Mar 2011

Government halves royalties to 5%; unconventional gas resources greater than conventional

Producers must spend more on innovative R&D to solve the oil sands’ environmental problems – and preserve corporate reputations. But the incentive should come from government

50% tax rate penalises small players; “Muddled” UK land-access laws

Continent only has 20 rigs suitable for shale-gas drilling

Ratings slip on Long Lake troubles; Nexen pins hopes on debt reduction and BC shale gas

Asia-Pacific offers long-term markets; Kitimat LNG, Northern Gateway under study

Third CBM-to-LNG project to get green light; $18bn APLNG project now likely to go ahead

Canada concerned by “discrimination” of oil sands; EU trade deal too important to fail

Fayetteville Shale areas hit by tremors; scientific studies as yet inconclusive

Commercial gas production expected within a year

The province will need until 2013 to complete a four-year process

Development will go ahead on release of regulatory framework later this month

Unconventional could meet 20% of demand

Energy minister cites “25,000 trillion cf” of reserves; new licensing regime needed to realise potential

Keystone XL in US “national interest” – TransCanada; US refiners would “embrace” bitumen – Valero

Play could rival BC’s Horn River; Encana, Chevron among firms building a presence

Shales delivering 25% of US oil output growth; new plays emerging every week

PetroChina funding to underpin output growth; $1.8bn spending programme to reach 0.5m-0.8m b/d

Alberta needs a more “robust” regime, says environment minister Rob Renner

Low gas prices could stimulate US petchems industry

Two-year ban on Utica shale drilling

North American GTL plans receive a boost

Japanese and South Korean firms may be among new investors

Bazhenov formation, in western Siberia, also under consideration

20-year deal will begin in 2015

Europe must adapt conventional exploration and production rules

Production to begin in 2014

China is now the world's largest consumer of energy and its rising demand represents the most formidable geopolitical challenge of the foreseeable future

Four nuclear reactors shut; Japan could import 3 to 5 more LNG cargoes a month; spot prices could reach $11/m Btu

Spot rates stable as market assess demand; long-term charters expected to rise; shipping capacity still tight; SocGen ups Japan gas forecast

Unconventional gas will account for 57% of US production by 2030; CBM and shale to account for almost half Chinese output growth

Anti-nuclear sentiment powers Greens to Baden-Wüttemberg win; UK plans carbon-price floor

Action at water plant shuts Skikda; Arzew ramps up to pick up slack

Japanese demand 'met til May'; Tepco weighs spot deal based on UK gas prices; Supply worries on Algeria and Yemen plant outages

To quench the its thirst for oil, drilling in US deep-water must resume, and soon

Which ends first: the oil market's bull run, or the global economic recovery?

SHELL's largest-yet sale of onshore Nigerian assets is moving towards decision-time, with preferred bidders for the upstream holdings soon to be selected – and asked to pay 10% of their bids into escrow accounts.

Water has become a significant source of friction between the energy industry and the public because of concerns about the impact of producers' water-management practices on health and the environment.

The stalemate between Woodside Petroleum and Timor Leste over the development of the Greater Sunrise LNG project to be "resolved in time", Australian resources minister Martin Ferguson said recently

Russia's Rosneft has given a strong indication that it may be edging towards closer co-operation with the country's gas monopoly, Gazprom, for offtake of the oil producer's associated gas.

Germany's decision to shut down some of its nuclear power stations following problems with Japanese plants after the recent earthquake could spur long-term growth in renewable energy.

Map of oil and gas licensing rounds from 15/03/2011

Violence in North Africa, political risks in the Mideast Gulf and worries that a terrorist attack in Israel may trigger wider conflict across the region continue to buoy prices for Brent crude

Output averaged 86.6 million barrels a day for the month

There is little love lost between Patrick Moore and Greenpeace

The US remains reliant on expensive oil imports from increasingly unstable regions, while drilling rigs lie idle in the Gulf of Mexico. The industry has had enough

Fission may suddenly be out of fashion. But the world cannot afford to scrap plans for advanced, new-generation reactors

Fukushima's setback for nuclear power creates new opportunities for natural gas – now and in the future

Rising food prices will push millions of poor people deeper into poverty. Soaring oil prices are partly to blame

As UN-backed military action targets Qadhafi's forces, Libya's oil and gas industry faces a difficult and uncertain future

Faltering autocracies have failed to provide a coherent response to Middle East protests, risking wider destabilisation and endangering the global economy

With 12% of the company's output coming from Libya, shares in Eni slumped. But the outlook for Italy's national champion is not as bad as it seems

The shutdown of Japanese nuclear capacity will only add to rising Asian LNG demand. Australia is ready to meet it

Spot rates stable as market assesses demand; shipping capacity tight; long-term charters expected to rise

With LNG capacity set to increase, Shell is guaranteeing supply to disaster-hit Japan

Yamal LNG to challenge Gazprom's Shtokman plans; Total-Novatek deal follows Shell's Sakhalin-2 talks

Hungry for energy to fuel its surging economy, China could start sucking up spot LNG cargoes from this summer and up to 2015

Petrobras plans to double its oil production by 2020. Can it do it?

The four-country North Sea area is showing increasing signs of maturity, with oil output declining, discoveries becoming smaller – and, most worryingly, exploration activity falling

Targets to reduce net migration to the UK could hamper upstream development plans in the North Sea

The oil industry is worried that new US corporate-transparency legislation will undermine the EITI and its strategy of good governance

Although advanced upstream technologies are expensive, early adopters significantly reduce the risk of drilling a dry hole

Microsoft is teaming up with the oil industry and other IT suppliers to create common standards for upstream software

The future of Alberta's oil sands hinges on two planned pipelines, but opposition is vocal and very influential

Alberta needs the Redwater upgrader project to succeed to prove its case that CCS technology can clean up the oil-sands

Producers must spend more on R&D to solve the oil sands' environmental problems – and preserve corporate reputations. The incentive should come from government

Upstream capital expenditure (capex) among big international oil companies (IOCs) is gathering momentum on the back of high oil prices and growing demand. The question is whether the attractive returns on offer will outweigh the increasingly high cost of uncovering fresh reserves

Shell has unveiled an output target of 3.5m barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d) for 2012, a 6% rise on last year

BP's industry-leading joint venture with Reliance Industries gives the supermajor access to some of India's most prospective deep-water acreage and a vital position in one of the world's fastest-growing energy markets