Oil industry – May 23

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Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage

Oil execs defend huge profits before Senate
Associated Press via MSNBC
‘Laws of supply and demand are at work,’ Shell chairman explains
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Top executives of the five largest oil companies tried to shift anger over high prices to a debate over supplies Wednesday, leading a senator to accuse them of acting like “hapless victims” while racking up record profits.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives there’s “a disconnect” between normal supply and demand and the skyrocketing price of oil – surpassing $130 a barrel even as the oil leaders testified – that the industry has yet to explain.

J. Stephen Simon, executive vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp., said profits have been huge “in absolute terms” but must be viewed in the context of the massive scale of the industry.” He also said high earnings are needed “in the current up cycle” to pay for investments in the long term when profits will be down.
(21 May 2008)

Oil companies plan on higher crude prices
Alex Lawler, Reuters
Oil firms are using higher price assumptions for planning their businesses, making a greater range of projects viable and a sign that the floor for prices in the long run is moving up.

Companies such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell have been nudging up the prices they use for planning, although they remain lower than the current price, which hit a record near $130 a barrel on Tuesday.

… Costs are rising because of higher prices for materials and services, chiefly steel and rigs. A growing part of new supply is also expected be of more costly non-conventional oil, such as crude extracted from tar sands.

… Oil firms were slow to move their price assumptions higher as oil began to rally after a crash to $10 in 1998 that analysts say hindered investment in the early part of this decade.
(21 May 2008)

Crude’s Price Surge Attracts Oil-Field Thieves
Ben Casselman, Wall Street Journal
Tankers, Pipelines
Grow as Targets;
Few Crimes Solved
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As oil prices have soared to new highs, energy companies aren’t the only ones scouring the earth for new sources of crude. Thieves are, too.

A sharp rise in oil-field thefts is driving oil companies and law enforcement to beef up security at wells that are being targeted more frequently as a source of easy money. Thieves are tapping into pipelines, paying off truck drivers and sometimes simply driving up to wells in tanker trucks and pumping the oil out of storage containers.
(21 May 2008)

Garages use ‘stingers’ to combat petrol theft
Lucy Cockcroft, UK Telegraph
A sharp rise in the theft of fuel at the pumps has led some garage owners to install “stinger” devices to puncture the tyres of drivers who leave the forecourt without paying.

The increase in “drive-aways”, as they are known in the industry, has been linked to the 20 per cent increase in the cost of petrol in the past year.

The new Drivestop device has a sensor which detects when a driver is pulling away without paying. The cashier triggers the system which starts with a loudspeaker announcement warning the would-be thief that his tyres will be shredded.

If the warning is ignored a set of metal spikes spring up and punctures the rear wheels, deflating them in ten seconds.
(22 May 2008)