How the oil bizniss is...

[Archie68]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

So, let us return to oil. Some on this site pretend it is not that important. I say they are wrong. Without oil, the world we know dies. All those that claim alternatives need to present those alternatives for review.

[Wahalla]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

Ah...so who are the evil oil companies.... That sit in their board room and plan the take over of goverments, the pollution of nations and water....those who run the US oil companies own less than 3%....While companies like REPSOL, PETRONAS, ENI, PTTEP are owned mostly by their repesective goverment....So alot of it is owned by pension and investment companies... (in other words most of us)...

API: Pensions, Individual Investors Hold Majority Stake in O&G Companies
by Karen Boman|Rigzone Staff|Wednesday, October 26, 2011




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Corporate management continues to own small, single-digit shares of U.S. based oil and gas natural gas companies, with ownership interests mostly held by pension plans, financial institutions and individual investors, according to an American Petroleum Institute (API) study released Wednesday.

"Who Owns America's Oil and Natural Gas Companies", a follow-up to a 2007 API study, found that less than three percent of outstanding shares in 173 U.S.-based oil and gas companies are held by the officers and board members of those companies, while nearly 50 percent of those shares are held by public and private pension plans, including 401Ks and IRAs.

An additional 20 percent of those shares are owned by individual investors who manage their own holdings and are not corporate management. The remaining 27 percent of shares is held by financial institutions and asset management companies.

O&G Corporate Ownership "Broadly Middle-Class"
API noted that this data, along with previous analyses, show that ownership of oil and gas companies are mainly held by middle-class investors.

According to the study, 21 percent of oil and gas shares are held by mutual funds; these funds are held by 52.3 million Americans households, with a median annual income of $80,000 in 2011. Eighteen percent of oil and gas industry shares are held through IRAs; 48.6 million American households own one or more IRAs, and 80 percent of those IRA holders had annual incomes of $70,000 or less in 2010.

Public or private pension plans, which include 401Ks but not IRAs, own 31 percent of oil and gas shares. These funds manage assets on behalf of 60.7 million households in some 145 million accounts, with an average value of less than $55,000.

Calls by members of Congress and the Obama administration to eliminate tax breaks for oil and gas companies would impact investors, which includes retirees and middle-class Americans, not CEOs and board members, said Dr. Robert Shapiro, one of the authors of the study.

Last month, the president proposed repealing some oil and gas industry tax breaks as part of a plan to cut $3 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade. Shapiro said the timing of the study's release is "fortuitous" in coinciding with major policies in the industry up for discussion.

Broad ownership of public corporations yield substantial benefits such as stronger economic growth and efficiency and social benefits by enabling large numbers of people to benefit from the strong returns generated in an efficient, productive and growing economy, noted Shapiro and study co-author Nam D. Pham.

"These dynamics are especially pertinent today given the growing public perception that most of the benefits produced by the American economy flow to a very small number of people."

Integrated O&G Management Holds Smallest Percentage of Company Shares
Corporate management of integrated oil and gas companies owned .5 percent of the shares of these companies, the smallest percentage of the three main industry segments of the oil and gas sector.


By contrast, 42 percent of integrated oil and gas companies' shares were held by other personal investors who manage their own holdings; 47 percent owned or held by asset management companies; three percent owned and managed directly by pension plans; and seven percent held or managed by other institutions.


Less than six percent of shares of non-integrated oil and gas companies were owned by management, compared to 18.5 percent owned by other personal investors who manage their own holdings; nearly 76 percent held or owned by asset management companies; three percent owned and managed directly by pension plans; and six percent or managed by other institutions.


Four percent of shares held by oil and gas service companies are held by management. In comparison, 23 percent of shares in these companies is held by other personal investors who manage their own holdings; 63 percent is held by asset management companies; four percent is owned and managed directly by pension plans; and six percent held or managed by other institutions.

"All told, individuals who are not corporate management own 70 percent of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry," the study authors reported. "Of the remaining 30 percent, institutions own 27.2 percent of the industry, and corporate management holds the remaining 2.8 percent."

[Wahalla]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

Back in the day I went to a talk about a well full of clear fluid froze in the middle of desert in the middle of summer was a scientific uroisity that I always remember as happening in Isreal..

There was a joke that given that the promised land was the only country in the middle east without oil is now mute for the last couple months.. but the fact that Isreal has now commercial gas opens up a lot of international service companies to embargos from Arabic countries if they go and work in Isreal..But given the lack of equipment and personnel out there the isreali threat may simply be a asset grab on their goverment part....(Shell was fined yesterday for not having local content in Brazil.... And the State owned Petrobrtas as well!)

Israel to drillers: 'Hurry up or else'
Israel on Wednesday warned oil and gas companies to speed up exploratory drilling in the Mediterranean Sea so they meet their agreed timetables or risk forfeiting their licenses.

News wires 26 October 2011 19:48 GMT

While natural gas production is set to soar in Israel following the discovery of two of the world's largest offshore fields of the past decade, the country faces a scarcity in the short-term and has been scrambling to cover the gap.

"It was decided to demand from companies to carry out exploratory drilling on shorter schedules than had been acceptable until now," said a statement seen by Reuters from the National Infrastructure Ministry, which oversees hydrocarbon exploration.

"Failure to comply with the schedule and work programme will result in termination of rights," it said.

Israel's new Tamar and Leviathan fields will not be online until at least 2013, officials say.

With gas supplies from Egypt being disrupted due to turmoil in the Sinai peninsula, Israel has been seeking alternative fuels and ways to speed up development of its reserves.

It is planning to build an offshore LNG terminal for gas imports.

Meanwhile, consumers have faced sharp increases in electricity rates as a result of the fuel shortages.

Israel in the past has been flexible regarding drilling schedules, but since Tamar was discovered in 2009 and Leviathan in 2010, energy companies have been vying for the rights to explore other blocks in the area.

The ministry said companies that have rights to drill in more than one site must now develop them all at the same time, rather than one after the other. Until now it has allowed companies to use just one drilling rig for various licenses.

The order was given to groups with exploration rights to four blocks whose licenses are due to expire at the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012, the ministry said.

It will affect companies including members of the consortium that discovered Tamar and Leviathan – US-based Noble Energy and Israel's Delek Drilling and Avner Oil.

The ministry added that it will consider granting the exploration companies extensions for up to a year and a half, Reuters reported.

Published: 26 October 2011 19:48 GMT | Last updated: 26 October 2011 19:50 GMT

[Wahalla]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

I find this interesting as per the idemnity clause.. I suspect that there is another T&M where the Transocean is held to perform its duty with competency and safely....

Transocean lashes 'offensive' BP
Transocean has issued a stinging rebuke to BP in a new court filing aimed at further distancing itself from any liability over last year’s Maconco disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Eoin O'Cinneide 01 November 2011 14:37 GMT

The US services behemoth has accused the British oil giant of shirking contractual duties and taking an “offensive” stance in its own law suit against Transocean over the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent vast oil spill.


In a new legal motion lodged by offshoot Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling at a US district court in Louisiana on Tuesday, Transocean accused BP of threatening "the sanctity of contracts" and of potentially undermining the US offshore exploration industry as it hounds the contractor and other parties for compensation as a result of the April 2010 incident which left 11 rig workers dead.


BP hit Transocean with a $40 billion lawsuit on the anniversary of the Macondo well blowout, also launching legal action against Halliburton on the same day.


Although other parties who had an interest in the rig or well have since reached financial settlements with the UK supermajor, both Transocean and Halliburton as holding out, leading to Transocean's filing on Tuesday.


The filing asks the court "to compel BP to honor its contractual obligation to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Transocean for damages associated with BP's failure to contain flow from its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010".


Transocean claims that it and BP penned a contract in 1998, which was extended several times, in which the latter "agreed to 'defend, release, protect, indemnify and hold harmless' Transocean for any and all fines, penalties and damages associated with environmental pollution originating from the well 'without limit and without regard to the cause or causes' including negligence, 'whether such negligence be sole, joint, active passive or gross'," Tuesday statement, quoting from the contract, read.


Transocean alleges that BP has refused to honour the contract despite what the contractor terms as "clear and unambiguous terms". Instead the oil company has accused Transocean staff, including the dead rig workers, of having "willful and callous disregard for the welfare of their colleagues and the environment", a statement detailing the filing reads.


"Transocean has honoured its contractual indemnity obligations to BP nonetheless," it continues.


The US company is also looking to force BP to stump up any unpaid charter fees for the ill-fated rig as well as legal fees and other expenses.


Transocean senior vice president and general counsel, Nick Deeming, commented: "BP's posture in this matter is not only offensive to the thousands of men and women who work together at Transocean, but it constitutes a direct threat to the sanctity of contracts and to the economic underpinnings of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone.


"This motion is about more than just two companies. It is about the future of the contract drilling industry at large.


"If BP truly intends to make things right, it must either voluntarily or by the order of the court honor all of its contracts - not just the ones that serve its convenience or financial purposes."


BP has yet to issue a statement concerning Transocean's latest court action. However, the company's lawyers are understood to be pouring over the document with a rispote imminent.

Published: 01 November 2011 14:37 GMT | Last updated: 01 November 2011 16:40 GMT

[Wahalla]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

Eni, Mellitah Restart Production Offshore Libya
Eni S.p.A.|Wednesday, November 02, 2011




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Eni announced that Mellitah Oil & Gas, the Joint Venture operating company (NOC 50%, Eni 50%) in Libya, has restarted gas production from the offshore platform of Sabratha.

Production will start at 4-5 Million cubic meters per day and will gradually increase to reach 11-13 Mcmd during the month of November, during which time all 15 wells on the platform will be progressively reopened. Additional production will also be added when the subsea wells are put on stream in 2012.

The gas volumes will be processed at the Mellitah treatment plant complex and then shipped to Italy via the Greenstream pipeline, which was re-opened on October 13th, 2011.

The Sabratha platform is located in the Mediterranean Sea, 110km North West of Tripoli, and produces gas from the Bahr Essalam field, one of the largest fields in Libya. It is also an important source of gas supply for the Greenstream pipeline and to the local gas consumption in Libya. Production was shut down last February due to the conflict in Libya.

The restart of gas production from the offshore platform of Sabratha is another important step in progressively restoring production activities in all fields in Libya. Furthermore, it is the result of the excellent cooperation between NOC and Eni and a major milestone reached thanks to NOC and Eni's strong commitment to bring greater energy security to Libya and Italy.

[Wahalla]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

US Oil-Spill Response Cos Seek Permission to Operate in Cuban Waters
by Tennille Tracy|Dow Jones Newswires|Thursday, November 03, 2011




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WASHINGTON (Dow Jones Newswires), Nov. 3, 2011

Several U.S. companies are asking the Obama administration for permission to respond to potential oil spills in Cuban waters, a top offshore drilling regulator said Wednesday, hoping to overcome embargo restrictions that currently limit their ability to do so.

The companies' requests coincide with a growing concern among oil-industry experts who say the U.S. embargo on Cuba could cripple the ability of spill-containment companies to respond to potential spills that start in Cuban waters but then move to U.S. shores.

Speaking at a congressional hearing Wednesday, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich said several companies have asked the U.S. Commerce Department for licenses that would allow them to use subsea well containment systems and other types of equipment to respond to spills in Cuban waters.

Bromwich said he had "a high level of confidence" the Commerce Department would approve the licenses, in large part because it had already issued separate approvals for oil-spill containment systems and cleanup items. U.S. government agencies "are very much on alert, looking for the licenses [applications] as they come in and my understanding is that they're giving them very rapid attention and they're approving them as promptly as they can."

The administration's efforts are not without controversy. The chairman of the House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.), said Wednesday that he is concerned "this administration will weaken the U.S. embargo on Cuba."

Earlier in the week, the head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to do more to prevent Cuba's oil-drilling plans. "This scheme endangers U.S. security and environmental interests, and will enrich the Cuban regime," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), a Cuban-born American, said.

Many environmental and oil-industry experts have taken a different approach and have urged the administration to give broad flexibility to U.S. companies that are equipped to respond to spills.

They contend Cuba will pursue oil exploration, regardless of whether the U.S. disapproves, so the U.S. should simply prepare for possible accidents.

Cuba's offshore drilling plans get under way in coming months when Spanish company Repsol starts to conduct exploratory drilling off the country's northern coast. Repsol is transporting a Chinese-built rig to be used for the exploration work.

Repsol has voluntarily agreed to allow U.S. officials to inspect the rig before it enters Cuban waters. The company has also agreed to comply with U.S. drilling standards.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[Wahalla]

Shortage of energy

This is quite pessimistic.... but I dont think they assume sub saharan increase in consumptions and or the production from deep water zones and or increase in efficency...

IEA sees fossil fuel future
The world is headed on an “unsustainable” path with continued reliance on fossil fuels over the next two decades, with the oil price set to hit $120 per barrel by 2035 and gas playing a greater role in the energy mix, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted.

Steve Marshall 09 November 2011 12:04 GMT

The IEA forecasts in its latest World Energy Outlook that global energy demand is set to increase by one-third between 2010 and 2035, fuelled by fast-expanding China, with oil consumption expected to rise from 87 million to 99 million barrels per day over the period.

Output increases from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) will provide about 90% of the required growth in crude production to 2035.

However, if annual investment in the MENA region falls short of the $100 billion needed between 2011 and 2015 the oil price could spike to a near-term $150 per barrel, according to the IEA.

The agency also reaffirms a recent report predicting a “golden age” for gas, with especially Russia standing to benefit from increased demand for the fuel – which is cleaner burning than other fossil sources, as well as being cheap and flexible, and is considered a transition fuel for renewables.

However, key challenges for Russia are to finance a new generation of higher-cost oil and gas fields and to improve its energy efficiency, according to the report.

Although fossil fuels will account for a lower proportion of global demand, falling from about 81% today to 75% in 2035, the IEA says the share of renewables will increase only from 13% to 18%.

Stoking environmental concerns, the agency predicts the use of coal – which met almost half of the increase in global energy demand over the last decade - will increase by 65% by 2035, although this is contingent on governments’ climate policies.

The report states that the “world is locking itself into an unsustainable energy future which would have far-reaching consequences”.

“Growth, prosperity and rising population will inevitably push up energy needs over the coming decades. But we cannot continue to rely on insecure and environmentally unsustainable uses of energy,” said IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven.

“Governments need to introduce stronger measures to drive investment in efficient and low-carbon technologies.”

She said carbon dioxide emissions have been pushed to a record high following a rebound in energy demand last year, with the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and turmoil in the MENA region also playing a part.

Sounding the alarm on the environment, the IEA’s chief economist Fatih Birol warned that even if governments implement new energy policies, cumulative CO2 emissions over the next 25 years would still lead to a long-term global temperature rise of 3.5 degrees Celsius – above the 2-degrees C target - and could reach 6 degrees C if these policies are not implemented.

This, he said, was a factor of already committed investments to building CO2-emitting power stations, buildings and factories.

“As each year passes without clear signals to drive investment in clean energy, the “lock-in” of high-carbon infrastructure is making it harder and more expensive to meet our energy security and climate goals,” Birol said.

Greenpeace spokesman Charlie Kronick said the report makes for “sobering reading” and called on concerted action by government leaders when they meet for the next round of climate talks in Durban later this month.

“The decisions being made by politicians today risk passing a monumental carbon debt to the next generation, one for which they will pay a very heavy price. The Eurozone crisis is getting all the headlines right now but it’s the decisions our leaders are making on energy that could be their toxic legacy,” he said.

[Wahalla]

Re: Shortage of energy

I know there is a popular beleif that the troppling of Ghaddafi was all to do with oil...Yanki control of assest ect..
I lived in the place for about 6 years mostly in the embargo era.. and again after the embargo... when the big oil companies came back in .. I read one of the EPSA documents .. the documents that governed the

... And then the assests was principally... The new companioes that came aftrer 2005 got less that 12 % of the asset on which they had to pay tax and never got recoveraility... the only country that has similar restrictions is the UK where the tax regime is such that the oil company only gets 17% ...

in the seacond round in 2006 the bid documents were opened on television live..

But what is interesting is will the details of the Verenex award which was made in 2005 now be made public...

The article below, concurs with this...
Foreign Oil Companies Say Tough Terms Could Deter Libya Investment
by Benoit Faucon |Dow Jones Newswires|Friday, November 18, 2011





LONDON (Dow Jones Newswires), Nov. 18, 2011

Foreign oil companies operating in Libya warned this week that current contracts could deter new investment, even though the fall of Col. Moammar Gadhafi has been sometimes perceived as paving the way for a new oil rush in the country holding Africa's largest oil reserves.

Libya's deputy oil minister says the country would show flexibility once new contracts are tendered but existing agreements won't be changed.

Contractual terms "determine what investment you are going to get," said Martin Bachmann, an exploration and production executive director at Germany's Wintershall Holding GmbH. "That's for the new leadership to consider."

But in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Omar Shakmak, a deputy to interim oil and gas minister Ali Tarhouni, ruled out any change to current deals. "We will honor our contracts," he said. But "it is not our intention to make any changes to existing contracts."

However, Shakmak didn't rule out new terms for future licenses, which won't be proposed before elections, due within eight months.

"For a new contract, it could be revised" from what was practiced under the previous regime, he said. "There could be more flexibility to protect the rights of both parties," referring to foreign oil companies and the government.

The remarks are part of an emerging debate in the Libyan oil industry as attention slowly turns from resuming production to attracting fresh cash after decades of underinvestment.

"There will arrive a point where there is a new phase of development" for each given acreage, Wintershall's Bachmann told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the Oil Council conference.

The contractual terms "are horrible" said Sara Akbar, chief executive of Kuwait Energy Co., who is considering bidding for Libyan acreage when new licenses are tendered.

Back in 2009, most foreign oil companies, including Wintershall AG, were forced to revise existing deals and cut stakes from 50% to as low as 12%.

The renegotiation was designed to align old contracts with the terms of new oil and gas rights granted in 2005. But a string of awardees from these recent licenses, such as Chevron, exited after finding the combination of harsh contracts and disappointing exploration results wasn't worth staying.

Experts concur Libya's oil and gas framework makes for a tough environment. Henry Smith, an analyst at consultancy Control Risks, says that in the last years of Gadhafi's regime, "the screw was tightened for some oil companies."

But Control Risks' Smith warned the government may have little room to maneuver in sweetening the terms of licenses. After toppling Gadhafi, "they would look like they are handing out the country's resources," he said. "That would go down badly on the street."

So in the new Libya, oil investors appear headed for a showdown. "Unless Libya changes its contracts," its oil potential won't be fulfilled, said Jon Ferrier, a business development vice president at Maersk Oil and Gas.

The Danish company is studying the possibility of entering the country. But Ferrier said that in such a global market companies are always able to invest elsewhere, citing a current boom in Iraqi Kurdistan.

[Wahalla]

leaking well in brazil


Always stuck me the Nimbisim of the yanki... who cares if there is a spill in Brazil or Saudi or Norway.. just dont let a drop of crude touch Lousiana...

Chevron Could Face 'Heavy' Fines for Brazil Oil Spill
by Jeff Fick|Dow Jones Newswires|Tuesday, November 22, 2011






RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones Newswires), Nov. 22, 2011

U.S. oil major Chevron faces heavy fines in Brazil after the company accepted responsibility for an oil spill at an offshore field, including the possible loss of a key license that allows Chevron to operate in deep waters that potentially hold billions of barrels of crude, government officials told reporters late Monday.

Brazil's leading environmental regulator, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, or Ibama, imposed late Monday a 50 million Brazilian reais ($28 million) fine for environmental damages after a drilling incident caused between 2,400 barrels and 3,000 barrels of oil to leak into the Atlantic Ocean near Chevron's Frade field, according to company and government estimates.

But the penalties could rise dramatically as Chevron confronts a political backlash over the spill, including charges that the company withheld information from regulators. Rio de Janeiro state officials could levy fines of about BRL100 million, while Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, announced two notices of infraction for Chevron that could each carry fines of BRL50 million.

ANP Director Magda Chambriard said during a press conference in Brasilia that Chevron "acted in complete violation of its concession contract and Brazilian law." According to Chambriard, who visited Houston and accompanied the investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, Chevron edited 24-hour video images of the seabed. The regulator was forced to travel to the platform to get the full 24-hour video of oil seeping up from the seafloor.

In addition, ANP President Haroldo Lima said that a key piece of equipment needed by Chevron to abandon the well that was the source of the spill did not arrive in Brazil until Sunday. The ANP had approved Chevron's plan to abandon the well in an urgent review, but under the impression that all the necessary equipment needed to carry out the plan was in place, Lima said.

Given the circumstances, Lima called into question Chevron's status as an "A" operator under the ANP's drilling criteria. "A" operators are allowed to explore in ultra-deepwater areas such as the country's much-ballyhooed pre-salt region. "B" operators are confined to explore shallow-water areas, while "C" operators can explore only on land.

Further complicating matters is Chevron's request to drill a pre-salt well, which was to be considered by the ANP on Tuesday, Lima said. "Certain prerogatives that the company has as an A operator are going to be better examined," Lima said. "We can't anticipate [what will happen], but the recent facts introduce relevant data and the result may not be what the company expected previously."

[Archie68]

Re: How the oil bizniss is...

Sir, we see these oilmen sailing on their "BOATS" and living the big life. WHen taxes are mentioned, they claim to be "job creators" and threaten enormous damages if taxed. The oil bizness is sleezeer than porn. The lie they tell.