Dec 2011

Until a legal framework is in place, signing up for exploration licences in Iraq and Kurdistan remains a huge political risk, says Keith Myers*

Does the US really depend on repressive nations to meet its oil consumption needs?

With EU gas demand and prices set to fall next year, importers want to renegotiate their long-term contracts. But Gazprom is sitting tight

Firm prevented from exploring Montélimar region

CNOOC’s take-over of Opti Canada steps up China’s oil-sands presence

$700 million venture with Nexen to drill in British Columbia’s Horn River

Firms will be invited to bid in the first quarter 2012

Federal parliamentary committee recommends immediate moratorium

Opportunity missed for consolidation with other developers in Queensland

MOU on underground coal-gasification (UCG) plans signed

Indonesian government hopes CBM production will oil dependence

Eni and the UK’s Cadogan Petroleum preparing an E&P campaign in the west

The world needs more energy, but can scarcely afford to pay for it or burn it, says the IEA's World Energy Outlook

Sharp upward revisions to gas reserves in fields discovered by Anadarko and Eni, operators of adjacent licences in the northern offshore, should secure Mozambique’s future as one of the world’s larger LNG exporters

Eni plans to fast-track an LNG development at the Evans Shoal gasfield, which has lain undeveloped since its discovery 13 years ago

BP is further reducing its Canadian presence with the $1.7bn sale of its natural gas liquids (NGLs) business

The oil industry doesn’t expect a sharp drop in crude prices any time soon. The mood at the World Petroleum Congress is buoyant. Doha, the Qatari capital playing host this week, is putting on a good show

Veteran chief executive Rick George to step down next year

Mitsubishi buys 50% interest in all Buru Enengy's Canning Basin unconventionals

Growing political momentum to slow the development of coal-bed methane

New doubts have surfaced in Europe and US over plans to further target Iran’s oil industry. Saudi Arabia holds the key to any ban proposal

The big international independent oil-storage operators are implementing capacity expansions to support the growing long-distance trade in refined products

The strength of the Singapore oil-supply hub has led to the firming-up of refinery and terminal plans close by in southern Malaysia

Although flows of oil through the big ARA ports have shown some growth, business conditions in independent storage have become more difficult

Unfavourable futures prices have taken the steam out of the US independent oil-storage business, but physical flows of fuel components continue as a volume driver at refinery-hub terminals

Environmentalists hail decision as a victory

Despite abandoning Kyoto, Canadian policy is driving efficiency and technological advances that are reducing emissions

Firm seeks to establish the viability of its acreage in the Vaca Muerta shale formation

Investment in and production from in situ oil-sands projects are rising, but the lack of export infrastructure may yet leave Alberta ‘landlocked in bitumen’

No shale-gas play has yet been brought into full production anywhere in Europe

It’s make or break time for the oil industry and the global economy

It’s 20 months since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Anthea Pitt and Kwok W Wan ask: has BP really turned the corner?

PetroChina’s recent Sichuan basin discovery sparked hopes the Chinese shale-gas sector could soon rival that in the US. But the unconventional revolution is some way off

Chevron must wait until at least 2015 to assuage environmental concerns

Subsidiary YPF makes potentially similar discovery north of the Vaca Muerta

$15 billion-plus project to begin in 2013, with a view to production in 2016

Approval for Total's $8 billion Joslyn mine came after leaving the UN protocol

From small things, good things grow, says Antonio Brufau. Repsol’s chief talks to Anthea Pitt, about the strengths of not-so-big oil

From small things, good things grow, says Antonio Brufau. Repsol’s chief discusses the strengths of not-so-big oil

The cartel has picked a good time to patch up its differences, but first-quarter 2012 could be rocky for oil markets

Proposals from the EU and US to impose new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports are sustaining oil prices, despite growing worries about demand and the health of the world economy

World oil production rose by 940,000 b/d in November, to 87.76 million b/d, largely on the back of higher output from Saudi Arabia, Libya, and some non-Opec countries, said the IEA

Rising unconventional oil and natural gas production in the US and Canada has altered the global energy balance

Plans mooted for a stake in fracking equipment firm Frac Tech Holdings

Shale gas boom stops new reactors which had been planned in 2007

PetroChina’s shale-gas success is opening doors for a growing number of US companies

Keystone XL becomes an unlikely focal point after American lawmakers tie approval of the $7 billion oil sands pipeline to its deficit debate

Canada will allow drilling in its Arctic waters – but with strict restrictions - the country’s National Energy Board (NEB) concluded after a review of offshore drilling safety

Anyone who, a year ago, said 2011 would see civil war in Libya; Muammar Qadhafi toppled and executed; revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a revolt in Syria; the quashing of a rebellion in Bahrain by Saudi Arabia; a new nuclear crisis; the near-collapse of the Eurozone; and a renewed pessimism in the global economy should be a candidate for some kind of Nobel prize

The transformation of the US gas market is almost complete - and next year could see it take the crucial steps towards becoming a significant LNG exporter

The first foreign joint commercial coal-bed methane project is planned in central China's Shanxi province

Talisman and San Leon begin drilling the second of three wells, as part of Polish shale-gas exploration programme

But Fitch warns on regulation

Canada's Athabasca set to begin a suite of thermal oil sands projects

Canada’s Imperial Oil approves an $8.9 billion expansion of the Kearl Oil Sands Project

EPA study links fracking to groundwater contamination for the first time

Rising tensions risk supply disruption