Oil

Men with Cabot Oil and Gas work on a natural gas valve at a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in South Montrose, Pennsylvania.

The oil and gas industry is facing a traffic jam of federal regulators rushing to regulate hydraulic fracturing, and industry representatives says the Obama administration needs to do more to consolidate new rulemaking. Keep reading →


The nationwide average for gasoline prices approached $3.74 a gallon Thursday, continuing a steady rise for the 23rd consecutive day, according to the motorist group AAA. The average price rose 0.7 cent a gallon in the latest 24-hour period, AAA said. A month ago, the nationwide average was $3.44 a gallon. Gas prices are up 14% so far in 2012. The average price is down 37.6 cents, or about 9.1%, from the record high of $4.11 on July 17, 2008. Average prices for regular gasoline top $4 a gallon in California, Alaska and Hawaii, with Hawaii’s price of just above $4.35 a gallon standing as the nation’s high. Prices are within a nickel of the $4 mark in New York and Connecticut, according to AAA.


Alaska has a big vested interest in high oil and gas prices. Oil revenue accounts for 90% of the state’s tax haul. So its budget swells and oil royalties gush into a special state investment fund — the only one of its kind in the United States. And that can translate into windfalls for residents, who share in the oil bounty through annual dividends paid by the fund and, in boom times, direct payments from the state. For example, when oil and gas hit record highs in 2008, residents received $3,000 checks, twice what they normally get.

MIT Technology Review unveils #Shell is on the 2012 List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies http://bit.ly/wsedC6 Shell

Golden Gate Bridge

Over the next decade, a battle over the next generation of oil will be waged not in a Middle Eastern Gulf, but San Francisco’s Bay. Keep reading →


President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address to Congress in late January. The speech is being characterized by many in the media as many things: populist in tone, a campaign year positioning speech, and a mild tongue-lashing for Congress. While all of these things may or may not be true, for those of us in the energy world, the speech had some notable energy components worth mentioning.

First, the very fact that energy played a prominent role in the president’s framing of key measures to help build an “America built to last” is important and correct. Affordable and reliable energy has always been a staple of American economic growth and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. With all of the other issues plaguing government right now, energy could easily have been downgraded to a lesser priority, but it wasn’t. Keep reading →

Sammy Reiser fills his vehicle up with gas in a county where some grades of gasoline have already surpassed the $4 mark on February 21, 2012 in Miami, Florida. Fears of $5 per gallon gasoline are being heard as summer approaches and some feel that would hurt the economy just as an economic recovery appears to be getting traction.

The oil business is generally seen as monolithic by consumers, but parts of the industry can suffer even as rising prices boost results in other sectors. Keep reading →


Chesapeake Energy has stepped up plans to produce more oil and natural gas liquids while cutting dry-gas output against the background of decade-low natural gas prices.

The second-largest U.S. natural gas producer said in a presentation on its fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 earnings that some 60% of its revenue would come from oil and NGLs in 2012, up from roughly 50% anticipated by the company just a month earlier. Keep reading →


Inflation picked up slightly last month, as rising gas prices took a bigger bite out of consumers’ wallets.The government’s key measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, showed prices rose 0.2% from December to January, slightly weaker than the 0.3% increase economists had predicted. Rising prices at the gas pump were a key factor, increasing 0.9% during the month, the Labor Department said. Improving U.S. economic data, including stronger job growth, and tension with Iran have been driving the price of oil and gasoline higher. Gas prices ended last month at a national average of $3.443 a gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Saudi Aramco sponsors and participates in the First Renewable Energy Conference at KFUPM http://bit.ly/xnSQCo Saudi_Aramco

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