Crude Oil Bulls and Bears Move into a Level Playing Field For Thusrday

June crude oil closed up $0.57 a barrel at $104.11 today. Prices closed nearer the session high today. Bulls and bears are on a level near term technical playing field amid choppy trading.

June natural gas closed up 12.5 cents at $2.188 today. Prices closed near the session high and hit a fresh two week high today. Short covering in a bear market was featured. The bears still have the overall near term technical advantage. There are still no early clues to suggest a market low is close at hand.

The June U.S. dollar index closed down 18 points at 79.14 today. Prices closed nearer the session low today and hit another fresh three week low. Bears have gained the slight near term technical advantage.

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National Oilwell Varco Announces First Quarter 2012 Earnings and Backlog

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National Oilwell Varco (NYSE: NOV) today reported that for its first quarter ended March 31, 2012 it earned net income of $606 million, or $1.42 per fully diluted share, compared to fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011 net income of $574 million, or $1.35 per fully diluted share. The first quarter 2012 results included transaction costs totaling $7 million pre-tax, and, excluding these, earnings were $612 million, or $1.44 per fully diluted share. Earnings per share improved 44 percent from the first quarter of 2011 and five percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, excluding transaction and devaluation charges from all periods.

Revenues for the first quarter of 2012 were $4.3 billion, an increase of one percent from the fourth quarter of 2011 and an increase of 37 percent from the first quarter of 2011. Operating profit for the quarter, excluding the transaction and devaluation charges, was $881 million, or 20.5 percent of sales. Sequentially, first quarter operating profit increased two percent, resulting in operating profit flow-through (change in operating profit divided by the change in revenue) of 48 percent, excluding transaction and devaluation charges. Year over year first quarter operating profit increased 40 percent, resulting in operating profit flow through of 22 percent, excluding transaction and devaluation charges.

Just click here to read the entire report

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The First Movers in Eco Drilling .... Going "Dopeless"

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"Dope" is the accepted term for a strong adhesive commonly used to bind huge strings of casing and other tubular goods together in oil and natural gas operations, but Tenaris, a global manufacturer and supplier of steel pipe products and related services for energy and for other industrial applications, would like to see the entire petro world go "dopeless."

Tenaris is in the Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD) program, which is led by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). The EFD project's objective is to identify, develop and test innovative technologies that reduce the environmental impact of O&G activities in sensitive areas, some of which have not yet been opened up for development. Tenaris' patented "dopeless" tubular connection technology ® is in HARC's portfolio of recommended products for the EFD initiative.

Read the entire Rigzone article.

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Project Sponsors are Seeking Federal Approval to Export Domestic Natural Gas

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Liquefied natural gas (LNG) project sponsors have been applying to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to export LNG produced from domestic natural gas and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for approval to build liquefaction facilities to serve export markets (see map below). A higher price for LNG in international markets is a major motivation for these applications (see chart below).

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

The United States currently only ships LNG overseas through re-exports of imported LNG from the Freeport terminal in Texas, and the Sabine Pass and Cameron terminals in Louisiana. In 2011, LNG re-exports totaled about 53 billion cubic feet (Bcf), up from about 33 Bcf in 2010. The Kenai LNG terminal in Alaska, the only terminal that exported LNG produced from domestic natural gas, has been inactive since December 2011.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

For more details visit the EIA website

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Crude Oil Finishes Higher on Positive Market News

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Crude oil closed up $0.39 a barrel at $103.50 today. Prices closed near mid range again today. Bulls and bears are on a level near term technical playing field. The next near term upside price breakout objective for the crude oil bulls is producing a close above solid technical resistance at $106.00 a barrel.

Natural gas closed down 3.2 cents at $2.064 today. Prices closed near the session low today. Prices Friday hit a contract and 10 year low. The bears have the solid overall near term technical advantage. There are still no early clues to suggest a market low is close at hand.

Gold futures closed up $11.80 an ounce at $1,644.40 today. Prices closed near mid-range today and saw short covering and bargain hunting. The key “outside markets” were in a bullish posture for gold today as the U.S. dollar index was weaker and crude oil prices were firmer. Gold bears still have the overall near term technical advantage. Prices are still in a seven week old downtrend on the daily bar chart.

All trading June contracts now.

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PXP Announces Offering Of $500 Million Of Senior Notes

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Plains Exploration & Production Company (NYSE: PXP) announced today that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, $500 million of Senior Notes due 2019 in an underwritten public offering. The offering will be made under PXP's shelf registration statement, which became effective immediately upon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 5, 2010.

Net proceeds from the offering are expected to be used to repay amounts outstanding under PXP's senior revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes, including the redemption of all $76.9 million aggregate principal amount of PXP's Senior Notes due 2017 that remain outstanding.

This press release does not constitute a notice of redemption of the Senior Notes due 2017. Notice of redemption, if and when given, will be made separately in accordance with the terms of the Senior Notes due 2017.

An electronic copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus may also be obtained at no charge at the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

Visit the Plains Exp. and Prod. investors Page for more info

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Iran Crude Supplies to China Fall for Fourth Month in March

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Iran’s oil shipments to China fell for a fourth month in March to the lowest in 22 months amid delays in signing term supply contracts. Imports by the biggest buyer of Iranian crude fell 6.2 percent to 1.08 million metric tons, or about 254,000 barrels a day, according to calculations by Bloomberg from data released via e-mail today by the Beijing based General Administration of Customs.

Supplies from the Persian Gulf nation averaged 557,413 barrels a day last year.
Purchases from Iran slid as China International United Petroleum & Chemical Co., the nation’s biggest oil trader, put off signing a 2012 term contract with National Iranian Oil Co. after a disagreement over payment terms.....Read the entire Bloomberg article.

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Shell to Announce First Quarter Results

On Thursday 26 April at 2 o'clock est Royal Dutch Shell plc will release its first quarter results and first quarter interim dividend announcement for 2012.

These announcements will be available on http://www.shell.com/investor.

Webcasts

Simon Henry, Chief Financial Officer, will host two live webcasts of the first quarter results and first quarter interim dividend announcement for 2012 on Thursday April 26, 2012.

• Media webcast - 09:30 BST / 10:30 CEST / 04:30 EST - opens in new window
• Analyst webcast - 13:30 BST / 14:30 CEST / 08:30 EST - opens in new window

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EIA: Eagle Ford Oil and Natural Gas Well Starts Rose Sharply in First Quarter 2012

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New well starts in the Eagle Ford region in Texas increased 110% from January through March 2012 compared to the same period in 2011, according to reporting and analysis by BENTEK Energy LLC (Bentek).



Other key findings include:

Operators started drilling (spudded) 856 new wells in January through March 2012 compared to 407 in January through March 2011.

In early April 2012, the Eagle Ford active rig count set a new high of 217 units.

Increased drilling and rig deployment translated into higher crude oil and condensate production, which is projected to average over 500 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) in April, up from 182 thousand bbl/d in April 2011.

Current Eagle Ford area natural gas production is about two billion cubic feet per day.

Horizontal wells accounted for nearly all of the new well starts so far in 2012.

Much of the drilling activity in the Eagle Ford is targeting both crude oil and wet natural gas resources.

Bentek estimates that in March 2012, Eagle Ford crude oil and lease condensate production was approaching crude oil production in the North Dakota part of the Bakken formation.

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Crude Oil Bounces Back After Two Days of Loses

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Crude oil [May contract] closed higher on Monday ending a two day decline off Wednesday's high but remains locked in March's down trending channel. The low range close sets the stage for a steady to lower opening on Tuesday.

Stochastics and the RSI remain neutral to bullish signaling that a low might be in or is near. Closes above last Tuesday's high crossing at 105.07 are needed to confirm that a short term low has been posted. If May renews the decline off March's high, the 38% retracement level of the October-March rally crossing at 97.84 is the next downside target.

First resistance is last Tuesday's high crossing near 105.07. Second resistance is the reaction high crossing at 105.49. First support is this month's low crossing at 100.68. Second support is the 38% retracement level of the October-March rally crossing at 97.84.

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