BP PLC worked toward using a "top kill" to seal a deepwater blowout and stop an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico while workers also collected a growing share of the leaking oil.
A former BP PLC contractor and a Washington, DC, nonprofit group asked a US District Court in Houston to issue a temporary injunction that would compel federal officials to temporarily prohibit BP from operating its Atlantis platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Officials from President Barack Obama's administration conceded on May 18 that the combined government-industry response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill sometimes has to apply unproven technologies.
US senators continued to argue over the need to raise the $75 million liability limit under the 1990 federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA) as two key members of US President Barack Obama's cabinet sought assurance from BP PLC's chief executive officer that the company doesn't plan to rely on it.
Independent oil and gas producers that have operated safely in the Gulf of Mexico for 40 years should not be pushed out by dramatically higher spill liability limits, Independent Petroleum Association of America Pres. Bruce H. Vincent said.
Alberta's oil sands represent not only a major North American source of energy and economic growth, but also an important laboratory for environmental management technologies, participants at a Washington forum agreed.
European Union Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, who earlier disdained a proposal by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said Brussels and Kiev have agreed to intensify their discussions on energy.
The oil and gas industry is ready to profit from the end of a long-running maritime dispute between Guyana and Suriname, with numerous companies interested in the region.
The Ninth US Circuit Appeals Court rejected on May 13 a lawsuit by several environmental and other groups aimed at keeping Shell Offshore Inc. from drilling on its Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea leases off Alaska this summer.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it derives more than 25% of its California production from shales and that its California shale development program could become the company's largest business unit within 10 years.
Crosco Integrated Drilling & Well Services Co. Ltd. has reported the ongoing and successful provision of drilling services for Total E&P Libye in Libya.
Hydraulic fracturing, used for decades to increase the production of oil and natural gas, has recently become the subject of heightened inquiry and debate.
The US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued an advisory bulletin Mar. 18, 2010, to notify owners and operators of recently constructed large-diameter natural gas pipeline and hazardous liquid pipeline systems of the potential for girth weld failures due to welding quality issues.
Operators at Saudi Aramco's Berri gas plant successfully resolved problems of high mercury content in the plant's feed gas by replacing activated carbon material with copper-sulfide mercury absorbent.
