Can OPEC Re-Balance the Oil Market?

The oil market has seen its share of volatility over the past several weeks, as uncertainty continues over the looming OPEC meeting on November 30. The meeting, set to take place in Vienna, is widely viewed as a critical step in reviving flagging oil prices and reassuring wavering traders. In the face of lingering questions…

The Complicated Relationship of Native Americans and Oil

Today professionals in the oil and gas industry often find their business proposals sparking intense debates within Native American tribes. Although tribal governments may welcome the additional revenues and jobs productive wells and pipelines bring, many Native Americans harbor lingering concerns about permanent impacts upon pristine landscapes. Those concerns are only bolstered by environmental groups…

The Pros and Cons of Oil Transportation

Petroleum is, in many ways, the lifeblood of human civilization. It powers and lubricates the millions of engines that transport people around the world, it contributes to energy generation and it’s a key raw material behind an extraordinary assortment of products ranging from smartphones to false teeth. Unfortunately, obtaining the petroleum needed to do all…

The Bust of Boomtown, USA

In the rolling, muted prairies that surround the town of Williston, North Dakota, the signs of decline are impossible to miss. Cranes, dozers and all manner of heavy machinery sit idle. Massive oil rigs stand all but abandoned, looming over the landscape like towering memorials to a bygone age. In town, businesses that sprang up…

Midland, TX – A Community Governed by Oil

A multitude of boom towns litters the landscape of Texas, tracing the rising and falling fortunes of the ranching and oil industries upon which so much of the state was built. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the vast Permian Basin, a geological feature that encompasses much of West Texas and contains the second-largest…

Optimism in the Bakken Dickinson N. D.

Optimism in the Bakken Dickinson N. D. A great hometown welcome from the business community of Dickinson N. D. was extended to exhibitors and patrons for the 2015 Bakken Oil Products and Service Show this year. Despite the declining oil prices, many successful Bakken companies came to present the latest in oilfield technology and services.…