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By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) – Eni US will become the first energy company allowed to explore for oil in federal waters off Alaska since 2015 after the Trump administration this week approved a drilling plan on leases the company has been sitting on for 10 years. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the drilling plan of Eni US, a unit of Italy’s Eni on Wednesday as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to boost oil and gas drilling and make the country “energy dominant.”

The Trump administration forged ahead with its commitment to boosting domestic fossil fuel production Thursday, directing more public lands to be opened for oil and gas extraction — a move that could bring new drill rigs to California. The state hasn’t seen new onshore oil and gas leases offered up on federal land in four years because of environmental fights. The order signed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday has some environmentalists fearing that de facto moratorium will soon end. At minimum, the administration’s action will intensify the push by energy companies to broaden drilling across California’s prime oil...

Pennsylvania’s drilling industry is showing signs of life. Natural gas producers drilled more than twice as many shale wells in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period last year. About 20 additional drilling rigs are exploring for natural gas and fracking crews are suddenly in short supply. One big reason is that natural gas prices have recovered from 20-year lows, nearly doubling since last year. …

Drivers are enjoying the cheapest Fourth of July gasoline in more than a decade. Enjoy it while it lasts: Experts say prices will start inching higher soon. The average price nationwide for a gallon of regular is $2.23, down 15 cents from a month ago, according to AAA. And really cheap gas is even more common than suggested by that average: About 25% of gas stations nationwide are selling gas for $2 a gallon or less.

The last time gas was this cheap in America on the Fourth of July, the Kardashians didn't even have a television show. According to AAA, the average national gas price currently sits at $2.23 per gallon. That figure hasn't dipped so low since 2005 when Fourth of July drivers also owed $2.23 on average. It's the cheapest gas has been throughout 2017 as well. "The combination of tepid demand and increased gasoline and crude output continues to put downward pressure on gas prices," AAA Spokesperson Jeanette Casselano said in a news release. The least expensive market in the country is...

President Donald Trump will use fast-growing supplies of U.S. natural gas as a political tool when he meets in Warsaw on Thursday with leaders of a dozen countries that are captive to Russia for their energy needs. In recent years, Moscow has cut off gas shipments during pricing disputes with neighboring countries in winter months. Exports from the United States would help reduce their dependence on Russia. Trump will tell the group that Washington wants to help allies by making it as easy as possible for U.S. companies to ship more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to central and eastern...

On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump hosted a tribal, State, and local energy roundtable at the White House. He was joined by Governors Paul LePage, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts, and Bill Walker, along with State and tribal leaders from around our great country. President Trump stated his Administration’s intent to roll back harmful regulations that prevent State, local, and tribal communities from accessing vital energy resources. These regulations hinder economic growth that would create jobs and could be used to fund roads, schools, and infrastructure. It is President Trump’s hope that the roundtable will allow for more cooperation between local...

‘Energy Week’ highlights the role of American resources in securing prosperity This week, the Trump administration is hosting “Energy Week” to discuss with state, tribal, business and labor leaders how we can pave the path forward toward U.S. energy dominance. This is a truly amazing moment in the energy sector, and President Trump is seeking to capitalize on the opportunity for the betterment of the American economy and our citizens. For the first time in four decades, the energy story in the United States is about becoming an energy exporter and no longer about peak resources or being beholden to...

Artificial intelligence is already here, with algorithms replacing traders on Wall Street and tanker watchers in ports. Robots are here, too, drilling wells and cleaning pipelines, assembling cars, and performing surgery. Make no mistake, the fourth industrial revolution is accelerating and it is running on oil and gas—at least for the time being. This is a fact that few of those active in the advancement of renewable energy would be willing to acknowledge or even consider, yet a fact it is: the revolution needs energy, and at the moment, renewable sources are simply incapable of supplying energy in amounts sufficient...

The Trump administration on Friday touted the delivery of the first-ever shipments of U.S. natural gas to northern Europe as a move that will help lessen the demand for Russian energy supplies. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said shipments of U.S. liquefied natural gas, or LNG, arrived in the Netherlands and Poland on Thursday. "U.S. LNG has begun arriving in Europe with some frequency, providing a diverse source of supply and ensuring energy security for Europe," Perry said. "Europe has been looking to the United States as a key potential source for energy diversification to decrease Russia's leverage as the region's...

On his recent visit to Alaska, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke began laying the groundwork to open the 3% of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contained in Area 1002 to oil development. He ordered a new assessment of the area's potential oil reserves. The most recent comprehensive study by the United States Geological Survey was completed in 1998, and its mean estimate of recoverable reserves in Area 1002 was 7.7 BBO (billion barrels of oil). At $45 a barrel, that's $346 billion. Most of this oil lies in the western portion, near the terminus of the Trans Alaska Pipeline at Prudhoe...

European leaders criticizing President Donald Trump’s Thursday decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord have also been lobbying the administration to fast-track the approval of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals. ProPublica’s Andrew Revkin reported Friday that, while European leaders were “generally basking in the glow of the Paris Agreement,” they’ve been quietly lobbying Trump since February to fast-track approvals of multi-billion-dollar investments in U.S. LNG export terminals. Maros Sefcovic, who heads the European Union’s commission on energy policy, told ProPublica in April that “LNG exports were a central focus of meetings earlier in the year in Washington with...

"Some of OPEC's customers are happy to see an alternative. India, the world's third-largest oil consumer, said this week it is looking to the United States for greater supply."

In another move to free up domestic energy supplies, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday aimed at lifting the Obama administration’s offshore drilling restrictions.For decades, bad policies have blocked access to America’s abundance of domestic resources, yet America has still managed to be a global energy leader. Trump’s executive order, “Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy,” could unleash further success in the energy sector.The economic potential sitting just off America’s coasts is enormous. The Outer Continental Shelf is awash with natural resources, containing an estimated 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.Realizing...

Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told Breitbart News that she welcomes President Trump’s executive order aimed at lifting the ban on offshore drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic and Atlantic areas. Governor Palin said, “Quashing Obama’s anti-American energy plan makes America great again. We’ve been working for years to remind people that our exceptional nation came to be by developing our God-given natural resources and by expecting reward for an unsurpassed work ethic. We capture that again when we drill, baby, drill!” Trump’s executive order directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to...

The executive order President Donald Trump signed Friday could ease offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and possibly lead to oil exploration in new marine sanctuaries, including some off the California and Florida coasts. “We are opening it up,” said Trump, referring to the administration’s plan to allow oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean, which President Barack Obama had declared off limits. Trump’s order, known as the America-First Offshore Energy Strategy, directs the Interior Department to review the current five-year oil exploration plan on the Outer Continental Shelf as well as the permitting process for development of...

President Trump on Friday is expected to sign an executive order that could open large parts of the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans to new oil and gas drilling, a prospect that elicited a fierce backlash in California and elsewhere even before details of the order were clear. The move, which is certain to face legal and political challenges, could undo a plan finalized late in President Obama’s second term that sought to limit fossil fuel development and fight climate change by not including new drilling leases off the coast of California or Alaska during the current five-year federal offshore...

•President Donald Trump will instruct the Interior Department to revise the Obama administration's five-year plan for developing federal waters. •His executive order will tell the Commerce Department to refrain from naming or expanding marine sanctuaries and review existing ones. •Trump will seek to overturn President Barack Obama's effort to indefinitely put much of U.S. Arctic waters and part of the Atlantic off limits to drillers. President Donald Trump on Friday will instruct his cabinet officials to take actions that will potentially open new areas of federally administered waters to energy development. The actions, to be spelled out in a new...

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The U.S. Department of Energy has signed an order authorizing Golden Pass Products to export domestically produced LNG to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the U.S. Golden Pass is jointly owned by Qatar Petroleum (70 percent) and ExxonMobil (30 percent). The authorization allows for the export of up to the equivalent of 2.21 billion cubic feet of LNG per day (Bcf/d) from the Golden Pass Terminal near Sabine Pass, in Jefferson County, Texas. Golden Pass estimates the construction of its facility will provide 45,000 direct and indirect jobs over five years, and the project will...