Once upon a time air travel was a luxury reserved for the rich and famous. With sustained oil prices over $100 per barrel, we may be headed that way again, and the impact on business travel could be enormous, as cash-strapped airlines raise prices, cut capacity and try to squeeze alternative revenue sources out of the flying public.

A confluence of several factors increases the likelihood that oil prices will stabilize at current levels or worse, go higher still. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) oil consumption will grow by more than 40% over the next quarter century fueled largely by emerging giant economies in China, India and other rapidly industrializing nations. Refineries around the world are already operating at or near capacity. Even if refiners can boost future capacity, it is unlikely they can keep pace with demand.
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Malaysia’s state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, is in talks with China National Petroleum Corp. over cooperation in exploring the Chinese company’s natural gas blocks in Myanmar, officials from the two companies said.

A delegation from Petronas, one of the biggest investors in Myanmar’s oil and gas industry, visited Beijing earlier this month for negotiations with CNPC’s overseas exploration unit, China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp., or CNODC.
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The huge reserve of natural gas locked underneath many North Texans’ homes has been brewing there since about 500 million years ago. But only in the past year or two have nearby residents — those who live above the coveted fuel — received a cut of the wealth.

The drilling trend has moved east, from rural farms in Fort Worth sitting on proverbial “gold mines,” to half-acre lots in the suburbs.

In Flower Mound, the majority of the sites are in the undeveloped part of the town, though applications for drilling are creeping eastward.
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Caza Oil & Gas, Inc. announced that exploration wells on its Wilcox 116 Property in Wharton County, Texas and the Lynch Property, in Lea County, New Mexico both successfully encountered gas and the Company expects to bring both wells into production following completion and tie-in to gathering systems.

Wilcox 116 Property - Located in Wharton County, Texas, the Jonell Cerny gas unit #1 well commenced drilling on January 15, 2008 and reached a total depth of 16,510 feet on March 3, 2008. Petrophysical logs were run on March 8, 2008 and analysis of the data indicates the well encountered Wilcox Sand pay at multiple intervals from 13,500 feet to 16,400 feet. Completion operations are planned to commence around April 9, 2008 pending pipeline connection into the gathering system. Read more » »

EDS has signed a five-year, US$1 billion IT Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Royal Dutch Shell (Shell). Today’s agreement with EDS is one of three IT outsourcing agreements between Shell and three key suppliers, and is expected to deliver Shell a substantial business improvement over the five year initial term of the contract.

Under the terms of the agreement, EDS will manage Shell’s end-user computing services including desktop, service desk, on-site services, back-up and disaster recovery, mobile information protection and managed messaging services, for 150,000 users in over 100 countries across its global operations. Read more » »

Subsea 7 Inc has been awarded a contract valued in excess of US $200 million by Petrobras for an EPIC contract, in the Espirito Santo Basin offshore Brazil.

The contract will involve the design, engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of the 78 km Sul Capixaba 12″ Export Gas Pipeline and end termination assembly in the Jubarte field. The project also involves the execution of a horizontally drilled shore approach and pre commissioning. The gas export pipeline will eventually connect the FPSO P-57 in the deepwater Jubarte field to the Petrobras onshore installation in Anchieta, Espirito Santo.
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This quarter report, financial Gammon Gold Inc., for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2007.

For the three-month period ended December 31, 2007 the Company reported sales of $39,699,932 compared to $34,381,498 for the same period in 2006. Net loss for the quarter was $20,728,989 or $0.19 per share compared to $3,291,590 or $0.04 per share for the same period in 2006.

For the twelve-month period ended December 31, 2007 the Company reported sales of $152,058,628 compared to $64,235,896 for the same period in 2006. Net loss for the period was $101,313,968 or $0.90 per share compared to $25,308,401 or $0.29 per share for the same period in 2006.

completed for report visit at : Gammon Gold

Saipem has been awarded the contract for the Umbilicals, Flowlines, Risers and Oil Loading Terminal (UFR & OLT) activities for the subsea development of Usan deepwater field, located off the coast of Nigeria, about 160 kilometres South of Port Harcourt. The contract is worth in excess of USD 1.3 billion.

The contract has been awarded by Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited (Total), as the Operator of Oil Mining License (OML) 1381 where the Usan field is located. It encompasses the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, pre-commissioning, assistance to commissioning and start-up of the subsea umbilicals (72 km), flowlines (61 km) and risers connecting the 42 subsea wells to the FPSO, along with the oil loading terminal, consisting of an offloading buoy and two offloading lines, and part of the FPSO anchoring system.
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One of the best weapons to attenuate the effects of world oil price hikes and consequential rising prices of petroleum products is to enhance trade among Africa States. This was one of the key propositions of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Ephraim Inoni, on Friday, March 28 while presiding at the 25th session of the Council of Ministers of the African Petroleum Producing Association (APPA). “The promotion of intra-African trade in petroleum products, seems to be an area worth exploring, against the backdrop of the increase in oil bills”, he told participants at the opening ceremony in Yaounde.
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The Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO)Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO)
yesterday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with 13 government ministries and local NGOs covering 17 separate social investment projects.

This is the biggest single batch of social investment projects ever signed at one time and highlights PDO’s continuing efforts to support wider Omani society.

The MoUs were signed at a special ceremony held at the Ministry of Oil and Gas under the auspices of Dr Mohammed bin Hamad bin Saif Al Romhi, minister of oil and gas and chairman of the PDO board of directors in the presence of other PDO board members, senior PDOP ’s managers, members of the combined government/PDO Social Investment Committee, and representatives of the signing bodies. Read more » »