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  • Cuba announced there may be more than 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil in offshore fields in Cuba’s share of the Gulf of Mexico, more than twice the previous estimate. Drilling is expected to start next year by Cuba’s state oil company Cubapetroleo. The US Geological Survey estimates that Cuba has a significantly lower amount-up to 4.6 billion barrels of reserves in its territorial waters. (10/18, #8)
  • Mexico‘s energy reform effort just got a shot in the arm. The financial crisis and tanking oil prices puts a premium on private capital to help shore up the struggling industry, dampening a nationalist backlash. Mexico will be importing crude within seven years unless it finds and develops new pools of oil fast. This would undermine state revenue and erase a main source of U.S. crude imports. President Felipe Calderon openly describes the reform as what is politically possible, but falling short of what the industry really needs. (10/18, #10)
  • Petroleos Mexicanos has put out tenders for a deepwater drillship and four jack-up rigs to help boost oil and natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex is seeking a drillship able to work in waters 4,200 feet deep, one jack-up rig able to drill in 350 feet of water and three other jack-ups able to drill in 250 feet of water. Pemex is asking for the drillship to be on site on June 26, 2009, for three years of work. (10/17, #11)
  • The US will likely trim its drilling for natural gas by at least 20% next year, assuming an average natural gas price of $8/MMBtu, analysts with The Gerdes Group said Monday. (10/15, #13)
  • NYMEX natural gas prices in the 2007-2008 season from Nov. 1 to March 31 advanced 21 percent and averaged $8.327 per million Btu, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prices a year earlier averaged $7.346 per million Btu. (10/18, #2)
  • In Pakistan, unscheduled power outages are causing extensive damage to the country’s economy, with businessmen and industry suffering. (10/18, #5) The nation’s current power deficit is close to 5,000 megawatts. China will help Pakistan to build two more nuclear power reactors to help with its energy crisis. The two new units will produce about 680 megawatts. Pakistan’s (10/18, #8)
  • In India, around 5,000 Mw of gas-based electricity generation capacity is lying idle due to the shortage of natural gas in the country. The state electricity boards prefer incurring fixed cost on these idle plants over running them on expensive liquid fuels. (10/13, #15)
  • Nigeria has cut back its spending plans for next year as falling global crude prices erode revenue forecasts in the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter. Savings from its oil revenues have reportedly been depleted and what is left may not tide the country over any financial turn down should oil price fall below the budget benchmark of $62 per barrel. (10/14, #6, #9)
  • Venezuela‘s state oil company PDVSA produced 3.2 million barrels per day in 1998, the year before Hugo Chavez won the presidency. After a decade of rising corruption and inefficiency, daily output has now fallen to 2.4 million barrels, according to OPEC figures. (10/13, #11) PDVSA has added 10,981 workers to its payroll this year, in what the company describes as its turn toward socialism. (10/15, #10)
  • US Democratic leaders say they plan to push a climate-change bill next year as a central tool for economic recovery, but the financial crisis may have arrested the political momentum necessary to pass such legislation. (10/18, #14)
  • A diesel fuel shortage has left numerous Western Canadian retail outlets without supplies. The shortages could last for several more weeks as refineries undergo maintenance. (10/18, #15)
  • Expect most Canadian oil companies to restrain their 2009 drilling, slow down expensive projects and spend only cash raised from operations. That would help them avoid the need to search for expensive and increasingly scarce debt funding. New oil sands projects may soon be modified or delayed by the drop in oil prices, along with other conventional oil projects (10/18, #16)
  • Alberta will not delay the introduction of its new oil and natural gas royalty structure, even as dramatic decreases in commodity prices and tight credit markets threaten to derail future projects. (10/17, #16)
  • Cash-rich oil majors will gain more bargaining power with national oil companies during these times of tight credit, as the latter are now less willing to deal with credit-starved smaller players. (10/18, #18)
  • The oil price drop comes at a time when new barrels are more expensive to discover and produce than ever before. A few of the most expensive projects, involving oil sands, are already below the break-even point and are likely candidates for delays. Natural gas producers in the U.S. have cut back recently due to weaker demand and problems securing credit. Offshore fields usually require oil prices to stay above $40 a barrel, compared with price supports as high as $90 or $100 a barrel for some oil sands projects. (10/17, #18)
  • Pipelines vital to Iraq’s oil exports are in such poor condition they could rupture at any time, choking off the supply of oil from the region and devastating the country’s economy, (10/16, #6)
  • Shell has failed to find viable oil shale reserves in Jilin province in northeastern China after three years of exploration and may be withdrawing from the project. (10/16, #10)
  • Chevron Corp. said it will spend almost $6 billion on Asian projects this year and the global financial crisis won’t derail expansion plans. The company will spend a quarter of the $23 billion allocated for global expansion in Asia this year. (10/16, #11)
  • Russia‘s crude output declined 0.6% year-on-year in January-September to 2.7 billion barrels, the country’s top statistics body said on Wednesday. (10/16, #16)
  • To meet federal biofuels goals, an estimated 200-plus large-scale facilities to produce cellulosic ethanol are needed to meet the EPA’s standard – each capable of making about 6,500 barrels/day. A few dozen biofuel projects are on the drawing table across the country, almost all of them cellulosic. Those include 13 plants funded by the Department of Energy, and only four are commercial scale. (10/16, #18)
  • General Motors is preparing to shut two sport-utility vehicle plants two years earlier than previously announced. Sales of truck-based Chevy TrailBlazer, GMC and Saab SUVs have skidded in an economy whipsawed by a credit crunch and expensive gasoline. (10/15, #11)
  • Momentum is growing in Washington for a federal high-voltage power grid to spark growth of renewable energy supplies and decrease the country’s dependence on energy imports. Lobbyists and regulators are urging lawmakers to create a transmission system that they say would allow renewable projects such as wind and solar farms to flourish. (10/15, #14)
  • BP announced significant oil discoveries in the offshore Angola region plus the US Gulf of Mexico area. (10/15, #8, #16)
  • Even with most forecasts showing growing energy needs in the world, leasing of US federal controlled land in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming for commercial oil shale development may still be many years away. At an oil shale symposium at the Colorado School of Mines, Shell’s Terry O’Connor said that finalizing leasing regulations could take 5-10 years with leasing starting toward the end of the next decade, (10/15, #19)
  • In Pakistan, a diesel and petrol shortage may cause a crisis if oil marketing companies struggle to overcome the liquidity crisis that could slash imports by 50% or more. (10/14, #7)
  • China, the world’s second-largest energy user, increased crude oil imports by 10 percent in September to meet rising demand from refineries. (10/14, #10)
  • The US Department of Energy said it will deliver 200,000 barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat supply disruptions as a result of hurricanes Gustav and Ike. About 5.4 million barrels of emergency exchange oil from the SPR has now been released or delivered due to the two hurricanes. (10/14, #13)