Aug 2012

Volatile oil and gas prices dented earnings for the industry’s major players in the second quarter, with British supermajor BP reporting the worst of a set of disappointing results

India’s long-awaited first shale-gas licensing round is set for launch by the end of 2013

Barely a week after a scathing National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report into a 2010 leak in Michigan, a pipeline operated by Canadian firm Enbridge has reported another leak, this time in Wisconsin

The refining industry’s centre of gravity is moving east, with the most immediate consequences for the owners of Europe’s elderly refining capacity

A bold investment in a once barely-economic refinery has given Repsol its ‘refinery of the future’

Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation has entered the North American natural gas market with a $1.4 billion partnership with Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy

Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation’s (CNOOC) $15.1 billion all-cash bid for Nexen has spawned speculation that other Chinese companies are keen to buy firms operating in Canada’s upstream

The last leg of support for North America’s battered natural gas sector appears to be wobbling as prices for natural gas liquids (NGLs) plunge amid a wave of new unconventional supply

Both companies have made discoveries in the African blocks

Noble Energy has struck a farm-in deal with Falkland Oil & Gas (FOGL) that will see it take over operatorship of much of FOGL’s extensive acreage position off the Falkland Islands

The UK government has cut tax charges on large shallow-water gasfields

The first oil development to cross borders in West Africa has the go-ahead

Argentina’s recently nationalised oil company YPF will join Venezuela’s PdVSA in two Venezuelan heavy-oil projects, while PdVSA is expected to gain a stake in Argentina’s promising Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas play as part of the country’s strengthening energy relationship

Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the US fell 8% in the first quarter of the year, reaching a 20-year low, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)

BHP Billiton has been forced to take a $2.84 billion write-down against the value of its US shale assets as the US gas glut continues to dent balance sheets across the industry

The company is strengthening ties with LNG Ltd and buying up Australian CBM assets

A lack of regulatory clarity in Europe is hindering shale gas development

Construction of a pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf coast – originally part of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline proposal – is poised to get under way after a US judge ruled against environmental groups seeking an injunction to prevent work on the link starting

Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the US fell 8% in the first quarter of the year, reaching a 10-year low, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA)

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is taking a bold step into China’s emerging coalbed methane (CBM) sector after agreeing a $1.5 billion deal with China United Coalbed Methane Corporation (CUCBM) that analysts say will inject much-needed investment into the industry

The Shell-PetroChina Australian Arrow coalbed methane (CBM)-to-LNG export venture looks increasingly likely to falter as the Chinese national oil company (NOC) buys up more Australian CBM assets and strengthens its ties with local firm Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (LNG Ltd)

For a week every year, Calgary, the city at the heart of Canada’s oil patch, pays homage to its wild west roots. Shaun Polczer dons his Stetson and joins the party

The race for the White House is shaping up to be a barn-burner after Republican Mitt Romney’s bold choice of running mate. PE examines the differences on energy policies and the impact on oil markets

Requirements are contributing to cost inflation in the country's oil and gas sector

Duo under pressure to prove Krishna-Godavari basin field’s worth

Greater assurances of the safety of fracking are needed, says IEA

The greatest threat to water supplies from hydraulic fracturing appears not to come from fracking

After the shale boom of the 1980s, Utah’s Uintah basin play hit rock bottom. Now oil is bringing it back from the brink. Shaun Polczer reports from Vernal, Utah

Empire Oil & Gas is set to test the unconventional potential of the Lower Cattamarra coal measures in Australia’s onshore Perth basin, saying exploration permit 389 could hold as much as 24 trillion cubic feet (cf) of gas

Total US unconventional oil production may surpass second- and third-largest Opec members by 2020

Shale gas has transformed the North American market, and is now poised to lead the world into a lower carbon future

Santos has announced Australia’s first commercial shale gas well with encouraging results from the Cooper basin

Coal is making an unexpected comeback across Europe this year as persistently low carbon prices and an influx of relatively cheap coal from around the world lead power suppliers to switch from gas to coal-fired power generation

Financial regulators in the US have adopted new transparency rules

France could lift its ban on shale-gas exploration, but only if exploration can take place without the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), which is widely opposed in France, the country’s prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said during an interview on French television

Soaring oil prices are likely to trigger a release of strategic oil stocks by Western consumer countries as soon as early September, according to several sources

The Australian state of Victoria has imposed a one-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking)

In less than 10 years of operations, Shell has produced more than 500 million barrels of crude from its flagship Athabasca oil-sands project

US tight oil production is on the rise and will approach 4.1 million barrels per day (b/d) by 2020, with as yet unseen implications for global and domestic markets, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie says

US independent Hess and PetroChina have established a joint venture to explore and develop shale-oil reserves in northwest China’s Xinjiang region

Southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality aims to produce between 1.3 billion and 1.5 billion cubic metres per year (cm/y) of shale-gas by 2015 – a volume which would account for 20% of the national production target for that year

The head of China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) is calling for major development of its oil-shale sector by 2015 in a bid to reduce the country’s reliance on imported crude

An oil price beneath $110 a barrel is no threat to the world’s economic growth, Opec’s secretary-general Abdalla El-Badri told Petroleum Economist after the group’s meeting in June.

The division in oil consumption across the world is growing wider, restricting economic growth

Reforms are vital if the country’s is to reverse its declining oil and gas profile – and unlock potentially vast unconventional resources. Justin Jacobs reports on how the politics are shaping up

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is emerging as a key tool in China’s strategy to uphold its claims to a vast swathe of the South China Sea and its potentially resource-rich seabed

BP is still grappling with the consequences of Macondo, two-and-a-half years after the disaster. And, as NJ Watson finds out, there may be more difficulties ahead for UK supermajor as it puts its stake in TNK-BP on the block

Opec crude supply in July was estimated at 31.39 million barrels a day (b/d), around 70,000 b/d lower than in June, marking the third successive monthly decline, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) data

Crude prices have surged over the last couple of months as supply dipped on the back of shut-ins during the summer maintenance period

Steps towards commercialisation for new fuel

Gulf of Mexico oil production is expected to recover fully after taking a hit from Hurricane Isaac on the seventh anniversary of Katrina

San Leon Energy is looking to push its Moroccan oil-shale plans forward after expanding its position at the Tarfaya prospect

YPF has started talks with Chevron as it continues its search for foreign partners to help it develop the multi-billion barrel Vaca Muerta shale

The Marcellus is poised to become one of the largest producing natural gas fields in the US, with production doubling in the first half of the year