Free Republic

After 20 years in the oil business, Craig Reed, 62, is thinking about winding down his career just as a second downturn in six years rocks the industry. Reed is part of the baby boomer generation that forms the backbone of the U.S. oil workforce and now weighs retirement as energy firms cut spending and shelve projects. That is a worrying prospect for company executives keen to keep their most experienced workers while they ride out the oil market slump. "Between the politics and uncertainty and cost cutting, a lot of people of my age are saying that it isn't...

According to US federal records reviewed by the Associated Press, Louisiana-based LLOG Exploration Offshore plans to engage in deepwater drilling in the Macondo reservoir. The AP says Harper's Magazine first reported the drilling plans late Tuesday. The BSEE green-lighted LLOG's permit to drill a new well near the Macondo site on April 13. Last October, the company's exploration plan was approved after the conclusion of an environmental review conducted by the BOEM. Referring to the 2010 Macondo incident which occurred in the same reservoir, LLOG's vice president for deepwater projects, Rick Fowler, told the AP, "Our commitment is not to...

Overseas competitors who were caught off-guard initially by rising US unconventional crude oil production have increased their own outputs now and can be expected to try and keep prices low to protect their global market shares, speakers at a May 12 Atlantic Council discussion said. That could make marginal US unconventional properties uneconomic, but won’t threaten the new US position as a major producing nation, they agreed. “We’re entering a phase when all the excess capacity will be resized to the new US world market share,” said Subash Chandra, managing director and senior equity analyst at Guggenheim Partners. “I don’t...

...Shell acquired the lease for just over $2 billion in 2008, and, absent a very good reason, the government felt obliged to approve it. Shell will be bound by safeguards that did not exist seven years ago. Several factors — including lawsuits and vigorous lobbying by environmental groups, widespread public dismay caused by the 2010 BP oil spill, and Shell’s ineptitude in earlier trial runs — have led the government to devise rules that are likely to make this project safer than it would have been. Shell is seeking to drill up to six exploratory wells in the Chukchi Sea...

ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said Tuesday that the Obama administration’s decision to allow a competitor’s Arctic drilling program to move forward has provided some, but not all, of the clarifications they were looking in their own projects in the region. The U.S. government on Monday gave Shell’s $6 billion plan to explore for crude oil in the northern Chukchi Sea a preliminary OK, reviving exploration plans that have faced significant political, engineering and cost challenges. Lance said that the go-ahead given to Shell’s program has not resolved all of ConocoPhillips’ Arctic questions. “A lot of the [regulations] are still subject...

Another bill that could quash city frack bans passed the Texas House of Representatives and is heading to the Senate. House Bill 2595 would prohibit cities from validating petitions that would restrict the right of any person to use or access private property for economic gain. That means if voters in a city attempted to petition to, for example, ban hydraulic fracking, as they did in Denton in North Texas, it would be tossed out because it violates the rights of mineral owners. The bill targets any petition that limits oil and gas operations. It does not apply to alcohol-related...

U.S. shale production growth will fall 86,000 barrels per day next month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in its monthly report, more evidence the nation’s oil boom is in decline. The EIA’s monthly forecast is the second in a row to project an overall decline in domestic production growth, as diminishing output from older shale wells outpaces new gushers in the oil fields. Producers have sidelined about 941 oil-drilling rigs since October, and oil traders are starting to see signs the U.S. shale boom is weakening, which could signal the global glut in crude supplies will ease. Crude prices...

You expect a certain sort of magic from a car like Toyota's Mirai, the world's first mass-market, hydrogen-powered all-electric named after the Japanese word for "future." It maxes out at 300 miles, refuels in five minutes and spits out zero emissions except for water, all for tens of thousands of dollars less than Tesla's electric Model S. But behind the wheel of the four-door Mirai, which California drivers can buy in October for around $50,000, what you get is something much more, well, boring: a smooth, quiet, mid-size sedan you wouldn't find out of place in a school pick-up circle....

Hands-free car entry systems, which typically unlock car doors without requiring the pushing of any buttons when owners are close to their vehicles, provide great convenience. Unfortunately, however, people have begun marketing for sale devices that allow criminals to exploit a technological vulnerability in these systems, and crooks have been seen using “mystery devices” to open cars equipped with hands-free car entry systems. Once in a car, crooks can steal whatever is in it, and, while most of the recent issue has been just that, they can also potentially connect a device to the vehicle’s diagnostic port in an effort...

American Eagle Energy became the fourth U.S. energy producer to file for bankruptcy protection in the aftermath of the big drop in crude oil prices. The Colorado-based company that buys and develops oil wells in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and Montana filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in Denver’s bankruptcy court. American Eagle Energy, which recently missed an interest payment on its debt, listed assets of $222 million and liabilities of $215 million. Shares of American Eagle Energy traded for as much as $7.05 less than a year ago, reflecting the stunningly fast collapse of...

Oil production from the Bakken and Eagle Ford shale plays look like they’ve peaked and other shale plays may not be far behind. Oil production from seven major U.S. shale plays is expected to fall by a total of 86,000 barrels a day in June, according to a monthly report from the Energy Information Administration released Monday. The previous report released a month ago also showed a forecast for a fall of 57,000 barrels a day in May. Oil output at the Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas is forecast to see the biggest decline, down 47,000 barrels a...

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries doesn’t see oil prices consistently trading at $100 a barrel again in the next decade, a pessimistic assessment that has the group considering the return of production limits to influence the market, according to people familiar with a recent strategy report. The report predicted that oil prices will be about $76 a barrel in 2025 in OPEC’s most optimistic scenario, the people said, a reflection of the cartel’s worries that American competitors will be able to cope with low prices and keep pumping out supplies. It also contemplated situations where crude oil costs...

The Maersk Tigris was released Thursday, more than a week after the ship was seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement from the shipping company. The cargo vessel was transiting the Strait of Hormuz on April 28 when Iranian military vessels fired warning shots at the ship and directed it to proceed into Iranian waters. The ship and crew has been held ever since over a business dispute with Maersk Line. “The release follows a constructive dialogue with the Iranian authorities, including the Ports & Maritime Organization, and the provision of a letter of undertaking...

Siemens, the German industrial giant, said on Thursday that it would cut 4,500 jobs as it reacts to a slump in oil prices that has eroded its sales of equipment to the energy industry. Lower oil prices have generally been a boon to the eurozone economy, freeing up cash that consumers can spend on other things. But in the case of Siemens, the effect is the opposite because of its large business supplying producers of oil, gas and electricity. Siemens said it needed to cut jobs and reduce costs because of “the persistently difficult environment in the global power generation...

When Houston’s Swift Energy Co. reported first-quarter results Thursday, it offered a glimpse at the level of cost-cutting oil and gas companies are making in the Eagle Ford Shale. “We are seeing cost concessions in some cases greater than we originally budgeted,” said Terry Swift, president and CEO, said in a call with analysts. Swift’s average drilling cost this year is $2.6 million per well, down from $3.2 million last year. And its most recent Eagle Ford well was drilled for $2.2 million. Its lease operating costs dropped 16 percent from the previous quarter. Swift on Thursday reported its first-quarter...

China overtook the US as the world’s biggest importer of crude oil in April, the culmination of a seismic shift in global energy flows over the past decade. Chinese customs data showed crude oil purchases from overseas hit a new high of 7.4m barrels a day in April, equivalent to roughly one in every 13 barrels consumed globally and topping US imports of 7.2m barrels a day. The US routinely exports about 500,000. While China’s imports are not expected to consistently surpass those of the US until the second half of this year, the move illustrates how the US shale...

The drop in oil prices was supposed to help the economy this year. So far, it seems to have mostly hurt. The theory of why lower oil costs should boost U.S. growth is simple. Despite gains in domestic production from the shale boom, the country is a still a net importer of crude. So when oil prices fall, American consumers and businesses spend less money on stuff produced abroad, leaving them with more to spend on stuff produced at home. And gross domestic product goes up. Yet GDP expanded at an annual rate of just 0.2% in the first quarter-a...

Cuba unveiled new data on Wednesday it said confirmed there were billions of barrels of oil beneath its Gulf of Mexico waters but admitted there was little interest in new exploration even with the thaw in U.S. relations. The United States and Cuba have vowed to restore diplomatic relations after more than 50 years of animosity, but the comprehensive U.S. trade embargo remains in place. While U.S. tourism, transportation and agriculture companies position themselves for Cuban business, oil companies have proven less eager since three exploratory wells came up dry in 2012. Low oil prices and new opportunities in Mexico's...

Oil prices hit 2015 peaks on Wednesday amid the first drawdown in U.S. crude inventories since January, before settling off their highs as investors and traders moved to take profits on a multi-week rally. The dollar's tumble had also fed the run-up in oil and other commodities, as those raw materials became more affordable for holders of the euro and other currencies. U.S. crude futures rallied more than $2 to the year's high of $62.58 a barrel, before settling just 53 cents higher at $60.93. Futures of North Sea Brent, the more widely-used benchmark, reached a 2015 peak of $69.63...

HOUSTON — Offshore platforms have a lot of hard-to-reach places, and a first-time exhibitor at the Offshore Technology Conference wants to use flying robots to make those tough corners more accessible. U.K.-based Sky-Futures has built a business using drones to inspect areas such as the underbelly of offshore platforms and burning flare stacks. The company’s co-founder and CEO James Harrison — who spent years working with information-gathering drones in Iraq and Afghanistan — said using the robots to do the inspection work makes it more efficient and safer. Historically, crews of workers inspecting those spots have had to dangle from...