Friday, June 15, 2012

...: Repsol & YPF

The dust is no closer to settling on Argentina’s highly-controversial decision expropriate one the country’s largest oil and gas firm, YPF. Six weeks have passed since the Argentine Senate approved the bill to renationalise the industry giant on April 26, yet the fallout from the move continues to make headlines. While President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s restoration of 51% of the company’s ownership to the state may have won plaudits at home with its appeal to nationalist sentiment, outside the South American nation the story is very different.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

...paying to attend a Conference is "so last Century"!

To everybody who has just returned from the EAGE in Copenhagen, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, especially considering how much it cost you and your company:

Friday, June 08, 2012

......and maybe some gas!

About 20 years ago, when I first started to have a small role in BP’s global exploration program, we were driven by the concept of what we called “New Geography”. It was a simple but far reaching idea: Whole new areas were being ‘opened up’, either because : Regimes had fallen, governments had changed their mind – so Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Brasil, eventually Russia, opened up… or because , Technology had progressed; we could drop in huge ‘exploration 3Ds’ almost anywhere that was wet; and drillers knew they could drill in ever deeper water depths – this opened up the Deep Waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Angola, Nigeria, Egypt, Norway, West of Shetlands etc etc. Nowadays is different!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

...or just lots and lots of gas?

The emergence of East Africa as a petroleum province has been spotted by the media, especially the UK press where a headline such as “Improved technology helps to oil the wheels for East Africa” (The Times, 7 th January 2012) is but one of many.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

....facing the challenge of the safety of offshore oil & gas activities

Last week we had an excellent Finding Petroleum Forum on “Improving offshore safety beyond Macondo”. I particularly want to draw your attention to the presentation by Taf Powell, an expert adviser to the European Commission on its proposals for the regulation of the offshore oil & gas industry.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

...after neglect by the previous government, maybe something is moving!

Charles Hendry, UK minister of state for energy, gave a round-up on the UK government's current activities with oil and gas, speaking at a Lloyd's Register press conference on May 9 .