Category Archives: Industries News

Oct 9 (Reuters) – U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a sixth week in a row this week, the longest streak of weekly declines since
June, data showed on Friday, a sign low prices continued to keep drillers away from the well pad.

Drillers removed nine oil rigs in the week ended Oct. 9, bringing the total rig count down to 605, oil services company Baker Hughes
Inc said in its closely followed report. That total was the least since July, 2010. Drillers had cut a total of 61 rigs over the
prior five weeks.

Since hitting an all-time high of 1,609 during this week a year ago, weekly rig count reductions have averaged 20.

Baker Hughes also reported a reduction in natural gas rigs, bringing total U.S. oil and gas rigs to a 13-year low. Gas rigs were down
six this week to 189, the lowest level in at least 28 years, according to Baker Hughes data going back to 1987.

The oil rig reductions over the past month erased the 47 rigs added over the summer when drillers followed through on plans to add
rigs announced in May and June when U.S. crude futures averaged $60 a barrel.

U.S. oil futures this week averaged $48 a barrel, up from a $45 average last week, on concerns over Russia’s entry into the Syrian
conflict and a rising Chinese stock market.

On Friday, U.S. futures were trading around $50 a barrel, up just 1 percent on the day, in choppy trade as speculators took profits
on a big weekly surge for Brent.

Drillers reduced the number of oil wells in three of the four major U.S. shale oil basins this week. Ten were cut in the Permian in
West Texas and eastern New Mexico; two in the Eagle Ford in South Texas; and one in the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana. They
added one in the Niobrara in Colorado and Wyoming.

“The current rig count is still pointing to U.S. production declining sequentially between the second quarter and fourth quarters of
2015,” analysts at Goldman Sachs said, noting production growth was expected to resume in 2016.

Despite drilling cutbacks, U.S. oil production edged up to 9.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in July from 9.3 million bpd in June,
according to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 914 production report.

(Bloomberg) — The shale oil boom that turned the U.S. into the world’s largest fuel exporter and brought $3 gasoline back to America’s pumps is grinding to a halt.

Crude output from the prolific tight-rock formations such as North Dakota’s Bakken and Texas’s Eagle Ford shale will shrink 1.3 percent to 5.58 million barrels a day this month, based on Energy Information Administration estimates. It’ll drop further in July to 5.49 million, the lowest level since January, the agency said Monday.

With the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintaining its own oil production, U.S. shale is coming under pressure to rebalance a global supply glut. EOG Resources Inc., the country’s biggest shale-oil producer, hedge fund manager Andrew J. Hall and banks including Standard Chartered Plc have forecast declines in U.S. output following last year’s plunge in crude prices. The nation was still pumping the most in four decades in March.

“Production has to come down because rigs drilling for oil are down 57 percent this year,” James Williams, president of energy consultancy WTRG Economics, said by phone Monday from London, Arkansas. “Countering that is the fact that the rigs we’re still using are more efficient and drilling in areas where you get higher production. So that has delayed the decline.”

West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery added 72 cents to $58.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 6:23 a.m. local time. Futures rebounded 32 percent since March 18 through Monday amid speculation U.S. oil drillers had laid down enough rigs to curb supply.

Key Petroleum reported Tuesday that further to its announcement April 17, Key Petroleum (Australia) Pty Ltd. (Key or Company), a
wholly owned subsidiary of Key Petroleum Limited and Operator, provided an update in relation to planned testing operations at
Dunnart-2 in Exploration Permit EP437, Perth Basin, Western Australia.

All required approvals have now been granted by the Department of Mines and Petroleum to the Operator to undertake completion and
testing operations at Dunnart-2 and all long lead items including pup joints and tubulars, wellhead equipment including, xmas tree,
tubing hanger, gauges and valves are in Perth ready to be mobilized to the Dunnart-2 location.

DCA Rig #6 is currently in the DCA yard in Perth and Key personnel will inspect the rig later this week before mobilizing the rig to
the Dunnart-2 location at some stage during the next three weeks. Camp facilities have been setup and completed south of Dongara at
Key’s operations base and onsite office and generator power facilities will shortly be mobilized from the operations base.

Key is also in discussions with two other oilfield rig contractors regarding a larger campaign in the Perth Basin and assessing
whether any of their rigs could be utilized to undertake any workover activities (re-complete for production) in each of West Kora-1
(Production Licence L15) and Stokes Bay-1 (Retention Lease R1) in the Canning Basin.

March 12 (Reuters) – An explosion at an oil field in southeastern New Mexico killed one worker and seriously injured another while the men were installing a drilling pipe on Wednesday afternoon, the Lea County undersheriff said on Thursday.

The dead man was identified as James Rusty Harrison, who was in his early 40s. Co-worker Tyler Winter, in his mid-20s, suffered shrapnel wounds to his torso and right leg and was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, about 150 miles to the northeast, authorities said.

The undersheriff, Tom Dunford, said no one else was hurt in the accident, which occurred while workers were loading oil field-related materials into perforated pipe that was being installed into the drilling line.

There was no fire following the blast, and the cause of the explosion was under investigation, the sheriff’s office said.

It said the site belonged to Mesquite SWD, based in Carlsbad, New Mexico, which operates a number of wells in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The two victims of the blast were employees of a company called Warrior Wireline.

A separate explosion at a West Texas oil and gas field on Tuesday killed three people and injured one.

ASTANA, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s currently stagnant oil production is forecast to rise from 2017 after the Central Asian
nation’s huge Kashagan oilfield restarts output and the Tengiz project is expanded, a senior energy official said on Wednesday.

Kazakhstan, the second-largest post-Soviet oil producer after Russia, lowered oil output by 1.2 percent last year to 80.8 million
tonnes. It is officially forecast to produce 80.5 million tonnes this year.

“In 2017, we expect oil production to rise to 86 million tonnes, and in 2020 to grow to 104 million tonnes,” Deputy Energy Minister
Uzakbai Karabalin told a news conference. “It is linked mainly to the expansion at the Tengiz oilfield and resumption of production
at the Kashagan offshore deposit.” Chevron-led Tengizchevroil, which develops the giant Tengiz onshore field, plans to boost output
by 42 percent to 38 million tonnes by 2021.

The Kashagan oil project, launched in September 2013 but shut just a few weeks later due to gas leaks in its pipelines, is planned to
be restarted in the second half of 2016.

China National Offshore Oil Ltd. (CNOOC) announced Tuesday that its Jinzhou 9-3 comprehensive adjustment project has commenced production in Bohai, offshore China.

The Jinzhou 9-3 oilfield is located in the North Liaodong Bay in Bohai with the water depth in the range of 21 to 34 feet (6.5 to 10.5 meters).

The main production facilities of this adjustment project include one central processing platform, one wellhead platform and 21 producing wells. There are currently 15 wells producing approximately 7,600 barrels of crude oil per day. The adjustment project is expected to reach its overall development plan (ODP) designed peak production of approximately 12,000 barrels per day in 2015.

The Jinzhou 9-3 is an independent oilfield in which the Company holds 100 percent interest and acts as the operator.