More than two thirds of federal offshore tracts leased by the oil and gas industry and more than half of the federal onshore acreage companies hold in the Lower 48 remains idle, the US Department of the Interior said in a new report.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. ordered a $655 million ultradeepwater drillship from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. with delivery scheduled for fourth-quarter 2014.

Repsol SA continues drilling Cuba's first offshore oil well as some US government agencies, oil and gas organizations, and environmental groups press to ease restrictions that would keep US companies from responding if the well blows out and creates a spill, experts at a Center for International Policy seminar said.

The Obama administration is reaching out to the oil and gas industry more than it did initially to develop regulations, but it is not an election-year gimmick, a leading White House official said.

An independent review of the US Environmental Protection Agency's draft report on water near Pavillion, Wyo., concluded scientific analysis fails to support EPA's suggestion that hydraulic fracturing possibly contributed to water contamination, the Independent Petroleum Association of America reported.

Policies that reduce the US transportation system's heavy reliance on petroleum products would more effectively shield consumers from volatile prices and supply interruptions in the long term than simply increasing US production, a new Congressional Budget Office study concluded.