2002.12.19
Something about that O&GJ article I pointed to yesterday just struck
me as odd. For the past few months, I've been under the impression
that seismic industry analysts were saying exploration
companies don't need more seismic data -- presumably because they
already have a backlog of undrilled prospects (my assumption).
In yesterday's article, however, James C. Day, chairman
and CEO of Noble Corp., is quoted saying oil companies don't have many
good prospects in the GOM:
"Prospects on the shelf in the Gulf of Mexico are getting worse, and
worse, and worse."
I think Day is implying that the Gulf of Mexico is worn out -- there
just aren't any good prospects left.
I don't know if I believe that explanation. I'm sure there isn't as much
oil under the shelf as there used to be. But are all the really good
prospects gone?
The seismic acquisition contractors have acquired a lot of speculative
"multi-client" data over the past few years. Are they having trouble
leasing it to clients because the geology is crap?
I'm wondering whether there aren't other reasons that large
libraries of marine spec data are sitting around unwanted.
Maybe the problem is that US exploration companies no longer employ
a sufficiently large workforce to generate quality prospects.
Whatever.
Oil and Gas International:
GNS
releases Globe Claritas 3.8 processing system.
"Available for both Unix and Linux, Globe Claritas 3.8 is designed as a
flexible seismic processing system and as an equally adaptable platform for
seismic processing research."
2002.12.18
Oil & Gas Journal:
Service
companies await activity increase promised by operators.
"... even at today's higher commodity prices, oil field service companies
see no signs of increased drilling activity yet, said industry representatives
Tuesday at a Houston conference sponsored by Deloitte & Touche LLP...."
OIl and Gas International:
2003
services outlook -- going where the geology is good.
"... developers of new technology should take a lesson from the mistakes
that were made with 3D [seismic] -- it provided tremendous
potential, created value, reduced dry holes, and allowed explorationists
to identify potential reservoirs, revolutionizing the industry, but ...
its capacity was overbuilt, its technology was applied too broadly, it
suffered from poor pricing mechanisms, and multi-client, spec data became
a commodity...."
Houston Chronicle:
Apache
snatches up oil, gas acreage. Louisiana land costs $260 million,
includes 135 producing wells.
"The acquisition includes 135 producing wells and access to 849 square
miles of three-dimensional seismic data covering an area mainly in
Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes."
Oil Online:
St.
Mary to acquire properties.
"St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. announced that ... it had agreed to
acquire oil and gas properties with an estimated 69 BCFE of proved reserves...."
2002.12.17
US News:
Sound
and fury. Whale deaths blamed on sonar have triggered a heated debate
about man-made noise in the sea.
"Sonar is part of a man-made `acoustic smog' that could be threatening
marine mammals in ways that are not fully understood. One major contributor
is the air guns and drilling rigs of the offshore oil industry. `I can't
hear blue whales off the Grand Banks anymore because there's so much
seismic exploration in Canadian waters,' [says Christopher Clark, director
of the bioacoustics lab at Cornell University.] `It's `ka-bam,
ka-bam, ka-bam' every 11 seconds, 24 hours a day, for days on end.'"
Oil Online:
E&P
spending to rise by 4.2% in '03.
"According to the Lehman Brothers Original E&P Spending Survey, the 323
oil company participants project spending to total $132.4 billion -- up
from the $127.1 billion in 2002.... U.S. E&P expenditures, on the other
hand, are budgeted to decline by 0.7 percent to $30.3 billion next year."
2002.12.16
Oil and Gas International:
IAGC
issues new practice code for non-exclusive data.
"Chip Gill, [International Association of Geophysical Contractors] president,
said in a prepared statement that ... `IAGC members who license geophysical
data continue to find that licensees assume rights not granted in the license
agreements or that they ignore, intentionally or otherwise, restrictions or
prohibitions in those agreements....'"
Oil and Gas International:
Saudi
Aramco building Linux cluster for pre-stack time migration.
If you're interested, Aramco is always looking for (male) geophysicists.
Don Herron, The Leading Edge:
If Charles Dickens had been an Interpreter.
"Where coherence
should have filled the image out, and touched it
with much higher resolution, it was as if a stale and
shriveled hand had pinched and twisted the data, and
pulled events to shreds. No deconvolution, no filters,
no signal enhancements, in any grade, through all the
mysteries of modern processing systems, could hide
monsters half so horrible and dread."
2002.12.12
Rhonda Duey, Hart's E&P:
Drawing the battle lines.
"... WesternGeco's announcement hinted that company officials are sick and
tired of letting the oil and gas companies call the shots."
> Some good observations, but I didn't understand the "warning shot"
analogy. Laying off 1700 employees was a warning to whom?
Oil Online:
Paradigm announces release of two new seismic attribute packages.
2002.12.11
A long profile from the Sunday paper --
New York Times:
How Green Is BP?
"... in 1997, Browne gave a speech at Stanford ... in which he acknowledged
that there was now an `effective consensus' among the world's leading
scientists regarding the human influence on the climate. In the continuing,
ever-changing study of global warming, five years is an ice age, so it is
hard to remember exactly how revolutionary this was, coming from the C.E.O.
of a major oil company in 1997."
Houston Chronicle:
SEC starts
probe of pay for ex-Seitel executives.
"Also Tuesday, Seitel said it has hired longtime seismic industry veteran
Larry Lenig as the company's new chief executive officer and president,
effective immediately."
> Best of luck to Mr. Lenig in his new position.
2002.12.10
Reuters:
Schlumberger
to take $3.17 bln charge, slash jobs.
"... the company expects the operating loss seen by WesternGeco in the
third quarter to be repeated in the fourth quarter. The after-tax charges
at Schlumberger for WesternGeco will total $206 million and 1,700
positions will be cut.
"Baker Hughes, which holds a 30 percent stake in WesternGeco, said separately
on Tuesday it will record $91 million in charges for the fourth quarter due
to the restructuring, under which land-based seismic operations in the lower
48 states and Canada will be closed and the marine seismic fleet reduced."
Oil and Gas International:
Fugro
shooting new MC 2D offshore Guyane.
"Fugro Multi Client Services said today that it is presently acquiring
some 7,500 km of 2D seismic data offshore Guyane (formerly French Guyana)."
Oil & Gas Journal:
Trinidad
& Tobago on high alert following terrorist threat to US, UK energy interests there.
"It is understood that Trinidad and Tobago's intelligence officers
intercepted a cellular telephone conversation in which [Umar] Abdullah was
heard planning to strike American interests on Dec. 22. Apart from energy
interests, he was allegedly discussing an attack on the US embassy in Port
of Spain.... The dossier describes Abdullah as cunning and articulate...."
> Like a bad spy novel.
> If you are really interested in this topic, here's a new book --
Neal Adams:
Terrorism
and Oil.
"Terrorism & Oil will not only help you understand the impact a terrorist
attack can have on the global oil industry -- with it you can be proactive
in facilities security and implementing a company-wide program."
> Includes a Terrorism and Oil screensaver!
Oil & Gas Journal:
BP,
ChevronTexaco start up new Dutch wind farm.
2002.12.05
Oil & Gas Journal:
Energy
poverty remains a worldwide challenge.
"IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol ... said 1.6 billion people have no
access to electricity. Of that total, 580 million are in South Asia,
mainly India, and 500 million are in sub-Saharan Africa."
Associated Press:
Energy
leaders warn of looming labor crisis.
"A report by a task force of the Petroleum Professionals was troubled by
the average age of employees for the major operators and service
companies -- between 47 and 50."
Oil & Gas Journal:
Simmons
& Co. bullish on North American natural gas outlook.
"Simmons & Co. has increased its 2003 Henry Hub natural gas price forecast
to $3.80/Mcf from $3.30/Mcf, reflecting the gas markets improving fundamentals...."
Houston Chronicle:
Indictment
shows how to influence gas prices.
"Oil and gas producers have been complaining for years about companies
such as Enron, Dynegy and El Paso manipulating natural gas prices,
distorting the supply and demand fundamentals that traditionally set the
market prices.
"`This is not a real surprise. Based on news reports from California and
here in Houston, we expect there may be more,' Apache Corp. spokesman
Bill Mintz said. The company has long been a vocal critic of trading
companies manipulating prices."
SEG Press Reslease:
Fugro Multi
Client Services announces Deepwater GOM and Texas continental shelf program.
"... the start of the Deep Focus Long Offset Regional 2D seismic and
gravity program ... now in progress.... Data to be available for the
August 2003, MMS Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale."
2002.12.04
Oil IT:
Don't
mention the `F' word in marketing!
"What marketing person could possibly admit in today's Java and
object-oriented world that their software is developed in Fortran!"
...
"Indeed the one growth part of the geophysics business is the 19" rack
full of Intel (or AMD) -based PC's. Geophysical processing is truly
amenable to clustering and some mind-boggling CPU counts -- up to
10,000 at one location -- were mentioned. But I digress."
Houston Chronicle:
Seitel
bondholders OK waiting for payment.
"The extended standstill agreement provides for the deferral, until
June 2, 2003, of the $10 million principal payment previously scheduled
to be due to certain noteholders on Dec. 30. Interest on the notes
continues to be payable on a monthly basis."
Oil & Gas Journal:
Shell, BP progress Na Kika ultradeepwater development.
"Shell Exploration & Production Co. and BP PLC are marking further progress
on their $1.26 billion Na Kika project to develop widely spaced oil and gas
fields in the ultradeepwater Mississippi Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico."
2002.12.02
Oil and Gas International:
PGS
focusing MC3D [multi-client 3D] efforts in Gulf of Guinea.
"The majority of the data have been processed internally in PGS, mostly
following a 3D NMO/DMO/stack/migration route. Some of the data have been
processed using full Kirchhoff pre-stack time migration (KPSTM)."
Oil Online:
Newfield
completes EEX acquisition.
"Newfield management said the acquisition balances its mix of onshore and
offshore reserves and provides some high-potential drilling plays and
prospects along the Texas Gulf Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico."
