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A four-day strike at Petrobras gathered steam on Wednesday, cutting crude and natural gas output from the No. 2 South American oil producer and threatening to become the most disruptive walkout at the state-run oil company in 20 years. On Wednesday, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as Petrobras is formally known, said in a securities filing late Wednesday that oil output in Brazil was about 140,000 barrels a day, or 6.5 percent below pre-strike levels of about 2.1 million barrels a day. Using contingency plans management restored production that was cut by as much as 273,000 barrels a day, or 13 percent...

Turmoil at Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA deepened late Tuesday, as the company said a strike by Brazil's biggest oil workers union stopped a significant amount of oil and gas production, and that the company’s alternate board chairman was stepping down just two months after his appointment. Petrobras said that the strike affected 13% of the company's daily oil production and 14% of the company's daily natural gas production on Monday. The strike affected 273,000 barrels of oil production and 7.3 million cubic meters of natural gas production, the company said. The Oil Workers Federation, or FUP, began...

JOE SCARBOROUGH: So let's talk about -- there was a New York Times article, I'm sure you saw it, a couple of weeks back, saying something like 150 families have contributed overwhelmingly... CHARLES KOCH: Yeah. SCARBOROUGH: ...to the candidates that are in the race right now, the overwhelming amount of money. That's not a way to run a democracy, is it? Like 150 families are basically funding most presidential campaigns? CHARLES KOCH: Well, you see to me it depends on to what end. If it's to get policies that will create, open up opportunities for people and get rid of...

Volkswagen admitted in September that it used defeat devices aimed at fooling emissions tests in 11 million of its diesel vehicles -- but now its gasoline models are implicated in the scandal as well. On Tuesday, Volkswagen reported that it understated the level of carbon dioxide emissions of about 800,000 vehicles, including gasoline-powered models. This is the first confirmation that some of Volkswagen's gasoline-run vehicles do in fact exceed carbon dioxide emissions. The company didn't provide details in today's revelation, but it said the conclusion comes after conducting internal emissions tests. Volkswagen reported its findings after the markets in Europe...

As an investor in start-up companies, I am always working to test my assumptions and update my understanding of where the energy sector is now, and the direction it is moving in towards the future. Some key questions for this dynamic year: Is the current oil crisis the marking of a step change towards a cleaner energy industry or merely history repeating itself? While today's oil price at $45-50 per barrel is probably too low to be considered the new normal, what should we expect moving forward? One thing is for sure: change is coming. Although demand for oil and...

A bid by oil export advocates to tether the trade issue to a federal highway bill has hit a dead end. Oil producers and their allies in Congress had hoped to use the highway bill as a vehicle for unrelated provisions lifting the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports. But the House Rules Committee opted not to make any oil export amendments in order during the chamber’s upcoming debate on that highway measure this week. Dozens of amendments were blessed by the committee, which will allow them to be considered for possible inclusion in the highway bill, but neither of...

The Syrian civil war began in early 2011 as part of the Arab Spring protests, which originated in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly spread to neighbouring countries such as Egypt, Libya and Yemen. In July 2014, Syria's oil minister stated that the country's oil sector had lost around $23.5 billion due to damage to facilities and pipelines, looting and production delays since the start of the country's crisis. As of July of last year, Islamist militants and other rebel groups were in control over most of Syria's oil producing regions and were showing no signs of slowing down the...

As U.S. propane production has increased and domestic demand has remained relatively flat, the United States has transitioned from being a net propane importer to a net exporter. Facilitated by rapid expansion in the capacity to export domestic supply, propane exports from the United States are changing traditional propane trade patterns across the globe. The initial growth in U.S. propane production, between 2008 and 2010, led to a reduction in dependence on propane imports, with net imports falling from an average of 109,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2008 to a near-balance of 16,000 b/d in net exports in 2010....

Only 1% of the Bakken Play area is commercial at current oil prices based on my analysis that follows. Only 4% of horizontal wells drilled since 2000 meet the EUR (estimated ultimate recovery) threshold needed to break even at current oil prices, drilling and completion, and operating costs. The leading producing companies evaluated in this study are losing $11 to $38 on each barrel of oil that they produce, the very definition of waste. Although NYMEX prices are about $46 per barrel, realized wellhead prices in the Bakken are only $30 per barrel according to the North Dakota Department of...

The debate over US crude oil exports provides a long-overdue chance to throw off the shackles of political gridlock. The Republican-dominated House voted last month to lift the 40-year-old ban on oil exports. President Obama vowed to veto the bill if it reaches him. However, the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are showing signs of disillusionment with the increasingly indefensible ban, which rewards US refiners at the expense of oil producers and the motoring public. Still, a favor to the oil industry won't be possible without a concession, probably one that recognizes the environmental harm from enabling more US oil...

The last shipment of coal to a soon-to-be shuttered Consumers Energy Plant in Muskegon is scheduled to arrive Nov. 8. For more than 25 years, 1,000-foot ships have been regularly rolling into the Port of Muskegon with coal for Consumers' B.C. Cobb energy plant. The last such ship to deliver coal to Consumers in Muskegon will be the James R. Barker, a spokesman wrote in an email. "The Barker is scheduled to be loaded with 58,000 tons of coal in Superior, Wisconsin, on Nov. 5," wrote Consumers spokesman Roger Morgenstern. "After the ship is loaded and underway, we will have...

The General Dynamics shipyard in San Diego delivered the world's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered containership to TOTE Maritime on October 16. The 764-foot long Isla Bella is the first of the Marlin class, a new class of container ship built in the United States, making it Jones Act-qualified for shipments between U.S. ports. The ship was built by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, a division of General Dynamics. Delivered nearly two months ahead of schedule, the Isla Bella will operate out of Jacksonville, Florida, providing service to and from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The second ship of...

While the last decade of oil and gas development has been largely contained to the shale regions of Pennsylvania, the next phase will tunnel through the midstate. Company men have been showing up at doorsteps throughout the region, asking for pieces of private property where pipelines can be built. After 10 years of drilling, shale operators have more natural resources than the infrastructure to deliver it. There's now more supply than demand, and pipeline builders are seizing the opportunity and submitting plans for an underground network to move through Pennsylvania. "These projects are absolutely crucial, especially given the fact that...

The number of rigs actively drilling for oil fell by 16 this week, stretching the string of declines to more than two months, according to data Friday from oil field services firm Baker Hughes. The total count for oil rigs operating across North America now stands at 578, down from a peak of 1,609 in October 2014. The overall rig count fell by 12 to 775, after drillers added four natural gas rigs. The total count is now at its lowest since June 2010. This is the ninth week in a row the rig count has fallen. So far in...

After investing billions on some of the world’s largest oil and gas projects in recent years, Chevron plans to pare back its spending, place some proposed projects on the back burner and trim thousands from its payrolls as it prepares to cope with the prolonged downturn in the oil and gas industry. “We are completing the projects we’ve got and working to preserve the options we have on some of the nice opportunities,” CEO John Watson said Friday on an earnings call with investors. “We do have to live within our means here.” As some of its largest investments start...

Drivers say Roanoke County schools’ new fleet of propane school buses are like driving a luxury car. “It’s like stepping out of a Pinto into a Cadillac, as far as what we’ve been used to as drivers,” said Myron Powell, a bus driver and the Glenvar lot attendant. “This is a very easy driving experience.” Powell showed off one of the county’s 10 new buses that will hit the road this week, part of a pilot program to see how propane buses perform in Roanoke County. The school district is Southwest Virginia’s first to switch to propane buses, a move...

ConocoPhillips officials say the company will stop searching for oil and gas in deep-water fields by 2017, and it plans to sell the offshore leases it doesn’t intend to drill. Its exit from deep-water exploration would free up roughly $800 million in capital, the amount it has budgeted for exploration next year. Plus, it will save on costs on that side of the business, Matt Fox, ConocoPhillips' executive vice president of exploration and production, told investors on Thursday. “It’s a strategic decision to exit deep-water exploration,” Fox said. It is part of the company’s plan to sell $1 billion to...

In the early 1970s the United States was an oil superpower. Our fields produced over 9 million barrels of oil per day (bbl/d), accounting for more than 15% of the global marketplace. However, our energy consumption at the time still required us to import oil from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other nations. During the Yom Kippur war in 1973 the U.S. supplied arms to our ally and friend, Israel. In retaliation, the Arab members of OPEC placed an embargo on the sale of crude oil to the U.S. and the price for a barrel...

Like a puddle of spilled water on a Midland street in August, money is evaporating out of the oil patch. Six companies alone will likely write off more than $60 billion from their balance sheets because the value of their oil and natural gas reserves have plummeted, according to a forward-looking story by the Chronicle's Collin Eaton. Looking at the industry as a whole, including private companies that are not required to reveal their finances, hundreds of billions of investors' dollars could disappear. The number of oil and gas companies declaring bankruptcy continues to rise, which means even more losses...

Mexico's state-run oil company Pemex reported a steep third-quarter loss on Wednesday of 167.5 billion pesos ($9.9 billion), well over double the 60 billion pesos loss in the same period last year, hurt by low oil prices and a weaker Mexican peso. It was Pemex's 12th consecutive quarter in the red. Accumulated losses during the first nine months totaled 352.6 billion pesos ($20.8 billion), more than double the loss for the same period the previous year. Pemex said crude output for the quarter was down 5.5 percent, and natural gas production dropped nearly 1.7 percent. Crude exports jumped 10 percent...