In a bid to attract younger generations to the international oil & gas business, Maersk Group recently launched a Sims-style computer game designed to simulate the high-stakes challenges that come with finding, producing and transporting oil in harsh environments. “We believe we have a very fascinating story to tell about the oil & gas industry,… Keep reading →
It would have seemed the stuff of science fiction if it hadn’t appeared on newspapers across the world: According to new forecasts, the United States may soon overtake Saudi Arabia as the planet’s largest oil producing country. Developments in technology and high oil prices have created stunning oil booms across the U.S., transforming sleepy towns into energy powerhouses, and making the longtime dream of American energy independence a possibility again.
There’s just one problem: More oil requires more oil workers. Keep reading →
An industry source told Breaking Energy last November the two greatest challenges companies operating in Alberta’s oil sands region face are access to markets and skilled labor. Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes elaborated on these and other issues during a recent phone call.
In a scenario where the Keystone XL Pipeline is not approved by the Obama Administration, Minister Hughes said companies have lots of different options and that rail has become “compelling.” Although generally less efficient than transporting oil via pipeline, rail could be used to bring Canadian oil as far as the Gulf Coast and maybe the West Coast and Mid-continent as well, he said. Keep reading →
Rising oil and gas prices have brought big oil, plenty of workers and lots of housing headaches to the nation’s fastest-growing boomtowns. The small city of Williston, N.D., was once a sleepy farm town — until oil companies discovered ways to tap the vast Bakken formation believed to hold as many as 24 billion barrels of oil. “It’s a game-changer, a bonanza,” said Tom Rolfstad, executive director for the city economic development department.
California has traditionally thought of itself as the leader in US environmental policy; where the state goes, the nation follows. If that’s the case, the next round of clean energy policy promises to be no more decisive or conclusive than the last ten years of lawsuits and countersuits. A 2006 law passed by voters in California’s infamous bottom-up system of interactive democracy requires renewable energy investments by the state’s utilities, but current lawmakers are backpedaling on widely acknowledged goals, according to recent coverage by the Associated Press as featured on the San Francisco Chronicle. Read more about that here, and read some of AOL’s in depth insight on the issue here.
The rise of the energy workforce has been a broader story in the slow economic recovery of the past few years, as demand for qualified workers in oil and gas fields alongside related sectors has proved a unusual bright spot for jobs. The Houston Chronicle notes that the trend has filtered even into internships; while interns in other sectors often go unpaid, energy company interns can early properly grown-up salaries. Keep reading →
For many decades the benefits of oil and gas development in the US have been overshadowed by the amount of money companies in the sector have made, the environmental impacts of use or development and occasional accidents and the degree to which imports impact US foreign policy and economic health.
The extent to which the US oil and gas business drives job growth, contributes to local and the national economies and has renewed potential to shift economic and political power back to the US were the focus of the American Petroleum Institute’s State of American Energy presentation in Washington, DC today. API has sought ways to boost the reputation of the oil and gas industry in recent years after the industry faced unprecedented opposition to new development both on-and-offshore as new technology allowed access to onshore reserves and offshore development revived. Keep reading →
Big pay hikes in the energy industry have helped fuel the biggest jump in U.S. wages in more than five years, according to an industry report released Wednesday.
The Bakken Shale has already had a transformational impact on its region, with the lightly populated part of North Dakota experiencing an employment boom alongside serious strains on its infrastructure.
This infographic, pulled together by energy publishers Hart Energy, focuses more on what is next for the Bakken region and for the US as the possible further expansion of drilling for its oil and gas resources becomes a central component of the national conversation about energy independence, jobs in the oil and gas sector, and environmental tradeoffs. Keep reading →
The 20th century is often referred to as the “American Century” as it was during that time when the U.S. emerged as an economic and political superpower. But a decade into the 21st century, with the country mired in a jobs crisis alongside its eternal struggle to find new sources of energy, some companies in that sector, with the help of business-friendly research groups, are arguing that the practice of fracking would give the U.S. economy a much-needed boost.
The US oil and natural gas business has been an unusual bright spot for the American economy over the past four years, and that success has helped highlight energy issues as a major factor in the 2012 election cycle.
Energy has not traditionally been a focus of electoral politics beyond prices at the gasoline pump, but this year the broader focus on the economy and the government’s role in directing it have brought to light the successes, the potential and the risks of energy development in the US. Keep reading →
Jared Anderson
Conway Irwin
Peter Gardett