This analysis suggests the Soviet Union’s surprise Sputnik launch led to the creation of DARPA and ultimately the most technically advanced military in the world. Some of those technologies spilled over into civilian life and are now ubiquitous. Could the US military pioneer climate-change mitigating energy advancements? Perhaps not without a “Sputnik moment.” [Weekly Wonk]… Keep reading →
In one of the more honest assessments of current Saudi Arabian oil policy, Rice University’s Jim Krane said there are several plausible reasons behind the Saudis’ apparently sanguine approach to falling global oil prices, but only a few within the Kingdom really know. “If you’re somebody who looks at geopolitics and energy, you could come… Keep reading →
With 125 days left in 2014, we find ourselves looking at What’s Next for the oil & gas industry in the Marcellus and Utica Shale Plays. It has been an eventful year and with just four months until 2015, we look forward and identify key conferences, symposiums and issues that are top of mind.
The Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington D.C., recently published “Big Bets & Black Swans – A Presidential Briefing Book” with policy recommendations for President Obama in 2014. Among a plethora of issues addressed, Tim Boersma and Charles K. Ebinger also discuss lifting the ban on U.S. oil exports. Let’s briefly assess the validity… Keep reading →
The US oil and gas industry has long focused on rig count as a critical component of activity level assessments and production forecasts. But as the Energy Information Administration’s first Drilling Productivity Report shows clearly, in major plays like the Bakken and Eagle Ford, new well production per rig has been rising even as rig… Keep reading →
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has released a report that seeks to answer an important question: are there any more big, profitable shales on the order of a Bakken or an Eagle Ford to be found in the US? The primary feature of the two plays that makes them so attractive is their oil… Keep reading →
The tight oil being developed in North America is certainly not the lowest-cost oil in the world. But of the opportunities available to major oil companies, relatively low cost is just one of many advantages it offers over other sources of production. “The shale revolution has changed the competitive landscape, because every investment decision we… Keep reading →
