MARKET WATCH: NYMEX falls after IEA’s US oil output forecast

Light, sweet oil prices fell on Jan. 19 to settle at $63.37/bbl, its lowest closing since Jan. 9. The price drop came after the International Energy Agency forecast 2018 US crude production will be higher than production from Saudi Arabia. Source: News

Nigeria's Edo state due refinery

The government of Nigeria’s Edo state has signed a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of Chinese and African companies to build what could become the state’s first refinery. Source: News

House Resources Democrats question BLM's fracing rule withdrawal

Two leading Democrats on the US House Natural Resources Committee questioned the US Bureau of Land Management’s Dec. 29, 2017, rescission of its 2015 hydraulic fracturing regulation because the agency’s justification varied dramatically from one it reached in 2012 when it explained why the rule was needed. Source: News

Seeking harmony

US approaches to oil and gas, on the one hand, and diplomacy, on the other, have reversed course but continue to swing in opposite directions. This is regrettable. Source: News

Lean machines

The business of efficiency is a big one, and it’s getting (ironically) bigger. Efficiency and analytics departments are popping up right and left throughout oil and gas operating companies-so much so, in fact, that the word efficiency itself is quickly taking on that rather distasteful sheen previously ascribed by discriminating readers to the word optimization. […]