Activity

A sharp decline in North American land activity hurt Schlumberger Ltd.’s revenues and earnings in the first quarter, but the worst days may be ahead, CEO Paal Kibsgaard said Friday. North American revenues likely will fall further in the second quarter, and visibility on where the bottom is remains murky.

A sharp decline in North American land activity hurt Schlumberger Ltd.'s revenues and earnings in the first quarter, but the worst days may be ahead, CEO Paal Kibsgaard said Friday. North American revenues likely will fall further in the second quarter, and visibility on where the bottom is remains murky.

March natural gas is set to open 4 cents higher Thursday morning at $2.84 as traders plug in colder temperature patterns to their forecasts and mull the likelihood of a thinner ending storage inventory by the end of the heating season. Overnight oil markets gained.

Schlumberger Ltd. is working “actively” with North American customers to lower drilling costs and to renegotiate contracts, with a big push toward technology and efficiency offerings, CEO Paal Kibsgaard said Friday.

An unprecedented level of uncertainty exists for North America’s upstream sector this year, but upside exists for operators to trim service costs, high grade their portfolios and improve efficiencies, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

Capital spending reductions by exploration firms and the pace of falling rigs have moved beyond trivial and now pose real dangers to 2015 prospects, according to analysts.

With the public notice last year of at least the possibility of one oilfield service firm contemplating laying off workers, sharply lower global oil prices at the start of the new year are sending some economic aftershocks of uncertainty through California’s oil and natural gas sector, not unlike other parts of the nation.

Seeking the cause of an increased number of small earthquakes, Oklahoma officials temporarily shut a disposal well that had been drilled too deep near the Cushing, OK, oil pipeline and storage hub (see Shale Daily, Oct. 15). While not assigning blame, they said the depth of the disposal well could have contributed to the outbreak of seismic activity.

Stagnant natural gas prices led exploration and production (E&P) companies to move their drillbits to more lucrative liquids. Now, declining crude prices may cause a pause in some of the booming onshore areas as well, analysts believe.