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<p>BP BP.LN -5.99% PLC was grossly negligent in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill, a federal judge ruled Thursday.</p> <p>The decision by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans means BP faces as much as $18 billion in civil penalties under the U.S. Clean Water Act for pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, far more than if the judge had found the company simply negligent.</p>

Motley Fool: The World Has 53.3 Years of Oil Left By Matt DiLallo | More Articles |  June 22, 2014 |   Photo credit: BP. BP (NYSE: BP  )  has provided an intriguing update to its global oil reserves estimate in the company's latest yearly review of energy statistics. BP raised its reserve estimate by 1.1% to 1,687.9 billion barrels, which is enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates. However, there's likely a lot more oil left in the tank beyond what BP sees today. America's energy boom surgesA good portion of the growth in global oil reserves in BP's report comes from the...

BP (ticker BP ) has provided an intriguing update to its global oil reserves estimate in the company's latest yearly review of energy statistics. BP raised its reserve estimate by 1.1% to 1,687.9 billion barrels, which is enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates. However, there's likely a lot more oil left in the tank beyond what BP sees today. A good portion of the growth in global oil reserves in BP's report comes from the United States. According to BP, the U.S. has 44.2 billion barrels of oil reserves, which is 26% higher...

HOUSTON, Texas—A surge of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has left federal resources and facilities overwhelmed. Most of the new migrants are children from Central America. In the aftermath of Breitbart Texas releasing photos showing minors warehoused in crowded U.S. cells, Border Patrol agents in Texas have been instructed not to speak to media outlets. The Associated Press (AP) obtained an email from Eligio "Lee" Pena, an assistant patrol agent, that ordered more than 3,000 agents to not speak to reporters about the "humanitarian crisis." The email allegedly said that reporters are likely to press for details...

**SNIP** The new chair of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Mary Landrieu, praised the agreement. “BP has rightly been held responsible in a court of law and should continue to make whole the individuals and businesses that were impacted by the oil spill, but barring them from entering new contracts on top of that amounted to double jeopardy and set a terrible precedent that I hope will not be repeated,” said Landrieu, D-La. “The good news is that BP will now be able to participate in next week’s lease sale that will bring much-needed revenue to Louisiana and other oil-producing...

BP PLC reported plans to establish a separate business to manage its onshore oil and gas assets in the US Lower 48. BP currently oversees its Lower 48 onshore assets through its Houston-based North America Gas group. The new business will operate separately from the rest of BP, led by a separate management team in Houston apart from the company’s Westlake campus. BP said it will have separate governance, processes, and systems designed to address the unique competitive and operating environment in the Lower 48 onshore. The company is expected to begin disclosing separate financials for the new business next...

    'Big oil' getting smaller as production keeps falling  February 14, 2014 - Richard Swann in London  * Top seven western majors all seeing liquids output fall * Supermajors' share of global market dropping every year * BP reports fastest decline of 30% from 2009-13 * Production becoming more evenly split between oil and gas The biggest western oil companies are continuing to see their oil output decline, despite record investment in recent years spurred by sustained crude prices in excess of $100/barrel, according to data released by the companies. Furthermore, with total world oil output continuing to rise every year,...

PARIS -- An environmentalist lies down alongside his fellow organic cucumber aficionados to block the construction of an oil pipeline and wakes up a member of a proxy army serving the billionaires who are fighting against America's economic and national security interests to line their own pockets. How did that happen? This phenomenon is on display in the battle against the Keystone XL pipeline project, the cornerstone of Canada-U.S. energy independence, set to run from Alberta, Canada, into Nebraska, then ultimately to the Gulf Coast of Texas where it can be exported. None of this pleases environmental activists, whose actions...

Expressing dismay at an increase in Equal Employment Opportunity complaints under the administration of recently confirmed permanent Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director B. Todd Jones, a moderator at CleanUpATF blasted the agency Thursday by citing Department of Justice statistics, also released yesterday. Longtime readers of this column recall CUATF is a website run by disaffected ATF agents dedicated to exposing Bureau waste, abuse, corruption and fraud. It was from their forum that this correspondent and citizen journalist Mike Vanderboegh of the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog first got wind of allegations that ATF was facilitating “gunwalking” into Mexico...

This is a 60 Minutes Australian segment I believe is based on information posted here last November. I'm not sure when the episode aired in Australia. I rate this a "must-watch", both for personal safety in regards to the Gulf and in regards to the radioactive contamination we can expect from Fukushima (and the same level of disclosure & transparency from 'authoritative sources').

A wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry has been dismissed by a federal judge on the grounds that a court settlement would interfere with the powers of the U.S. government, which has a compensation scheme of its own. Terry died in a shoot-out with Mexican drug cartel gunmen in southern Arizona in December 2010 in a case tied to a flawed bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, gun-running operation that embarrassed the Obama administration and strained relations with Mexico. Last year Terry's parents, Kent and Josephine Terry, filed a...

In June 2012, BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. made the startling announcement that it was dropping its ambitious plan to develop the offshore Liberty field using ultra extended-reach drilling from shore. In the 15 months since, it has been less than clear what alternate approach, if any, BP might take on Liberty. But now, the company’s direction is becoming evident. On the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management website devoted to Liberty, this statement has appeared: “BP Exploration (Alaska) is now proposing a stand-alone drilling and production processing island as the safest and most environmentally responsible course of development for the...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Halliburton Co pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal charges of destroying evidence, stemming from its role in the 2010 BP oil disaster that killed 11 men and sent more than 4 million barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. A former Halliburton cementing technology director in Texas also was charged on Thursday with destroying evidence. U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo in New Orleans accepted the company's guilty plea from Halliburton legal counsel Marc Mukasey, imposed the agreed-upon maximum fine of $200,000 and placed the company on a three-year probation term. Mukasey did not...

Currently the left is boycotting Nestle, Caterpillar, BP, Bank of America, Florida, Arizona and every company on earth. Not to mention Israel.

BP is set to announce Monday that it will sink $1 billion into revving up crude production from Alaska’s declining North Slope, weeks after the state decided to give the oil industry a $750 million annual tax cut. The British oil giant plans to add two drilling rigs to its Prudhoe Bay field, bringing the count up to nine, the highest in about six years. New well work and drilling, along with upgrades of existing facilities, could support 200 new jobs, the company said. Separately, with the agreement of its working interest partners at Prudhoe Bay, including ConocoPhillips and Exxon...

Signs that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack by hostage-taking Islamist militants on a remote gas plant in Algeria are of great concern to American authorities, U.S. intelligence officials said on Thursday. While Algerian authorities apparently have not yet provided Western governments with cast-iron proof, a senior U.S. intelligence official said: “We’re taking very seriously the reports of the two Canadians’ involvement.” ... Confirmation that Canadian citizens were involved in the attack on the In Amenas facility in the Algerian desert would raise concerns about a worrying nexus between North America and North African militants. At least 38 plant...

BP is putting its wind business on the block, its latest retreat from renewable energy as the company moves to focus on its core oil and gas operations. The British oil giant has touted the growth of its wind operations in recent years, but is adjusting “as part of a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and reposition the company for sustainable growth into the future,” said spokesman Matt Hartwig in an emailed statement. The company has interest in 16 operating wind farms in nine states, including its Sherbino wind farm in West Texas. Just...

Attorney General Eric Holder told senators on Wednesday that he did not respect the House members who voted to hold him in contempt for not cooperating in the Fast and Furious investigation, and that “the president, the White House was not involved in the operational component of Fast and Furious.” Fast and Furious was the Justice Department’s gun-running operation that allowed about 2,000 guns to flow into Mexico under federal supervision before authorities lost control of the guns. The operation began in the fall of 2009 and was

Well, well, well, so Obama has embarked on his third war in little more than two years. You've got to admit that "flexibility" is his middle name. Or at least one of his middle names: Barack Barry Hussein "Flexibility" Soetoro Obama, Jr. Those are the names we know so far, but The Donald thinks there might be more. Whodda thunk? Here we are barely into the first week of what started out as a "No-Fly Zone" and it is now turning out to be Air Al Qaida. Ten years ago, AQ had a mere four civilian airplanes to crash into...

Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.