SPE-GCS Blog

March 1st, 2019

MARCH 1989

Texaco reports an economic solution to disposal of some oilfield waste in the application of their coal gasification process to produce fuel-grade synthesis gas from tank bottom sludge.

Japan, Iran’s biggest customer for crude oil, is under pressure from its government to cut Iranian crude imports as a result of Ayatollah Khomeini’s call for the death of UK author Salman Rushdie.

WTI crude: $18.51/bbl

U.S. rig count: 761

MARCH 1999

For the first time since 1951, there are no drilling rigs operating in North Dakota. Just two years prior, there were an average of 18 rigs operating on any given day, with 260 wells drilled per year and a labor force of almost 10,000 employees. (We’re back!)

Oil and gas sector respondents report being fully prepared to prevent the feared Year 2000 computer problems, otherwise referred to as …

February 1st, 2019

FEBRUARY 1969

No significant effects on propane supply are forecast for the Southeast following the January explosion of 16 railroad tank cars (480,000 gallons) of the product at Laurel, Mississippi.

Shell’s Rocky Mountain division completes a computer study of 200 rod- pumping configurations for deep, high- volume oil pumping conditions and concludes that the optimum efficiency is obtained from pumps smaller than 1.75 inches, stroke lengths less than 120 inches and surface equipment with unconventional geometries.

US active rig count: 1,118

FEBRUARY 1989

New EPA underground storage tank requirements instituted following a 20,000-gallon leak from a South Dakota tank in 1986 may force the closure of 26,500 service stations, while requiring tank owners to have at least $1 million in tank leak liability insurance.

Turkey and Iran agree to a trade pact valued at $2 billion, with Iran receiving construction aid for …

January 1st, 2019

JANUARY 1974

United Nations diplomats complain to the UN that they are having trouble getting gasoline for their official limousines in New York, one of which is Jamil M. Baroody of Saudi Arabia, a prime mover in the recent oil embargo.

The Interior Department prepares to issue permits for construction of the Alaska crude-oil pipeline this month, now that Congress has removed right-of- way and environmental impediments.

US active rig count: 1,417

JANUARY 1989

An investigation concludes that a gas release caused by removing a pressure relief valve from piping associated with a condensate injection pump is believed to be the cause of the July Piper Alpha disaster in the UK North Sea that cost 167 lives.

War-weary Iraq and Iran are seen to be gradually normalizing international business relations again, having put behind them a five-month cease-fire and a …