> Although I agree with the overall premise here, I have to point out that
Figure 2 represents some serious wishful thinking.
This next piece is a pretty good general-interest article on deep-water blowouts.
It is also an example of consortium work between the national labs, energy
companies, and energy service companies -- the work politicians
refer to as "corporate welfare."
"The INEEL-led research team has developed new seismic source technologies --
devices used to create shock waves that travel below the drill bit through the
ground. Drillers then record the resulting acoustic data to gain insight into the
location of high- and low-pressure areas before they drill." [Umm -- I think that
should say "as they drill."]
...
"The research team set out to build better seismic sources after a workshop in 1997
... found that the biggest technical hurdle to drilling safely in deep water is the
inability to accurately sense the pressure levels in marine sediments before drilling."
"Marathon's oil and gas exploration business employs about 2,870 people worldwide,
815 in Houston. Marathon Ashland Petroleum, in which Marathon holds a 62 percent
interest, employs 6,185 workers, 80 in Houston."
2001.04.24
Oil & Gas Journal:
ExxonMobil
says savings from merger more than double forecasts.
"[Lee Raymond] expects ExxonMobil's capital investment to increase by 15-20% in 2001
and another 10% next year. Most of ExxonMobil's increased investment is in the upstream
segment.... ExxonMobil's capital
investments to increase production are likely to total $100 billion for the decade."
...
"ExxonMobil has 39 major upstream projects under way to develop more than 5.1
billion net boe of resources. An additional 49 projects are in the early planning
stage with the potential to develop up to an additional 9 billion net boe."
> I remember a few months ago saying something like "Big Oil is a myth." I was
wrong.
Oil & Gas Journal:
US
officials hopeful for full federal oil and gas R&D funding.
"Strong support in Congress and within industry may help restore funding to oil and
gas research programs that the US Department of Energy's budget proposal would cut,
administration and industry officials said Monday."
2001.04.23
If you are interested, I've updated the event list on my work page for
May. These are mostly geophysical meetings of interest to me.
Associated Press:
Fear
of future bust has oil industry pros seeking other work.
"The total number of U.S. jobs in oil and gas
extraction, which includes drilling crews, was
324,000 last month. Seasonally adjusted, that's
the highest level since November 1998, but
considerably lower than January 1991, when
the figure stood at 403,000, according to the
federal Department of Labor."
Reuters:
Schlumberger
earnings soar as recovery broadens.
Associated Press:
New
seismic technology could enrich discoveries.
> What a terrible article! I have no idea what they're talking about.
> A guess from Don Dean at Veritas DGC --
"I believe that Vecta is doing 3D 3Component work...so it must be
something incorporating measured shear info."
> Whatever it is, it apparently came out of a UT research consortium,
so it must be legit. <grin>
Paradigm
Geophysical and Petrophysical Consulting Inc. Form Service Cooperation Agreement.
2001.04.20
Oil and Gas Online:
Cheney sees no quick fixes for US energy policy.
"According to Cheney, the US will need at least 65, maybe
up to 90 new power plants every year for the next 2
decades to keep up with a growing economy. And some of
those plants should be nuclear-powered, if the US `is truly
serious' about reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
Bloomberg Business News:
Exxon still
opposes regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
Reuters:
Exxon Mobil plans
publicity blitz amid boycott calls.
> I find quite bizarre the effort Exxon Mobil dedicates to cultivating
its image as an environmental miscreant. While the rest of the majors are
spending huge advertising budgets on promoting their green credentials,
Exxon Mobil appears to be enjoying its continuous bad publicity.
> I'll give them credit for consistency. But I'll bet PR people at BP
and Shell and everywhere else get pissed whenever Lee Raymond
talks. I don't think most people differentiate one oil company
from another. Every time Raymond shoots off his mouth, he drags the
whole industry through the mud.
Competitor news:
Oil and Gas Online:
Geostatistics
module released for Stratamodel.
2001.04.17
Oil & Gas Journal:
Capital
markets favorable for oil and gas companies.
Science News:
Oceans of Electricity.
New technologies convert the motion of waves into watts.
"Fortunately, wave-power developers say, many solutions to the problems [of
building and operating wave-power plants] already exist, thanks to the offshore
oil and gas industry. The fossil-fuel industry has developed better ways to
anchor equipment, more durable and corrosion-resistant materials, and improved
cables for carrying electric current underwater. For instance, electrical
connectors that are easily mated and unmated underwater are proving vital to
modular wave-energy designs."
> I wonder what ever happened to OTEC -- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?
Oil & Gas Journal:
Environmental
group says US rivers threatened by drilling.
"[The conservation group American Rivers said,] `This relatively new form of energy
development [coalbed methane] uses many
shallow wells to tap natural gas deposits along coal aquifers, and discharges
large quantities of poor quality water before the methane can be extracted.'"
2001.04.12
I was talking to geophysicist Dan Huston on the phone yesterday. During our
conversation, he mentioned Fred Hoyles's suggestion from 1981 that global warming
is good because it might stave off a coming ice age.
Fred Hoyle, you may recall, is the famous astrophysicist who proposed the
steady state theory in the 1940's as an alternative to the big bang. Steady
state was an intriguing hypothesis at the time, but subsequent observations
resolved the contest firmly in favor of the big bang.
To this day, however, Holye refuses to acknowledge that the evidence has
declared his theory the loser. Just last year he published a new book, reviewed
here, which attempted to revive the debate. (The Physics Today review
notes some of the deciding evidence that Hoyle conveniently ignores.)
Anyway, we need gadflies like Hoyle. By challenging the conventional wisdom, they
keep the science sharp. But when they're totally crocked, we shouldn't be afraid to
say so.
By the way, Dan and Holly Huston have a web page for their geophysical consulting business. They do
contract interpretation projects. Dan mentioned that he's willing to get paid in
overrides on the prospects they generate. That takes a lot of confidence -- but
so does being a contract interpreter.
Oil & Gas Journal:
IEA
revises world oil demand figures downward.
WSJ (subscription):
OPEC Fails to
Follow Pledge To Scale Back Oil Production.
"Meanwhile, world output of crude oil rose 890,000 barrels a day to 78.21 million
barrels a day. More than half of that increase, or about 530,000 barrels, came from
Iraq, OPEC's 11th member, which doesn't take part in the group's quota system because
its exports are regulated by the United Nations. That pushed OPEC's output, including
Iraq, up 410,000 barrels a day to 28.51 million barrels a day.
"Most of the remaining oil-output increase in March came from the U.S., where
production rose 320,000 barrels to 8.26 million barrels a day."
This is a much better write-up than yesterday's O&GJ story --
Houston Chronicle:
Energy status `critical,' panel says.
"The report also noted that if `light trucks,' a category that includes sport
utility vehicles and minivans, were required to meet the same fuel efficiency
standards as cars, the United States would save 910,000 barrels of oil a day."
Oil & Gas Journal:
Mitchell
exploits synergies of gas processing, E&P businesses.
"E&P companies handle only about 20% of US gas gathering and processing today,
compared with 80% in the early 1980s...."
Houston Chronicle:
Grant Geophysical
chooses chairman.
"Grant acquires, processes and markets seismic data, employing about 900 people
worldwide."
Oil Online:
GeoQuest
acquires Baker Jardine.
2001.04.10
I screwed up when I missed this one last month. A crucially important
study was published in Nature linking greenhouse gases with global
warming --
Reuters:
Increase
in Greenhouse Gases Seen From Space.
"New sets of data taken 27 years apart from two satellites orbiting the
Earth have now provided the first observational evidence from space of
a rise in greenhouse gases.
"`We've seen greenhouse gas increases that we can link to a change in
outgoing long-wave radiation, which is believed to force the climate
response,' said Dr. Helen Brindley, an atmospheric physicist at Imperial
College in London."
> This is direct observational evidence, people. Incontrovertible. There
are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and they are blocking the
re-radiation of heat into space.
> Other studies have previously tied down that human activity produces
most of the greenhouse gases.
2001.04.09
Oil & Gas Journal:
DOE
would cut oil and gas research, pending energy strategy plan.
"Research for oil and gas falls by 50% from $112 million in 2001 to 51.5
million in fiscal year 2002. Items targeted for elimination include:
- National Laboratory/Industry Oil & Gas Partnership Program ...
- Secondary Gas Recovery Program ...
- Natural gas upgrading and coal mine methane recovery ...
- Ultraclean fuels R&D...."
> I worked on projects under that first item off-and-on over a five year
period.
Oil & Gas Journal:
Analyst:
Expect high energy prices.
"`The bottom line is $5/Mcf gas, $30/bbl oil and
$50 Mw-hr power are here to stay longer term.'"
Oil & Gas Journal:
US
MMS issues notices for lease sales.
"The US Minerals Management Service has issued
proposed notices of sale for Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 180 and
Central Gulf of Mexico Sale Part 2, scheduled concurrently for Aug. 22."
2001.04.08
WSJ (subscription required):
Linux,
Maverick of Computing, Gains Respectability With Firms.
"Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Amerada Hess Corp. are using Linux-based
supercomputers to sift through seismic data, hunting for undersea oil."
...
"IBM's support helped persuade Shell scientists to consider Linux when Shell
decided to upgrade a new generation of computers for its seismic-analysis work.
`It's really a serious operating system,' says Jack Buur, principal research
physicist for Shell in Rijswijk, the Netherlands."
Cool story about the ANWR --
Associated Press:
Yield of single well
drilled in Arctic refuge remains mystery.
2001.04.06
Oil & Gas Journal:
Greenpeace
activists board second UK North Sea drill rig.
"Supported by the Greenpeace vessel MV Greenpeace, three climbers have set up
camp on one of the rig's legs in a bell-shape survival pod, while two others
abseiled down the rig to paint `Oil Kills' on one of the rig's legs."
> I wonder how much fuel the MV Greenpeace burned on this graffiti mission?
These guys aren't just morons -- they're hypocrites.
> Or maybe when they're on-shore, they all ride hydrogen
powered scooters!
Oil & Gas Journal:
Potential
gas panel sees 63-year supply for US.
"The American Gas Association said the size of the resource base is immaterial
unless producers are given access to the supplies and pipelines can be built to
deliver them."
2001.04.05
Oil & Gas Journal:
Interior
Sec. Gale Norton sees bleak US energy picture.
"`The reality is that our domestic production is declining. We now produce
nearly 40% less oil than we did in 1970. Unless policies are changed,
production will continue to decline. The projection is just over 5 million
b/d by 2020, down from a high of 9.4 million b/d 30 years ago.'"
> Welcome to the law of diminishing returns! Opening new areas to domestic
exploration -- which I support -- might slow the decline, but it won't
stop it. It's inevitable. That's why they call them *non-renewable* energy
sources.
Reuters:
UN
Expert: Climate Change Skeptics a Tiny Minority.
"John Houghton, a British expert who co-chairs an
IPCC panel investigating climate change, said
his work involved between 600 and 700 scientists
writing and reviewing 5,000 papers. `That's a very
large body of scientists,' he said."
2001.04.03
Wall Street Journal (subscription):
Energy
Concerns Recruit M.B.A.s.
"Peter Veruki, executive director of career planning
and admissions at Rice University, adds that some of
these companies aren't even positioning themselves
as `energy companies,' but instead are emphasizing
their technology, broadband, risk-management and
trading areas. He says they are taking this approach
because `they don't want to hire traditional energy
people.'"
> That's why they need to pay top dollar to buy smaller
companies with oil and gas reserves.
One more lease sale wrap-up:
Oil Online:
Oilmen
offer $505.4 million in high bids for Gulf leases.
Press release:
Paradigm
Geophysical Acquires GeoScene Product Suite. Enhances the Company's Geological
Analysis Solutions
> Never heard of these guys before; shows how in-the-know I am.
Earthquake in Seattle:
Earthquake As Artist.
