Hi Everyone, Just a brief background – I’ve known Mr H. for...

Hi Everyone,  Just a brief background – I’ve known Mr H. for about 35 years and have been a FAR holder for as long as he has and loaded to the max. Now just Waiting for the fat lady.


Looks like Mr H has gotten himself suspended for 3 days for posting a pic that that the “F” word.


He’s wondering why it’s so quiet this weekend?


If you’ve run out of things to discuss, there is this article on Oil service companies and how costs will be increasing (hopefully FAR is locking in contracts)


As Oil Bust Recedes, Is a Barroom Brawl About to Break Out?
Oil-field services firms like Schlumberger and Halliburton say they must be paid more

Oil-field services companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger say they have sharply reduced their prices in order to help oil companies during the two-year oil swoon, and the prices must come back up in order for an oil revival to take hold.


The worst of the oil bust may be over, but the energy industry’s infighting has just begun.

Paal Kibsgaard,chief executive ofSchlumbergerLtd., the world’s largest oil-field services company and a bellwether for the sector, told investors Friday that from now on, his company will only focus on work that is profitable.

It was a shot across the bow of U.S. and international energy companies, which need Schlumberger and companies like it to help drill new wells and do hydraulic fracturing, but which have been paying sharply reduced rates for such services amid the plunge in oil prices.

In the two years since crude prices plunged from over $100 a barrel down to around $26 earlier this year, Schlumberger and chief rivalHalliburtonCo.drastically reduced the amount that they charge for equipment and crews to help keep the sector afloat and the oil flowing. Slashing prices meant working on projects while losing money and laying off more than 80,000 workers between them.

Now, oil-field services companies are trying to convince producers that they need to be paid more if the industry is to fully recover from the oil bust.


Paal Kibsgaard, center, CEO of Schlumberger, said Friday that his firm can’t continue to provide crucial services for oil companies at drastically reduced prices.

“It’s critical for us to recover the large pricing concessions we have made over the past two years,” Mr. Kibsgaard said, adding that most customers understand this and are willing to renegotiate.

Earlier this week, Halliburton PresidentJeff Millerlikened the pricing negotiations that oil-field services firms are having to a “barroom brawl” with customers.

Executives fromChevronCorp.,Anadarko PetroleumCorp.and other big oil companies have said the wildly high prices charged during the boom years have to come down and stay down.

Schlumbergerreported a 82% drop in its third-quarter profitsThursday. They fell to $176 million, or 13 cents a share, from $989 million on lower sales and expenses related to its acquisition of Cameron International Corp. earlier this year.

Halliburtonmanaged to eke out a third-quarter profitof $6 million, or a penny a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $54 million, or 6 cents a share, the company reported Wednesday. Total revenue plunged 31% to $3.83 billion.

Crude prices climbed nearly $25 a barrel in the spring to hit $50 in early June. The rise prompted many producers to rush back into the oil patch, particularly the Permian Basin of West Texas, where half of more than 100 U.S. rigs put back to work in the last four months have been deployed.

But rising prices for the goods and services needed to tap new wells is already cutting into what little profitability has re-emerged in the sector, Mr. Kibsgaard said, adding that it shrouds how healthy the industry can be in 2017.

For instance, U.S. shale companies are using more sand, mixed in a slurry of water and chemicals, to stimulate oil and gas wells and boost output. The result: sand prices are already creeping up.

Halliburton executives told investors earlier this week that they are essentially taking the loss on more expensive sand for their clients because they have not yet been able to pass along the costs. Chief ExecutiveDavid Lesarsaid that has to change.

Halliburton has the highest U.S. market share for oil services, but “if we have to give some back to move margins up we might take that approach,” Mr. Lesar said in a conference call Wednesday.

Companies like Halliburton and Schlumberger will ultimately answer the question of whether the downturn-induced pricing concessions were cyclical and fleeting, or structural and lasting, said James West, an energy analyst at Evercore ISI.

“It’s evident that pricing levels remain ‘unsustainable’,” he said.

Lynn Cook



There is also this one posted in Hot News on the WPL HC forum (seems they might be interested in Brazil – maybe not expecting things to work out with FAR?):


·Woodside still looking for acquisitions within $1 bln

·Chasing oil stakes with production within 0-5 years

(Adds CFO comments)

The environment for getting deals done in oil and gas is better now than it was a year ago as sellers have lowered their expectations, Woodside Petroleum's (WPL) Chief Financial Officer Lawrie Tremaine said on Thursday.

Woodside, Australia's biggest independent oil and gas producer, has announced two deals over the past four months together worth up to $830 million, picking up stakes in a major oil find off Senegal and undeveloped gas fields off Australia.

It is working on more deals within the $1 billion range, Tremaine said.

"We're out there working M&A. We think the environment's probably a little more positive today than it was 12 months ago," he told Reuters in an interview.

"My view is that price expectations of sellers have come in a little bit, and so we're starting to see some deals actually get done, with Senegal and Scarborough being two good examples of that."

Tremaine declined to comment on whether Woodside would look at picking up a stake in a Malaysian liquefied natural gas plant that Royal Dutch Shellis reported to be selling, or whether it would be interested in teaming up with Karoon Gas (KAR) to acquire stakes in the Bauna and Tartaruga Verde oil fields off Brazil.

However he said boosting the company's oil reserves through acquisitions remains a priority, especially as Woodside sees global oil markets going into deficit in the long term.

"We're focused on near term production in that zero to five year (timeframe). So if something delivers in that range it'll probably be of interest to us, particularly if it's oil," Tremaine said.

Brazil's Petrobras announced this month that it was in talks with Karoon Gas to sell its 100 percent stake in the Bauna field, which is already producing, and a 50 percent stake in the deepwater Tartaruga Verde project.


Keep the discussions flowing folks.

News: UPDATE 1-Woodside sees deal activity picking up in oil and gas