ExxonMobil Corp.’s profits climbed 6% year/year in 4Q2012, with annual earnings jumping 9%, despite a steep fall-off in global natural gas and oil production, the supermajor reported on Friday. Until natural gas prices are revived, the producer will direct most of North American unconventional spending on liquids and oil, the investor relations chief said Friday.
Barrel
Articles from Barrel
Texas Was an Oil Barn Burner Again Last year
Texas producers boosted crude oil production for the third straight year in 2012, lifting statewide output by nearly 100 million bbl to 604 million bbl, according to the year-end report issued by the economist who compiles the monthly Texas Petro Index.
U.S. Oilsands? Uinta Project to Test Possibilities
Is the next U.S. energy boom following shale going to evolve around oilsands? A Canadian producer is testing the viability of the unconventional oil based on its work to date in Utah.
Crosstex Expands NGL Pipeline Extension
The Crosstex Energy companies have upsized their Cajun-Sibon natural gas liquids (NGL) Louisiana-Texas pipeline extension project and plan to have it in service during the first half of 2013, Crosstex Energy LP and Crosstex Energy Inc. said Wednesday.
Water Treatment Pilots Slated for Permian Basin
Water reclamation services firm STW Resources Holding Corp. is planning pilot projects in the Permian Basin of West Texas to process produced oilfield water. The Midland, TX-based firm said its mobile processing unit will handle up to 500 barrels of water per day for up to 10 days per site. Some of the processed water could be used for hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
Author: Anti-Fracking Din Drowns Out Good News
If the only newspaper you read is The New York Times, you could be forgiven for thinking that all the news about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is bad. Still, the good news about fracking — energy security, economic development and jobs — is often drowned out by environmental worries, former commodities trader, analyst, energy author and New Yorker Raymond Learsy told NGI’s Shale Daily.
Futures Inch Higher After Reaching New Lows
Influenced by a multi-dollar drop per barrel in crude oil futures, May natural gas futures dropped to a new low for the down move Monday before rebounding to close at $3.628, up 1.8 cents from Thursday’s pre-holiday close.
House Urges CFTC to Restore Order to Energy Markets
As the price of crude oil steadily climbed last week, eclipsing $140 a barrel on Friday, Capitol Hill’s focus was on whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was doing everything in its power to police the energy futures markets. The consensus was “no,” which lead House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last Wednesday to ask President Bush to direct the CFTC to use its emergency authority to restore order to the oil and gasoline markets, and the House of Representatives one day later to overwhelmingly pass a bill directing the CFTC to draw on all of its powers, including its emergency authority, to immediately curb excess speculation (see related story).
Alaska Governor Believes ANWR, OCS Are Package Deal
With the price of crude oil hovering around $135 a barrel, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Monday called on Congress to open a small part of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling, as well as lift the moratorium on exploration and development in much of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
As Prices Climb, ACC Urges Congress to Rethink Moratoria
With crude oil prices above $105 a barrel and natural gas prices nearing $10/Mcf, a group of chemical manufacturers Friday called on Congress to look again at lifting the moratoria on drilling off the East and West Coasts.