Losing value: ExxonMobil says as much as 4.6 billion barrels of its reserves may no longer be profitable to produce. As FuelFix.com reports, the oil giant disclosed the concerns in its third-quarter earnings report, in which profits fell by more than one-third or $1.6 billion, due to lower refining margins and oil prices. This year’s third quarter earnings of $2.7 billion were the lowest in at least five years. Exxon says the crash in oil prices may have impacted the value of its oil and gas reserves—the amount of technically and economically recoverable oil in its fields, and a key marker of a company’s borrowing power. If low prices persist this year, some of Exxon’s oilfields will not qualify as proved reserves by year’s end, the company says. And some of the fields may become un-economical faster than expected. Read the full story.
Going down: First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Oct. 22 decreased from the previous week’s total, The Associated Press reports. State labor department figures released today show the initial claims fell to 2,442 from the previous week’s total of 2,674. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,502. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, decreased to 2,513 from the previous week’s average of 2,514. Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Oct. 22 decreased to 23,089 compared to 24,285 the previous week. The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 24,084 from the previous week’s average of 24,712.
Unchanged: The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and gas in Louisiana remains the same as last week, according to the weekly tally from Baker Hughes, a Houston-based oilfield services company. Louisiana has 46 active rigs, though this week there’s one more rig on land in south Louisiana and one less offshore. The state’s average rig count for the month is 46. This time last year, Louisiana had 71 oil and gas rigs. Also, the number of oil and gas rigs in the U.S. increased by four this week to 557. There were 775 active rigs one year ago.
