Articles and research looking into crude oil, whether it be exploration and refining - crude oil price movements or new crude oil extraction techniques. we have it covered here. Look at our energy section for more fossil fuel coverage.
New EIA data once again points to a deeper contraction than previously expected. The revelation was initially revealed in late August, when the EIA reported that the United States produced much less oil than expected in the first half of 2015. On the whole, the country produced 40,000 to 100,000 fewer barrels than previously reported between January and May. The August report also showed that U.S. oil production peaked in April at 9.6 million barrels per day (mb/d), before falling to just 9.3 mb/d in June. The declines suggested that the contraction in the U.S. shale industry was deeper than…
A landmark energy bill in California was watered down after facing significant opposition from the oil and gas industry. The California legislature was considering a bill that would have slashed the state’s petroleum use by 50 percent by 2030, but the Democrats decided to drop the provision in order to keep the larger bill alive. After seeing the bill pass the State Senate earlier this year, the legislation ran up against a deadline this week for the end of session. However, with strong opposition from the oil and gas industry, the State Assembly could not gather enough votes. “We could…
This year has been particularly harsh for oil field services companies as they continue to battle the effects of low oil prices on their business. Most of the major oil field services companies including Schlumberger, Halliburton and Weatherford have already slashed more than 20,000 jobs during this year and the numbers are still growing. However, at a time when most companies are slashing their upstream budgets, India’s upstream companies are actually increasing their investments in a substantial manner. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, India’s state owned and largest upstream company, is set to invest close to $3.7 billion in…
U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy initiative – the historic nuclear deal with Iran – appears poised to fend off Congressional opposition. After several Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate came out in support of the Iran deal in recent days, the survival of the accord is all but assured. Democratic Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Gary Peters (D-MI) all announced their support for the nuclear deal with Iran, bringing the total number of Senators who have backed the deal to 41, enough to withstand attempts by Republicans to derail the agreement. The deal will give…
Low oil prices are crushing a lot of upstream exploration and production companies. But downstream, refiners are having a field day. The collapse in oil prices has been a boon to refiners for two big reasons. First, for oil drillers, selling oil is where their revenues come from. But for refiners, oil is a cost, not the end product. Lower prices mean lower costs. Second, cheap oil means that consumers get hooked on cheap sources of fuel. As any driver who has been to fill up their car lately would know, it is the cheapest time in years to drive…
Recently, some members of Congress have made a proposal for the government to sell 101 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum reserves (SPR), as a means of raising $9 billion dollars so the country’s highway trust fund could be funded over the next three years. This sale would take place in the 2018-2025 timeframe. There are several reasons this proposal does not make sense. But before we discuss why, one first has to know why the SPR came into existence. How the SPR Was Founded The idea of the government stockpiling oil reserves was first proposed after the…
Rig productivity and drilling efficiency are red herrings. A red herring is something that takes attention away from a more important subject. Rig productivity and drilling efficiency distract from the truth that tight oil producers are losing money at low oil prices. Pad drilling allows many wells to be drilled from the same location by a single rig. Rig productivity reflects the increased volume of oil and gas thus produced by each of a decreasing number of rigs. It does not account for the number of producing wells that continues to increase in all tight oil plays. In other words,…
The old adage in resource exploration is -- you need to use old technology in a new area, or new technology in an old area. And last week we got not one, but two, confirmations that the new technology in old areas route can lead to big discoveries. The first came in offshore Egypt. Where Italian major Eni announced that exploratory drilling had discovered a "supergiant" natural gas field. Which could contain over 30 trillion cubic feet of reserves. Related: This Oil Major Hasn’t Lost Faith In Subsea Drilling That would make the field the largest ever discovered in the Mediterranean…
Offshore drilling technology has progressed to the point where oil companies have the ability not only to drill miles underwater from surface platforms the size of football fields, but also to extract hydrocarbons from wells that sit on the seafloor, a branch of the industry known as subsea. Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil has been pursuing subsea technology since 1986 - it currently has 540 subsea wells that account for over half of its energy production - but Statoil is pushing the envelope further with plans to develop a subsea “factory” that performs all the functions of an offshore…
The P5+1 agreement with Iran on Iran’s nuclear program has generated (sometimes fevered) anticipation of an Iranian oil bonanza at the end of the nuclear agreement rainbow, both in terms of the increase in Iranian crude output and the business opportunities for foreign firms in driving the increase. The anticipation comes from several sources. Iran’s crude potential is one. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran’s proven crude reserves, 158 billion barrels, are the world’s fourth largest (and among the cheapest to produce at $8-to-$17/barrel, depending on the source,). Iranian public statements expressing determination to increase crude output…
