2000.08.30
I just discovered World
Oil magazine. I never looked at it before because I had always
assumed from its name that it would be too "high level" to interest me. But it actually
sports a decent combination of technical and editorial content, at least in the July
issue.
The most recent issue includes articles on AVO
inversion and using
4C data for predicting lithology and fluid type, as well as a column discussing
implications of the Western Geco merger.
In addition to their seismic technology and exploration coverage, they
cover drilling, production and offshore.
First
Phillips Petroleum buys a Cray. Now
Conoco builds a
massively parallel supercomputer.
2000.08.23
Oil and Gas Journal: Companies
bid $167.3 million at US gulf lease sale. "The sale was dominated by independent
companies, with Union Oil of California [Unocal], Kerr-McGee, Amerada Hess, and CXY
Energy posting $63 million of the $153.6 million in high bids."
High Bids
Ranked by Bid Amount.
Lease
Sale Map. Blocks receiving bids are color coded by number of bids.
I count 29 blocks receiving multiple bids. A lot of activity in the Garden
Banks area.
MMS: Homepage for the Western
Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 177.
2000.08.22
Oil Online: Offshore
Industry anticipates successful Western Gulf Lease Sale.
Tommorrow.
"The Gulf of Mexico region is the birthplace of the
offshore oil and gas industry and remains its most active
arena."
Rick von Flatern (who?): Impaled
on a pogo stick.
"There is no denying the oil industry has been
caught cheating the federal treasury and by extension
the American people. It is the kind of revelation that
does nothing to help an industry anxious to change an
image Apache Oil headman Ray Plank once compared to
that of condom and cigarette manufacturers."
This von Flatern guy really nails it. The oil industry's biggest problem
in this country is its image, and I think a lot of the bad PR is
unjustified. But it's pretty easy to demonize an industry that cheats
Uncle Sam and Native Americans out of a billion dollars.
2000.08.18
With all the focus in the news on OPEC, we seem to be giving short
shrift to the demand side of the supply and demand equation:
Oil and Gas Journal: "The
upstream side of the oil and gas industry should remain strong through
next year."
"US consumers and economists both were caught
off-guard by the recent surge in domestic demand
for oil, stemming from increased automotive travel
and the additional fuel consumption of the
popular sport-utility vehicles in this country,
analysts said."
The analysts were officials of the Magnum Financial Group,
a New York-based financial advisory firm.
Remember, the U.S., with 1/20th of the world's population, accounts
for 25% of the world's oil consumption!
2000.08.17
The Unocal patent story is finally getting some attention.
WSJ: A
Patent Fracas Pits Unocal Against Big U.S. Oil Producers.
"Rather than prescribing specific ingredients, such as fuel
stocks or additives, as more ordinary oil-industry patents
had done, the Unocal patent called for certain properties
that could be achieved with a variety of combinations of
ingredients. In effect, the patent would cover numerous
methods of making gas that had the specified properties.
Unocal filed its unusual application with the U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office in Washington in December 1990.
"Over the next year, as the patent-application process
unfolded, Unocal continued to participate in talks with
both the oil-and-auto consortium and the California air
board. In more than two dozen meetings with regulators,
Unocal argued for various concessions, as other
companies did, recalls Jananne Sharpless, then the
board's chairwoman. But Unocal never mentioned its
business before the patent office.
"Board staff members, including Dean Simeroth, the lead
fuel-specifications technician, say that, in retrospect, they
believe that Unocal tried to encourage the panel to adopt
clean-fuel requirements consistent with the company's
pending patent application."
2000.08.16
Oil and Gas Journal: Refiners
petition US Supreme Court for review of Unocal patent case.
"Attorneys for ExxonMobil Corp. and four other refiners
petitioned the US Supreme Court Tuesday to review a lower
court decision that would force them to pay royalties to
Unocal Corp. for its gasoline reformulation process.
"[Gene Renna, senior vice-president of ExxonMobil, said in a written
statement,] 'We contend that the trial and appellate courts committed
errors in their judgments in this case and that those errors have
serious implications, not just for gasoline refiners and
consumers, but for how we make environmental rules in the
US.'
"Opponents claim Unocal misused the patent system. 'Unocal
participated in regulatory proceedings while secretly filing and
then amending patent claims to closely resemble the regulatory
outcome,' said Renna. 'Our brief points out the inequity of
effectively levying a fine against producers who are required by
law to make this clean-burning gasoline.'"
2000.08.13
Schlumberger took advantage of the annual SEG meeting last week to announce new seismic
acquisition systems: Q-Marine
and Q-Borehole.
God bless the seismic contractors. They are single-handedly supporting any and all
seismic technology development for the energy industry.
This is particularly true in the area of marine multicomponent acquisition. I am personally
certain that by the end of this decade, maybe within five years, most seismic industry
activity will be the acquisition of multicomponent "4-C" seismic data for production
monitoring. And judging by the actions of the seismic contractors, I don't think I'm alone
in believing this. Over the last three years, the contractors have done a fantastic job
devoting resources to developing ocean-bottom 4-C acquisition systems. I have been
absolutely amazed at the data these systems have produced in some surveys.
Unfortunately, so far this development work has amounted to unrewarded altruistic behavior.
The response of the industry has been tepid, and I suspect that the contractors offering
4-C acquisition have only recovered a small fraction of their development costs.
Of course, the application of 4-C seismic for reservoir characterization and monitoring
is still mostly an unproven technology. In fact, I think a lot of research needs to be
conducted before anyone will truly have a clue how to properly process, interpret and
utilize 4-C seismic data for production purposes. But guess what? The contractors can't
conduct the type of research I'm describing without the participation of the rest of the
energy industry. The oil and gas companies, particularly the majors, need to *lead* the
next phase of the R&D effort.
Thanks for listening. :-\
2000.08.04
Oil and Gas Journal: GOP
platform calls for strong US energy policy.
"[The platform states,] 'Foreign oil now accounts for one third of our total trade
deficit. Meanwhile, domestic oil production has fallen 17%
over the last 8 years, as vast areas of the continental US have
been put off-limits to energy leasing -- although we depend on
oil and natural gas for 65% of our energy supply.... 36 oil refineries have closed
in just the last 8 years, while not a single new refinery has been built in this
country in the last quarter-century.'
"The platform said the US needs a national energy strategy to
increase domestic supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas."
I'm not a fan of the Republicans, their policies, and especially their politics.
On the subject of energy policy, however, I have to admit that the Republicans are
a lot closer to a reasonable policy position than the Democrats.
One position that I have to disagree with is the relentless attacks on the Kyoto
Protocol on global warming. The Republicans insist on claiming that we need to
do more research before we take any action. While I certainly agree that the
subject deserves a lot more research, I think it is imprudent to argue that any
action would be premature.
Houston Chronicle: Gulf leases in demand
as auction approaches .
"Oil companies flush with cash from high oil and gas prices are expected to bid on increasingly
deeper tracts in the western Gulf of Mexico at the federal offshore lease auction later this month.
"The deepwater Gulf is as active now as it has ever been. The number of rigs drilling in the deep
water, 1,000 feet or deeper, has risen to a record of 34, according to a recent report by the
Minerals Management Services. The government agency that manages federal offshore oil and
gas leases said there were 26 rigs drilling in the deep water at this time last year.
"Companies such as Marathon Oil and Conoco are drilling in waters greater that 5,000 feet, some
of the deepest ever in the Gulf."
2000.08.01
Houston Chronicle: Operating profits
are up at Baker.
"The seismic portion of Baker Hughes has been the slowest to recover, which is the
case throughout the industry. Revenues at Western Geophysical declined 24
percent from the comparable quarter a year earlier, while all other divisions
gained.
"However, the geophysical unit returned to profitability during the quarter
because of cost cutting. Additional good news was that the quarterly
evaluation of its library of seismic surveys resulted in a gain of $15.6 million.
"Officials explained that one large survey, on the continental shelf in the Gulf
of Mexico, is in such demand that it more than compensated for surveys whose
book value had declined.
"While there has been an improvement in the seismic business on land, particularly
in North America, the marine contracting part of the business is "quite dismal" on a
global basis, said Szescila. [Andy Szescila, president of Baker Hughes' oil field
operations group.]
"Baker Hughes is in the process of combining Western Geophysical with Schlumberger's
Geco Prakla. The two companies are trying to put together a definitive agreement."
