The recent estimates from the US Energy Information Administration on world shale gas show that these sediments contain considerable volumes of potential gas resources.
The goal reasserted by US President Barack Obama last month to cut US imports of oil by one-third can be good or bad, depending on the route chosen and the reason for making the effort.
Strong state enforcement programs are essential to ensure that drinking water supplies are protected as more natural gas is produced from tight shale formations, witnesses told a hearing of the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and its Water and Wildlife Subcommittee.
The US House approved Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton's (R-Mich.) bill aimed at halting the US Environmental Protection Agency's imposition of greenhouse gas limits under the Clean Air Act by 225 to 172.
Both sides claimed victory after the US Senate cast a 50-to-50 vote on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Minority Member James Inhofe's (R-Okla.) amendment to halt the US Environmental Protection Agency's imposition of greenhouse gas controls under the Clean Air Act.
Onshore independent oil and gas producers accounted for nearly 4 million direct, indirect, or induced US jobs, or more than 3% of the total US workforce in 2010, a new study by IHS Global Insight said on Apr. 11.
With robust growth in global oil demand and slow growth in supply from producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, oil markets will continue to tighten over the next 2 years, EIA said in its latest Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook.
Qatar has marketed 1 million bbl of oil on behalf of Libya's Interim National Council (INC) and has delivered four shipments of petroleum products to the country's eastern port of Benghazi.
Japan's refining industry has been hard hit by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck the country on Mar. 11, according to a report by FACTS Global Energy.
Saudi Arabia's ability to produce the oil needed to keep markets calm has come under scrutiny lately, a point neatly confirmed by recent analyst reports.
Fears of rocketing oil prices were stoked when former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani told a conference Apr. 5 that serious unrest in his homeland could push oil prices as high as $300/bbl.
