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Suez Canal Set for First Major Expansion

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi signs a document at an event marking the announcement of plans for a major upgrade of the Suez Canal, in Cairo August 5, 2014. Reuters CAIRO—One of the world’s great trading routes, the Suez Canal, is set for the first major expansion in its 145-year history, if a planned multibillion-dollar investment by the Egyptian government goes ahead. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi this week announced plans for a ‘new’ Suez Canal that will run in parallel to the current waterway, which provides a vital shipping link between Europe and Asia. The Egyptian plan, part of an $8.4 billion project to upgrade the Suez Canal, could raise its capacity to 97 passing ships a day by 2023, up from 49 currently. But while shipping industry executives have welcomed the idea of expanding the Suez Canal to help relieve bottlenecks, there are doubts over […]

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Greenpeace claims edge over Statoil

A decision by Statoil to end a campaign in the arctic waters of the Barents Sea shows it never should have drilled there in the first place, Greenpeace said. Norwegian energy company Statoil said it ended its campaign in the frontier Hoop area of the Barents Sea. Small volumes of hydrocarbons were encountered, but nothing in the way of a commercial discovery. The drilling program was the target of a Greenpeace protest aimed at highlighting the risks of operating in the pristine arctic environment. The Hoop reserve area is near Bear Island, a unique island ecosystem that Greenpeace said would be spoiled should a spill occur in the area. Truls Gulowsen, director of the Norwegian branch of Greenpeace, said dry wells in the Hoop area suggest it’s the arctic environment itself that’s rejecting the presence of oil companies like Statoil. "The licenses should never have been awarded in the […]

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Venezuelan Energy Company Investigated in U.S.

Federal and New York City prosecutors have opened preliminary investigations into a Venezuelan company that became one of that country’s leading builders of power plants during the administration of President Hugo Chávez , as well as into a Missouri-based company which played a key role in its success, people familiar with the matter say. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Manhattan District Attorneys’ office are probing Derwick Associates, a Venezuelan company that was awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts in little more than a year to build power plants in Venezuela shortly after the country’s power grid began to sputter in 2009, the people familiar with the matter said. ProEnergy Services, a Sedalia, Mo.-based engineering, procurement and construction company which sold dozens of turbines to Derwick and helped build the plants, is also under investigation, these people say. The probes are in their initial phases, […]

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Petrobras Profit Misses Estimates as Crude Exports Slide

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) , the biggest oil producer in deep waters, posted an unexpected profit decline in the second quarter after its fuel imports surged and crude exports fell. Net income fell 20 percent to 4.96 billion reais ($2.2 billion), or 0.38 reais a share, from 6.2 billion reais, or 48 centavos, a year earlier, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said yesterday in a statement. That trailed the 55-centavo average of 12 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, making this the third time in four quarters that Petrobras missed forecasts. Rising Brazilian demand for gasoline and diesel that Petrobras sells at a discount relative to international prices is leading the state-run producer to export less crude and increase refinery output. It cut sales to overseas markets by 14 percent from a year earlier, while the refining boost wasn’t enough to prevent a 56 percent surge in fuel imports. The […]

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Oil Rigs Hit Record as Drillers Move Outside Big Basins

Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. surged to a record as drillers ventured outside the nation’s biggest basins to search for crude in developing plays such as the South-Central Oklahoma Oil Province, known as SCOOP. Oil rigs jumped by 15 to 1,588 this week, even as the counts in some of the most established basins, including the Permian of Texas and New Mexico , were either unchanged or down, data posted on Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) ’s website show. It was the most since Baker Hughes separated the oil and gas rig counts in 1987. Rigs targeting crude outside the major plays jumped by 19 to a record 399, the Houston-based field services company said. The count in Oklahoma rose to the highest level in almost six years. Drillers are seeking new oil plays as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling help them pull energy deposits out of shale formations […]

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The Imminent Peak in US Oil Production

The seven years of production of tight oil in the US has produced enough data to enable estimation of the amount of oil that will be recovered from these systems and the timing of peak production. Based on data to May 2014, the four main tight oil basins will produce a total of 7.7 billion barrels with a peak production rate of 3.9 million barrels per day in mid-2015. Following that peak, production is predicted to decline as rapidly as it rose. That in turn is expected to cause a re-assessment of the ability to produce sufficient transport fuels based on current policies. The Bakken in North Dakota Jean Laherrere has plotted monthly oil production from the Bakken Fm in North Dakota using Hubbert linearization: Laherrere 2014 FIG. 1 Also called a logistic decline […]

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Judge overturns Fort Collins, Colorado, fracking ban

For the second time in two weeks a state judge in Colorado has overturned a city’s attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing within its borders. In a Thursday decision in the District Court of Larimer County, Judge Gregory Lammons ruled that the city of Fort Collins’ five-year ban on the use of fracking and the storage of fracking waste was pre-empted by the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Act. Lammons’ ruling comes in a case brought by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, following a vote last November in which voters called for the city to impose a five-year moratorium on fracking and disposal of fracking waste within the city’s boundaries. On July 24, District Judge D.D. Mallard of the Boulder County District Court overturned a fracking ban that the city of Longmont had instituted, ruling that it was pre-empted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act, which gives […]

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BHI: US rig count pierces 1,900 mark for first time in 2 years

The US drilling rig count surpassed the 1,900 mark for the first time since August 2012, jumping 19 units to 1,908 rigs working during the week ended Aug. 8, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. Meanwhile, the average US rig count for July, released by BHI on Aug. 7, totaled 1,876 units, a 15-unit gain from June and a 110-unit gain from July 2013. The worldwide rig count for July totaled 3,608, a 163-unit gain from June and a 246-unit gain from July 2013. During the past week, land rigs jumped 18 units to 1,832, while offshore rigs tallied 4 units to reach 62. Rigs drilling in inland waters dropped 3 units to 14. Oil rigs represented most of the weekly gain, tallying 15 units to reach 1,588. Gas rigs tallied 3 units to 316, and rigs considered unclassified edged up a unit to 4. Horizontal drilling […]

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Study highlights Pennsylvania’s shale gas development boom

The rapid shale gas development in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus shale formation has presented both challenges and opportunities to local governments and communities. In particular, concerns that local governments might be entering a “boom and bust” cycle—similar to previous resource extraction experiences in Pennsylvania’s history—are on the rise. A recent study, Getting the Boom Without the Bust: Guiding Southwestern Pennsylvania Through Shale Gas Development , released by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and Washington & Jefferson College’s Center for Energy Policy & Management confirms that the gas boom in Pennsylvania is still under way, and explores best practices that communities can implement to better protect themselves against a bust experience. Boom cycle Heightened industrial activity at the beginning of a resource extraction development usually induces an influx of workers into hosting communities, placing strains on the local government’s ability to provide public services, including healthcare and public […]

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CRED: Colorado Initiatives Not the Way to Settle Fracking Debate

When dueling sides in Colorado’s debate over fracking agreed this week to drop voter initiatives that could have had long-term consequences for the state’s energy future, it was a sign that “cooler heads prevailed,” Jon Haubert, Coloradans for the Responsible Energy Development (CRED) director of communications, told Rigzone. Activists and pro-energy forces agreed during the week to work with Colorado Governor John Kickenlooper and a task force on a compromise solution. Both sides then dropped their respective initiatives, a step which Haubert said was in everyone’s best interests. CRED said it was committed to its long-term educational mission at informing the general public about the energy, economic and environmental benefits of safe and responsible oil and natural gas development, and that it is looking forwarding to working with the new state task force. It is hard to overstate […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple