China's unilateral claim to most of the waters of the South China Sea is a transparent power play or "sea grab" that cannot be rationalized under prevailing legal regimes.
Decades ago on my first trip aboard a supply vessel to an offshore platform, I was trying to time the rolling deck for a jump at the swinging lift basket that was to carry me to the platform when a member of the crew tapped my shoulder and with a shake of his head motioned me to step back.
Measured sensibly, action by the oil and gas industry in response to the Gulf of Mexico disaster promises to be far more effective than what the US government so far has proposed.
With gas operations shifting onshore, and offshore increasingly "hardened" by hurricanes, the historical tendency for storms to give gas prices an automatic boost may be over, said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist, Deutsche Bank, Washington.
China will surpass Japan as Asia's largest natural gas importer through a combination of LNG and pipeline gas in 5-10 years, according to FACTS Global Energy Group in an August report.
BP PLC has delayed the launch of its deepwater exploration for oil off Libya for an unspecified period of time in an effort to ensure that its plans are in order.
Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, apparently in defiance of recently strengthened US sanctions against Iran, said his country will support Turkish firms that sell gasoline to the Islamic Republic.
Vendata Resources PLC, London, has entered a conditional agreement with Cairn Energy under which it will pay as much as $9.6 billion in cash for up to 60% of Cairn's Indian subsidiary.
The investigation of the Gulf of Mexico Macondo well blowout, rig explosion, and oil spill has found significant regulatory and operations gaps that need to be closed, government and industry witnesses told a National Academies of Science committee studying the Apr. 20 event and its causes.
The US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has held hearings on oil and gas pipeline safety this spring and summer, has scheduled one for Sept. 15 specifically dealing with Enbridge Inc.'s July 26 pipeline rupture in Michigan.
The US Department of the Interior will restrict its use of categorical exclusions (CXs) to activities involving limited environmental risk as it reviews its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and use of CXs on the US Outer Continental Shelf, officials said.
