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Showing posts from March, 2017

Health of geophysical industry critical to market recovery

Nikki C. Martin President International Association of Geophysical Contractors Energy is one of the most important markets in the world, and the geophysical industry is the foundation of ensuring safe, affordable, and accessible oil and gas exploration and development. While OPEC’s landmark agreement at the end of the year to cut oil output boosted crude prices and optimism for some semblance of market certainty, no one can predict what the oil services market holds for 2017. One can be certain, however, that global energy demand will continue to increase, and that demand cannot be met without the geophysical industry. From discovery to delivery, a viable geophysical industry is essential to providing energy resources to the world. In the past year, the geophysical industry enabled the discoveries of significant energy resources that were previously overlooked and thought impossible, beneath thick salt and within shale formations, doubling the world’s proved oil and gas reserv

Delivering Change: Service And Supply Companies Finding Ways To Thrive In The New Normal

By: Maurice Smith Published By: Daily Oil Bulletin March 20th, 2017 It's official. Cautious optimism has crept into the oil and gas industry entering 2017 as the price of oil hovers around $50 per bbl and companies are looking to modestly grow spending and increase drilling activity as they align to the new normal of improving, if not exceptional, commodity prices going forward. At least, that is the feeling of most of the respondents to the Grant Thornton sponsored JWN Service & Supply 2017 Outlook Report: Delivering change: aligning with a new normal. The comprehensive report, which includes the results of a survey of over 350 representatives of the service and supply industry, will be released in April. One thing is clear, the report found -- service and supply companies have to learn how to operate in a new normal in order to not only survive, but to thrive. It was a theme that played out at two industry workshops held in conjunction with the survey. Workshops we

Reality bites: Carbon pricing in Canada and beyond

By: Jason Clemens and Kenneth Green - Analysts with the Fraser Institute Published: Forts Nelson News              TROY MEDIA - There's a general, indeed a strong consensus, within the economic community that a properly designed carbon tax can both reduce emissions and improve the economy. We broadly agree with this academic analysis. The problem is that carbon taxes in the real world have to be implemented through a political system that deviates substantially from the academic ideal.             Economists tend to agree that the most efficient way to manage emissions is by placing a price on them that reflects the social costs of the emissions. By placing a price on carbon, emitting firms are incentivized to introduce emission-reducing technologies or change their production. In other words, the introduction of a price on carbon creates incentives for firms (and individuals) to respond to the social costs of emissions.             Critically, however, there are several key

SCIENTIFIC LOGIC AND CLIMATE CHANGE

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By: Henry Lyatsky, P.Geoph.,P.Geol., Lyatsky Geoscience Research & Consulting Ltd. Published: CSEG - Recorder (page 26)                               "…There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” – DONALD RUMSFELD The planet Earth is cooling. The interglacial climate period that has kept us warm for the last several thousand years, allowing civilization to rise and flourish, is over. Earth is about to return to the deep-freeze conditions of the last ice age that ended some 12,000 years ago, when all of Canada and much of Europe were covered by the sort of thick continental glaciers that today blanket remote Greenland and Antarctica. This scientific “truth” was drilled into me, a young geology unde