Free Republic

Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex will launch a $6 billion investment in 2017 aimed at maintaining current levels of production at its once-supergiant Cantarell field over the next decade, a Pemex official said on Tuesday. Discovered in 1976, output from the offshore Cantarell field once supplied over 2 million barrels per day (bpd), or more than half of Mexico's total crude production. But output at the field has fallen more than 80 percent since 2004 to hover around 340,000 barrels per day (bpd). The investment will counteract the natural decline of Cantarell by squeezing out an additional 100,000 bpd per...

Statoil ASA recently announced a container system to reduce flaring in the Bakken. The company’s timing could not have been better, considering that North Dakota just approved new flaring regulations. More restrictive regulations covering flaring on existing wells were passed by the North Dakota Industrial Commission – the state’s regulating entity for oil and gas – July 1. The goal of the commission is to reduce flaring to 26 percent by the fourth quarter of 2014, 23 percent by the first quarter of 2016, and 10 percent – with the potential of 5 percent – by the fourth quarter of...

"Crisis" may be a little hyperbolic. But shale production of oil and gas in America suddenly got a lot riskier this week. That's because of a landmark decision from one of the highest state courts in the land. Upholding the right of individual towns to regulate shale drilling, trumping state or federal regulatory regimes. The ruling came down yesterday in New York. Where the State Court of Appeals voted 5-2 to reject challenges to fracking rules imposed on the oil and gas industry by two municipalities in the state: Dryden and Middlefield. The saga started in 2011. When the two...

New England states are united in proposing that a tariff be imposed on electricity rates throughout the region to fund more natural gas pipelines and increased transmission infrastructure — to reverse electricity costs that are among the highest in the nation. The proposal is a necessary step because the region has limited gas pipeline capacity despite a demand that has grown from 6 percent in 2000 to 46 percent in 2013, energy experts said at a forum sponsored by The New England Council at St. Anselm's College in Manchester Monday. At the same time, more and more coal-fired, oil and...

exas now is pumping 36 percent of the nation’s oil, more than doubling its production in three years, according to new federal data. The Energy Information Administration reports that Texas oil production topped 3 million barrels per day in April, for the first time since the late 1970s. Nearly as much crude flowed from Texas as from Iraq, which was the second largest OPEC producer in April at about 3.2 million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg. The news agency estimates that Iraq’s production fell to 2.9 million barrels in June amid insurgent violence. That would drop it below Texas...

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple is full of gratitude for pipeline infrastructure investments after tasking midstream companies two years ago to build pipelines, and build them quickly. Dalrymple hosted his second Governor’s Pipeline Summit in Bismarck on June 24, bringing together about 150 pipeline industry leaders, energy industry representatives and federal, state and local officials to share their response to the rapid construction of thousands of miles of pipelines to meet oil and gas industry demands. “There was a time a few years ago when we said we’re never going to have enough pipelines to deal with this boom,” Dalrymple...

Oil producers are making less for the capital they’re spending than they did a decade ago, when U.S. benchmark crude prices were below $30 a barrel, a new report concludes. A study of more than 80 oil companies showed they made an average 8.6 percent in returns on average capital employed last year, and 11 percent in 2012 — both lower than exploration-and-production returns in 2001, according to a report released Friday by IHS. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude climbed from $27 a barrel in 2001 to $98 a barrel last year. “My guess is that shareholders are...

U.S. crude production in April 2014 was 8.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d), with two states, Texas and North Dakota, accounting for nearly half of this total. Texas production topped 3.0 million bbl/d for the first time since the late 1970s, more than doubling production in the past three years, and North Dakota production broke 1.0 million bbl/d for the first time in history, nearly tripling its production over the same period, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Petroleum Supply Monthly report. Combined crude oil production volumes from Texas and North Dakota reached 4.0 million bbl/d. From...

Safety is first among every oil and gas company. Regardless of whether an employee works in the field, on a rig, or in a high-rise office, they will be reminded time and time again just how important the safety of every employee is to the company, and to the industry. But as more young workers are hired into the industry, the issue has taken on an increased importance. Younger workers differ from older ones by having fewer fatalities, but more total injuries and more serious injuries, according to safety and injury incident research from the Center for Disease Control and...

North Dakota intends to nearly double its oil and gas pipeline capacity within two years as part of a plan to curb the wasteful flaring of natural gas in the bustling Bakken oil field, the state's governor said on Tuesday. Oil production in North Dakota has more than tripled in the past decade to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent (boepd) per day, making for the fastest-growing U.S. state economy. But state pipeline capacity has lagged. Governor Jack Dalrymple said the state wants to boost capacity to 1.4 million boepd by 2016 from about 780,000 boepd now. "We will reduce...

As of January 1, 2014, there were 139 operating refineries and 3 idle refineries with total atmospheric crude oil distillation capacity (ACDU) of 17.9 million barrels per calendar day (bbl/cd), a 101,000-bbl/cd increase in capacity from January 1, 2013. In 2013, four refineries changed ownership, continuing the trend of a handful of sales each year. This information is detailed in EIA's recently released Refinery Capacity Report, which surveys U.S. refinery ownership and capacity annually at the start of each year. Valero Energy Corporation remains the largest U.S. refiner, with total ACDU capacity of more than 1.9 million bbl/cd. Exxon Mobil...

The remnants of the peak oil community cling avidly to the belief that oil production has already peaked and that high prices prove this. “Look at the data” seems to have become a catechism amongst them, and it can be hard to dissuade them otherwise, especially by considering more than one variable as explaining oil supply and price. Most anyone can understand that high oil prices are no more an indicator of resource scarcity than the occasional spike in coffee, pork or orange juice prices. Things happen that can cause prices to rise for a period before supply and demand...

A business association whose members include some of the world’s biggest energy companies is urging the administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, arguing that the southern portion of the project already has shown the positive economic impact the project will have on the country. The group commissioned a study on the economic effect of the 485-mile portion of Keystone pipeline known as the Gulf Coast Extension, which opened earlier this year linking Oklahoma and Texas. The study highlights benefits the project had on local businesses like restaurants and hotels along the route. It notes that during construction, TransCanada...

Plans to build a natural gas pipeline through central and western Massachusetts are running into opposition from residents in the communities affected. The pipeline begins in Troy, Pennsylvania and runs through Wright, New York before entering Massachusetts in Richmond. It would run through dozens of communities before ending in Dracut. But few residents expect to see any benefits from the pipeline plan. “It would go in front of our house. It would go through this hay field,” said Pat Worth, one of those residents. Worth is afraid her 25-acre farm in rural Royalston will be ruined if a natural gas...

The United States plans to export abundant supplies of liquefied natural gas could generate tens of thousands of new jobs in industries that supply producers of the fuel, according to industry participants and a new study. But critics claim that increased demand from energy-hungry overseas customers would drive up domestic natural gas prices, causing manufacturers' costs to rise, and deterring job creation. As Congress considers bills that would speed government approval of applications to build LNG export terminals, a trade association representing manufacturers and others that service the shale gas industry projected that the construction and operation of the multi-billion-dollar...

Much hoopla has erupted since Kurdistan sold a $106 million load of crude oil to a buyer in Israel. Here was justice at last for the long-suffering Kurds, forgotten in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement that divided the Middle East and seemed to give every other major nation its own home, including some nations not previously considered nations. That is the 50,000-foot view, though, and wholly neglects the fate of the first tanker to set sail with Kurdish oil. (The Israeli sale was the second shipment.) The United Leadership left the Turkish port of Ceyhan on May 22. But a combination...

Air strikes killed at least 38 people yesterday as security forces held off attacks on a strategic town and an oil refinery, officials and witnesses said. In the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, air strikes killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 17 in the morning, while further raids in the evening killed six more. Officials said the dead and wounded were civilians, and it was unclear if there were any casualties among the militants, who were the target of the strikes. State television said 19 "terrorists" were killed in the earlier Baiji raids. In the Husseibah...

At 8:48 p.m. on March 26, wind generation on the electric grid covering most of the state of Texas reached a new instantaneous peak output of 10,296 megawatts (MW). At that moment, wind supplied almost 29% of total electricity load, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid's operator. The average wind production in that hour was 10,120 MW. The new wind record surpassed two highs reached in the previous week, while the record prior to March was 9,674 MW set in May 2013. March's wind power record will likely be surpassed in the near future as...

The Obama administration has cleared the way for two energy companies to sell an ultralight variety of oil overseas after minimally processing it, a decision that tests the limits of a long-standing ban on exporting U.S. crude. The move, which came in private classification orders issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, effectively confirms that hydrocarbon known as condensate qualifies as a petroleum product once it has been processed in a distillation tower, and therefore is not barred by the 39-year-old ban on crude exports. Unlike unprocessed crude, companies can freely sell gasoline, diesel and other petroleum...

More than 4,600 oil and natural gas wells were completed in Oklahoma last year as part of a domestic boom that is affecting many parts of the nation, according to reports filed with state regulators. Corporation Commission records indicate companies applied for more than 6,000 drilling permits for the second consecutive year. That figure is up from about 4,100 permits in 2009, The Oklahoman reported Sunday. Mike Terry, president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, said horizontal drilling has opened vast new resources across the country and has renewed activity in Oklahoma’s historic oil fields. “The Mississippi Lime in northern...