Apr 2012

With only three wells drilled, Eni has raised its gas-in-place estimate for the Mamba complex in Area 4 to “at least” 1,133 billion cubic metres (cm)

Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is forming an alliance with US supermajor ConocoPhillips in a bid to boost its shale gas capabilities ahead of India’s first shale-gas licensing round

Chinese gas distributor ENN Energy and state-run oil company Sinopec are defending their joint takeover bid for China Gas as they seek to expand their grip on the domestic market

An oil discovery in the remote northwest of Kenya, made by Tullow with its first well in the country, raises hopes for an oil boom to match that of neighbouring Uganda

Israel’s burgeoning gas reserves could transform a region

The risks of unwittingly breaching sanctions against Iran have risen as the US and EU have tightened their restrictions targeting commerce with the Islamic Republic

The oil curse is spreading to new petroleum producers. Derek Brower reviews a new book which explains why oil's grip remains so powerful and what can be done about it

The Australian state of New South Wales faces a gas supply crunch within three years unless the government overcomes community concerns and approves a number of coalbed methane (CBM) projects, analysts claim

Efforts to counter growing public fears over hydraulic fracturing (fracking) have started to focus on developing a set of global regulatory and operational best practices for shale gas exploration

Alberta heads to the polls on 23 April in an election that will help define Canada’s aspirations to become a global energy power

ExxonMobil is calling in high-level help to address systemic operating problems at Syncrude, Canada’s largest oil-sands mine

US North Slope natural gas producers have set aside differences and come to agreement on an Alaska pipeline. The problem is, the deal isn’t the one most were expecting, or even proposing, five years ago

Renationalisation rumours cloud news of fresh Vaca Muerta find

Chief executive Vagit Alekperov tells Anthea Pitt, the firm wants to stake a claim in Russia’s deep-water play

Protests over the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) have derailed, at least temporarily, OMV’s plans to explore for shale gas in southern Austria

Ukraine’s shale-gas tender could lead to billions of dollars of investment from major oil and gas companies and add as much as 13 billion cubic metres (cm) of gas production per year within the next 10 years, a senior government official has said

ExxonMobil has called on the industry to establish a system of disclosure for the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in Europe

The sheen on Poland’s shale gas sector has tarnished somewhat after a series of challenging wells and a major reserves reduction, but it is far too early to write the industry off

Argentine rumour-mill gears up as three provinces strip firm of its licences

Shale acreage up for bidding in Colombia’s 2012 licensing round could be similar to the multi-billion barrel Vaca Muerta formation in Argentina, a top Colombian oil official has claimed

PetroChina is primed to form a joint venture with Shell and Hess to develop shale oil in the Santanghu basin in China’s north-western Xinjiang province

Canadian independent Canacol Energy has signed a $50 million unconventional exploration agreement with ExxonMobil in Colombia in the latest sign of growing interest in the South American country’s shale potential

Total came close to disaster at its Elgin gasfield in the UK North Sea in late March when it lost control of a troublesome well, drilled at extreme HP/HT conditions

Delegates to the Asia Gas Partnership Summit in New Delhi broke into applause after Pakistan confirmed its commitment to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline

There are two gas-pricing mechanisms in India: the Administered Pricing Mechanism (APM) and the regime included in the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp)

Two years on from the Macondo, safety technology is taking centre stage for deep-water operators

North American natural gas producers may face a summer of mergers, takeovers and asset sales as futures prices continue to plumb decade lows, potentially forcing a major realignment of the continent’s gas sector

The UK’s nascent shale-gas sector is showing signs of turning around after grinding to a halt last year when Cuadrilla Resources was suspected of setting off a series of tremors while hydraulically fracturing (fracking) a well in northern England

Large scale oil-sands exports to Asia took a step forward after the Canadian subsidiary of US pipeline giant Kinder Morgan decided to move ahead with a major expansion to the country’s west coast

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has cast doubt on recent speculation linking the rise in earthquakes across the interior of the US to the increased use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in unconventional oil and gas exploration

Chesapeake Energy, the US’s second-largest natural-gas producer, has sealed a series of deals that will raise $2.6 billion as the company looks to bridge a funding gap that has been exacerbated by decade-low natural gas prices

Russia’s second-largest oil producer has high hopes for its future growth, but there are difficulties ahead

Australian independent Linc Energy is primed to produce gas in China after finding a cornerstone investor and joint-venture partner for its underground coal gasification (UCG) technology

On May Day, it will be six years since President Evo Morales nationalised Bolivia’s gas sector. The anniversary offers Morales the opportunity to hail the success of his strategy in boosting production, but has it also sown the seeds of the sector’s long-term decline?

The Japanese government has declared two reactors safe to restart. Now it must convince a traumatised Japanese public that nuclear remains the best route to recovery.

Indonesia has handed out eight coalbed methane (CBM) licences as the country looks to ramp up gas production

China will offer at least 20 shale-gas blocks as part of its much anticipated second licensing round, which is now expected to take place by this August. But lofty production targets seem short-sighted

Independent Tap Oil is expanding its Australian footprint with a deal focusing on shale oil and gas plays in the onshore Carnarvon basin

Ukraine’s unconventional gas sector is set to receive an influx of cash and technology as industry majors have put their bids in for two prospective shale-gas fields

Regulators could almost eliminate the risk of shale gas exploration contaminating groundwater resources by barring companies from hydraulically fracturing (fracking) within 600 metres of aquifers, a new study from Durham University has said

China raised retail fuel prices in March by the most in almost three years in a move that will help refiners cut heavy losses but is unlikely to slow the country’s rapidly rising demand

Budget policies look promising for oil and gas producers

It’s a mystery worthy of a detective novel: as US consumption patterns have changed, an estimated 4 million barrels a day of the country’s oil demand has simply vanished

Excitement over Australia’s shale-gas prospects has allowed juniors operating in the emerging sector to make big gains last year. But whether the perceived opportunities deliver anything more than inflated stock prices remains to be seen