Oil Rig Jobs

Are you in great physical condition, looking for an adventure, and for a job where earnings potential is high? There are more than a few people in the world seeking a job that combines all of those elements. But interestingly, the number of people seeking oil production jobs -- particularly on onshore and offshore oil rigs -- is not enough to fill demand.

The majority of entry-level jobs in the petroleum industry are in the ‘oil production’ sector. Generally, oil production is the process of drilling and extracting oil from underground (or underwater) reservoirs. The world’s oil production takes place both onshore and offshore. There's a good chance you've noticed oil rigs off the coast of California or in the Gulf of Mexico — or elsewhere in the world.

In U.S. controlled waters, thousands of oil platforms are either floating or attached to the ocean floor off the shores of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Many of these platforms are huge structures that house multiple drilling rigs and also house workers. Though some of the platforms can be moved, they are, for the most part, like self-sustaining steel islands, complete with helicopters pads. Once drilled, oil and gas are transported from the platforms through sub-sea pipelines to refineries located in the gulf states, especially in Texas and Louisiana.

Oil and Gas Pipeline Jobs

Pipelines not only carry the crude oil we need for refining, but much of the refined product as well, such as natural gas. There are over 200,000 miles of pipelines crisscrossing our nation pumping billions of gallons of oil and natural gas to collection points such as refineries, power stations, reserve tanks, and distributions stations, as you read this. To put that into perspective, the United States Interstate Highway System stretches for just 46,726 miles. Therefore, our petroleum pipeline network is over four times longer than our interstate highway system! It is by far the largest network of its kind in the world. Continental Europe does not even come close.

Careers in the petroleum pipeline industry are available and varied. This is no surprise given that pipelines can be found virtually everywhere across the globe, be it in cities, remote areas, near refineries, in towns, under the sea, and near electrical power plants and airports. For this reason, pipeline jobs offer potential candidates an incredible swath of terrains and climates to work in, be it offshore drilling platforms, the desert sands of the Middle East, Alaska, downtown New York City, fields in the Midwest, or in the deep southern states all along the Gulf Coast.

Pipeline jobs typically come in two flavors: direct-hire and contract work. Both typically offer superb benefits and sometimes relocation packages.

WRAPUP 1-Oil and gas cos to gain as costs fall, production rises

Oil and gas companies Goodrich Petroleum Corp (GDP.N), Brigham Exploration and Production Co (BEXP.O) and Penn Virginia Corp (PVA.N) reported quarterly losses, as commodity prices fell, but forecast a strong second half citing lower costs and rising production.

Demand for oil and natural gas has been hurt by the global economic slowdown. Growing stockpiles pulled down crude prices more than 50 percent in the second quarter from year-ago levels, while natural gas prices fell 65 percent.

Lower commodity prices have also brought down the cost to drill wells, allowing producers to get more for their money, boosting many exploration and production companies' quarterly results.

Earlier on Wednesday, Petroquest Energy Corp (PQ.N), Devon Energy Corp (DVN.N) and XTO Energy Inc (XTO.N) reported better-than-expected results and said they benefited from lower costs.

"One of the overarching themes that we have seen pretty much across the board as companies have reported is that they are simply getting more for less," Natixis Bleichroeder analyst Curtis Trimble said.

"Not only do you have a cost function that's stretching your dollars further, but also on the production side, the companies are simply getting more out of their wells due to refined completion programs, as compared to previous periods," he added.

Trimble said costs would decline further and might not pick up with the increased drilling activity.

"Outside a couple of localised instances, we won't see increases in service or equipment costs anytime soon," he said.

PRODUCTION VOLUMES UP

Penn Virginia, which reported an adjusted loss of 14 cents a share, compared with analysts' view of a loss of 13 cents a share, said its quarterly expenses fell 21 percent to $200.4 million. Net production volumes increased by 19 percent. [ID:nWNBB9962]

"As a result of our strong second quarter and first half results, we have kept our production guidance unchanged, with slight year-over-year production growth in 2009," company Chief Executive James Dearlove said in a statement.

Russia starts building major Asian gas pipeline

MOSCOW9 (AFP) – Russia on Friday started construction of a major gas pipeline supplying its Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok, which could eventually be used to feed exports of gas to Japan.

The pipeline is due to be completed before Vladivostok hosts the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group in 2012, Gazprom said in a statement announcing the start of construction.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the inauguration ceremony in Russia's far eastern Khabarovsk region and pushed a button to start welding of a section of pipe, television pictures showed.

"The priority for gas in East Siberia and the Far East is above all to serve the domestic market," Putin said.

However, Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom has said the pipeline could eventually be used to feed exports of gas to East Asian countries, including energy-hungry Japan.

Earlier this year, Gazprom head Alexei Miller said during a visit toTokyo that gas exports to Japan through Vladivostok would be possible once Russia's own needs were met.

Oil hovers near $67 as US, Asian stocks jump

SINGAPORE – Oil prices hovered near $67 a barrel Friday in Asia after investor optimism about the economy fueled rallies in crude and stocks.

Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 20 cents to $66.74 a barrel by late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on theNew York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract rose $3.59, or 5.6 percent, to settle at $66.94.

Traders have gotten whiplash this week as prices jerked up and down on investor uncertainty about the strength of the global economic recovery.

"Sentiment is very fragile," said David Moore, commodity strategist atCommonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "Going forward, we're going to be looking at a seesawing market."

Crude investors were cheered by a jump in U.S. stocks on Wednesday and Asian stocks on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.9 percent.

Oil holds above $67 amid improving US economy

Oil prices held above $67 a barrel Friday, adding to gains made overnight, as world stock markets rallied on signs of improvement in the U.S. economy.

In Europe, benchmark crude for September delivery was up 11 cents to $67.27 a barrel in afternoon electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract added $1.76 to settle at $67.16.

Evidence that the recession-hit U.S. economy is strengthening has bolstered investor optimism and triggered a rally from $58.78 a barrel two weeks ago. While crude demand hasn't rebounded yet, traders have begun to have more faith that consumption will eventually pick up.

"We haven't seen demand increase yet, but all the good news about the economy seems to be adding fuel to the fire," said Gerard Rigby, an energy analyst with Fuel First Consulting in Sydney. "Just the fact that things are improving is enough to change the sentiment of a lot of people."

Investors were cheered by a National Association of Realtors report Thursday that said sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row. The last time that happened was in the middle of the housing boom in early 2004.

Oil lingers near $65 as US crude supplies rise

SINGAPORE – Oil prices lingered near $65 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as rising U.S. crude inventories suggested consumer demand remains sluggish in the world's biggest economy.

Benchmark crude for September delivery was down 51 cents to $65.07 a barrel by afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the August contract expired, rising 74 cents to settle at $64.72.

U.S. crude inventories rose 3.1 million barrels last week while gasoline supplies gained 1.3 million, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Analysts expected the API numbers to fall 2.0 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm ofMcGraw-Hill Cos.

Investors will be watching for inventory data from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration on Wednesday for more signs crude demand may be waning.

Liquid gas customers counting the cost

It's not just mains gas customers who have been on the receiving end of large increases over recent months - those living in rural areas and relying on liquid gas delivered by tanker have also seen big price rises.

Barbara Bonnette contacted Jobs & Money after noticing her gas bill had shot up 22% in the last nine months. She, along with around 200,000 households in the UK, has no access to mains gas even though she lives in a village just two miles from Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

"There is a misconception that most users of liquid gas live half way up a mountain or on a farm, but that's not true. There are more than 100 houses in our hamlet of Milbourne and although we are less than two miles from the town centre, British Gas isn't interested in extending the mains supply unless we all pay over £1,000."

Crude falls as gasoline prices continue slide

Retail gasoline prices continued to trickle down in California and nationwide in the last week as worries about the economy kept many people close to home over the Fourth of July weekend. Investors sharing those concerns sent the price of crude oil down Monday for a fourth straight trading day.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in California fell 3.2 cents to $2.952 a gallon Monday, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of filling stations. The nationwide average fell 3 cents to $2.612 a gallon.

Oil Industry

Saudi Arabia is the world's most important oil producer. Given its relatively high production levels, accounting for nearly 13 percent of world output and 35 percent of total OPEC output in 1991, and, more significantly, its small domestic needs, the kingdom's dominance of international crude oil markets is unchallenged. Although reluctant to play the role, Saudi Arabia has become the "swing producer," balancing international oil demand and supply. Therefore, within limits, Saudi oil production policies can have a profound impact on international prices. Since the early 1970s, the kingdom has occasionally used this dominance to influence oil prices, usually to further its objectives of sustaining long-term oil consumption and ensuring economic stability in the industrialized world.

OPEC to Maintain Production Levels in Today’s Meeting

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will likely maintain its crude oil production quotas at its meeting in Vienna, Austria today, Thursday.

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali Naimi, has indicated that while demand is beginning to pick up, inventories remain dangerously high. Therefore, it would be best for the cartel to “stay its course” by continuing to adhere to previous production cuts until demand stabilizes.

After soaring above $147 a barrel last summer the price of oil tumbled more than 80% to a four-year low of $32.70 a barrel in February. To combat the sharp decline in prices, OPEC has lowered its production quotas by 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) - about 5% of global demand - since September.

Since February, oil prices have recovered, climbing to their current level above $60 a barrel. But both Naimi and industry analysts have warned that the rally has more to do with market sentiment and the potential for a recovery than it does fundamentals.

“The price rise is a function of optimism that better things are coming in the future,” Naimi told reporters earlier this week.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates global oil consumption will fall by 2.6 million bpd this year. That would be the biggest drop since 1981.

Naimi says that world crude inventories - at current levels - would be sufficient enough to meet about 62 days of global demand. OPEC members would like to see them fall to about 52 to 54 days worth of demand.

An increase in OPEC production “will not happen until we are sure that global inventories return to their normal levels,” Naimi told the Arab daily Al-Hayat.

U.S. crude oil inventories rose to the highest level in two decades earlier this month. However, Naimi did note that demand in Asia, particularly China, seems to be accelerating and crude prices could reach $75 a barrel by the end of the year.

Still, analysts are urging caution, as production quota compliance among OPEC nations is beginning to wane. Production compliance among OPEC nations reached 85% in March - an impressive level by historical standards. Members only delivered on 78% of the promised cuts in April as prices recovered.

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest and most influential producer, actually pumped below its target level in April, but other members have been cheating. Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, accounted for 410,000 bpd of the overproduction last month, while Angola exceeded its target by 170,000 bpd and Venezuela overproduced 130,000 bpd the IEA reported.

“Lagging quota compliance by the non-Gulf Arab states - hovering around 50% - has hamstrung any real discussion of a potential cut to accelerate the drawdown of the glut,” PFC Energy analyst David Kirsch said in a report today. “Purported requests by Angola to revise or suspend its quota, as well as moves by Venezuela to certify a higher production figure leave any proposal for further output restraint effectively stillborn.”

OPEC president says goal is still for $75 oil

VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC president Angola said the group's goal was still to achieve $75 a barrel by the end of the year, echoing earlier comment by leading exporter Saudi Arabia that the level was achievable without damaging a fragile world economy.

"It's the goal to achieve this price," Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos, who is also Angolan oil minister, told reporters on his arrival in Vienna on Monday ahead of talks on Tuesday between the European Union and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Asked whether the aim was to hit $75 before the end of the year, he said "yes".

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi established that level as a goal at OPEC's most recent meeting in May.

U.S. crude earlier this month hit a high above $73 a barrel, but on Tuesday fell back to around $67.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri, who greeted the OPEC president on his arrival in Vienna, said it was too soon to say whether OPEC might consider changing its output ceiling when it next meets in September.

He said compliance with existing production targets was 75 percent, lower than levels of around 80 percent hit earlier this year, but he said he understood discipline was becoming more strict.

Oil drops below $69 as traders eye US dollar

AP - Oil prices fell below $69 a barrel Wednesday, but were up from earlier lows, as investors continued to focus on the value of the U.S. dollar, which typically trades inversely to commodities, and awaited a policy statement from the Federal Reserve.

There will be no new refineries

Oil companies won't be building more refineries, because there won't be enough oil left to refine by the time new refineries could pay for themselves.
There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US since 1976. In 1982, there were 301 operable refineries in the U.S and they produced about 17.9 million barrels of oil per day. Today there are only 149 refineries, and they're producing 17.4 million barrels. This increase in efficiency is impressive but not a miracle. As with everything these outputs are carefully calculated to optimize profitability. Let me explain.
Truth be told, new refineries require tremendous financial commitments which take anywhere from 15 to 25 years to amortize. With record oil prices it would make perfect sense to invest in a few refineries today, except... for the lack of oil to be refined 20 years from now.
Trends have predicted that peak oil production, where the production of oil starts to decline, will be reached around 2007-2010. After that, there will be less and less oil to refine no matter where drillers look. In this context, building expensive new refineries does not make a lot of sense as existing ones will be sufficient to process whatever little oil is left. So forget about new refineries, except for a few in the northern midwest to process the heavy oil from Canada.

Crude oil is a finite resource more and more depleted. As such, an increasing demand put on this finite supply necessitates careful management in order to stretch its lifespan and profitability.

"Peak Oil" and directions in the oil industry

We are reaching closer to ‘peak oil’ with each passing day. Analysts predict the inevitable to come with this century. Present measures taken, the future consumption of petroleum in America may drop and possibly even decrease, but are biofuels really the key to the solution?

European countries have already made a switch to biofuels and are beginning to feel the effects and complications. While it hasn’t resulted in direct food shortages, biodiesel is already causing shortages of vegetable oils.

Will countries like China and India follow this trend in energy conversion? It is difficult to imagine any country with enormous population would make such a move. This conversion could result in massive world food shortages as never experienced. Both countries realize this and are pursuing aggressive oil exploration.
Some American environmentalists believe that it is possible to make a complete switch from crude oil to alternatives by 2050. This is very unrealistic as crude oil provides us with more than just a form of energy. It is a raw source of chemicals for manufacturing drugs, plastics, chemicals, and fabrics.

So what is the realistic solution with the arrival of peak oil? Canada, USA, and Venezuela sit on more unconventional oil than all historical conventional crude and present reserves that are available. Peak oil does not mean an abrupt end to oil. It does mean that demand of conventional oil will exceed supplies of conventional crude. This spells the end to cheap crude.

Extracting oil out of America’s huge oil shale deposits is once again drawing attention. It will be successful as new technology comes on stream. With higher crude prices there will be decent returns in revenue. It will inspire more interest and new ideas. Oil companies’ attention will once again be drawn to this area.

This is the era for non-conventional oils. Needs, economics and unrealistic alternatives will make us realize that the world can adapt to and meet these challenges. Non-conventional supplies of crude oil will play an important role in the generations to come.

Profitability and $100 oil

$100 per barrel: the line was finally crossed on January 2nd 2008. What does this imply for profits of oil producing nations? In order to run some numbers we have to consider a key measure called the break-even price which is the amount of money it takes to extract 1 barrel of oil.

The break-even price is the first thing oil companies establish in order to determine if drilling a new well makes financial sense. From the break even price, profitability can easily be determined with the following formula:

Profitability = (Price of Oil - Break Even Price) / Break Even Price

For example with oil at $100 and a break even price of $50, profitability is 100%. But with oil at $60 and the same break even price, profitability drops to 20%
By dialing their target profitability first, oil companies then determine if a new drilling project is feasible. Needless to say, with oil retailing now at $100, more wells will be drilled in deeper, harder to reach places than were previously profitable.

The following table provided by the Bank of Kuwait gathers current reported break-even prices of major oil producing nations:

This level of profitability explains the recent $7.5 billion placement in troubled Citibank from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the $1.8 billion investment in UBS by a strategic Middle East investor and the 20 percent acquisition of the London Stock Exchange by the tiny nation of Qatar.
High oil prices have allowed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to boost their foreign assets to more than one trillion dollars during the 2002-2006 period. With a looming recession (read "western assets on sale") and high oil prices we can expect this trend to increase.

Companies in the Oil Business For the Long Haul

Companies that anticipate a long presence in the energy market are those involved with oilfield services. It's now January of 2008, and it's an understatement to say that the stock market is uncertain. To add to the general anxiety caused by the collapse of the housing market, oil prices keep going up. Since demand continues to rise, and production is falling off, high prices aren't going to end soon.

With all this uncertainty, even healthy and profitable businesses are experiencing a temporary loss in stock value, which include the oilfield services companies. These companies provide a wide range of technology and project management, contracting with international oil companies, independent oil and gas companies, and national oil companies for building new oil rigs, both on and off-shore, as well as finding new prospects and providing reservoir management. Within recent years, they have become the companies developing new technologies, rather than Big Oil. These technologies include reservoir imaging, monitoring, and development, with seismic crews and data processing centers using seismic libraries. Imaging services range from 3D and time-lapse (4D) seismic surveys to cutting-edge surveys for finding new oil prospects. There's been speculation that the Big Oil companies have stopped spending money looking for new oil, since there's not much left, and they wouldn't be able to control it as in the good old days. Rather, they're spending huge amounts of money buying up the shares of their own companies, in order to have future control of the oil reserves they still own.

Also unlike the Big Oil companies, oilfield services companies don't insist on owning a big share of the oil reservoirs they find, but only on getting paid for the work that they do. Because of this, they are the go-to companies for countries who want to control their own oil and economies. Companies like Schlumberger Ltd. have become popular with third world countries, because part of their contract is to train future executives and workers within the local population, which they are doing successfully throughout the world.

There's a variety of viable oilfield services companies for investors to concentrate on, and it would be worth their while to investigate them.