Houston Business Journal: Oil and gas industry 'in a good position,' study finds.
"Exploration and production companies continue to make investments in their oil and gas operations, evident by the plowback percentage of 102 percent between 2006 and 2008 and 91 percent over the five-year period, according to Charles Swanson, Houston office managing partner for Ernst & Young. The plowback ratio is the percentage of a firm's earnings that are reinvested in the firm.
"Swanson also said gas reserves and production have grown 56 percent and 29 percent, respectively, since 2004."
NYT: Estimate Places Natural Gas Reserves 35% Higher.
"The report by the Potential Gas Committee, the authority on gas supplies, shows the United States holds far larger reserves than previously thought. The jump is the largest increase in the 44-year history of reports from the committee.... Estimated natural gas reserves rose to 2,074 trillion cubic feet in 2008, from 1,532 trillion cubic feet in 2006, when the last report was issued."
WSJ: Big Oil Ready for Big Gamble in Iraq.
"The [Iraqi] government intends to auction off oil contracts to foreign companies for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry more than three decades ago. If all goes according to plan in the first round, foreign oil companies will move in to help Iraq revive production at six developed fields that have suffered from years of war and neglect." ...
"Iraq is thought to have one of the world's largest supplies of crude oil, with 115 billion barrels in proven reserves. But foreign know-how is key to its plans to boost oil output to four million barrels a day within four to five years, from 2.4 million barrels currently."
Oil Voice: CGGVeritas Completes Multi-Client Survey Offshore Jamaica.
"The survey covers large, essentially uncharted and unexplored deepwater areas south of Jamaica and is tied to existing seismic data and exploration wells."
Business Wire: Fugro-Jason Enhances the Jason Geoscience Workbench.
Houston Chronicle: Senate panel agrees to new drilling in eastern Gulf.
"Under the measure, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., energy companies would have access to the Destin Dome field, an area off the shores of Pensacola, Fla., believed to hold 2.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the move could allow new energy to come online quickly because the region that would be opened is near existing pipelines and infrastructure."
Upstream Online: CGGVeritas aims to raise $300m.
"CGGVeritas aims to use the cash to repay credit facilities and for general corporate purposes."
Scandinavian Oil and Gas: CGGVeritas bags major 4D inversion project offshore Angola.
"Hampson-Russell Software & Services, a CGGVeritas company, will undertake the inversion work.... The project will use the Hampson-Russell proprietary global 4D elastic inversion product, StratiSI 4D."
Reuters: PGS announces private placement of shares.
"Norwegian seismic survey group PGS said on Wednesday that it will make a private placement of up to 21.63 million shares to strengthen its balance sheet in a challenging market."
Oil Online: PGS sells Geo Atlantic to GC Rieber Shipping.
"Jon Erik Reinhardsen, President and CEO of PGS, commented: ‘The purpose of the sale is to reduce debt and strengthen our balance sheet.’"
Oil and Gas Online: TGS Renaissance Seismic Program Grows With 2009 Acquisition Plan.
"This regional grid of long offset and long record seismic data has been expanding since 2003 and is located in the North Sea, the Mid-Norway and the Barents Seas. The 2009 seismic acquisition plan includes 40,000 kilometers of data that will be located in all three of the survey areas."
Reuters: Mitcham Industries shares fall on surprise Q1 loss.
"For the quarter, the company swung to a net loss of $80,000 or 1 cent a share, compared with a profit of $4.3 million, or 41 cents a share, a year earlier."
Motley Fool: 7 Stocks for the Sale of the Century.
"Dawson, which uses seismic data methods to locate subsurface oil and gas, currently sells for a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.7, compared with 27 at the height of its price performance in September 2007."
Houston Chronicle: Energy industry's costs of doing business falling.
"However, the decline in costs is much slower than crude's swift fall from last year's unprecedented three-digit highs. Also, expenses for more fixed costs -- like personnel or contracts for limited deepwater vessels -- remain largely unchanged."
AP: Ion Geophysical to pay off a bridge loan.
"Ion Geophysical Corp. said Tuesday that it will use about $38 million in net proceeds from a private stock offering and $3 million in available cash to pay off a bridge loan.... Ion's total debt will be about $248.6 million after the loan is repaid."
Upstream Online: Geo Explorer stays on with GXT.
"Octio Group is currently using the Geo Explorer to
carry out a multi-client survey offshore India for
GXT. As of next month, the Geo Explorer will be
moved to the North Atlantic area, where the vessel
will be used to shoot about 7000 kilometres of 2D
seismic data, whereafter GXT has various options to
extend the agreement."
WSJ: U.S. Foresees a Thinner Cushion of Coal.
"No one says the U.S. is facing a coal shortage.
But the emerging ranks of ‘peak coal’
theorists argue that current production levels may
be unsustainable and, if anything, create a false
sense of security.
David Rutledge, an
electrical-engineering professor at the California
Institute of Technology who has studied global coal
production, figures the U.S. has about half as much
recoverable reserves as the government says, which
would work out to about 120 years' worth."
Upstream Online: Eagle Geophysical files for bankruptcy.
"In the voluntary petition filed with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company listed assets of more than $1 million and liabilities of more than $10 million...."
Press Release: Pulse Data Inc. announces name change to Pulse Seismic Inc.
Press Release: Pulse Seismic announces significant second quarter data library sales.
"Pulse Seismic Inc. announces that with the signing of a significant data library licensing contract yesterday, second quarter data library sales have reached $7.9 million, bringing 2009 year to date seismic data library sales to $10.0 million.... ‘Our second quarter sales have been primarily of seismic data located in Pulse's current core area of focus in the west-central area of Alberta and cover both conventional and non-conventional resource plays.’"
