“The world has failed us,” Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa recently said regarding a missed opportunity to preserve pristine Amazon rainforest from oil development. The government offered to forgo drilling in the oil-rich region if the international community donated $3.6 billion to a preservation trust fund. The initiative reportedly raised only $13 million. The proposal dates… Keep reading →
Hardly a bastion of security at the best of times, sectarian violence in post-war Iraq has trended upward over the past few months, with the number of dead – mostly from car bombs and reprisals – reportedly at a five-year high. However, despite deteriorating security, the country’s largest oil fields located in the southern region… Keep reading →
By Jenny Cosgrave, Staff Writer The rise of North American oil supplies could test the future of OPEC which may have to curb supply to accommodate rising shale oil volumes, a new report has found. The increase in U.S. output is a “defining feature of tomorrow’s market” according to International Energy Agency’s oil market report… Keep reading →
With all the great speakers and presentations at the USAEE /IAEE North American Conference in Anchorage this week, it’s hard to pick and choose among so many well-expressed ideas. Our USAEE updates represent just a few of our favorite quotes from the ongoing events. Alaska’s oil output has been falling steadily over the past several… Keep reading →
Investment bank Raymond James published a note to investors today examining assertions that US oil production growth may be slowing in light of Energy Information Administration data over the last three weeks showing that supply has risen by 284,000 barrels per day since early July – almost 95,000 bbl/d per week. “Many in the investment… Keep reading →
Fracking-related earthquakes are back in the news, with a new study suggesting large overseas quakes triggered seismic activity in parts of the US where oil & gas drilling wastewater is disposed in deep injection wells. The findings, published in the Journal Science, are not limited to fracking, but appear to include any oil and gas… Keep reading →
US energy security is much stronger today than just 5 years ago, but taking full advantage of this opportunity requires strategic decision making on behalf of government and the private sector. North American natural resource development can strengthen the US and Canadian economies and provide bargaining chips when dealing with foreign governments, but not… Keep reading →
Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook for Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft due to a “significant increase” in the company’s leverage and risks associated with the integration of the newly- acquired TNK-BP International Ltd. Although Moody’s put a negative outlook on the company, they left Rosneft’s credit rating unchanged, due to close Kremlin support and… Keep reading →
The Three Forks formation in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana could hold more undiscovered, technically recoverable oil than the Bakken Shale that lies above it, according to the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) latest assessment.
The mean of the estimate for the two formations’ combined undiscovered, technically recoverable oil is 7.38 billion barrels, effectively doubling the 2008 estimate for the Bakken shale alone. The mean estimate for Bakken oil, at 3.65 bn bbls – the same as in 2008 – is just shy of the Three Forks’ 3.73 bn bbl estimate. Keep reading →
Consumer demand for energy is expected to rise 40 percent by 2030. More complex product processes, such as oil sands and deep water drilling, have become more attractive due to higher oil prices. As a result, oil and gas exploration companies are increasing frontier production in remote locations, which demand a reliable and robust network communications infrastructure. At the same time, oil and gas companies are seeing the benefits of implementing next-generation “Oil 2.0” or “Smart Field” applications that go beyond simple connectivity to streamline operations, enable closer monitoring of assets, and deliver new cost benefits. By taking a holistic approach to implementing intelligent wireless broadband technology, oil fields that once seemed too expensive or too remote, can now become economically viable.
Cost of Disjointed Processes Keep reading →
