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Using a proprietary app called ­iSteer, Brian Tapp, a geologist for EOG Resources, dashed off instructions to a drilling rig 160km away. This tool is among the reasons the little-known Midland, Texas, company says it pumps more oil from the continental US than Exxon Mobil, or any other producer.A rig worker received Mr Tapp’s iPhone alert and tweaked the trajectory of a drill bit thousands of feet underground, to land more squarely in a sweet spot of rock filled with West Texas crude.US shale drillers transformed the energy industry over the past decade with hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, in...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested Exxon Mobil is "crazy" in response to a report that the oil giant is seeking a waiver to resume projects in Russia. "Are they crazy?" McCain tweeted Wednesday with a link to the Wall Street Journal's report.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As New Mexico’s elected leaders wrangle over raising taxes to plug a budget shortfall, major multinational energy companies have quietly spent more than $13 billion in recent months on assets in the state’s oil and gas hot spots. The new wave of investment bodes well for the industry being able to generate much-needed revenues for the struggling state over the long haul, analysts said. The interest from companies such as Texas-based EOG Resources, ExxonMobil and Marathon Oil started last fall and is carrying into this year despite prices remaining around $50 a barrel. New Mexico also led...

Saudi Arabia will start reviewing a number of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and development project—remnants from a better past when crude oil prices were in three-digit territory. Some of these, according to government sources, will be shelved and others will be restructured. The review is part of urgent reforms prompted by the oil price rout from 2014, which saw Saudi Arabia plunge into a budget deficit for the first time in its history. As part of efforts to reform the oil-reliant economy, last year Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman removed from their positions the Kingdom’s long-serving oil and finance ministers, Ali...

The 2020s could be a “decade of disorder” for the oil markets as the lack of drilling today leads to a shortfall of supply. Demand will continue to grow, year after year, and shale will not be able to keep up. It may be hard to envision today, with an oil market suffering from low prices and a glut of supply. Falling breakeven prices have drillers still churning out huge volumes of shale oil, with production in the U.S. already rebounding and rising on a weekly basis. The tidal wave of shale, however, is the direct result of extreme market...

Energy Transfer Partners, the developer behind the so-called DAPL, is scheduled to start delivering oil on May 14 to Illinois, according to filings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The oil project is expected to transport more than 500,000 barrels of oil a year across the eastern section of the country. ... The Obama administration rejected the previously approved pipeline last December ... President Donald Trump eventually issued orders approving the DAPL in January ... many demonstrators have begun diverting their attention to the equally contentious Keystone XL Pipeline, another oil pipeline Trump approved through executive order. Obama originally rejected...

OPEC all but trashed the tanker market with its output cuts. That the damage hasn’t been even worse is thanks in large part to a flood of U.S. crude exports, particularly to Asia, Bloomberg reports. China zoomed past Canada to become the biggest foreign destination for American crude in February, accounting for more than 8 million barrels of U.S. cargoes. Tanker tracking is indicating no let up in U.S. oil flooding to Asia in March, boosting shipments on what is one of the industry’s longest-distance trade routes. Freight rates for oil collapsed this year after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting...

The Trump administration is developing an order to open new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling, reversing former President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to lock up most of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, according to industry sources. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke told industry representatives the new drilling plan would be signed soon, according to Bloomberg. However, he gave few details on what the order could include. The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) new five-year offshore drilling plan could take years to develop and would replace the Obama administration’s five-year plan finalized in November. President Donald Trump promised...

The White House is readying an executive order that aims to open up new areas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to offshore oil and gas drilling, according to multiple individuals briefed on the proposal. The White House is considering issuing instructions to the Interior Department to reverse President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of hundreds of millions of offshore acres from future drilling in December 2016. The executive order -- which could come out in the next few weeks -- represents President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to promote domestic energy exploration by rolling back restrictions put in place by previous administrations,...

OSLO, Norway – Recent research from Rystad Energy shows that oilfield service companies should begin recruiting later this year following the significant workforce reduction in the industry throughout 2014 to 2016. Service companies working within the shale sector are already starting to recruit again, the analyst firm said, after the top four service companies, all of which were exposed to the US land market, were forced to lay off between 30-40% of their workforce. Rystad found that companies exposed to more of the international market have cut more modestly, in the range of 20-30%. “Among the top 50 service companies,...

The Venezuelan Supreme Court may have amended part of its explosive decision to take over the opposition-led congress, but it still gives embattled leftist President Nicolas Maduro broad new powers over the OPEC nation's vast oil wealth. The reversal on Saturday came after political leaders worldwide and street protesters at home accused the pro-government court of effectively making Maduro a dictator.

Environmental activists vowed over the weekend to fight the Keystone XL oil pipeline to the bitter end, insisting the Trump administration’s approval of the long-delayed project will not be the final word. Powerful green groups are launching a two-pronged strategy to block the pipeline in the streets and in the courts. First, they intend to use a state review process in Nebraska — where Keystone still does not have a legal route, despite federal approval of the project — to delay any movement forward. Nebraska state officials charged with approving the pipeline’s path say a decision shouldn’t be expected until...

A Saudi logistics company has just opened a Houston office to seize the opportunity to ship increased volumes of oilfield and plant construction equipment to the Port of Houston as the Texas and U.S. drilling activity is gaining momentum. Bahri Logistics – which had opened its U.S. headquarters in Baltimore back in 1992 – is now opening an office in Houston to take advantage of expected higher demand for oilfield equipment, called breakbulk cargo in the shipping industry: these are large items that need to be loaded and shipped individually rather than in containers. Bahri, or the National Shipping Company...

Oil fell as a U.S. drilling revival undermines the potential for OPEC output curbs to rebalance the market. Futures dropped as much as 1.9 percent in New York. Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on March 16 that the kingdom may extend its cuts if supplies stay above the five-year average. A day later, though, data showed the U.S. rig count growing for a ninth week, and a Libya official said Sunday that the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports are preparing to restart oil exports.

Energy giant Repsol has found the largest onshore U.S. oil find in 30 years. Oil exploration that started in 2008 has paid off for Spanish oil company Repsol and its U.S. partner, Armstrong Energy. Roughly 1.2 billion barrels of light crude are available in Alaska’s North Slope and ready to come up in 2021. “The successive [exploration] campaigns in the area have added significant new potential to what was previously viewed as a mature basin,” the company said in a statement posted to its website on Friday. “Additionally Alaska has significant infrastructure which allows new resources to be developed more...

President Donald Trump as a candidate promised to unshackle the American energy industry by undoing most of the job killing regulations created by the Obama administration. In a court filing, Justice Department lawyers revealed that the new administration is planning to repeal the Obama hydraulic fracturing rule, that placed severe restrictions on the process of getting oil and natural gas from shale. Earlier yesterday, the administration said they would roll back some of the automobile emissions standards and curtail other Obama administration environmental rules on water and coal leasing.

Some 1.2 billion barrels of oil have been discovered in Alaska, marking the biggest onshore discovery in the U.S. in three decades. The massive find of conventional oil on state land could bring relief to budget pains in Alaska brought on by slumping production in the state and the crash in oil prices. The new discovery was made in just the past few days in Alaska’s North Slope, which was previously viewed as an aging oil basin. Spanish oil giant Repsol and its privately-held U.S. partner Armstrong Energy announced the find on Thursday, predicting production could begin as soon as...

The House of Delegates has approved a bill to permanently ban natural gas fracking in Western Maryland. The bill passed by a vote of 97-40. The 97 votes is 12 more than the minimum of 85 needed to override a veto from Governor Larry Hogan. That majority was important to the chairman of the committee hearing the bill in the Senate. The chairman of the Senate Education Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, Joan Carter Conway of Baltimore City, says she won’t bring the bill to the Senate floor unless lawmakers have enough votes to override a possible veto from Governor...

Shell has struck a deal to sell all its oil sands production assets in Canada, except for a 10-percent stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, as part of its $30-billion divestment program aimed at reducing its debt load that it accumulated with the acquisition of BG Group. The total net value of the deal is $7.25 billion, and the buyer is Canadian Natural Resources, which will partner with Shell on another deal: the acquisition of Marathon Oil Canada Corporation, which has a 20-percent stake in the AOSP. The stake will be split equally between the partners, each contributing $1.25...

The of oil is down, from $53 on 7 March, to a bit above $48 today. This, going into the summer driving season.