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Rio de Janeiro - More than 180 miles off Brazil's coast, trapped under a few miles of water, rock, and salt, lie billions of barrels of light, sweet crude – the largest discovery of oil in the Western Hemisphere in a generation. Accessing it will require some of the most advanced technology on the planet. But Brazil, once a heavy importer that celebrated its "oil independence" only two years ago, is uniquely positioned to extract reserves trapped millions of years ago when South America and Africa began to separate. The state-controlled oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), says it will begin...

Energy: Barack Obama says tire inflation would replace all the new oil to be found offshore. How does he know, when he sponsors a bill forbidding us from even finding out how much is there?While House Republicans valiantly fight to increase America's domestic oil supply in a darkened House chamber, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama fights valiantly to keep America in the dark about exactly how much oil is available from new offshore drilling. Obama, who has flip-flopped into alleged acceptance of offshore drilling as part of some grand energy compromise, has in fact been leading a one-man crusade to...

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee has rejected a Republican-led effort to open up more U.S. coastal waters to oil exploration. Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., spearheaded the effort. His proposal would open up U.S. waters between 50 and 200 miles off shore for drilling. The first 50 miles off shore would be left alone.

October 23, 2006 Editorial A Reason to Drill in the Gulf It is time to make a serious effort to save the vanishing wetlands and barrier islands along the coast of Louisiana. The best chance is a bill passed by the Senate that would guarantee Louisiana and three other coastal states a share of oil and gas revenues from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The states would be expected to use the proceeds largely for coastal restoration and related projects. The House should adopt this measure in its present form during the coming lame-duck session, and President Bush...

Promising new technology detects hydrocarbons down to 20,000 feet A Southern California company has reported completion of a new oil exploration survey using technology that detects natural energy currents created by solar flares and lightning. Ed Johnson, President of the Orange County based company eField Exploration, said that they completed an aerial survey of over 3,100 miles of existing oil and gas fields and other land in Texas using a developing technology which reveals the location of water and oil down to 20,000 feet or more below the surface. This new generation of "Electro-Magnetotelluric" technology is mounted on an airborne...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate have struck a deal with key party members including Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida that would allow the chamber to vote on opening the eastern Gulf of Mexico to energy exploration, Senate aides said on Wednesday. Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, is pressing for a vote this month on a plan that would develop the Outer Continental Shelf off Florida, including a controversial area known as "Lease Sale 181." Domenici and Martinez met with Majority Leader Bill Frist on Tuesday, and have struck a deal that will...

Citing the need for America to achieve energy independence as well as aid poor and minority households already suffering from rising heating bills, activists with the black leadership network Project 21 are speaking out in favor of oil and natural gas exploration efforts under consideration for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The U.S. Senate approved legislation on November 9 to allow oil drilling on approximately 2,000 acres - or 0.01 percent - of ANWR's 19.6 million acres. The House of Representatives is expected to consider similar legislation as early as this week. Drilling...

China National Offshore Oil Corporation is considering a nearly $14bn (£7bn, €10.6bn) takeover of Unocal of the US. Sinopec, another Chinese state-controlled oil group, has struck a $70bn deal to buy Iranian crude oil and liquefied natural gas over three decades. China has sent $6bn to Rosneft, the Russian company that bought the main production unit of the embattled Yukos oil group, as advance payment for oil supplies. India has just reached a $40bn agreement to import LNG from Iran and develop Iranian oilfields, and is promoting pipeline projects to bring oil and gas across neighbouring countries to supply its...

TOKYO - In a sign of deepening popular and political animosity between China and Japan, Tokyo took formal possession this week of a tiny archipelago in the Pacific waters south of Japan. In the early morning of Feb. 9, Tokyo informed Beijing's embassy here that the Senkaku Islands would be administered by the Japanese coast guard. The unexpectedly bold action by Tokyo received little attention here. But it is seen as a "serious chess move," says one diplomat, in a region where power relations are being redefined, and where tensions over energy, borders, military buildups, and ethnic rivalries are palpable....

If environmentalists really cared about the environment... - They would welcome drilling in our own hemisphere, because of the decreased risks of accidents during the long transport of oil via seaborne tankers - They would welcome drilling in the ANWR and offshore, because it would be much much more environmentally controlled than oil operations in Russia, Bulgaria and the Middle East ever will be. - They would recognize oil as an environment-saving rather than an environment-destroying resource. Plastics derived for oil replace wood products, soft metals, paper products and other synthetic materials in a wide array of products and are...

#771, Friday, May 24, 2002 TOP STORYLeaders To Sign Energy Accord By Anna Raff STAFF WRITERMOSCOW - In the hours before U.S. President George W. Bush flew into Moscow on Thursday night, U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans laid the ground for closer cooperation between the United States and Russia in the key areas of oil and aviation.Bush and President Vladimir Putin are expected to sign off on an energy agreement during their summit talks Friday that could open the door to Russia becoming an important energy supplier to the U.S. market.Formal bilateral cooperation in oil would be the obvious...