7-16-12
Chairman Doc Hastings (NGP Photo) invites Interior Department officials to the 'hot seat'.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04) on Friday, July 13 sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the Committee’s request for transcribed interviews with five Department officials who were personally involved in developing the May 2010 Interior Department report that falsely stated independent engineers had peer reviewed and supported a drilling moratorium.
In this follow-up letter, Chairman Hastings states that he intends to invite the five Department officials, and possibly other Department officials, to a Full Committee oversight hearing so they can answer questions on the record.
AP/ADN by Becky Bohrer. The Parnell administration, criticized for rushing a bill into the special session this year that some lawmakers considered ill-conceived, is seeking a new consultant to advise it on oil and gas taxes.
Alaska Dispatch by Alex DeMarban. Shell faces intense scrutiny as it seeks to conduct exploratory drilling in an Arctic Ocean frontier, where massive risk comes with a potential undersea oil bonanza.
Houston, July 16, 2012. Unit operating costs in the Permian Basin have increased significantly during the past 4 years reveals Ziff Energy Group’s recently completed Permian Basin “Improving Field Performance” (IFP) operations benchmarking study. This multi-client project, conducted by Ziff Energy on behalf of 11 operators, is the leading North American energy consulting firm’s 7th Permian study edition since 1996. The study examines field-level operating cost data for the 12 month period July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The study assessed about 100 fields, including 15 CO2 tertiary fields, which collectively produce nearly a quarter of the basin’s oil, and a fifth of its natural gas.
Petroleum News. Great Bear Petroleum’s first North Slope test well, the Alcor No. 1, has almost reached the HRZ oil source rock, the first of the source rocks from which the company wants to obtain core samples, Pat Galvin, Great Bear’s vice president of external affairs, told Petroleum News July 9. “We’re in progress moving towards our first zone for coring,” Galvin said, adding that the coring should be done within the next few days.
