ONGC Plans to Drill 17 Exploration Wells in India’s Shale Oil, Gas Blocks lweb.es/f901 4.30.16
India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd. (ONGC) intends to spend approximately $105 million (INR 7 billion) to drill up to 17 shale oil and gas wells located on the country’s east and west coasts. ONGC is seeking permission to drill 11 exploratory wells for shale oil and shale gas in Cambay basin at Mehsana, Ahmedabad and Bharuch districts of Gujarat, 1 prospect in Cauvery basin at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and five wells in Krishna-Godvari Basin at East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. If the proposal is approved by the government, it will be the first time that ONGC has embarked on shale exploration on such a large scale.
OEF REVIEW:China’s crude imports will rise further from a record this year to feed its expanding refining sector and strategic reserves, according to Standard Chartered Bank. The nation’s average crude imports will rise by as much as 600,000 barrels per day this year, analysts including Priya N. Balchandani said in a March 24th report. Imports last month surged above 8 million barrels per day for the first time and exceeded volumes shipped to the U.S., the world’s top oil user, according to the bank. Standard Chartered expects China’s crude imports will top 10 million barrels per day by late 2018 or early 2019.
OEF REVIEW:Oil prices have climbed by about 50 percent from their February lows, topping $40 per barrel. But the rally could be reaching its limits, at least temporarily, as persistent oversupply and the prospect of new shale production caps any potential price increase.
OEF REVIEW:Barclays has revised downwards its global exploration and production spending outlook for 2016, now saying such spending could fall 27% this year, down from 15% back in January. Spending in North America is now trending down 40% versus 27% in January, and international spending is down 21% year-over-year. Since the Barclays Upstream Spending Survey published in January, operators representing 71% of total spending have revised budgets to reflect reduced 2016 spending plans amid a sustained lower oil-price outlook.
OEF REVIEW:The AIIB and NDB are both headquartered in China and there is a strong relationship between these two institutions. Within the infrastructure space, there is such a huge funding gap that all of these institutions can work together. All of us contribute to filling that funding gap. What sets the AIIB and NDB apart is that we are focused on the five BRICS countries, while the AIIB is focused on Asia, so we have a geographical difference. But for big regional projects in Asia, we very much welcome the opportunity to partner with the AIIB to co-finance some projects. Rather than setting up a rival institution, we consider the NDB as being complementary to the existing financial architecture…
OEF REVIEW:U.S. crude oil production from the Lower 48 states from new wells (drilled since the start of 2014) made up 48% of total U.S. crude oil production in 2015, up from 22% in 2007. Production from new wells has grown as advances in horizontal drilling and completion techniques led to growth in oil production from low-permeability tight reservoirs. In 2015, production from tight formations – which include, but are not limited to, shale plays – accounted for more than 4 million barrels per day, or 50% of total U.S. oil production.
OEF REVIEW:“We expect legacy assets such as Gorgon will drive long-term growth and create shareholder value for decades to come,” said Chairman and CEO John Watson. “The long-term fundamentals for LNG are attractive, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, and this is a significant milestone for all involved.”
OEF REVIEW:On March 7, Kokam announced that it had deployed two battery energy storage systems powered by nickel manganese cobalt oxide in South Korea. The company said that the 24-MW / 9-MWh system is the largest capacity Lithium NMC ESS used for frequency regulation in the world. Kokam said that its batteries provide ultra high power technology, which is designed for high-power energy storage applications, such as frequency regulation, wind or large solar power system ramp rate control, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and voltage support.
OEF REVIEW:South Africa will give the green light in the next 12 months to companies looking to explore for shale gas under the semi-arid Karoo basin. Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas and Bundu Gas & Oil are among five companies which have applied for exploration licenses being reviewed by South Africa’s Petroleum Agency.
OEF REVIEW:Saudi Arabia and Russia have taken the first step to stem the slide in oil prices. There’s just one problem: If they are successful — and that’s a big if — the wildcatters of Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are waiting to pounce. With 4,000 wells drilled and just waiting for better prices to be brought on stream, the so-called fracklog could act as a cap to any oil rally, industry executives, traders and OPEC officials said. Worse, a price recovery could effectively bail out dozens of shale companies now struggling with $30-a-barrel oil, allowing them to return to the capital market.
OEF REVIEW:Drilling activity in the deepest parts of the world’s waters can yield tremendous oil volumes, but exploring thousands of feet below sea level is also the most expensive of energy’s high tech endeavors. And in an environment of $30 oil, investment in deepwater production is pouring out. Beyond a rebound in oil prices, recovery of the deepwater sector could take an additional two years, Sajjad Alam, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service told Rigzone. 
OEF REVIEW:The current crash in oil prices is sowing the seeds of a powerful rebound and a potential supply crunch by the end of the decade, but the prize may go to the US shale industry rather Opec, the world’s energy watchdog has predicted. America’s shale oil producers and Canada’s oil sands will come roaring back from late 2017 onward once the current brutal purge is over, a cycle it described as the “rise, fall and rise again” of the fracking industry. “Anybody who believes the US revolution has stalled should think again. We have been very surprised at how resilient it is,” said Neil Atkinson, head of oil markets at the International Energy Agency.
OEF REVIEW:“In this post we first confirm the positive correlation between stocks and oil prices, noting that it is not just a recent phenomenon. We then investigate the hypothesis that underlying changes in aggregate demand explain the oil-stocks relationship. We find that an underlying demand factor does account for much of the positive relationship, and that if, in addition, we account for shifts in market risk preferences, we can explain still more. However, even with these two factors included, a significant part of the oil-stocks correlation remains unexplained.”
OEF REVIEW:This report points the way to a cleaner transportation future by describing key ways we can clean up our transportation fuels. This report builds on the Union of Concerned Scientists Half the Oil plan by explaining how our major transportation fuels are changing and what we can do to reduce emissions from fuel production. Our clean fuels—electricity and biofuels—are already cutting oil use and emissions from transportation, but more work is required to deliver on their potential. Oil is getting steadily more polluting, but by holding oil companies accountable to reduce avoidable emissions and avoid the dirtiest sources, we can check that mounting climate damage and make sure that the oil we continue to use has the lowest global warming emissions possible.