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South Sudan: Oil Workers Evacuated From Upper Nile Amid Fear of Rebel Attacks

South Sudan said on Friday that it is evacuating foreign oil workers from the oil fields in Upper Nile state, allegedly to avoid being caught in the crossfire, should the rebel launch attacks in the area. "The government has since Monday, been receiving numerous requests from the foreign oil workers, through their governments and the representatives of the companies they work for, to consider evacuating them from the area urgently, because of the developing security situation", Francis Ayul, Upper Nile State minister of mining and petroleum told Sudan Tribune on Friday. "Based on genuineness of the request, and considering the current security situation in the state, the state government in consultation with the central government responded to the requests and approved the immediate evacuation of all foreign workers involving in the engineering work." Minister Ayul said the evacuated foreign workers would be kept in the country’s capital, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria: "You Can't Suspend the Truth" – Worries for Nigeria Over Sanusi's Ouster

President Jonathan’s suspension of the CBN governor raises concerns not just over the economy and elite vested interests, but also the rule of law. In what has been seen by most as a baldly political move, President Goodluck Jonathan shocked both markets and observers yesterday as he suspended Nigeria’s widely-celebrated Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In a press release Jonathan’s spokesman claimed that "Lamido Sanusi’s tenure has been characterised by various acts of financial recklessness," but offered no details or specifics, and many commentators believe the real reason for Sanusi’s removal was his outspokenness on institutional corruption. "Sanusi’s persistent criticism of Nigeria’s opaque oil revenue management and allegations of unremitted NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – the state-owned oil company] oil proceeds made him a public enemy of the political elite," says Samir Gadio, Emerging Market Strategist at Standard Bank. "His suspension is a disruptive move which indicates […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Nigeria: “You Can’t Suspend the Truth” – Worries for Nigeria Over Sanusi’s Ouster

President Jonathan’s suspension of the CBN governor raises concerns not just over the economy and elite vested interests, but also the rule of law. In what has been seen by most as a baldly political move, President Goodluck Jonathan shocked both markets and observers yesterday as he suspended Nigeria’s widely-celebrated Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. In a press release Jonathan’s spokesman claimed that "Lamido Sanusi’s tenure has been characterised by various acts of financial recklessness," but offered no details or specifics, and many commentators believe the real reason for Sanusi’s removal was his outspokenness on institutional corruption. "Sanusi’s persistent criticism of Nigeria’s opaque oil revenue management and allegations of unremitted NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation – the state-owned oil company] oil proceeds made him a public enemy of the political elite," says Samir Gadio, Emerging Market Strategist at Standard Bank. "His suspension is a disruptive move which indicates […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Risks Around China's Sinopec Filling Up at the Gas Station

China bulls see signs of a revamp in a plan for the country’s top refiner by capacity to shed part of its gas-station business to private investors. But is Beijing really opening up that market or just finding another way for the public to fund its energy policy? China Petroleum & Chemical , or Sinopec, plans to sell up to 30% of its retail arm. Like much in China these days, this could partly be a property play. Brokerage CLSA, applying a simple average of 500 yuan ($82) a square foot, posits that the land beneath Sinopec’s stations could be worth nearly $1 trillion, some 10 times Sinopec’s entire market capitalization and equivalent to a third of the entire Hong Kong stock market’s value. A fantastical sum, but it suggests the business is undervalued to some extent. It enjoys stable margins and contributes roughly 40% of Sinopec’s operating profits. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Risks Around China’s Sinopec Filling Up at the Gas Station

China bulls see signs of a revamp in a plan for the country’s top refiner by capacity to shed part of its gas-station business to private investors. But is Beijing really opening up that market or just finding another way for the public to fund its energy policy? China Petroleum & Chemical , or Sinopec, plans to sell up to 30% of its retail arm. Like much in China these days, this could partly be a property play. Brokerage CLSA, applying a simple average of 500 yuan ($82) a square foot, posits that the land beneath Sinopec’s stations could be worth nearly $1 trillion, some 10 times Sinopec’s entire market capitalization and equivalent to a third of the entire Hong Kong stock market’s value. A fantastical sum, but it suggests the business is undervalued to some extent. It enjoys stable margins and contributes roughly 40% of Sinopec’s operating profits. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China gives big state firms more influence in strategic sectors of economy.

Beijing When China’s leaders wanted to give a boost to the domestic semiconductor industry last year, a big state-owned electronics company scooped up smaller privately owned chip-design and chip-making firms. Beijing followed the same script to get control of the sprawling, polluting rare-earths industry: A big state-owned company purchased nine firms in December that mine the minerals used in such strategic industries as defense and telecommunications. Expect China’s leaders to insist on a big state role in sectors they deem strategic when the officials lay out their economic plans for the coming year at a session of the country’s largely toothless legislature. On the one hand, China has pledged to dismantle some state-owned monopolies so they operate by market principles and pay more dividends to fund social spending. But on the other, China specialists say the state may actually end up with more influence over the economy in coming […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pilots Do Texas Chicken Amid Houston Channel Oil Traffic

Photographer: Scott Dalton/Bloomberg It takes an expert pilot to pull off the Texas Chicken. The maneuver, in which crossing ships set up for a head-on collision and use each other’s wave pressure to swerve safely past, is the only way to handle two-way traffic in the Houston Ship Channel, which connects downtown with the Galveston Bay and Gulf of Mexico . The narrow waterway is used by some 400 vessels every day, from barges to tankers almost as long as the tallest skyscraper on the horizon. “We’re still trying to stuff these bigger ships up these tiny ditches,” said Captain Mike Morris, presiding officer of the Houston Pilots, the corps of 95 mariners who drive ships on the six-hour trip up the channel. “Everywhere you look in the port, we’re expanding.” More from Gas Boom: America for Shale : All along this 52-mile (84-kilometer) shipping lane, there are signs […]

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Reverse Engineering the North Dakota Bakken Data

There is considerable discussion on this site regarding when the North Dakota portion of the Bakken will peak.  Having looked at the monthly Bakken data that the State publishes, it raised the question of whether it was possible to do a reverse analysis of the data and then use it to develop a model that would replicate the ND Bakken production, exactly.   The objective being to provide further insight on what is happening in the ND Bakken. In order to do this, the following conditions and information were required: A monotonically increasing number of new producing wells A typical/average decline curve for the ND Bakken field Not too many wells being shut/reworked each month The last bullet is a preferred condition because if a number of low producing wells are shut and replaced by newer high producing wells, then the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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ExxonMobil replaces 103% of 2013 production

ExxonMobil Corp. replaced 103% of its oil and natural gas production last year with additions to reserves, mostly of crude oil and other liquids. At yearend 2013, the company’s reserves totaled 25.2 billion boe, 53% liquids. According to a press statement, ExxonMobil added 1.2 billion bbl of liquids reserves during 2013, 153% of production. Gas reserves additions totaled 400 million boe, 52% of production. Without asset sales, the overall replacement factor would have been 106%. ExxonMobil added reserves exceeding 700 million bbl of crude oil at Upper Zakum field offshore Abu Dhabi last year and more than 300 million boe of oil and gas reserves from the liquids-rich Woodford , Bakken , and Permian plays in the US and the Montney and Duvernay plans in Canada. It also added reserves elsewhere in Canada and in Kazakhstan, the Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria, and the Netherlands. The company also added 6.6 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Bakken Shale Oil Carries High Combustion Risk

Crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale formation contains several times the combustible gases as oil from elsewhere, a Wall Street Journal analysis found, raising new questions about the safety of shipping such crude by rail across the U.S. Federal investigators are trying to determine whether such vapors are responsible for recent extraordinary explosions of oil-filled railcars, including one that killed several dozen people in Canada last summer. The rapid growth of North Dakota crude-oil production—most of it carried by rail—has been at the heart of the U.S. energy boom. The volatility of the crude, however, raises concerns that more dangerous cargo is moving through the U.S. than previously believed. Neither regulators nor the industry fully has come to terms with what needs to be done to improve safety. There have been some steps, for example, slowing trains and promising to redirect around high-risk areas. But debate still rages […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple