Top Jobs...Geologists and Oil Finders

Natural Gas Power Generation

34% of coal plants are over 50 years old, 70% are older than 40 years and under increasing pressure from EPA regulations.

Iran revolutionary guards' commander set to become president of Opec | World news | The Guardian

Iran revolutionary guards' commander set to become president of Opec World news The Guardian: "Iran revolutionary guards' commander set to become president of Opec"

Oil Terminolgy

RealClearEnergy | TransCanada Pipeline Analysis Draws Praise, Ire

RealClearEnergy TransCanada Pipeline Analysis Draws Praise, Ire: "TransCanada Pipeline Analysis Draws Praise, Ire
Alexandra Arkin, UPI

APThe U.S. State Department hasn't responded to a request by seven Democratic U.S. senators that the agency reassess its initial review of a pipeline proposed by TransCanada.
The pipeline would carry oil from Canada to Texas. The legislators said they were concerned about the environmental damage from possible spills and the route of the pipeline."

Canadian Tar Sands: Net Pay Isopach

Canadian tar sands cover a huge area, it's time for a pipeline!

GoM activity ?congested? by regulatory oversight, finds IHS study - Offshore

GoM activity ?congested? by regulatory oversight, finds IHS study - Offshore: "GoM activity ?congested? by regulatory oversight, finds IHS study"
Really?????

The study looks at the plan and permit levels in the six months following the lifting of the deepwater activity moratorium in October 2010. The analysis finds the following:

• 250% increase in the backlog of deepwater plans pending governmental approval

• 86% drop in the pace of regulatory approvals for plans

• 60% drop in all GoM drilling permits

• 38% increase in the time required to reach each regulatory approval required.

Fossils of Ancient Croc Found in Brazil | TheBlaze.com

Fossils of Ancient Croc Found in Brazil TheBlaze.com: "Fossils of Ancient Croc With Long Legs and Appetite for Dinosaurs Discovered
Posted on July 24, 2011 at 10:11pm by Christopher Santarelli Print »Email »
A municipal worker in a small Brazilian town has unearthed croc bones 70-million-years-old. The crocodilian fossil with big teeth, long legs and fingers, and a doglike skull is now shedding light on the anatomy of a strange group of predators. Live Science’s Charles Q. Choi describes the beast:
“This croc almost certainly did not lurk like a log in a river like its modern relatives. ‘The rocks from the outcrop where we found the fossils, as well as those from other related areas, suggest a hot and considerably dry environment for the region dating back 70 million years,’ researcher Felipe Montefeltro, a paleontologist at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, told LiveScience"

RealClearEnergy | A Real Stimulus: Restore Gulf Energy Production

RealClearEnergy A Real Stimulus: Restore Gulf Energy Production: "A Real Stimulus: Restore Gulf Energy Production
Chris Helman, Forbes

WikiIn a report on the effects of the Obama Administration’s continuing non-moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, energy consultancy IHS-CERA revealed today its findings that returning oil and gas activity to the pace that it was on before the BP oil spill would result in the creation of 230,000 new jobs in 2012 and add $44 billion to the U.S. economy"

Deepwater Drilling: Floaters Day Rates

RIGZONE - US Shale Gas Weakening Russian, Iranian Petro-Power -Study

RIGZONE - US Shale Gas Weakening Russian, Iranian Petro-Power -Study: "US Shale Gas Weakening Russian, Iranian Petro-Power -StudyRice UniversityThursday, July 21, 2011
Rising U.S. natural gas production from shale formations has already played a critical role in weakening Russia's ability to wield an 'energy weapon' over its European customers, and this trend will accelerate in the coming decades, according to a new Baker Institute study, 'Shale Gas and U.S. National Security.' The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, projects that Russia's natural gas market share in Western Europe will decline to as little as 13 percent by 2040, down from 27 percent in 2009."
The U.S. natural gas industry transformation still in progress!

Stay tuned for more American exceptionalism!

Sea floor spreading & Magnetic Striping

Beginning in the 1950s, scientists, using magnetic instruments (magnetometers) adapted from airborne devices developed during World War II to detect submarines, began recognizing odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor. This finding, though unexpected, was not entirely surprising because it was known that basalt -- the iron-rich, volcanic rock making up the ocean floor-- contains a strongly magnetic mineral (magnetite) and can locally distort compass readings. This distortion was recognized by Icelandic mariners as early as the late 18th century. More important, because the presence of magnetite gives the basalt measurable magnetic properties, these newly discovered magnetic variations provided another means to study the deep ocean floor.
In 1962, scientists of the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office prepared a report summarizing available information on the magnetic stripes mapped for the volcanic rocks making up the ocean floor. After digesting the data in this report, along with other information, two young British geologists, Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews, and also Lawrence Morley of the Canadian Geological Survey, suspected that the magnetic pattern was no accident. In 1963, they hypothesized that the magnetic striping was produced by repeated reversals of the Earth's magnetic field, not as earlier thought, by changes in intensity of the magnetic field or by other causes. Field reversals had already been demonstrated for magnetic rocks on the continents, and a logical next step was to see if these continental magnetic reversals might be correlated in geologic time with the oceanic magnetic striping. About the same time as these exciting discoveries were being made on the ocean floor, new techniques for determining the geologic ages of rocks ("dating") were also developing rapidly.

Plate Tectonics

War Game Exposes Grim Reality: Few Oil Crisis Options

War Game Exposes Grim Reality: Few Oil Crisis Options: "War Game Exposes Grim Reality: Few Oil Crisis Options

The Oil Shockwave simulation event poses a hypothetical but very feasible scenario: What if there were a serious, crippling disruption to the world's oil supply?"

Natural Gas Drilling Performance

Advances in drilling and completion technologies have resulted in a complete transformation of the domestic U.S. natural gas industry. SWN is just a single example of  market forces at work!

Frac Stage Growth

According to Halliburton, the number of uncompleted wells in the United States was approaching 3,500 wells at the end of 1Q11. Given that the type of drilling underway has changed dramatically over the last four years (with horizontal drilling now comprising a significant portion of the mix) and the high rig count in general, we anticipate that the backlog for completions will continue to grow (as long as drilling continues to be undertaken at a faster pace than capital expansion by oilfield service providers). The relevance of this situation is even greater when you consider that the service intensity necessary to complete wells has doubled what it was on average two years ago

Woodbine & Tuscaloosa Trend

Laffer Curve

Laffer himself originally described it as having been a thought experiment, but it does contain some interesting analysis. In short, the curve seeks to examine the effect of the tax rate on government revenue. At the very far left, we see the inarguable fact that if the tax rate is zero, government revenue will also be zero. (Duh.) But at the far right end, it points out the only slightly less obvious point that if the government tax rate is 100% the revenue will also be zero because no sane tax payer would continue working if Uncle Sam was taking all of his hard earned wages. Laffer theorized that there must be some point on this curve where government revenue would be maximized, and any higher rate of taxation would result in diminishing returns.
The real problem with the Laffer Curve is that you never know exactly where you are on it at any given time, where the actual peak is, or what happens when you tweak any of the factors involved. It’s useful in a general sense, as I said, but it’s basically economic voodoo when you try to pin it to a certain date in time. Over the decades some analysts have placed the peak revenue sweet spot as high as 70% taxation. Other more conservative voices swear, depending which country you’re talking about, it can’t be above 20.

Mississippian Lime Horizontal Play

Sandridge drilling ahead in their Miss Lime play.

Libyan Foreign Operators and Concessions

Keystone Pipeline

Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China

Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China: "Obama Losing Canada's Oil to China
Saturday, 02 Jul 2011 05:04 PM
By Jim Meyers
The Obama administration is foot-dragging on approving a pipeline to deliver abundant Canadian oil to the United States at the same time the Chinese are investing in a pipeline that could send that oil to China."

RIGZONE - Eight U.S. States Rank Among Top 10 O&G Investment Opportunities

RIGZONE - Eight U.S. States Rank Among Top 10 O&G Investment Opportunities: "Eight U.S. States Rank Among Top 10 O&G Investment Opportunities"
Mississippi is no. 1 in the world!