Effect of ongoing nationwide strike by the oil workers was recorded on Thursday in Abuja as long queues by motorists for petrol were seen at many filling stations in the Continue Reading
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, on Thursday in Abuja urged Nigerians not to panic over the current fuel scarcity in the country. Wogu made the call Continue Reading
MILAN, Italy, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Italian energy company Eni said Thursday it made an oil discovery in Ecuador that could hold as much as 300 million barrels in place. Eni announced the discovery at the Olgan-2 exploration well. Drilling encountered a 236-foot column of crude oil and initial production tests yielded a flow rate of 1,100 barrels of oil per day. "Early estimates suggest that the Oglan discovery potentially contains about 300 million barrels of oil in place," the company said in a statement. Ecuador has the third largest oil reserves in South America after Venezuela and Brazil. A member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, it exports an average 388,000 bpd and produces around 526,000 bpd. Eni said the discovery was made less than 10 miles away from processing facilities already producing about 12,500 bpd. The Italian company stressed its work in the Amazon rainforest in […]
Calgary (Platts)–18Sep2014/419 pm EDT/2019 GMT China will look to drive "a hard bargain" on prices when signing LNG off-take deals with Canadian producers in large part because of its recently signed supply deal with Russia, an official with China National Offshore Oil Corp. said Thursday. "We are in a strong position with the Russia deal and that puts us in the driver’s seat while conducting price negotiations in Canada," Chen Wei Dong, chief energy researcher with the national oil company’s Energy Economics Institute said on the sidelines of the Canada LNG Export Conference and Exhibition in Calgary. China in May signed an deal with Russia to import 38 billion cubic meters/year of gas through a pipeline for 30 years. "We are negotiating another deal with Russia, which we are hoping to sign late this year or early 2015," Dong said, noting the agreements are part of China’s efforts to […]
BEIJING, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Beijing said it expected to get at least 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from shale deposits by 2020. Production this year will be around 1.5 bcf, but could increase tenfold within the next two years. "If measures are appropriate, there is hope that production can reach 40 bcm – 60 bcm, accounting for roughly a fifth of total gas output," Peng Qiming, director of exploration of the Ministry of Land Resources, said Wednesday. The Chinese government said its consumption of natural gas should increase as it embraces a low-carbon economy. By 2020, Beijing expects the share of natural gas in the energy mix should be about 10 percent, about double the current footprint. An August briefing from the U.S. Energy Information Administration says China may hold the largest reserves of technically recoverable shale natural gas in the world. Technical and […]
Few are as eager as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to see Japan ’s idled nuclear reactors brought back into operation. Since the country flicked off the switch to its nuclear energy program a little more than a year ago, expensive energy imports, particularly of liquefied natural gas, have worsened trade deficits. That’s placed an extra burden on an economy that contracted at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent in the second quarter, its worst showing since 2009, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Sept. 22 issue. Abe’s push to restore Japan’s 48 functioning reactors faces deep opposition from a public that can’t forget the radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi reactor complex following an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Revelations of the regulatory lapses that led to the leaks galvanized local governments to keep Japan’s other reactors idle after they were shut down for scheduled maintenance. By September 2013 the country was without […]
WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) — U.S. crude oil production for the second week in September was more than 10 percent higher than the previous year, government data show. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a weekly petroleum report total U.S. crude oil production for the week ending Sept. 13 was 8.6 million bpd, a 12.6 percent increase from the same week in 2013. The increase in U.S. crude oil production has generated debate over the durability of legislation enacted in response to the oil embargo from Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that limits crude oil exports from the United States. Supporters of lifting the ban say it will increase U.S. leverage overseas and push the price of petroleum products like gasoline lower. Opponents question those claims and argue more exports would come with environmental consequences. EIA data show overall crude oil imports into the […]
A TransCanada Keystone Pipeline pump station operates outside Steele City, Neb., in this March 2014 file photo. Reuters WASHINGTON— TransCanada Corp.’s chief executive said the cost to build the Keystone XL pipeline, currently estimated at $5.4 billion, is expected to double by the time the U.S. government completes its review of the largest part of the project. Russ Girling, chief executive of the Calgary, Alberta,-based company, in an interview this week said he expects the project’s cost could increase to a "number that gets you into the high single digits to a 10 number." He was hesitant to say the project’s cost could double. "I was actually trying to avoid saying those words," Mr. Girling said. "Obviously, the costs have increased significantly." The pipeline, which would send Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, has faced delays and has become a political flash point in the nation’s debate over […]
Houston (Platts)–18Sep2014/631 pm EDT/2231 GMT Continental Resources unveiled results of the Springer Shale on Thursday, a new Oklahoma oil play that could help boost the state’s already growing production to levels not seen in decades. The Springer, chiefly sited in Grady and parts of Garvin counties at 12,500-foot depths, is yielding top-notch initial output rates and economic returns, company managers said Thursday in webcast remarks during Continental’s 2014 Analyst Day in Oklahoma City. The company’s results in the Springer, combined with its own and the industry’s mounting production at the South Central Oklahoma Oil Play and output from other formations in the state’s subsoil, is adding to Oklahoma’s already mounting production of 345,000 b/d in June, according to US Energy Information Administration data. "Oklahoma could potentially become the nation’s [third-highest] oil-producing state," Continental CEO Harold Hamm said in opening the 2014 event, its first such investor gathering in two […]
Hess To Form MLP For North Dakota Oil, Gas Transport Assets WILLISTON, N.D., Sept 18 (Reuters) – Some of North Dakota’s oil companies likely will experience a production dip starting next month as they try to meet aggressive new flaring standards, Governor Jack Dalrymple said on Thursday. Flaring, the wasteful burning of natural gas that is extracted alongside crude, has become a widespread problem in the state, the nation’s second-largest oil producer. In an effort to curb the problem, which harms quality of life and reduces tax revenue, state regulators will require companies to flare no more than 26 percent of produced gas starting Oct. 1, with standards tightening in the future. If producers fail to meet the standards, they will have to curb production. "A lot of people were surprised we took that step because there are going to be some operators impacted by this," Dalrymple, a Republican, […]
