Marina Ottaway, NYT: Tyranny's Full Tank.
"Oil and democracy do not mix easily in countries that depend highly on oil revenue. ... evidence shows that oil revenue flowing freely into government coffers has a particularly pernicious effect, encouraging corruption and lack of accountability and fostering systems based on patronage rather than popular representation."
Houston Chronicle: Frame's claim backed in court.
"Former Seitel chief Paul Frame Jr. told a company lawyer that the $750,000 he is accused of swindling from his employer was an advance that would be repaid from a personal stock sale, the lawyer testified in federal court Wednesday."
> So what does this prove? That he was lying to everyone?
Motley Fool: A Veritable Value in Oil.
"... sales have been strong at petroleum services companies like Veritas DGC, which offers everything from seismic surveying to reservoir characterization." ...
"Meriting special attention is the company's move from a net debt (debt minus cash) of $131.5 million in 2003 to net cash (cash minus debt) of $50 million in 2005. That's a big balance sheet transformation, and it puts the company in a healthy position for future growth and capital reinvestment."
O&GJ: Middle East production capacity to continue to climb.
"The Middle East's crude oil production capacity will continue to rise by 4.35 million b/d from 2003's estimate of 23.9 million b/d, reaching 28.3 million b/d of oil by 2010."
O&GJ: MMS issues notice for OCS Sale 196.
"Sale 196 offers 3,754 blocks covering 20.3 million acres 5-357 km off Texas and Louisiana in 8-3,100 m of water."
NYT: Japan draws the line on energy.
"Midway between Okinawa and China, the Ramform Victory, a Norwegian seismic ship, is performing routine survey work, trawling with long seismic cables and using sound waves to create three-dimensional images of oil and gas deposits. But nothing is routine when Japan commissions a survey of what is hidden below the contested waters of the East China Sea.
"Chinese coast guard ships treat the surveyors as spies, radioing warnings to leave and shadowing the ship for days on end. On one occasion, the Chinese ships nearly collided with the vessel." ...
"Japan now is tripling its research budget in the East China Sea, to $125 million in 2005. Japan is also spending $100 million to build its own seismic survey ship."
MarketWatch: Veritas posts 19% increase in Q2 profit.
"Revenue of $192.2 million set an all-time high. A year ago, the company reported quarterly revenue was $147.8 million."
PR Newswire: Seitel Announces Fourth Quarter and 2004 Annual Results.
"For the year ended December 31, 2004, the company reported a net loss of $92.1 million, or $1.20 per share.... The 2004 period includes a $59.1 non-cash amortization charge related to the company's decision to revise its estimate of the accounting seismic data life from seven to four years, $12.5 million in reorganization charges, $2.3 million in overlapping interest expense and $0.9 million of severance costs for former executives"
Associated Press: 10 years in labor camp sought for ex-Yukos chief.
"Russian prosecutors requested today that the former chief executive of the Yukos oil company be sentenced to 10 years in a prison labor camp on tax and fraud charges."
Oil & Gas Journal: Mad Dog appraisal well extends field.
"The well and [three] sidetracks tested the field's previously undrilled southwest flank. Each intersected up to 300 ft of net oil pay in the early Miocene section and found hydrocarbons some 700 ft deeper on the west flank of the structure than previously encountered."
Oops, I forgot to follow up on this earlier this month --
MMS: Central Gulf of Mexico Sale 194 Attracts $ 353,961,798 in High Bids. Eastern Gulf of Mexico Sale 197 Attracts $ 6,974,531 in High Bids
And this was last Wednesday, but I shouldn't let it pass either --
LA Times: Where High Risk Is a 'Way of Life'.
"... for more than 40,000 people, the city surrounding the BP plant where 15 people died last week -- a blast that injured not only 70 workers but also 30 people from the surrounding neighborhoods -- is home." ...
"Henry Baumgartner, 51, has lived here most of his life and worked as a pipe fitter at local refineries until 2001, when he struck out on his own as a home contractor.... Baumgartner says people remain in Texas City, which is southeast of Houston at the entrance to Galveston Bay, because the plants provide a steady stream of jobs that pay upward of $20 an hour."
Press Release: Vanco Announces Deepwater 3-D Seismic Acquisition Offshore Morocco.
"Vanco Morocco Ltd. announces the commencement of a 700 square kilometer 3-D seismic acquisition program offshore Morocco over the deepwater Safi Haute Mer Permit."
WSJ (subscription): Both Sides Massage the Data In the Debate Over ANWR.
"How much oil is there in ANWR? A frequently cited number is 10.4 billion barrels. That represents the amount of oil that is technically recoverable; other deposits aren't reachable by current drilling technology." ...
"How much oil is likely to be recovered? ... [Dave Houseknecht, a U.S. Geological Survey research geologist] provided me with a chart, produced in May 1998, that projected how much oil would be economically recoverable at various future oil prices. At that time, a barrel of oil was selling for about $15, and the projections top out at $42 a barrel. Noting the rapid run-up in prices since then, Mr. Houseknecht says with some humor that when he first issued the study, environmentalists argued that he took the price range too high."
Environment News Service: Oil and Gas Thumper Trucks Set to Disturb Wyoming Wilderness.
"Conservation groups are concerned about a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposal to permit 32 ton seismic exploration trucks to enter a 105,000 acre stretch of the southern Red Desert, including parts of Adobe Town proposed wilderness and the Powder Rim.... The project, known as the Cherokee 3D Seismic Survey, appears headed to be the most contentious oil and gas exploration project in the state's history, says the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance."
Georgia Institute of Technology : Sediments In Northern Gulf Not Right for Methane Gas Hydrate Formation.
"‘We found that conditions are not favorable for the formation of methane gas hydrates at these sites because of the geology of the northern Gulf of Mexico, which consists of salt domes that one can think of as mushroom clouds of salt that rise buoyantly through sediments,’ said Carolyn Ruppel, an associate professor of geophysics in the Georgia Institute of Technology¹s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and lead author on the paper. ‘The thermal properties of salt make the sediments hotter there, and the heat, coupled with the presence of the salt in pore spaces, makes it harder to form gas hydrates.’"
From last week --
WSJ (subscription): Oil Companies Reap Cash Windfall From Price Surge.
"The surge in oil prices over the past year is generating an immense cascade of cash that is flooding the coffers of oil companies, raising pressure on their bosses to pursue acquisitions, further boost spending on production or give more of the gains to shareholders." ...
" ... though the cash windfall is large -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil company, ended 2004 with $23.1 billion in cash on hand, more than double its hoard from a year earlier -- plans at most oil companies assume prices will drop from today's highs."
PR Newswire: 4th Wave Imaging Opens Houston Office.
Here's a slightly longer version of that Napoleon Dynamite T-shirt article from a week ago --
Knight Ridder News Services: Helicopter T-shirts take off.
"Juggies would conduct seismic exploration in remote areas. As a result, they went to and from work in helicopters. The juggies were a proud bunch, and they wanted their own T-shirts.... Over the four summers, only about 1,000 shirts were sold."
National Review: Ugh, Wilderness!
After years of contentious debate, on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 51-49 to allow oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Jonah Goldberg took a trip to ANWR in 2001; the NR cover story that followed is republished below. --
"Sen. Joseph Lieberman says ANWR exploration ‘would cause irreversible damage to one of God's most awesome creations.’ This is irresponsible absurdity. Not only would the damage, in fact, be reversible; this area simply cannot hold a candle to God's most awesome creations."
Slate: How Do You Find Underground Oil? First, get a vibrating truck.
"Interpreting seismic maps is something of an art. You could look at the 3-D data on a regular computer screen, but some geologists use 3-D projectors and glasses to inspect the graphs, and others wear virtual-reality helmets. The only seismic data available for the wildlife refuge was collected in the 1980s, however, and can only be examined in two dimensions, which makes interpretation more difficult."
This includes a good number of well-placed on-record sources --
BBC: Secret US plans for Iraq's oil.
"The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed."
Wall Street Journal (subscription): Black Gold and Blue Chips.
"Oil prices have rattled stocks since last summer; Wednesday's record close for oil helped knock 112 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Still, despite a 30% run-up in crude in 2005, the blue chips have mostly stayed the course to 11000. "
