International news for oil and gas professionals
More than 3 months after ExxonMobil Pipeline Co.'s 12-in. OD Silvertip pipeline spilled 1,000 bbl of crude oil into the Yellowstone River near Laurel, Mont., neither ExxonMobil nor the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) have determined the spill's cause.
The durability of bone-headedness shows why fighting political battles over oil and gas with facts and figures, while necessary, often is insufficient.
State regulators effectively regulate the oil and gas industry, members of a shale gas subcommittee told the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during an Oct. 4 hearing in which senators questioned subcommittee members on the need for federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett proposed legislation and state policy related to drilling and development of Marcellus shale natural gas, including increasing the gas well setback distance from private water wells and public water systems.
A unit of state-owned GAIL India Ltd. agreed to invest in US shale assets by acquiring a 20% interest in Eagle Ford shale acreage from Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc.
US Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) urged participants at the Southern States Energy Board's Governors Energy Summit to build support for federal legislation aimed at reviving offshore oil and gas projects that the Obama administration shelved following the Macondo deepwater well blowout and crude oil spill.
The US senators who came to the Southern States Energy Board's Governors Energy Summit Oct. 4 in Alexandria, Va., delivered three basic messages: One, more aggressive energy development in the US is an obvious, effective way to reduce unemployment, increase federal revenue, and lower crude oil imports.
The US Department of the Interior will complete restructuring of its federal offshore resources management with the division of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement into two separate agencies on Oct. 1.
In a move that will provide access to key producing fields and other license opportunities in Libya, Heritage Oil PLC reported that its wholly owned subsidiary, Heritage Energy International Ltd., has acquired a controlling 51% interest in Sahara Oil Services Holdings Ltd. (SOSH) for $19.5 million in cash.
Saudi Arabia's determination to develop alternative forms of energy moved forward last week with the launch of the country's very first solar energy plant.
Governments and taxpayers spent about $500 billion last year supporting the production and consumption of fossil fuels, and removing inefficient subsidies for those fuels would raise national revenues, according to analyses by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency.
Clontarf Energy PLC sees potential for increased activity in Bolivia, where the company or its affiliates own interests in Monteagudo oil and gas field and El Dorado gas-condensate field in the Chaco basin.
Heartburn over an inspector general's report at the US Environmental Protection Agency underscores determination of a rogue agency to regulate.
