“Liquefied natural gas exports are forecast to significantly expand in Australia over the next two decades,” said Martin Ferguson, resources minister in a release.

“With these new permits, we hope to see discovery of new oil and gas reserves, which could translate into more jobs and growth for our economy.”

The new permits are expected to spark some A$303 million in investment over the next three years, according to the government.

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According to a recent Raymond James report, the United States could achieve energy independence by the end of the decade, Dow Jones reported in early April.

But can the United States truly become energy independent?

In the short to medium term outlook for oil, the United States effectively has no chance of becoming energy independent, said Dr. Michael Noel, senior vice president of Edgeworth Economics.

“Right now, we import so much oil because it’s cheaper to do so,” Noel said. “To forego a cheaper source of oil and replace it with a necessarily more expensive source generally does not make economic sense.”

The argument for energy independence implies that the Unites States should always pay a premium on energy to avoid Middle East oil instead of just a premium when price shocks coming from the Middle East cause price spikes in the United States.

“It’s an expensive insurance policy and that’s why we still use Middle East oil,” Dr. Noel commented, adding that, as long as the United States uses oil to a certain degree, the United States will always be subject to global oil shocks.

Currently, 20 percent of oil imported by the United States comes from the Middle East and 40 percent from OPEC member countries. Canadian oil comprises 20 percent of U.S. imports and is expected to keep growing. Ten percent of U.S. oil imports come from Mexico; the amount of oil imported continues to fall.

Even if the United States imported all of its oil from friendly countries such as Canada, a supply cut in the Middle East would mean customers in this region would need to source oil from somewhere else, bidding up the price of oil and drawing supply from Canada and other friendly countries. As a result, U.S. customers would be impacted with higher prices.

“The domestic price of oil will reflect the world price of oil, so thinking that more domestic drilling will bring domestic oil prices down is a bit naïve,” said John Z. Wetmore, producer for “Perils for Pedestrians” Television, a television series that examines the issues affecting people who walk.

Additionally, the faster the United States pumps its domestic reserves out of the ground, the sooner it will exhaust them and be even more dependent on foreign supplies, Wetmore commented in a statement.

Assertions by some politicians that U.S. energy independence means the U.S. will not have to send its troops over to the Middle East are not accurate, given the United States support of Israel.

“There is still going to be some involvement, given that a number of Muslim countries don’t like its existence,” Noel said.

“Energy independence doesn’t mean we’ll abandon our friends and allies around the world,” said Mike Amman, a Florida-based business finance and technology consultant. “Isolationism isn’t the answer, we’re joined at the hip (or at the wellhead) to the rest of the world, like it or not.”

The outlook is not good for cheap gasoline, given worldwide demand for oil. Wetmore noted that China is now a larger automobile market than the United States and India.

Other countries are trying hard to catch up with United States’ driving habits, Wetmore commented.

“Four dollars will look cheap when the world economy recovers,” said Wetmore. “It would all be more tolerable if we designed our cities and towns with more transportation choices, so we didn’t have to burn gasoline every time we made any trip for any purpose.”

Chris Nelder, an energy expert who has written numerous articles in the topic of Peak Oil, said that existing data doesn’t support the idea of the United States being energy independent.

Nelder questions whether production forecasts for unconventional oil plays such as the Bakken are feasible, and notes that Mexico’s production has been in long term decline.

While tight oil wells have huge initial production rates, they decline sharply in six months times. Tight oil production will also not work with lower oil prices.

“To be energy independent, we would have to produce about 9 million barrels of oil per day (bopd) from wells that give you 100 bopd,” Nelder noted, adding that oil prices need to stay above at least $85 per barrel to sustain production.

However, higher oil prices have also bolstered gasoline prices, and as U.S. consumers struggle with $4/gallon prices, they start to drive less, which kills demand. Oil production needs to remain on a narrow ledge to keep production flowing, and the incredible price swings to above $100 and below $85 impact supply.

“In that narrow band, do we really think it’s possible that for another decade we can drill thousands and thousands of wells?” said Nelder.

To keep output flat, the U.S. would have to draw down its oil resources more quickly, Nelder commented.. By 2030 and 2040, over two-thirds of the world’s oil fields will be in terminal decline. At that time, the United States will face difficulties in importing oil from anywhere.

“From that point, we’re going to need our domestic resources,” said Nelder. “We could actually be shooting ourselves by trying to achieve energy independence.”

Promise of Natural Gas?
The United States already is energy independent in natural gas, said ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO James Mulva at a recent conference.

Energy industry leaders such as T. Boone Pickens and Robert Hefner are calling for greater use of natural gas in the United States in transportation.

Nelder thinks that T. Boone Picken’s plan to convert fleet vehicles to run on compressed natural gas makes a lot of sense, but worries that the deluge of natural gas that as resulted from the shale gas rush means that no companies can make money on natural gas.

The land rush mentality that ensued since late 2010 resulted in companies buying up a number of properties and drilling. A lot of gas is being flared, and plans have been proposed to convert liquefied natural gas import terminals constructed in the United States into export terminals.

Nelder said he thinks that the United States shouldn’t get crazy about exporting LNG until the United States really knows what it has in terms of supply, noting that the 100 years of natural gas supply in the United States hasn’t been proven and is highly speculative.

The United States already uses gas that is the equivalent of 11 million barrels of oil per day and faces the serious risk of finding itself faced with very expensive gas if gas use increases and LNG is exported.

A number of shale gas producers such as Chesapeake Energy have taken on a lot debt to acquire shale gas properties, thinking they can flip the leases. But these companies face the real possibility of going bankrupt when buyers start to question whether the can profitably produce gas, Nelder noted.

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Professor Wikus van Niekerk, director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, said that they could build a sea-power generation unit in two years by using local engineering expertise. The technology would not be imported, but designed to suite South African conditions.
“One of the biggest challenges for the development of renewable energy… is the Department of Energy. They’re understaffed and under-resourced. It is not a priority. If we had R155m we could do what the Americans are proposing to do here,” Professor van Niekerk explained.

A spokeswoman from Environmental Affairs Thandiwe Maimane confirmed that the department was not involved in the ocean-generated energy research, but denied that it was understaffed and missing resources.

Dr Mike Roberts from the Department of Environmental Affairs’ oceans and coasts section said that, although the proposal presented by HAE had certain value, he agrees with Van Niekerk.

“Given the correct funding we would have a prototype in the water already,” Dr Roberts pointed out.

Russell Curtis, from the Durban Investment Promotion Agency, called on the government to give support for this project, and said that the deal with HAE showed how seriously alternative energy sources were being taken by the city.
The Agulhas current, which is 100 km wide, is considered one of the most stable currents in the world.

If successful, the pilot unit is expected to produce 1 MW of power and could be developed to supply all of the city’s electricity needs.
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The contract includes the provision of onshore and offshore survey services in support of tendering and project activities. Nautronix will initially mobilise survey personnel and equipment onto the Normand Clipper, Ocean Installer’s long term chartered construction vessel due to commence offshore operations in May 2012.

Mark Patterson, Nautronix CEO, comments: ‘We are delighted to be awarded our first major contract in Norway by Ocean Installer, and are excited to be working closely with the ambitious Ocean Installer team. This will be a very important and rewarding relationship for Nautronix. It emphasises the expansion of Nautronix to provide a new level of service and supply and reflects our strategy to grow our business in the Norwegian market.’
Mr. Patterson adds: ‘We have seen some very encouraging prospects for our NASNet® and NASCoM product lines, this agreement will allow us to build on an already very strong team and help drive and grow our business into this very important market sector.’

Sam Hanton, Nautronix Chief Surveyor, says ‘The award of this contract by Ocean Installer is significant to Nautronix, and reflects our commitment to provide a high quality survey service. Both companies have ambitious growth aspirations and we are currently recruiting a number of people to join our team in support of this activity.’

Ocean Installer AS was founded in early 2011 and are headquartered in Stavanger, Norway.

Nautronix recently announced their opening of a new office in Stavanger and the hiring of Jørn Berg as VP Sales for the region.

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Some of his differences include:

While not required, he did attend a number of years of college while in the military and after, but never received the actual piece of paper, even though it would have been a virtually free ride on Uncle Sam’s dime for being a veteran.
He actually enjoyed the military, a U.S. Marine, and worked many glamour jobs, his work history reads like an adventure novel: embassies, bombings, the works.
Somewhere along the way, he decided that working on offshore oil and gas rigs would be exciting too, so he started out cleaning toilets on rig supply boats and making the usual potty-cleaner’s pay for it.
But, he had uncharacteristic enthusiasm for even cleaning potties – because he also had great big dreams, which are now a reality.

Dream #1: He would somehow work every job there was on oil and gas rigs while still in his 20′s, learning the various trades as much as possible before he decided on one for long term.
Dream #2: Save his money, also very different for people that age.
Dream #3: Go to all sorts of technical classes, despite having to pay his own way. And voila!
Today, this native Louisiana “boy” is only in his early 30s and a drilling consultant: the top paying job, white or blue collar, in “De Ol’ Patch.” He won’t disclose his annual pay, but confirmed the amount of $200K+ was “In the right neighborhood and maybe a little low.” According to the Rigzone Compensation Tracker*, Drilling Consultants reported average compensation of $227,793 in 2011, up 13 percent year over year.

Easy Street Lovers Need Not Apply
Yet despite the power-paychecks, the world travel, etc., this was anything but easy street.

For one thing, you have to have so much discipline + dedication that you have to be able to forget for weeks on end that niceties such as streets, pretty buildings and much more even exist. Yes, there is a community television set on many rigs, but a typical rig worker is too tired to watch TV at the end of 12 hour-plus days and 14 or 28 straight days working.
And, forget these jobs just being hard work: “It has to be some of the most challenging work in the world, a big reason I just love my work, but many people burn out young, which is so sad,” said Eric.
Another downside for many: So-called “blue collar” rig worker jobs are like Rodney Dangerfield, pun intended: They can be way unsafe, one has to think Safety First all the time, or else, you too, could become the next blotto person.
Plus, these jobs also get less respect than “white collar,” i.e. college degree-needed jobs. Short-handed as the industry is for rig hands these days, preliminary Rigzone research indicates there are few company “hands” figuring out white collar-like niceties for rig workers such as clear career tracks; free off-the-job training for the next step up; enough time off to take the required — okay, not college, but very difficult — demanding technical courses; and even Rigworker Appreciation Day once a year.
“Appreciation is in especially short supply,” Eric quipped. “It gets to some of the O&G workers. The front line does most of the actual work, but the drilling engineers and geoscientists get most of the respect and appreciation. This is okay also, because that’s what they went to school for; however, one would not believe how much technical and engineering knowledge rig workers like us have, even though we don’t have engineering degrees.”

So, what was another “different” sort of thing Eric did?

Self-Education Most Welcome
A pragmatist in the extreme, he dropped out of working for a while, paid for and took every course in which he was interested that also spelled Better Career Success.

“This was the really lonely part,” Eric confessed. “My great savings began to run out. Friends and family sometimes teased me. I constantly worried and wondered if I was doing the right thing.”

“It seemed like an endless tunnel but there was light, lots of sunny light, at the end of it, and I knew this, even when I had just spent my last dollar on a course most others would only wait to take until a company MADE them take it and PAID for them.”

“That’s where discipline and forward thinking comes in, rather than simply thinking about what was in your pocket at the end of the month. There has to be an investment for personal and professional growth there, and a focus on those things you know that you want, rather than simply on something you think should be given to you.”

“Importantly, it does not matter whether you are working as a permanent employee or a contractor, the thing that our younger generation has to understand is that companies will not want to know only your education and experience level, but above all they want to know what kind of VALUE you can provide to their operations.”

And here’s a sampling of the courses Eric took:

NASP/IASP Certified Petroleum Safety Manager
NASP/IASP Certified Petroleum Safety Specialist
Advanced Oil and Gas Drilling & Completions Technology
IADC WellCAP combined Surface/Subsea Drillers Supervisor level
IEMA Environmental Management
IOSH Managing Safely
Management of Major Emergencies – OPITO
NEBOSH International Technical Oil & Gas Management certificate
OHSAS 18001 Internal Auditor
OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Manager certificate
And, if that isn’t daunting enough, here’s one upside to persevering such a rough academic load. Get a load of these titles at the top of Eric’s resume:

Eric Roth, MIIRSM, RSP, SPE
Wells HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environmental Quality) Advisor Deepwater Drilling & Completions at TOTAL E&P

Nice business card material, too, huh?

But, there is one other deep downside to jobs like Eric’s. They tend to be hard on conventional family life. So, asked what there was left to dream about or do with his life, having attained so many dreams so young, Eric paused, thought and said:

“I have a couple of high career goals for sure, but if I told you some of them, (such as becoming one of the most respected and valuable young professionals worldwide in my specific field), it would probably sound pretty silly and for most people, who think in narrow terms, unreachable. … I’m quite involved with giving, supporting an orphanage, etc., but I don’t usually speak about that unless I am asked, because then people think you are bragging about ‘what you do for others’ and it sounds narcissistic. I also want to be a great father and positive example to my children, as I hope to have a lot, two so far, plenty more to come!”

“I enjoyed the heck out of all of my 20s, getting into debauchery worldwide, from Colombia and Rio, to the foam parties of Ibiza, to the seedy joints of Thailand and Cambodia. But now, having done all that, with absolutely no regrets, at heart I am a family man all the way!”

So, jobs like Eric’s are dizzying for all their upside/downside dimensions, but if you think you can enjoy this kind of always wild, never dull, sometimes lonely ride — and stick with it almost no matter what:

Go for it! You, too, CAN be a highly-paid drilling consultant (no college degree required).

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So they combined global models with a fine-scale regional model to focus on much smaller areas around minuscule islands scattered along the equator. To accommodate the trillions of calculations needed for such small-area resolution, they used the new high-performance computer cluster at WHOI called “Scylla.”
“Global models predict significant temperature increase in the central tropical Pacific over the next few decades, but in truth conditions can be highly variable across and around a coral reef island,” Cohen said. “To predict what the coral reef will experience under global climate change, we have to use high-resolution models, not global models.
Their model predicts that as air temperatures rise and equatorial trade winds weaken, the Pacific surface current will also weaken by 15 percent by the end of the century. The then-weaker surface current will impose less friction and drag on the EUC, so this deeper current will strengthen by 14 percent.
“Our model suggests that the amount of upwelling will actually increase by about 50 percent around these islands and reduce the rate of warming waters around them by about 0.7oC (1.25oF) per century,” Karnauskas said.
A handful of coral atolls on the equator, some as small as 4 square kilometers (1.54 square miles) in area, may not seem like much. But Karnauskas’s and Cohen’s results say waters on the western sides of the islands will warm more slowly than at islands 2 degrees (or 138 miles) north and south of the equator that are not in the way of the EUC. That gives the Gilbert Islands a significant advantage over neighboring reef systems, they said.
“While the mitigating effect of a strengthened Equatorial Undercurrent will not spare the corals the perhaps-inevitable warming expected for this region, the warming rate will be slower around these equatorial islands, which may allow corals and their symbiotic algae a better chance to adapt and survive,” Karnauskas said. If the model holds true, then even if neighboring reefs are hard hit, equatorial island coral reefs may well survive to produce larvae of corals and other reef species. Like a seed bank for the future, they might be a source of new corals and other species that could re-colonize damaged reefs.
“The globe is warming, but there are things going on underfoot that will slow that warming for certain parts of certain coral reef islands,” said Cohen.
“These little islands in the middle of the ocean can counteract global trends and have a big impact on their own future, which I think is a beautiful concept,” Karnauskas said.
“The finding that there may be refuges in the tropics where local circulation features buffer the trend of rising sea surface temperature has important implications for the survival of coral reef systems,” said David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research.

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Tenaris is in the Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD) program, which is led by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). The EFD project’s objective is to identify, develop and test innovative technologies that reduce the environmental impact of O&G activities in sensitive areas, some of which have not yet been opened up for development. Tenaris’ patented “dopeless” tubular connection technology ® is in HARC’s portfolio of recommended products for the EFD initiative.

“The groundbreaking Snøhvit project was the first development worldwide to adopt dopeless connections for all casing, production tubing and liners run into its wells,” the Tenaris case study on Statoil’s experience in this challenging region stated. “Dopeless technology answered the strict regulations imposed by the Norwegian government on StatoilHydro´s [exploration and production] E&P activities to help protect the fishing industry and reduce the risk of harming the environment and livelihoods of those people who share the sea.”

Providing a feel for just how hostile conditions can be at Snøhvit offshore, the study continued: “With temperatures reaching -40º C, the Arctic Circle has a slow and relatively self-contained ecosystem. In this environment, any failure would have catastrophic consequences. Workover operations in this subsea well are also very complex and expensive. Dopeless connections continue to perform flawlessly, even after seven years in the ground.”

How “Dopeless” Connections Work
“Dopeless” technology is a dry, multifunctional coating applied to TenarisHydril premium connections in the mill. The coating is applied in a fully automatic process, assuring that the exact amount of the lubricant required by each connection is distributed in a controlled and uniform way on its surface. The process is carried out on dedicated production lines at Tenaris mills and facilities on four continents. Specialized technicians ensure consistent quality and operational reliability.

“Dopeless technology turns thread compounds obsolete and eliminates grease and cleaning solvents that are usually used during pre-running preparations. With dopeless technology, case studies affirm, operators can be assured of compliance in environmentally sensitive areas, for no thread compound, grease, oil or any other additive is released throughout the life cycle of the connection. Also, no cleaning solvents, soaps, chemicals or high-pressure cleaning are required.

All this dramatically reduces the eco-footprint – a primary goal of the ETI program. There is minimal discharge of hazardous materials at both the well site and in preparation operations, because dopeless technology is completely dry. Further, the protector is clean, making protector recycling simpler and more cost-effective.

Dopeless technology complies with the world’s strictest regulations, for zero physical discharge is mandated for the Barents Sea. Thus, “going dopeless” is now the standard for casing and tubing in the region, Tenaris noted.

How Severe Eco-Protection Regulations Pushed New Technology
In the early 1990s, the Norwegian government launched strict regulations to stop the discharge of contaminated oil on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. This led to the term zero-discharge.

“In 2001, a North Sea operator approached Tenaris with a request to develop a premium connection that didn’t require thread compound for make-up,” explained Tenris’ Julie Mathis, technical sales manager based in Houston. “By taking out this ‘dope,’ the technology would help guarantee the cleanliness of the wells and tubular products used during its operations. Excess dope inside tubular products and well bores can cause operational problems, damage the reservoir and release chemical substances into the environment. Our technical sales group teamed up with R&D to develop such a product, working alongside the customer to develop and test Dopeless technology. In 2003, Dopeless technology debuted in an offshore producer well in the demanding Norwegian sector of the North Sea.”

Under the regulations as implemented, the government sets zero-discharge as a goal and requires new fields to avoid harmful discharges. Existing fields needed to implement measures to meet the zero- discharge goals by 2005.

Thus, the goals required development of new technology and the concept of “going dopeless” became today’s reality.

Tenaris has diverse customers worldwide, which include many of the world’s most well-known O&G companies, as well as engineering firms engaged in constructing oil and gas gathering, transportation, processing and power generation facilities. Its key products include casing, tubing, line pipe, and mechanical and structural pipes.

The Once-Little “Engine” That Did
Tenaris might be described as a once-small, Latin American “engine” that envisioned what it might become when it grew up into a Big Engine someday – and so, held the dream and did what it has.

“Tenaris ‘gets it,’” said HARC’s research (and unofficial corporate morality) director, Dr. Richard Haut. “They understand the importance of a triple bottom line — people, planet, profit. They have significantly reduced their electricity consumption per ton of steel as well as their consumption of natural gas. They are one of a few service companies that actually produce an annual report. First one was for 2008. Third one was for 2010. 2011 should come out soon. Their new rolling mill in Mexico was designed and built to qualify for USGBC’s LEED certification. (To have a manufacturing plant USGBC LEED certified – Now that is being committed!)”

“So, not only does Tenaris offer environmentally-friendly technologies to their customers, they strive to reduce their environmental footprint in their own operations as well.”

And, case studies show “dopeless” tubular connections to be environmentally benign and safer for crews to use. The case studies also show that “going dopeless” makes economic sense.

Challenging Eco-Conditions
Among other problems, traditional dope creates a hazardous waste from drilling operations and can take a tremendous amount of time for crews to apply properly. Also, a “dope” spill on the drilling platform is both a serious safety risk and cleanup challenge — so “going dopeless” is an advanced connection technology which caught on first, starting shortly after the new century opened, in some of the world’s most remote, fragile and costly to work regions, where damage to the natural ecology would be catastrophic.

One such region where “dopeless” technology is currently proving itself is in the large Kinteroni 2X onshore natural gas field located deep within the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

“The Kinteroni 2X became Peru’s first-ever ‘eco-well’ to protect the delicate ecosystem surrounding the field and the care of the environment drove over every detail of the well design,” reported a March, 2012 Tenaris case study about the experiences of the field’s operator, Repsol, with the “dopeless” technology. “The project marked the first time that dopeless connections were used in every casing section of a well in a jungle environment, making it the first environmentally sensitive well in the Americas,” the case study continued.

As for specific eco-performance, Tenaris noted: “Use of the technology reduced the chances of discharging potentially contaminating substances in the well. The technology also eliminated the use of fresh water and chemicals to clean up connections or remove storage compounds prior to installation.” All in all, the company concluded, zero environmental impact was caused by dope discharges.

A vastly different – but equally fragile – eco-system where “dopeless” connection advances have proved themselves since 2004 is in the Statoil-operated Snøhvit offshore project in Norway’s foreboding North Sea.
The company has roots with forerunner companies that began in Argentina as far back as 1909 and early-on, created a reputation for pioneering more advanced and reliable industrial piping and related products. At first, the company extended its reach gradually through major energy player nations in Latin America, such as Brazil and Mexico, then later branched through the U.S. and Canada and well beyond.

Tenaris has historical roots starting in Latin America more than 100-years ago, when oilfield technology was almost primitive, compared to today.

Over the last two decades, Tenaris expanded its business globally through a series of strategic investments. It now operates a worldwide network of steel pipe manufacturing, research, finishing and service facilities with industrial operations in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa and a direct presence in most major O&G markets.

Tenaris’ net sales last year were $9.97 billion and as of year-end 2011, the company employed 26,980 people.

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Halliburton in its filing said it had only “limited amount of time available” to review BP’s proposed settlement with thousands of businesses, property owners and individuals along the Gulf of Mexico who sustained economic damage from the 87-day oil spill. The Houston-based company also contends BP’s settlement would make Halliburton responsible for paying at least part of the settlement by “improperly assigning claims against (Halliburton) to the plaintiff’s steering committee,” according to the filing.

Halliburton has said the company wasn’t at fault in the accident. A BP representative declined to comment.

“The plaintiffs’ steering committee and BP have had more than a year to structure the proposed settlements, using a veritable army of experts and attorneys,” Halliburton’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “In contrast, (Halliburton) has had less than one week to review and analyze the proposed settlements.”

Halliburton’s protest, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, is the latest twist in the legal wrangling surrounding the companies since the April 2010 rig explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in 11 deaths and millions of barrels of oil leaking into the water.

The spill stemming from the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil well was the worst in the Gulf’s history and resulted in thousands of lawsuits against well owner BP, rig operator Transocean Ltd., and Halliburton, which provided cementing services for the project.

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