IEA Says Energy Map Must Evolve to Become Sustainable

The foundations of the energy system are shifting, and one of the biggest changes is in how oil and gas demand is moving away from countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and toward developing countries. During the 2013 Offshore Energy Conference in Aberdeen this week, Capella Festa, senior energy analyst […]

The exploding supply of NGLs: can this stuff be called oil?

If The Oil Drum were still around, the contributors would certainly be talking about a new ESAI study. The Boston-based consultancy put out a press release today, touting a new report it has produced that says by 2023, NGL production will account for more than one-quarter of the world’s liquids output. To which the peak […]

America’s Oil Boom Won’t Make It Energy-Independent From Middle East Madness

If the U.S. does strike Syria, the price of oil — already at $115 and rising in the Brent index, largely because of political disruptions in Libya, a major producer — is likely to spike. It’s not that Syria is a major oil producer — even before the war its exports were modest by Middle East standards, […]

Sudan: Oil Will Keep Flowing

After meeting on Tuesday with President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan said oil from South Sudan would continue to flow through his country’s pipelines. Although Mr. Bashir had ordered the pipelines closed and accused South Sudan of supporting rebel movements in his country, the order was never carried out. Mr. […]

US becomes largest natural gas producer

The US is now the world’s largest natural-gas producer, with technological advances allowing for a surge in domestic output. In recent decades, the US has been increasingly dependent on imports to meet its energy needs, but the gas boom makes for a much different situation.

the latest field development to coax more oil out of the ground

It may not be sexy, or fodder for water cooler chit-chat, but one of the hottest things going right now in shale and unconventional plays is a development technique based on a savvy, complex set of calculations: well spacing. While several large resource plays across North America—such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and […]

Tech Talk – A Dickensian Situation Revisited

Back in March 2005, I posted my first offering to the new site that Kyle and I had agreed to call “The Oil Drum.” Now, some eight years later, this will be my final Tech Talk to appear on the site, and it is perhaps appropriate to go back to that first post and make […]

Another Peak Oil Fad

Part One For 70 years, environmentalists have predicted the world would see diminishing supplies of oil after reaching a peak in production. The peak never occurred and the peak oil fantasy has been put to bed, at least for the foreseeable future, by the emergence of large quantities of unconventional oil as the result of […]

Modeling Bakken Oil Production: The Oil Shock Model Explained

This is a guest post from WebHubbleTelescope. Here he provides a simplified explanation of his Oil Shock Model as applied to oil production from the Bakken formation. Previous contributions to THe Oil Drum from WHT can be found here and here. My premise for participating was that I wanted to see how far I could […]

Saudi Oil Output to Stay Near 10 Million Barrels a Day

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, will probably keep crude production steady in September at similar levels to this month and July, a person with knowledge of the kingdom’s oil policy said. The world’s biggest crude exporter produced 10.03 million barrels a day in July, and taking into account inventory movements it supplied 9.9 million barrels […]

Bakken vs. Eagle Ford

This just news came out today.  Energy fact of the day: Eagle Ford Shale sets new oil output record in May, will likely surpass Bakken Shale next year From that article: Bottom Line: If the current annual increases in Eagle Ford Shale oil production continue in the 50-70% range, which are now much higher than the […]

Barnett shale gas production – on its way downhill?

Map of active permits and wells currently carried on the oil proration schedule and gas proration schedule database. The American shale gas revolution began in the area that goes under the name of the Barnett Shale. On the map above you can see active permits and wells. The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRA) is the […]

Tech Talk – where to expect more oil to come this year

The news that Saudi Arabia is planning to employ 200 drilling rigs next year (up from 20 back in 2005) suggests that there is a recognition that future reserves may not measure up to the planned volumes needed. Plans now include exploration of the shale deposits in the country, looking primarily for natural gas. There […]

A Production Chart and an IEA Prediction

Hey, it has been a slow last few days an I am hurting for anything to post. So I just picked out 25 countries that are obviously in decline and charted them. Hope you find it interesting. The countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guiana, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iran, Libya,  Malaysia, […]

Rising Oil, Gas Production Lowers US Energy Security Risk

The United States experienced a reduction in 2012 in its energy security risk thanks to rising U.S. oil and natural gas production and continued environmental improvements, according to a new report. The United States’ energy security risk score stood at 95.3 in 2012, down from 102.0 in the previous year, the highest since 1970, the […]

China, Indonesia to Join Exxon at Giant Iraqi Oilfield

China and Indonesia are set to join Exxon Mobil’s $50 billion project to develop Iraq’s West Qurna-1 oilfield, company and industry sources said on Thursday. Various scenarios for farming out Exxon’s 60 percent stake in the giant oilfield are still under discussion, but at this stage China’s biggest energy firm PetroChina is expected to take […]

The Fracking Chickens Are Coming Home To Roost

This won’t be the first time we’ve heard whispers of impending doom for the natural gas fracking industry, but since this one is coming from Bloomberg it’s probably worth a listen, so here’s the deal. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that the boom in gas field purchasing from 2009 to 2012 has turned into a whopper of […]

Eagle Ford Shale – a snapshot of today’s activity

Southwest of Texas’ capital city Austin and towards the Mexican border there is a large area of shale called the “Eagle Ford Shale”, EFS. For those interested I can mention that there is a good website “Eagle Ford Shale” where one can find all sorts of information on Eagle Ford. Figures in this report are […]

Argentina: energy boom or energy cliff?

      Argentina has been a gas exporter until 2007-2008 (Mainly to Chile) and now is an importer (mainly from Bolivia and a regasification plants in Bahía Blanca and recently in Escobar) Source: Energy Export Data Browser At the end of the 20th century, Argentina started exporting gas to Chile, a mirage of the […]

Tankers Used to Carry Iran Oil Are Being Sold for Scrap

Three of eight tankers that the U.S. Treasury said helped Iran evade sanctions by shipping its oil were sold for demolition, according to data from IHS Maritime. The sales of the Bicas, Atlantic and Caribo appeared on Coulsdon, England-based IHS Maritime’s database in July and this month. The unit of IHS Inc. (IHS) provides data […]

Argentina: energy boom or energy cliff?

Argentina has been a gas exporter until 2007-2008 (Mainly to Chile) and now is an importer (mainly from Bolivia and a regasification plants in Bahía Blanca and recently in Escobar) Source: Energy Export Data Browser At the end of the 20th century, Argentina started exporting gas to Chile, a mirage of the gas possibilities in […]

Saudi Arabia and Iraq Cut Oil Exports

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, shipped less crude in June and exports also slid in fellow OPEC members Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria, according to official data. The kingdom delivered 7.32 million barrels a day, down from 7.79 million in May, according to figures the governments filed with the Joint Organizations Data Initiative. Daily […]

Tech Talk – Oil Supply, Oil Prices and Saudi Arabia

From the time that The Oil Drum first began, and through the years up to the Recession of 2008-9 there was an increase in the price of oil, and that resumed following the initial period of that recession, and, in contrast to the price of natural gas, oil has recovered a lot of the price […]

Saudi Arabian Oil Production

The above graph shows Saudi production of crude and condensate (ie oil) from 1995 through July.  There are several data sources, but the black line is the average.  The red curve is the number of oil rigs working in the country, and is a rough proxy for the level of effort being made to maintain […]

Marcellus Gas Production Rising Fast

Marcellus Shale natural gas production is rising even faster this year than energy experts had predicted, and that’s having a national impact on energy. Bentek, a Colorado company that analyzes energy trends, said 2013 production in Pennsylvania and West Virginia is up about 50 percent compared with last year. Figures for the pipelines that take […]

Reports Of The Death Of Russia’s Oil Sector Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Certain writers of the anti-declinist school, Dan Drenzer and Walter Russell Mead spring immediately to mind, are dismissive of the prospect of American decline and positively overjoyed at the opportunities afforded to the US by “unconventional” oil. These writers, and other like them, are openly contemptuous of “old” oil powers like Russia and decidedly skeptical of their […]

The State of Shale in Europe

The UK has seen a sea change in its attitude to shale gas exploration in the space of nine months. In early December 2012, the country still had a fracking ban in place. This ban was lifted in mid-December and more recently, the government announced large tax breaks for shale gas production to encourage investment […]

Doubling of Iraqi oil production by 2020?

Those who expect a doubling of Iraqi oil production to 6 mb/d by 2020 should pray for enduring peace and social justice in this war-torn country. Iraq’s overdue integration into OPEC’s quota system will also present challenges in the context of geo-political rivalries between Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. 25/7/2013 (Reuters) – Iraq’s Sunni insurgents […]

ConocoPhillips plans new well in Alaska national reserve

ConocoPhillips (COP.N) has applied for permits to develop a new field in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a vast unit of federal land that has yet to yield commercially produced oil, according to the federal agency managing the reserve. ConocoPhillips applied to drill a production well at a site it calls GMT1, part of […]

OPEC production: trying to make up for Libya

Crude oil output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell 110,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 30.34 million b/d in July from 30.45 million b/d in June, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts showed Thursday.   “When the consuming world wonders why oil prices remain relatively high, […]

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