Oilfield Daily News

The Economist Debate Series announces its eleventh online debate (www.economist.com/debate) focused on the current issue of energy security. The proposition for this debate is: "This house believes that we can solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations."
<P>
The proposition will be debated over the course of two weeks from August 19 to August 29, 2008. The Economist encourages anyone interested in the topic to join the conversation, contribute opinions and cast a vote for or against the proposition. The winner will be decided by popular vote on Friday August 29, 2008.
-
Go to Source
-

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Armed pirates seized a Malaysian palm oil tanker with 39 crew off the coast of Somalia — the fourth hijacking in a month, a global maritime watchdog said Wednesday.
<P>
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, said the center received a distress signal late Tuesday about the raid on the MT Bunga Melati Dua and immediately notified Western naval ships patrolling the area.
-
Go to Source
-

…Lured by state subsidies and buoyed by high oil prices, the wind industry has arrived in force in upstate New York, promising to bring jobs, tax revenue and cutting-edge energy to the long-struggling region. But in town after town, some residents say, the companies have delivered something else: an epidemic of corruption and intimidation, as they rush to acquire enough land to make the wind farms a reality.
<P>
“It really is renewable energy gone wrong,” said the Franklin County district attorney, Derek P. Champagne, who began a criminal inquiry into the Burke Town Board last spring and was quickly inundated with complaints from all over the state about the wind companies. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo agreed this year to take over the investigation.
-
Go to Source
-

Commentators have been quick to point out that Russia’s defeat of Georgia has pretty much killed the chances that new oil and gas pipelines will be built to increase the security of supplies to Europe. It’s clear that there is little to stop Russia from rolling its forces up to the existing pipeline or knocking it out of commission if it wanted to. The Washington Post’s Steve Pearlstein even suggested that demonstrating the pipeline’s vulnerability may have been one of the underlying motives for the Russian incursion.
<P>
The United States has been promoting the idea of pipeline routes skirting Russia as a way to promote European energy security, but the chances of making that work have always been slim. The reason: The United States has been simultaneously trying to keep Iran, the world’s other major holder of natural gas reserves, out of world markets and out of alternate pipeline networks. Without the Iran card, it’s very difficult to win a pipeline game against Russia.
-
Go to Source
-

A branch of science that has emerged over the past two decades is attempting to encompass both fundamental understanding and practical applications with a fascinating goal: to learn the degree to which humans are living in harmony with their environment and how they can continue to do so over the long term. Unlike many specialized scientific fields that might interest only a few people, this one ought to interest everyone!
-
Go to Source
-

DONG E&P Norge, Operator of production license 274, has made an oil discovery on the Ipswich prospect. Exploration well 1/3-11 and sidetrack 1/3-11 T2 on the Ipswich-prospect proved oil in rocks of Paleocene age.
-
Go to Source
-

Stuart Petroleum has become the Operator and 50% interest holder in Timor Sea permit AC/P33, host to the Oliver Oilfield development project.
-
Go to Source
-

Talks between Kazakhstan and a group of global oil majors developing the giant Kashagan oilfield must be over by October 25, the government said on Wednesday.
-
Go to Source
-