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Tag: chevron

  • Chevron, Schlumberger and Microsoft Announce Collaboration to Create Oil Field Intelligence Platform

    Chevron, Schlumberger and Microsoft Announce Collaboration to Create Oil Field Intelligence Platform

    In what is considered to be an industry first, Chevron, Schlumberger and Microsoft have announced a three-party collaboration to accelerate the development of petrotechnical and digital technologies.

    DELFI is a stable, secure and open cloud-based environment for E&P software across the entire petrochemical lifecycle, including exploration, development and production. The three companies will work together to develop Azure-native applications in the DELFI environment.

    The collaboration will roll out in three phases. In the first phase, the companies will deploy the Petrotechnical Suite within the DELFI environment. The second phase will involve deploying Azure-based, cloud-native applications, while the third phase will be centered around the development of a suite of cognitive computing capabilities across the entire E&P value chain.

    All three companies are committed to ensuring their joint development efforts meet the latest security, performance and release management standards. In addition, the software will be compatible with the Open Subsurface Data Universe (OSDU) Data Platform, a standard data platform for the oil and gas industry. The OSDU’s stated goal is to ensure data is at the center of the industry, minimizing data silos.

    Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, touted the collaboration as “an enormous opportunity to bring the latest cloud and AI technology to the energy sector and accelerate the industry’s digital transformation. Our partnership with Schlumberger and Chevron delivers on this promise, applying the power of Azure to unlock new AI-driven insights that will help address some of the industry’s—the world’s—most important energy challenges, including sustainability.”

  • Chevron Readies Apple Pay At The Pump

    Chevron Readies Apple Pay At The Pump

    One day in the not too distant future, you may be able to pay for gas at Chevron stations with your iPhone right at the pump. Chevron recently tweeted this (via MacRumors):

    Chevron was actually one of the launch partners for Apple Pay listed when Apple first announced its payment product, and already offers its customers the ability to pay with Apple Pay inside some of its stores. A pay-at-the-pump feature would be new, however, and could lead other gas stations to follow suit. Texaco stations also currently accept Apple Pay in-store.

    MacRumors reports in an update:

    Chevron has clarified that a potential timeline for the rollout of Apple Pay at the pump remains unclear, with no official early 2015 launch planned. The company also plans to continue to roll out in-store Apple Pay support to 3,000 stores in 2015.

    In fact, it’s not news that Chevron has had plans to integrate Apple Pay at the pump. SFGate quoted a company spokesperson as far back as October:

    “Initially, Apple Pay payments will be made in the store, but we are working along with Apple Pay on developing the technology out at the fuel dispensers as well,” said Chevron spokesman Braden Reddall.

    The tweet, however, would seem to suggest that the feature is getting closer.

  • Mia Farrow Visits Ecuador To Condemn Chevron

    Mia Farrow may be most well known for her relationship with director Woody Allen and its disastrous end, but the actress also takes time out of her day to do some serious humanitarian work.

    Farrow, who has served as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador to Africa, has turned her attention to perceived injustices carried out in Ecuador by oil giant Chevron. The company was ordered to pay a $9-million fine for polluting the Amazon river area in the time period between 1964 and 1990.

    The offenses in question were committed by Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, thereby taking on the burden of its lawsuits. Chevron is claiming that the trial was marred with corruption and refuses to pay the fine, but the company is unlikely to earn any sympathy given the track records that oil companies have with oil spills and general environmental destruction. Claims that Ecuadorians have contracted cancer from the pollution near their homes piles even more damning evidence onto the company.

    Farrow traveled to the small nation to witness the pollution, and expressed anger when shown pools of oil harming the environment. She even symbolically dipped her hand in the oil, following in the footsteps of other celebrities who have tried to call attention to both themselves and the plight they are observing.

    Farrow’s visit is unlikely to have any measurable effect on the situation in Ecuador, but anytime an individual tries to draw attention to injustice can be counted as a win for humanity in my book.

    [Image via ENOUGHproject]

  • Nigerian Cook Survives 60 Hours Underwater

    A Nigerian cook, wearing only boxer shorts, survived for roughly 60 hours in the Atlantic Ocean, after locating a pocket of air inside the sunken tugboat he was in

    Harrison Odjegba Okene, 29, was the cook on a tugboat called Jacson-4, which sunk about 20 miles off the Nigerian coast on May 26th. Jacson-4 capsized while stabilizing an oil tanker filling up at a Chevron platform during rough seas. Eleven other crew members drowned, but Okene was able to find a small air pocket, which sustained him for almost three days, before South African divers found him.

    Okene says he was in the bathroom when he realized the tugboat was beginning to capsize, and as water began pouring in, he flung open the door to the toilet and made his way to a small adjoining crew quarter. For almost 60 hours, the cook was then amazingly able to survive while breathing on a slowly diminishing 4-foot pocket of air, over 90 feet below the surface of the ocean.

    Here’s a surreal clip of the rescue:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9zNznYd98

    “I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it’s the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not,” Okene said, adding, “I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue.” Seawater got into his mouth, which chafed his tongue, though he had nothing to eat or drink during his time in the air bubble.

    At one point, Okene decided to swim into the officer’s quarters to retrieve some wall paneling to attempt to build a small raft to keep his body more elevated. At this point, he felt that he wasn’t alone – “I was very, very cold and it was black. I couldn’t see anything,” Okene said, “But I could perceive the dead bodies of my crew were nearby. I could smell them. The fish came in and began eating the bodies. I could hear the sound. It was horror.”

    As time wore on in the wreckage, Okene recited a psalm his wife had sent by text message:

    Oh God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.

    Eventually Chevron and the ship’s owners, West African Ventures, were searching for crew members, and Okene heard them on May 28. “I heard a sound of a hammer hitting the vessel. Boom, boom, boom. I swam down and found a water dispenser. I pulled the water filter and I hammered the side of the vessel hoping someone would hear me. Then the diver must have heard a sound.”

    Divers rescued Okene, who then spent an additional 60 hours in a decompression chamber. There was a chance he wouldn’t survive if immediately exposed to normal atmospheric pressure.

    Image via YouTube.

  • Texas Pipeline Explosion: No Injuries Reported

    200 school children were evacuated after a massive pipeline explosion in the small Dallas, Texas suburb of Milford. Fortunately no injuries have been reported, according to the LA Times. Milford only has about 700 residents and is 40 miles south of Dallas. The explosion rocked the tiny town mid-morning at a drilling site, said the Ellis County Sheriff’s office.

    All workers were accounted for after the explosion that sent flames erupting into the air. The pipeline is owned by Chevron Corp., according to Reuters. The explosion was caused by a construction crew that accidentally drilled into a 10-inch liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) line, said Tom Hemrick, director of Hill County Emergency Management.

    Homes within a mile radius around the explosion were also asked to evacuate due to fumes and smoke. Those residents were sent to a concrete gym in the neighboring town of Italy.

    “The fire is definitely getting smaller,” Hemrick said of the inferno in an open field near Milford. “We’re not going to send anyone else in there with the danger,” Hemrick said, “The people with the gas lines have told us it’s going to burn for another 24 hours. They’ve shut it off at one end and have evacuated folks at the other end.”

    Another 14-inch LPG line runs just a few feet from the one that blew up. The crew still had liquified petroleum flowing in that line, because stopping it would increase the risk of a secondary explosion, Hemrick assured. “It is still flowing because the flow cools the line.”

    Joe Hubbard, a spokesman for the EPA regional office in Dallas, said, “EPA Emergency Response personnel are assisting with the response efforts to determine environmental effects of the explosion and provide additional support as requested.”

    In a statement, Chevron said, “Chevron has initiated its emergency response procedures and is currently responding to the incident. Chevron’s primary concern at this point is to ensure the safety of its employees and the surrounding community. As soon as there are further details, they will be made available.”

    Luckily, the explosion in Milford happened in a mostly rural area, unlike the explosion in West, Texas that happened in April and killed 15, and injured 160. The incredible response time and smooth procedure can be attributed to the lessons learned from West. “We learned a lot from West. It went by the book, everybody was accountable and we knew who was here. Right now it’s really just a waiting game.”, Hemrick said. If there ever was a silver lining, that would be it.

    image via youtube

  • $1.5 Trillion In Oil Discovered In Gulf Of Mexico

    Good news for the oil industry and big business! Nearly $1.5 trillion worth of crude oil was just discovered through drilling pipes in the Gulf of Mexico. Robert Ryan, a geologist working with Texaco Inc. had no way of predicting that he would be changing the future of energy that exists in the Gulf of Mexico when he set it in place for this well to be built. In fact, it just broke the world record for deep-water drilling.

    The opinions on U.S. offshore geology have profoundly changed, due to recent studies. This year, we saw the Gulf of Mexico become one of the most promising frontier oil plays in the world, according to Business Week. This is certainly good for the business of oil, but is it really helpful for the country to keep finding and funding more oil?

    The project known as BAHA, started in 1996 by Texaco and its partners, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Amoco Corp. and Mobil Corp., was a dry hole. Normally, this would have been game over, but instead BAHA’s discovery of oil-rich sands was the first step toward unlocking this shocking amount of oil. Investment is pouring in, with 42 drilling rigs operating in 1,000 or more feet of water as of Sept. 9. That is 35 percent more than what we had just four years ago. Chevron remains to be the powerhouse in the area, with five rigs currently drilling there.

    There is plenty more available too, with about 15 million barrels estimated of recoverable oil that remains to be found in the Lower Tertiary. Geologist Robert Ryan was quoted saying “What catches our attention is the potential, right in our backyard, and it’s still in its infancy.” Ryan jumped at the idea, wanting to use as much of the oil as he could. Another important breakthrough has been new seismic tools that allow companies to see through layers of salt deposits. These were previously blocked their vision, and are now able to open up new parts of the formation to exploration, reports the Washington Post.

    An example of an oil rig in Gulf of Mexico

    The cost of drilling and the risk that is attached along with it continue to be a problem for oil companies and particularly those that are opposed to the drilling process altogether. Some people feel that drilling for oil is already an outdated process and that companies should be looking into more renewable sources of energy. All of this oil has just been found and it seems that we continue to find more, but as well know, it will be depleted eventually. Oil may be profitable right now, but educate yourselves on the issue, because it is harmful to the environment in addition to not being sustainable compared with other sources like wind and solar. Everyone remembers the big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just 3 years ago right?

    Image via Youtube