More Woes for Schlumberger

Less spending on oil and gas exploration taking its toll on one of the sector's largest companies.

Schlumberger Revenue Takes Nose Dive

HOUSTON, April 22 (UPI) -- Schlumberger, the largest oil field services company in the world, said its first quarter revenue experienced one of its sharpest declines since 2014.

The company said revenue through March 31 was $6.5 billion, a 16 percent drop from the previous quarter and 36 percent lower year-on-year.

Chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard said in a statement the sequential decrease was one of the largest since crude oil prices started moving sharply lower near the end of 2014.

"This was driven by a continuing drop in activity and persistent pricing pressure throughout our global operations as well as from project delays, job cancellations and activity disruptions," he said.

Lower crude oil prices, off about 60 percent from the 2014 highs, have left energy companies with less capital to invest in exploration and production activity, the side of the industry companies like Schlumberger serve.

In North America alone, Kibsgaard said the inland rig count was about 80 percent lower than it was in October 2014. First quarter revenue for Schlumberger in North America was $1.5 billion, a 25 percent decline from fourth quarter 2014.

Last month, Kibsgaard told industry leaders at an energy conference in New Orleanscorporate evolution from the services sector may be a necessity. Project performance, he said, can only be improved by leaving the downturn behind and adopting a new approach "based on collaboration and commercial alignment between the operators and the largest service companies."

In its quarterly statement, Schlumberger outlined details of three separate mergers during the first quarter, including the $1.24 billion deal with its smaller industry counterpart Cameron International Corp.

Looking forward, Kibsgaard said he expected spending cuts in exploration and production would be sharper than previously expected, even though there's been a recovery in crude oil prices he said was triggered by supply disruptions, like last weekend's strike in Kuwait, and talks of a production freeze among major oil states.

"We will continue to tailor costs and resources to activity, while remaining cautious in adding back capacity given the unpredictable nature of the current market," he said.

Education of Women Key To Advancing Human Condition

 

 

Why Organized Religion Fears Educated Women

Educating women improves the welfare of families as they become empowered to contribute to the financial success of their household—which in turn creates more opportunities and resources available for their children.  

For thousands of years women have been defined only in correlation to their relationship to men. They have been kept hidden, prohibited from speaking, forced into submission and treated as the “unclean” gender whose existence is that of mental and physical servitude to her human counterpart. Why has so much emphasis been placed upon the mind and actions of women? What does organized religion fear about the mind of an educated and logically-thinking woman?

Here are 5 reasons why organized religion fears educated women:

The Loss of Patriarchal Control

It is a widely-known fact that the more educated and financially stable a woman becomes, the more likely she is to practice family-planning and have her children at a later age. Educated women are also more likely to have fewer children than their uneducated and impoverished female counterparts.

Furthermore, educated women are more likely to cultivate their own worldview, rather than simply following their traditional familiar teachings; and may contribute no followers to a religion when they do finally decide to start a family.

This is a problem for religion because women who choose the timing and size of their household don’t typically contribute the same amount of future-followers to a religion as those women who are restricted from pursuing an education and career. If a woman leaves the religion altogether as a direct result of becoming well-informed and financially stable and no longer needs the “comforts” that her religion once provided, she has not only removed herself from the ranks, but her children as well. For religion to perpetuate itself, it must have followers, or it ceases to exist.

Read More 

Harvard Study: Now Methane Causes Worse Impact on Climate

 

WHO BATS LAST?

That’s why last month’s Harvard study came as such a shock. It used satellite data from across the country over a span of more than a decade to demonstrate that US methane emissions had spiked 30 percent since 2002. The EPA had been insisting throughout that period that methane emissions were actually falling, but it was clearly wrong—on a massive scale. In fact, emissions “are substantially higher than we’ve understood,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy admitted in early March.

THE NATION

Global Warming’s Terrifying 

New Chemistry

Our leaders thought fracking would save our climate. They were wrong. Very wrong.

By Bill McKibben 

Global warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space. If you get the chemistry wrong, it doesn’t matter how many landmark climate agreements you sign or how many speeches you give. And it appears the United States may have gotten the chemistry wrong. Really wrong.   

There’s one greenhouse gas everyone knows about: carbon dioxide, which is what you get when you burn fossil fuels. We talk about a “price on carbon” or argue about a carbon tax; our leaders boast about modest “carbon reductions.” But in the last few weeks, CO2’s nasty little brother has gotten some serious press. Meet methane, otherwise known as CH4.

READ MORE 

At Last OPEC No Longer Drives the Bus

How OPEC lost control of the oil market

This weekend, 13 countries with little in common will attempt to act as one – by coming to an agreement to curb oil production and prop up prices.

But the quarrelling members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who meet Sunday in Doha, Qatar, have been acting less like a cartel and more like observers to a free market in crude oil. And the odds of the group reaching anything more than a fragile agreement to “freeze” output at current levels are slim.

Given the nature of the 46-year-old cartel, it’s no wonder. Two of the group’s members – longtime foes Iran and Saudi Arabia – are backing warring proxies in Syria and Yemen. Countries like the United Arab Emirates have fiscal buffers against low oil prices, while cash-strapped inflation-riddled Venezuela is scraping to avoid default. Nigeria counts on 1.7 million barrels a day to help meet the needs of 173 million people while Kuwait produces 2.8 million barrels a day with a population of 3.4 million.

Decades ago, there were effective cartels that managed notoriously unstable oil prices. Standard Oil, before it was broken up under antitrust laws, leveled off prices in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And from the early 1930s through 1970, the Texas Railroad Commission dictated output well by well in Texas, effectively taking available crude oil off the market to bolster prices at a consistent, albeit high, level.

These two price setters had a key advantage OPEC lacks. Standard Oil executives could make decisions around the breakfast table of founder John D. Rockefeller. And the Texas Railroad Commission did not have to negotiate with rival states or countries with differing interests.

OPEC, by comparison, is a fractious lot whose members want the others to cut production without cutting themselves. Usually that means cuts by Saudi Arabia, which has usually taken on the role of swing producer. But the kingdom is tired of losing market share while other oil exporters cash in and for the past year and a half it has been pumping at high rates, willing to persist even as prices crashed from more than $100 a barrel two years ago to $40.34 a barrel Friday.

Read More

Washington Post 

EYE on the World - 15 April 2016

"Going Beyond The Mainstream"  

Impactful Week With Some Buzziness! 

 

 

 Russian Jets

​ 

Buzzing US Warships  

Close encounters of another kind.

 

"These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in a miscalculation or accident that could cause serious injury or death.”                                                The Guardian

Russian attack jets buzz US warship in riskiest encounter for years

READ MORE 

 Harvard Study: Now Methane Causes Worse Impact on Climate

WHO BATS LAST?

That’s why last month’s Harvard study came as such a shock. It used satellite data from across the country over a span of more than a decade to demonstrate that US methane emissions had spiked 30 percent since 2002. The EPA had been insisting throughout that period that methane emissions were actually falling, but it was clearly wrong—on a massive scale. In fact, emissions “are substantially higher than we’ve understood,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy admitted in early March.

THE NATION

READ MORE 

GOLDMAN SACHS - Not Too Big to Jail

​ It's about TIME

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has agreed to pay $5.06 billion to settle claims that it misled mortgage bond investors during the financial crisis, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday.

The settlement, which Goldman disclosed in January, stems from the firm's conduct in packaging, securitization, marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007, the Justice Department said.

​REUTERS​

READ MORE 

FED's Four Horsemen Bring Economic Dark Ages

​ 

​

NOT A FOOTBALL TEAM THIS TIME   

​"​

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies…The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

​"​

- Thomas Jefferson, 1802

READ MORE 

Chevron CEO Says Markets Normalizing???

 Crude oil markets are coming back into "better balance" as supplies are cut back in response to lower prices, Chevron Chief Executive Officer and Chairman John Watson said Tuesday.

The oil industry in early 2015 responded to lower revenue by reducing spending on long-cycle projects, Watson told journalists on the sidelines of the LNG 18 conference in Perth, Western Australia.

​  

Buddy, you really call this looking good??? 

​ 

     

 

READ MORE 

To subscribe or unsubscribe

​,​

 

​please ​

email 

​us  at  "VIP Members' Subscriptions" 

Reaching over "650,000 readers "globally, with partners and private communities in Zurich, New York, London, Moscow, Tokyo, Hong Kong,  Toronto and Beverly Hills, California  

​"​

Going Beyond The Mainstream

​"​

 

​ 

 

 "It is the little things we do everyday that makes the big difference.

www.firstfinancialinsights.blogspot.com  www.ipwa2100.blogspot.com

www.drkinesa.blogspot.ca/   www.pwa2000.blogspot.ca/

http://endofenergy.blogspot.ca/