Oil & Gas News Archives

Crude oil rose to a record $94.80 barrel in New York after an Energy Department report showed that U.S. inventories fell to a two-year low.

News video: While some of its conventional oil and gas projects may become uneconomical because of Alberta's new royalty regime, Petro-Canada says it's in the province for the long haul. And, for the time being, it's business as usual for its oil sands projects.

“TransCanada's strong financial performance during the third quarter is a result of solid contributions from our existing assets, and our continued disciplined approach to growing our pipelines and energy businesses”

" TransCanada Corp. has reported third-quarter earnings of $324 million, up from $293 million a year earlier on stronger results from both its pipeline and energy segments. via The Toronto Star

“Oil prices are rising but (domestic) oil product prices are kept low by the government. The impact on our refining operations is quite big”

HONG KONG : Gas stations in parts of China are rationing and even halting diesel sales amid a fuel shortage triggered by a widening gap between the soaring cost of crude oil and government-controlled retail ... via International Herald Tribune

“Rather it is about whether further punishment is warranted...We do not believe any punitive damages are warranted in this case.”

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether Exxon Mobil Corp. should pay $2.5 billion in punitive damages in connection with the huge Exxon Valdez oil spill that fouled more than 1,200 miles of Alaskan coastline in 1989.

The high court stepped into the long-running battle over the damages that Exxon Mobil owes in the spillage of 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound, the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The Exxon Valdez supertanker had run aground on a reef. A federal appeals court already had cut in half the $5 billion in damages awarded by a jury in 1994. Read more

“We will be reviewing the offer with our board of directors and will be responding with a recommendation to our shareholders within 10 business days after the filing of the tender offer.”

Los Angeles Business from bizjournals Kirk Kerkorian, through his investment company Tracinda Corp., is looking to increase his stake in Tesoro Corp., and is offering $64 a share to up his stake from about 4 ... via The Birmingham News

News Video: TheEnergyNews.com's Calgary Bureau Chief Brett Harris talks one on one with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach about Alberta's new royalty regime. Despite industry concerns, Stelmach says his plan strikes a good balance.

News video: Stelmach's Royalty Preview - Q3's; Progress, PetroCan, Suncor and More - Deep Panuke a Go - Oil Jumps - Canadian Abducted in Darfur

ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, said Wednesday its third-quarter earnings fell 5 percent on weakness in refining, but the decline was less than Wall Street had feared. via PR-inside.com

Albertans could be paying as much as $1.50 a litre at gas pumps within six months, local analysts say, as the price of crude oil hovers around the record-breaking $90 US a barrel mark and threatens to jump ...

Oil prices rose Tuesday, bolstered by concerns over a buildup of Turkish military forces along the northern Iraqi border.

America‘s policy of subsidizing ethanol to reduce its dependence on foreign oil will result in higher food prices in Canada as well as the U.S., says CIBC World Markets‘ chief economist.

RAPID CITY - More jobs are expected in Rapid City as a result of utility purchases by Black Hills Corp. via Argus Leader

“It did shake the house pretty good”

A refinery explosion early Wednesday shook nearby houses and sent a fireball into the sky, but an Exxon Mobil Corp. via Houston Chronicle

Oil prices moved back above $88 a barrel Wednesday after an explosion at a small Exxon Mobil Corp. via Press-Telegram

Energy giant BP PLC went to Texas' highest civil court Thursday in hopes of keeping its former top executive from being questioned in lawsuits over a deadly plant explosion 2 1/2 years ago. via PR-inside.com

HOUSTON : Halliburton Co. said Sunday its earnings rose 19 percent in the third quarter, as the oilfield services company continues to expand its business in the Eastern Hemisphere. via International Herald Tribune

“Production decline rates in mature areas and continuing project delays will inhibit non-OPEC supply increases, while personnel and equipment shortages will restrict the industry's ability to respond”

Oilfield services company Schlumberger Ltd. said Friday its profit rose 35 percent in the third quarter, as strong demand in Latin America, Russia and Asia offset weakness in the Gulf of Mexico and other ... via Houston Chronicle

Drivers in Galveston/Texas City received a treat this week. The area had the lowest regular grade gasoline prices in the state at $2.57 a gallon, according to the AAA Texas Gas Watch.

Calgary based energy giant, Encana, is being charged with violating the Canada Wildlife Act. The charge stems from activity on the Canadian Forces Base at Suffield, Alberta in March, 2005.

News Video: Alberta Oil Workers Rally Coverage - Peerless Pulls Out - FirstEnergy Capital's Royalty Warning - Rig Count Down - Taqa North Bonds - Devon Discovery

Starting Wednesday the U.S. branch of a global group of oil experts who believe the world is at or very near “peak oil” production will hold a four-day meeting that could unleash an important new phenomenon impacting the price of oil.

HOUSTON : Energy company Marathon Oil Corp. said Tuesday it's received both regulatory and shareholder approval for its $5.5 billion acquisition of Western Oil Sands Inc., which gives it a stake in Canada's oil ... via International Herald Tribune

Alberta's New Democrats are accusing the Stelmach government of holding closed-door meetings with the energy industry to talk about a contentious report that calls for higher royalties.

Petroleum Development Corporation , an independent energy company, said on 15 October that it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase a majority working interest in around 760 natural gas wells ... via M2.com

Newfield Exploration Co. on Monday said its president and chief operating officer, David Schaible, died on Oct. via Houston Business Journal

Western Gas Partners LP, a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., plans an initial public offering of 18.8 million common units representing limited partner interests, according to a Securities and Exchange ... via MSN Money

Chevron Corp. plans to begin about $500 million worth of work at its Pascagoula, Miss., refinery early next year, a project that could boost its production by 10 percent, or 600,000 gallons per day. via The San Francisco Business Times

ConocoPhillips is hustling to assess whether the area can meet the housing and other needs of the more than 1,500 construction workers as it prepares to expand its refinery, perhaps beginning early next year. via Daily Chronicle Online

A former KGB officer said to be close to President Vladimir Putin was selected at a shareholders meeting Monday to head Transneft, the state-owned monopoly pipeline operator. via PR-inside.com

“When they get much below $5, (companies refine gasoline) out of obligation”

Drivers aren't the only ones being squeezed by record oil prices. A surprising casualty of the escalating cost of crude and sagging pump prices turns out to be the oil industry itself. via CNN

“The deal would give Eni 80% of the M'Boundi field in Congo and a reasonable priced entrée into Turkmenistan, where the change in president has sharply increased international interest”

In the stock-market casino, oil exploration and production is where the high-risk high rollers like to play. via This is London

“The delegation is expected to stay there for about 3-4 days and we will use diplomatic sources to clinch the project”

Agencies Posted online: Saturday , October 13, 2007 at 1247 hrs IST Chennai, October 13: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has asked the government to shift the location of its shallow water oil exploration ... via Express India

The country received its first oil tanker ordered from South Korea-based shipbuilder Hyundai Company. via IranMania News

Hong Kong shares rallied for a third straight session Thursday to set a new closing record, snubbing an overnight decline in Wall Street. via PR-inside.com

Rig Supervisor Rod Klepzig stands on the drill rig overlooking construction materials on Oooguruk Island off of the coast of Alaska's North Slope Wednesday Sept. via Journal Gazette

“It was a squeeze on both sides: You had product prices declining and you had raw material prices increasing. That just really reduced margins very dramatically, as opposed to prior years”

The recent surge in crude oil prices above $80 a barrel came at a bad time for U.S. refiners, as profit warnings showed this week from some of the nation's largest oil refiners. via Houston Chronicle

“The development and production of Genghis Khan provides early learnings and synergy with our Shenzi project and expands our ownership of operated infrastructure in this region”

The world largest mining company, BHP Billiton, announced its first oil production from the Genghis Khan development, located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico on Monday. via International Business Times

Basic Energy Services Inc , a provider of well site services essential to maintaining production from the oil and gas wells within its operating area, declared on 11 October its selected operating data for the ... via M2.com

“I would like to extend my personal condolences, and those of the entire Husky organization to the family.”

Husky Energy Inc. today confirmed the death of a 34-year old man on board the SeaRose FPSO, located at the White Rose oil field 350 kilometres offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. via Ocean Resources

Announces Third Quarter 2007 Earnings Release Date and Conference Call Information HOUSTON, Oct 11, 2007 -- Transocean Inc. via Euroland

Elizabeth A. Jabush, 55, of Jackson Township, died Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, at Bey Lea Village Nursing Center, Toms River. via Courier News Online

“Tertiary recovery can last almost as long as primary recovery”

Texas company to ramp up oil recovery efforts in November The Associated Press NATCHEZ, Miss. via The South Mississippi Sun Herald

“As investors, we're all wrestling with the fact that it's difficult to justify current valuations in China, even though there has been a lot of fundamental, macroeconomic progress there.”

PTR / BRK.A Analysts say it is likely Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, has already sold off its entire position in oil explorer and producer PetroChina, a move that has some Buffett followers ... via Seeking Alpha

“Natural gas drilling activity has been in decline for the past year due to lower natural gas prices which is quite typical for a cyclical industry”

- Oilfield transportation company The Mullen Group Income Fund (TSX: MTL.UN) is blaming uncertainty around potential royalty increases in Alberta for its decision to lay off 100 employees.

With Mullen's announcement Friday, the oilfield services sector added its voice to an intensive lobbying effort against an Alberta-government commissioned report that says the province has not received its fair share of oil and gas revenues and recommends boosting its take by 20 per cent.

Like many large oil and gas producers who have recently warned of significant spending cutbacks if the royalty report is implemented, Mullen also admitted Friday that ongoing low natural gas prices are contributing to the angst. Read more

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States was up this week by 12 to 1,767. Of the rigs running nationwide, 1,442 were exploring for natural gas and 319 for oil, ... via El Paso Times

“BP's performance has materially lagged our peer group in the last three years. It has been poor because we are not consistent and our organization has grown too complex”

The chief executive of BP Plc on Thursday outlined a plan to address industry-lagging profitability by slashing management layers, adopting consistent procedures for developing oil and gas fields and reducing ... via WNED.org

“Along with paying a criminal fine, Rowan Companies, Inc. is implementing a compliance plan and is helping to set industry standards that will serve as a model for other oil drilling companies.”

NEWS RELEASE FROM UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: WASHINGTON - Rowan Companies, Inc., a major oil and gas drilling company, pleaded guilty today in United States District Court in Beaumont, Texas, to three ... via KFDM-TV Beaumont

China's third-largest oil company, CNOOC Ltd., says it has opened the first gas station of a planned chain, entering a market dominated by its bigger Chinese rivals. via The China Post

An on-site investigation into the deaths of two workers at a northern Alberta oilsands tank construction site has been completed. via CANOE

“We are serious about our commitment to being the best in the business from both an operational and an environmental standpoint.”

Rowan enters guilty pleas in pollution case Rowan Companies, Inc. today announced that, pursuant to a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice , it entered guilty pleas to three felony counts ... via Marine Log

Rising oil prices and falling temperatures boosted energy stocks Wednesday despite an 85-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and profit warnings from bellwethers Chevron and Valero. via MarketWatch

“There's a discussion about hiding people's fingerprints”

BP's Prudoe Bay oil field facility in in Prudoe Bay, Alaska. ANCHORAGE, Alaska-Alaska lawmakers are questioning major oil companies over their role in a bribery scheme that has netted the criminal convictions ... via The Epoch Times

“In the view of the Pulse board of directors, this is a scaremongering pressure tactic to coerce Pulse shareholders into accepting an inadequate offer that they would otherwise reject”

Pulse Data Inc. says it continues to reject a $180-million takeover offer from Seitel Inc. via Sympatico Finance

CALGARY - PrimeWest Energy Trust says shareholders will vote Nov. 21 in Calgary on the controversial $5-billion proposed takeover by Abu Dhabi state energy firm TAQA. via CBC News

GE Energy and Bechtel Overseas Power Corp. are working with TransCanada Corp. to develop the first power plant in Canada with the ability to use petroleum coke to produce fertilizer ingredients and electricity. via Sympatico Finance

Oil services company Weatherford International Inc said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that the U.S. Justice Department was probing its participation in the oil-for-food program in Iraq. via Boston.com

Valero Energy Corp., the nation's largest independent oil refiner, said Wednesday it expects to report third-quarter earnings far short of Wall Street estimates because the cost of refined products hasn't kept ... via Houston Chronicle

Australian officials gave the green light Wednesday to the giant Gorgon gas project off the coast of northwestern Australia, clearing the way for Chevron Corp. via Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Koch Industries Inc. Executive Vice President David H. Koch has given $100 million to establish the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of ... via Wichita Business Journal

“This is not only a positive vote for the future of the company, but when the transaction is complete our shareholders will hold stock in a dividend-paying, investment-grade company”

Aquila Inc. shareholders on Tuesday voted in favor of selling the regional utility's electric operations to competitor Great Plains Energy Inc. via San Jose Mercury News

“It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years”

STOCKHOLM France's Albert Fert and Germany's Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for a breakthrough in nanotechnology that lets huge amounts of data be squeezed into ever-smaller ... via Orange Co. Register

“We buy all Iranian crude through traders. One of the traders agreed to pay in yen. Thus, we will be paying in yen for part of our Iranian crude purchase”

TOKYO : Japanese oil refiners Cosmo Oil Co. and Japan Energy Corp. have started paying Iran for crude oil imports in yen instead of dollars, company spokesmen said Tuesday. via International Herald Tribune

“Canadian Natural believes that many of the cost assumptions represent only half of the actual costs being incurred by industry today. Further, the impacts of new environmental levies and recent taxation changes were not considered by the panel.”

" Joining a wave of corporate protest over proposed royalty hikes in Alberta, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. via The Toronto Star

Gazprom Has Deal on Ukraine Debt 7:53 AM EDT, October 9, 2007 MOSCOW - Russia's state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom said Tuesday it had reached a deal on settling Ukraine's $1.3 billion debt for gas supplies. via Newsday.com

Natural gas distributor Oneok Partners LP says it's completed the purchase of an interstate pipeline from a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP for about $300 million. via KOTV Tulsa News

“The scope of the investigation has been expanded to include the review of the company's use in certain markets of third-party marketing and other agents, and immigration and customs practices of the company in other countries”

Tidewater investigating foreign bribe Nigerian customs agent reimbursed for his help THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS -- Tidewater Inc., which provides transportation for the offshore petroleum industry, said ... via Sunherald.com

WASHINGTON_One of the nation's largest power generators has agreed to end a years-long federal lawsuit by paying $4.6 billion to reduce pollution that has eaten away at Northeast mountain ranges and national ... via Customer Interaction Solutions

“Thus, the (U.S. attorney) brazenly stacked the scales of justice in favor of Olis' conviction”

A former midlevel Dynegy Inc. executive serving six years for helping foster a multimillion-dollar accounting scheme has asked a federal court to set aside his convictions and free him from jail. via The Post-Standard

“It's another example where we're able to move quickly when opportunity presents itself”

Hunt Oil Co Chief Executive Ray Hunt said his ties to the Bush family and the Republican Party did not help his company cut a deal last month to explore for oil in Iraq's Kurdish region, the Wall Street Journal ... via The Boston Globe

“If the only consideration were whether we agree with the district court's decision and reasoning, we would remand”

U.S. antitrust authorities dropped an administrative challenge to Western Refining Inc's $1.13 billion purchase of rival Giant Industries Inc, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday. via BNET

“At this time, we have no evidence on record to indicate whether such claims are true”

PIERRE - South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission might lack power to influence how a pipeline company handles land deals, but the agency is watching closely, commissioners warned in a recent letter to a ... via Argus Leader

“The question for Nabors is how much is already priced into the stock. I'd tell you that if you can buy a stock at 9.5 times trough earnings its probably a pretty good long-term bet”

Oil and gas driller Nabors Industries Ltd said on Friday it expects third-quarter and 2008 earnings to fall short of analysts' expectations as weak natural gas prices continue to drag on rig activity across ... via Reuters

“We are working on ways of doing other types of contracts to allow Nexen to do investments and look at opportunities in the deep water and marginal fields in Mexico, so it's a very important step in the process to enter in the Mexico market”

CALGARY -- Nexen Inc. said it hopes an energy deal signed Friday with Pemex, Mexico's national oil company, will open the door to deeper participation in the country's undercapitalized industry. via National Post

Delta Air Lines Inc. plans to sell $1.4 billion in debt backed by its planes. The sale of enhanced equipment trust certificates will consist of $924 million of 14.8-year Class A bonds; $265 million of 14.8-year ... via Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“It also provides them a springboard for future development.”

Drilling in a field capable of yielding as much as 90 million barrels of oil seemed just right for Pioneer Natural Resources Co. via Hartford Courant

The company has agreed to pay more than $2 million for environmental projects. The agreement will end a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Delaware Audubon Society in 2005. via WBOC-TV Salisbury

A petrol station on the outskirts of Yanan, Shaanxi province. China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corp , has agreed to invest in a joint venture oil refinery near the capital of Chad China's ... via TurkishPress.com

“The (Indonesian) vice president emphasized that the standard production sharing contract (formula) should be applied (to the block)”

Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources reports Indonesia wants to boost its share of the revenues from a disputed offshore natural gas block held by U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. via Pravda