BP plc has seen its share price slump since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began in late April, and some are suggesting that a larger company could take advantage of BP's depressed valuation and buy it out.
Two energy companies operating in Iraq expect that their gas-capturing efforts will net 2.5 billion cubic feet of the hydrocarbon each day. An Iraqi official indicated this week that the companies - Royal Dutch Shell and Mitsubishi Corp. - will capture gas that would otherwise be flared from Iraq's oil fields. The two firms will operate in four fields in the south of the country - Rumaila, West Qurna, Majnoon and Zubair, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
Statutorily, oil companies operating in the U.S. are only obligated to pay $75 million in spill-remediation costs - but the White House appears likely to back an elimination of that liability cap.
Beleaguered energy giant BP plc is expecting to sell off assets to fund the $20 billion escrow account it promised to American lawmakers, but company officials say new equity issuances are out of the question.
Malaysian state energy company Petronas, which owns gas assets in Ethiopia, could be exporting gas from the country within five years. Petronas acquired development rights at Ethiopia's Calub and Hilala gas fields in 2007, the Addis Ababa-based Reporter newspaper notes. While 16 foreign energy companies are operating in the East African nation, Petronas is the only one whose work is at an advanced stage, Mines Ministry senior economist Eshetu Chala said to Bloomberg this week.
Italy's government indicated two weeks ago that it planned to slash feed-in tariffs by 18 percent, and the move is calling into question the viability of alternative energy in the Mediterranean country.
After nearly seven months of delays, Tullow Oil was cleared to buy Heritage Oil's assets in Uganda. The former plans to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure in the central African country, which has yet to produce a significant amount of oil. Its infrastructure proposal was contingent on the acquisition of Heritage's assets, though - and that acquisition can finally move forward.
The Chinese government is adjusting tax policy to promote development in the country's often-tumultuous west, reports indicate. Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports that the corporate tax rate in the region will be slashed from 25 to 15 percent - a bid to encourage economic development and reduce the likelihood of strife.
French energy giant Total is upping its stake in western Canada's oil sands. The company is buying Calgary-based oil producer UTS Corp. for C$1.5 billion ($1.4 billion). Total is paying C$3.08 for UTS - a substantial premium to its Wednesday closing price.
Were the United States' coal-fired power plants to be converted to gas, the cost could total $335 billion. So says the American Public Power Association, which commissioned a report on the feasibility of making the switch from coal to gas. The latter, widely seen as a bridge fuel between the coal-powered present and an alternative-energy future, has far lower carbon intensity than coal and is readily available, thanks to hydraulic fracturing.
The Obama administration appealed this week a federal judge's ruling on the six-month drilling moratorium it put in place - but the appeal was denied. A three-judge panel at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government failed to show that lifting the drilling ban, as Judge Martin Feldman called for in late June, would result in "irreparable harm," the Los Angeles Times reports.
Sinopec's 2009 purchase of Swiss oil concern Addax appears to be paying off. The Chinese energy giant announced Monday that it had discovered oil at a well formerly held by Addax in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta. The well, Sinopec reported in China PetroChemical News, generated flows of 3,365 barrels of oil and 28,300 cubic meters of gas in a day.
An Illinois engineering firm has developed a method of growing and harvesting algae for biofuels that's less energy-intensive than traditional algae farming. Unitel Technologies, Inc. announced July 9 that it was filing a patent for its new algae-harvesting process, which treats a "slurry" of algae and water in a hydrolysis reactor. The end products are fatty acids, which can be converted into biojet fuel; a so-called "sweetwater" that is fed back to the algae; and...
The International Energy Agency expects oil demand growth to slow next year on the back of reduced oil use in the world's advanced economies and more efficient use of fossil fuels elsewhere. According to the agency's estimates, oil consumption will grow by 2.1 percent between 2009 and 2010. Next year, though, the IEA expects demand to rise by just 1.6 percent.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into shale gas projects in the U.S., even as state governments consider tougher drilling rules and environmental regulators prepare to examine the effects of unconventional gas drilling on water supplies.
The European Union requires that 10 percent of its fuels be renewably produced by 2020 - but that target is drawing fire from environmentalists concerned about the externalities associated with biofuel production.
The head of the International Energy Agency called on governments around the world to limit the subsidization of fossil-fuel consumption, a move he said would save money and reduce carbon emissions.
Natural gas from Azerbaijan's massive Shah Deniz fields will be shipped through Turkey and on to Europe, thanks to an agreement reached Monday. The energy ministers of Turkey and Azerbaijan, Taner Yildiz and Natiq Aliyev, signed a deal that set both the price of Azeri gas and the transit fees that Turkey will charge.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration cut its oil price estimate for the second half of the year, a move that sent oil futures tumbling. The EIA expects oil to average $79 per barrel in the next six months, down from $84 in its last monthly report on the oil industry. The downward revision is reflective of recent oil price declines, driven largely by investors' flight from risk and concern that the euro-zone countries' debt woes will hinder the global economic recovery.
Offshore drilling has become politically unpopular since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began 50 days ago, but public pressure is leading the Obama administration to reopen federal waters to shallow-water drilling.
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