Current Status and Prediction on Development of PE Market

This article comprehensively analyzes the status of market demand/supply and import/export volumes of PE in the world and in China, and predicts the future development trends in the fields of PE production and consumption.     

What Impact Will COVID-19 Have on the Oil and Gas Market of China and the World?

正Since the Spring Festival of 2020,affected by the Coronavirus Disease 201 9 (COVID-19),the vast majority of Chinese people have had to go out less or even stay at home.What impact will this epidemic have on the energy industry?What impact will this epidemic have on the oil and gas industry?     

Energy and the environment: How will EPA's newest regulations affect electric markets?

Last December, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put the finishing touches on new regulations to reduce emissions of mercury and other air toxics, primarily from coal-fired power plants. 1 Regulations targeting coal-fired power plants are nothing new, really, as coal has been Public Enemy No. 1 for many environmentalists and environmental regulators for many years. The air toxics rule joins several others, including rules governing movements of air pollutants between states, disposal of coal ash, and discharges of cooling water.     

Automatic fracture–vug identification and extraction from electric imaging logging data based on path morphology

We present a path morphology method to separate total rock pore space into matrix, fractures and vugs and derive their pore structure spectrum. Thus, we can achieve fine pore evaluation in fracture–vug reservoirs based on electric imaging logging data. We automatically identify and extract fracture–vug information from the electric imaging images by adopting a path morphological operator that remains flexible enough to fit rectilinear and slightly curved structures because they are independent of the structuring element shape. The Otsu method was used to extract fracture–vug information from the background noise caused by the matrix. To accommodate the differences in scale and form of the different target regions,including fracture and vug path, operators with different lengths were selected for their recognition and extraction at the corresponding scale. Polynomial and elliptic functions are used to fit the extracted fractures and vugs, respectively, and the fracture–vug parameters are deduced from the fitted edge. Finally, test examples of numerical simulation data and several measured well data have been provided for the verification of the effectiveness and adaptability of the path morphology method in the application of electric imaging logging data processing. This also provides algorithm support for the fine evaluation of fracture–vug reservoirs.     

The impacts of gas impurities on the minimum miscibility pressure of injected CO_2-rich gas–crude oil systems and enhanced oil recovery potential

An effective parameter in the miscible-CO_2 enhanced oil recovery procedure is the minimum miscibility pressure(MMP)defined as the lowest pressure that the oil in place and the injected gas into reservoir achieve miscibility at a given temperature. Flue gases released from power plants can provide an available source of CO_2,which would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere, for injection into a reservoir. However, the costs related to gas extraction from flue gases is potentially high. Hence, greater understanding the role of impurities in miscibility characteristics between CO_2 and reservoir fluids helps to establish which impurities are tolerable and which are not. In this study, we simulate the effects of the impurities nitrogen(N_2), methane(C_1), ethane(C_2) and propane(C_3) on CO_2 MMP. The simulation results reveal that,as an impurity, nitrogen increases CO_2–oil MMP more so than methane. On the other hand, increasing the propane(C_3)content can lead to a significant decrease in CO_2 MMP, whereas varying the concentrations of ethane(C_2) does not have a significant effect on the minimum miscibility pressure of reservoir crude oil and CO_2 gas. The novel relationships established are particularly valuable in circumstances where MMP experimental data are not available.     

What Are Near-Term Oil-Price Prospects and Their Effect on Gas?

For TV watchers of my generation, “Bobby was in the shower” has special meaning. On the original Dallas, popular character Bobby Ewing was killed off at the end of a season. The next season was spent readjusting the world around Bobby's loss—until the end of the last episode, when his wife woke up and there he was in the shower—the whole sad season had all been a dream.     

How did the price and income elasticities of natural gas demand in China evolve from 1999 to 2015? The role of natural gas price reform

As a cleaner, high-efficiency, and low-carbon fuel, natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China. To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand, China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mechanism. Employing a set of unbalanced panel data for China’s 30 provinces covering 1999–2015, this study aims to estimate the evolving price and income elasticities of natural gas demand and explore the effect of natural gas price reform in China. For this purpose, a series of econometric techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity is utilized. The results suggest that although natural gas demand in China still lacks negative price elasticity, the phenomenon is improving. Moreover, the estimates suggest that natural gas demand in China is indeed becoming increasingly sensitive to income changes. Our estimates also provide strong evidence in favor of the effect of natural gas price reform on the change in price elasticity as the price elasticity decreases in five of the seven regions. In addition, the results indicate large variations in the change in price and income elasticities of natural gas demand across China’s regions. Natural gas demand is becoming more price inelastic in Southwest China and Northwest China, while such demand in North China and East China responds less sensitively to income changes. These findings offer several policy suggestions for the reform of China’s natural gas market at the national and regional levels.     

Federal regulation—Natural gas: Will FERC abandonment policy fit today's market and regulatory environment?

Serious pipeline incidents in 2010 and 2011 have prompted new federal pipeline safety requirements that are expected to result in significant cost increases for some pipelines. At the same time, rising shale gas and other unconventional gas production has shifted market dynamics by cutting locational price differences, resulting in reduced throughput and revenues on pipelines in certain areas. Faced with potentially significant regulatory cost increases and declining revenues, some interstate pipelines may seek to abandon uneconomic interstate pipeline facilities or services.     

THE MONTH IN BRIEF: OPEC's blushes saved after Doha fiasco when Kuwaiti oil workers go on strike,Latin American oil in crisis,and are the Saudis getting out of oil?

This section summarizes downstream developments of the previous month. Exploration & Production are covered in “Upstream Review”.