Bakken Oil Fields Mark Billionth Barrel Of Oil

Oil drillers targeting the rich Bakken shale formation in western North Dakota and eastern Montana have produced 1 billion barrels of crude, data from the two states show. Drillers first targeted the Bakken in Montana in 2000 and moved into North Dakota about five years later using advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to […]

Pick Your Poison For Crude — Pipeline, Rail, Truck Or Boat

Crude oil is moving around the world, around our country, around pristine wilderness, around our cities and towns. It’s going to keep moving, will undoubtedly increase during our new energy boom, so what is the safest way to move it? The short answer is: truck worse than train worse than pipeline worse than boat (Oilprice.com). […]

Fracking Is the Future

Fracking is the future according to Lord John Browne, the former chief executive for BP. He is known as the fracking czar due to his enthusiasm to bring the process to Great Britain. Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, uses a combination of water, sand, and chemicals to separate shale from natural gas and oil. Lord […]

Oil declines hurting Mexico

Mexico’s fiscal health is in jeopardy because of a declining rate of oil production, an analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. EIA updated its country profile for Mexico, noting the oil sector accounted for 13 percent of the country’s export earnings last year. Mexico is one of the top 10 oil-producing countries in […]

Iranian natural gas pipeline is 75% complete

Iran is on track to complete construction work on a 100 km pipeline, which will transport natural gas to Iraq, in the next four months. Alireza Gharibi, Managing Director of Iranian Gas Engineering Development Company, stated that the pipeline is now 75% complete, with 80 km already built. Construction work on the Iraqi section will […]

Major oil, gas firm to list fracking chemicals

A major supplier to the oil and gas industry says it will begin disclosing 100% of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid, with no exemptions for trade secrets. The move by Baker Hughes of Houston is a shift for a major firm; it’s unclear if others will follow suit. The oil and gas industry […]

Peak Oil becomes an Issue Again after the IEA Revises its Predictions

“Among the big energy stories of 2013, “peak oil” — the once-popular notion that worldwide oil production would soon reach a maximum level and begin an irreversible decline — was thoroughly discredited. The explosive development of shale oil and other unconventional fuels in the United States helped put it in its grave. As the year […]

EIA’s International Energy Statistics Updated

The EIA has finally updated their International Energy Statistics. They were a month behind so they caught up by updating two months of data. The last update had data through October. This update has the data through December 2013. They also updated their annual data page. If you click on the link, then mouse over […]

Shale Shock Therapy

As the U.S. continues to extol the virtues of its shale gas revolution, peak oil theorists must be cringing to see their staunchest Malthusian beliefs demolished: the world may not run out of oil after all. But beyond the prospect of energy security, tight oil might have a much broader impact and added benefits to […]

Exxon Finds Tapping Device On UK Oil Pipeline

Exxon Mobil said it found a tapping device on a UK oil products pipeline following reports that a stash of diesel had been discovered that police said had been siphoned off by thieves. “The Esso Midline pipeline is secure and there has been no leak of product,” Exxon, known as Esso in the UK, said […]

‘Saudi America’: Mirage?

At a time when Russia is saber-rattling and the Middle East is in turmoil, a welcome geopolitical trifecta could be in the making. The United States is poised to surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s top oil producer. Canada’s oil sands have vaulted the country to energy superpower status. Mexico is embarking on […]

Iraq Oil Output Exceeds Hussein Era

Iraq oil production was higher this year than since before Saddam Hussein took power. The problem: getting it out of the country. Iraqi oil fields pumped 3.6 million barrels of crude a day on average in February, 50% more than four years ago. That beat—if only for a month—the country’s annual-output record, 3.5 million barrels […]

Arctic crude becomes new Russia’s oil blend

Gazprom has unveiled the new Arctic crude blend called ARCO. It comes from the Arctic field in North-West Russia. The oil will cost less than the main Russian export Urals blend, as it’s quality is lower. The new ARCO blend extracted from the Russian shelf debuted on the world market on Friday. The first consignment […]

Hydraulic Fracturing: Staying Afloat in Times of Tightening Water Supply

One of the criticisms levied against hydraulic fracturing, particularly during recent periods of drought, is the amount of water used in the process. However, energy companies are seeking to reduce water use during hydraulic fracturing, even as research shows more water is used in other activities. The numbers put things into perspective. The amount of […]

New Energy Frontier: Drilling Into Coal for Gas

With their sights on stores of low-grade coal beneath the coasts of England, the ranches of Wyoming, and the fields of Inner Mongolia, entrepreneurs around the world are touting the promise of yet another “unconventional” approach to energy extraction. The technique resembles the hydraulic fracturing technology that has produced an oil and gas boom across […]

Has crude oil production already peaked?

“Wait a minute,” you must be saying. “Haven’t we been hearing from the oil industry and from government and international agencies that worldwide oil production has been increasing in the last several years?” The answer, of course, is yes. But, the deeper question is whether this assertion is actually correct. Here is a key fact […]

Russia ships first oil from offshore Arctic platform

President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia’s first shipment of Arctic offshore oil on Friday, saying the platform decried by environmentalists will help Moscow expand its global energy markets share. Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s top gas producer Gazprom, shipped the first 70,000 tonnes of oil by tanker from the Prirazlomnoye platform, the site of […]

Kansas oil production jumps; natural gas continues decline

Oil production in Kansas took another leap in 2013, rising 7.2 percent from the year before, while natural gas production in the state continued its long slide, according to final figures compiled by the Kansas Geological Survey. Kansas producers extracted the most oil since the early 1990s assisted by the horizontal drilling boom in the […]

The Oil Industry’s Era of Austerity

As the major oil companies struggle with how best to boost their profitability in an era of rising oilfield costs, business models are being adjusted. The changes are a reflection of managements’ attempts to change the culture of their organizations. The most popular theme is to split a company’s business into separate units with different […]

ABCs of LNG

Current debates over LNG export often ignore its primary benefits, such as enabling gas to be produced for sale to markets beyond the realistic reach of pipelines. It also allows gas to compete with petroleum liquids where energy density is important, such as in powering ships, trains and land vehicles.  The international reaction to Russia’s annexation of […]

Energy Department Seeks Methane Hydrate Proposals

The U.S. Department of Energy is soliciting for another round of research into methane hydrates, the potentially huge energy source of “frozen gas” that could step in for shortages of other fossil fuels. The department is looking for research projects on the North Slope of Alaska that could explore how to economically extract the gas […]

Crimea: the Oil, Gas Story

Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine is the most significant geopolitical event to occur in Europe in a generation. Not since the Kosovo crisis in the late 1990s has the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deployed its forces in response to aggression, although this time around NATO is potentially facing a larger and […]

Israeli Gas Holds Promise of Better Ties with Neighbor

Israel’s drive to export its new-found natural gas could help to rebuild strained ties with old regional allies Egypt and Turkey, but could deprive Europe of a precious alternative to Russian gas. Israel has in recent months already signed energy deals with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, though relations with the Palestinians are at a […]

Did crude oil production actually peak in 2005?

Wait a minute,” you must be saying. “Haven’t we been hearing from the oil industry and from government and international agencies that worldwide oil production has been increasing in the last several years?” The answer, of course, is yes. But, the deeper question is whether this assertion is actually correct. Here is a key fact […]

Iran’s oil output to hit 5.7mbpd by 2019

Iran will increase its crude oil output to 5.7 million barrels per day (mbpd) by the end of Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 2019), MP Ali Marvi says, quoting Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. According to Zanganeh, Iran’s natural gas output will also increase to one billion cubic meters per day, IRNA quoted Marvi as […]

IEA points to supply risks outside OPEC

A real prospect that export flows out of Libya can start to ramp up in the coming weeks after the resolution of a nine-month-long standoff with rebels couldn’t come at a better time for OPEC it seems. According to the International Energy Agency’s latest monthly report, OPEC’s 12 members will need to pump an average […]

Alaska’s Peak Oil Crisis

Competition often breeds excellence. Nowhere else does this cliché hold more true than in the shale boom that’s currently underway. In North Dakota, we see drillers are consistently improving their operational efficiencies with practically every new well drilled. Independent companies like Continental Resources have lowered their average well costs in the Bakken by almost 20%. […]

OPEC oil output in March: A reversal of recent trends

Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) plunged 550,000 b/d from February to 29.56 million b/d in March — its lowest level since mid-2011 — according to the latest Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts. The decline followed February production of 30.11 million b/d and was mainly […]

OPEC Plans to Make Room for Extra Oil From Iran, Iraq, Libya

OPEC, which supplies 40 percent of the world’s oil, will accommodate additional output from members Iraq, Iran and Libya, Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri said, without explaining how it will do so under the group’s ceiling. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will wait until 2015 to discuss output targets with Iraq, which currently operates outside the […]

EIA – Independent Statistics and Analysis

U.S. production of tight oil has increased dramatically in the past few years, from less than 1 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) in 2010 to more than 3 MMbbl/d in the second half of 2013 [1]. The Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO2014) Reference case reflects continued growth in tight oil production. However, growth potential and […]

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