Sharp Uptick in Iraqi Oil Production

The graph above shows the latest available data for Iraqi production.  As you can see, there was a sharp increase in March and April.  The April number is entirely dependent on one source – OPEC (secondary sources) – but post-invasion Iraq seems much more transparent than other middle eastern countries and the data sources don’t […]

OPEC Has Lost the Power to Lower the Price of Oil

There’s been a lot of excitement in the past year over the rise of North American oil production and the promise of increased oil production across the whole of the Americas in the years to come. National security experts and other geo-political observers have waxed poetic at the thought of this emerging, hemispheric strength in […]

Opec’s Days Are Numbered

Discoveries of unconventional oil and gas reserves in the western hemisphere will not only reduce price and supply volatility, but will also bring the end of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Roger Altman wrote in the Financial Times. Technology has revolutionized energy supply with the result that the U.S. now has a 100-year supply […]

Is Russian Oil Production Plummeting?

According to a recent Bloomberg story Saudi Arabia displaced Russia as the world’s largest oil producer, producing just about three thousand barrels a day more in March of 2012: Saudi Arabia boosted crude production close to a 31-year high in March, overtaking Russia as the world’s largest oil producer for the first time in six years, according […]

Saudis Pass Russia as Largest Oil Producer

Saudi Arabia boosted crude production close to a 31-year high in March, overtaking Russia as the world’s largest oil producer for the first time in six years, according to the Joint Organization Data Initiative. Saudi crude exports rose 3 percent in March, reaching the highest level in five years as Iran cut shipments, according to […]

Proposal to turn Kuwait into world’s oil capital – State’s energy consumption up 66%

The concept of ‘Kuwait as the world’s oil capital’ will see the light after being studied comprehensively, said, Fadhel Safar Minister of Public Works and Planning and Development revealed on Thursday. On the sidelines of a preparatory meeting for the country’s second mid-term development plan, Safar told KUNA that the idea of turning Kuwait into […]

The age of extreme oil: ‘This used to be a forest?’

One grey Thursday at the end of April, a plane touched down in Fort McMurray, Alta., carrying four Achuar Indians from the Peruvian Amazon. They had flown 8,000 kilometres from the rain forest to beseech Talisman Energy Inc., the Calgary-based oil and gas conglomerate, to stop drilling in their territory. Talisman’s annual general meeting was […]

Oil well in Cuba comes up dry, raises questions about future exploration

Cuba’s dreams of an oil bonanza suffered a tough but possibly temporary setback Friday when the Spanish Repsol company confirmed it hit a dry hole when it drilled a well off the island’s northwest coast. The dry well will put more pressure on Cuba’s dependence on Venezuelan oil and means the government of Raúl Castro […]

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Several articles in the international media in recent months have claimed that worries about peak oil – the peak and decline in yearly world oil production – are unfounded because vast new reserves of unconventional oil are coming on stream. But a closer look at these new sources of oil casts doubt on this assertion. […]

Australia Seen a Decade Away From Large-Scale Shale Production

Australian shale explorers may be a decade away from producing oil and gas on a large scale because of obstacles ranging from a lack of drilling equipment to higher labor and infrastructure costs, Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said. “The only factor that could change that significantly is if there’s a liquids-rich play that really drove the […]

Gulf of Mexico site chosen for first US floating LNG plant

Excelerate Energy LP, Houston, will develop the first US floating natural gas liquefaction plant for Port Lavaca, between Galveston and Corpus Christi, Tex. The Lavaca Bay LNG project will be designed to export LNG by 2017. The company said it selected Port Lavaca because of its direct access to the “highly liquid South Texas natural […]

Technology can unlock new fields, curb fears of peak oil

Technology advancements in the energy sector can boost oil and gas production, improve safety and curb fears that fossil fuels are rapidly running out, a Chevron official said today. During the opening session of a Houston energy conference this morning, Jay Pryor, Chevron’s vice president for business development, touted a number of technology advancements that […]

Iran Seen Losing 500000 Barrels of Oil Shipments Daily

Iran’s oil exports have the potential to fall another 300,000 to 500,000 barrels a day or more when the European Union’s embargo takes effect in July, according to Barclays Plc. The decline will extend existing losses of 500,000 barrels a day, Barclays analysts led by Helima Croft in London said in an e-mailed report yesterday. […]

Chris Skrebowski on Peak Oil Phase 1

April 2012 – Chris Skrebowski on Peak Oil Phase 1 (2005 – ? )

It’s time for the truth about drilling

There is no doubt the oil and gas industry has been a topic of great discussion in New Zealand in recent months. Protests, Facebook pages, Twitter updates, websites – opposing deepsea oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing and even seismic testing. As a representative of the oil and gas industry I have heard it all. So first […]

OPEC oil production climbs to 31.71 million barrels per day in April

The latest Platts’ monthly survey of OPEC production shows two highly significant trends: sanctions are starting to pinch Iranian output, and other OPEC countries are stepping in to fill the gap. Crude oil output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) climbed 320,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 31.71 million b/d in April […]

The IMF and Hubbert

The IMF just published a working paper with an eye-catching title The Future of Oil: Geology versus Technology. To my knowledge, this is is the first time a peak oil scenario, in the form of a Hubbert Linearization, is explicitly  injected into a econometric model. Based on the work of Hubbert, Deffeyes and Campbell, available […]

Norwegian Crude Oil Reserves and Production as of 12/31/2011

In this post I present an updated view on Norwegian crude oil exploration, sanctioned developments, discoveries, production, reserves and what these now suggest for the future of Norwegian crude oil production. The content for this post was originally published in Norwegian here and here. Figure 01: The chart above shows a forecast for crude oil […]

Breathing New Life into Aging Fields in the North Sea

As new technology emerges, operators are turning their focus to redeveloping mature fields, creating a new focus for oil and gas companies. This growing demand has pressed companies in the service sector to broaden their skills and address a wider range of reservoir and production problems. Problems that are typical of aging fields are: wellstream […]

Orlov: Shale gas the view from Russia

The official shale gas story goes something like this: recent technological breakthroughs by US energy companies have made it possible to tap an abundant but previously inaccessible source of clean, environmentally friendly natural gas. This has enabled the US to become the world leader in natural gas production, overtaking Russia, and getting ready to end […]

Tech Talk – More on hydraulic fracturing

There is a real, practical limit to the amount of oil that can be recovered from a reservoir. Depending on the availability and economic viability of different technical approaches that limit might be less than 25% of the total volume of oil originally in place, or it can be more than 50%, as has been […]

Water Shortages May Leave Energy Producers Dying of Thirst

With summer approaching, utility planners are devising ways in which they would meet the demand for energy during the most pressing times. Short term, they will consider whether they will have to dip into their reserves and longer term, they will calculate whether they have enough generation and transmission. But one thing that those companies […]

Mideast fuel oil poised for tight summer

The Middle East fuel oil market is braced for a tightening third quarter as soaring power generation demand is set to curb Saudi Arabia’s exports and Western sanctions could deprive the market of Iranian supplies. But although tighter supplies should push Gulf fuel oil premiums higher and could lift the Singapore ship fuel bunkering market, […]

Oil depletion Scenarios consensus infers 97-Mbd Peak in 2027

monthly update of TRENDLines Peak Oil Depletion Tier-1 Scenarios:  15-model consensus infers 97-mbd Peak in 2027 April 26 2012 delayed FreeVenue public release of Jan 26th TRENDLines MemberVenue guidance click today’s chart to visit its unique page for related tables, background &/or more graphs Trendlines.ca

The Industry’s Game-Changer: Technology

Innovation and collaboration are crucial for overcoming future energy challenges, said Shell Projects and Technology Director Matthias Bichsel, a panelist during the Offshore Technology Conference 2012 session “Global Energy Outlook: Changing Patterns,” which examined the challenges and uncertainties over the future availability of oil. “Our industry is faced with great challenge,” said Chief Executive of […]

The oil curse: How petroleum wealth shapes the development of nations

Michael Ross talks to Viv Davies about his recent book ‘The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations’. They discuss the irony of how those countries with the greatest social and economic deficits are also the most vulnerable to the oil curse and as a result grow less quickly than might be […]

China offers South Sudan $8 billion in development funds

China has offered South Sudan $8 billion in development funds for road, hydropower, infrastructure and agriculture projects, South Sudan’s information minister told Reuters on Saturday. The loan came after South Sudan President Salva Kiir visited Beijing to secure support from China, which has major oil interests in both South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan. […]

Peak Oil: Net Exports Aren’t Everything

I think everyone’s wallet should have convinced them by now that the days of cheap oil are over. Compared to the end of cheap oil, “peak oil,” or the moment when worldwide production hits its peak, is irrelevant, at least from an economic standpoint.  What we really care about is how much we’re paying for the oil […]

Drilling oil takes water and makes water

Drilling and hydraulic fracturing a well is only half the story when it comes to the water used in oil and gas exploration. After the well is drilled, after the target formation is fractured and as the oil and gas begins flowing up the well, wastewater comes along with it. As Colorado Springs and El […]

Mexico oil production rises to 2.55 mln bpd

Mexico’s state oil monopoly Pemex said on Friday oil production rose to 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd) in March up from 2.543 million bpd produced in February. The country’s monthly oil output has changed very little since 2009 after Pemex slowed the natural rate of decline at its largest, aging fields. Crude output in […]

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