Daily Archives: March 2, 2012

Statoil Introduces New “Cat J” Jackup Rig for Norwegian Continental Shelf + [VIDEO]

Mar 2

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OSLO (Dow Jones)– Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil ASA (STO) Friday said it is introducing a new drilling rig concept for mature fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, in a move to increase the recovery rate from its wells and reduce costs.

The new rigs will cut production costs by around 20%, cut yard delivery costs by 10%, and increase oil recovery, the company said, essential at a time when production from its existing fields is falling by about 5% a year.

The partly state-owned company said it is preparing an invitation to tender for the new jack-up rigs, known as category J, able to operate at water depths from 70-150 meters and drill wells down to 10,000 meters. Statoil will ask for offers for a minimum of two rigs, at an estimated cost of $450 million-$500 million each.

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The company said the new rig type could be used on fields such as Gullfaks on the Norwegian continental shelf and Mariner on the U.K. shelf, and that the future Johan Sverdrup field could also be a candidate.

“Statoil has huge ambitions on the Norwegian shelf. We want to maintain current production until 2020,” said Statoil’s Chief Procurement Officer Jon Arnt Jacobsen, adding that the new rigs will help rejuvenate the current rig fleet.

“Today, more than 50 of the rigs on the Norwegian continental shelf are more than 20 years old, which means more maintenance and higher costs,” Jacobsen said.

The most important measure to extract more oil on the shelf is to drill more wells, the company said. The Cat J concept “will have real impact on improving oil recovery,” said Statoil’s Senior Vice President for Drilling and Wells, Oystein Arvid Haaland.

Statoil said the rigs should be owned by the licenses for each field, since the rigs are part of the long term development of the field. The company has discussed this with partners such as the state-owned petroleum company Petoro, said Jacobsen, adding that Petoro “supports this approach fully.”

Statoil is currently developing several large fields, including Gudrun, Dagny, Valemon, Luva, Skrugard and Avaldsnes /Aldous. It also plans increased oil recovery projects on several fields including Snorre, Statfjord, Troll, Oseberg, Gullfaks and Asgard, and fast-track developments on fields like Stjerne, Visund Sor and Hyme, among others.

Statoil is the world’s largest offshore operator and has 44 developed fields on the Norwegian continental shelf that produced about 1.4 million barrels a day in 2010.

The invitation to tender will be issued in July and the contracts will be awarded in the second half of 2012. The rigs will be delivered in the second half 2015.

At 1051 GMT, Statoil traded 0.6% higher at NOK161.40.

-By Kjetil Malkenes Hovland, Dow Jones Newswires

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Petrobras: Production Starts at Cascade Field (USA)

Mar 2

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Brazil’s Petrobras announced that, on February 25, 2012, production started at Cascade Field, U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Cascade 4 well is connected to the FPSO BW Pioneer, located approximately 250 kilometers of coast of Louisiana in water depth of 2500 meters.

The BW Pioneer is the first FPSO to produce oil and gas industry in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and is capable of processing 80,000 barrels of oil per day. The ship has a disconnectable mooring system that allows moving to sheltered areas during hurricanes and storms.

Petrobras is the first company to develop an oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico with the use of a FPSO model already successfully applied systematically in Brazil.

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Obama’s Hidden Tax Hikes

Mar 2

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Mike Brownfield
March 2, 2012 at 8:32 am

EXCLUSIVE: It could be said that President Obama has never seen a tax hike he doesn’t like — whether it’s letting the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire, insisting on higher taxes for job creators, and yesterday calling on Congress to raise taxes on the oil industry. But as much as the President wants to raise taxes, Heritage has discovered that there are even more tax hikes hidden in his budget, adding up to a total of $2 trillion in higher taxes.

In a new report, Heritage’s Curtis Dubay uncovers Obama’s hidden tax hikes and finds that the President’s proposed $1.561 trillion tax increase over 10 years is much bigger than advertised. In fact, the President wants to raise taxes by $1.689 trillion – that’s $128 billion more than was reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the President’s FY 2013 budget proposal.

What’s to account for the discrepancy? Dubay explains that OMB reports the tax hikes in areas other than the tax section, misleading readers into believing that the President’s tax hikes are smaller than they are in reality. Among them are the “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee,” better known as the bank tax, which adds another $61 billion to the President’s tax hike total; a $44 billion tax hike from allowing the IRS to adjust a program integrity cap; a $48 billion increase of the unemployment tax; and a $1 billion hike of user fees for commercial navigation of inland waterways.

How’s that for “the most transparent White House in history”?

But wait, there’s even more.

On top of the $128 billion in hidden taxes, the President takes credit for tax cuts when he really doesn’t deserve it. Dubay reports that the budget includes $317 billion in pre-existing tax cutting policies, including the payroll tax holiday ($31 billion), the American Opportunity Tax Credit ($137 billion), the Research and Experimentation Credit ($109 billion), the group of tax-reducing policies known as the “tax extenders” ($34 billion), along with a handful of other provisions totaling $6 billion — even though these policies were already part of the tax code. In other words, the President wants to get all the credit, while dodging the blame.

Take away those wrongly counted cuts and the President actually wants to raise taxes by more than $2 trillion!

Dubay says the White House has some explaining to do:

Congress should disregard the misleading tax hike figure from OMB’s table and use the correct $2 trillion amount when referring to the total tax hikes in the President’s budget. And Members of Congress should question OMB as to why they chose to mislead readers about the total tax hike that President Obama has called for on American taxpayers.

Why does all this tax talk matter? Take a look at the economy. America is experiencing a historically slow recovery, the likes of which haven’t been seen since World War II. Private-sector employment is 4.5 percent below pre-recession levels, unemployment remains at 8.3 percent — the highest since the 1981-1982 recession — and only 63.7 percent of adult Americans are active in the labor force, the lowest since 1983. Meanwhile, small businesses say taxes are among their most important problems — they fear Washington will raise taxes in order to pay for even more spending, so they’re sitting on the sidelines and not producing jobs. Now it appears that their worst fears are coming true.

Instead of raising taxes through the roof and hiding a chunk of those tax hikes from the American people, Washington should pursue policies that encourage growth and will help put the unemployed back to work. One way to do it is with Heritage’s “New Flat Tax” which simplifies the tax system and encourages investment.

America doesn’t need $2 trillion in higher taxes, especially in a time of a weak recovery. And it certainly doesn’t need them slipped through under their noses. The President’s budget claims credit for tax cuts he doesn’t deserve, hides the true cost of the tax hikes he imposes, and punishes job creators instead of encouraging them to expand. Consider it the President’s secret recipe for a weak economy.

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USA: Environmental Groups Join Forces Against LNG Fracking

Mar 2

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Yesterday multiple environmental organizations called on the US President’s chief environmental advisor asking for a full environmental analysis of plans to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The letter to the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency sounds the alarm that the agencies considering these export plans are not analyzing or disclosing the environmental impacts of the increased hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ that would be necessary to support major LNG exports.

“Exporting liquefied natural gas means more dangerous fracking, a secretive and toxic part of the production process that the Sierra Club has no confidence in,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “With the health of our communities and our environment at stake, it’s up to our leaders at EPA and other agencies to keep their commitment to protecting Americans from the toxic threats to our air and water that come with liquefied natural gas.”

“LNG facilities like the one proposed for Cove Point are intended to ship natural gas extracted in this country off to foreign lands, said Michael Helfrich of Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. “The result is that gas drillers can ship American gas overseas in order to make more money, but this increases the price of natural gas for us, and our communities and environment get ravaged by the shale gas “gold rush”, including thousands of miles of new pipelines and new compressor stations through the Susquehanna Watershed. It may be a win for the gas drillers but it throws the idea of American energy independence out the window.”

“Gas drilling is devastating the communities where it is happening; the claim of environmentally friendly fracking and shale gas drilling is just another expensive messaging campaign” says Maya van Rossum of the Delaware Riverkeeper. “People are losing their drinking water, their clean air, their health, and the beautiful landscapes they call home. The assertion of cheap gas and energy independence is just another marketing campaign – drillers are investing heavily in building and expanding LNG facilities in order to ship American extracted gas overseas. Americans are suffering all of the pollution and harm from gas drilling while foreign countries get to use the gas and drillers get to reap the profits. It’s a lose lose for Americans.”

On February 7th, 2012, The Sierra Club filed the first formal objection with the Department of Energy against the export of domestic gas produced from fracking. This objection called the export proposal an unwise plan which would make a dirty fuel even more dangerous and would cost families money by raising gas and electricity prices. The Sierra Club also intervened in proposals for LNG export facility permits in Sabine Pass, LA and Coos Bay, OR.

The letter is signed by the Sierra Club, the Columbia Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Friends of Living Oregon Waters (FLOW), Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and the Rogue Riverkeeper.

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Japan Eyes LNG from 3 U.S. Terminals

Mar 2

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Japan is in talks to buy a part of the combined 30 million mt a year of LNG from Cameron in Louisiana, Cove Point in Maryland and Freeport terminal in Texas, Bloomberg reported, citing Hisayoshi Ando, director general of natural resources and fuel at the country’s trade ministry.

“Japan is facing an unprecedented crisis,” he said.

“We are asking the U.S. to consider our circumstances and allow Japan to import from terminals from the U.S. mainland,” he added.

Japan’s LNG imports reached 8.15 million mt in January, a rise of 28.2 percent compared to a year earlier.

The country’s monthly LNG imports have been rising steadily year on year, due to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

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Seaway – Echo terminal link planned

Mar 2

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News wires  02 March 2012 02:57 GMT

The proposed pipeline would be about 40 miles long, Enbridge executive Brad Shamla told Reuters.

“We are shipping crude out over a dock to other destinations on the Gulf Coast,” he said.

Following this, another pipeline would be laid, this one from the Echo terminal, along the Houston Ship Channel, to the Port Arthur area of Texas on the border of Louisiana.

Shamla said that pipeline will be about 80 miles in length and be done in 2014.

The plan was announced as the companies continued their purging of the 500-mile Seaway pipeline, which they said was ahead of schedule.

The pipeline will begin by carrying 150,000 barrels per day by 1 June from the oil hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, to Gulf Coast refineries, said Shamla.

The pipeline is the first of several projects to siphon the glut of crude oil sitting in Cushing to the refineries along the Gulf Coast.

The reversed Seaway pipeline capacity is expected to grow 400,000 bpd in 2014 but could increase more if the current open season seeking more firm shipping commitments is successful, Reuters reported.

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Posted in AMERICAS, City - TX, Energy, Gulf of Mexico, Houston, North America, Oil, Port Arthur, United States

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U.S. LNG Imports Nosedive in Jan

Mar 2

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U.S. imports of liquefied natural gas in January slid 60.8% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Energy data.

LNG imports by U.S. were at 338,297 mt in January.

Most of the LNG supplies in January were shipped from Trinidad and Tobago (four cargoes), while Qatar and Yemen shipped one cargo each.

U.S. imports have been declining steadily as shippers send LNG to higher-paying markets in Europe and Asia.

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Texas Independence Day: Lone Star State turns 175

Mar 2

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by Bailey Johnson

The nation’s second biggest state is celebrating a birthday. Today is Texas Independence Day, commemorating the day, 175 years ago, that settlers in the territory of Texas signed a document declaring independence from Mexico and creating the Republic of Texas.

In 1836, Texans were already in rebellion against Mexican rule. A group of delegates gathered in the town of Washington to make official their separation from Mexico. The members of the convention signed a hand-written document declaring the creation of the short-lived Republic of Texas. The original document still survives and is currently on display in Austin, the state capitol.

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Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836 (Texas State Library and Archives Commission)

Thanks to the heroics of Sam Houston and the Texas army at the battle of San Jacinto, the soon-to-be state was free less than two months after signing the declaration. the newly independent Republic of Texas lasted until 1845, when the territory formally became a U.S. state.

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