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U.S. Oil Rigs Tumble Again, in Line With Twitter Estimates

A derrick hand in Knox County, Ohio. U.S. oil and gas rigs continued to fall this week despite still-rising levels of production. Drillers idled 48 rigs (37 of which were oil rigs), dropping the number to 1,310 and marking the 11th consecutive decline, Baker Hughes reported on Friday. The total U.S. rig count is down 32 percent since October, an unprecedented retreat. The median forecast from a Bloomberg survey of ten  # RigCountGuesses  on Twitter was for a decline of 52.  Active oil and gas rigs for the last five years. Source: Baker Hughes The Baker Hughes rig counts is a newly popular and controversial signal for U.S. oil watchers. Rigs are used to explore for new deposits and to drill new wells. The theory goes that when oil rigs decline, fewer wells are drilled, less new oil is discovered, and oil production slows. That would be good news for investors hoping for a rise in crude prices after […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BHI’s rig count reaches 5-year low; forecast projects more losses

HOUSTON, Feb. 20 02/20/2015 The US drilling rig count fell 48 units—markedly fewer compared with declines in recent weeks—to settle at 1,310 rigs working during the week ended Feb. 20, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. That total is the lowest since Jan. 22, 2010, and 461 fewer units compared with this week a year ago. The count has now fallen 12 consecutive weeks, losing 610 units during that time ( OGJ Online, Dec. 5, 2014 ). In analysis releases this week, Wood Mackenzie says it expects a continued decline in rigs through the first half of the year, leveling off at 1,000 units by August. The pace of land rigs being idled will continue to accelerate, with the first two weeks in February seeing another 200 rigs coming off contract. “The oil price collapse is hitting onshore activity and rig operators, drilling rigs are currently being stacked at an alarming […]

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Canada Unveils an Oil-Train Safety Tax

A Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed near Timmins, Ontario last weekend. ENLARGE Photo: Transportation Safety Board of Canada/Reuters OTTAWA—Canada said it would create a compensation fund to cover the potential costs of oil-train derailments and finance the move with a new levy on crude shippers. The planned fund—first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier Friday—was one of several new measures Canada unveiled to bolster the safety of a rail system carrying growing volumes of crude. Canada had pledged to hold railways and shippers more accountable after the derailment of a crude-carrying train in Quebec in July 2013 killed 47 people and wiped out the town’s core. The Lac-Mégantic accident spurred regulatory changes in the U.S. and Canada—from beefed up emergency-preparedness requirements to new rules governing railcars—while raising concerns about the risks the oil-by-rail boom poses to communities across North America. Those risks were highlighted again […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cabot Oil Slashes Capital Budget, Production Guidance For 2015

ENLARGE Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. slashed its capital budget and pared back its production plans for 2015. Illustration: Bloomberg News/Landov Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. on Friday slashed its capital budget and pared back its production plans for 2015, as the energy company said it swung to a fourth-quarter loss amid plummeting energy prices. Cabot had posted stronger earnings in recent years as it benefited from the energy boom and last year announced plans to spend $210 million to boost acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale, a rock formation in south Texas. But oil prices have plunged since June as an oversupply from U.S. energy firms has flooded the global market. Oil prices fluctuated Friday and were headed for their first weekly loss in a month after data showed U.S. oil supplies were at an 80-year high. Cabot said it has cut its 2015 capital budget to $900 […]

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U.S. refinery strike widens to include nation’s largest refinery

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. refinery strike widened as workers at the nation’s largest refinery walked off their jobs at 12 a.m. CST (0600 GMT) on Saturday, according to the United Steelworkers union (USW). Shortly after talks between union and oil company representatives ended on Friday night, the union notified Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL] of a strike by its members at the company’s 600,250 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. The USW also gave notices on Friday of strikes to begin in 24 hours at Motiva’s 235,000 bpd Convent, Louisiana and 238,000 bpd Norco, Louisiana refineries and the Shell Oil Co chemical plant in Norco, the union said. "The industry’s refusal to meaningfully address safety issues through good faith bargaining gave us no other option but to expand our work stoppage," USW International President Leo Gerard said in a statement. Motiva is a 50-50 joint venture of […]

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Shale Producers Postpone Oil Well Completions

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/137322/Kemp_Shale_Producers_Postpone_Oil_Well_Completions US shale producers are postponing well completions to conserve cash and defer production until prices recover, says John Kemp. John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) – EOG Resources became the latest major shale producer to state that it would "delay a significant number of completions" when it announced fourth-quarter results. The company plans to end 2015 with 285 wells awaiting completion services, up from 200 at the end of 2014, it told investors during an earnings call on Thursday. Continental Resources has also announced plans to go slow on well completions in response to the slump in oil prices. Apache and Anadarko Petroleum are among other shale producers to announce a deliberate strategy of delaying completions. U.S. shale producers are postponing well completions to conserve cash and defer production until prices recover. There are a large […]

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Chevron’s 2014 Oil, Gas Reserves Slip After Chad Asset Sale

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/137325/Chevrons_2014_Oil_Gas_Reserves_Slip_After_Chad_Asset_Sale Chevron says its oil and natural gas reserves fell 1% last year largely due to the sale of its stake in a Chad oil field. WILLISTON, N.D., Feb 20 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S.-based oil producer, said on Friday its oil and natural gas reserves fell 1 percent last year largely due to the sale of its stake in a Chad oil field. The company had proved reserves of 11.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent on Dec. 31, about 1 percent lower than a year earlier. Even as Chevron has five major projects coming online by the end of the decade, dwindling reserves have become a key concern for international energy companies, many of which have massive capital budgets to find and extract oil and natural gas. San Ramon, California-based Chevron is also grappling with plunging crude oil prices , which Chief Executive John Watson […]

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Cold weather pushes PJM demand to winter record, tops prior best by over 1,000 MW

Washington (Platts)–20Feb2015/303 pm EST/2003 GMT The PJM Interconnection recorded a new winter demand peak Friday as frigid weather fueled electricity demand across the grid operator’s footprint, it said in a statement. PJM said demand topped out at about 143,800 MW around 8 am EST (1300 GMT), according to preliminary data. Real-time power prices at the peak of demand were around $500/MWh for many of the major PJM zones. –Eric Wieser, [email protected] –Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, [email protected]

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US Interior unveils Arctic oil, gas drilling regulations

Washington (Platts)–20Feb2015/359 pm EST/2059 GMT The Obama administration Friday issued proposed Arctic-specific drilling regulations that will apply to potential exploration operations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The regulations include new requirements for operators to submit "region-specific" response plans for oil spills, have "prompt access" to source control and containment equipment, and have a separate relief rig available in case well control is lost, the Department of Interior said. "If there were to be an uncontrolled well event, we want to make sure that the well can be secured within the drilling season," Brian Salerno, director of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said during a conference call. That requirement was quickly criticized by industry. "Other equipment and methods, such as a capping stack, can be used to achieve the same season relief with equal or higher levels of safety and environmental protection," said Eric Milito, the American […]

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Residents return home after W. Va. derailment

http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=91585&siteSection=unitedpress&videoId=28581637 Oil tanker train. Photo by Steven Frame/Shutterstock MOUNT CARBON, W.Va., Feb. 20 (UPI) — Some of the residents in and around communities evacuated in response to a West Virginia oil-train derailment can return home, a unified command said. Federal regulators said about 28 cars from a CSX line derailed Monday afternoon near Mt. Carbon, W. Va. State officials said about half of the derailed cars were transporting crude oil from North Dakota, which would equate to approximately 8,000 barrels. At least one home was destroyed in the massive fireball that followed the derailment. A unified command established to respond to the incident said some evacuated residents can go home, though others were still under restrictions because of safety concerns. Six of the derailed cars were put back on their tracks by recovery crews. Some of the oil still left in the derailed cars was transferred elsewhere for later […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple