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Report: Removing US Oil Ban Would Create Jobs Beyond Drilling

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) – Lifting a 40-year-old U.S. ban on crude exports would create a wide range of jobs in the oil drilling supply chain and broader economy even in states that produce little or no oil, according to a report released on Tuesday. Some 394,000 to 859,000 U.S. jobs could be created annually from 2016 to 2030 by lifting the ban, according to the IHS report, titled: "Unleashing the Supply Chain: Assessing the Economic Impact of a U.S. crude oil free trade policy." Only 10 percent of the jobs would be created in actual oil production, while 30 percent would come from the supply chain, and 60 percent would come from the broader economy, the report said. The supply chain jobs would be created in industries that support drilling, such as oil field trucks, construction, information technology and rail. Many of the jobs would be created in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada Transport Watchdog Wants New Tank Cars In Service Earlier

OTTAWA, March 17 (Reuters) – Canada’s transportation watchdog said on Tuesday that recent fiery derailments of trains hauling crude oil mean a new generation of stronger tanker wagons should be introduced ahead of schedule. The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) is probing two accidents within the last month involving Canadian National Railway Co oil trains which came off the tracks and caught fire near the small northern Ontario town of Gogama. Both trains were hauling CPC-1232 crude tankers, meant to be safer than the older DOT-111 models that blew up in downtown Lac-Megantic, Quebec in 2013, killing 47 people. Canada last week unveiled tough standards for a new generation of tanker cars that would replace the CPC-1232s by 2025 at the latest. "While the proposed standards look promising, the TSB has concerns about the implementation timeline, given initial observations of the performance of CPC-1232 cars in recent derailments," the agency […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canadian natural gas E&P outlook weak: analyst

Houston (Platts)–17Mar2015/412 pm EDT/2012 GMT The outlook for Canada’s natural gas exploration and production industry will remain weak over the next several years as boosted US production, high North American stock levels and low prices continue to weigh on the profitability of the industry, the Conference Board of Canada said Tuesday. The dramatic rise in US shale gas production in the last several years, particularly in the Appalachian Basin’s Marcellus and Utica Shale plays has led to a decreased demand for imports of gas from Canada, said Michael Shaw, a CBC economist and co-author of a board study. "I think the US natural gas industry is going to do quite well," Shaw said in an interview. "I think that it doing so well it is going to push out Canadian imports and really hurt the Canadian industry." Canadian gas production, which last year averaged about 14.7 Bcf/d, can be […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Falling rig counts drive projected near-term oil production decline in 3 key U.S. regions

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Drilling Productivity Report Republished March 17, 2015, 10:00 a.m., text was modified to clarify content. EIA’s most recent Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) indicates a change in the crude oil production growth patterns in three key oil producing regions: the Eagle Ford, Niobrara, and Bakken . The DPR estimates, which were issued on March 9 and cover the months of March and April, include the first projected declines in crude oil production in these regions since publication of the DPR began in October 2013. However, with production gains continuing in other regions, particularly the Permian, overall crude oil production in regions tracked by the DPR rose slightly in March to 5.6 million barrels per day. Total production in the DPR regions in April is expected to be virtually unchanged from its March level. In any given month, there are new wells and legacy, or continuing, […]

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Cnooc’s North American Unit Slashes 13% of Workforce

CALGARY—The North American headquarters of China National Offshore Oil Corp. said Tuesday it would cut about 13% of its workforce due to the slump in global oil prices , raising questions about terms of the Chinese state-owned company’s accord with the Canadian government. Cnooc said wholly-owned Canadian unit Nexen Energy ULC would reduce its 3,200-strong workforce by 400 jobs, including 340 in North America and 60 working for its British unit, to deal with falling revenue from a more than 50% drop in crude prices compared with mid-2014. It also said it would reorganize key business units and slow development on a new oil-sands project in northern Alberta. “In response to the recent industry downturn that has affected all companies in the energy sector, a decision was made to conduct a thorough review of our organization to ensure our long-term viability and sustainability,” Nexen Chief Executive Fang Zhi said. […]

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Whiting Petroleum: Is It Up for Sale?

Rumors Swirl About The Fate of Bakken’s Largest Producer Whiting Petroleum Reportedly Up For Sale Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Denver-based Whiting Petroleum might be up for sale and some companies may be biting. Bloomberg reported on Friday that several companies are expressing interest in Whiting including Exxon Mobil Corp., Continental Resources Inc., Hess Corp. and Statoil ASA. No one is talking openly about a possible deal including Whiting, who has not given any official statement about their intentions. All information has come from anonymous sources and people who are speculating about what the company may do. Bloomberg quotes Phillip Jungwirth, an analyst with Bank of Montreal, who says that “Whiting is probably exploring a sale along with other strategic alternatives, including selling assets, raising debt and selling shares in order to address investor liquidity concerns.” Some believe that a full sale is unlikely due to the Whiting’s […]

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California’s Cleaner Fuel Comes at Cost to Water: Report

(Bloomberg) — The water it takes to supply energy to California, the biggest U.S. fuel market, has risen almost four-fold over two decades. And the culprit isn’t oil. It’s biofuels, according to a report. California’s “water footprint” for energy — the water used to produce transportation fuels, natural gas and electricity consumed in the state — rose to 7.7 cubic kilometers in 2012 from 2.1 in 1990, the report prepared by university and environmental researchers showed. Almost all of the increase came from water used to grow biofuel crops in the U.S. Midwest and overseas to help meet the state’s goals for using low-carbon fuels, according to the paper published by the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The increase in water demand for biofuels highlights an unintended consequence of low-carbon fuel policies being adopted and considered across the U.S. to curb global warming and reduce the nation’s dependence on […]

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Transport sector set to give big lift to oil demand

LONDON (Reuters) – Demand for oil is intimately connected to the demand for transportation in the United States and the other advanced industrial economies. Cars, trucks, airlines, railways and shipping accounted for 71 percent of total U.S. oil consumption in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Petroleum-derived fuels, including gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil, met 97 percent of the transportation sector’s energy needs. Before the oil shocks of the 1970s as much as half of U.S. oil demand came from power producers and for heating homes, offices and factories. But following the sharp rise in prices, oil’s role in other parts of the economy was largely replaced by cheaper coal, gas, nuclear and eventually renewables, leaving oil as a transport fuel. The same pattern was repeated across the other advanced industrial economies. Oil demand has become inseparable from the demand for transportation services. But […]

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Trustees slam BP statement on gulf environment

Federal government challenges BP assessment about the state of the environment along the southern U.S. coast in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident. File photo by A.J. Sisco/UPI Statements made by BP about the state of the U.S. Gulf Coast environment after the Deepwater Horizon incident are off the mark, state and federal trustees said. "The state and federal trustees, including our scientific colleagues at universities and institutions around the Gulf [of Mexico], are engaged in a rigorous, scientific process of injury assessment and are still analyzing the data, conducting studies, and evaluating what happened," a statement emailed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on behalf of the Deepwater Horizon Trustee Council late Monday read. A cascading series of events tied to the Deepwater Horizon rig, which BP leased from Transocean, led to a spill of more than 3 million barrels of oil, about 10 times […]

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Russian Energy Minister Novak to Meet Exxon CEO on Wednesday

MOSCOW, March 17 (Reuters) – Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak plans to meet Exxon’s chief executive officer, Rex Tillerson, on Wednesday, a ministry official told Reuters. The official declined to give any more details for the meeting, which comes as Western sanctions, imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, have prevented the U.S. company from participating in several projects in Russia. Tillerson last visited Moscow in June 2014 when he affirmed his commitment to doing business with Russia. Last year, Exxon was forced by the sanctions to suspend its joint operations with Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft in the offshore Arctic, where they successfully performed exploration drilling. A Rosneft spokeswoman declined to comment on any possible meeting of Tillerson and Rosneft’s head, Igor Sechin. The sanctions prevent Western companies from giving Russia technology for Arctic offshore, deepwater and shale oil development. Rosneft will not resume drilling in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple