Annual Oil Market Chronology 2000s

2000s

Jump to a Specific Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2000 January 7 Energy companies and countries around the world report that they have passed into the year 2000 without significant problems from the "Y2K Bug." There was concern that the inability of some computers and embedded control systems to recognize the year 2000 could create serious problems. (DJ, WP) January 26 The United Nations Security Council reaches agreement on the appointment of Hans Blix of Sweden, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to lead the new United Nations weapons inspection organization for Iraq. Iraq has indicated that it does not intend to accept the new Security Council resolution. (DJ) February 2 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) acts to block the proposed merger between BP Amoco and Atlantic Richfield, saying the merger would unduly restrict competition along the West coast of the United States. (WSJ, WP)   February 9 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issues a group of policy changes which extend the deregulation of the interstate natural gas pipeline system begun under Order 636 in 1992. Among the changes is a lifting, for a trial period of 30 months, of the price ceiling on secondary market exchanges of short-term gas pipeline capacity. FERC's lifting of the ceiling is meant in part to encourage gas shippers to use longer-term contracts which would promote market stability. (DJ) March 6 The United States Supreme Court overturns the State of Washington's law establishing state regulation of oil tankers, ruling unanimously that federal laws take precedence. The attempt to impose tougher regulatory standards came in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. (WP, NYT) March 7 New York Mercantile Exchange front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract closes at $34.13 per barrel, the highest level in nine years. (WSJ) March 15 Phillips Petroleum announces that it has agreed to purchase Atlantic Richfield's assets in Alaska for $6.5 billion. The sale is being made in an effort to secure approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for the merger of Atlantic Richfield with BP Amoco. Earlier the same day, the FTC announced that it had suspended its antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the merger, citing progress in talks with the companies involved. (DJ, NYT, WSJ) March 20 EPA Administrator Carol Browner announces that the Clinton Administration intends to push for a phase out of the use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline additive. The administration wants Congress to pass legislation which would end the requirement for the use of MTBE in gasoline sold in some smog-prone urban areas, and instead require nationwide use of ethanol. (DJ) March 26 Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia on the first ballot, winning 53 percent of the popular vote. Putin took office as acting president in December 1999 after the resignation of Boris Yeltsin. (DJ) March 28 After two days of meetings, OPEC oil ministers agree on an increase in oil production of 1.452 million barrels per day by its members, excluding Iran and Iraq. Iraq, has not been subject to OPEC production agreements while under U.N. Security Council sanctions. Iran, though not formally signing on to the agreement, stated its intention to raise its production in order to avoid loss of its market share. This would represent about a 1.7 million barrel per day increase in OPEC production targets, if Iran was included. Several major non-OPEC producers, including Mexico and Norway, also have indicated an intention to raise production. (DJ) April 12 Several Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of major United States oil companies meet with senior Saudi Arabian officials to discuss possible investments in natural gas and petrochemical projects. The firms represented at the meetings include Chevron, Conoco, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Phillips Petroleum, and Texaco. The Saudi government announces, in conjunction with the meetings, a package of legal changes that will make Saudi Arabia more open to foreign investors. Complete foreign ownership will be allowed for some types of projects, and the maximum corporate tax rate for foreign enterprises will be reduced to 15 percent. (WP) April 14 BP Amoco receives approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its $28 billion takeover of Atlantic Richfield Corporation (ARCO). As part of the approval, ARCO has agreed to sell its crude oil production operations in Alaska to Phillips Petroleum in a deal valued at $6.5 billion. (WP, WSJ) May 16 Several sources, including the Washington Post, report a major oil find at the Kashagan field offshore from Kazakhstan, with reserves reportedly greater than 8 billion barrels. If these early reserve estimates prove correct, the additional production volumes could boost chances for construction of the proposed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. (WP, DJ) May 17 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally proposes a rule which, if finalized, would reduce allowable sulfur levels in diesel fuel by 97 percent over the next five years. The move is opposed by major refiners. (DJ) May 17 The Energy Information Administration releases a study of oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which currently is off-limits to oil exploration. The study estimates that there are between 5.7 and 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the ANWR. (WSJ) June 6 The World Bank executive board votes to approve a loan of $193 million to support a project to build a crude oil pipeline from Chad to the coast of Cameroon. The countries will collect an estimated $2 billion in revenues from the project over a period of 25 years. (DJ) June 8 The Brazilian government conducts an auction of oil exploration and production concessions covering a total of 21 blocks, both onshore and offshore. The auction represents an important step in the opening of Brazil's oil industry to international competition and investment. (NYT) June 9 The United States and Mexico sign a treaty resolving the issue of economic rights over the deepwater "doughnut hole" area in the Gulf of Mexico between the two countries. The agreement is based on measuring distances from each country's coast, and gives the United States rights to 38 percent of the area. (DJ) June 15 The German government announces an agreement with utilities for the complete phaseout of nuclear power. Nuclear power plants will be closed after a lifespan of 32 years. Nuclear power supplies about one-third of Germany's electricity, and the phaseout plan may complicate Germany's plans to reduce fossil fuel consumption to curb greenhouse gas emissions. (DJ) June 19 The Energy Information Administration reports a one-week rise of five cents in the average price of regular gasoline, to $1.681. This is the seventh straight week of increasing prices. Gasoline prices in the Midwest are the nation's highest, at $1.874. (DJ) June 21 OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Vienna, agree to raise crude oil production quotas by a total of 708,000 barrels per day. OPEC's total production quota (excluding Iraq) will rise to 25.4 million barrels per day as of July 1, 2000. The next day, crude oil futures rise, with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) August West Texas Intermediate contract closing June 22 at $32.19. (DJ) July 12 The Kuwaiti parliament ratifies a treaty with Saudi Arabia resolving competing claims to offshore mineral rights. The two countries will share revenues from the Khafji, Dorra, and Hout oil and gas fields. The treaty will allow the two governments to begin negotiations with Iran to settle conflicting claims, which have again surfaced as Iran has begun drilling in the Dorra offshore gas field. (DJ) July 27 Italy's ENI signs a deal with Iran worth $3.8 billion for the development of the country's South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. The project will take five years to become operational, and will eventually produce 530 million cubic feet of gas per day. (DJ) July 30 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wins reelection with 60 percent of the popular vote. His Patriotic Pole party also wins a controlling majority in the country's new unicameral legislature. (DJ) August 10 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meets with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad as part of a tour of OPEC member states.  Chavez is the first head of state to visit Saddam Hussein since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. (NYT, WP) August 23 The Energy Information Administration reports that crude oil stock levels in the United States have fallen to their lowest level since 1976. Crude oil for October delivery closes at $32.02 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), up 80 cents. (DJ) August 30 The Department of Energy awards contracts to create a two-million-barrel reserve of heating oil. The oil will be stored in privately owned facilities in Woodbridge, New Jersey, and New Haven, Connecticut. (DJ) September 8 Truck drivers in Britain begin a blockade of oil refineries to protest high fuel prices. The blockade follows a similar protest in France. (DJ) September 10 At a meeting in Vienna, OPEC agrees to raise production quotas by 800,000 barrels per day (to 26.2 million barrels per day, not counting Iraq) in an attempt to push crude oil prices back under $28 per barrel. The quota increases become effective October 1. (DJ) September 20 Oil prices close at $37.20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), after trading as high as $37.80 during the day's trading session. The price spike comes amid an increase in tensions between Iraq and Kuwait. This level sets a new ten-year high for NYMEX crude oil. (DJ) September 22 President Clinton authorizes the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) over 30 days to bolster oil supplies, particularly heating oil in the Northeast. The release will take the form of a "swap," in which crude oil volumes drawn from the SPR will be replaced by the recipients at a later date. Crude oil for November delivery falls four percent, to $32.68, on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). (DJ) September 26 A summit of OPEC heads of government opens in Caracas, Venezuela. The summit is only the second OPEC meeting held at that level. The summit ends on a conciliatory note, with the communique calling for increased dialogue between OPEC and consuming nations. (DJ) September 28 The United Nations Compensation Commission, which handles claims for reparations arising from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, approves by consensus a $15.9 billion claim by Kuwait for compensation for lost oil production and damage to oil reserves and equipment. The proportion of revenues from Iraqi oil sales under the "oil for food" program which are used for payment of claims is reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent. Iraq condemns the decision, but states that it will not call a halt to oil exports, as had earlier been feared. (DJ) October 12 Oil prices rise sharply on news of a terrorist attack on an American warship, the USS Cole, in the Yemeni port of Aden, as well as escalating violence between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. November crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) rises $2.81 to close at $36.06 per barrel. Prices for Henry Hub natural gas hit a record high of $5.78 per million British thermal units (BTU) before falling back slightly to close at $5.63 per million BTU. (WSJ) October 15 Chevron agrees to purchase Texaco for $35.1 billion in stock. The deal would create the fourth largest oil and gas company in the world, and follows a general trend toward consolidation among the major oil companies over the last two years. Analysts expect the merger, like other recent mergers, to face intensive antitrust scrutiny, especially as a combined ChevronTexaco would have a heavy share of both refining capacity and retail outlets on the west coast of the United States. (WSJ) October 30 The president OPEC, Venezuelan oil minister Ali Rodriguez, announces that the cartel will raise production quotas by 500,000 barrels per day, beginning November 1st. OPEC's action comes as a result of its "price band" mechanism, which triggers an increase in production quotas when the price of the OPEC Basket of crude oils closes over $28 per barrel for twenty consecutive trading days. Many analysts voice doubt as to whether the OPEC quota increase will lead to an actual increase in production of that magnitude, given the lack of spare production capacity of most OPEC members. (DJ, WP, WSJ) October 31 The United Nations Sanctions Committee approves an Iraqi request to be paid in Euros, rather than United States dollars, for oil exported under the "oil for food" program, which is part of the sanctions regime stemming from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. (DJ) November 3 Russia's Lukoil announces that it will purchase Getty Petroleum Marketing of the United States for $71 million. Lukoil eventually intends to switch Getty's 1,300 retail outlets in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic states to the Lukoil brand name. The purchase represents the first takeover of a publicly traded American company by a Russian firm. (DJ) November 12 OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Vienna, announce a decision to put any further production increases on hold until their next meeting scheduled for January 17, 2001. The move effectively ends OPEC's "price band" mechanism, which called for automatic increases in production quotas of 500,000 barrels per day when the price of the OPEC Basket of crude oils remained over $28 per barrel for 20 consecutive trading days. OPEC also selects the Venezuelan oil minister, Ali Rodriguez, as its new Secretary General. He will formally take over from Nigeria's Rilwanu Lukman on January 1, 2001. (NYT, WSJ) November 16 Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) demands that companies lifting cargoes of Iraqi crude oil begin paying a fifty cent per barrel surcharge starting on December 1, 2000. The surcharge would be paid directly to the Iraqi government rather than being channeled into the account administered by the United Nations under the "oil for food" program, and would constitute clear violation of sanctions. The Iraqi move leads to concerns over a possible Iraqi cutoff of oil supplies beginning December 1. (DJ) November 26 The sixth Conference of Parties (COP-6) of the Kyoto Protocol in The Hague ends without an agreement between member states on implementing cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases. One of the main issues under negotiation at the conference was the possibility that member states could claim credit for "carbon sinks," forests and farmland which absorb carbon dioxide, as part of their overall commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Another main issue was "emissions trading," which would allow member states to purchase "emissions credits" from other member states whose carbon dioxide emissions were below their targets. (WP, WSJ, NYT) December 1 Vicente Fox is inaugurated as Mexico's president. Ernesto Martens takes office as the new Minister of Petroleum. (DJ) December 4 California utilities are forced to cut off electricity supplies to some "interruptable" customers due to a supply shortage. California has suffered shortages and high wholesale electricity prices since May 2000. The immediate shortage stems, in part, from a reduction in electricity imports from the Pacific Northwest as a result of cold weather in the area. Other problems include: gas supply problems, low availability of hydroelectric and nuclear generating capacity, and high power demand. (DJ) December 5 The United Nations Security Council approves a six month extension to the Iraq "oil for food" program. (DJ) December 16 Ukraine permanently shuts down the last reactor at its Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which gained notoriety for a major accident and radiation leak in 1986. The facility will still be the location of a major cleanup effort, as Ukraine tries to contain continuing radiation leakage from the containment structures around the reactors damaged in the accident. (DJ) December 21 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces new regulations which will drastically reduce the allowable sulfur content in diesel fuel in the United States. The new diesel sulfur standard will be 15 parts per million (PPM). Oil industry trade groups have opposed the new standard. (DJ) December 27 Natural gas prices in the United States surge above $10 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) first time ever in response to cold weather and stockdraws reported by the American Gas Association (AGA). Henry Hub natural gas closes at $9.978, after falling slightly from its intraday peak price. (DJ) December 27 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appoints Alvaro Silva Calderon to replace Ali Rodriguez as Minister of Petroleum. Calderon had previously served as a deputy minister. Rodriguez had recently been chosen as the new OPEC Secretary General. Both will assume their new posts effective January 5, 2001. (DJ) December 31 Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi says that OPEC will cut production when ministers meet in Vienna on January 17, 2001. Oil prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks, with the OPEC basket reaching $21.50 per barrel on December 25th, down one-third from highs reached in October 2000. Despite the recent decline, average oil prices for 2000 were the highest (not adjusted for inflation) in seventeen years. (DJ) Back to top 2001 January 10 The White House announces that President Clinton will not designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a national monument prior to his departure from office. Environmentalist groups had been pressing for national monument status for the ANWR to prevent oil drilling. (DJ) January 17 OPEC agrees at a meeting of ministers in Vienna, to reduce members' production quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day. The move comes in response to OPEC members' concerns about declining prices. Analysts expect the actual production cuts to total somewhat less than 1.5 million barrels per day, as some OPEC members had quotas above their actual production capacity. (NYT, WP) January 20 George W. Bush is sworn into office as the President of the United States. Later in the day, the Senate votes to confirm Spencer Abraham as the new Secretary of Energy. (WP) February 20 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of Unocal to stand. The ruling may eventually have effects beyond the California market, as tighter environmental standards for fuels take effect across much of the country.(DJ, WSJ) February 28 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces that it intends to proceed with implementation of tighter restrictions on sulfur content in diesel fuel, which were proposed by the Clinton administration. The rule, which will require a reduction of 97% in sulfur content by 2006, has been opposed by many in the refining industry. (DJ) March 4 Tests in recent days confirm the world's largest oil find in three decades in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. Kashagan is a single reservoir at least 25 miles across, and two-and-a-half times the size of the nearby Tengiz field. (WSJ) March 6 United States Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham formally establishes the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, a two million barrel government-owned reserve to be used in emergency circumstances. (US Department of Energy) March 15 The world's largest oil rig, located 80 miles offshore Brazil and operated by the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, suffers three explosions. This one platform accounted for more than 5% of Petrobras' total production. On March 20 Petrobras' Platform-36 sinks with 400,000 gallons of fuel and crude oil aboard. (WSJ) March 17 OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) decides to cut output by 4% or 1 million barrels per day, effective April 1. The cut is aimed at preventing a price collapse in a time of weakening demand. (NYT) March 26 Kazakhstan's Prime Minister opens an oil pipeline from the giant Tengiz field to the Russian port of Novorossiisk on Monday, giving the Central Asian producer its first direct link to international markets. The 900-mile pipeline will carry 600,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of the year, and eventually 1.5 million barrels per day. (NYT) April 17 A letter from U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton to Florida Governor Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction six million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Department of the Interior estimates that the area contains 396 million barrels of oil and 2.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (USAT) April 30 U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney previews the administration's energy plan in a speech in Toronto, Canada. Cheney, stating that conservation alone cannot solve America's energy needs, calls for increased domestic production of fossil fuels and increased usage of nuclear power to meet America's energy demand. He also calls for construction of new coal and gas power plants, as well as upgrading and expanding of the country's transmission grid. (WSJ, USAT) May 17 President Bush issues the administration's new energy policy. Among the plan's 105 specific recommendations are calls for reduced regulations to encourage more oil, gas, and nuclear production, tax incentives to boost coal output, and other tax incentives to promote conservation and alternative fuels. The plan also calls for increasing energy assistance to low-income households and for making the electricity grid more interconnected, both domestically and with Mexico and Canada. (LAT, WP, WSJ) May 18 Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its "Gas Initiative," three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion. They are: Core Venture 1: ExxonMobil (lead), Shell, BP, and Phillips; Venture 2: ExxonMobil (lead), Occidental and Enron (a joint bid); Venture 3: Shell (lead), TotalFinaElf, and Conoco. The Gas Initiative is the first major reopening of Saudi Arabia's upstream hydrocarbon sector since nationalization in the 1970s. (WMO) May 21 The Enron Corporation's power generating venture in India, the Dabhol Power Company, serves formal notice that it will terminate its power supply contract and pull out. The $2.9 billion Dabhol project represents the single largest foreign investment in India. The gas-fired plant already had a generating capacity of 740 megawatts and another 1,444 megawatts was scheduled to go on line in June. (WSJ) May 29 Natural gas futures plunge 6% to a 10-month low on speculation that growing U.S. inventories will help power plants meet summer demand for air-conditioning. The price for June delivery fell 23.5 cents, to $3.738 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Natural gas prices had reached a high of $10.10 per million Btu on December 27, 2000, but then fell sharply beginning in late January 2001. (LAT) June 3 Iraq announces that it will halt crude oil exports in response to a United Nations Security Council resolution, approved May 31, that extends the oil-for-food program by only one month, instead of the normal six-month period. The oil-for-food program affects revenues from Iraqi sales of about 2.1 million barrels per day. However, it has been reported Iraq will continue to sell several hundred thousand barrels per day to its neighbors through sales that are outside of the oil-for-food program. OPEC announces that, if need be, it will make up for lost Iraqi production. Oil prices do not change greatly in response to either announcement. (NYT) June 5 OPEC ministers agree to leave the cartel's oil production quotas unchanged for at least a month, until a scheduled emergency meeting July 3. OPEC had been expected to leave the quotas unchanged until September, but Iraq's suspension of oil exports on June 3 created uncertainty.(LAT) June 7 BP announces that it will build a new $600-million platform offshore Trinidad that is expected to double the company's production of natural gas there by 2004. BP currently produces one billion cubic feet per day in Trinidad. (DJ) June 11 Saudi Arabia announces that it has seized ownership, effective June 7, of the 1.6-million barrel-per-day IPSA pipeline that had carried Iraqi crude oil to the Saudi Red Sea port of Mu'jiz prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. The seizure includes pumping stations, storage tanks, and the maritime terminal. Saudi Arabia claims that the asset was confiscated as a result of aggressive Iraqi actions. Iraq insists that it still owns the pipeline. (DJ) June 15 ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum sign a letter of intent for a natural gas to liquids (GTL) project that would be the largest in the world. The plant would have a production capacity of 80,000 to 90,000 barrels per day, and would use about 640 million to 720 million cubic feet of natural gas per day as feedstock. The project is expected to cost between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion to construct. (OD) June 30 ENI of Italy signs a $550 million contract to develop Iran's Darquain (Darkhovin) field, with expected production of 160,000 barrels per day. This deal may be seen as a test of the U.S. government's resolve to enforce sanctions against foreign companies investing in Iran's energy sector. (LAT) July 2 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton states that the Bush Administration will seek to let oil companies drill on about 1.5 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico out of the 6 million originally under consideration. This removes acreage closest to the shores of Alabama and Florida. (NYT) July 2 The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council, facing an almost certain Russian veto, agrees to postpone indefinitely a vote on the U.S.-led "smart sanctions" package for Iraq, despite support by the four other council members. Instead, it will extend, most likely through the end of the year, the program that allows Iraq to export oil and import food and other commodities under U.N. supervision (WSJ) July 3 At a meeting of its oil ministers, OPEC agrees to maintain current production quotas. Ministers indicate that, if Iraqi oil returns to the market, they may cut production in response to maintain their desired level of prices. (WP) July 5 Australia and East Timor sign an agreement to share royalties from oil and natural gas production in the Timor Sea, which separates the two countries. The deal supercedes the former agreement between Australia and Indonesia that divided royalties 50-50, with a new arrangement of 90% for East Timor and 10% for Australia. This agreement clears the way for $7.25 billion in proposed energy projects for the area and further downstream projects for Australia. (WSJ) July 10 Amerada Hess agrees to acquire Triton Energy for $2.7 billion in cash. Both companies' boards have approved the transaction. Triton Energy is an international exploration and production company with major oil and natural gas assets in West Africa and Latin America. Triton's total proved reserves are estimated at 293.5 million barrels of oil equivalent. Amerada Hess' total proved reserves are estimated at 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. (DJ) July 11 Iraq resumes oil exports, ending a 5-week halt in protest of a U.S. and British-sponsored United Nations (U.N.) Security Council resolution that would have overhauled U.N. sanctions, after this resolution did not come to a vote (see July 2). The oil-for-food program will be extended for five months. (NYT) July 24 An Iranian warship in the Caspian Sea threatens a BP oil exploration ship off the coast of Azerbaijan. This prompts BP to suspend exploration in the area. The two vessels were in the Araz-Alov-Sharg field 90 miles southeast of Baku. Iran claims the field is in Iranian waters. Caspian Sea region countries have been unable to agree on a division of the Sea. (NYT) July 25 Faced with declining oil prices, OPEC ministers agree to cut crude oil production quotas by about 4%, or one million barrels per day. The cut will take effect September 1, and is aimed at maintaining the price of the OPEC basket of crude oils at around $25 per barrel. Crude oil futures for September delivery climbed 47 cents per barrel, to $26.78, on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) after the announcement. (DJ) July 26 Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid leaves the presidential palace and the country, ending a 2-day standoff and clearing the way for his successor, Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former vice-president, to take over. The National Assembly had voted on July 23 to remove Wahid from office and install Sukarnoputri in the presidency. (AP) August 3 U.S. President George Bush signs into law the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) Extension Act of 2001. This Act provides for a 5-year extension of ILSA with amendments that affect certain of the investment provisions. ILSA sanctions foreign companies that provide new investments of over $40 million for the development of petroleum resources in Iran or Libya, or that violate existing United Nations prohibitions against trade with Libya. The law allows the president to waive sanctions against a foreign company if doing so is deemed to be in the U.S. national interest. U.S. companies are prohibited by U.S. law from engaging in any commercial or financial transactions with Iran or Libya. (NYT) August 10 The United States and Great Britain reject a proposal by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to permit the Iraqi government to use $1 billion per year to fund infrastructure improvements and to increase oil production capacity. It has been suggested that without infrastructure investment, Iraq's production could fall significantly over the next few years. (WMO) September 7 The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves Chevron's bid to buy Texaco. Texaco must sell its Equilon Enterprises and Motiva Enterprises units in order to complete the $39-billion deal. The new company, ChevronTexaco, will have a market value of over $100 billion, assets of $83 billion, net proven reserves of 11.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe), and daily production of 2.7 million boe.(DJ) September 11 The largest terrorist attack in world history occurs as 2 hijacked airplanes crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one hijacked plane crashes into the U.S. Department of Defense's Pentagon headquarters, and another hijacked plane crashes into a rural part of Pennsylvania. The World Trade Center is destroyed, and the Pentagon is heavily damaged. Thousands of people die and economic damage is estimated to be in the billions. Aviation is halted in the United States and all major trading markets (including energy) are closed for the remainder of the week. The U.S. government blames the attack on Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network (NYT) September 13 Relative calm returns to world oil markets as U.S. retail gasoline prices return to normal levels and Brent crude oil futures fall back to $28.02 per barrel for October delivery after spiking to above $31.00 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Also, energy trading by Houston energy companies resumes and limited commercial aviation starts. (WMO) September 17 Major trading markets in the United States, including the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), reopen for the first time since September 11. (NYT) September 24 Crude oil and petroleum products futures fall to their lowest levels in nearly two years amid fears that a recession will reduce energy demand. At the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), crude oil set for October delivery falls $3.96 to $22.01 per barrel, and crude oil for November delivery falls $3.82 to $22.44 per barrel. Over the past six trading sessions crude oil and gasoline futures have fallen more than 26% and heating oil futures have fallen nearly 29%. (NYT, DJ) September 27 At its two-day meeting in Vienna, OPEC decides to keep its production quotas unchanged at 23.2 million barrels per day, despite crude oil being at its lowest price levels since 1999. (NYT) October 7 Crude oil resumes flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline after workers welded shut a bullet hole that caused 260,000 gallons of oil to spill out. The pipeline, which carries about 17% of the United States' oil production, had been shut down on October 4 after being pierced with a bullet in an apparent act of criminal mischief. (DJ) October 15 The first tanker loading of the new $2.5-billion Kazakh-Russia Pipeline takes place. This is a trial run that informally inaugurates the pipeline. Initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 28.2 million metric tons per year (around 560,000 barrels per day). The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), led by ChevronTexaco, runs the pipeline. (Reuters) October 16 The U.S. Coast Guard lifts a ban on liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers entering Boston Harbor to makes deliveries to Distrigas' Everett LNG terminal that had been imposed on September 26 in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11. LNG regasified at the Everett terminal normally provides 15%-20% of the natural gas that heats homes and businesses in New England, with the percentage rising to 35% on the coldest days. On October 26, the Mayor of Boston asks a federal court to prevent tankers from entering because he claims there are inadequate disaster response plans. (Reuters) October 18 Crude Oil for November delivery falls to its lowest level since August 1999 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Light, sweet crude falls 50 cents per barrel to settle at $21.31 per barrel. Brent crude for December delivery closed at $20.36 at London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), down 37 cents per barrel. Poor economic prospects in the next few months, and OPEC's inability to respond so far are seen as factors contributing to the sliding prices of crude oil. (OD) October 29 ExxonMobil announces that a consortium it leads will spend $4 billion over 5 years to develop large offshore oil and natural gas fields in Russia's far eastern Sakhalin region. The fields are estimated to contain 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. ExxonMobil will be the operator and own a 30% interest in the fields. Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development of Japan will own 30%, ONGC Videsh of India 20%, Sakhalinmorneftegas-Shelf of Russia 11.5%, and RN-Astra of Russia 8.5%. The total investment could grow to $12 billion over the 30-40 year project life. This is the single largest foreign investment in Russia, as Russia continues to undertake market reforms. (WSJ, NYT) November 6 Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) falls to a two-year low after OPEC members warn that a downward price spiral could occur if major non-OPEC oil exporters do not reduce oil production. The NYMEX price settles at $19.92 per barrel, down 10 cents per barrel from the low of November 5, and the first time it has been under $20 per barrel since mid-1999. (NYT) November 9 Enron, the world's largest electricity and natural gas trading company, agrees to an all-stock takeover by former competitor Dynegy. ChevronTexaco, a 27% stakeholder in Dynegy, will immediately inject $1.5 billion cash into Enron, and an additional $1 billion into the combined entity. The merged company will be called Dynegy Inc., and Dynegy executives will occupy all top positions. The deal is expected to take at least six months to close. (Note: On November 28, 2001, Dynegy withdraws from the merger deal) (WMO) November 10 An agreement is reached at talks in Marrakech, Morocco, on rules for implementation of the Kyoto climate change treaty. Rules for joint implementation projects, the Clean Development Mechanism, and funding for less developed countries are elaborated. The United States does not participate actively in negotiations or agree to the rules. (OD) November 13 U.S. President George Bush orders that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be filled to capacity over the next few years. The reserve has a capacity of about 700 million barrels of oil, and now contains about 545 million barrels of oil. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is intended, in the short run, to smooth out price spikes and shortages caused by a supply disruption. (Reuters) November 14 At its meeting in Vienna, Austria, OPEC announces that it intends to cut its crude oil output quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day effective January 1, but only if non-OPEC producers cut their output by 500,000 barrels per day as well. The production cuts are an effort to steady or raise world oil prices, which have fallen markedly since September. (DJ) November 18 Phillips Petroleum and Conoco agree to merge into a new company to be called ConocoPhillips, which would be the third-largest oil and natural gas company in the United States, and the sixth-largest in the world, in terms of production. The company also would be the largest gasoline retailer in the United States and the fifth-largest refiner in the world. Combined total reserves of the new company would be 8.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent, and production would be 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. The new company expects to be able to compete more effectively with its larger rivals and to achieve significant cost savings. The new company will be based in Houston, Texas. (NYT) November 29 The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution extending the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq for another six-month period. This resolution allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil on the condition that the proceeds are used to buy food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods, and to pay war reparations. This resolution also calls on members of the Security Council to agree by May 31, 2002, on a list of "dual use" items that would require United Nations approval before Iraq could import them through the program. (DJ, WP) December 2 Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York for 14 affiliated entities, including Enron, Enron North America, Enron Energy Services, Enron Transportation Services, Enron Broadband Services, and Enron Metals & Commodity Corporation. Enron was formerly the world's largest electricity and natural gas trading company, and the seventh-largest publicly-traded energy company in the world. Enron also files a $10 billion lawsuit against Dynegy, alleging breach of contract, in connection with Dynegy's November 28 termination of its proposed merger with Enron. (DJ) December 26 Crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) record one of their largest one-day jumps of the year as traders become convinced that OPEC will follow through on production cuts. Prices per barrel for February delivery settle at $20.27 per barrel, an increase of $1.65, or 8.4% higher than the December 21 closing price (the last day of trading before the holiday weekend). Also contributing to the price increase was the return of cold weather to the northeastern United States and forecasts that show that the cold weather pattern may continue. Nevertheless, prices are still considerably lower than one year ago. (NYT) December 28 OPEC oil ministers meeting in Cairo agree to reduce their crude oil output quotas by a combined 1.5 million barrels per day (about 6.5%) for a six-month period beginning January 1, 2002. OPEC ministers also announce that they will meet again in March. OPEC received commitments for 462,500 barrels per day of the 500,000 barrels per day in cuts that it had requested from non-OPEC exporters, close enough to the target for OPEC to go ahead and implement its concomitant cuts. This month, Russia announced an export cut of 150,000 barrels per day on December 5. Oman announced a cut of 25,000 barrels per day on December 11, and raised it to 40,000 barrels per day on December 20. Angola announced a cut of 22,500 barrels per day on December 14. Norway announced a cut of 150,000 barrels per day on December 17. Mexico had already announced an export cut of 100,000 barrels per day in November. (DJ, Reuters) Back to top 2002 January 1 The OPEC crude oil production quota cuts of 1.5 million barrels per day, announced on December 28, officially go into effect for six months. Crude oil production or export cuts of 462,500 barrels per day by five non-OPEC oil exporters also go into effect. (Reuters) January 9 U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announces that the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles program, started in 1993 in an effort to develop mass-produced vehicles that would get 80 miles per gallon of gasoline by 2004, will be replaced by a new program called Freedom Car. The Freedom Car program will emphasize developing fuel-cell vehicles, powered by oxygen and hydrogen, by an unspecified later date.(WP, NYT) January 22 The U.S. Department of Energy opens the bidding process for oil companies to deliver 22 million barrels of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve instead of making cash royalty payments. The royalty-in-kind oil is the first phase of the Bush administration's plan, announced last November, to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to its capacity of 700 million barrels. (Reuters) January 29 U.S. President George Bush delivers his State of the Union address. In his speech he identifies Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as part of an “axis of evil” that supports terrorism. President Bush also states, “The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.” (NYT) February 13 Iraq says that it will not allow United Nations (U.N.) arms inspectors to return to Iraq. Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan states, "There is no need for the spies of the [U.N.] inspection teams to return to Iraq since Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction." The United States has hinted that actions may be taken against the Iraqi government if U.N. arms inspectors are not allowed to return. (Reuters) March 6 At a joint news conference, oil ministers of major non-OPEC oil exporters Mexico and Norway announce that they plan to maintain their respective export and production cuts through the end of the second quarter of 2002. This same day, non-OPEC Persian Gulf exporter Oman announces that it is willing to maintain its relatively small production cut through the end of the year. (Reuters) March 7 Light, sweet crude oil for April delivery on the NYMEX closes at $23.71, the highest price since September 21, 2001, when oil prices had temporarily spiked because of the September 11 terrorist attack. Oil prices have been on the rise because of OPEC and non-OPEC production cuts, an improving U.S. economy, and concern over U.S. intentions toward Iraq. (OD) March 12 Shareholders of Conoco and Phillips Petroleum approve a proposed $15.6-billion merger of the two major oil companies. The new company would be the third-largest oil company in the United States and the sixth-largest investor-owned oil company in the world. The company would also be the largest oil refiner in the United States. Joint reserves of the two companies are about 8.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. (AP) March 15 OPEC oil ministers meeting in Vienna decide to maintain their quota restrictions, established January 1, 2002, through the end of the second quarter of the year. On January 1, 2002, OPEC cut its crude oil production quotas by an aggregate 1.5 million barrels per day. (NYT) March 20 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announces that Russia will extend its voluntary crude oil export cuts of 150,000 barrels per day through the end of the second quarter of 2002. Russia, the biggest non-OPEC oil exporter, had agreed to implement the cuts beginning on January 1, 2002 as a cooperative move with OPEC. Many analysts question whether Russia has complied at all with its pledged cuts, and some data actually points to Russian exports rising since the beginning of January. (NYT) April 1 India liberalizes its oil and natural gas sector by putting in place a series of market reforms, including: the end of government-fixed prices for gasoline and diesel; the end of subsidized cooking gas and kerosene prices; market competition for state-run downstream companies; and assigning the Oil Ministry the role of energy watchdog. (Reuters) April 2 Royal Dutch/Shell agrees to buy Enterprise Oil for $5 billion in cash. This will increase Royal Dutch/Shell's production in the North Sea by 30% and overall production by 6%, according to the company. The acquisition will also add 1.5 billion barrels of oil to Royal Dutch/Shell's reserves. The company is also assuming $1.15 billion in Enterprise's debt. (NYT) April 3 Venezuela sends out its first commercial shipment of 550,000 barrels of synthetic crude to a U.S. Gulf Coast refinery. Venezuela's Sincor heavy crude upgrade plant, which was inaugurated last month, refines ultra-heavy crude oil into 32 degree API syncrude. (Reuters) April 4 The Angolan army signs a ceasefire accord with rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita). The agreement includes amnesty for former Unita soldiers and their demobilization and reintegration into society. The civil war, which began in 1975, has killed thousands of Angolans and taken much of the government's revenues from Angola's substantial oil production and exports. (NYT) April 5 Thousands of workers at Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA stay home, close gates of facilities, and engage in protests. This is the largest disruption of PdVSA's operations in 2002, though it is not a full-blown strike by all PdVSA workers. Oil production and refining slows, and two of Venezuela's five main oil export terminals are unable to operate. The government of President Hugo Chavez threatens to militarize PdVSA's operations. (AP) April 8 Iraq announces that it will halt its "oil-for-food" exports for 30 days as a "gesture of support" for the Palestinians' struggle with Israel. Iraq also requests that other OPEC countries do not raise production to make up for lost Iraqi exports. Iraqi "oil-for-food" exports had averaged about 1.7 million barrels per day to date in 2002. Major Arab OPEC exporters Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar have expressed unwillingness to join in any embargo. (WSJ) April 9 A general strike begins in Venezuela, shutting down many stores and factories and nearly halting oil production, refining, and export terminals. On April 12, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is ousted by the country's military after three consecutive days of general strikes during which oil production, refining, and exports-the mainstays of the Venezuelan economy-were seriously affected. Pedro Carmona is named interim President of Venezuela by the military high command. PdVSA operations that had been halted start up again, but rioting begins again the following day. On April 14, Interim President Carmona announces that he has resigned following large, and sometimes violent, pro-Chavez protests and a lack of support among many military officers. Several hours later, Hugo Chavez returns to power in Caracas and states that he never resigned the presidency. (WP, WSJ, Reuters, AP) April 24 A summit of the leaders of the five littoral states of the Caspian Sea ends without an agreement on how to divide the Caspian's resources among the five countries. (Reuters) May 8 Iraq starts pumping crude oil to its export terminals, following the country's announcement on May 5 that it would end its oil export embargo after one month, i.e., May 8. Iraq also submits price proposals for May crude oil loadings to the United Nations for approval. (Reuters) May 14 The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council approves an overhaul of the "oil-for-food" program for Iraq that makes use of an extensive list of "dual-use" goods (goods that could have a military as well as civilian use). Iraq will be able to use its oil revenues, which go into a U.N. escrow account out of which suppliers exporting products to Baghdad are paid, in order to purchase items not on the list. The resolution renews the U.N. program until November 25, 2002. On May 16, official Iraqi news agency INA announces that it will comply with the new six-month tranche of the "oil-for-food" program voted by the U.N. Security Council on May 14, despite condemning the Security Council resolution in the same statement. Iraq officially accepts the U.N. proposal on May 29. (Reuters) May 17 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announces that Russia will not extend its 150,000-barrel-per-day crude oil export cut, agreed to with OPEC, into the third quarter of 2002 and furthermore, that Russia will gradually phase out the export cut in the remainder of the second quarter of 2002. Russia is the world's second-largest oil exporter. (WMRC) May 24 U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agree to a major new energy partnership that will entail more investment from the United States in Russia's oil and natural gas sector. The leaders also agree to joint efforts to improve ports, pipelines, and refineries in order to expedite export flow. This could mean more Russian hydrocarbon exports to North America. (NYT) May 28 The U.S. government decides to buy back leases for oil and natural gas drilling on the Florida coast and in the Everglades for $235 million because of environmental concerns. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has asserted that there are only 40 million barrels of oil equivalent in the area to be protected, about two days' worth of U.S. consumption. (OD) June 20 Norway's Oil and Energy Ministry states that, "The Norwegian government has decided not to extend the restriction on oil production into the second half of 2002." Norway had agreed with OPEC to reduce its crude oil production by 150,000 barrels per day for the first two quarters of 2002. (Reuters) June 25 Russia formally announces that it will raise its crude oil exports by 150,000 barrels per day in the third quarter of 2002 and thereby, end its agreement with OPEC to limit crude oil exports by 150,000 barrels per day for the first and second quarter of 2002. Many analysts believe that Russia has already been exporting near capacity for some months. (Reuters) June 26 OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna decide to leave their combined output quota, excluding Iraq, unchanged at 21.7 million barrels per day for the third quarter of 2002. It is estimated that OPEC-10 countries (i.e. excluding Iraq) are producing between 1 million and 1.5 million barrels per day above the quota agreement. OPEC members also agree to appoint Venezuelan Oil Minister Alvaro Silva as the cartel's new secretary general, replacing Ali Rodriguez, who will now head Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA. At the meeting, Algeria requests a larger share of OPEC's total quota, but the issue will not be taken up until the OPEC Board of Governors meeting in August. (NYT, DJ) June 27 Mexico announces that it will continue its agreement with OPEC to limit crude oil exports to 1.66 million barrels per day into the third quarter of 2002. A statement from the Energy Ministry said that the decision was "based on national interests and conditioned upon the future conduct of the world oil market." Mexico is among the five largest oil exporters to the United States. (Reuters) June 29 An official at Oman's Oil and Gas Ministry announces that the non-OPEC country will continue its 40,000-barrel-per-day production cut into the third quarter of 2002. Oman had agreed with OPEC to cut production 40,000 barrels in the first and second quarters of 2002. (Reuters) July 1 The California State Legislature passes a bill that limits vehicle emissions of carbon dioxide, the first such bill to pass a state legislature. The specific regulations, to be developed by 2005, would take effect on 2009 model-year vehicles. The limits, enacted because of carbon dioxide's putative effect on global climate change, are likely to have significant repercussions beyond California because the State represents some 10% of the U.S. automobile market. Governor Gray Davis signs the bill into law on July 22. (LAT) July 3 The supertanker Astro Lupus arrives offshore of the Port of Houston, carrying the first direct shipment of Russian crude oil to the United States. The oil, about 2 million barrels of Urals Blend, was exported by Yukos, Russia's second-largest producer and destined for two ExxonMobil refineries in Texas. Yukos hopes to make six such shipments this year. (NYT, WMRC, OD) July 26 The U.S. Department of Energy announces that it intends to increase the rate at which the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is filled by increasing the "royalty-in-kind" exchange program by 40,000 barrels per day. Under the "royalty-in-kind" program, oil companies deposit oil that is produced on federal leases in the SPR as a form of payment for those leases. (OD) July 31 ChevronTexaco announces the resumption of crude oil exports from Nigeria after protests and a fire caused the company to declare force majeure on its exports for a ten-day period. Between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels per day were temporarily halted. ChevronTexaco has not fully resolved the issues between the company and protestors who disrupt operations. Before the fire, about 110,000 barrels per day were interrupted at times by protestors. Nigeria's army moved in to prevent protestors from damaging equipment, but declined to remove the protestors from the facilities. (DJ) August 2 The U.S. Office of Management and Budget approves U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations that authorize new penalties for manufacturers of diesel engines that exceed various pollutant levels, to take effect October 1, 2002. The new rules are part of long-term plan, begun in the previous administration, to require diesel trucks and buses to reduce emissions by 90% by 2007. (NYT) August 7 Mexican Energy Minister Ernesto Martens announces that Mexico will continue to limit its crude oil exports to 1.66 million barrels per day, in coordination with OPEC, although Mexico is not a member of the cartel. Mexico is the only major non-OPEC exporter cooperating with the cartel, after Norway and Russia ended their cooperation earlier in the year. (Reuters) August 20 The NYMEX near-month crude oil futures price closes above $30 per barrel for the first time since February 2001. Concern over possible conflict in Iraq, OPEC quotas, and declining crude oil and product stocks are among the factors leading to a nine-straight-session rise in NYMEX prices. (Reuters) August 29 U.S. Vice President Cheney states that a new round of U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq is likely to be insufficient to guarantee that Iraq has ended its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs. That same day, Iraqi Vice President Ramadan declares that future inspections by the United Nations are a "waste of time," as the U.S. administration has already decided upon "changing the regime by force." (WP) September 11 The International Energy Agency's (IEA) monthly oil market report notes that global oil stock levels have fallen to "uncomfortably low" levels that could lead to higher prices and more price volatility in the coming months. According to the IEA, OECD crude oil inventories fell by 790,000 barrels per day in August compared with July. (DJ) September 11 The European Union (EU) releases a plan for coordination of member countries' crude oil reserves, including raising the minimum level of national oil stocks to 120 days of consumption from 90 days and putting one third of reserves into a stockpile which could be drawn on in times of crisis. The European Commission would have the power to release oil from the stockpile onto the market if prices rose to a level that, if sustained for a year, would raise the EU's external oil bill by an amount equal to 0.5% of its gross domestic product. Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio predicts that the new system will be in place in 2007. (Reuters) September 12 U.S. President George Bush addresses the United Nations. President Bush declares in regard to Iraq that "The Security Council resolutions will be enforced -- the just demands of peace and security will be met -- or action will be unavoidable…and a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power." (Reuters) September 13 The World Bank approves lending for a controversial oil pipeline between Chad and Cameroon. The bank is funding $140 million of the $4 billion project to develop the oil fields of Doba in southern Chad and construct a 665-mile pipeline to an offshore oil-loading facility on Cameroon's Atlantic coast. (Reuters) September 18 Work begins on the $2.9 billion Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline, which will transport oil from the landlocked Caspian Sea to Turkey's Mediterranean coast. The BP-led pipeline will be 1,110 miles long when completed in 2005. Work begins on the Turkish section on September 26. (Reuters) September 18 According to United Nations officials and representatives of the oil industry, Iraq has stopped attempting to impose illegal surcharges on oil it sells through the United Nations' "Oil-for-Food" program. Though the surcharges have provided funds to the regime, Iraq may be attempting to cooperate more closely with U.N. resolutions in the face of increased scrutiny by the United States and Britain. (DJ) September 19 OPEC, meeting in Osaka, Japan, decides that its ten members subject to quotas (i.e. excluding Iraq) will not raise their current 21.7-million-barrel-per-day production ceiling. However, OPEC's communiqué states that OPEC is committed "to taking any further measures, including convening extraordinary meetings when deemed necessary…to maintain prices [OPEC basket price] within the range of $22-$28 [per barrel]." Also at the meeting, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah is appointed as the new OPEC President, replacing Rilwanu Lukman of Nigeria. (DJ) October 3 Hurricane Lili makes landfall on the U.S. Gulf coast after passing through offshore hydrocarbon production areas and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP). Nearly all offshore production (about 1.5 million barrels per day of oil production), as well as some onshore refineries, the LOOP and the Capline crude oil pipeline are shut down. Refineries and offshore operations begin to come back on line on October 4, with most operations fully online by the second half of the month. There is little permanent damage. Hurricane Lili struck the U.S. Gulf coast only one week after Tropical Storm Isidore temporarily shut down the LOOP on September 24. (Reuters) October 6 A French oil tanker chartered by Malaysian state oil company Petronas is attacked off the coast of Yemen, seriously damaging the ship and killing one crew member. The VLCC, with about 400,000 barrels of oil aboard, catches fire. The tanker does not sink, and is towed to port. Later, investigators determine that a terrorist suicide attack by a small boat is the cause of the explosion. The tanker was on its way to load additional oil in Yemen when attacked. (Reuters, DJ) October 9 The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases data showing that crude oil stocks in the previous week fell to their lowest levels (270.5 million barrels) since the agency began keeping weekly records over 20 years ago. Crude oil stocks have fallen by over 50 million barrels since February of this year and are now 39 million barrels below the year ago level and only 0.5 million above the EIA's "Lower Operational Inventory." While not implying shortages, operational problems, or price increases, the Lower Operational Inventory means that supply flexibility could be constrained. (Reuters) October 11 The U.S. Senate votes to give President George Bush the authority to use force, if necessary, to persuade Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to abandon programs for the development of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a similar measure the previous day. This moves the focus of debate to the U.N. Security Council. (Reuters) November 1 Greece, Bulgaria, and Russia agree to equal stakes in the $699 million Trans-Balkan Pipeline. The 159-mile pipeline will bypass the Bosphorus Strait in order to bring Russian oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Greek Mediterranean port of Alexandroupolis. The pipeline will be able to carry about 697,000 barrels per day. (Reuters) November 8 The United Nations (UN) Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441, that Iraq must accept or reject within seven days, giving United Nations inspectors the unconditional right to search anywhere in Iraq for banned weapons. Furthermore, Iraq will have to make an "accurate full and complete" declaration of its nuclear, chemical, biological and ballistic weapons and related materials used in civilian industries within 30 days. The resolution requires violations to be reported back to the Security Council by inspectors before any actions could be taken against Iraq for violating weapons bans. (Reuters) November 13 In a letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan, Iraq accepts UN Security Council resolution 1441 of November 8, granting UN inspectors the right to conduct unfettered inspections in Iraq, "despite its bad contents." In the letter, Iraq also denies that it possesses any weapons of mass destruction. (AP) November 14 The TengizChevroil consortium, a consortium of companies led by operator ChevronTexaco that is developing the estimated 2.7-billion-barrel Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan, announces that the consortium has decided to indefinitely suspend investment in the second phase of the project. Production from the first phase was about 12.5 million metric tons in 2001 (about 249,000 barrels per day). The second phase would require about $3 billion of investment in order to boost the project's output by about 3 million metric tons per year (about 60,000 barrels per day). (WMRC) November 15 The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency crude oil stockpile administered by the U.S. Department of Energy, reaches 592 million barrels, the largest amount in the reserve since it was initiated in 1977. (Reuters) November 18 The tanker Prestige, loaded with 24 million gallons of Russian fuel oil, splits in two and sinks 155 miles off the coast of northwest Spain. The tanker, flying a Bahamian flag and owned by a Liberian company based in Athens, Greece, spills about 2.5 million gallons of the fuel oil from a crack before sinking, polluting beaches in the region and harming marine life. Fuel oil may continue leaking from the sunken ship. (WSJ, WP) November 26 Murphy Oil of the United States announces the discovery of 400-700 million barrels of oil in the Kikeh field off the coast of Malaysia's Sabah region on the island of Borneo. This is one of the largest discoveries in Southeast Asia in recent years. (WMRC) November 27 Officials of four of Russia's largest oil companies, Lukoil, Yukos, Sibneft, and Tyumen, announce a preliminary agreement for a joint project to build a $1.5 billion dollar Arctic oil port near the town of Murmansk. This would enable Russia to expand ocean-going tanker exports. (WSJ) December 2 Business and labor groups in Venezuela, including employees of state-oil company PdVSA, begin a strike in order to obtain an early referendum on the rule of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The strike has little effect on its first day, but as the strike continues through the end of the month, oil production, refinery runs, and crude oil and refined petroleum product exports fall dramatically. Several refineries in the Caribbean dependent on Venezuelan crude are also adversely affected. This has a serious impact on the Venezuelan economy, but no agreement between President Chávez and the opposition forces leading the strike is reached by the end of the month. (Reuters) December 4 The United Nations (U.N.) Oil-for-Food program is unanimously renewed by the Security Council for another six months, and shortly thereafter accepted by the Iraqi government. The Oil-for-Food program allows Iraq to sell unlimited quantities of oil, with revenues going into a U.N. account that pays vendors for approved goods that Iraq orders. (Reuters) December 12 The government of Iraq cancels a $3.8 billion contract with three Russian companies-Lukoil, Zarubezhnest, and Machinoimport-to develop the very large West Qurna oilfield. Although the reasoning for the decision is not made clear by Iraq, it is thought that it is in response to Russian political decisions regarding United Nations inspections and the Oil-for-Food program. (NYT) December 12 OPEC oil ministers, meeting in Vienna, decide to raise OPEC-10's (i.e. excluding Iraq) total production quota from 21.7 million barrels per day to 23 million barrels per day. OPEC ministers also urge strict compliance with the new quotas in an effort to cut back production, as OPEC-10 production is widely regarded to be exceeding even the new production quota of 23 million barrels per day. (LAT) December 16 The near-month crude oil futures price on the NYMEX tops $30 per barrel for the first time since October 2, as the general strike in Venezuela impacts the world oil market. Later in the month, on December 27, the near-month crude oil futures price rises to $32.72 per barrel, the highest price since November 2000. (WSJ, AP) December 17 The U.S. Department of Energy allows several oil companies to postpone delivery of an additional 430,000 barrels of crude oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an attempt to keep more oil in the market during the strike in Venezuela. The oil companies will have to deliver the oil at a later date. (Reuters) December 19 U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declares that Iraq is in "material breach" of United Nations resolutions after reviewing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction declaration released December 7 to the United Nations. States Powell: "Our [U.S.] experts have found it to be anything but currently accurate, full or complete. The Iraqi declaration ... totally fails to meet the resolution's requirements." (Reuters) December 28 A tanker with 22 million gallons of gasoline arrives in Venezuela from Brazil, providing crucial supplies to the country, as the strike by employees of state-oil company PdVSA has meant severe reductions in refinery runs in that country. Crude oil production, that was in excess of 3 million barrels per day before the strike, is less than 500,000 barrels per day for many days in December. (WSJ) Back to top 2003 January 6 Venezuelan Minister of Energy and Mines Rafael Ramírez announces that the Venezuelan government plans to split state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA) into two separate entities as part of a large-scale restructuring of the company, most of whose 40,000 workers are currently on strike. Such a decentralization could limit the power of Caracas-based executives who have joined in the strike, which began on December 2, 2002. (NYT) January 12 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), meeting in Vienna, agrees to raise the aggregate production quota of its members (excluding Iraq) to 24.5 million barrels per day, up from the current 23 million barrels per day, effective February 1. Each member will receive a proportionately higher share of the quota, about a 6.5% increase. (NYT) January 16 Fourteen U.S. corporations or subsidiaries launch the Chicago Climate Exchange, a trading program wherein companies would be able to earn redeemable credits for exceeding emissions reductions goals of 4% of 1998-2001 average emissions over the next four years. Companies unable to meet the goals would buy the credits. The Exchange intends to create means to verify that actual reductions in emissions have taken place. (WP) January 21 The near-month crude oil futures price on the NYMEX settles at $34.61 per barrel, the highest price since November 29, 2000. The market is experiencing a variety of higher price pressures, including the strike in Venezuela, fears of a conflict in Iraq, a cold winter in the United States, and low commercial oil stock levels in the United States. (USAT) January 28 The U.S. Department of Energy approves oil company requests to delay delivery of March shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The announcement will allow 4.4 million barrels of crude oil designated for storage in the SPR, to be marketed to domestic refineries instead. (Reuters) January 29 Striking managers at Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA confirm that oil production has surpassed 1 million barrels per day once again, after falling to as low as 200,000 barrels per day during the strike that began on December 2. On January 31, PdVSA President Ali Rodriguez announces that production is at 1.5 million barrels per day and that 5,300 striking workers have been fired. Opposition estimates of production are much lower at around 1.05 million barrels per day. (NYT, Reuters) January 29 During his State of the Union address, President Bush proposes $1.2 billion in funding to support the research and development of hydrogen-powered vehicles. (Reuters) February 3 Indian Petroleum Minister Ram Naik announces that the government of India plans to boost the country's strategic crude oil reserves to 45 days from 15 days at an estimated cost of 43.50 billion rupees ($910 million). (Reuters) February 6 Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh announces that phases two and three of the South Pars natural gas field are now on-line. These phases represent additional production of about 55 million cubic meters (1.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas per year, 85,000 barrels per day of condensate, and 1 million metric tons (11.6 million barrels) of liquefied petroleum gas per year. The two phases are officially inaugurated on February 15. (DJ) February 11 BP invests $6.75 billion in Russia by creating a new joint venture company with TNK (Russia's fourth largest oil company) and Sidanco, of which BP already held a 25% stake. BP will have a 50% stake in the new company. TNK's shareholders, investment groups Alfa Group and Access-Renova, will hold the other 50% stake of the new firm, and board control will be balanced equally. The investment by BP is equivalent to almost 10% of Russian foreign exchange reserves and around 1.5% of Russian gross domestic product (GDP). (Reuters) February 12 Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that U.S. commercial crude oil stocks have fallen to 269.8 million barrels for the week ending February 7, 2003. This is the lowest commercial crude oil stock level since 1975, and just slightly below the lower operational inventory level of 270 million barrels. The lower operational inventory level, while not implying shortages, operational problems, or price increases, is indicative of a situation where inventory-related supply flexibility could be constrained or nonexistent. (Reuters) February 18 Exxon Mobil begins construction of the $3 billion Kizomba B offshore development project in Angolan waters. The project, when completed, is expected to produce 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day, beginning in 2006, with total production over the life of the field estimated to be about 1 billion barrels. Besides Exxon Mobil, which has a 40% stake, the other stakeholders are BP (26.67%), Eni (20%), and Statoil (13.33%). The concessionaire is Angolan state oil company Sonangol. (Reuters) February 28 The NYMEX near-month heating oil futures price settles at an all-time high of 125.59 cents per gallon, as many of the same market forces affecting the crude oil market also have driven up the price of heating oil, especially increased demand from the cold winter. High sulfur distillate fuel inventories (also referred to as heating oil) plunged more than 15% over the most recent four-week period to end the week of February 28, at 35.6 million barrels, 32% below the level for the same period last year. (Reuters) March 5 Some 500,000 bbl/d of Venezuelan production in the eastern region begins to come back on-line. It was shut off at the wellhead for a week because of bottlenecks at export terminals as Venezuelan state oil company PdVSA encountered problems in returning loading at terminals to pre-strike levels. The Venezuelan government claims that oil production is over 2 million barrels per day, while fired PdVSA workers claim production is at 1.1 million barrels per day. (Reuters) March 6 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announces that force majeure is henceforth lifted on Venezuelan oil exports. Venezuela had declared force majeure on its oil exports shortly after the national strike began on December 2, 2002. It is later revealed that this lifting does not apply to certain petroleum products. President Chavez also refuses to consider rehiring any of the over 15,000 fired PdVSA workers. (Reuters) March 7 The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) puts into effect expanded price limits on its energy contracts and reduces to five minutes the time trading is halted when those limits are reached. Under the revised rules, the initial price limits for light, sweet crude oil futures will be expanded to $10 per barrel in all months from the current $7.50 in the first two months and $3.00 in all other months. The initial Henry Hub natural gas futures limits will expand to $3.00 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in all months from $1 in all months. The initial limits on heating oil, gasoline and propane futures will increase to 25 cents per gallon in all months from 20 cents in the first two months and 6 cents in all other months. (Reuters) March 7 Officials in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announce that new clean water regulations for smaller sites, to take effect March 10, will not apply to the petroleum and natural gas industries. Rather, these two industries will have a two-year exemption, because, according to the EPA, further study of the effects of these regulations upon these two industries is needed. (NYT) March 11 The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Vienna and decides to maintain crude oil production quotas for its member countries (excluding Iraq) at 24.5 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister, Ali al-Naimi says, "There will be no shortage of oil. The test is, when the need is there, whether we will use the capacity or not and I can assure you we will. Most analysts, including EIA, believe that OPEC-10's (excluding Iraq) actual production is higher than the quota amount. (NYT, Reuters) March 12 The near-month (April) crude oil futures price at the NYMEX settles at $37.83 per barrel, the highest near-month settlement price (in nominal terms) since October 1990. This comes as EIA reports today that commercial crude oil inventories for the previous week declined by 3.8 million barrels to 269 million barrels. This is below the 270 million barrel lower operational inventory level, which, while not implying shortages, operational problems, or price increases, is indicative of a situation where inventory-related supply flexibility could be constrained or nonexistent. This heightens supply concerns before an impending war in Iraq. (WSJ) March 19 Military action in Iraq commences with a bombing raid and missile attack on targets in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad (March 20 Baghdad time) by Coalition forces, given Saddam Hussein and his regime's rejection of U.S. President George Bush's March 17 ultimatum. Iraq launches several conventional missiles at Kuwait, but this has no effect on Kuwaiti oil production. However, the Kuwait Petroleum Company does implement an emergency plan to protect its workers and facilities. (Reuters) March 23 Outbreaks of violence between soldiers and militants of various ethnic groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria prompt three major oil companies operating in the region - ChevronTexaco, Royal Dutch/Shell, and TotalFinaElf - to shut in operations in the area, totaling about 800,000 barrels per day. This represents about 40% of Nigeria's total production, including about 768,000 barrels per day in the West Niger Delta (all operations there for the three companies) and 50,000 barrels per day of Shell production in the East Niger Delta. Employees of ChevronTexaco, which had declared force majeure on its Escravos crude oil terminal three days earlier, return to Nigeria on April 4 to begin a gradual resumption of production. Force majeure is lifted on April 24, 2003. (NYT, Reuters) March 24 After Coalition forces have pushed further into Iraq securing most of the southern oilfields over the weekend, Kuwaiti fire fighters are able to enter Iraq and are able to extinguish one of the wellhead fires. Iraq's southern fields represent about 40% of the country's output. Damage is assessed to be relatively minimal. Some pockets or Iraqi resistance in the southern oilfields remain, however. Furthermore, heavy Iraqi resistance in some parts of Iraq gives rise to market speculation that the war could last longer than initially thought. The NYMEX near-month crude oil price rises 6.5%, to settle at $28.66 per barrel, as the war in Iraq as well as the situation in Nigeria have traders concerned. (Reuters, DJ) April 4 Coalition forces continue to make progress against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, with the U.S. military capturing Baghdad's main international airport. Also, according to the U.S. military, 80%-90% of Iraq's southern oilfield production is under coalition control, as well as all related export facilities, as of this date. (Reuters) April 4 Royal Dutch/Shell restarts production and development work at the Soroosh and Nowrooz fields offshore southwestern Iran, after shutting down work at the two fields on March 19 because of fears that staff could be vulnerable to intentional or accidental attack, given the fields' proximity to the border with Iraq. Soroosh produces about 60,000 barrels per day, and the shut down has delayed the coming on line of the Nowrooz field, scheduled for later this year. (DJ, Reuters) ) April 8 Syrian state oil company Sytrol informs customers that it will cut crude oil term export volumes by around 40% (about 150,000 barrels per day) as a result of the halt in Iraqi imports through the Iraq-Syria-Lebanon pipeline that is reported to have been shut down. Sytrol suggests that the reduction will continue for the rest of the year. (WMRC) April 14 Pumping on the oil pipeline from Iraq's Kirkuk oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is halted as the storage facilities have reached their maximum capacity of about 6.5 million barrels. There has not been a loading of Iraqi crude oil at the port since March 20. (Reuters) April 14 Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) shuts down for inspection the last of its 17 nuclear reactors still in operation. The shut downs result from the discovery last year that TEPCO had falsified data regarding reactor inspections, leading to the decision to shut down by Japan's nuclear authorities. Japan's largest power firm said that unless its reactors were started back up, there would be an electricity shortage of up to 9.55 million kilowatts during the summer, when electricity demand hits its peak. (Japan Times) April 15 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces that the U.S. military has shut off an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria that is alleged to have been carrying 100,000-150,000 barrels per day. "We have been told that they have shut off a pipeline," Secretary Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing. "Whether it's the only one and whether that has completely stopped the flow of oil between Iraq and Syria, I cannot tell you. ... I cannot assure you that all illegal oil flowing from Iraq into Syria is shut off. I just hope it is." (Reuters) April 22 Yukos Oil Company and Sibneft, Russia's first and fifth largest oil companies, respectively, in terms of production, announce that they will merge in a deal in which Yukos will pay $13 billion in cash and stock for Sibneft. The new company will be the world's fifth-largest publicly traded oil and gas company, with a production of 2.4 million barrels per day. The new company plans to become a major player outside of Russia as well. (NYT, WSJ) April 23 According to the American military officer in charge of restarting Iraq's oil production infrastructure, Iraq's southern fields have begun to produce again. Four southern wells have begun producing a modest amount of crude oil, but according to Brig. Gen. Robert Crear of the Army Corps of Engineers, southern wells should soon be producing about 170,000 barrels a day. Initial production would go toward meeting domestic demand, especially as more refineries come back on line. The country's northern oilfields are still offline. (WSJ) April 24 OPEC oil ministers, meeting for emergency talks in Vienna, decide to simultaneously reduce crude oil production by 2 million barrels per day, as of June 1, and increase their overall production quota by 900,000 barrels per day to a total quota of 25.4 million barrels per day. This is a tacit admission that OPEC production is well in excess of the previous quota of 24.5 million barrels per day. Iraq does not participate in the meetings and is not subject to the quota regime. (LAT) April 29 Brazilian state oil company Petrobras announces the largest-ever natural gas discovery in Brazil. The discovery, located about 85 miles off the coast of the state of Sao Paulo, is a field containing an estimated 2.47 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This field raises Brazil's natural gas reserves by about 30%, according to some estimates. (Reuters) May 22 The United Nations Security Council approves the immediate end of 13 years of economic sanctions on Iraq, dating from the time of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Resolution 1483 effectively grants the United States-led coalition forces control of Iraq until a new Iraqi government can be put in place. The end of the sanctions also makes it easier for Iraqi oil exports to resume without the auspices of the United Nations. Later, on May 27, the U.S. Department of the Treasury lifts most remaining sanctions on Iraq, thereby implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1483. Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow states, "It is no longer a crime for U.S. companies and individuals to do business with Iraq." (WP) May 28 Yukos of Russia signs a $150 billion agreement with China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), wherein CNPC agrees to purchase 5.13 billion barrels of oil between 2005 and 2030 via a $2.5 billion pipeline from Russia's Western Siberia fields to China's Daqing field. (Reuters) June 2 Royal Dutch/Shell signs a $2 billion contract with an alliance of Japanese and Russian companies for the construction of Russia's first natural gas liquefaction plant in Sakhalin. This comes after Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Tokyo Gas agreed two weeks earlier to purchase about one-quarter of the liquefaction plant's planned capacity of 9.6 million metric tons per year. Shell owns 55% of the production rights for the natural gas supplying the planned plant. (NYT) June 10 Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan notes that rising natural gas prices in the United States could have a negative impact on the economy in the months ahead if prices remain at high levels. States Greenspan, "I have no doubt that...if we stay at these very elevated prices we're going to see some erosion in a number of macroeconomic variables which are not evident at this stage. A very significant amount of natural gas using infrastructure in the American economy was based on $2 gas. That means a lot of noncompetitive structures are sitting out there." (Reuters) June 11 Oil Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting in Qatar decide to keep OPEC crude oil production quotas unchanged for the ten members (i.e. not including Iraq) participating in the quota regime. The combined output quota for the ten members is 25.4 million barrels of crude oil per day. OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, also Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry, says, "We don't want to cut for the sake of it. We should justify it." (Reuters, DJ) June 12 Two explosions damage the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, in what is later determined to be an act of sabotage. Several other Iraqi pipelines are damaged in acts of sabotage throughout the month, including a natural gas pipeline in the western desert on June 21, an oil pipeline west of Baghdad on June 22, and the now-stalled Iraq-Syria pipeline on June 23. (Reuters, AP) June 14 ConocoPhillips announces that the company will proceed with its $1.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) development project at the Bayu-Undan fields after government officials of Australia and East Timor approved the project in the Timor Sea Joint Petroleum Development Area. Natural gas from the field will be piped to an LNG liquefaction plant in Australia's Northern Territory. (WSJ, NYT) June 17 The head of Iraq's North Oil Company, Adil al-Qazzaz, states that Iraq's main north-south crude oil pipeline, the so-called Strategic Pipeline, will not be operable for some time, especially because the K-3 pumping station was badly damaged during the recent war. Al-Qazzaz goes on to state that because the pipeline is not working, "[W]e don't have export flexibility, and that will have an impact." (WSJ) June 22 Iraq exports oil for the first time since March 20, the first day of the war that eventually toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. The crude oil, 1 million barrels, was part of the June 12 tender and will be sold to Turkish refiners from oil in storage at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Loading of the oil onto a tanker begins today. (WP) July 2 The European Parliament votes to cap European industry's carbon dioxide output and let firms trade the right to pollute. As of January 2005, many plants in the oil refining, smelting, steel, cement, ceramics, glass and paper sectors will need special permits to emit carbon dioxide (CO2). "It means that the largest emissions trading scheme in the world to date will be a reality from 2005, and that the architecture foreseen under the Kyoto Protocol is coming to life," according to European Union Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom. (Reuters) July 9 The government of Chad announces that it has begun its first-ever crude oil production, as wells began pumping on July 1. It will still take weeks before crude is shipped from the $3.5 billion project through a 650-mile pipeline to the Atlantic coast in neighboring Cameroon. The government does not announce the initial flow rate, but eventual production is expected to reach 225,000 barrels per day. Oil begins flowing through the pipeline on July 15. (Reuters) July 12 Sakhalin Oil Development Corporation, the Japanese partner in an international consortium in the Sakhalin-1 project, announces that oil drilling offshore has begun. The project, which may eventually see $12 billion invested in oil and natural gas development, is potentially the largest direct foreign investment in Russia. Total recoverable reserves at the Sakhalin-1 area are estimated to be 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 17.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. (DJ) July 15 The operator of Israel's Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, a bi-directional pipeline linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, announces that the pipeline is operational. The pipeline, with a current capacity of 400,000 barrels per day, but a design capacity of 1.2 million barrels per day, provides an alternative to the Suez Canal, as both Israeli ports can handle VLCCs, whereas Suez cannot. Perhaps even more importantly, with the new southerly flow, Russian crude on small tankers from the Bosporus will be able to eventually load onto VLCCs bound for East Asia. (Reuters) July 15 Hurricane Claudette hits the Texas coast about 80 miles southwest of Houston. According the U.S. Minerals Management Service, an estimated 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas had been shut in by Claudette, or about 18% of the Gulf's total gas output. Also, about 330,000 barrels per day of oil, or some 21% of the Gulf of Mexico's daily oil production, has been shut down. Production is quickly restored in the next few days. (Reuters) July 16 Italian oil and gas major Eni announces that it has begun exporting oil production from the giant Karachaganak field in Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk terminal on the Black Sea. In addition, Eni said that it and its partners had completed pipelines and treatment facilities so that output from the oil field could grow by the end of the year to 380,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the current 220,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. (DJ) July 16 Royal Dutch/Shell and Total successfully conclude the first deal with Saudi Arabia giving Western companies access to the Kingdom’s hydrocarbon reserves since the nationalization of its petroleum industry. The agreement entails natural gas exploration and development across 77,000 square miles in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter. Previous efforts to open up Saudi Arabia's upstream natural gas sector, known as “Saudi Arabia’s natural gas initiative” and the three “Core Ventures” were larger, with each estimated to be worth $10-$15 billion. The Core Ventures fell apart in June due to conflicts with foreign investors over financial terms. (Reuters) July 25 The first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) since 1980 is made to the reactivated Cove Point LNG regasification plant in Maryland, as a tanker from Trinidad arrives carrying 22 million gallons of LNG. According to Dominion, owner of the facility, the plant will be able to supply 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, and will be the largest LNG regasification facility in the United States. (WP) July 31 Oil Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), meeting in Vienna, decide to keep their crude oil production quotas unchanged until their next meeting, on September 24. The combined quota for the ten members participating in the quota regime (i.e. excluding Iraq) is 24.5 million barrels per day. (WSJ) August 7 The United States estimates that restoring Iraq's oil sector to its pre-war status will cost at least $1.1 billion and take nine months to complete. Prior to the war, Iraq was producing around 2.5-2.6 million barrels per day and exporting around 2.0-2.1 million barrels per day. Current production is closer to 1 million barrels per day, with exports of about 600,000-700,000 barrels per day. (LAT)) August 14 Libya reportedly agrees to compensate families of the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing with $2.7 billion total. The money is to be released in three tranches, the first following a lifting of United Nations sanctions, the second after possible lifting of U.S. sanctions, and the third after Libya is removed from the U.S. State Department's state sponsors of terrorism list. (WMRC) August 14 A huge electric power blackout hits large parts of the northeastern United States, the Midwest, and southern Canada late in the afternoon. Power is out for at least several hours in major cities like New York, Detroit, Cleveland, and Toronto. Three months later, on November 19, the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force, led by U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Canadian Natural Resource Minister Herbert Dhaliwal, releases a 124-page investigative report which concludes that the blackout was "largely preventable" and cites several failures by regional utility companies and regulators. Analyses are also published by The Michigan Public Service Commission and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). (NYT, WSJ, AP) August 14 Russia approves a $13 billion merger between Yukos and Sibneft, creating "YukosSibneft," Russia's first "supermajor" and one of the world's largest publicly traded oil companies. (WMRC) August 15 Iraq's crucial northern oil pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is attacked, stopping flows on the line just two days after it reopened for the first time since the war. The pipeline had a pre-war capacity of 1.1 million barrels per day, but sustained significant damage during hostilities and had started pumping at only around 200,000 barrels per day. Repairs to the line from the latest attack may take weeks, while full restoration of the pipeline's pre-war capacity could take months. (WMRC) September 1 Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a former Iraqi exile, is appointed Iraq’s first post-war oil minister by the country’s Governing Council. Uloum replaces Thamir Ghadban, who had been the acting oil minister since early May. (Reuters) September 10 The Inter-American Development Bank approves financing for Peru’s Camisea natural gas project. The Camisea fields were discovered by Shell in 1986 and are estimated to hold 13 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 660 million barrels of condensate, possibly transforming Peru into a net energy exporter. (DJ, WP, WMRC, EIA) September 11 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves a plan for the new Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Cameron represents the first such project in the United States in over 20 years. (NYT) September 12 The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council lifts 11-year-old sanctions against Libya. Development of Libya’s sizeable oil resources has been hindered by the sanctions, which were imposed in 1992 in an effort to extradite two Libyans indicted for the 1998 bombing of an American plane over Scotland. (AP September 19 Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh announces that the deal which granted a Japanese consortium preferential rights to develop Iran’s Azadegan oil field has expired. The consortium was granted the rights in late 2000, but had yet to negotiate and sign a contract. The Azadegan field is estimated to hold some 26 billion barrels of oil. (Platts) September 24 OPEC members agree to cut the output ceiling for the ten member countries, excluding Iraq, by 900,000 barrel per day to 24.5 million barrels per day, effective November 1. Iraq attends the OPEC meeting for the first time since 1990. OPEC cited concerns that the world oil market will be oversupplied in 2004 leading to lower prices. (Reuters) September 30 The Chicago Climate Exchange announces its first auction of emission allowances. Although emissions cuts are still voluntary, the exchange is considered an important prototype. (WMRC) October 3 Chad's President Idriss Deby announced that the new Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline is officially "onstream." Chad began pumping oil into the pipeline in July 2003 from the Doba field. The $3.7 billion Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline represents the World Bank's single largest investment ever in sub-Saharan Africa. (NYT) October 4 The Russian oil companies Yukos and Sibneft complete their merger, creating YukosSibneft, the world's fourth-largest private oil producer. The news is accompanied by rumors that major American firms are interested in making a deal with YukosSibneft in order to gain access to the Russian energy market. (WP) October 14 Bowing to protests, Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada announces he will not pursue a plan to export more than one billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States through Chile. The proposal had led to massive popular protests in Bolivia, resulting in the deaths of at least 16 people. (WSJ, WP, NYT) November 4 The International Finance Corporation, the private lending division of the World Bank, approves a $250 million loan for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Later, on November 11, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development approves its $250 million loan for the project. The 1-million-barrel-per-day pipeline will enable crude oil exports from the land-locked Caspian Sea region to reach world markets through the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. (WSJ, EIA, WMRC) November 18 ChevronTexaco reports that it has received final approval form the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to build the world's first-ever deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Port Pelican in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The plant will have a capacity of 1.6 billion cubic feet per day, with construction to begin in 2004 and to be completed in 2007. (WMRC) November 21 The United Nations hands over the "oil-for-food" program in Iraq to the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad. The "oil-for-food" program was established by the United Nations in 1995, and used proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil to buy food and medicine for Iraqis as well as to finance infrastructure and humanitarian projects. Iraqi oil exports reportedly have reached around 1.5 million barrels per day. (USAT, WMRC) November 24 The U.S. Congress abandons plans to pass an energy bill before the end of the legislative session. The bill was approved in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 18, but then blocked in the Senate as its proponents were unable to close debate on the issue and call for a vote. The legislation has been under construction for three years and represents Congress's first attempt at a comprehensive energy bill since 1992. The bill's proponents intend to revisit the issue in 2004. (NYT, WP, WSJ) November 28 Russian oil company Sibneft makes a surprise announcement suspending its merger with Russian oil major Yukos citing technical difficulties. The $13 billion merger was announced in April 2003, and would create the world's fifth-largest publicly traded oil company. (WP, WSJ) December 2 President George W. Bush signs a $27.3 billion energy and water bill that includes funding for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The repository remains a source of controversy between state and federal officials. (AP) December 4 OPEC holds its 128th meeting to review oil markets in Vienna, Austria, leaving OPEC 10 output quotas unchanged. (DJ) December 15 Oil prices fall 4% on the news that U.S. military forces capture Saddam Hussein near his hometown of Tikrit, Iraq. (CBS, WMRC) December 18 BP signs a 20-year deal to sell 500 million cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Tangguh facility in Indonesia to the U.S. energy company Sempra Energy. The LNG will be shipped to Sempra's proposed import and regasification terminal in Baja California, Mexico before being distributed to buyers in the United States. (DJ) December 22 Libya announces that it will abandon its weapons of mass destruction programs and comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States welcomes the move, but says that it will maintain economic sanctions until it sees evidence of compliance. (WMRC, NYT) Back to top 2004 January 18 Saudi Aramco formally inaugurates its new Haradh oil and natural gas facility. The Haradh plant is expected to boost Saudi natural gas production capacity by roughly 25%, most of which is slated for the domestic market. The Haradh facility also includes a gas-oil separation plant capable of processing 300,000 bbl/d, as well as infrastructure for delivering up to 170,000 bbl/d of condensates to the Kingdom’s Abqaiq processing facility. Developing the country’s relatively untapped natural gas potential could allow more oil to be allocated for export in the future. (Reuters, LAT, Platts) January 22 U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton approves a plan to open parts of Alaska’s North Slope to oil exploration and drilling. Nine million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve will be opened to long-term production. The site lies adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which remains closed to oil and gas drilling. (WP) February 11 OPEC delegates meeting in Algiers agree to lower the cartel’s output ceiling by 1 million barrels per day, to 23.5 million barrels per day, effective April 1. OPEC members also urged immediate compliance with the existing OPEC ceiling, as overproduction has been estimated at roughly 1.5 million barrels per day. Assuming full quota compliance, the decision could remove a total of 2.5 million barrels per day from the world market in April. (NYT, WSJ) February 19 The Royal Dutch/Shell group announces that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun a formal investigation into the company’s restatement of its oil and gas reserves. On January 9, 2004, Royal Dutch/Shell announced that it had overstated its proven oil and gas reserves by 3.9 billion barrels, or 20% due to overly optimistic assumptions about plans for developing its fields around the world. (NYT) February 25 Total (France) and Petronas (Malaysia) sign an estimated $2 billion agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company to build Iran’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility. The two-train facility will have a capacity of 390 billion cubic feet per year, with natural gas to come from Iran’s South Pars field. Production of LNG is expected to begin in 2009. Iran holds the world’s second largest natural gas reserves—after Russia—and development of LNG facilities would allow the country to export gas around the world. (WMRC) February 26 The United States rescinds a ban on travel to Libya and authorizes U.S. oil companies with pre-sanctions holdings in Libya to negotiate on their return to the country if and when the United States lifts economic sanctions. The United States first imposed sanctions on Libya in 1986 following terrorist attacks in Rome and Vienna. Several U.S. oil companies were forced to abandon their assets in Libya when sanctions were imposed in 1986, including the “Oasis Group” (Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips, Amerada Hess) and Occidental Petroleum. (WSJ) March 31 OPEC members unanimously agree to implement the cartel’s oil production cuts effective April 1, as agreed to in February. Relatively high prices for oil and petroleum products had prompted several consuming countries, including the United States, to suggest that OPEC members vote to postpone the cuts and put downward pressure on oil prices. According to the cartel’s official communiqué following the meeting, “Notwithstanding prevailing high prices, the Conference observed that the crude oil market remains more than well supplied as the world moves into the traditionally lower seasonal demand period.” (Reuters) April 21 A car bomb explodes outside a police building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first major attack by militants on governmental targets in the Kingdom. Four people are killed and 148 are wounded. The country’s major export facilities are not harmed, but port authorities maintain a “heightened sense of security.” Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil producer and America’s second largest foreign supplier of crude oil and petroleum products after Canada. (Reuters, Platts, EIA) May 22 OPEC oil ministers meet in Amsterdam at a forum of energy producing and consuming nations to discuss a response to high oil prices (near-month West Texas Intermediate was above $40 per barrel the previous week). Saudi Arabia calls on OPEC to raise production quotas by as much as 11%, but the ministers do not come to an agreement other than to meet again in Beirut on June 3. Saudi Arabia decides to unilaterally increase its crude oil production beyond its quota to 9.1 million barrels per day in June. (Reuters) May 30 Saudi militants attack a complex in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, housing foreign workers. After killing various Saudis and foreigners upon entering the compound on May 29, the militants take hostages, and later kill nine of them. Three of the militants are able to escape despite the efforts of the Saudi security forces. This attack, as well as earlier ones in the kingdom, has foreigners and foreign firms reconsidering their presence in Saudi Arabia. (Reuters) June 1 Near-month crude oil futures on the NYMEX reach a record nominal settlement high of $42.33 per barrel, with traders thought to be reacting to the weekend terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia on top of an already tight market. This is the highest nominal settlement price since the founding of the NYMEX crude oil futures market in 1983. (WSJ) June 3 OPEC Ministers meeting in Beirut agree to raise OPEC production quotas by a combined 2 million barrels per day effective July 1 and a further 500,000 barrels per day effective August 1. This will bring the combined quota in August for the 10 OPEC countries participating in the quota system (Iraq does not participate) to 26 million barrels per day. Crude oil prices fall somewhat in response to this news. OPEC is scheduled to meet again on July 21 to review this decision. (AP) June 4 U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce William H. Lash announces that Libya has sent its first shipment of crude oil to the United States since the resumption of ties between the two countries in recent months. (AP) June 15 Workers at French state energy companies Electricite de France and Gaz de France go on strike in protest over plans to privatize the two companies. Workers reduce electricity output by about 15% on June 15 and by 10% on June 16. A 225-kilovolt line between France and Spain is also cut, and reductions are targeted at areas where prominent politicians live and at national landmarks as the strike continues throughout the month. The striking workers also cause delivery reductions at two LNG terminals. (Reuters) July 15 OPEC agrees to raise its crude oil production target by 500,000 barrels (2% of current OPEC production) by August 1—in an effort to moderate high crude oil prices. (WSJ) July 22 Yukos, one of Russia’s largest crude oil producers, warns that it could go bankrupt within three weeks because of the government’s decision to freeze its assets and bank accounts, jeopardizing the operations of Russia’s largest oil producer and potentially disrupting the company’s exports to world markets. (WP) August 9 The Russian government disregards the August 6 ruling of a Moscow court and seizes the main production unit of Yukos, Yuganskneftegaz. On August 6, the court had declared that the Russian government’s seizure of Yuganskneftegaz was illegal, a decision which had marked the first major court victory for Yukos since Russian authorities began proceedings against the company more than a year ago. Furthermore, on August 5, the government had unexpectedly withdrawn permission for Yukos to use its financial assets to continue operations, reversing a decision made 24 hours earlier. (WP, WSJ) September 14 In the biggest disruption of the region’s output in at least two years, Hurricane Ivan forces Shell Oil Co., ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, and Total, to shut some hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of Gulf of Mexico oil production as the companies evacuate more than 3,000 workers from the offshore platforms. Oil tankers from Venezuela also face a three-day delay on deliveries to the United States because of the hurricane. The U.S. Minerals Management Service reports that Ivan has reduced Gulf Coast oil production by 61%. (Bloomberg, DJ, Reuters) September 20 President Bush lifts a variety of U.S. sanctions on Libya, paving the way for American oil companies to try to secure contracts or revive previous contracts for tapping Libya’s oil reserves, estimated at approximately 36 billion barrels. (NYT) September 24 In the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham agrees to release 1.7 million barrels of oil in the form of a loan from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Refineries are reporting supply shortages due to cuts in production and delayed imports. Prices of NYMEX WTI prompt month crude oil rise $0.42 to $48.88 per barrel despite the release. A bout 472,000 bbl/d of crude oil production is shut-in, along with 2.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas production. By February 2005, lasting damage from the Hurricane continues to cause shut-ins of over 43 million barrels of crude oil production (over 7% of the yearly production in the Gulf of Mexico) and over 172 Bcf of natural gas (almost 4% of the Gulf’s yearly production). (NYT, MMS) October 22 The NYMEX WTI prompt month crude oil contract price closes at an all-time high of $55.17 per barrel after the Energy Information Administration reports a fifth straight weekly decrease in U.S. heating oil stocks. Lasting effects from Hurricane Ivan have also forced the shut-in of natural gas and crude oil production from the Gulf Coast. (NYT, CNN) October 28 After its approval by the Russian cabinet and the lower half of the Russian legislature earlier in October, the upper house of the legislature ratifies the Kyoto Protocol global climate treaty and returns it to the executive branch for its approval. Russian ratification is necessary for the Protocol to take effect because participating countries must have been responsible for 55 percent of global emission in 1990, and Russia is the only remaining country that can trigger the 55 percent threshold. One of the Protocol’s main tasks is to implement a reduction in emissions of the six greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2012. The Bush administration announced three years ago that it would not join the accord. (WP, USA Today) November 2 Saboteurs mount a large attack on Iraq’s oil infrastructure by blowing up three pipelines in the north, thereby cutting exports at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The first pipeline attack destroys a portion of the export route to Turkey, and other explosions occur in an area about 40 miles southwest of the oil producing center of Kirkuk. The explosions affect oil supplies to Iraq’s biggest refinery at Baiji and imports of refined products. Crude oil exports resumed three days later. (Reuters) November 16 A U.S. Senate probe finds that Iraq illegally earned approximately $21.3 billion by circumventing UN sanctions between 1991 and 2003. The figure is double the amount reported by the Duelfer report that was released in October 2004. The Senate’s permanent Subcommittee on Investigations also releases details on the way in which Saddam Hussein manipulated the UN’s oil-for-food program. (WP) November 22 Ukraine holds a run-off presidential election between Prime Minister Vladimir Yanukovych and opposition leader Vladimir Yushchenko. Although exit polls show large-scale support for Yushchenko, initial official results show Yanukovych with a 2% lead. Massive opposition-led protests ensue in Kiev in what is commonly referred to as the “Orange Revolution”. Ukraine is a pivotal transit state for Russian oil and natural gas exports to continental Europe, as well as a major regional producer of coal. Yushschenko later wins a third runoff election at the end of December 2004. (NYT, AP) December 5 Around 300 unarmed Nigerian villagers - including women and children - from the Kula community in Rivers State in the Southern Niger Delta, seize three oil flow stations operated by multinational oil companies Shell and ChevronTexaco, shutting in 100,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of production for one week. A community spokesman claims that his people are protesting because they feel they have been overlooked for jobs. The incident is the second attack on oil flow stations in the Niger Delta in two weeks. (WMRC) December 10 In its quarterly meeting, OPEC agrees to cut production of crude oil to official quota levels. The OPEC Ministers say the cartel will lower crude oil production by 1 million bbl/d effective January 1. Currently, ten of OPEC’s members are exceeding their 27 million bbl/d official quota by 1 million bbl/d (Iraq does not have a quota). OPEC members pledge to meet again on January 30 to discuss whether further cuts are necessary. Saudi Arabia plans to decrease crude oil output by 500,000 bbl/d starting on January 1, 2005. (NYT, AP, WP) Decmber 18 Yuganskneftegaz, the largest subsidiary of Yukos, is auctioned off to a previously unknown company called Baikal Finans Group (BFG) for a well-below-market value of $9.4 billion. The unit is being sold to help cover more than $27 billion in tax claims the Russian government says it is owed by Yukos over the last year -- part of a broader campaign against the company and its founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky. Under threat of having the government auction its largest oil asset, Yukos filed for bankruptcy in a U.S. court in Houston, Texas, earlier in the week. In response, many banks that were preparing to back Gazprom in its bid for the oil unit dropped their support. Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft buys all of BFG five days later. (WSJ, NYT) December 20 Exelon, the United States’ largest nuclear power producer agrees to buy New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) for a reported $13.2 billion in stock, thus creating the largest utility in the United States. Pending some anticipated regulatory hurdles, the combined company will increase Exelon’s generating capacity about 50% to around 52,000 megawatts (MW). (Reuters) December 26 The world’s largest earthquake in 40 years triggers a devastating tsunami centered in the Indian Ocean affecting largely populated coastal areas of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Almost 300,000 local residents and tourists are killed in the tidal waves, yet damage to energy infrastructure is limited. Relief aid flows into the area from all over the world, increasing the value of local currencies. (NYT, WP, AP, Reuters) December 31 The Russian government gives its long-awaited final approval for a major oil pipeline to the Pacific port of Nakhodka that would allow for exports to Japan and the western United States. The decision to move ahead with the Nakhodka pipeline rules out a proposed line to Daqing, China; however some concessions to China are expected. State oil pipeline monopoly Transneft will build a 1.6-million-bbl/d capacity pipeline from Taishet in East Siberia to the Perevoznaya Bay in the Pacific Primorsk region. The government gives no firm timeframe for the project, but says final proposals should be made before May 2005. (Reuters) Back to top 2005 January 5 After the resolution of a dispute in southeastern Nigeria, Royal Dutch/Shell resumes 114,000 bbl/d of crude oil production from the Odeama flow station. Vandalism and community feuds had closed down crude oil production in the Niger Delta and forced Shell to declare a force majeure on December 22, 2004. However, Shell is still operating under a 114,000-bbl/d force majeure, and the company warns customers that it will not be able to meet its export contracts from the Bonny terminal until early February. The shut-in had affected both Shell and ChevronTexaco, but ChevronTexaco negotiated a deal with the community to develop roads and infrastructure and allowed the company to resume production of some 20,000 bbl/d last week. (WMRC, Reuters) January 30 OPEC decides to leave its crude oil production quotas unchanged at 27 million bbl/d after a meeting in Vienna. The current OPEC president, Sheik Ahmad Fahd Al-Sabah of Kuwait indicates that the producers will reduce their production levels before the next meeting, scheduled for March 26, if prices fall. OPEC also temporarily suspends its price band of $22 - $28 per barrel, which had been in effect since March 2000. (NYT, AP) January 30 Millions of Iraqis defy threats and suicide bombers to cast ballots in their country’s first democratic national election. Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission estimates that approximately 60 percent, or about eight million, of the nearly 14 million registered voters actually vote. Another quarter of a million Iraqi exiles also vote, or 90 percent of those who had registered. (WP, NYT) February 14 BP launches the first commercial crude oil production from its Central Azeri field off the Caspian Sea coast of Azerbaijan. The field, part of the Azeri will be a major contributor to the Baku-T’bilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline that will run through the Caucasus region to the Mediterranean sea port of Ceyhan, Turkey. Since the BTC pipeline has been delayed until 2006, BP will reroute the field’s 2005 average production of 93,000 barrels per day to the Georgian port of Supsa and the Russian port of Novorossiysk. (Reuters, WMRC) February 16 Eight years after it was first negotiated, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change goes into affect. Following Russia’s approval of the treaty in November 2004, the treaty’s signatories comprised the requisite 55 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions in order for it to take effect. One of the Protocol’s main goals is to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of the six designated greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2012. A total of 140 countries have ratified the pact, the first major international effort to reduce industrial emissions. The Bush Administration announced three years ago that the United States would not join the accord, but it would instead pursue other voluntary reduction programs. (Reuters, NYT, LATimes) March 1 Iraq closes its northern crude oil export pipeline indefinitely due to sabotage concerns. The 600,000 bbl/d-pipeline, which runs from the city of Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan has been the target of over 15 attacks since January 2005. The frequent closures of the pipeline make it difficult for Iraq to maintain its targeted crude oil production level of 2 million barrels per day. (WMRC) March 16 OPEC meets in Isfahan, Iran, and agrees to lift oil production limits by 500,000 barrels per day (from 27 million bbl/d to 27.5 million bbl/d), effective immediately. OPEC also announces that it is prepared to add a further 500,000 barrels per day if prices stay high. In the days leading up to the OPEC meeting, Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi says that his country is willing to increase crude oil production by about 500,000 bbl/d or to its maximum capacity. EIA estimates that Saudi’s maximum oil production capacity is around 10.5 million bbl/d. (OPEC website, Reuters, EIA) March 24 An explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery kills 15 people and injures more than 70. In part due to market fears that the refinery blast will curtail gasoline supplies, the NYMEX prompt month contract for gasoline increases 1.5 percent to $1.599 per gallon and the NYMEX WTI prompt month crude oil contract increases $1.03 to close at $54.84 per barrel. The 460,000-bbl/d refinery accounts for approximately 3 percent of U.S. refining capacity; however, the refinery blast did not significantly affect actual U.S. gasoline production. BP later attributes the explosion to ignition sources near a vent stack, but an independent commission is still examining the causes. (NYT, DJ) May 20 A strike in France shuts down five of six oil refineries operated by international oil major Total. The strike is a result of a dispute between the company and its workers over the number of vacation days allotted to employees. The strike affects over 930,000 bbl/d of crude oil refining capacity, or about 90 percent of Total’s total refining capacity in the country. The strike ends after a few days with a government-brokered agreement between Total and the union. France has the third-largest refinery capacity in Europe, with Total controlling some 56 percent of that capacity. (DJ) June 15 At a meeting in Vienna, OPEC announces that it will increase its production quota by 500,000 bbl/d, to 28 million bbl/d and pledges to consider further quota increases in late 2005. (FT) June 24 Chinese oil company Cnooc Ltd. bids $18.5 billion, or $67 per share, for U.S.-based Unocal. The all-cash offer comes after international oil major Chevron had offered $60 per share in a stock-cash offer. The bid is the largest attempted Chinese acquisition of a U.S. company. Cnooc wants to gain control of Unocal’s sizable production assets and reserves in Asia. However, Cnooc could face difficulties getting approval of its bid from Unocal’s shareholders or U.S. regulators. (DJ, WSJ) June 25 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected president of Iran. Ahmadinejad, the former mayor of Tehran, called repeatedly during his campaign for reform of the country’s oil sector, especially a crackdown on inefficiency and corruption at the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). While Ahmadinejad is viewed as conservative, there is no clear consensus on how his election will affect Iran’s oil and gas sectors. Iran is the second-largest oil producer in OPEC, with June 2005 crude oil production of four million bbl/d. (WP) June 27 The price for near-month delivery of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) settles above $60 per barrel for the first time since the launch of the contract in 1983. The near-month WTI settlement price has risen 61 percent in the last twelve months. (Reuters) July 5 Tropical storm Cindy disrupts oil and natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region. The storm shuts-in oil and gas platforms and forces the closure of the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the largest U.S. oil import terminal. Cindy also causes some oil refineries in the region to cease operations. According to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), there is a total of 312.1 thousand barrels (bbl) of oil production and 1.68 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas production shut-in in federal waters due to Cindy. (Bloomberg, MMS) July 8 A strike by local workers at Angola’s Block 0 offshore oil project shuts in almost all production at the project. The local workers demand a pay increase to bring their salaries on par with expatriates. The strike ends later in the week, when local workers agree to return to the site while they negotiate with management. According to Chevron, the field’s operator, Block 0 produces 450,000 bbl/d, almost one-half of Angola’s total oil production of about 1.15 million bbl/d. (Reuters) July 11 Hurricane Dennis causes serious damage to the Thunder Horse project, a semi-submersible platform under development by BP. According to reports, the storm damages one of the platform’s ballast tanks, causing Thunder Horse to list some 30 degrees. BP is able to properly right the platform after a week of repairs. Thunder Horse was originally scheduled to come onstream by the end of 2005 with crude oil production of 250,000 bbl/d, but BP stated that it will not come online before the end of 2005. (DJ) July 18 Production begins at Angola’s offshore Kizomba B field. Operated by a unit of ExxonMobil, the field has an initial crude oil production capacity of 250,000 bbl/d. (Reuters) July 19 Hurricane Emily shuts in most of Mexico’s offshore oil production in the Gult of Mexico region. State-owned Pemex evacuates all workers from offshore rigs in the Gulf of Campeche, home to over 80 percent of Mexico’s crude oil production. Several oil export terminals are also shut-in. Hurricane Emily does not cause any permanent damage to oil facilities, and Pemex resumes production after the passing of the storm. (Reuters, DJ) July 27 Twelve people die in a fire on a large production platform in India’s Bombay High offshore oil field. The fire destroys the platform, which produces roughly 100,000 bbl/d of crude oil. The Indian government announces that replacement of the platform will cost $300 million, but that it expects to reinstate 70 percent of the lost production by re-routing it through other platforms in the field. (Lloyd’s List, Reuters) August 1 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, dies, with Crown Prince Abdullah replacing him as king. Abdullah has largely handled the day-to-day operations of the county since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995. Abdullah vows that he will not make any major changes to Saudi oil policy. (Reuters, DJ, AP) August 5 BP shuts in production at its 120,000-bbl/d Shiehallion oil field in the UK Sector of the North Sea due to a fire in the staff facilities. The field represents eight percent of the UK’s crude oil production. The fire is representative of the kinds of problems that impair North Sea oil production in the first part of August 2005, with unplanned outages cutting production from the area by more than 250,000 bbl/d at one point. (Reuters) August 15 Protests in Ecuador’s northeast, oil-producing provinces shut in much of the country’s crude oil production. Residents of the region block access roads, occupy oil production facilities, and vandalize some pipelines. Ecuadorian President Alfredo Palacio declares a state of emergency in the region, and state-owned Petroecuador declares a force majeure on its oil exports after it must shut in almost all of its 210,000 bbl/d of oil production; foreign oil producers in the country, such as EnCana and Occidential Petroleum, also lose some production. Negotiations between the Ecuadorian government and the protesters end the crisis on August 20. (WSJ, Reuters, AP, DJ) August 28 Hurricane Katrina strikes the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region near New Orleans, severely impacting oil and natural gas production there. According to the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS), 95 percent of oil and 88 of natural gas production in federal waters is shut in during the height of the storm. Katrina also impacts oil refineries, affecting the operations of at least fourteen facilities and shutting down some 2.2 million bbl/d of refining capacity. Finally, the storm shuts down key hydrocarbons infrastructure, including the Louisiana Offshore Oil Platform (LOOP), the Capline crude oil pipeline, and the Colonial and Plantation oil products pipelines. The U.S. government announces that it will loan out crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help ease the disruptions, and members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) also announce that they will offer some of their emergency reserves to the U.S. (Reuters, AP, DJ) September 2 U.S. President George Bush directs DOE to release as much as 30 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR. This release, in the form of an online auction, comes after DOE has already released 13.2 million barrels of crude oil under short-term exchange agreements (see above). The auction is a response to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on U.S. oil production in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) region, and it is the first emergency-induced release from the SPR since the 1990-1991 Gulf War. Of the 30 million barrels, DOE sells 11 million barrels by the end of the month to five companies. Further, the International Energy Agency (IEA) agrees to release an additional 30 million barrels of oil from the commercial stocks held by its member countries. (DOE, IEA) September 24 Hurricane Rita makes landfall along the US Gulf Coast. Energy companies operating in the region had shut in almost all oil and natural gas production in anticipation of the storm. Refiners also had shut in over 3.9 million bbl/d of refining capacity, which, along with the refining capacity already shut down due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, represents over one-quarter of total US capacity. Many refineries begin to restart immediately following the storm, and oil and natural gas companies return to offshore platforms to assess damage. However, significant effects of Hurricane Rita continue to linger into 2006 (see below). (DJ, Reuters, AP, DOE) September 27 A strike at the largest oil refinery in France, Total’s facility at Gonfreville, shuts-in 343,000 bbl/d of refining capacity in that country. A strike also closes the Lavera/Fos-sur-Mer complex, an important oil import terminal, LNG regasification facility, and refining center along France’s Mediterranean coast. The action affects 570,000 bbl/d of crude oil refining capacity and 0.4 Bcf/d of LNG regasification capacity. In addition, it affects several oil pipelines that carry crude from the port to other points in Europe. In both labor actions, the affected facilities are able to operate without interruption in the short-term, due to stored supplies, but long-term outages could hinder the delivery of crude oil and refined products. (Reuters) October 21 A strike by workers at Nigeria’s Brass River crude oil export terminal shuts operations at the facility for two days. The terminal normally handles around 240,000 bbl/d of crude oil exports. Nigeria produced 2.5 million bbl/d in September 2005, of which it exported about 2.1 million bbl/d. (Reuters) October 31 Workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s Pernis refinery begin a phased shutdown of the facility, as part of a labor dispute with the company. With crude oil refining capacity of 418,000 bbl/d, the Pernis plant is the largest oil refinery in Europe. Workers at Shell’s Moerdijk petrochemicals plant, with production capacity of 900,000 metric tons per year (t/y), join the strike and also shut operations. (Reuters) November 3 Royal Dutch Shell reaches an agreement with workers at its Pernis refinery in the Netherlands. The workers launched a work stoppage late last month and began a controlled shutdown of the facility. The agreement allows Shell to restore full operations at the plant, after the strike had reduced output at the facility by 50 percent. Pernis is the largest oil refinery in Europe, with a crude oil distillation capacity of 418,000 barrels per day (bbl/d). (Reuters) November 28 Royal Dutch Shell begins production at its offshore Bonga oil and natural gas field in Nigeria. At its peak, the Bonga field will produce 225,000 bbl/d of crude oil and 150 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) of natural gas. The project will help Nigeria reach its goal of increasing its crude oil production to four million bbl/d by 2010; the country produced 2.5 million bbl/d of crude oil in October 2005. (EIA, Reuters) December 4 An explosion damages one of the pipelines that supplies the Paraguana refinery complex in Venezuela. The pipeline normally supplies 400,000 bbl/d of crude oil to the facility. Government officials blame the blast on saboteurs attempting to disrupt upcoming national elections. Paraguana is the largest refining complex in the world, with a total refining capacity of 940,000 bbl/d. (AP) December 9 At a meeting in Kuwait, OPEC announces that it will maintain its current level of oil production. The organization also states that it will re-consider this decision and possibly cut production by 1 million bbl/d at a meeting in January 2006. In December 2005, OPEC produced 29.9 million bbl/d of crude oil (Reuters, EIA). December 14 Oil tankers transiting the Bosporus Straits face delays of 19 days, more than twice the delay faced at the same time last year. Poor weather and increased tanker traffic cause the increase. The Bosporus Straits are an important world oil market chokepoint, facilitating the export of crude oil from Russia and Central Asia through the Black Sea. In 2004, an estimated 3.1 million bbl/d of crude oil and petroleum products flowed through the waterway. (Reuters, EIA) December 20 Militants in Nigeria’s Niger Delta bomb a crude oil pipeline in two different locations. The bombings kill sixteen people and start a large fire. As a result of the incident, Royal Dutch Shell shuts in 180,000 bbl/d of crude oil production and declares force majeure on its crude oil exports from the country. The company is able to bring the production back online in a few days, when repairs on the pipeline are completed. Nigeria, a member of OPEC, produced 2.5 million bbl/d in October 2005. (DJ, EIA) Back to top 2006 January 1Russia temporarily cuts natural gas supplies to Ukraine over a pricing dispute. The move effectively cuts natural gas exports to Europe, since most Russian exports travel via Ukraine. Russia resumes natural gas shipments within a few days and reaches a compromise agreement with Ukraine. However, the incident prompts a discussion in Europe over its future energy security, with many countries calling for concerted action by the European Union (EU) to reduce reliance upon Russian natural gas. Russia provides about one-quarter of total EU natural gas imports, with over 80 percent of this natural gas flowing through Ukraine. (DJ, Reuters, Eurostat) January 4 The Department of Energy (DOE) completes delivery of the 11 million barrels of crude oil sold from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The SPR action was the first emergency drawdown since the 1991 Gulf War. (DJ) January 31 In a regularly scheduled meeting, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decides to maintain its current crude oil production quota (excluding Iraq) of 28 million bbl/d. In its official communiqué, OPEC states that the world oil market is in balance and well-supplied, blaming rising prices on “refining bottlenecks and other non-fundamental factors.” According to EIA, the ten members of OPEC bound by the quota produced 28.4 million bbl/d of crude oil in December 2005. OPEC will meet again in March 2006. (Reuters, OPEC, EIA) February 8 Saudi Arabia begins production from its Haradh oilfield. According to state-owned Saudi Aramco, the field will eventually reach its full production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) by the middle of 2006. Saudi Arabia aims to increase its crude oil production capacity to 12.5 million bbl/d by 2009. According to EIA, the country had a production capacity of 10.5-11 million bbl/d in February 2006. (Reuters, EIA) February 21 Royal Dutch Shell extends the force majeure on its crude oil exports from Nigeria. The company has shut in 455,000 bbl/d of crude oil production in the country due to conflict in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. The shut-in production represents around one-fifth of Nigeria’s total crude oil production. (Reuters, EIA) February 24 Militants in Saudi Arabia try to attack the Abqaiq oil processing terminal with three truck bombs. Security forces are able to repel the attackers, before they penetrate into the core of the facility. Reports of the attack cause oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) to rise 4 percent in a single day. The Abqaiq facility processes an estimated two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production of 9.4 million bbl/d. (CNN, AP) March 2 Workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska discover a leak in a pipeline, forcing field operator BP to shut-in 100,000 bbl/d of crude oil production. The leak, which had spilled 4,800-6,400 barrels of crude oil over several days, is in the GC-2 gathering system, a pipeline that brings production from the field to the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. As of the end of the month, production at the field had not resumed, but BP plans to bring production back on-stream in early April. (DJ, AP) March 8 At its meeting in Vienna, Austria, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decides to maintain its current crude oil production ceiling (excluding Iraq) at 28 million bbl/d. In a communiqué released after the meeting, OPEC states that geopolitical risk and downstream bottlenecks contribute to its decision, despite its view that oil markets are well supplied and that inventories in the developed countries are high. OPEC production represents 40 percent of total world oil production, with total liquids production reaching 33.5 million bbl/d in February 2006. (EIA, Reuters) April 21 The front-month price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) closes above $75 for the first time in the history of the contract. A combination of rising global demand and geopolitical instability contribute to the higher price. (Reuters, DJ, AP) June 1 At its meeting, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decides to maintain its current level of production. In its communiqué, OPEC blames a lack of global surplus refining capacity as the principal cause of high world oil prices, not a lack of production by its members. Some members of OPEC, notably Iran and Venezuela, argue for a reduction in crude oil production. In May 2006, OPEC (including Iraq) produced 33.3 million bbl/d of petroleum, about 40 percent of total world oil supply. (Reuters, EIA) June 19 An oil spill closes the Calcasieu Ship Channel near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The area is home to four oil refineries, with a combined capacity of 775,000 bbl/d. During the closure, the four facilities operate at reduced rates. In response to shutoff of crude oil supplies to the area, the Department of Energy (DOE) approves the loan of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to two refiners, totaling 750,000 barrels. The Coast Guard re-opens the channel on June 30, after it cleans most of the spilled oil. (DJ, Reuters) July 13 The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline is inaugurated in the southern port of Ceyhan, Turkey, with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey presiding over the ceremony. The 1,087-mile pipeline is the first to allow crude oil to be exported from the Caspian Sea region without relying on the Russian pipeline system, crude oil swaps with Iran, or passage through the Bosporus and Turkish Straits. The BTC pipeline will have a transport capacity of 1 Mmbbl/d. (AP, Reuters) July 24 A leak at a Royal Dutch Shell-operated pipeline in Nigeria shuts in 180,000 bbl/d of crude oil production, forcing the company to declare force majeure on its Bonny Light August loadings. Nigeria now has at least 718,000 bbl/d of crude oil output shut-in, owing mostly to continued militant attacks on Nigeria’s oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta region. Outages in Nigeria have been a key factor underpinning high oil prices of late, as Nigeria is an important oil-exporting country. According to EIA estimates, Nigeria had net crude oil exports of 2.2 Mmbbl/d in June 2006. (EIA, Reuters, GI) July 29 A leak occurs on one of the two mid-sized spurs of Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline, which is Russia’s main oil export line to Europe. Russian authorities and the media have conflicting reports with respect to the pipeline damage and with respect to the size of the oil spill. In the ensuing days, news sources report that Belarus is receiving oil supplies from the pipeline while Lithuania is not, despite the two countries using the same spur of the pipeline. The Druzhba pipeline normally pumps 1.2 Mmbbl/d of crude oil to Europe, with the damaged spur supplying 250,000 bbl/d to Lithuania. (DJ, Reuters, Energy Intelligence) August7U.K.-based oil and gas major BP announces that it will shut in production at the 400,000-barrels-per-day (bbl/d) Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, following the discovery of leaks on a transit pipeline feeding the main Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). BP is quickly able to restore 200,000 bbl/d of oil production in the western half of the field, as no pipeline damage is detected in this portion of the field. By month-end, some uncertainty continues regarding when BP will be able to fully reinstate the 200,000 bbl/d of production from the eastern operating region of the Prudhoe Bay oil field. (AP, GI) August 29 ExxonMobil begins pumping its first crude oil for export at the DeKastri terminal at its Sakhalin-1 project on Russia’s PacificCoast. The project is expected to produce up to 250,000 bbl/d of crude oil by year-end 2006, which would make it the largest new source of Pacific basin crude oil in more than a decade. Sakhalin-1’s proximity to Japan, the second-largest net oil importer in the world, means that it is likely to be a primary customer. According to EIA figures, Japan had net oil imports of 5.3 Mmbbl/d in 2005. (EIA, Reuters) September 5 A Chevron-led consortium announces that it has successfully completed a production test at the Jack #2 well in the U.S.Gulf of Mexico deepwater. During the test, the well sustained a flow rate of more than 6,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil, which suggests that Jack can sustain commercial rates of production. The Jack well is the deepest successful well test in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, located in ultra-deep waters in the Lower Tertiary region 175 miles from the Louisiana coast. Chevron estimates that the Lower Tertiary could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves, which would increase existing proven oil reserves in the U.S. by 14 to 70 percent. The Chevron-led consortium will conduct additional appraisal well tests at the Jack site next year. (Energy Intelligence, OGJ) September 11 OPEC convenes its 142nd meeting in Vienna, Austria. During the conference, OPEC decides to maintain its output ceiling of 28 Mmbbl/d, despite sinking crude oil prices since a mid-July peak. OPEC also agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting in Nigeria on December 14, 2006 to review oil market developments. OPEC last cut production in April 2004. According to EIA estimates, OPEC-10 members (which excludes Iraq) produced 27.8 Mmbbl/d of crude oil in September 2006. (EIA, Reuters) October 19 During a consultative meeting in Doha, Qatar, members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agree to cut the organization’s crude oil output by 1.2 Mmbbl/d. The move marks the first official cut in production by OPEC in more than two years, and exceeds the one million barrel per day cut that OPEC ministers initially proposed. According to a statement released by OPEC officials, the ten members subject to quotas (which excludes Iraq) will reduce their output from 27.5 Mmbbl/d to 26.3 Mmbbl/d effective November 1. This decision will be reviewed during OPEC’s extraordinary meeting scheduled for December 14 in Abuja, Nigeria. (Reuters) December 14 During an extraordinary meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agree to cut the organization’s crude oil output by 500,000 bbl/d, effective February 1, 2007. OPEC had previously cut its target output by 1.2 million bbl/d during a consultative meeting in October in Doha, Qatar, which marked the organization’s first official cut in production in two years. According to a statement released by OPEC officials, the ten members subjected to quotas (which excludes Iraq) will reduce their collective output from 26.3 million bbl/d to 25.8 million bbl/d as of February 1. This decision will be reviewed during OPEC’s scheduled ordinary meeting in Vienna, Austria on March 15, 2007. Also during the Abuja meeting, OPEC members unanimously voted to allow Angola to join the organization as its 12th member, effective January 1, 2007. (GI, Middle East Economic Survey) December 26 A blast at a vandalized fuel pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria kills 269 people. The previous night, a criminal gang reportedly punctured the pipeline to divert supplies to the black market. Local residents flocked to the scene to stock up on the leaking fuel before the explosion occurred. This marks the second such explosion in Lagos this year, after about 200 were killed in a similar blast in May. Despite its status as a major oil exporter in Africa, Nigeria regularly faces domestic fuel shortages. (Reuters) December 31 At year-end, EIA estimates that 615,000 bbl/d of Nigerian crude oil production remains shut-in as a result of accidents and militant attacks on oil infrastructure throughout the year. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producing country, with EIA estimates showing average production of more than 2.4 million bbl/d of total oil liquids in 2006. (EIA) Back to top 2007 January 3 Russia halts crude oil exports to Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline after Belarus demands a $6 per barrel tax to transit Russian oil. In December 2006, the Druzhba pipeline transported around 34 percent, or 1.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d), of Russia's total crude oil exports to Europe. On January 10, Belarus announces that it will no longer demand the transit tax, and by January 11 press reports indicate that normal oil flows resume through the Druzhba pipeline. (EIA, Reuters) January 7 Commercial oil production begins at the Buzzard oil field in the United Kingdom's North Sea. The field was originally scheduled to begin operations in November 2006, but start-up was postponed due to weather problems. The Buzzard field holds estimated recoverable reserves of 550 million barrels of oil equivalent, and is one of the largest discoveries in the North Sea in the last decade. The addition of production from Buzzard will help offset declining oil output from the UK, where oil production has decreased significantly since 1999. Nexen Inc., operator of the Buzzard field, expects peak production from the field in mid-2007 to reach 200,000 bbl/d of oil and 60 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. (EIA, GI, IHS Energy) January 23 During the annual State of the Union address to Congress, President Bush calls for a doubling of the capacity of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) from 727 million to 1.5 billion barrels by 2027. As of late January 2007, the SPR holds 688.6 million barrels, or about 56 days of import protection. According to the White House, increasing the SPR to 1.5 billion barrels would provide about 97 days worth of import cover based on forecasts for 2027 oil demand. The move to increase the size of the SPR beyond the current capacity must first be approved by Congress. If the plan is approved, independent analysts estimate that doubling the SPR would increase U.S. oil demand by about 110,000 bbl/d through 2027. (DOE Office of Fossil Energy, Reuters) February 1 The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) implements a 500,000-barrel per day (bbl/d) cut in the organization's oil production, following a larger 1.2 million-bbl/d cut that had taken effect in November 2006. As a result of the cut, OPEC-10 (excluding Iraq) target crude oil production now stands at 25.8 million bbl/d. EIA estimates later show that OPEC-10 crude oil production for February was 26.5 million bbl/d, exceeding the organization's production ceiling by 700,000 bbl/d. OPEC is scheduled to hold its next regular meeting on March 15, 2007 in Vienna, Austria. (EIA, GI) February 6 The operators of Canada's Hibernia oil field, the largest offshore oil development in Canada, announce that the field will shut down for up to one month while the company conducts maintenance work that was originally planned for September 2007. The company elected to accelerate the maintenance schedule as a result of mechanical problems at Hibernia that had limited output since early January. The Hiberniafield normally produces 180,000 bbl/d of crude oil, but had been held to 110,000 bbl/d since mechanical problems slowed production in early January. (Reuters) February 6 Occidental Petroleum declares force majeure on oil and natural gas supplies from its Elk Hills field in California, after a natural gas line feeding the field ruptures and causes a fire. Elk Hills is one of the largest oil and natural gas fields in California, and normally produces 70,000 bbl/d of oil and 280 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.By the end of the month, Occidental reports that some of the field's production is restored, but the company does not give a timetable for when full production might return. (Occidental Petroleum, DJ) February 16 An explosion rocks a residual oil unit at Valero Energy's McKee oil refinery in Sunray, Texas, causing operations to halt at the 170,000-bbl/d plant. After inspections, the company announces that it expects to restart partial operations in early April at a rate of 85,000 bbl/d, if repair work goes as planned. While the McKee facility represents only a small portion of U.S. refining capacity, a possible two-month outage will tighten domestic petroleum product supplies. (Reuters, GI) February 17 BP unexpectedly shuts down production at its Northstar oil field in Alaska after a worker notices a leak in a pipeline associated with the field's natural gas plant. During follow-up inspections, BP discovers corrosion at one of the field's pipelines, which the company expects to delay the restart of the 47,000-bbl/d field until mid-March. Northstar is Alaska's newest oil field, and is located about 6 miles from the Prudhoe Bay oil field, where BP also experienced corrosion problems in the field's pipeline system during 2006. (Reuters, GI) March 4 Shell shuts in 187,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil production after discovering a major spill at a pipeline feeding the Bonny export terminal in Nigeria. The spill brings Shell's total shut-in oil production in Nigeria to 664,000 bbl/d, according to industry sources. Oil supply disruptions from militant attacks and accidents have plagued companies operating in Nigeria since February 2006. Nigeria is the largest net exporter of oil in Africa, with EIA estimates showing net exports of about 2.2 million bbl/d during 2006. On March 26, Shell representatives announce that operations have resumed at the ruptured pipeline. (EIA, GI, Reuters) March 8 Cyclones off the coast of northwest Australia cause companies to shut in about 175,000 bbl/d of offshore crude oil production, representing about two-fifths of the country's average crude oil production. Key offshore fields are closed for about eight days while two consecutive cyclones disrupt oil supplies. Later in the month, on March 27, another cyclone approaches the northwest Australian coast and forces companies to shut in 180,000 bbl/d of crude oil production in anticipation of the tropical storm. There is no indication how long oil supplies will be disrupted. Australia produced 433,000 bbl/d of crude oil in 2006, according to EIA estimates. (EIA, GI, Reuters) March 14 Workers begin to strike at France's Fos-Lavera oil and natural gas import terminal in Marseille, the world's third largest port for receiving petroleum products. Fos-Lavera sends oil to four refineries near Marseille and exports oil via the South European pipeline to Karlsruhe, Germany. The strike is eventually resolved on March 31, at which point industry sources report that 63 ships, including 39 oil tankers, had been blocked from entering the port, and that several local refineries had been forced to cut output. (GI, Reuters) March 15 During a meeting in Vienna, Austria, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agree to keep the organization's oil production quotas unchanged. The current OPEC-10 (which excludes Iraq and Angola) crude oil production quota is 25.8 million bbl/d, although EIA estimates that the group produced an average of 26.7 million bbl/d in March 2007. OPEC will hold its next normally scheduled meeting on September 11, 2007 in Vienna. (EIA, GI) March 23 Iranian naval vessels seize 15 British marines and sailors in the Persian Gulf near the maritime border of Iraq and Iran, accusing the British military personnel of straying into Iranian waters. The incident occurs amid rising diplomatic tensions at the United Nations over Iran's nuclear program, and helps push up world oil prices. As of March 30, the front-month price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) settles at $65.87, up from an average of $59 per barrel in February. Iran is a significant exporter of oil, with currently available trade statistics putting Iran's crude oil exports at 2.6 2.7 million bbl/d in 2006. (EIA, Reuters) April 4 Iran releases 15 British marines and sailors who were captured March 23 in the Persian Gulf near the maritime border of Iraq and Iran, helping to ease regional tensions that pushed up world oil prices during the 13-day standoff. The release of the British military personnel reduces the perceived risk of a possible oil supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for roughly two-fifths of all globally traded oil. Iran is a significant exporter of oil, with currently available trade statistics putting Iran's crude oil exports at 2.6-2.7 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2006. (EIA, GI) April 15 A leak is detected on a crude oil pipeline operated by Enbridge that carries oil from Alberta province in Canada to refineries in the U.S. Midwest. Enbridge immediately shuts down the affected spur, which normally transports 490,000 bbl/d of medium and heavy crude oil. On April 18, Enbridge announces that it has restarted the affected line at 80 percent of normal operating pressure. The Enbridge pipeline system has the capacity to transport 2.2 million bbl/d of oil, accounting for the bulk of Canada's export capacity to the United States. Canada is the single largest supplier of crude oil exports to the United States, sending an estimated 1.8 million bbl/d of crude oil during February 2007. (EIA, Reuters, Enbridge) April 23 Ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua is declared the winner of the presidential election in Nigeria, while opposition candidates dispute the results and cite irregularities in the elections. Uncertainty surrounding possible unrest and violence in Nigeria's oil-producing regions following the election results helps push up world oil prices, with the price of front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) settling at $65.89, up $2.51 from the previous closing price on Friday April 20. Oil supply disruptions from attacks against Nigeria's oil infrastructure since February 2006 have led to the shut-in of 587,000 bbl/d of production capacity. (EIA, Reuters) April 26 Norway's Statoil announces a temporary production shut-down at the Kvitebjoern condensate field in the North Sea to conduct unplanned maintenance. The field has a production capacity of 190,000 bbl/d, but has been producing at about half this since December 2006 because of a drilling program to enhance production rates. Statoil expects that the field could be completely shut-down for up to five months, and the company plans to release a revised production target in early May. Norway is an important exporter of oil, and the country produced an estimated 2.8 million bbl/d in February 2007. (EIA, Rigzone) A series of oil supply disruptions affect Nigeria during the month of May. EIA estimates show that an average of 750,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil production is shut-in during May, up from about 587,000 bbl/d during the previous month. Nigeria is the largest net exporter of oil in Africa, with estimated net exports of 2.2 million bbl/d during 2006. However, the country has been affected by numerous oil supply disruptions as the result of militant attacks and accidents during the last one and a half years. (EIA, DJ, GI, Platts, Reuters) May 1 Chevron shuts in 15,000 bbl/d of crude oil production at the offshore Funiwa oil field in Nigeria following the kidnapping of six oil workers. May 4 Saipem, the company operating Nigeria's 50,000-bbl/d Okono/Okpoho oil fields, declares force majeure after several oil workers are abducted from the site. May 7 Protests cause Chevron to shut down the 42,000-bbl/d Abiteye flow station that feeds the Escravos export terminal in Nigeria. May 8 Italian oil company Agip shuts in 98,000 bbl/d of production at the BrassRiver oil export terminal following militant attacks on pipelines feeding the system. May 10 Protesters occupy the Bomu pipeline system that feeds the Bonny Light export terminal in Nigeria, forcing Shell to cut output by 170,000 bbl/d. On May 15, Shell declares force majeure on Bonny Light crude oil exports. Shell restores normal production at the Bomu system on May 21. May 28 Protests resume at the Bomu pipeline system, which causes Shell to shut in 150,000 bbl/d of oil production feeding the Bonny Light export terminal after protesters damage some of the metering equipment. Protesters continue to occupy the site through the end of the month. May 28 Shell shuts in 77,000 bbl/d of crude oil production through its Nembe Creek trunk pipeline in Nigeria after discovering a leak. May 10 French oil company Total declares force majeure on oil shipments from its Nkossa field in Congo (Brazzaville) after a fire halts output at the 60,000-bbl/d oil platform. Officials from the Congolese oil ministry announce that production will be restored to normal levels in about three weeks. EIA estimates that in 2006 Congo produced 240,000 bbl/d of crude oil, making it the fifth-largest producer of crude in Africa. (EIA, Reuters) May 22 Workers at the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska notice a water leak on a pipeline, forcing field operator BP to shut in 100,000 bbl/d of crude oil production for five days. The water leak is on a gathering system that brings oil from the field to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The Prudhoe Bay field normally produces 400,000 bbl/d of crude oil, making it the largest oil field in the United States in terms of production. The disruption occurs amid a Congressional investigation into a March 2006 oil spill at Prudhoe Bay that was the result of corrosion in the TAPS. (Reuters) June 1 The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) launches its Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract, the first physically-traded crude oil contract available in the Middle East. DME Oman crude oil for August delivery settles at $64.09 on its first day of trading. Prior to the introduction of the DME Oman contract, Middle Eastern crude oil prices were linked to other world crude oil contracts, such as the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) Brent contract. (Reuters) June 5 Tropical Cyclone Gonu reaches Oman, forcing the closure of the Mina al-Fahal terminal for three days. The 650,000-barrels per day (bbl/d) Mina al-Fahalfacility is Oman's only crude oil export terminal, although it has sufficient oil storage capacity to allow the country's oil fields to continue pumping during the storm. The cyclone also causes the closure of the Sur liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal for five days. The Sur facility has a sendout capacity of 10 million metric tons per year of LNG. (DJ, Argus Media) June 14 Gunmen storm the Ogbainbiri flow station in Nigeria and take 24 oil workers hostage, forcing Italian company Eni to shut in 40,000 bbl/d of crude oil production. In a separate incident, on June 18, militants overrun the Chevron-operated Abiteye flow station, forcing the company to shut in 42,000 bbl/d of crude oil production. Oil production at the Abiteye facility is restored on June 19, although Eni declares force majeure on exports from the Ogbainbiri oil field. EIA estimates that 735,000 bbl/d of Nigeria's crude oil production was shut-in during June 2007. (EIA, Reuters) June 26 Several riots break out in Iran in response to the government's new gasoline rationing program. The Iranian government has sought to introduce a fuel rationing program for some time to help reduce the country's dependence on gasoline imports. Although Iran is a significant oil producer, it does not have the refining capacity to meet domestic demand for refined petroleum products. EIA estimates that Iran is the third-largest gasoline importer in the world, importing about 190,000 bbl/d in 2006. (EIA, Reuters) June 28 Chevron officials announce a delay in the installation of the company's planned $3.5-billion Tahiti oil and natural gas production platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, citing defects in the mooring shackles that hold the platform in place. The Tahiti project, located 140 miles offshore in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, was expected to begin producing 125,000 bbl/d of crude oil by mid-2008. It is not clear if this planned start-date will be postponed. (Chevron, Houston Chronicle) July 1 A section of the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) pipeline in the North Sea is damaged by a ship's anchor, leading CATS operator BP to close the pipeline for repair. The 250-mile CATS delivers associated natural gas production from North Sea oil fields to the mainland United Kingdom.Independent analysts estimate that oil fields affected by the CATS closure will shut in about 100,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil production until the pipeline is repaired. BP expects to repair and return the CATS pipeline to normal service in September. In 2006, the UK produced an estimated 1.7 million bbl/d of oil, making it one of Europe's largest oil producers. (EIA, BP, Energy Intelligence, Reuters) July 13 Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and Total sign a deal in which Total will receive a 25-percent stake in the project to develop Russia's giant Shtokman natural gas field in the Barents Sea. The Shtokman field holds estimated natural gas reserves of 130 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), making it one of the world's largest undeveloped natural gas fields. Phase 1 of the Shtokman project is expected to come online in 2013, supplying 835 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year. Gazprom officials have suggested that Shtokman supplies will be exported as liquefied natural gas to North America and also piped to European markets. Russia holds the world's largest proven natural gas reserves, with 1,680 Tcf as of January 2007. (Energy Intelligence, OGJ, Reuters) July 16 Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) shuts down reactors 3, 4, and 7 at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes inNiigata prefecture. The remaining four reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant were already idle for maintenance, leaving the entire facility shut down. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant has a capacity of 8.2 gigawatts, making it Japan's largest nuclear power station.EIA expects that problems at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power will increase oil consumption in Japan by an estimated 150,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) through mid-2008. As of month's end, TEPCO has not stated when the company expects the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant to resume operations. (EIA, FACTS Global Energy,Reuters) August 21 Category 5 Hurricane Dean struck the Gulf coast of Mexico, shutting-in oil production for a few days. At its peak, shut-in oil production was estimated at 3.1 million bbl/d. Mexico was able to ramp up production in subsequent days to offset some of the losses. Cumulative shut-in production due to Hurricane Dean was estimated at 10 million barrels. September 11 At the 145th OPEC meeting, held in Vienna, Austria, OPEC decided to raise the volume of crude supplied by OPEC members (excluding Iraq and Angola) by 500,000 barrels per day effective November 1 to reach a new target of 27.2 million barrels per day. (OPEC Press Release) October Iraqi oil exports rose to their highest level in three years in October because of increased sales of oil from Iraq's northern Kirkuk oilfields. As a result, Iraqi oil production reached a new post-war high of about 2.3 million barrels per day. November 18 The OPEC heads of state meeting in Riyadh, only the third such meeting in OPEC history, ends after discussing the declining value of the dollar. (Reuters) December 5 At the 146th OPEC meeting, held in Abu Dhabi, OPEC decided to leave its production allocations unchanged. (OPEC Press Release) December 19 President Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which aims at helping to reduce America's dependence on oil by increasing the supply of alternative fuel sources. It sets a mandatory Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of biofuel in 2022. It also aims at reducing U.S. demand for oil by setting a national fuel economy standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. This is the first statutory increase in fuel economy standards for automobiles since they were enacted in 1975. (White House press release) Back to top Source