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A rusty truck and abandoned oil pumps form part of the French Oil Museum in Alsace. In the mid-18th century, the region was the cradle of the oil industry and provided 5 percent of French needs before fading into insignificance in the 1960s when the barrel lingered around $15. Now with oil prices hovering around $100, a dozen fields are pumping again. The activity near the Rhine on the German border does not amount to an oil boom. The region provides 1 percent of French oil production, which is just under 2 percent of European output. Nonetheless, 13 wells are...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy Policy: Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.The world is running out of oil and good riddance. That's the environmentalists' mantra. But since the first well was drilled near Titusville, Pa., 150 years ago, the prophecy has gone unfulfilled. Trouble is, those darn greedy oil companies keep finding the stuff. Oil has been produced in the Gulf of Mexico since the first well was drilled by Kerr-McGee Corp. in 1947. Some of the wells are...

The Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, according to a report Wednesday. The Bakken Oil Formation, which covers North Dakota and portions of Montana and South Dakota, is believed to have 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. In 2007, EOG Resources of Texas drilled a single well in Parshal N.D. that is expected to have yielded 700,000 barrels of oil. Marathon Oil is investing $1.5 billion and drilling 300 new wells. In the next 30 days, the U.S....

The oil industry has known for decades that there was oil in North Dakota's Bakken Formation. But until recently, few thought it was worth chasing. The Bakken, an immense blanket of rock that covers about 200,000 square miles, stretching from Saskatchewan to straddle western North Dakota and eastern Montana, has long frustrated efforts to extract its oil. The oil was two miles down and trapped in tightly packed horizontal layers of shale that were easy to miss with conventional drilling. By 1999, when oil prices were low, the industry had largely given up on North Dakota, recalls Ron Ness, president...

Brazil has announced the discovery of a huge offshore oil field that could contain between 5 to 8 billion barrels of oil, enough to expand the country's proven reserves by 40 to 50 percent. The "ultra-deep" Tupi field was found under 7,060 feet of water, another 10,000 feet of sand and rocks and a further 6,600 feet of salt – a total of 4.48 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Sergio Gabrielli, the chief executive officer of the state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA told Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Monday that reserves in the pre-salt...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The world's oldest person has died. Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden was 116 when her time came today in a Memphis, Tennessee, nursing home. She'd lived there several years, but relatives say she spoke very little after a stroke two years ago.

A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that has the potential to boost the nation's reserves by more than 50 percent. A test well indicates it could be the biggest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay more than a generation ago. But the vast oil deposit about four miles beneath the ocean floor won't significantly reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil and won't help lower prices at the pump anytime soon. "It's a nice positive, but the U.S. still has a big difference between its...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil prices retreated Monday as traders took profits following recent gains and amid easing worries about Iran's nuclear dispute after the country's top nuclear negotiator expressed optimism that the standoff can be resolved peacefully. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 37 cents to $73.72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop came after oil prices had climbed for most of the last two weeks, reaching an intraday record of $75.78 a barrel on Friday before settling back at $74.09. The Brent crude contract for August fell 27 cents to...

SHEPARD SMITH JUST ANNOUNCED: HOUSE APPROVES ANWR DRILLING!!

A mysterious black blob attacked downtown Los Angeles on Monday with a tar-like goo that oozed from manholes, buckled a street and unmoored a Raymond Chandler-era brick building, firefighters said. About 200 residents were forced to flee as a hazardous materials team and dozens of firefighters worked throughout the day to identify what was first deemed "a black tarry substance" and later morphed into a "watery mud." While outside temperatures struggled to break 60, sidewalks in the vicinity steamed at 103 degrees, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers said. "It's worrisome in the fact that it will keep the...

Okay, let's get it started in here . . . Here's my prediction: Broncos win the AFC and play the Seahawks in the Superbowl. Wouldn't it be interesting, to see these old AFC rivals take on each other in the Big Show!?Whoa! sez the Steelers fan! Not so fast. Okay, here's why I think the Broncos will beat them: Home field advantage, no injuries, they're on a roll, AND, especially, because their record is 13-3 (IN THE AFC WEST) and the Steelers are 11-5. BIG difference. I love Cowher as a coach, and I have lots of family ties to...

Called my sister shortly before midnight. She said her husband has three guns loaded to shoot off for New Year's Eve. I don't approve of this. I told her to shoot the guns into the ground, not into the air.They followed my advice. When my nephew shot one of the guns into the ground he hit a water pipe. Now water is gushing out of the ground. Just desserts. What can I say?

Norwegian oil company Hydro announced on Monday a promising oil discovery under the oil and natural gas fields already producing at the enormous Troll field in the North Sea. The Oslo-based petroleum and light metals group said prospects for developing the find in the deeper rock structures were promising because the oil is so close to an existing offshore field. Hydro said further tests and drilling will be needed to determine the amount of additional oil that could be produced. Troll is Europe's largest natural gas field currently in operation, and also produces 260,000 barrels of oil per day from...

Tel Aviv, ISRAEL -- John Brown resembles a typical American tourist, dressed in sandals, shorts and t-shirt, as he sits waiting in the tourist-filled lobby of Tel Aviv's swish David Intercontinental Hotel. Only two things betray a purpose other than sightseeing: in his hand, Brown holds a Bible rather than a street map, and his baseball cap displays the logo of "Zion Oil and Gas", instead of a typical tourist motif. Indeed, Brown, a friendly Texan Evangelist in his mid 60s, is not here on vacation. He is founder of Zion Oil and Gas, based in Dallas, Texas, and his...

Today, my mother asked me to come see something in their Los Gatos back yard. She took me out to the corner of their large lot (large for Los Gatos, anyway), and she pointed out to me some black, shiny substance seeping out of the ground in patches, and along a line about 10 feet in length. The last heavy rain had made this substance come to the surface. I said "It looks like oil," and she said she thought so, too. I stuck my finger in it, and it was black, slick, and after I'd rubbed it around to...

Nov. 4, 2004, 12:10AM Bin Laden has more to say Terrorist claims Iraq's 'black gold' bedazzled Bush By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD Associated Press CAIRO, EGYPT - Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden claimed in new video footage broadcast Wednesday that President Bush ignored warnings against invading Iraq because he was dazzled by the country's "black gold" and ended up leading the United States into a quagmire. The full video, portions of which were broadcast Friday, was posted on a Web site used by Islamic groups Wednesday. The tape shows the author of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks accusing Bush of acting...

8:38PM CT The first report from St. Louis is in - and presidential candidates Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) and David Cobb (Green Party) were just arrested. Badnarik was carrying an Order to Show Cause, which he intended to serve the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Earlier today, Libertarians attempted to serve these same papers at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the CPD - but were stopped from approaching the CPD office by security guards.