Halliburton Filed Claims Against BP In Texas State Court

- Halliburton Filed Claims Against BP In Texas State Court



Sep 2, 2011

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) filed claims against BP (NYSE:BP) in Texas state court for negligent misrepresentation, business disparagement and defamation related to the April 20, 2010, Macondo incident.

The company also moved to amend its claims against BP in the multi-district litigation in New Orleans, Louisiana, to include fraud.

Halliburton has a potential upside of 66.9% based on a current price of $43.02 and an average consensus analyst price target of $71.79.

Full news
- Halliburton Sues BP In Texas - Alleges Misrepresentation <<


Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too
LINK

$5 Billion in Claims Paid Out By BP For Gulf Coast Damage

- $5 Billion in Claims Paid Out By BP For Gulf Coast Damage



Aug 23, 2011

"BP says it has paid out $5 billion dollars of the $20 billion set aside for the recovery efforts involved in the Gulf of Mexico spill last year. The pay out is going to Gulf Coast businesses and residents for damages caused by the catastrophe.

According to a summary by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which took over the claims process from BP last August, has approved 38% of the 947,892 claims submitted.

The enormous majority of the claims paid have gone to five states. Residents in Florida have been paid $2 billion; more than any other state while residents of Louisiana were paid $1.5 billion. Recipients from Alabama, Mississippi and Texas round out the top five, respectively.

BP (NYSE:BP) has a potential upside of 41.3% based on a current price of $39.44 and an average consensus analyst price target of $55.74."

Oil &amp; Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too
LINK

Economic Data Reveals Positive Outlook in Jobs and Unemployment

- Economic Data Reveals Positive Outlook in Jobs and Unemployment



Jul 7, 2011

Exciting news in economic data today....

The Labor Department reported that people applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in seven weeks. Applications for benefits dropped by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 418,000.

Claims for the prior week were revised up to 432,000 from an original reading of 428,000. Economists had expected new requests for jobless benefits to drop to 424,000. The average of new claims over the past four weeks fell by 3,000 to 424,750.

Continuing claims fell 43,000 to 3.68 million in the week ended June 25. Overall, 7.46 million people received some form of state or federal benefit in the week of June 18, down 61,327 from the prior week.

Not only were jobless claims down in the month but private sector jobs were up.

Private sector companies in the U.S. increased adding 157,000 jobs in the month of June, according to the Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) report.

The job reading in June is higher than what analysts had expected of a increase of 70,000. The ADP announced that the goods-price sector totaled 27,000 jobs in June along with 24,000 in manufacturing. As for the service sector, it added 130,000 jobs.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

PA Resources Claims Azurite Production Levels In Line with 1Q

- PA Resources Claims Azurite Production Levels In Line with 1Q

Wednesday, June 15, 2011
PA Resources AB

PA Resources reported an update on production and sales at the Azurite Field offshore Republic of Congo.

The last production well on the Azurite Field was commissioned as communicated on June 8 and is presently being monitored after initial clean-up.

Present level of production on the Azurite Field is in line with the average production level seen in the first quarter of 2011.

PA Resources has over the last couple of days performed a lifting from the Azurite Field priced at approximately USD 114 per barrel.

PA Resources has a 35 percent working interest in the production sharing contract for the Azurite Field, the operator Murphy Oil Corporation has a 50 percent working interest and Société Nationale Petroles du Congo 15 percent.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

U.S. Employment Rose Far Less than Expected

- U.S. Employment Rose Far Less than Expected



Jun 3, 2011

Reuters reported that the US employment climbed less than expected in May to record its weakest reading since September. The unemployment rate increased 9.1 percent as cost of energy prices are higher and the impact of the Japan earthquake and tsunami bogged down the economy.
In a poll conducted by Reuters, economists had expected payrolls to increase 150,000 and private hiring to improve. The government even adjusted employment figures for March and April to confirm that 39,000 fewer jobs were created than previously estimated.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Justice Dept Claims EPA Did Not Violate Range's Due Process Rights

Justice Dept Claims EPA Did Not Violate Range's Due Process Rights

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
by Jack Z. Smith

The Justice Departments contends in court papers filed Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency did not violate Range Resources' constitutional right of due process when it issued a Dec. 7 emergency order against the company related to methane contamination of two residential water wells in Parker County.

Range's due-process argument is "without merit," the department said, arguing that the Fort Worth-based natural gas producer "seeks to curtail the EPA's emergency powers" under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act "in a manner that would seriously harm EPA's ability ... to address risks to underground sources of drinking water and public water systems."

The department filed a 31-page brief in a Dallas federal court where Senior Judge Royal Furgeson is considering a Justice Department complaint, filed Jan. 20, contending that Range failed to comply with three of six provisions in the EPA order. The department is asking Furgeson to deny Range's motion to dismiss the complaint.

Range has also filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The department said Range is entitled only to a hearing on whether it complied with the emergency order and "whether any civil penalties should be assessed." Fines could be $16,500 per day per violation.

In its Dec. 7 order, EPA said Range "caused or contributed" to the methane contamination of the water wells, likely from two nearby Range gas wells. Methane is the chief component of natural gas.

Range's wells were drilled more than a mile deep into the Barnett Shale, far below the water wells, which are roughly 200 feet deep.

Range spokesman Matt Pitzarella said late Monday that the company is reviewing the Justice Department's brief and that its "position remains the same": that it did not cause the water wells' contamination.

Range argues that the EPA's findings represent "sheer guesswork" based on "threadbare-thin" reasoning. It noted that EPA enforcement official John Blevins, who signed the emergency order, later backtracked somewhat, saying in a sworn deposition that Range "may" have caused or contributed to the wells' contamination.

Range argues that "there is 5,500 feet of the earth's strata separating the bottom of the private water wells from the subsurface horizontal sections" of its gas wells. The company contends that the EPA "does not even set forth a theory how gas could migrate from Range's wells to the aquifer."

The Texas Railroad Commission found March 29 that the Range gas wells did not cause the contamination. Its members said they agreed with its staff hearing examiners, as well as with Range and its consultants, that the gas in the water wells likely migrated from the shallow Strawn geological formation, into which some gas wells were drilled in the early 1980s.

Copyright (c) 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Reliance Debunks Claims on KG-D6 Output Decline

Reliance Debunks Claims on KG-D6 Output Decline

Monday, May 09, 2011
Asia Pulse Pte Ltd

India's Reliance Industries has debunked charges that KG-D6 gas field output fell due to non-drilling of an adequate number of wells, saying the phenomenon was a result of reservoir complexity and indiscriminate drilling would have lead to infructous capital expenditure.

The drop in production from over 61 million cubic meters per day achieved in March, 2010, to under 50 mmcmd was a result of the main reservoir channels not behaving in the manner predicted in 2006.

"Reliance has told us that pressure in wells has fallen rapidly and some wells haven shown early water ingress," an Oil Ministry official said. "They made a detailed presentation on the problems being faced at the field on May 2 and by the look of it, we feel there are some genuine reservoir issues."

More wells on the main channel area of the Dhirubhai-1 and 3 fields, the largest of the 18 gas finds in the block that were put into production in 2009, is unlikely to either raise production rate or recovery as they will drain the same resource, he said.

Reliance will identify disconnected gas volumes and drill wells on them, an exercise that will take 3-4 years.

It has drilled 20 out of the 22 wells committed in the field development plan (FDP) as it now feels that drilling of additional wells unmindful of the reservoir behavior would have resulted in huge capital expenditure which would have been difficult to justify later.

Oil regulator DGH is pushing for drilling of 11 committed wells by April 1, 2012, to raise output. Reliance wants UK's BP Plc to come on board first.

BP is buying 30 percent interest in KG-D6 and 22 other blocks for US$7.2 billion.

Once the government approves the stake buy, Reliance plans to sit with BP to come up with most optimal solution to the reservoir problem including drilling of additional wells.

Reliance is allowed to recover every penny spent on the field from sale of gas before profits are split with the government. Investment in injudicious additional wells would have led to a reduction in the government's petroleum profit.

Sitting in water depths of up to 1.2 kilometers, the KG-D6 is the first deepsea field in South Asia to go on production and there are no deepwater analogs available for reference on how the reservoir will behave.

As a result, Reliance had to depend on its own resources and some global industry consultants for the characterization, modelling and development of this complex deepwater reservoir system.

Current wells have no contribution from the areas outside the main channel area, contrary to what was predicted at the time of FDP in 2006.

(C) 2011 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Unemployment Rate Jumps to 9% In April, Economy Adds 244,000 Jobs

Unemployment Rate Jumps to 9% In April, Economy Adds 244,000 Jobs



May 6, 2011

The American economy added 244,000 jobs in April, the largest increase in almost a year, but the unemployment rate actually rose to 9% from the reported 8.8% in March, as more people actively looked for work, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

The private sector added 268,000 jobs, with state and local governments continuing to make cuts in an effort to balance their budgets.

Economists had expected just 175,000 jobs to be added in the month. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised up to a gain of 235,000 from 194,000 and the change for March was also revised up, from 216,000 to 221,000.

Since the low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.8 million in the U.S. Private sector employment has increased by 2.1 million over the same period.

Employment gains for the month were led by hiring in the retail (57,000), professional and business services (51,000), health care (37,000), and leisure and hospitality (46,000). Manufacturing employment grew 29,000, and mining grew 11,000 in the month.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

The Labor Department Reported Jobless Claims Rose 27,000 To 412,000, Wholesale Costs Up 0.7%

The Labor Department Reported Jobless Claims Rose 27,000 To 412,000, Wholesale Costs Up 0.7%



Apr 14, 2011

The Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits rose 27,000 in the week ended April 9 to 412,000. Economists had expected that claims would be little changed at 380,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

The labor market is showing signs of strengthening as payrolls increase, which could help to sustain gains in consumer spending.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks rose by 5,500 to 395,750. The Labor Department also reported that wholesale costs in the U.S. rose 0.7% in March, led by higher prices for energy, light trucks and passenger cars. Economists had expected a 1% gain on average for the producer price index.

The increase was smaller than forecast as food prices unexpectedly dropped. The core measure, excluding food and energy costs, rose 0.3%.