Degeneration of politics into paralyzing calumny reflects unfortunate habits of thought dominating official approaches to energy. For the oil and gas industry, implications are subtle but important. Source: News
Pore structure characteristics identify gas storage in high thermal-maturity shales
Recent studies have shown that shales with high thermal maturity, like the Qiongzhusi formation in China’s southern Sichaun and northern Yanman basins, are conducive to gas storage based on a variety of pore structures. Source: News
IHS CERAWeek: US shale resilience a product of innovation, CEOs say
Two chief executives who contributed to the US shale boom came together on Feb. 24 to lament the current oversupplied, low-price environment they helped create, and explain how their respective firms have remained resilient in spite of it all. Source: News
EPA administrator ‘revved up’ about regulating energy
People should exult in their work-except when they regulate others for a living, in which case some measure of introspection seems appropriate. Source: News
Drive for oil exports pushes East Africa pipeline development
The proposed Uganda-Kenya Crude Oil Pipeline (UKCOP) across northern Kenya, one of three new liquids pipelines planned for the region, is already having major effects and unintended consequences even as it attempts to meet producers’ demand for export solutions. Source: News
Study assesses materials to minimize mud losses in Algeria’s Hassi Messaoud field
Diesel, bentonite, and cement are affordable and plentiful in Algeria but operators are not using them to their full potential as lost-circulation materials (LCM). Source: News
Planned maintenance to slow first-half 2016 ethylene production
From the perspective of feedstock pricing and production costs, the latter part of 2015 provided as much turmoil as the first half, but US ethylene producers turned in two quarters of nearly perfect operational performance in second-half 2015. Source: News
Plant, pipeline reconfiguration boosts Iraqi NGL yield
Natural gas intake at NGL plants in southern Iraq doubled to roughly 500 MMcfd between 2012 and 2015 thanks to plant reconfiguration and completion of a low-pressure pipeline. Source: News
Bubbles of capital spending
The chart in this sidebar shows the real US exploration and production capital spending, measured by real private investments on the structures and equipment used in oil and gas extraction and supporting services, and real West Texas Intermediate prices, over the period 1960 to 2014. Source: News
Capital expenditures to be squeezed further in 2016
Oil companies are once again being forced to slash capital expenditures (capex) amid a prolonged price slump, with spending in North America bearing the brunt of the cuts. Source: News