首页
登录
职称英语
The oil industry has been on a hot streak this year, thanks to a series of m
The oil industry has been on a hot streak this year, thanks to a series of m
游客
2023-12-14
22
管理
问题
The oil industry has been on a hot streak this year, thanks to a series of major discoveries that have rekindled a sense of excitement across the petroleum sector, despite falling prices and a tough economy. These discoveries, spanning five continents, are the result of hefty investments that began earlier in the decade when oil prices rose, and of new technologies that allow explorers to drill at greater depths and break tougher rocks. "That’s the wonderful thing about price signals in a free market— it puts people in a better position to take more exploration risk," said James T. Hackett, chairman and chief executive of Anadarko Petroleum.
More than 200 discoveries have been reported so far this year in dozens of countries, including northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, Australia, Israel, Iran, Brazil, Norway, Ghana and Russia. They have been made by international giants, like Exxon Mobil, but also by industry minnows, like Tullow Oil. Just this month, BP said that it found a giant deepwater field that might turn out to be the biggest oil discovery ever in the Gulf of Mexico, while Anadarko announced a large find in an "exciting and highly prospective" region off Sierra Leone. It is normal for companies to discover billions of barrels of new oil every year, but this year’s pace is unusually brisk. New oil discoveries have totaled about 10 billion barrels in the first half of the year, according to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. If discoveries continue at that pace through year-end, they are likely to reach the highest level since 2000.
While recent years have featured speculation about a coining peak and subsequent decline in oil production, people in the industry say there is still plenty of oil in the ground, especially beneath the ocean floor, even if finding and extracting it is becoming harder. They say that prices and the pace of technological improvement remain the principal factors governing oil production capacity. While the industry is celebrating the recent discoveries, many executives are anxious about the immediate future, fearing that lower prices might jeopardize their exploration drive. The world economy is weak, oil prices have tumbled from last year’s records, corporate profits have shrunk, and global demand for oil remains low. After falling to $34 in December, oil prices have doubled, stabilizing near $70 a barrel. But if the world economy does not pick up, some analysts believe the price could fall again. Oil companies contend that is not a prospect they can afford. Despite reaping record profits in recent years, many executives have warned that they need prices above $60 a barrel to develop the world’s more challenging reserves. In fact, some exploration activity has already slowed this year, as producers seek better terms from service companies and contractors.
It is not just oil that is benefiting from the exploration boom. Repsol, Spain’s biggest oil company, said this month that it had discovered what could turn out to be Venezuela’s biggest natural gas field. In recent years, companies have found substantial natural gas reserves in the United States, from shale rocks once believed to be impossible to drill.
"The No. 1 question that exploration teams have right now is: Where do we go next?" said Robert Fryklund, who ran the operations of ConocoPhillips in Libya and Brazil, and is a vice president in Houston at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Exploration spending swelled in recent years, partly to offset a doubling of costs throughout the industry—from steel prices to the cost of renting deepwater drilling rigs. A big issue confronting the industry now is how to drive down costs while maintaining a high level of exploration. On average, costs have fallen by 15 to 20 percent from their peak, according to petroleum executives. Exploration remains a risky, and costly, business, where some deepwater wells can cost up to $100 million. From 30 to 50 percent of exploration wells find oil. Some executives are also worried the world might face a shortfall in supplies in coming years if another decline in oil prices causes exploration to falter. The chief executive of the French oil giant Total, Christophe de Margerie, has warned that such a supply crunch is possible by the middle of the next decade. "There could be a shortage of capacity," he said.
His concerns echoed those of Abdullah al-Badri, the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who said that lower oil prices also threatened investments by OPEC nations. Saudi Arabia is also unlikely to expand its production in coming years because of the uncertainty clouding future oil demand, Ali al-Naimi, the kingdom’s oil minister, signaled earlier this month. Saudi Arabia is just completing a $100 billion program to increase its capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day, from around 9 million barrels a day just a few years ago.
Although they are substantial, the new finds do not match the giant fields discovered in the 1970s, like Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, Ekofisk in the North Sea, or Cantarell in Mexico. They are also dwarfed by the last enormous discovery, the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, discovered in 2000 and estimated to hold over 20 billion barrels of oil. "We have not seen another Kashagan, but still these finds are very material," said Alan Murray, the exploration service manager at Wood Mackenzie, a consulting firm in Edinburgh. Since the early 1980s, discoveries have failed to keep up with the global rate of oil consumption, which last year reached 31 billion barrels of oil. Instead, companies have managed to expand production by finding new ways of getting more oil out of existing fields, or producing oil through unconventional sources, like Canada’s tar sands or heavy oil in Venezuela.
Reserve estimates typically rise over the life of a field, which can often be productive for decades, as companies find new ways of getting more oil out of the ground. The industry’s record has improved in recent years, thanks to high prices. According to Cambridge Energy Research Associates, oil companies have found more oil than they produced for the last two years through a combination of exploration and field expansions. "The appetite for opening new frontiers when prices were low in the 1990s was very small," said Paolo Scaroni, the chief executive of Italy’s oil giant Eni. "Today, the biggest discovery of all is technology." [br] What does the passage mainly tell us?
选项
A、The worries that face oil companies.
B、The new discoveries that have been made.
C、The major factors that affect oil production.
D、The reasons why small companies have the largest finds.
答案
C
解析
此题是主旨大意题。文章分析了影响石油生产的主要因素。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3273591.html
相关试题推荐
[originaltext]Insurgentskilled38peopleinaseriesofrapid-fireattacks
Povertyisamongaseriesofsocialillsandinjusticesthatjustaboutanyp
[originaltext]Martin:Hi,therePat.Howareyou?Pat:Finethanks,Martin.Ih
[originaltext]Martin:Hi,therePat.Howareyou?Pat:Finethanks,Martin.Ih
[originaltext]Martin:Hi,therePat.Howareyou?Pat:Finethanks,Martin.Ih
[originaltext]Martin:Hi,therePat.Howareyou?Pat:Finethanks,Martin.Ih
Americaneconomistsoncespoofeduniversityeducationastheonlyindustryin
Americaneconomistsoncespoofeduniversityeducationastheonlyindustryin
Americaneconomistsoncespoofeduniversityeducationastheonlyindustryin
Stratford-on-Avon,asweallknow,hasonlyoneindustry—WilliamShakespear
随机试题
在结构图中,钢结构单面围焊焊缝表示方法。下列哪一种形式是正确的?( )
引起尿路感染最常见的致病菌是:()A.大肠埃希菌 B.葡萄球菌
患者,女性,31岁。症见入寐困难,胸闷胁胀,急躁易怒,口干口苦,小便短赤,舌红苔
市盈率用公式表达为( )。A.市盈率=每股市价/每股净资产 B.市盈率=股
患者,女性,26岁,症见右下肢暗红微肿,灼热疼痛,溃烂腐臭,发热,口渴,舌红脉数
放射免疫技术间接标记法的优点是A.避免氧化还原剂损伤待标记物的免疫活性B.提高敏
应用流通蒸汽灭菌法灭菌时的温度是A.100℃ B.121℃ C.150℃
(2019年真题)职工已享受当年的年休假,年度内又出现下列()情形的,不享受下
借款人有能力履行承诺,并且对贷款的本金和利息进行全额偿还,这类没有问题的贷款是(
下列引起慢性腹泻的是A.食物中毒 B.萎缩性胃炎 C.伤寒 D.食物过敏
最新回复
(
0
)