production

Taking one more step toward production, Calgary-based Canadian Superior Energy Inc. reported on Tuesday that it has completed the acquisition of 1,100 kilometers of high-resolution seismic coverage of its offshore Nova Scotia Marquis prospects and an additional 700 kilometers of seismic data in the immediate area from Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) of Houston.

The rapid expansion of North American exploration and production led to substantially improved oilfield services results during the first quarter. Schlumberger’s income, for example, rose 92% from 2000, while other providers, including Nabors Industries and Patterson Energy, also showed rapid growth.

More exploration and production led to more oilfield services, and first quarter results from service companies continue to show spectacular earnings. The world’s second-largest operator, Schlumberger Ltd., said its earnings rose 92% from 2000, boosted by heavy E&P activity, especially in North America. Other providers, including Nabors Industries and Patterson Energy, also report high earnings, with North American E&P activity boosting the bottom line.

Even with natural gas and crude oil prices posting slight gains earlier this month, exploration and production (E&P) shares continued their decline as they got caught in the overall down-draft of the market, according to Robert Morris of Salomon Smith Barney (SSB). E&P shares ended the first week of April down 3.5%, on average, while WTI spot crude oil prices gained nearly 3%, and composite spot natural gas prices rose more than 1%.

Even with natural gas and crude oil prices posting slight gains last week, exploration and production (E&P) shares continued their decline as they got caught in the overall down-draft of the market, according to Robert Morris of Salomon Smith Barney (SSB). E&P shares ended last week down 3.5%, on average, while WTI spot crude oil prices gained nearly 3%, and composite spot natural gas prices rose more than 1%.

Signaling the continuing ramp-up of natural gas production inthe country, Mexico’s Petròleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) lastweek awarded a $5 million engineering, procurement and constructioncontract to recommission and upgrade 10 sour gas sweetening plantsin Chiapas at the Cactus Petrochemical Complex.

Texas oil and gas well records, production reports, geologicaldata and research information is now available online at the TexasRailroad Commission’s web site (www.rrc.state.tx.us). The serviceswill allow users to browse the history of an estimated 132 millionpages of documents collected for more than one million wells in68,000 oil and gas fields in the state.

While large spreads of federal lands technically may be open for oil and natural gas exploration, producers still are prevented from drilling on them because of restrictions in their leases and a severe backlog of drilling permitting requests, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) said last week.

Despite high natural gas prices and reports of flat production throughout North America over the last five years, gas-fired electric generation in operation, construction or development reached a new all-time record in the month of March, according to a new report by Energy Ventures Analysis Inc (EVA). With the help of new projects announced within the last three months, gas-fired generation topped 305,000 MW.