SPE-GCS Blog

April 1st, 2020

MARCH 2003

With the prospect of a US war with Iraq, oil price predictions range anywhere from $15/bbl lower to $20/ bbl higher. As a result, consumer prices could easily increase $0.30 – 0.35/gal in a matter of 30 days.

Oil analysts predict that hydrogen will become increasingly important in coming years as more stringent fuel regulations are enforced, and later as hydrogen vehicles gain acceptance. (Back to your Ouija boards!)

Light, sweet crude: $34.63/bbl

Natural gas: $4.20/MMbtu

MARCH 2008

Colombia’s incursion into Ecuador to attack the Colombian rebel group FARC raises the tension level between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and threatens oil production in the area.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims that Colombia is a pawn in a US plot to invade Venezuela.

The USGS estimates roughly 1.26 billion bbl of oil and 1.02 billion bbl of natural gas liquids in …

March 1st, 2020

MARCH 2003

With the prospect of a US war with Iraq, oil price predictions range anywhere from $15/bbl lower to $20/ bbl higher. As a result, consumer prices could easily increase $0.30 – 0.35/gal in a matter of 30 days.

Oil analysts predict that hydrogen will become increasingly important in coming years as more stringent fuel regulations are enforced, and later as hydrogen vehicles gain acceptance. (Back to your Ouija boards!)

Light, sweet crude: $34.63/bbl

Natural gas: $4.20/MMbtu

MARCH 2008

Colombia’s incursion into Ecuador to attack the Colombian rebel group FARC raises the tension level between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela and threatens oil production in the area.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims that Colombia is a pawn in a US plot to invade Venezuela.

The USGS estimates roughly 1.26 billion bbl of oil and 1.02 billion bbl of natural gas liquids …

February 1st, 2020

FEBRUARY 2002

First production from three deepwater wells in the GOM Nansen field off the world’s first truss spar featuring an open truss structure is reported by operating partners Kerr-McGee and Ocean Energy. (Remember them?) Johnnie Burton, a bureaucrat from Wyoming, is named director of the US Minerals Management Service. (Can you recall another notable Wyoming bureaucrat that later took a formidable position in the oil industry? See History Quiz.)

Light, sweet crude: $19.96/bbl

Natural gas: $2.13/MMbtu

FEBRUARY 2009

Pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden hijack the MV Longchamp, a German tanker bound from Europe to the Far East with a cargo of LPG. Warships from the US, UK, France, Germany, China and South Korea are ordered to the region.

Small, independent oil companies, including Kosmos and Tullow, jump on the Western Africa oil rush by drilling deepwater Cretaceous sands …

January 1st, 2020

JANUARY 1980

Agip and Union Texas report plans to undertake a drilling program offshore Jamaica as part of Jamaica’s new pro-business initiative under new Prime Minister Edward Seaga (Can you visualize Reggae Petroleum gas stations proudly displaying a picture of Bob Marley?).

Hopes run high that President-elect Reagan’s recent visit with Mexico President Lopez Portillo may improve relations between the two countries, thus leading to increased oil imports to the U.S., the resolution of fishing disputes, and the ceding of a chunk of the GOM to the Mexicans.

U.S. active rig count: 3,305

JANUARY 1990

Persian Gulf ties to the former Communist bloc are growing, as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. commit to lending the U.S.S.R. $4 billion to accelerate reformation within the Communist Party, including aid for the crumbling Soviet oil industry.

Pointing to the extent of the U.S. …

December 1st, 2019

DECEMBER 1953

Light oil flowing at 550 bbl per day from a rank wildcat 600 miles north of Perth promises to establish the first commercial oil production on the continent of Australia.

The first deep test for oil in Israel is spudded near the former Biblical city of Sodom (ironically, adjacent to a large salt deposit).

U.S. active rig count: 2,885

East Texas crude: $2.90/bbl

DECEMBER 1977

The world deepwater drilling record (3,461 ft, offshore Thailand) is in jeopardy by upcoming wells planned for, would you believe… offshore Suriname and offshore Newfoundland!

Exxon reports that good results from a test run on 16,000 tons of Texas lignite coal at South Africa’s huge coal-gasification complex could pave the way for a $2-$3 billion lignite SNG facility near Troup, Texas.

U.S. active rig count: 2,118

DECEMBER 1989

Industry shells out big sums …

November 1st, 2019

NOVEMBER 1974

President Ford insists that if we can’t reduce oil imports by 1,000,000 b/d by next year, he will establish a mandatory cap on imports.

Contracts are received for a $169 million expansion of the Suez Canal, which will increase its depth from 50 feet to 64 feet and its width from 295 feet to 525 feet, thus helping to accommodate larger oil tankers.

U.S. active rig count: 1,596

NOVEMBER 1989

The California Coastal Commission blocks the utilization of tankers to transport oil from the offshore Point Arguello field to Los Angeles, thus mandating movement of the produced oil through the All-American pipeline at a transportation cost of $5/bbl versus $1/bbl by tankering. Production shut-in appears inevitable!

Arab nations are expected to report proved reserves of 791 billion bbl, or 57 percent of the world’s total, by the year 2000... Things could change …

October 1st, 2019

OCTOBER 1969

The loosely formed Federation of Arab Emirates will take another stab at consolidating Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain and Fujairah into a united governmental entity with a capital, president and percentage representation of each state in its government.

U.S. drilling continues to ride its best surge in 10 years, thanks largely to new activity in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kansas.

U.S. active rig count: 1,220

OCTOBER 1990

Exxon files claims against the US Coast Guard to recover costs of the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, claiming Coast Guard negligence was partly to blame.

Mining Kuwait’s oil fields, Saddam Hussein takes the first step towards implementation of his threat to destroy oil production facilities in the Persian Gulf if his forces in Kuwait are attacked.

WTI crude: $36.83/bbl

U.S. active rig count: …

September 1st, 2019

SEPTEMBER 1970

The border war may be on, as Mobil drills a rank wildcat six miles north

of the metropolis of Telephone, Texas, and just 660 feet from the Oklahoma border. (That hole better be straight or there are going to be problems!)

Despite no drilling in the area in the past 15 years, Texaco reports plans to drill a wildcat in central Florida, six miles northeast of Wewahotee. (Sounds like a name out of a John Wayne western.)

U.S. active rig count: 945

SEPTEMBER 1979

President Carter starts a flap over his support of a plan to sell 1.5 million bbl of heating oil to Iran at $0.55/gal, while Americans will soon be paying $0.90/gal. (Sound familiar?)

Update on the above…National Iranian Oil Company Chief Nazih is reported to be saying that Iran doesn’t really need the fuel and may sell it …

May 1st, 2019

MAY 1989

The U.S. monthly seismic crew count falls to its lowest point since the Society of Exploration Geophysicists began keeping a monthly count in 1974, with 129 land and marine crews. 

DOE Secretary James Watkins tells 10 DOE national laboratories to intensify research into electrolytic fusion following recent reports of a breakthrough in cold fusion.

WTI crude: $20.23/bbl

U.S. rig count: 751

MAY 1999

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater reports that, due to the success of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, passed in response to the Exxon Valdez incident, in 1997 tanker spills were limited to 22,429 gallons out of 107 billion gallons of oil transported that year.

Chevron begins shutting down its beleaguered Point Arguello project off Santa Barbara, California, while they continue to look for a buyer for what was once touted as the biggest find ever …

April 1st, 2019

APRIL 1959

Canada’s chief of mines reports that if the initial atomic blast in Alberta’s Athabasca tar sands is successful, plans call for a series of hydrogen bomb blasts to be set off at the same time.

A major new technique for waterflooding is announced by Core Lab, involving the injection of water at the gas-oil contact, rather than the oil-water contact, as in the conventional method.

East Texas crude: $3.25/bbl

U.S. rig count: 2,057

APRIL 1979

Thanks to natural gas regulations, operators report submitting one million pieces of paper in one case, and 1.5 tons of paper in another case, in order to qualify for eligible gas prices. (Sounds like about one tree per filing!)

In terms of dollar averages at the bachelor’s degree level, petroleum engineering graduates continue to command top dollar at $1,788/month, with chemical engineers second at $1,633/month.

U.S. …