Aug 2010

BP's asset-sale programme will be critical to the company's efforts to reassure investors, but is its US refining and marketing business the right asset to sell, asks Miles Lang

Ecopetrol's $80bn investment target – 80% in the upstream – will require extensive use of capital markets

BP's latest sale in its $30bn asset-disposal programme is 100% of the shares in its Colombian business

Poland has signed up to the US Shale Gas Initiative, boosting the country's position as an emerging force in unconventional energy.

The drilling of India's first shale-gas well could trigger a scramble for unconventional-gas acreage in the country

Canada's Enerplus has invested C$1.3bn this year building a portfolio in the US and Canada, while offloading its last oil-sands stakes

North America's shale-gas companies have two things China wants: expertise and LNG

Political opposition to a new oil pipeline from Canada stems from confusion about US energy needs

Poland's shale gas could transform the country's energy outlook. But getting there will be costly for producers

An oil spill on an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan has undermined notions that Canadian oil imports provide a safer alternative to domestic US drilling

Natural gas can solve North America's energy supply dilemma, says EnCana boss Randy Eresman

Talisman Energy is reshuffling its portfolio, seeking growth from North America's shale-gas resources.

The shale-gas revolution that started with the drillers is entering the boardrooms. Expect the North American natural gas scene to look very different in coming years

Thanks to stronger oil prices and Chinese investment, the oil sands are gathering steam again. Alberta says it is better prepared for the rush this time

Between environmental abuse and shutting down Alberta's oil sands lies a reasonable path to sustainable energy production, says the Pembina Institute

Coal-bed methane is putting Australia on course to be the world's biggest exporter of unconventional natural gas

Asia's growing economies hope domestic shale-gas resources can solve their energy security concerns

The fallout of the Gulf of Spill is now spreading to shale-gas drillers in the US

CNPC's deal with gas producer EnCana gives it a foothold in Canada's growing shale-gas business and heralds the arrival of China's state-owned oil companies in North America's unconventional-gas sector

A provincial judge has found Syncrude guilty of failing to prevent the deaths of 1,600 waterfowl in a tailings pond

Canada's ERCB has approved Suncor's tailings-management plan, which the company says will accelerate the clean-up of tailings ponds by decades

Chevron has applied for a permit to explore for shale gas in the northeast of Bulgaria

Talisman's first batch of wells targeting promising unconventional-gas deposits in Poland will be complete by 2012

... but only if the industry can co-exist with the legions of tourists who help prop up the country's economy

US gas producers must "take the gloves" off as they fight the coal industry's negative campaigning against shale-gas drilling

Global upstream M&A activity in the second quarter was driven by North American deals, particularly in the unconventional sector

The Marcellus Shale could be the second-biggest gasfield in the world and may be worth over $2 trillion at today's gas prices

US shale-gas drillers have some time to wait before a resurgence in natural gas prices takes hold

Oil India is examining shale-gas investment opportunities in the US and Australia

Stopping the flow from the Macondo well is not the end of the Deepwater Horizon affair. Along with BP, environmentalists and the US government must rebuild credibility that has been lacking in the aftermath of the accident

New York's Senate votes to extend shale drilling moratorium until May 2011

MATTHEW Simmons, the industry insider who broke ranks to proclaim the dangers of peak oil, died at his home in North Haven, Maine on 9 August. He was 67.

WITH a commitment to cut carbon emissions by 34% by 2020, and little of its own money to spend, the UK government needs to encourage private investment into low-carbon generation. Nuclear power must play a key role in this, but there are regulatory obstacles to the kind of long-term investment needed. A carbon floor price and an obligation for traders to buy low-carbon power under long-term contracts are the two sticking points.

Indonesia has large untapped coal-bed methane reserves. With an eye on a growing domestic market and the possibility of new exports, investors are sizing up developments

India's Cambay field holds 413bn cubic feet (cf) of economically recoverable tight gas, says one of the companies developing the resource. The estimate – based on a nine-month study by a reserves specialist – is a boost to the prospects of India's unconventional-gas industry

Energy discussions in Ottawa go ahead between oil sands' boosters - and their foes

Alberta's ambitious pipeline firm Enbridge has a commanding position in Canada's oil sands. But will its plans to export crude off from Canada's west coast gain approval?

Thanks to new techniques and an injection of capital, oil output from the Bakken Shale is on the rise

Oil prices, which topped more than $82/b earlier in August, were softening as the month moved on, amid renewed worries over the global economy, record-high stocks in the US and a dip in Chinese demand

Shareholders in Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO), the last foreign-only consortium running a large project in Kazakhstan, will cede 10% of the project to the state.

Several of the world's largest oil and gas producers are extending their reach into the deep-water Canadian Beaufort Sea

Canada's Utica shale has great potential, but there's work to be done before it can be realised

Cenovus's extensive oil-sands resources mean "decades of double-digit growth". And the firm may accelerate development through a series of partnerships – possibly with Chinese investors, says Chief executive Brian Ferguson

Exclusive interview with Cenovus's Brian Ferguson

Mitsubishi has added impetus to an Asian rush to stake claims in Canada's unconventional-gas plays through a joint venture with Penn West

Chinese CBM production will account for one-third of the country's unconventional supply by 2030

Europa Oil and Gas has received licences to explore for unconventional gas in the UK

Enbridge plans to deliver $0.5bn of pipeline projects to deliver rising oil production from the unconventional Bakken and Three Forks formations

Cenovus's extensive oil-sands resources mean "decades of double-digit growth". And the firm may accelerate development through a series of partnerships – possibly with Chinese investors. Chief executive Brian Ferguson talks to Tom Nicholls

Chevron has started construction of its delayed sour-gas project in China

Canada's New Democrats Party is calling on the government to review rules for developing unconventional energy sources

India's Bharat PetroResources (BPRL) has made a bid for shale-gas acreage in Western Australia

Statoil is examining shale-gas prospects in China, says chief executive Helge Lund

The argument over whether it is thieves and saboteurs, or oil companies that are mainly to blame for oil-spill damage in the Niger Delta is threatening progress in cleaning up the region