BP, Devon join forces in oil sands 03/21/2010
Joint venture targets up to 400,000 bpd of Alberta oil sands production; BP shrugs off bitumen challenge from British legislators
BP is taking a decisive step toward producing crude from the Canadian oil sands by partnering with Devon Energy just as British Members of Parliament joined a campaign to force both BP and Royal Dutch...

ConocoPhillips Alaska's Jim Bowles dies 02/21/2010
Company president leaves legacy of community involvement; Bowles, Alan Gage of Conoco killed in avalanche while snowmachining
Jim Bowles, 57, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, died Feb. 13 in an avalanche. Also killed was Alan Gage, 40, a member of the company's capital projects organization. The men were part of a group...

Oil Patch Insider: ConocoPhillips' Alaska assets on the market? Probably not 10/18/2009
Worldwide it has been a tough year for ConocoPhillips. Among other challenges, in January the Houston-based major took $34 billion in write-downs on its 20 percent stake in Russia's Lukoil and its 200...

Rigs to meet Arctic challenges; Parker, Nabors show innovations 02/01/2009
Amid the technical wonders of steerable drilling bits, ultra extended reach drilling and measurement-while-drilling techniques, it's easy to overlook the humble drilling rig that makes the whole drill...

Arctic Directory: Platforms for Arctic offshore? 01/25/2009
MMS sees massive steel platforms as most likely technology for offshore Arctic
The most recent wave of oil exploration in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas has hardly left the starting block. But the question of how to develop an offshore oil or gas discovery must figure high i...

Platforms for the Arctic offshore? 07/27/2008
MMS report sees massive steel platforms as the most likely technology for offshore Arctic development, but there are other ideas
The most recent wave of oil exploration in Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi seas has hardly left the starting block. But the question of how to develop an offshore oil or gas discovery must figure high...

Energy sector roundup: crude oil slides 06/01/2008
Crude down more than $4 a barrel due to tanker backup; futures commission looking for possible price manipulation of U.S. markets
Following is an Associated Press summary of top stories in the energy sector the afternoon of Thursday, May 29. Oil prices fell sharply, even though the Energy Department reported unexpected declines...

Not so fast, Alaska 12/16/2007
Reports about increase in ConocoPhillips' 2008 capital budget misleading
A recent press release from ConocoPhillips about its worldwide 2008 EandP capital budget contained information about the company's plans for Alaska that some observers took at face value. They assumed t...

Breaking through the ice 11/25/2007
Finland leading the way in evolving icebreaker designs from Baltic Sea that are opening new opportunities for marine operations in Arctic seas worldwide
The old adage of necessity being the mother of invention would certainly seem to apply to the icebreaker industry in Finland: The country depends on marine trade routes through Baltic Sea waters that...

Oil, gas prices down on warmer weather 01/21/2007
EIA projects WTI average of $64.42 in '07, compared to $66.02 in '06; Henry Hub expected to rise, from $6.94 in '06 to $7.06
Warmer U.S. December weather led to a decline in crude oil and natural gas prices, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration said Jan. 9 in its short-term energy outlook. Duri...

Statoil purchases Norsk Hydro OandG 12/24/2006
$30B stock deal to transform Norway's Statoil into largest offshore operator, major deepwater player in U.S Gulf of Mexico
Statoil has agreed to purchase the oil and gas assets of fellow Norwegian company Norsk Hydro in a US$30 billion stock deal that would elevate Statoil to the world's largest offshore operator, and tra...

First Caspian oil loaded 06/11/2006
Authorities at a Turkish Mediterranean oil port loaded the first shipment of Caspian Sea oil June 2 from a newly built pipeline onto a tanker for Western markets. The shipment from Ceyhan, a Turkish...

EIA expects $68 oil this year, next 05/14/2006
Agency says less chance for significant improvement in world petroleum supply and demand due to steady demand growth
The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration said May 9 that "prospects for significant improvement in the world petroleum supply and demand balance appear to be fading." The age...

Alaska a surprise, says Joey Hall 05/14/2006
Pioneer's Oooguruk project manager learns 'new lesson' in Alaska, brings valuable deepwater experience to offshore Arctic
Joey Hall assumed managing Pioneer Natural Resources' $500 million Oooguruk project offshore Alaska's North Slope would be a walk in the park compared to the challenges he faced working on Pioneer's d...

Gas contract on deck 05/14/2006
900-page summer reading list released: contract, fiscal finding, documents
When Gov. Frank Murkowski greeted Alaska legislators on the first day of the special session, May 10, he jokingly told them he was going to read the 900-plus pages of gas fiscal contract documents, st...

BP's West Azeri oil field begins production 01/15/2006
A BP-led consortium said Jan. 5 that it has begun production at another section of one of Azerbaijan's largest offshore oil fields. Oil from one of three wells at the West Azeri platform reached the...

THE EXPLORERS 2005: ConocoPhillips Alaska: The march west 11/31/2005
Logistics a challenge as North Slope exploration, production moves west to Alpine, then into NPR-A
ConocoPhillips Alaska is the largest oil and gas producer in Alaska, and the state's most active explorer, drilling 51 exploration wells between 1999 and 2005, and acquiring some 3,900 square miles of...

FSU republic: Best of times, worst of times 11/06/2005
Getting out of Kazakhstan no simple job for two companies with Canadian links, PetroKazakhstan, Nelson Resources
For all of its multi-billion barrel oil prospects, the one-time Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, which occupies a key geopolitical space between Russia and China, is no place for the faint-hearted. Extr...

Eni enters Alaska 08/28/2005
Houston affiliate of Italian mega-major buys Armstrong's North Slope assets
Eni Petroleum Exploration Co. has purchased the assets of Armstrong Alaska, which include 104 oil and gas leases on the North Slope where Eni said "reserves are expected to exceed 170 million barrels....

Big independents weigh in 05/08/2005
Strong prices ignite profits for Anadarko, Kerr-McGee, Burlington, Unocal, others
Anadarko Petroleum, despite losing 25 percent of its asset base last year to property sales, managed to boost revenues by 5 percent to $1.53 billion in the 2005 first quarter vs. the year-ago period,...

Chevron nabs Unocal 04/10/2005
$18.4B deal said perfect fit; company mum on sale of non-core Unocal assets
ChevronTexaco, which is acquiring big exploration and production independent Unocal in an $18.4 billion cash and stock deal, plans to sell roughly after-tax $2 billion in unwanted Unocal assets after...

BP's Caspian gas project costs expected to increase 28 percent to $4.1 billion 03/20/2005
BP said in mid-March that the estimated cost of stage one of its natural gas project in the Caspian Sea has risen 28 percent to $4.1 billion. BP-operated Shah Deniz � also known as the Baku-Tbilisi-E...