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...

Oil Patch Insider 01/16/2005
Stevens misunderstood on ANWR; Canadians roll dice in Kazakhstan
When Alaska's senior Sen. Ted Stevens told reporters Jan. 7 that the road to getting oil drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may get rocky this session, he had no idea...

Meyers gets post on Lukoil board, ConocoPhillips boosts share of Lukoil to 10 percent 01/02/2005
Former Alaska oil executive Kevin Meyers has a new challenge - serving on the board of a Russian oil company, Lukoil. Meyers certainly faced plenty of sticky challenges heading Alaska operations for...

ChevronTexaco projects to add 850,000 bpd by 2009 12/26/2004
'Big 5' include Tahiti in Gulf, Nigeria's deepwater Agbami field, four deepwater Angola fields, Caspian Sea fields and Greater Gorgon in Australia
ChevronTexaco has unveiled an ambitious plan to add roughly 850,000 barrels of oil equivalent production per day over the next five years, an effort the major says will be anchored by "Big 5" developm...

ConocoPhillips OKs $6.9 billion 2005 capex budget 12/19/2004
Capital and exploration spending in Canada will be up $300 million; Alaska North Slope increase is $100 million
ConocoPhillips board of directors said Dec. 10 that it has approved 2005 cash capital expenditures of approximately $6.9 billion. This total excludes approximately $300 million in capitalized interest...

No small task 12/12/2004
Exxon: Industry must cough up $200B a year to meet future energy demand
ExxonMobil believes sufficient oil and gas resources exist today to fuel global economies well into the century. But the company also says finding, developing and transporting them to market would req...

Alaska needs $60B to bridge gap to gas pipeline 12/05/2004
The president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association says Alaska needs $30 billion in new investment in the next 10 years to keep North Slope oil production flat until a natural gas pipeline comes onli...

THE EXPLORERS 2004: ConocoPhillips dominates Alaska exploration 11/30/2004
Has drilled or participated in 47 Alaska exploration wells in 6 years, acquired 1 million-plus exploration acres
In the last six years - 1999 to 2004 - ConocoPhillips Alaska drilled 47 exploration wells in Alaska. Rick Mott, the company's vice president of exploration and land, said that number, which includes w...

ConocoPhillips' Meyers to head Russia operations, Bowles takes over in Alaska 10/10/2004
ConocoPhillips has named Kevin Meyers president of its exploration and production operations in Russia and the Caspian Sea region. James Bowles will replace Meyers as president of ConocoPhillips Alask...