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NEW YORK - U.S. oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise 84,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March to a record of about 8.4 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on Tuesday. The largest change is forecast in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, where output is expected to climb by 43,000 bpd to a record 4.024 million bpd in March. A shale revolution has helped boost the United States to the position of world's biggest crude oil producer, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. Overall crude production...

The cliffs at Kimmeridge, on England's south coast, have on occasions been known to smoulder or even burst into flames in hot weather. That is because, unlike the famous white chalk cliffs of Dover, they are made of oil shale, a soft rock that has hydrocarbons trapped in its pores. The world's oil-shale beds may contain the equivalent of up to nine times as much oil as all of its conventional wells.

Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian. Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment.

Russia signaled concern on Wednesday at Estonia's treatment of its large ethnic Russian minority, comparing language policy in the Baltic state with what it said was a call in Ukraine to prevent the use of Russian. Russia has defended its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by arguing it has the right to protect Russian-speakers outside its borders, so the reference to linguistic tensions in another former Soviet republic comes at a highly sensitive moment. Russia fully supported the protection of the rights of linguistic minorities, a Moscow diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to a...

Anadarko Focusing on Onshore U.S. Operations  Though Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC  ) is well known for its international asset portfolio, which includes sizable stakes in the Jubilee field off Ghana's shore, the El Merk project in Algeria's Sahara Desert, and exploratory prospects offshore various African countries, the company's onshore U.S. operations account for nearly 90% of its total production and 60% of this year's capital spending.In fact, Anadarko is so optimistic about its growth runway in the U.S. that it recently sold some international assets to help fund its onshore U.S. drilling program. Let's take a closer look.Mozambique sale to fund...

Oklahoma is emerging as the next big shale oil play, with production growing faster than in any other U.S. state apart from Texas and North Dakota.

October 8, 2013 News Release West Lafayette, Ind. -- The increasing production of shale oil and gas should benefit the U.S. economy by raising the nation's gross domestic product by an average of 3.5 percent annually through 2035, according to a report by Purdue University energy economists. "The economic impact of shale oil and gas is clear: It is a game changer for the U.S. economy," said Wally Tyner, the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics and one of the researchers. Shale oil and gas are found deep underground, below conventional oil and far below the water table....

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan and China have inked a memorandum of understanding to build a $2.5 billion (1.8 billion euros) oil shale-fired power plant in the kingdom to produce 900 megawatts of electricity, media said Thursday. Under the agreement, signed Wednesday in Beijing during a visit of King Abdullah II, a consortium of China's Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO III) and HTJ Group as well as Jordan's Al-Lajjun Oil Shale Company will build the power station in the southern city of Karak. "Jordan has 31 billion tonnes of oil shale, the world's fourth largest reserves," state-run Petra news agency...

The Baltic tiger of Estonia is the world’s first country to meet all its power needs from shale, with enough left over for neighbours and fuel exports for the shipping industry. “We are the most energy independent country in the European Union, and we will not compromise our energy security. We have a large neighbour,” said Juhan Parts, the economy minister. It is the same story wherever you go across Eastern Europe: the fuel debate comes down to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and Gazprom’s stranglehold on gas supplies. Global warming inevitably plays second fiddle. “Estonia is not rich enough to experiment...

The surge in U.S. oil production is making a difference in the energy market, even if American consumers aren’t necessarily seeing the savings at the pump, Adam Sieminski, head of the Energy Information Administration, told lawmakers Tuesday. U.S. crude oil production jumped by nearly a million barrels per day last year, reaching its highest average daily level since 1995, although gasoline prices so far this year have averaged $3.56 per gallon, a modest 6 cents below last year’s price, according to AAA data. “Consumers are benefiting from domestic oil production,” Sieminski told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on...

Linc Energy claims to have found rock formations containing more than $20 trillion worth of oil Brisbane company Linc Energy says independent studies have confirmed a major shale oil source in South Australia's far north, which officials have estimated could be worth $20 trillion. The company says U.S. consultants have carried out drilling and geological and seismic surveys around Coober Pedy. Linc Energy holds rights over more than 65,000 square kilometres of land in the Arckaringa Basin and started explorations in 2008. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, the company said reports from U.S.-based consultants indicate underlying rock formations...

A report has revealed that 2012 saw the largest single-year increase in US oil production ever recorded. US production grew due to an increase in techniques such as fracking, a method for extracting shale oil and gas, the report by oil giant BP said. Overall, global energy consumption grew by 1.8% in 2012, a smaller increase than in 2011. China and India accounted for almost 90% of that growth.

<p>AUVERE, Estonia (AP) - Home to the creators of Skype and the first country to use online voting, Estonia relishes its image as a technological pioneer. But the tiny East European country's most far-reaching economic achievement could come from how it has learned to squeeze oil from a rock.</p>

Could oil production from the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana rival output from Saudi Arabia's supergiant Ghawar oilfield, the greatest oil-bearing structure the world has ever known? Until recently, comparisons between the shale fields of the Bakken and Ghawar, which produces 5 million barrels per day, would have been dismissed as fanciful. But Bakken's exponential growth and enormous reserves put it on course to produce more than 1 million barrels per day by the middle of next year, which will earn it a place in the small pantheon of truly elite oil fields. Ghawar accounts for nearly half...

OPEC acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that technology for extracting oil and gas from shale is changing the global supply picture significantly, and said demand for crude will rise more slowly than it had previously expected. In its annual World Oil Outlook, OPEC cut its forecast of global oil demand to 2016 due to economic weakness and also increased its forecast of supplies from countries outside the 12-nation exporters' group. "Given recent significant increases in North American shale oil and shale gas production, it is now clear that these resources might play an increasingly important role in non-OPEC...

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development. The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation. The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is...

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development. The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation. The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is...

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development. The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation. The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is...

Oil unlocked from shale formations is set to create a supply glut that could push down crude prices, according to a new study. Global production capacity at oilfields will increase by 17.6 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next eight years thanks in part to shale, the most significant increase in any decade since the 1980s, according to Leonardo Maugeri, a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "Contrary to what most people believe, oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that it might outpace consumption," wrote Mr Maugeri,...

Will North Dakota be the first state to end property taxes?By Josh Goodman Associated Press Posted: Jun 11, 2012, 10:29 am WASHINGTON — North Dakota voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of a ballot initiative that would make the state the first in the country to end property taxes. If any state is going to take such a dramatic step, North Dakota would seem to be a likely candidate. North Dakota is generally a conservative state, and fiscal conservatives generally support lower taxes. The state is also experiencing a surge in tax revenue unrivaled elsewhere. The property tax is...