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Experts Eye Oil and Gas Industry as Quakes Shake Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — Mary Catherine Sexton has been rattled enough. This fall her neighborhood in the northeastern part of this city has been shaken by dozens of minor earthquakes. “We would just have little trembles all the time,” she said. Even before a magnitude 4.5 quake on Saturday knocked objects off her walls and a stone from above her neighbor’s bay window, Ms. Sexton was on edge. “People are fed up with the earthquakes,” she said. “Our kids are scared. We’re scared.” Oklahoma has never been known as earthquake country, with a yearly average of about 50 tremors, almost all of them minor. But in the past three years, the state has had thousands of quakes. This year has been the most active, with more than 2,600 so far, including 87 last week. While most have been too slight to be felt, some, like the quake on Saturday and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Marathon thinks big on U.S. shale deposits

Marathon Oil President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Tillman said a $3.5 billion investment in U.S. shale resources will encourage production growth in 2014. Marathon said it would invest more than 60 percent of its $5.9 billion in capital expenses next year on developing the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Woodford shale reserve areas in the United States. “This increased activity underpins our confidence in delivering approximately 4 percent year-on-year growth in overall 2014 volume,” Tillerman said in a statement Wednesday. The company has more than two dozen drilling rigs deployed in U.S. shale reserves areas. Tillerman said rig activity in the Bakken area in the northern United States and Eagle Ford in Texas, should increase by 20 percent next year. Rig activity in the Woodford region of Oklahoma should double in 2014. Bakken is one of the premier oil shale reserves areas in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone Backed in Poll by 56% of Americans as Energy Security

More Americans view the Keystone XL oil pipeline as a benefit to U.S. energy security than as an environmental risk, even as they say Canada should do more to reduce greenhouse gases in exchange for approval of the project. A Bloomberg National Poll shows support for the $5.4 billion link between Alberta ’s oil sands and U.S. Gulf Coast refineries remains strong, with 56 percent of respondents viewing it as a chance to reduce dependence on oil imports from less reliable trading partners. That compares with the 35 percent who say they see it more as a potential source of damaging oil spills and harmful greenhouse gas emissions. A push by environmental groups against the project may be affecting public opinion: 58 percent of poll respondents say they want Canada to take steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as a condition for approval, with 32 percent opposing such a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Anadarko’s Kerr-McGee Held Liable in Tronox Spinoff

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and its Kerr-McGee unit acted improperly in the 2005 spinoff of Tronox Inc. and may have to pay as much as $14 billion related to environmental cleanup and health claims, a judge ruled. Anadarko plunged 9.3 percent in after-hours trading, cutting its market value to $38 billion. The judge’s ruling yesterday weighed how much money can be recovered from a successor to a polluting company, even after bankruptcy has ostensibly cleaned the slate of obligations. The company said it expects to appeal the ruling. The case stems from Kerr-McGee’s spinoff of its chemicals business and old environmental liabilities as Tronox beginning in 2005. About three months after that transaction was completed, Anadarko offered to buy Kerr-McGee’s oil and natural gas assets for $18 billion. Burdened by environmental debts, Tronox filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and sued Anadarko and Kerr-McGee the same year. A nonjury trial […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Peak Car? We’re Not Even Close

Page added on December 12, 2013 The term “peak oil” has been around for decades, referring to when domestic oil production in America would peak. The jury is still out on peak oil, though the latest term to go around is “peak car”, with some studies indicating that the American car market is over saturated, and shrinking. But on a global scale, we’re not even close to reaching peak car. From 2006 to 2011, miles driven by Americans fell in three-quarters of urbanized areas where recent data was available. That’s quite specific, and also includes four of the five toughest economic years since the Great Depression. This data definitely screams out “selection bias!” to me, as high unemployment and stagnant wages means less reasons and less money for, you know, driving. While the study claims the economy has little to no impact on driving, again, by focusing only on […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Titan moon's colossal methane seas

Ligeia Mare is twice the area of Lake Michigan in the US Measurements of a big sea on Titan, a moon of Saturn, show that it contains about 9,000 cubic km of mostly liquid methane. This huge volume is equivalent, say scientists, to about 40 times the proven reserves of oil and gas on Earth. The extraordinary thing is that Ligeia Mare is only the second largest hydrocarbon sea on Titan . The body of liquid methane known as Kraken is perhaps five times as big. "What you’re talking about here is essentially liquefied natural gas," explained Randy Kirk from the US Geological Survey (USGS). "People ask me if you could bring it to Earth, and that’s a dumb idea on many levels. But what you might not realise is that there […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Titan moon’s colossal methane seas

Ligeia Mare is twice the area of Lake Michigan in the US Measurements of a big sea on Titan, a moon of Saturn, show that it contains about 9,000 cubic km of mostly liquid methane. This huge volume is equivalent, say scientists, to about 40 times the proven reserves of oil and gas on Earth. The extraordinary thing is that Ligeia Mare is only the second largest hydrocarbon sea on Titan . The body of liquid methane known as Kraken is perhaps five times as big. "What you’re talking about here is essentially liquefied natural gas," explained Randy Kirk from the US Geological Survey (USGS). "People ask me if you could bring it to Earth, and that’s a dumb idea on many levels. But what you might not realise is that there […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US Energy Independence: Another Pipe Dream

One of Canada’s top energy analysts has warned investors and geologists that “the shale revolution” will not meet conventional expectations as a so-called game-changer in energy production. Speaking at the Denver meeting of the Geological Society of America and later at Queen’s University and an energy conference in Toronto, David Hughes challenged the assumptions of industry cheerleaders by spelling out startling depletion rates for high-cost unconventional shale and tight oil wells. “The shale revolution has been a game-changer in that it has temporarily reversed a terminal decline in supplies from conventional sources,” said Hughes in both talks given in late October and early November. “Long-term sustainability is questionable and environmental impacts are a major concern.” The geoscientist, who now […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Advances Ahead of Storage Report

Natural gas prices climbed to a seven-month high Wednesday on expectations that colder-than-average weather would fuel demand for gas-powered heating and help reduce high supply levels. Natural gas for January delivery settled up 10 cents, or 2.4%, to $4.337 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest price since April 30. Market participants are looking ahead to weekly government reports showing natural gas inventory levels in the weeks ended Dec. 6 and Dec. 13, both of which are expected to show large declines in stockpiles. Colder-than-average weather has supported natural gas prices in recent weeks by boosting demand for heating in homes and offices. About half of U.S. households […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA Sees 2014 US Natgas Output Up From 2013 Record High

The U.S. Energy Information Administration raised its estimate on Tuesday for domestic natural gas production in 2014, expecting output next year to be up 1.4 percent from 2013’s estimated record-high levels. In its December Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA said it expected marketed natural gas production in 2014 to rise by 0.98 billion cubic feet per day from 2013 to 71.43 bcf per day, up from its November outlook of 71.03 bcf daily. If the forecast is realized, it would be the fourth straight year of record production. Growth has mostly been driven by rising production in the Marcellus shale play in Appalachia, which has more than outpaced declines in offshore Gulf of Mexico and Haynesville shale output. Pipeline imports from Canada are expected to decline slightly next year, falling to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple