Nov 2005

Colombia has high hopes that a surge in exploration interest among foreign operators will help the country transform its upstream industry, writes Tom Nicholls

The signing of a gas-supply deal sending Qatari gas to Oman, through the UAE, heralds a new era for energy co-operation in the Mideast Gulf. James Gavin reports

The European Electricity Directive, like the Gas Directive of 1998, was updated in 2003 because of 'significant shortcomings and possibilities for improving the functioning of the market'. Two years on, Liz Bossley, Richard Cockburn and Rob Kelvey consider the lack of progress towards a fully liberalised European market

No matter who becomes oil minister, engagement with the US and Europe is the only way of reversing Iran's energy-sector decline. Ayesha Daya reports

IRAN'S GROWING international isolation is threatening to damage prospects for the country's energy industry and to derail wider regional energy integration. The latest setback came in September, when India voted in favour of Tehran's referral to the UN Security Council for breaching the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), writes Ayesha Daya.

Foreign investment in the energy sector of most Latin American countries is dropping, even as it soars in the rest of the world. The region cannot afford such a slow-down, writes Robert Olsen

Sitting on the world's second-largest gas reserves, Iran could be a major supplier to growing world markets, but exports only 126bn cf/y by pipeline to Turkey. Years of sanctions and political instability have deterred investment and grand LNG export plans are yet to leave the drawing board, writes Ayesha Daya

Qatar is holding off from adding to its impressive slate of LNG-export projects for a couple of years, but other producers in the Middle East are piling in with their own gas-expansion programmes, reports James Gavin

The LNG boom continues, with world consumption widely forecast to double over the next 10 years. Over this period more than 20 new export facilities, several times as many new import terminals and perhaps 150 new LNG tankers could be brought into operation. However, some of the industry's analysts are beginning to suggest that continuing rapid expansion is under threat from high gas prices, Martin Quinlan writes

Russia, the world's biggest gas producer, has no LNG output. But that is about to change. Gazprom has landed a share of the Sakhalin-2 export project and is making headway with two further projects of its own. The gas giant will soon be targeting gas markets worldwide, but has its eyes set on the US, writes Isabel Gorst

Virtually unchanged for decades, LNG ships are moving into different realms, experimenting with new propulsion systems and state-of-the-art technologies. Market forces are pushing up the size of vessels, with longer-haul destinations forcing operators to seek benefits in economies of scale, writes Martin Clark

With gas demand set to rise by nearly 50% by 2025 and domestic production flat, the US urgently needs LNG import capacity. The country is not short of proposals for import terminals, with the majors and smaller players keen to enter the business, but time is of the essence, writes Ellen Lask

Woodside's Australian Pluto LNG scheme could set a record from initial field discovery to project commercialisation if it comes on stream, as planned, by 2010, writes Martin Clark

OIL AND GAS operators in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) were still licking their wounds from Hurricane Katrina in late August when another, even stronger, storm started heading their way, reports Anne Feltus, from Houston.

Unwilling to rely on fossil fuels to provide 25 GW of new electricity generating capacity over the next 15 years, the Ontario government is making nuclear power a centrepiece of its energy-supply future and establishing a lightning rod for critics, writes WJ Simpson

The relentless drive by Chinese energy companies to buy overseas oil and gas assets is likely to be constrained by foreign politics, writes NJ Watson

China is facing a large gap between electricity demand and supply in the long term. NJ Watson reports on what the is country doing to mitigate the problem

Despite public statements to the contrary, Russia looks set to have the eastern Siberian oil line serve China before Japan, writes NJ Watson

BP AND OTHER majors are showing renewed appetite for investing in China's downstream. But large-scale equity partnerships still present a risk for IOCs and may not be to Beijing's liking, writes James Gavin.

Unnoticed by most except the specialist contractors, over the past three years there has been a four-fold increase in the worldwide annual total of wells drilled with coiled-tubing equipment. The new technology – troubled by equipment problems in its early days – is still aimed at niche applications, but it has grown into a big business, Martin Quinlan writes

THEY WERE calling it Draxula, the monster power station of the north sucking the life out of the nation's energy industry – a shocking horror story that many feared would leave the country powerless, writes Robert Lea.

THE FIRST year of the European Union's (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is drawing to a close. Emissions of greenhouse gases in 2005 are close to being verified and installations affected by the scheme are counting the cost of compliance, writes Liz Bossley.

BACK in the 1980s, when petroleum prices went south, a bumper sticker began appearing on the back of some pick-up trucks in the oil patch that read: "Lord, let us have another boom. We promise we won't mess this one up." Now that the boom has materialised, drillers would like to make an additional request: "Could you send us some rigs and also some skilled workers to operate them?" Anne Feltus writes.

After the worst hurricane season on record, oil and gas operators in the US Gulf of Mexico could see insurance premiums triple next year, writes Jim Armitage

Among the darker secrets being unearthed in Lebanon is the touchy subject of debt-ridden Electricité du Liban. Ayesha Daya writes

As LNG and GTL continue to change the shape of the world gas business, the oil majors must fight to defend their dominance from ambitious NOCs, write Marc Benayoun, Thad Hill, Rick Peters and Chris Phelps of Boston Consulting Group

Despite substantial investment in output capacity, Saudi Arabia is facing calls to do more to plug the oil supply gap, writes James Gavin

Bloated order books and bumper profits underline the strong market demand for oilfield services around the world, as high energy prices have spurred a resurgence in exploration, writes Martin Clark