Category:

Falling oil price, rig counts helping operators meet N. Dakota gas flaring rules

Washington (Platts)–13Feb2015/325 pm EST/2025 GMT A combination of low oil prices and tumbling rig counts is assisting North Dakota operators in complying with a state mandate to reduce flaring of associated natural gas production, the state’s top oil and gas official said Friday. "It has helped," said Lynn Helms, director of North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources. "It has given companies some breathing room to be able to achieve gas capture goals more easily." On Friday, Helms announced that oil and gas production had reached an all-time high in North Dakota in December, climbing to nearly 1.23 million b/d and 1.51 Bcf/d, respectively. But the pace of production growth has slowed and will likely flatten in 2015 due to low oil and gas prices and falling rig counts, Helms said. The state’s rig count fell to 137 on Friday, its lowest level since July 2010 and a 37% drop […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

After December High, North Dakota Oil Output May Stall

NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) – North Dakota’s shale oil production appears to have reached a plateau after a renewed rise at the end of last year, the state’s top oil official said on Friday, a sign that the U.S. oil boom might be slowing sooner than expected. Oil production in the No. 2 producing state rose nearly 40,000 barrels per day to 1.23 million bpd in December, resuming its years-long rise after three flat months, monthly data from the state’s Industrial Commission showed on Friday. Many forecasters, including the U.S. government, expect overall U.S. production to continue rising until the middle of this year, despite a sharp fall in drilling rigs, as increased efficiency and a focus on sweet spots maintains the shale boom that has raised U.S. output by nearly 70 percent in the last five years. Lynn Helms, the state’s head of Department of Mineral Resources […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Kemp: Mass Layoffs Complicate Oil Industry’s Long-Term Plans

The challenge is recruiting, training and retaining workers and maintaining an appropriate long-term labor force in an industry stuck with a profound boom-bust cycle, analyst John Kemp says. John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – "This is the really crappy part of the job, and this is what I hate about this industry frankly," the chief executive of oilfield services company Baker Hughes complained as he announced it would lay off 7,000 employees. Baker Hughes is cutting jobs in response to slumping prices and a downturn in drilling activity. But the company’s obviously frustrated chief acknowledged that "this is the industry, and it’s throwing us another one of these downturns, and we’re going to be good stewards of our business and do the right thing." So the company will cuts costs, he told investors in a conference call […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Droughts Will Be the Worst in 1,000 Years

U.S. Droughts Will Be the Worst in 1,000 Years thumbnail Several independent studies in recent years have predicted that the American Southwest and central Great Plains will experience extensive droughts in the second half of this century, and that advancing climate change will exacerbate those droughts . But a new analysis released today says the drying will be even more extreme than previously predicted—the worst in nearly 1,000 years. Some time between 2050 and 2100, extended drought conditions in both regions will become more severe than the megadroughts of the 12 th and 13 th centuries. Tree rings and other evidence indicate that those medieval dry periods exceeded anything seen since, across the land we know today as the continental U.S. The analysis “shows how exceptional future droughts will be,” says Benjamin Cook, a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

BP Loses Bid for $750 Million Transocean Spill Insurance

(Bloomberg) — BP Plc isn’t covered under Transocean Ltd.’s insurance policies for the doomed Macondo well project, the Texas Supreme Court said, blocking the oil company’s access to $750 million to pay costs from the 2010 spill. The decision conflicts with an earlier ruling by a U.S. appeals court that Transocean’s carriers couldn’t deny coverage for pollution-related liabilities for a disaster that has already cost BP more than $28 billion. The appeals court later withdrew the opinion and asked the Texas justices to rule on contract interpretation. The Texas Supreme Court said Transocean’s insurance policy had to be read in context with the company’s drilling contract with BP, as the two documents “are inextricably intertwined.” BP can’t claim status as “an additional insured” because of limits in the drilling contract, the Texas court said. “BP is not entitled to coverage under the Transocean insurance policies for damages arising from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fighting rages in run-up to Ukraine ceasefire

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels fought fiercely across the east of the country on Friday despite a new peace deal brokered by Germany and France. A ceasefire is due to come into effect from Sunday under the agreement, which also envisages a withdrawal of the heavy weapons responsible for many of the 5,000 casualties in the conflict that broke out almost a year ago. Kiev said pro-Russian rebels had built up their forces across separatist-held zones since the deal and both sides accused each other of killing civilians. Two people were killed and six wounded when a shell hit a cafe in the Kiev-controlled town of Shchastya near rebel-held Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, a local official said, adding other shells had struck elsewhere in the town. "The town’s heating system is broken, power lines are damaged as well as the water supply … So this is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Fighting Rages in Eastern Ukraine as Cease-Fire Deadline Approaches

Despite a looming cease-fire deadline, Ukraine said Friday that at least 11 people were killed and dozens wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours. Photo: AP. Ukraine descended into further violence on Friday as Kiev and Russia-backed separatists tried to expand and defend their territory before a cease-fire brokered by European leaders was due to come into effect. Eleven Ukrainian soldiers died and 40 more were wounded in the past 24 hours in the eastern battle zone , military spokesman Col. Andriy Lysenko said. Battles were fierce near the Ukrainian-held cities of Debaltseve and Mariupol. At least 10 people were killed elsewhere, including a 7-year-old boy, according to local officials. The truce , seen as a possible last chance to put an end to a surge in the deadly fighting, is set to come into effect Sunday. But a previous deal in September collapsed, and doubts about the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Faults Russia as Combat Spikes in East Ukraine

Photo As fighting intensified along a broad area of eastern Ukraine on Friday, a Ukrainian soldier loaded a tank with shells near Donetsk, one of the largest cities in the region where rebels are active. A truce agreement already considered fragile appears even more so Credit Alexei Chernyshev/Reuters ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — As fighting erupted throughout eastern Ukraine on Friday before a cease-fire begins on Saturday night, the United States accused Russia of joining separatist rebels in an all-out attack on Ukrainian forces around the contested town of Debaltseve. When the pact was signed with a two-day window before the truce, some last-minute jockeying for position was expected. But the intensity and scope of the violence raised concerns that the agreement signed this week, rife with ill-defined and ambiguous provisions, might prove as ineffective as the first cease-fire pact, signed in September. Artillery shelling and gunfire reverberated in the area […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Ukraine crisis: Poroshenko says peace deal in danger

Ukraine’s president has warned that a deal to end the war in the east is in "great danger" after heavy fighting ahead of Saturday night’s ceasefire. Petro Poroshenko also accused Russia of "significantly increasing" its offensive despite the peace agreement reached in Minsk on Thursday. The US ambassador to Ukraine tweeted a satellite image that he said showed Russian artillery near Debaltseve. Shelling was heard in the rebel-held city of Donetsk early on Saturday. Fierce battles are said to be continuing around Debaltseve – a strategic government-held town almost encircled by rebel forces – and outside the southern port city of Mariupol. The BBC’s David Stern in Kiev says that as the clock ticks down to the ceasefire, fears are rising that it won’t be observed. More than a dozen civilians are said to have died in shelling in eastern Ukraine on Friday. It is unclear who was behind […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russian oil production to drop by 70000 barrels a day in 2015

Given the impact of sanctions, low prices and the absence of any large projects expected to come online, oil production in Russia will drop in 2015 by 70,000 barrels a day, according to a report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. At the same time, production at Bashneft’s Arctic fields in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug is going up. Though Russia plans to maintain production above 10 million barrels a day, it may fall in the coming years if oil prices remain around $50 a barrel for an extended period of time, OPEC said in a monthly report released on Monday. Production is estimated to fall by 70,000 barrels a day, while oil exports will drop by 60,000 barrels a day, according to the report, TASS writes. At the same time, some companies like Bashneft have continued to see steady growth in their output, with production increasing by 15.1 percent on the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple