Report explores oil’s role
The State of Alaska most likely earned more than $10 billion this fiscal year from oil and gas operations, according to a new look at the role of the industry in the state economy.
The revenue figure is part of a larger report on how oil and gas operations figure into job creation, wages and charitable giving in Alaska, conducted by Information Insights and the McDowell Group for the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Read more
Crude oil tops $145 on supply concerns
Oil and copper hit record highs Thursday but various commodity markets ended down on cautious trade ahead of a long weekend in the United States to mark the Fourth of July.
Crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange crossed the $145-a-barrel milestone on bets that a weak dollar, sliding U.S. oil inventories and tensions between Israel and Iran would combine soon to bring prices to $150.
In a rare show of outperformance, Brent crude in London, which traditionally stays a step behind the prices of crude oil on the Nymex, went above $146 a barrel. Read more
The First Signs of “Peak Gas”?
Consumers the world over are beginning to protest at the huge gasoline prices they are paying at the pump. But whilst the world goes crazy over the oil prices, there are worrying signs about what is happening in the gas market that could also spell disaster.
But it’s the oil price that is currently attracting all the attention. Last month, the Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono postponed an official visit to Europe amid nationwide protests against fuel prices increases. In Europe, French fishermen continued to blockade several strategic ports, whilst their counterparts in Spain and Portugal also threatened protests.
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Frozen Gas Hydrates Off New Zealand Holds Substantial Gas Resources
Frozen gas hydrates which lies just below the seabed deep off New Zealand’s East Coast may contain a future resource of over 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, says Stuart Henrys, a senior research scientist at GNS Science.
Research shows that sheets of gas hydrates, made up of ice-like crystals of water and methane molecules intermixed with sediments, are found over 50,000 sq km from offshore Marlborough to offshore Gisborne.
Dr. Henrys says that New Zealand possesses a world class gas hydrate province from about 600 m depth down to the Hikurangi trench.
There is also an area of gas hydrates about 2,500 sq km known at the south west of the South Island near Fiordland.
Methane gas which comes to the surface along the East Coast sea floor is believed to be squeezed out of the earth’s crust as the Pacific Plate is thrust up along the accretionary margin of the East Coast and begins its slow subduction under the northern half of New Zealand.
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