Cambridge Energy Research Associates News

Offshore exploration is a history of man v. Prospecting for oil is a dynamic art. From a lake in Ohio, to piers off the California coast in the early 1900s, to the salt marshes of Louisiana in the 1930s, to the first “out-of-sight- of-land” tower in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico, the modern offshore petroleum industry has inched its way over the last roughly 75 years from 100 ft. of water ever farther into the briny deep, where the biggest platform today, Shell’s Perdido spar, sits in 8,000 ft. of water. As a planet, we have two unquenchable thirsts – for water and for oil.

INTERTANKO's Executive Committee and Council Autumn Meetings will take place in Athens 24-26 October 2001. In conjunction with the meetings, INTERTANKO will be hosting an Open Market Seminar on Wednesday, 24 October. Consultancy and Research Ltd. will speak on tanker investments. about oil trade developments in the Black Sea and Caspian region and the consequences of the new pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan. Martin Stopford, H. Clarkson & Co. Ltd. will concentrate on strategic issues in the tanker market against the background of recent events. Finn Engelsen jr, Lorentzen & Stemoco will present prospects for the product tanker market and Jarle Hammer, Fearnleys AS will concentrate on trade developments in the tanker market. Erik Ranheim, INTERTANKO, will introduce and moderate the seminar.

The cost of producing oil and gas has risen about 53 percent the past two years, and the trend is expected to continue this year, according to a report released Monday. Business Week reported that those same costs have climbed 67 percent since 2000, but most of the increase has come since the end of 2004, according to an analysis by Cambridge Energy Research Associates and its parent, IHS Inc., which together have created what they call the Upstream Capital Costs Index. The index tracks nine key cost areas for offshore and land-based projects such as construction, equipment and personnel. The rising cost of doing business in the oilfield is expected to be a hot topic when dozens of industry leaders, academics and analysts gather this week for CERA's annual energy conference in Houston.

A chronic shortage of rigs and workers has doubled the cost of producing oil and gas in the North Sea, threatening to make the UK’s domestic oil industry uncompetitive, warned UKOOA, the association of North Sea offshore operators, according to Times Online. Signs that costs are crimping investment emerge in the association’s survey of North Sea activity. Further evidence of the dramatic worldwide oil industry cost escalation emerged in a new index showing a 53 per cent increase in project costs over just two years. The Upstream Capital Costs Index, launched by IHC and Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera), climbed 13 per cent in the six months to the end of October because of soaring inflation in hiring rigs, shipyard fabrication and labour.

Oil's eight-month rally hit yet another high Sept. 29 as dealers cited news that U.S. petroleum inventories had dropped to near-three-year lows as proof OPEC supply curbs were biting deep ahead of winter. Benchmark Brent crude blend touched $24.30 a barrel, a 33-month high, after the American Petroleum Institute said crude stocks in the world's biggest oil consumer fell by 3.7 million barrels last week to stand at their lowest levels in almost three years. The underlying picture was even tighter because a slight rise in isolated U.S. West Coast stocks boosted the headline figure and masked a whopping 6.4 million barrel drop in key reserves east of the Rockies. Oil stocks in the U.S.