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NEW ORLEANS — As oil gushed from BP’s ruptured well five years ago and public outrage built by the day, the Obama administration issued a six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. When the well was finally capped after nearly three months, political and industry pressure mounted on the White House to lift the ban, which it did about a month earlier than planned. Since then, oil and gas drilling Gulf has bounced back strongly and the number of deep-water drilling rigs has actually increased from 35 to about 48. Drillers are pushing into even deeper water and...

Five years ago this week, a blowout of BPÂ’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig 40 miles from the Gulf Coast tragically claimed eleven lives and spilled 3 million barrels of oil from the damaged wellhead into the Gulf. ItÂ’s hard to forget the video images of thick oil gushing, day after day, into the regionÂ’s waters. It was a horrific accident that caused substantial damage to the ecology and commerce of the region. Gulf-area wildlife, portions of the shoreline, tourism, fishers and shrimpers, and energy-sector workers suffered large losses in the aftermath of the spill. BP has paid close to $27...

Low crude prices will trigger consolidation in the oil industry but a new bull market might arrive much sooner than expected given the huge scale of capital and workforce withdrawal in the sector, a former boss of oil major BP said. "The actions the industry is taking to withdraw capital are laying the seeds for the next bull market," Tony Hayward told the FT Commodities Summit. "The peak of U.S. shale supply has arrived – earlier than anticipated ... The supply chain in the U.S. has been decimated ... It will take several years to take activity back," Hayward said....

U.S. crude oil production fell at least 135,000 barrels of oil per day in January 2015 compared to December 2014 according to the EIA (Figure 1). Bakken Shale production fell the most of any play or jurisdiction losing 37,000 barrels per day in North Dakota and 4,000 barrels per day in Montana for a total of 41,000 barrels of oil per day (Figure 2). Production in California, the offshore Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and Wyoming also declined significantly. Figure 3 shows Bakken production based on DrillingInfo data. The 42,000 barrels of oil per day drop in January production is completely...

There is mounting evidence that oil prices are poised to rebound from a historic bust. Rig counts hit new lows each week. For the week ending on April 17, Baker Hughes says the U.S. lost an additional 34 oil and gas rigs, bringing the total down to 954. Domestic crude oil production appears to have plateaued and the EIA expects a contraction in May. Nearly every driller is dramatically scaling back spending, which should increasingly cut into new output. And oil consumption is finally picking up, as drivers far and wide take advantage of cheap fuel. But what if the...

Has billionaire oil man Harold Hamm ever been tempted to take the U.S. shale revolution abroad and expand his oil empire from North Dakota to the rest of the world? “I have not,” Hamm told a gathering of energy executives Tuesday. The question had come from Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS. Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, one of the biggest oil producers in the Bakken Shale, was one of three oil-company chief executives speaking from the stage during a panel at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference at the Hilton Americas-Houston. So why haven’t U.S. shale producers tried to tap...

A bill being debated in the Texas Legislature that would severely limit local municipalities' power to regulate oil and natural gas drilling moved one step closer to becoming law Monday. In a 125-20 vote, the Republican-dominated Texas House of Representatives approved on third reading H.B. 40. The legislation would "expressly pre-empt local ordinances that ban or limit oil and gas operations," including hydraulic fracturing. The bill will now move to the state Senate, which, like the House, is Republican-controlled. If passed by both houses of the legislature it will move to the desk of Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has...

Legislation to set standards for cities that wish to regulate the oil and gas drilling within their city limits passed the Texas House Friday with more than two-thirds approval. House Bill 40 heads to the Texas Senate Monday, where, if it can sustain the momentum that’s carried it this far, could soon become law. And that’s got some special interests groups in a tizzy. “If some Austin lawmakers are successful, oil and gas drilling could be coming to a school, playground of daycare center near you,” wrote Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas in an opinion piece published in the...

In a move that once again isn't exactly shocking, Halliburton Co. has been engaging in much more serious layoffs than they initially planned on back in February. Back in the early part of the year -- when energy analysts were confidently predicting oil prices would rebound in no time at all -- Halliburton still battened down the hatches, announcing plans for about 6,500 layoffs. Since then the analysts have for the most part gotten increasingly dour with their predictions, oil prices have stayed around $50 a barrel and Halliburton has actually laid off about 10 percent of its workforce in...

Baker Hughes Inc., one of the world's largest oil and gas service companies, said it will increase job cuts worldwide to 10,500, or about 17 percent of its total workforce. The Houston-based company said the cuts are necessary in order to weather a crash in North American drilling prompted by low oil prices. Baker Hughes announced the additional cuts Tuesday (April 21) after reporting a $32 million loss for the first quarter this year. The company's first-quarter revenue was down 20 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Earlier this year, Baker Hughes said it planned to cut...

Financial markets underpinning the U.S. shale boom have emerged as the world’s de facto regulator of global oil production, taking over from the Saudi Arabia-led cartel that effectively abdicated its decades-old role in November, a top IHS researcher said Monday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries “is not what it used to be; it’s no longer the balancer of the oil market,” said Jim Burkhard, chief researcher of global oil markets for IHS, during a panel on the first day of the week-long IHS Energy CERAWeek conference at the Hilton Americas-Houston. For a generation, Burkhard said, OPEC could influence...

When oil prices recover—and plenty of analysts think the climb back up will start soon—Canada’s western frontier of Saskatchewan and neighboring Alberta will ‘still have the edge’, according to a report from TD Economics. Depressed oil prices may have skewed the view from Canada’s oil-producing west, but this will be one of the better places to bet on the oil rebound. Saskatchewan remains the last highly accessible onshore North American oil frontier and it is home to part of the prolific Williston Basin. And as the industry gears up for the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference (WBPC) on 28 April, the...

The largest oil and gas companies are employing different strategies to weather the downturn and plan for the future. Each strategy has its risks, and not all may work out. Which companies will emerge stronger after an oil price rebound and which will fall further behind because of bad decisions? There are different ways to play a down cycle. With oil prices half of what they were in 2014, revenues are significantly lower for everyone across the board. As a result, the oil industry has collectively implemented an estimated $114 billion in spending cuts. But oil executives are also trying...

Just say no, Obama. Flaming water, poisoned air and destroyed lives — that’s what I found when I traveled to Dimock, Pa., in 2009 to see the impacts of fracking firsthand. Six years later, this tragic story is one shared by countless Americans, too many of them with no choice in the matter. Ten years after the Bush-Cheney administration exempted fracking from key parts of some of our nation’s most important environmental and public health laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, the science is finally catching up to the process — and...

CERAWEEK-U.S. fracking costs falling fast, may keep fields in play HOUSTON, April 22     (Reuters) - U.S. oil and natural gas companies have pushed down costs of fracking a shale well faster than expected, and if the trend holds up it could allow producers to keep working in oilfields that just months ago looked uncompetitive after the oil price crash.A more than 50 percent fall in the price of crude oil since June has left oil and gas producers insisting on steep price cuts from oilfield service companies that provide everything from drilling rigs to hydraulic fracturing.Oil is trading...

In November of 2011, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake ripped through the small Oklahoma town of Prague, damaging more than a dozen homes and toppling a turret on a St. Gregory's University building in nearby Shawnee. It was the worst of three large quakes to strike the area over several days, and it still as ranks as the worst Oklahoma has ever experienced. Since then, hundreds more have rattled the state, racking up millions of dollars in damages and unleashing a political and financial maelstrom. Until 2008, Oklahoma typically had one or two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater per year,...

Abandoning years of official skepticism, Oklahoma’s government on Tuesday embraced a scientific consensus that earthquakes rocking the state are largely caused by the underground disposal of billions of barrels of wastewater from oil and gas wells.The state’s energy and environment cabinet introduced a website detailing the evidence behind that conclusion Tuesday, including links to expert studies of Oklahoma’s quakes. The site includes an interactive map that plots not only earthquake locations, but also the sites of more than 3,000 active wastewater-injection wells.The website coincided with a statement by the state-run Oklahoma Geological Survey that it “considers it very likely” that...

A key figure behind New York’s statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing says that losing out on oil and gas jobs is no big deal because the industry only creates work for women as prostitutes and hotel maids. In an April 6 lecture at the University of Pittsburgh, biologist Sandra Steingraber of New Yorkers Against Fracking described the fight over oil and natural gas development as a feminist issue. “Fracking as an industry serves men. Ninety-five percent of the people employed in the gas fields are men. When we talk about jobs, we’re talking about jobs for men, and we need...

Two months ago, Action News brought you the story about one local organization researching into a possible secession for 15 towns in Upstate New York to Pennsylvania. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) decision to ban hydraulic fracking in New York compelled the Upstate New York Towns Association to look into the idea. This month, the organization is releasing more information on the matter. Carolyn Price, president of the Upstate New York Towns Association, shared the group’s findings with Action News exclusively this week. Price said Upstate New York is currently in an “economic death spiral.” She attributes her statement to various...

...While there are a lot of myths that surround this technology...the biggest one myth, is that, it’s new technology. The History of Fracking can be traced back to 1862. It was during the battle of Fredericksburg VA., where civil war veteran Col. Edward A.L. Roberts saw what could be accomplished when firing explosive artillery into a narrow canal that obstructed the battlefield. This was described as superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward Roberts received his first patent, for an “Improvement” in exploding torpedoes in artesian wells. In November of 1866, Edward Roberts was awarded patient number 59,936, known...