Schlumberger

Rising global demand for natural gas and steep decline rates in many fields mean the industry needs to drill more, Schlumberger CEO Andrew Gould told a New Orleans audience last week. Other challenges facing exploration and production companies include growing resource nationalism by national oil companies and a crippling shortage of skilled workers, particularly engineers, he said.

Rising global demand for natural gas and steep decline rates in many fields mean the industry needs to drill more, Schlumberger CEO Andrew Gould told a New Orleans audience Monday. Other challenges facing exploration and production companies include growing resource nationalism by national oil companies and a crippling shortage of skilled workers, particularly engineers, he said.

ExxonMobil Corp. has a bundle of natural gas-heavy properties in Texas and Canada up for sale, according to Indigopool.com, Schlumberger’s acquisition and divestiture website.

ExxonMobil Corp. has a bundle of natural gas-heavy properties in Texas and Canada up for sale, according to Indigopool.com, Schlumberger’s acquisition and divestiture website.

Despite price weakness at the end of 2006, cold weather in early 2007 depleted gas storage levels more than expected, and Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Andrew Gould told analysts last week that the company believes “fundamentals are clearly in place for reinforced natural gas activity later this year.”

Despite price weakness at the end of 2006, cold weather in early 2007 depleted gas storage levels more than expected, and Schlumberger Ltd. CEO Andrew Gould told analysts Monday that the company believes “fundamentals are clearly in place for reinforced natural gas activity later this year.”

Schlumberger subsidiary IndigoPool.com said Thursday it would provide the online marketplace to divest of seven coalbed methane property packages in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The project, co-developed by Waterous & Co. and IndigoPool, allows potential buyers to evaluate the properties online.

Chevron, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Schlumberger havebecome equal partners in a new Houston-based company, OpenSpiritCorp., which will offer a standardized software infrastructure forthe energy industry. The initial framework was funded by OpenSpiritAlliance, a three-year-old collaboration of exploration andproduction companies and software vendors that studies ways tobetter develop, deliver and use E&P applications. OpenSpiritCorp.’s vendor-neutral and platform-independent applicationframework is expected to be available before the end of the year.Neil Buckley, former president of U.S. operations for Merak, adivision of GeoQuest, will serve as CEO. More information isavailable at www.openspirit.com.