1748
Peter Kalm of Sweden published a map showing the oil springs of Oil Creek, Pennsylvania.
1767
Sir William Johnson of New York recorded Native American practice of skimming oil.
1778
Moravian missionaries reported “oil wells, with the products of which the Seneca Indians carry on trade with Niagara” in Western New York.
1785
General William Irvine reported, “Oil Creek, PA, has taken its name from an oil or bituminous matter floating on its surface.”
1790
Nathaniel Carey skimmed oil from springs near Titusville, PA, and delivered it to customers by horseback
1795
Joseph Scott, first U.S. gazetteer reported about Oil Creek and Seneca Oil.
1800
Crude oil quoted at $16.00 per gallon.
1806
David & Joseph Ruffner drilled first salt well using spring pole, drive pipe, casing & tubing near Kanawha River in western Virginia, well produced oil instead of salt water.
1807
Mr. F. Cuming described collecting oil by blanket dipping in Sketches of a Tour of the Western Country. Oil from spring in Oil Creek on the Hamilton McClintock farm sold for $1 – $2 per gallon.
1815
July 9 – first U.S. natural gas well was discovered.
1833
Professor Benjamin Sillima Sr. experimentally distilled crude petroleum.
1840
Abraham Gesner produced illuminating oil from Nova Scotia coal distilling a product he named “kerosene.”
1858
Launch of Modern petroleum industry: Seneca Oil Company of New Haven Connecticut formed, purchased Bowditch & Drake lease, and sent Edwin Drake to drill August 27 -Edwin L. Drake’s well, drilled 69½ feet, struck oil near Titusville PA (first well deliberately drilled for oil) and launched the modern petroleum industry
1859
First commercial oil well – “Colonel” Edwin Drake, one-time railroad conductor, drilled the first commercial oil well in Titusville Pennsylvania. By the 1880s, the commercial potentialities of oil, was just beginning to be realized. In two decades oil production had grown to the point where more than 80 percent of the world’s petroleum consumption was supplied by Pennsylvania oil fields.
1860 -1861
Annual U.S. crude oil production increased: From .5 million barrels in 2.1 million barrels in 1861.
1863
The Teamsters and Pipeline Gauging: The first discoveries were transported to rail stations by teamsters using converted whiskey barrels and horses. From the very beginning, transportation was key with the teamsters holding the first regional monopoly position. They charged more to move a barrel of oil 5 miles by horse than the entire rail freight charge from Pennsylvania to New York City.
1863
Teamster Threats: Despite considerable ridicule, threats, armed attacks, arson and sabotage, the first wooden pipeline, about 9 miles in length, was built in 1865 in essence bypassing the teamsters. During this same point in history, a young entrepreneur named John D. Rockefeller, was busily acquiring kerosene refineries, and strong positions with the railroads. In 1870 he combined his companies into one, the Standard Oil Company.
1863
Crude oil trunk Tidewater: Independent oilmen, in a desperate effort to compete with Rockefeller’s position in transportation, built the first crude oil trunk line called Tidewater in 1879.Within a year, Rockefeller owned half of Tidewater and was busily laying pipelines to Buffalo, Philadelphia, Cleveland and New York.
1859
August 27-28 – The U.S. oil business was born in Titusville, Pa. – Former army officer Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pa., striking oil at 70 feet and setting off a wild scramble for wealth similar to the California gold rush of 1849. The land belonged to the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. Until that time, the company had simply collected oil that seeped out of the ground. Drake’s plan was to produce it in large quantities for use in heating and illumination. Overnight oil fields sprang up in Pennsylvania but competition, disorganization and oversupply kept oil prices low. It was not until John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company came onto the scene in 1870 that the petroleum industry developed into a vastly profitable, although much hated, monopoly.
1882
The Standard Oil Trust began and issued its first stock: Signed by John D. Rockefeller. The trust was preceded by the Standard Oil Company. All pre-1920 stocks were printed by the American Banknote Co. John D. Rockefeller by this time had acquired 77 separate oil companies and controlled some 90 percent of the refinery and pipeline business in the country through the Standard Oil Trust.
1901
Iran becomes a player – English millionaire William Knox D’Arcy arranged to pay £40,000 in cash and company stock to the Shah of Tehran, Muzaffar al-Din, for the right to drill for oil in western Persia. The deal included a pledge, should commercial production begin, to pay the Persian government 16% of annual profits until 1961
1908
May 26 – The first major oil strike in the Middle East took place as engineers working for British entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy and led by George B. Reynolds hit a gusher more than 1,100 feet below ground in Masjid-i-Suleiman, Persia (Iran). The Concessions Syndicate Limited, later the Anglo-Persian Oil Co., included the Burmah Oil Company of Glasgow, Scotland, and the Persian oil project of William Knox D’Arcy.
1910
Royal Dutch Shell began pumping oil out of Sarawak, a British colony on Borneo. Sarawak became part of Malaysia in 1963.
1910
Production of Egyptian crude oil was started in the Gulf of Suez.
1912
Standard Oil established America’s first gas station in Cincinnati.
1914
Venezuela’s first oil gusher was drilled near Lake Maracibo. The discovery of oil in Venezuela prompted Royal Dutch/Shell to build an oil refinery on Curacao.
1923
The U.S. established a 22-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
1927
June – Oil was discovered near Kirkuk, Iraq, the first commercial find in any Arab country. BP was a shareholder in the Iraqi Petroleum Company when it started drilling Iraq’s first oil well at Baba Gurgur just north of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.
1928
March 27 – The U.S. accepted the new oil-land laws enacted by Mexico, ending a long-standing dispute between Mexico and the United States.
1932
May 31 – Socal, formerly Standard Oil of California, discovered oil in Bahrain. This was the first Middle Eastern oil discovered by an American firm.
1932
Reza Shah revoked the Anglo-Persian Co. oil monopoly.
1933
May – Saudi Arabia gave Standard Oil of California exclusive rights to explore for oil. Socal formed the California Arabian Standard Oil Co. to drill for oil in Saudi Arabia.
1935
January 14 – Oil pipeline from Iraq to the Mediterranean went into use.
1936
January – Standard Oil of California finds Saudi gas and oil: At their first Saudi Arabia test well, Damman Number 1.
1936
March 3 – Standard Oil of California struck Saudi oil at Damman No 7. Aramco made the first commercial oil find in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The English Arabist, H. St. John Philby, orchestrated the Aramco concession in Saudi Arabia.
1936
Saudi oil giant merger: The Texas Co. joined Standard Oil in Saudi Arabia. The joint venture eventually became the Saudi oil giant Aramco.
1938
Mexico gets pushy:March 18, Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized his country’s petroleum reserves and took control of foreign-owned oil facilities.
March 27, The U.S. stopped buying Mexican silver in reprisal for the Mexican seizure of American oil companies. November 24, Mexico seized oil land adjacent to Texas.
1938
Oil was found in Kuwait.
1942
July 22 – Gasoline rationing involving the use of coupons began along the Atlantic seaboard.
1943
August 1 – Over 177 B-24 Liberator bombers attacked the German oil fields: In Ploesti, Romania, for a second time. Of 1,762 airmen on the mission, 532 were killed, captured, interned or listed as missing in action.
1943
Two American oil firms decided to expand their refinery in Bahrain: Hired Bechtel. Capacity was doubled to 65,000 barrels per day.
1945
August 15 – Gasoline and fuel oil rationing ended in the United States.
1947
The first offshore oil rig out of sight of land: Set up by Kerr-McGee, Phillips Petroleum and Stanolind Oil & Gas 10 miles off the Louisiana coast.
1951
March 15 – Persia (Iran) nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Jun 24 – Persian army took over nationalized oil installations.
Sep 27 – Persian troops occupied oil refinery at Abadan. There was a struggle to nationalize Iranian oil.
1951
Saudi Arabia largest oil filed ever found: The Saudi’s put the Ghawar oil field into production. It measured 20 miles wide and 175 miles long and was the largest oil field ever found.
1953
March – The U.S. CIA’s Tehran station reported that an Iranian general had approached the U.S. embassy for support in an army-led coup. Based on this information Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, approved $1 million to be used to help bring about the fall of Prime Minister Mossadegh. President Eisenhower gave the CIA the okay to overthrow the elected government of PM Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. after Britain refused to compromise and split profits 50-50.
1953
Britain and the U.S. CIA under Allen Dulles planned a secret mission to overthrow the government. PM Mossadeq had sought to nationalize the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. The U.S. government made a formal apology for the coup in 2000. A 1954 CIA description of the coup was made public in 2000.
1956
In Nigeria, Shell became the first company to strike oil at Oloibiri (later Bayelsa state).
1957
Hondo Oil Co., led by Robert O. Anderson discovered the quarter-billion-barrel Empire-Abo oilfield in southeast New Mexico.
1959
China discovers huge oil reserves: In the northern basin of the Songhua and Liao Rivers. This ended dependence on Soviet supplies. The area was named Daqing (Great Happiness).
1960
September 14 – Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed OPEC. Fuad Rouhani of Iran served as its first secretary-general. In 1964 he was succeeded by Abdul Rahman Bazzaz of Iraq.
1962
Abu Dhabi began exporting the oil it just discovered off its shores.
1966
Oil discovered in Dubai (UAR) provided cash for modernization projects such as the world’s largest man-made harbor at Jebel Ali.
1967
December 26 – Atlantic Richfield oil workers struck oil on Alaska’s North Slope at Prudhoe Bay.
1968
March 13 – Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) and Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.) announced the discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope (Prudhoe Bay). The oil companies soon began efforts to construct a pipeline, but work was suspended due to environmental concerns.
1968
October 9 – The new military government of Peru seized the country’s oil fields.
1969
Britain discovered oil and gas in the North Sea. By 2012 some 40 billion barrels of oil was extracted.
1969
John Latsis, Greek shipping magnate, established Petrola, the first export-oriented oil refinery in Greece.
1970
Wang Jinxi (47), icon of Chinese communism, died. Known as the “iron man,” he helped turn Daqing into China’s biggest oil production center.
1971
February 3, OPEC decided to set oil prices without consulting buyers.
1972
June 1 – Iraq nationalized the Iraq Petroleum Company: Controlled by British, American, Dutch and French oil companies.
1973
March 6 – President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.
1973
October 16 – OPEC, Total Oil Embargo (1973 Oil Crisis): The oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC, plus (Egypt, Syria and Tunisia) proclaimed an oil embargo. The Arab oil-producing nations, announced they would begin cutting back on oil exports to Western nations and Japan. The next day, the five Arab members of the OPEC committee were joined in Kuwait by the oil ministers of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974 and caused oil prices to quadruple. During the OPEC oil embargo oil prices were increased fourfold.
1973
Earlier that year, Egypt and Syria, with the support of other Arab nations, launched a surprise attack on Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. As Israel was vastly outnumbered, the United States chose to re-supply Israel and in response, OPEC decided to “punish” the United States. It lasted until March 1974. With the Arab nations actions seen as initiating the oil embargo and the long-term possibility of high oil prices, disrupted supply, and recession, a strong rift was created within NATO.
1973
Additionally, some European nations and Japan sought to disassociate themselves from the U.S. policy in the Middle East. Arab oil producers had also linked the end of the embargo with successful U.S.efforts to create peace in the Middle East, which complicated the situation. To address these developments, the Nixon administration began parallel negotiations with both Arab oil producers to end the embargo, and with Egypt, Syria, and Israel to arrange an unfortunate Israeli pull back from the Sinai and the Golan Heights after the Arabs withdrew from Israeli territory.
1973
October 20 – Arab oil-producing nations banned oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.
1973
Japan experienced its first oil crises with the Middle East war. The U.S. experienced a gasoline shortage.
1973
November 16 – President Nixon signed the Trans Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law. Oil companies formed a consortium that gave British Petroleum 50.1% control of the pipeline.
1973
November 19 – Saudi Arabia, Libya and other Arab states proclaimed a total ban on oil exports to the United States. Gasoline prices quadrupled from twenty-five cents per gallon to over one dollar. The New York stock market took its sharpest drop in 19 years.
1973
Oil was discovered off the coast of Louisiana at the underwater site called Eugene Island 330. By 1989 production slowed to 4,000 barrels from a peak of 15,000 and then suddenly increased and in 1999 produced 13,000 barrels a day. Geologists were unable to account for the source of the oil.
1974
January 18 – Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated an Israeli troop withdrawal from parts of the Sinai. The promise of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Syria was sufficient to convince Arab oil producers to lift the embargo in March 1974.
1974
February – U.S. gasoline stations threatened to close because of federal fuel policies.
1974
March 17 – Arab oil ministers, with the exception of Libya, announced the end the oil embargo on the U.S.
1974
The U.S. economy cooled, prices climbed with much wealth transferred to the Arabs for oil.
1974
In France the International Energy Agency was formed in Paris to coordinate oil sharing. The U.S. led the formation of the IEA in order to stockpile oil and help offset supply shortages.
1975
March 6 – OPEC held a meeting in Algiers: attended for the first time by its members’ top leaders. Here the Algiers Accord between Baghdad and Teheran put an end to their border dispute and brought all Iranian help to the Kurdish rebellion to a halt. The United States abruptly withdrew its support for the Kurds and the rebellion collapsed. Many thousands of Kurdish fighters and their families were forced to flee to Iran to escape the pursuing Iraqi army.
1975
March 27 – The first pipe of the Alaska oil pipeline was laid at Tonsina River.
1975
November 3 – Queen Elizabeth formally began the operation of the UK’s first North Sea oil pipeline at a ceremony in Scotland.
1975
December 22 – The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) made it policy for the U.S. to establish a reserve up to one billion barrels (159 million m³) of petroleum. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created to provide a guaranteed domestic supply. The oil was put into salt domes on the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Louisiana border. The storage capacity was 700 million barrels.
1975
Saudi Arabia began nationalizing foreign oil assets with full compensation.
1976
A major oil field, yielding over a million barrels a day, was found in Mexico.
1978
Chevron discovered oil in Sudan and sank wells north of Bentiu.
1978 – 1979
The Iranian revolution took place and oil prices doubled.
1979
June 26 – June 28 – OPEC raised oil prices an average of 15%, effective July 1.
1979
November 12 – President Carter announced an immediate halt to all imports of Iranian oil and freezes Iranian assets in U.S. Executive Order 12170 halted oil imports from Iran.
1980
September 22 – Iraq invades Iran: following border skirmishes and a dispute over the Shatt al-Arab waterway. This marked the beginning of a war that would last eight years. Iraq invaded Iran striking refineries and an oil-loading terminal on Kharg Island. The Iraqis used the political instability in Iran to try to capture long-disputed territory. They attacked across the Shatt al Arab River, a trunk of the great Tigris-Euphrates river system.
1980
December – In Baiji, Iraq, Sadam Hussein began construction of an oil refinery under the Jabal Makhul mountains.
1980
French oil giant Total SA leased an oil patch in southern Sudan the size of Pennsylvania. In 2005 the lease came under dispute as southern Sudan gained limited autonomy and signed an oil deal with London-based White Nile Ltd.
1981
George Mitchell, a Texas oilman, began to develop an affordable way to extract natural gas locked up in shale rock and other geological formations. By the early 1990s his Mitchell Energy & Development company successfully perfected the fracking process.
1981
Mexican crude oil peaked at $38.50 a barrel.
1982
Mexico’s oil market collapsed.
1983
Trading began in NYC on future delivery of light crude oil
1984
July 30 – The tanker Alvenus at Cameron, La., spilled 2.8 million gallons of oil.
1984
January 6 – Texaco offered $125 per share for Getty oil stock, superseding the Pennzoil offer of $112.50 per share. It became the biggest merger on record.
1984
Standard Oil of California (Socal), under George M. Keller (1923-2008), purchased Gulf Oil and its extensive operations in Nigeria and changed its name to Chevron.
1985
August 15 – Iraqis staged an air raid on Iran’s Kharg oil-island.
1985
California’s oil production peaked at 423.9 million barrels.
1987
October 19 – U.S. Navy warships disabled the first of 3 Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-flagged tanker off Kuwait.
1987
Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund bought over 20% of British Petroleum, but the deal was opposed by: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This forced the Kuwaitis so sell over half their stake.
1988
January 4 – Drinking water began to dry up in Pittsburgh suburbs because of a massive diesel oil spill two days earlier that fouled the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
1988
July 6 – A series of explosions and fires destroyed the Piper Alpha North Sea Oil drilling platform. 167 North Sea oil workers were killed.
1988
Basin Electric Power Cooperative of Bismarck paid the U.S. government $85 million for the Dakota Gasification Co. of Beulah, which had begun as a $1.5 billion public-private venture under the Carter administration to turn reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil.
1989
March 24; Good Friday – The nation’s worst oil spill occurred: as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the Middle East.
1990 -July 24, Iraq, accusing Kuwait of conspiring to harm its economy through oil overproduction: massed tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. U.S. warships in Persian Gulf were placed on alert.
1990
August 2-Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. The day came to be known in Kuwait as “Black Thursday.” Three hundred thirty Kuwaitis died during the war. Sadam Hussein, leader of Iraq, took over Kuwait. President George Bush led an international coalition for sanctions and a demand for withdrawal. The Iraqis were later driven out in Operation Desert Storm.
1990
August 7 – President Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The U.S. Persian Gulf War began. Operation Desert Shield ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion and left 383 U.S. casualties with 458 wounded.
1990
September 23 – Iraq threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and attack Israel if other nations tried to force it from Kuwait.
1990
October 3 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein made his first known visit to Kuwait since his country seized control of the oil-rich emirate.
1990
October 18 – Iraq offered to sell its oil to anyone—including the United States—for $21 a barrel, the same price level that preceded the invasion of Kuwait.
1990
The U.S. Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was passed. It required new tankers sailing through U.S. waters to have double hulls and that old tankers be fitted with double hulls by 2015. It capped liability for economic damages at $75 million.
1990
Before the invasion of Kuwait, Iraq was producing about 3.5 million barrels of oil per day
1991
January 25 – During the Gulf War Iraq sabotaged Kuwait’s main supertanker loading pier: dumping an estimated 460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. Missiles fired from western Iraq struck in the Tel Aviv and Haifa areas, killing one Israeli and injuring more than 40 others.
1991
March 7 – Iraq continued to explode oil fields in Kuwait.
1991
August 15 – The UN Security Council, by a vote of 13-to-one, authorized Iraq to export one-point-six billion dollars’ worth of oil in a tightly controlled sale to pay for desperately needed food and medicine.
1991-1993
Ecuador’s government overestimated domestic crude oil demand and to boost its share of production from Texaco operated wells. It then sold the oil on international markets depriving Texaco of profits. In 2011 Chevron, which acquired Texaco in 2001, won a $96 million judgment against Ecuador.
1992
Texaco quit drilling in Ecuador after nearly 30 years. It left behind a toxic dump of some 1.8 million gallons of spilled crude oil.
1993
June 16 – The UN authorized an arms and oil embargo against Haiti.
1994
March 13 – The oil tanker Nassia collided with an empty cargo ship at the entrance of the Bosporus. 27-29 people lost their lives. 9,000 tons of petroleum spilled and 20,000 tons burned for four days long affecting the marine environment.
1994
August 11 – A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to some 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
1995
March 1 – The Bosnian Serb government received a $60 million mortgage for the oil refinery in Srpski Brod from a Liberian-owned company, Orbal Marketing Service Ltd. [see Jan 1995] Delivery was made to the Bosnian Serbs in late March of a supposed nuclear device of red mercury at the Gradiska border. It was discovered to be a swindle.
1995
March 15 – President Clinton issued an executive order formally blocking a $1 billion contract between Conoco and Iran to develop a huge offshore oil tract in the Persian Gulf.
1995
April 14 – The UN Security Council (Resolution 986) gave permission to Iraq, still under sanctions for its invasion of Kuwait, to sell $2 billion dollars’ worth of oil to buy food, medicine and other supplies. Iraq later rejected the offer.
1995
U.S. President Clinton bans U.S. oil companies from doing business with Iran.Iran awarded a $1 billion contract to the American oil firm Conoco but U.S. President Clinton scuttled the deal and subsequently banned U.S. companies from most forms of trading with Iran. He accused Tehran of continued support for international terrorism. Iran then awarded the oil contract to the French firm, Total)
1996
May 16 – UN and Iraqi officials reached a tentative agreement to resume oil sales of $4 billion a year to buy food and medicine. The oil for food program mandated that 13% of the UN resources go to northern Kurdish areas. In 2004 it was reported that illicit trade agreements with neighbors netted Iraq nearly $11 billion between 1990 and 2003. In 2004 the estimate for illicit trade was raised to $21.3 billion.
1997
Gunvor, a Cyprus-registered commodities dealer, was created by Russian oil trader Gennady Timchenko and Swedish oil trader Torbjorn Tornqvist. By 2011 its revenues had grown to $80 billion.
1998
March – Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico began talking to reduce oil output. They pledged to take 2-3% of the world’s oil production off the market in what came to be called the Riyadh Pact.
2000
March 28 – Nine of 11 OPEC nations voted to raise oil production by a total of 1.45 million barrels a day.
2000
May 15 – A consortium of Western oil companies found a large oil reserve in the northern Caspian Sea off the coast of Kazakhstan. The 480-sq. mile Kashagan field was estimated at 8 to 50 billion barrels of oil. In 2007 it was reported that the Kashagan field contained some 12-billion barrels of oil.
2000
September 27 – OPEC’s top leaders gathered in Caracas for a 2-day meeting. OPEC speakers called on Western countries to reduce taxes levied on oil to ease prices.
2001
March 26 – In Kazakhstan the Caspian Pipeline Consortium began pumping crude oil from the Tengiz field to Novorossiysk, Russia’s Black Sea port. The 990-mile Tengiz-Novorossiysk oil pipeline was owned by Kazakhstan, Russia, Oman and eight oil companies. Chevron held 15% in the 12-partner consortium.
2001
April 5 – Presidents Robert Kocharian of Armenia and Heydar Aliyev of Azerbaijan met in Key West, Fla., for negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh. A new $2.7 billion oil pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan, Turkey, was expected to pass just north of the area. Halliburton Co. was a finalist in engineering bids for the line and Vice President Chaney was the former chief executive of Halliburton. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice formerly served on the Board of Directors for Chevron, a player in the pipeline bid.
2001
July 17 – In Moscow, Russia and China agreed to plan a $1.7 billion pipeline for oil from Siberia to northeastern China.
2002
World oil production reached nearly 67 million barrels per day.
2002
China announced a $5.25 billion East-West natural gas project. A Western consortium backed out in 2004.
2003
January 17 – Iraq and Russia signed three oil agreements for exploration and development of oil fields in southern and western Iraq.
2003
March 20 – The U.S.-led ground war in Iraq began. U.S. Secretary of State Rumsfeld warned that the attack in Iraq would be “of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what has been seen before.” A “shock and awe” strategy was planned based on a 1996 “rapid dominance” strategy. The U.S. seized $1.74 billion in frozen Iraqi assets and declared it would be used for humanitarian purposes. Iraq set fire to at least ten oil wells.
2003
March 22 – In Nigeria ethnic militants threatened to blow up 11 multinational oil installations they claimed to have captured in retaliation for military raids.
2003
March 27 – EU governments agreed to ban single-hulled oil tankers carrying heavy fuel in an attempt to reduce the risk of slicks.
2003
March, oil flow from Iraq to Syria ceased with the U.S. invasion. It had reached 130,000 barrels a day providing both countries over $10 million a month in profits.
2003
April 10 – In the 22nd day of Operation Iraqi Freedom U.S. and Kurdish troops seized oil-rich Kirkuk without a fight and held a second city within their grasp as opposition forces crumbled in northern Iraq.
2003
August – British Petroleum bought half of Russia’s Tyumen Oil Co. for $6.75 billion. TNK-BP was originally formed from the assets of TNK (Tyumen Oil Co), Onako, Sidanco and the majority of BP’s Russian assets. TNK-BP became equally owned by BP and AAR, a consortium controlled by 3 billionaires.
2003
James Giffen, a U.S. oil consultant, was indicted in the U.S. under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He was charged with accepting bribes from U.S. companies to gain access to Kazakhstan’s Tengiz oil field. Giffen claimed he was working as a U.S. intelligence asset.
2004
January 3 – China’s oil-refining boss signed a deal to buy crude oil from Gabon. President Hu Jintao visited Gabon the next day.
2004
February 10 – OPEC met in Algiers and agreed to reduce its official production by 1 million barrels-a-day beginning April 1. Current production was 24.5 million.
2004
February 19 – A Japanese consortium announced it would develop an Iranian oil field with reserves of up to 26 billion barrels. The deal was opposed by the United States because of fears the money could go to nuclear proliferation.
2004
May 11 – Oil for June delivery rose to 40.06 per barrel, the highest price in 13 years.
2004
May 15 – In Jordan a three-day World Economic Forum began. Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and director of the Global Competitiveness Program in the World Economic Forum said, “Oil will remain a source of instability in the world, and perhaps in the short-term it is the most significant factor.”
2004
May 17 – China and Kazakhstan agreed to build a 744-mile crude oil pipeline to send an initial 10 million tons of Kazakh oil to Xinjiang by 2006.Construction began in September.
2004
June 3 – In Beirut, Lebanon, OPEC leaders agreed to raise their output ceiling by 2.5 million barrels a day.
2005
January 29 – Libya granted its first oil exploration licenses in over four decades: awarding 15 permits to foreign companies, with U.S. companies taking the lion’s share. Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said Libya has opted for a policy of open communication with total transparency.
2005
February 1 – China lent Russia $6 billion to help finance: the nationalization of OAO Yukos. The loan was in effect a forward payment for some 48 million metric tons of crude oil.
2005
February 1 – Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez said he intends to sell his country’s interests in 8 U.S. oil refineries.
2005
February 15 – It was reported that major energy firms had committed $20 billion to build a new gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar to develop the huge natural gas reserves there.
2005
March 23 – In Texas City, Texas, an explosion at BP’s 1,200-acre plant near Houston killed 15 and injured 170 others. BP later acknowledged faulty equipment at the plant. In 2009 oil giant BP was hit with a record 52-million-pound fine for safety violations at the Texas refinery
2005
May 5 – It was reported that Wolverine Gas & Oil of Grand Rapids, Mich., had snapped up leasing rights to a half-million acres in central Utah and estimated yields up to a billion or more barrels of oil.
2005
May 17 – In Vietnam an international consortium led by French group Technip signed a 1.5-billion-dollar deal to build Vietnam’s first oil refinery.
2005
June 15 – OPEC agreed to increase its production quota by half a million barrels a day in an effort to cool high crude oil costs that have dampened the global economy.
2005
June 24 – Crude oil, at close to $60 a barrel, caused widespread selling on global equity markets, as shares in transport and automobile companies fell sharply.
2005
June 25 – India’s biggest gas discovery: Gujarat’s chief minister said Gujarat Petroleum Corp (GSPC) has made the India’s biggest gas discovery 20 trillion cubic feet, worth $50 billion off the southeast coast.
2005
July 8 – In China Exxon Mobil Corp., Saudi Aramco and top Asian refiner Sinopec signed a $3.5 billion deal to expand a refinery in south China, sealing what they called the country’s largest oil project.
2005
A syndicate called China Int’l Fund or China Sonangol, created by a man named Sam Pa (aka Xu Jinghua), signed contracts giving the company the right to export Angolan oil and act as a middleman between Sonangol and Sinopec. The company operated out of Hong Kong. By 2009 the company had bought the JP Morgan Chase building at 23 Wall Street, NYC. Newbright Int’l, a core company of the syndicate, was 70% controlled by Veronica Fung.
2006
July 7 – Oil hit a fresh record high of $75.78 a barrel, boosted by strong demand in the U.S. and global tension ranging from Iran’s nuclear work to North Korea’s missile tests.
2006-December 21, Royal Dutch Shell and its partners agreed to hand over 50% plus one share of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project to OAO Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy firm, for $7.45 billion. Shell and its partners have already put $12 billion into the project, which was about 80% complete.
2006
Chaveaz unveils China oil plan Beijijng: Venezuela’s president has said his country plans to export 500,00 barrels of oil a day to China within five years.
2007
June 22 – British energy group BP, facing pressure from the Kremlin, said that it had agreed to sell its stakes in a Siberian gas field and company to Russian gas giant Gazprom for up to 900 million dollars (669 million euros).
2007
October 10 – Ministers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine signed a deal to build an oil pipeline linking the Black and Baltic seas.
2007
October 16 – Oil prices reached another record high closing at 87.61 per barrel in the NY Mercantile Exchange. On November 6, Crude oil prices hit record highs at $97.10 and closed at a record $96.70 per barrel on the N.Y. Mercantile Exchange.
2007
November 8 – In Yemen tribesmen attacked an oil installation and then clashed with government troops, leaving 12 people dead. It was the second attack on the country’s oil industry this week.
2007
November 10 – Iranian state television reported that Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to transport natural gas between the two countries
2007
November 20 – Crude-oil futures surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
2008
February 7 – Libya’s National Oil Corp and Indonesia signed a deal for the north African state to supply the world’s most populous Muslim nation with crude oil for the next 20 years.
2008
February 10 – President Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States in an “economic war” if Exxon Mobil Corp. wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets.
2008
February 17 – Iran inaugurated its first stock exchange for oil products and petrochemicals, in a bid to become a major player in the global downstream industry.
2008
April 17 – Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up his two-day visit with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi by writing off $4.5 billion in Libyan debts in exchange for multibillion-dollar deals for Russian comp
2008
May 1 – It was reported that Iran has stopped using dollars for oil deals as it seeks to reduce reliance on the U.S.
2008
August 30 – Iraq signs 3 billion oil deal with China Baghdad: Iraq has signed its first major oil deal with a foreign company (China National Petroleum Corporation) since the fall of Saddam’s regime.
2008
June 19 – Nigeria’s most prominent militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on Shell’s main offshore oilfield and said it had kidnapped a U.S. oil worker. The attack shut down a tenth of the country’s oil output in a rare attack on a deep water facility. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said U.S. captain Jack Stone from oil services company, Tidex, was freed in the afternoon.
2008
July 11 – Oil prices touched $147 a barrel before beginning a decline.
2008
July 13 – Iranian state TV said the country is exploring a newly discovered oil field believed to contain more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil.
2008
August 5 – The U.S. General Accounting Office predicted Iraq could finish the year with as much as a $79 billion cumulative budget surplus due to the influx of oil revenues. The GAO estimated that Iraqi oil revenues from 2005 through the end of this year to amount to at least $156 billion.
2008
August 5 – In Turkey an oil pipeline that has allowed the West to tap the rich fields of Azerbaijan, bypassing Iran and Russia, was set on fire. A Kurdish rebel organization later admitted sabotaging the pipeline.
2008
August 27 – China and Iraq signed a $3 billion deal: Revising a prewar agreement for China’s biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field. On September 2 Iraq’s Cabinet approved the deal with China National Petroleum Corp.
2008
September 10 – An internal government report said U.S. Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington, who oversaw oil drilling on federal lands, had sex and used illegal drugs with workers at energy companies where they were conducting official business.
2008
September 22 – he price of oil jumped $16.37 to $120.92 per barrel, its biggest single-day gain ever, as the dollar posted its worst single-day percentage drop. During this final day for the October contract, oil had soared to as high as $130 per barrel.
2008
September 23 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in China to hold talks with his counterpart Hu Jintao and sign a deal for combat aircraft in a visit likely to irk the U.S. Chavez said Venezuela and China agreed to jointly build 2 oil refineries, one in each country.
2008
September 29 – The Dow Jones industrial average lost 777.68 points, its biggest single-day fall ever, easily beating the 684 points it lost on the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Crude oil futures closed down $10.52 in their biggest decline since Jan 17, 1991, when the U.S. opened strategic oil reserves during the first Gulf war.
2008
October 24 – OPEC said at an emergency meeting that it will slash oil production by 1.5 million barrels to stem the “dramatic collapse” of oil prices, but crude prices plunged 7 percent anyway as financial markets spiraled downward across the globe.
2008
Nov 10 – Iraq and China signed the final agreement on a $3 billion deal to develop the Ahdab oil field south of Baghdad over a 22 year-period.
2009
BP, Chinese win lucrative oil contract Iran: Iraq awarded a lucrative oil contract to BP and China National Petroleum Corp., while rejecting other companies’ offers for other oil fields.
2009
January 2 – Ukraine sought support in European capitals a day after Russia cut off gas supplies and hardened its stance on prices. The cutoff came after Ukraine made a $1.5 billion overdue payment, but Russia demanded another $600 million, including $450 million penalties for the late payment for gas shipped in November and December. The two sides also have not agreed on prices for 2009. Russia accused Ukraine of stealing gas destined for the rest of Europe.
2009
January 19 – Russia and Ukraine signed a deal that restores natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paves the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to a freezing Europe.
2009
January – The Tamar gas field was discovered off the coast of Israel. It was the largest gas find, this year.
2009
February 24 – South Korea signed a $3.55 billion deal with Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged country in return for oil and gas. The deal was inked by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani.
2009
April 23 – Iran’s official news agency says Tehran has reached an agreement with Iraq to build a pipeline that will feed Iraqi crude to an Iranian refinery.
2009
May 19 – China and Brazil signed a raft of agreements in Beijing including a $10 billion loan for the South American country’s state energy company and a deal to send oil to China amid stronger ties between the two developing world giants.
2009
June 30 – Iraq’s long-awaited licensing round to develop some of its massive oil reserves stumbled as oil and gas companies dug in their heals, demanding more money for their efforts than the government was willing to pay. Iraq celebrated National Sovereignty Day, a new public holiday, following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from its cities. An explosion in Kirkuk killed at least 30 people.
2009
July 1 – Iraq’s government approved a BP-led consortium’s offer to develop a giant southern oil field near Basra, moving forward with the only deal struck during a disappointing international oil auction. On Oct 16 the Iraqi government approved the deal by BP and its Chinese partner CNPC to develop the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field, the 2nd largest in the Middle East. A bombing in Kirkuk killed at least 30 people.
2009
October 25 – Energy giant BP signed a deal with Jordan to explore for natural gas reserves in the Risheh field near the border with Iraq in an investment that could reach billions of dollar.
2009
December 28 – Slovakia said that Russia had warned it might halt oil supplies through Ukraine to three European Union countries over a price dispute.
2009
The average price of oil this year was $62 a barrel.
2010
March 16 – Pakistan and Iran signed a $7.6 billion deal in Turkey paving the way for the construction of a much-delayed pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to the energy-starved South Asian country.
2010
April 20 – Deep Water Horizon Disaster – The worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history – An explosion and fire damaged an oil rig and critically injured 7 people off the coast of Louisiana leaving 11 workers missing in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon rig sank two days later. Officials feared as much as 336,000 gallons of crude oil a day could be rising from the sea floor nearly 5,000 feet below. On April 23 no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water’s surface. On April 25 it was reported that some 1000 barrels per day were leaking from 2 conduit sources related to the sunken oil rig.
2010
May 3 – Energy giant BP vowed to pay “all necessary and appropriate clean-up costs” from the U.S. oil pollution disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico since a deep water oil rig operated by BP exploded and sank on April 20 killing 11 men.
2010
May 3 – Egypt’s oil ministry said it has signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing with two Chinese companies to build a $2 billion refinery that would be its largest such plant.
2010
May 4 – British Petroleum said efforts to contain a giant oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico are costing nearly four million pounds a day. Winds pushed a giant slick towards fragile wetlands on the U.S. coast as efforts intensified to bottle up a ruptured oil well causing the growing environmental disaster.
2010
May 5 – The U.S. Coast Guard said BP PLC has managed to cap one of three leaks at a deepwater oil well, but the work is not expected to reduce the overall flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The well has been spewing at least 210,000 gallons per day since an April 20 explosion at a rig 50 miles off Louisiana
2010
May 23 – The U.S. government threatened to remove BP from efforts to seal a blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico if it didn’t do enough to stop the leak, though it acknowledged only the company and the oil industry have the needed know-how. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the state is not waiting for federal approval to begin building sand barriers to protect the coastline from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
2010
May 25 – In the Singapore Strait emergency teams scrambled to contain thousands of tons of crude oil that spilled into waters near one of the world’s busiest ports after two ships collided. Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said in its latest update that 5,000 tons of crude had leaked from the Malaysian-registered tanker MT Bunga Kelana.
2010
June 17 – Russia PM Putin agreed to support a $1 billion joint U.S.-Russian venture to drill for oil in the Black Sea. San Ramon, Ca., based Chevron and Russia’s state-owned Rosneft signed the agreement to develop the Val Shatsky deposit, which could contain up to 860 million tons of crude.
2010
June 21 – Russia started cutting most natural gas supplies to ex-Soviet neighbor Belarus over what it claims is a debt of nearly $200 million, threatening to rekindle political disputes in the region over energy policy.
2010
Jun 22 – In New Orleans U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman struck down the Obama administration’s 6-month ban on deep-water drilling.
2010
June 22 – Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the shutdown of transit of Russian gas to Europe, escalating a new “gas war” after Moscow slashed supplies to Minsk in a debt dispute. Belarus said Gazprom owes it 217 million dollars in transit fees.
2010
July 13 – After securing a new, tight-fitting cap on top of the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP prepared to begin tests to see if it will hold and stop fresh oil from polluting the waters for the first time in nearly three months.
2010
July 15 – BP finally stopped oil from spewing into the sea, for the first time since an April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and unleashed the spill 5,000 feet beneath the water’s surface.
2010
July 27 – An audit by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction said the U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation.
2010
July 31- A senior Iranian official said China invested around 40 billion dollars in the Islamic republic’s oil and gas sector.
2010
August 11 – Turkey said it intends to support petrol sales by Turkish companies to Iran, despite U.S. sanctions that aim to squeeze the Islamic Republic’s fuel imports.
2010
September 15 – The United States ordered oil and gas firms to permanently plug nearly 3,500 unused wells and dismantle hundreds of idle platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, in a bid to shore up industry safety after the disastrous BP spill.
2010
September 15 – Russia and Norway ended a 40-year dispute in signing an Arctic border treaty opening the door to offshore oil and gas exploration. President Dimitry Medvedev and Norway’s PM Jens Stoltenberg presided over the signing in Murmansk.
2010
October 1 – European oil majors resisted pressure from the U.S. to stop all business with Iran, in spite of Washington’s drive to isolate Tehran over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
2010
October 15 – Russia agreed to help build Venezuela’s first nuclear power plant and buy $1.6 billion of oil assets, reinforcing ties with President Hugo Chavez, who shares Moscow’s opposition to U.S. global dominance.
2010
October 20 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left Iran after signing 11 deals focused on energy cooperation between the two major oil producers who are foes of the United States.
2010
October 28 – A White House panel said that Halliburton Co. used flawed cement in BP Plc’s doomed Gulf of Mexico well, which could have contributed to the blowout that sparked the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Halliburton had run a series of tests that showed the material was unstable in the weeks before the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. An interim report BP issued in September said Halliburton used an “unstable” cement mixture that allowed hydrocarbons to flow up the drill pipe and onto the floor of the rig, where they ignited.
2010
December 22 – Afghan officials said Iran has banned fuel exports to Afghanistan, stranding about 3,000 fuel trucks at the border and driving up wholesale prices for the refined products ahead of what many Afghans fear will be a blistery winter in their oil-poor nation.
2011
January 1 – Russia / China oil pipeline opens: The first oil pipeline linking the world’s biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world’s biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating.
2011
February 1 – According to the “Keystone XL Assessment,” a new study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, a proposed pipeline from Canada’s oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico would help essentially eliminate’ U.S. oil imports from the Middle East in a decade or two.
2011
February 5 – Unknown saboteurs attacked an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Jordan, forcing authorities to switch off gas supply from a twin pipeline to Israel. Egypt supplies about 40 percent of Israel’s natural gas. The attack came after Israel expressed concern that its natural gas supplies from Egypt could be threatened if a new regime takes power in Cairo.
2011
February 21 – Spreading unrest in Libya shut down 6 percent of oil output in Africa’s number 3 producer and prompted a host of energy firms to pull out international staff, sending oil prices to above $105 a barrel. Al Jazeera television said military aircraft fired live ammunition at crowds of anti-government protesters in Tripoli.
2011
May 9 – In Libya NATO planes pounded government weapons depots southeast of the town of Zintan, in a sign of widening conflict in the Western Mountains region as rebels battled to unseat Muammar Gaddafi. Rebels were reported to have found a way to access badly needed cash, selling oil worth $100 million paid for through a Qatari bank in U.S. dollars.
2011
Russia / China oil pipeline opens: The first oil pipeline linking the world’s biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world’s biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating.
2011
June – Chad’s President Idriss Deby Itno inaugurated the Djarmaya refinery, located 40 km (25 miles) north of the Chadian capital Ndjamena. He described it as a “gift from China” that would offer energy independence to his land-locked nation. China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation International (CNPCI) owned 60%.
2011
July 1 – In central Iraq the Al-Ahdab oil field, operated by China National Petroleum Corp, began production with 60,000 barrels per day. The contract with CNPC, signed in 2008, allows the Chinese company to develop the field for 23 years.
2011
August 8 – Sudan said it has granted a petroleum exploration license to China after visiting Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and President Omar al-Bashir held talks in Khartoum.
2011
August 16 – Norway’s Statoil said that the North SEa Aldous and Avaldsnes oil discoveries together contain between 500 million and 1.2 billion barrels of oil, significantly more than previously thought
2011
September 2 – The EU banned oil imports from Syria: in a move that will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day as it uses deadly force to try to crush a 5-month-old uprising. Activists said at least six people were killed in the crackdown.
2011
September 14 – Armed pirates raided a tanker off the West African coast and kidnapped 23 sailors, 62 nautical miles from Benin’s capital of Cotonou, as the Cyprus-flagged vessel tried to transfer its cargo of crude oil to a Norwegian-registered ship. Analysts believed many of the pirates come from Nigeria, where corrupt law enforcement allows criminality to thrive. The tanker and crew were released on Oct 24 after the oil was unloaded
2011
October 27 – Tens of thousands of Syrians held a mass rally in Latakia in support of embattled President Bashar Assad, but the regime’s crackdown on dissent continued in opposition areas as security forces killed civilians. Oil Minister Sufian Allaw acknowledged Damascus was having difficulty selling its oil after the European Union banned oil imports from Syria. Syrian troops were seen planting mines along a region bordering northern Lebanon in a bid to stem weapons smuggling.
2011
October 28 – Nigeria’s military seized a ship laden with 5,000 tons of stolen oil amid rising cases of crude theft in one of the world’s main oil producing regions.
2011
October 30 – Pirates off the coast of Nigeria seized an oil tanker with over 20 crew.
2011
November 10 – The U.S, government foolishly delayed approval of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline until after the 2012 U.S. election, bowing to pressure from environmentalists and sparing Barack Obama a damaging split with liberal voters he may need to win reelection; increasing the need for Middle Eastern oil.
2011
November 13 – In Qatar energy ministers of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) met to prepare for a first summit of the 12-member group which is to discuss prices and coordination. The meeting welcomed Oman as the newest member of the forum. Other members included Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. Kazakhstan, Norway and the Netherlands were observers.
2011
November 21 – The U.S. approved extra curbs on Iran’s banking system and oil industry in an ongoing effort to thwart the country’s nuclear program.
2011
November 25 – In Egypt masked gunmen blew up a gas pipeline which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel, in the eighth such attack this year.
2011
November 28 – Niger officially became an oil producer with the opening of a refinery run by the state and a Chinese company.
2011
December 8 – Major Syrian pipeline carrying oil to a refinery in the restive Homs province was blown up. Syrian activists launched a campaign of civil disobedience to pile pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, after he drew a stinging rebuke from the U.S. for denying he ordered a deadly crackdown.
2011
December 18 – Russia’s Kolskaya oil drilling platform capsized and later sank amid fierce storms off the coast of Sakhalin Island, plunging dozens of workers into the churning, icy waters. Of the 67 men aboard, 14 were plucked alive immediately after the accident.
2011
December 29 – Industry sources said Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Aramco was seeking to buy fuel in order to donate about 500,000 tons of products to Yemen in January.
2011
The average price of oil this year was $111 a barrel.
2012
January 3 – Pakistanis angry at gas shortages blocked a major highway and clashed with police for the second day, adding pressure on a government bogged down by scandal, near economic collapse, and militant violence.
2012
January 13 – South Sudan signed its first oil deals with foreign nations since it won independence last July, inking agreements with Chinese, Indian and Malaysian firms.
2012
January 17 – India said it was continuing to buy oil from Iran, despite an intensifying U.S. campaign to smother Tehran’s vital oil exports until it abandons its nuclear program.
2012
January 18 – The Obama administration rejected the Keystone oil pipeline. Republicans decried the move for sacrificing jobs and energy security in order to shore up the president’s environmental base before elections. TransCanada quickly said it would re-apply for the permit, which it first sought in 2008.
2012
January 23 – The EU and Iran raised the stakes in their test of wills over the Islamic ‘nuclear program, with the bloc banning the purchase of Iranian oil and Iran threatening to retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz.
2012
February 7 – South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Riyadh at the start of a two-day visit to the OPEC kingpin which comes as Seoul seeks to diversify its oil sources. Lee Myung-Bak held talks with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and the head of Saudi state oil giant Aramco, Khalid al-Faleh. Saudi Arabia pledged to ensure a stable supply of oil to South Korea.
2012
February 20 – The U.S. and Mexico agreed to work together when drilling for oil and gas below their maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico.
2012
Feb 29 – A Pakistani official said Iran has offered to supply Pakistan:with 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day and a $250 million loan to help build a gas pipeline from the Iranian border.
2012
February 29 – The Philippines said it would push ahead with plans to expand oil and gas exploration in waters also claimed by China, as it brushed off a fresh Chinese warning.
2012
March 22 – Russia’s Lukoil signed a $1 billion deal with South Korea’s Samsung Engineering to develop Iraq’s second-biggest oil field, in which the energy giant has a majority stake.
2012
March 23
Egyptian officials reached an agreement with Israel to permit the transfer of fuel to enable Gaza’s sole power plant to function. Some 450,000 liters of fuel were delivered to the Gaza Strip through Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing.
2012
March 27 – South Sudan said Sudan’s military bombed oil fields in the town of Bentiu.
2012
April 3- The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank agreed to supply Gaza with fuel purchased from Israel for so long as the Hamas-controlled Gaza electricity authority pays for it.
2012
April 5 – The Economist reported in an article titled: “Burning Their Wealth,” that with domestic electricity demand rising 10% per year in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom now devours more than a quarter of its oil production, nearly three million barrels per day. International Energy Agency figures show that Saudi Arabia now consumes more oil than Germany, an industrialized country with triple the population and an economy nearly five times as large.
2012
April 11 – The Nebraska Legislature approved a bill that would provide support for an expected new route for TransCanada Corp’s Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would bypass an environmentally sensitive region in the state. Governor Dave Heineman has said he would sign.
2012
April 16 – Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez pushed forward a bill to renationalize the country’s largest oil company despite fierce criticism from abroad and the risk of a major rift with Spain.
2012
April 17 – UK authorities gave approval to drill for shale gas onshore after a temporary ban on the controversial extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Energy experts believed Britain may have enough offshore shale gas to catapult it into the top ranks of global producers.
2012
April 20 – The European Union parliament condemned Argentina’s move to seize control of the YPF division of Spanish oil and gas giant Repsol and demanded that EU takes action against Buenos Aires at the World Trade Organization.
2012
April 22 – Egypt said it had scrapped the 2005 gas export deal with Israel, which generates 40 percent of its electricity from natural gas, with Egypt providing 43 percent of its gas supplies. The balance comes from Israel’s own Yam Thetis offshore gas field. East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which exports the gas to Israel, said it was cancelled trying to blame Israeli company for supposedly “failing” to maintain conditions stipulated in the contract.
2012
April 22 – Iran’s principal oil terminal on Kharg island in the Gulf was disconnected from the Internet. A voracious virus attack hit computers running key parts of Iran’s oil sector, forcing authorities to unplug the oil export terminal from the Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team.
2012
April 24
The Philippines said it was hoping to help secure its energy future by developing a natural gas field in Reed Bank, an area of the South China Sea also claimed by China.
2012
May 15 – India said it would cut purchases of Iranian oil by 11% following pressure from the U.S. to join a drive to isolate the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear program.
2012
May 16 – French energy giant Total said it had plugged a gas leak under the North Sea Elgin platform that cost the firm hundreds of millions of dollars and threatened to trigger a major explosion off the coast of Scotland.
2012
May 17 – Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner arrived in Angola for a short state visit to push for a deal to exchange her country’s food for Angolan oil.
2012
May 18 – Spanish company Repsol said an exploratory oil well off the northern coast of Cuba has proved a failure and will be capped and abandoned, a disappointment for a cash-strapped nation hoping for an economic lifeline.
2012
May 23 – Syria’s oil minister acknowledged the heavy toll international sanctions have taken on the country’s oil sector, saying that they had sucked about $4 billion from the economy.
2012
May 30 – A senior Iranian military official said Iran’s key oil industry was affected by the powerful computer virus known as “Flame” that has unprecedented data-snatching capabilities and can eavesdrop on computer users.
2012
May 31 – Iraq closed a landmark auction of energy exploration blocks with just three contracts awarded out of a potential 12, dampening hopes the sale would cement its role as a key global supplier. Pakistan Petroleum and a partnership between Russian energy giant Lukoil and Japan’s Inpex won contracts today.
2012
June 1 – BP said it was ready to offload its stake in troubled Russian joint venture TNK-BP after the shock resignation of the partnership’s chief executive earlier this week. Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman resigned on May 28 as TNK-BP head and threw one of BP’s most profitable overseas operations into turmoil.
2012
June 4 – Argentina declared British oil exploration off the Falklands “illegal” and immediately set about suing five companies for pursuing activities around the contested islands.
2012
June 27 – In eastern Turkey an explosion targeting a pipeline cut off Iranian natural gas shipments to the country. The pipeline was expected to be back in operation within 4 to 5 days. Turkey received 27 million cubic meters of gas a day via the Iranian pipeline.
2012
July 1 – An EU embargo on Iranian oil went into effect, provoking anger in Tehran which said the measure will hurt talks with world powers over its sensitive nuclear activities
2012
July 15 – Iraq signed a gas exploration deal with Pakistan Petroleum.
2012
July 15 – Officials in the United Arab Emirates inaugurated a key overland oil pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, giving the OPEC member insurance against Iranian threats to block the strategic waterway.
2012
July 16 – Iraq signed an initial deal with a Kuwait-led consortium made up of Kuwait Energy, Dubai-based Dragon Oil and Turkey’s TPAO. A contract was awarded to a Russia-led group to drill for energy, part of Baghdad’s efforts to strengthen its role as a major producer.
2012
July 20 – In Turkey an explosion and fire shut down twin pipelines that carry oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean.
2012
November – December – Iran is positioned to continue threatening oil lanes The U.S. Navy announced (November) that for about two months, there will be only one aircraft carrier based in the Middle East region because of unexpected repair work needed on USS Nimitz. Earlier this year, in January, oil prices were moving fast beyond the $100 per barrel mark in part because of tensions with Iran, which had threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in response to increased sanctions pressure. The U.S. Energy Department describes the strait as the “world’s most important oil checkpoint.” Last year (2011) about 17 million barrels oil per day traveled through the area, which represented about 35 percent of the world’s maritime oil shipments. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pipelines in place now in late 2012 to compensate for any closure, though each of those has their limitations.
2013
North Dakota grows five times faster than nation – Propelled by a massive energy boom, North Dakota once again captured the title of the nation’s hottest economy, with a growth rate five times the national average. North Dakota’s economy posted a 13.4% growth rate in 2012, according to a report released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s nearly three times as fast as the number two state, Texas, and trounces the national average of 2.5%. This is the third year in a row that North Dakota took the top spot in BEA’s state-by-state report on gross domestic product (GDP).
The muscle behind the boom is a surge in oil production from the Bakken Shale, an underground rock formation in the northwestern part of the state. Thanks to high oil prices and new drilling technology — including the controversial hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking” — oil production in North Dakota is now six times higher than it was in 2007. In 2012, North Dakota surpassed Alaska and California to become the second largest oil-producing state in the nation behind Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
U.S. Oil Production Keeps Rising Beyond the Forecasts – Oil production in the United States rose by a record 992,000 barrels a day in 2013, the International Energy Agency estimated this week. “We keep raising our forecasts, and we keep underestimating production,” said Lejla Alic, a Paris-based analyst with the agency. The increase left United States production at 7.5 million barrels a day, with both November and December production estimated to have been over eight million barrels a day.
2014
The world currently has a glut of oil. An economic slowdown in key industrial nations has reduced demand, and the new method of fracking drilling has increased supply. After staying above $95 per barrel for most of the past three years, the price is now around the $80 level.
The U.S. has had the most dramatic increase in production. Thanks to the ability to extract energy from shale rock, this year we’ve reclaimed the title as the world’s biggest oil producer, after overtaking Saudi Arabia and Russia. Our oil production has jumped from 5.0 million barrels per day in 2008 to 7.4 million last year and is expected to average 8.5 million this year and 9.3 million next year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
2015
The global slowdown in economic activity has caused the price of oil to decline to $40 per barrel. The low prices for crude has forced several oil producers into bankruptcy.
2016
Looking to 2016, it is expected that the start of a slow and steady recovery in prices, driven by global supply-and-demand dynamics. Transportation fuel demand—particularly caused by growth in developing economies—is largely responsible for sustaining global oil demand and for generating only minimal growth in some markets. See more at: http://legacy.alixpartners.com/en/Publications/AllArticles/tabid/635/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1878/Global-Oil-and-Gas-Industry-Outlook.aspx#sthash.TgulQbiD.dpuf
2017
Changing times in the oil and gas industry
When the crude oil export ban was lifted in January 2016, many broadly viewed it as good for the industry and free trade but were not quite sure about its impact. 2017 was the year the United States confirmed its growing status as an energy exporter. Some may see our newfound energy strength as allowing us to go further down an isolationist path as we seek the dream of energy independence. Another view might be that our strength as an energy supplier simply gives us more leverage in the global, free trade economy that the United States has historically supported.
Although still a net importer of crude, our growing place as an energy exporter and low-cost supplier could fundamentally change our position in the global energy landscape.
2020
The spot oil price for the first time ever trades on the NYMEX crude oil futures traded at a negative price.
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