Prior to Apple taking the developed world with its innovative products by storm and critically shaping the digital age as we now know it, computer users often used to defrag(ment) their hard drives manually. Basically, the process of ‘defragmentation’ meant to reduce the amount of fragmentation within a system for maintenance purposes “by physically organizing… Keep reading →
President Obama, in an interview with a North Dakota television station, explaining why he continues to delay the Keystone XL pipeline: “Part of the reason North Dakota has done so well is because we’ve very much been promoting domestic U.S. energy use. I’ve already said I’m happy to look at increasing pipeline production for U.S. oil.… Keep reading →
Encana, the Calgary-based oil giant, has increased its investments in Texas Oil Fields despite a disastrous performance in the last 12 months following the steep decline in oil prices. “The timing was woeful, of course. Encana, led by new CEO Doug Suttles, bought its Texas oil at the top of the market, just before oil prices… Keep reading →
Some people believe that “fracking” – the use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology – is a miracle, increasing the extraction of oil and gas from places deep under the ground where hydrocarbons were previously unrecoverable. It has led not only to an economic boom but to a boom in drilling from thousands of fracking wells throughout the United States.
The energy industry – oil & gas sector in particular – is bracing itself for a massive wave of retirements over the short to medium term, which has been dubbed “The Great Shift Change.” As the industry prepares for this turnover, companies are looking to the next generation of candidates with skills ranging from finance,… Keep reading →
The issue of hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) too often becomes a political dispute, which threatens to obscure a far more important matter for the energy industry as a whole: That fracking is a feat of engineering genius, an example of the working complexity of so many pumps, valves, meters, gears, gauges and systems; it… Keep reading →
The Environmental Protection Agency just released the draft of its yearly greenhouse gas emissions inventory. It shows in no uncertain terms that methane emissions from the oil and natural gas sector are going in the wrong direction: Up. Emissions from this overall sector are up two percent in 2013, which includes emissions from oil (petroleum) systems which… Keep reading →
By continuing to delay the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama continues to elevate politics over the pipeline’s merits and symbolism over acting in the U.S. national interest. Instead of giving the go-ahead to a project that would create good, middle-class jobs, boost the national economy and strengthen America’s energy security, the president talks about preserving… Keep reading →
Continued growth of U.S. unconventional oil and gas production has made oil and gas exports attractive for industry. On February 10, 2015, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued a report highlighting the significant decrease in light crude oil imports to the U.S. Gulf Coast area, with light-sweet crude imports virtually eliminated in 2014. Since 2010,… Keep reading →
The energy industry is a seemingly nonstop engine (or drill) of innovation, extracting oil and natural gas in specific locations – and by all manner of ways – once deemed impossible. But these advances below ground, no doubt a triumph of engineering and technology, may soon pale before the strides above ground: The aerial mastery of the… Keep reading →
