Lift

ConocoPhillips on Thursday reported that lower natural gas and oil prices dampened 3Q2012 results, but U.S. production helped lift the independent above analyst expectations.

The No. 1 oilfield services provider in the world, Schlumberger Ltd., on Friday said growth in the deepwater, as well as activity outside of North America, provided a big lift in 3Q2012. However, competitor Baker Hughes Inc., the industry’s third-largest provider, said the slump in U.S. natural gas activity weighed heavily on its quarterly profits.

As power generators turn increasingly from coal to natural gas, it’s not just gas producers that benefit. Pipelines get a lift, too.

The No. 1 oilfield services provider in the world, Schlumberger Ltd., on Friday said growth in the deepwater, as well as activity outside of North America, provided a big lift in 3Q2012. However, competitor Baker Hughes Inc., the industry’s third-largest provider, said the slump in U.S. natural gas activity weighed heavily on its quarterly profits.

As power generators turn increasingly from coal to natural gas, it’s not just gas producers that benefit. Pipelines get a lift, too.

Chemical industry executives are going after strategic acquisitions and new product development to lift growth in the coming year in the face of “escalating input costs, stiffer competition and a struggling global economy,” according to a survey by KPMG LLP.

With the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) giving it a lift, Chevron Corp.’s U.S. estimated upstream production climbed 14,000 boe in the second quarter over the first three months of this year, the oil major reported late Wednesday.

Banking on the possibility that New York will lift its moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the near future, Norse Energy Corp. ASA on Thursday completed a $37 million sale of operated production and other assets in the Empire State to EmKey Resources LLC (see Shale Daily, March 19), giving it cash to focus on core properties in the Marcellus and Utica shales in central New York.

The energy industry — thanks to advances in drilling and production techniques resulting in growing natural gas and oil supplies — can lift the U.S. economy out of its doldrums, but only if government regulation and permitting requirements don’t get in the way, speakers at a recent industry conference in Houston said.