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New oil expected offshore New Zealand

New Zealand said strategy for offshore oil developments paying off. Oil is country’s No. 4 source of export revenue. (UPI/Shutterstock/James Jones Jr.) WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 2 (UPI) — The New Zealand government said Thursday a long-term investment by Austrian energy company OMV in the country’s largest oil field has paid off. OMV started producing oil from the Maari field, the largest offshore oil field in New Zealand, in 2009. It’s so far produced a total 15 million barrels and the company has since embarked on a campaign to double the expected rate of production. "The national government’s hard work in this area has delivered significant levels of exploration activity," Energy Minister Simon Bridges said in a statement. "By necessity, the petroleum sector has a long-term view and – even with the current low global oil price – we remain confident that New Zealand remains attractive for those wanting […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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California’s push for cleaner buses could edge out natural gas

LOS ANGELES Fifteen years ago, California led the way to cleaner transit buses with strict tailpipe emissions standards that effectively ushered out diesel as the primary fuel for buses in the state and replaced it with natural gas. Now, California is poised once again to take the lead, this time by mandating a switch to so-called "zero-emission" buses by 2040. The new push by California’s powerful Air Resources Board (CARB) has the potential to marginalize natural gas as a bus fuel in the same way its adoption once marginalized diesel. In response, the California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition has proposed expanding the definition of “zero-emission vehicles” to include not just electric buses, but also those powered by so-called “renewable natural gas,” which is produced from cow manure or decomposing organic matter in landfills. Whereas regular natural gas offers a reduction in greenhouse gases of about 15 to 20 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Rigs Rebounding at Sub-$60 Shows Shale Boom’s Resilience

Sudden rebound in U.S. oil rigs despite sub-$60 crude shows how resilience U.S. shale has become amid increasing competition. For the first time in almost seven months, America’s shale drillers put rigs in oil fields back to work, and they’re doing it at a lower price. The last time they added rigs, crude futures were trading near $70 a barrel. Today, even after a rebound, they’re under $60. And yet drilling rigs rose in almost every major oil basin in the country this week, raising the total by 12, according to field-services company Baker Hughes Inc. The sudden rebound in the U.S. oil rig count is a testament to how resilient U.S. shale has become as it battles against OPEC for market share. Spurred by last year’s collapse in prices, shale explorers have been able to bring down their breakeven costs by $15 to $20 a barrel, a Bloomberg […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WPX Plans to Increase Bakken Activity

WPX Energy Rockies Asset Map | Click to Enlarge WPX Energy announced this week they plan to increase activity in their Williston operations during the second half of the year. Related: Shale Oil: Sky’s the Limit WPX currently has an inventory of 14 Williston wells awaiting completion and the company will resume completions in August, starting with a four-well pad. Since the fourth quarter of 2014, many companies pulled back oil rigs as crude prices declined. WPX will be the first to approve more rigs in the play since prices have stabilized. The company credits significant process improvements, structural changes to lower costs and successful discussions with key vendors as key to this decision to move forward. “The combination of cost reductions and higher EURs gives us the opportunity to generate returns in excess of 30 percent in today’s commodity price environment,” says Rick Muncrief, president and chief executive […]

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BP Agrees to Pay $18.7 Billion to Settle Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Claims

If approved by a federal judge, the deal would conclude a monumental legal showdown over the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 crew members aboard the drilling rig and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The agreement would avert years of litigation over the environmental impact of the spill, which leaked millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf and coated hundreds of miles of sensitive beaches, marshes and mangroves. The settlement would add at least $10 billion to the $44 billion BP has already incurred in legal and cleanup costs, pushing its tab for the spill higher than all the profits it has earned since 2012. But the payments would be stretched out over 18 years at around $1.1 billion annually, softening the blow to the company’s cash flow. Much of the penalties would likely be tax-deductible, analysts noted. The money largely will end up […]

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Fossil fuels have made up at least 80% of U.S. fuel mix since 1900

graph of share of energy consumption in the United States, as explained in the article text While the energy history of the United States is one of significant change, three fossil fuel sources—petroleum, natural gas, and coal—have made up at least 80% of total U.S. energy consumption for more than 100 years. Recent increases in the domestic production of petroleum liquids and natural gas prompted shifts between the uses of fossil fuels ( largely from coal-fired to natural gas-fired power generation ), but the predominance of these three energy sources is likely to continue into the future. For the first several decades of American history, families used wood (a renewable energy source) as a primary source of energy. Coal became dominant in the late 19th century before being overtaken by petroleum products in the middle of the 20th century, a time when natural gas usage also rose quickly. Since […]

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Weekly US coal production estimates dip below 16 million st: EIA

Weekly US coal production totaled an estimated 15.5 million st in the week that ended Saturday, down 4.7% from the prior week and down 17.8% from the comparable week a year ago, US Energy Information Administration data showed Thursday. While EIA does not comment on its production estimates, the weekly production estimate came in below 16 million st for the fourth time in the last five weeks, as coal output continues to fall because of low natural gas prices. Coal production during the week that ended June 27 in Wyoming and Montana, mostly made up of output from the Powder River Basin, totaled an estimated 6.7 million st during the week, down 17% compared with last year, according to the EIA. Year-to-date coal production in Wyoming and Montana is estimated to total 195.3 million st, down 8% compared with the same period last year. Article continues below… Platts Coal […]

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The EIA’s Questionable Numbers

EIA Post 1 EIA Post 2 EIA Post 3 EIA Post 4 EIA Post 5 The Drilling Productivity Report has the Permian + Eagle Ford peaking in April. EIA Post 6 What is an oil worker in Venezuela living on in terms of what it would cost if bought here in the USA ?My seat of the pants guess is that between various subsidies which may or may not be available etc the average worker who is supposedly making a buck or two is actually making at least ten bucks or twenty bucks in dollar equivalent purchasing power. For fifteen or twenty bucks you can buy enough of the cheapest sort of staples by careful shopping here in this country to ( inadequately ) feed two to four people plus maybe a bottle of aspirin once in a while. If you have to you can wear the same clothes […]

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BHI: US oil rig count rises for first time in 30 weeks

A sudden 12-unit jump in oil-directed rigs during the abbreviated week ended July 2 represented their first rise since Dec. 5, 2014, and helped lift the overall US drilling rig count for a second consecutive week, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc. The overall count, up 3 units during the week to 862, has now gained 5 units over the past 2 weeks following 28 consecutive weeks of losses ( OGJ Online, June 26, 2015 ). The US is still down 1,012 units compared with this week a year ago. Following a surge in well permits 2 weeks ago and last week’s first rig count rise of the year, permits last week fell to their lowest level since the Christmas-New Year’s holiday, Raymond James & Associates Inc. noted this week in an energy update. Just 680 permits were issued, representing a 6-month low only a week after a […]

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Oil drops on rising U.S. rig count

LONDON Oil prices fell on Friday as a rising U.S. rig count stoked fears of global oversupply and after Chinese regulators opened an investigation into suspected stock market manipulation. U.S. oil drilling increased this week for the first time after 29 weeks of declines, a sign U.S. oil production may start to increase more strongly again after a slowdown due to a period of low oil prices. Oil rigs increased by 12 to 640 following a slump that cut the number of active U.S. rigs from a peak of 1,609 in October to a nearly five-year low last week, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc ( BHI.N ) said. "This is the first weekly increase in 30 weeks and is an indication that the slump in drilling activity has ended," said Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "Oil prices have retreated on that news," Fritsch told […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple