BBC: Russia considers accepting Bitcoin for oil and gas. “Russia is considering accepting Bitcoin as payment for its oil and gas exports, according to a high-ranking lawmaker. Pavel Zavalny says ‘friendly’ countries could be allowed to pay in the crypto-currency or in their local currencies.
Greenpeace UK: Follow tankers carrying Russian oil and gas, live on Twitter. “In response to the invasion of Ukraine, many countries have taken steps to block shipments of Russian oil and gas. Now an amazing new Twitter tool allows anyone to see where tankers carrying Russian fuels are going – and where we need to cut our ties to fossil fuels.”
Longview News-Journal: East Texas Oil Museum announces launch of digital photograph archives. “The East Texas Oil Museum in Kilgore has been preserving city, local and regional history for more than 40 years. And now, the museum has announced a new, more modern step in its mission to collect and share items, photographs and more from the East Texas Oil Boom. In addition to viewing historical photos inside the museum, visitors can now view digital copies — carefully cataloged and researched — online.”
UC Santa Barbara: Take It or Leave It. “Of California’s 23 federal offshore platforms, many are nearing the end of their lives, and regulators need to decide what to do with the underwater superstructures. Some advocate removing the platforms in their entirety, while others propose leaving their support structures in place to continue acting as human-made reefs. In an effort to inform this discussion, a group of researchers led by scientists at UC Santa Barbara has produced 11 studies in a dedicated issue of the Bulletin of Marine Science outlining the ecology of the state’s oil platforms. They’ve also compiled a searchable database of studies on platform ecology carried out worldwide.”
Brookings: New data on governance of national oil companies: Why transparency and oversight matter . “The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) conducted a survey of 71 NOCs [National Oil Companies] worldwide in order to assemble the world’s largest open database of NOC operational and financial information. We believe that the database… will help improve oversight—and aid NOCs’ leaders—by providing a stronger basis for understanding what peer companies are doing elsewhere and facilitating research on patterns across NOCs. The database contains more than 70,000 data points covering more than 100 indicators.”
Railroad Commission of Texas: Railroad Commission Launches Texas’ First Online Searchable Database of Oil & Gas Inspection and Enforcement Data . “Today, the Railroad Commission of Texas launched its RRC Online Inspection Lookup (OIL) tool for searching statewide oil and gas inspection and enforcement information, including notices of violation and intentions to sever leases. For the first time in RRC history, RRC OIL allows anyone, anywhere at any time to search online records of oil and gas well inspections and violations.”
WITF: New website aims to be clearinghouse for shale research. ” A new online tool aims to provide a library of up-to-date research, outlining the effects of the nation’s shale oil and gas boom. The Shale Research Clearinghouse (SHARC) was developed by Resources for the Future, a nonpartisan environmental economic think tank.”
US Department of Energy: NETL-Led Team Creates First-Ever International Database for Use in Preventing Natural Gas Infrastructure Failures. “The first-ever database inventory of oil and natural gas infrastructure information from the top hydrocarbon-producing and consuming countries in the world is now available online. The database was born from a massive information acquisition, evaluation, and resource integration project led by the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). NETL has now released the database on the Laboratory’s Energy Data eXchange (EDX), which is an online collection of capabilities and resources that advances research and customizes energy-related needs.”
Oil Review Africa: Total, Google ink AI deal aimed at faster oilfield assessment. “France’s Total and search engine giant Google have signed an agreement to use artificial intelligence (AI), enabling the oil major to assess oil and gas fields faster.”
The Ecologist: New database tracks how Big Oil targets small communities. “Fossil fuel companies like to be seen to be doing good. That’s why you’ll see their logos splashed across school resources, kids’ sports team’s jerseys, and all kinds of ‘STEM’ celebrations. And it’s much more targeted than you might think. DeSmog UK’s new greenwash database – launched today – tracks fossil fuel companies’ involvement in local communities through funding and sponsorship. The entries come from hours of trawling through corporate twitter feeds and corporate social responsibility reports to find out where Big Oil companies are targeted their resources.”
Oil and Gas Vision: New Website to Keep Track on Energy Projects. “An Aberdeen company has created a new website offering news and project tracking for the oil and gas industry. Oil and Gas Vision provides detailed information on full lifecycle intelligence on over 5000 projects in the energy sector. Two subscription options are available – a free e-bulletin and a full membership which provides detailed information on projects around the world.”
Eckerd College: New Online Resource Catalogs Years of Gulf Oil Spill Research. “Seven years of research on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by scientists including Eckerd College professors and students has been turned into a multimedia resource called Beneath the Horizon…. A timeline of the spill, an interactive map of other spill locations in the gulf, videos about the recovery and human cost were all made possible by data collected through extensive research.”
Asharq Al-Awsat: OPEC, UAE Launch Global ‘Oil & Gas’ Database. “The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the United Arab Emirates’ ministry of energy will next week launch the first phase of a new global oil and gas database project aiming to develop an easy-to-use tool to analyze energy information and allow for more transparency.”
CityLab has created a map of 30 years’ worth of pipeline accidents. “Over the last thirty years, just under 9,000 significant pipeline-related incidents have taken place nationwide, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. (Not counted in this total are thousands of less ‘significant’ pipeline-related malfunctions.) To better understand the extent of this damage, CityLab mapped out all significant pipeline accidents between 1986 and 2016, based on data compiled by Richard Stover, an environmental advocate and former research astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the Dakota Pipeline protest is on Facebook Live. “Chairman of the Sioux Standing Rock Tribe called the police tactics disproportionate, and said they included using rubber bullets. Activists said some of the protesters were kept in dog kennels after they were arrested. Protesters took to social media to show police cordons in head-to-toe military gear and armored vehicles on the land where the pipeline is being erected.”
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