

Oil & Gas Boom 2014: No End In Sight

In February, oil production in Texas hit a 34-year high, with combined oil and condensate volumes exceeding 2.9 million barrels of oil per day.  For the first time in memory, Texas now produces more than 36% of all the oil produced in the United States, and if it were a separate country, Texas would now […]

Tech Talk – Fast destruction and slow reconstruction

Underlying many of the projections of future energy supply that are now being made there are, as mentioned earlier, a lot of assumptions that are beginning to appear more questionable as time passes. Much of the concern has to focus on the instability in the Middle East and North African nations (MENA) that are now […]

Unconventionals and Deepwater Can Co-Exist

Unconventional resources’ rapid growth in North America has grabbed the attention of exploration and production companies both stateside and globally, with many diversifying their portfolio between conventional exploration programs and unconventional resource projects. However, as the enthusiasm for onshore shale play increases, the debate of how the industry should best allocate their capital seems to […]

Oil Fracking: How far are we willing to take it and at what cost?

If you took away all the oil and natural gas we use day to day, our lives would look vastly different. From taking hot showers to driving to work, oil dependence is real. In 2013 alone the total liquid fuel consumption in the U.S. rose by 400 billion barrels per day. In 1987 California hit […]

Increasing Costs in Deepwater Development May Impede Projects

The United States accounts for more than one out of every 10 barrels of crude oil produced around the globe each day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This is due in part to rising production of tight oil found in shale rock formations, but overall produced crude oil in the United States mainly […]

More debate on the future of international oil companies

In my last Barrel post, I threw down the gauntlet to those casually predicting a collapse in oil prices, as such a collapse would effectively kill the oil business at the major oil companies.  We will know, I wrote, that such forecasters are serious when they declare the international oil companies (IOCs) “to be the […]

Russia Ships First Arctic Oil, Fortifies Oil Defenses

Riding on his pride in the first export of Russian Arctic oil earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that allows oil and gas corporations to establish private armed security forces to defend their infrastructure, upping the ante for protestors. On the same day, April 22, Earth Day, Putin also met with […]

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