Posts Tagged ‘Oil Exploration’

By RYAN TRACY

WASHINGTON—The U.S. approved a Royal Dutch Shell PLC plan to drill for oil in five locations deep under the Gulf of Mexico.

The Shell proposal is the second deep-water exploration plan approved in the Gulf since the U.S. government lifted a moratorium on deep-water drilling in October. The moratorium was imposed following the BP PLC oil spill in April 2010. At least six other deep-water plans are pending for the Gulf.

Companies apply for permits to drill after receiving approval for an exploration plan. read more

BPZ Resources Inc. and a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to end talks aimed at jointly exploring for oil and gas in Peru after oil prices slumped.

Hill, 47, joins Hess from Shell, where he has been Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific E&P, encompassing Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Australia and New Zealand. He held numerous leadership positions during his 25-year career at Shell that included responsibilities for onshore production in parts of the United States and offshore production in Europe.

FAIRBANKS — The head of Shell Alaska said the oil giant might appeal a recent court ruling that has indefinitely delayed plans to drill exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea during 2009.

International oil majors such asExxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are being squeezed out of the world's main oil-producing areas by national oil companies.

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said: "We hear almost every day about a project being postponed. This is a major problem."

Democratic leaders had hoped to extend the drilling bans, but such a move would have risked drawing opposition from Republicans and the White House. President Bush has announced that he would allow the bans to expire at the end of September. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Marvin Odum, the head of Royal Dutch Shell PLC's U.S. operations, acknowledged that "it is a possibility that [the ban] comes right back on."

The Shell-operated Perdido Spar has arrived in the deepwaters of the Gulf of Mexico. Perdido will be the deepest oil development in the world, the deepest drilling and production platform in the world and have the deepest subsea well in the world.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

With gas prices rising, California residents are softening their long-held opposition to offshore drilling, a new opinion poll suggests.

In March, four companies - Australia-based BHP Billiton Petroleum Deepwater Inc., Houston-based Anadarko E&P Co., Shell Offshore Inc. and Italian oil and natural gas company Eni SpA - purchased leases on 36 Gulf of Mexico tracts under the 2006 compromise.

The oil industry applauded President Bush's announcement Monday that he would lift an executive ban on offshore drilling...

AMMAN (MarketWatch) -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC is in the final stages of striking a concession agreement with the Jordanian government to explore oil from the country's vast oil shale, a senior official at the state-run Natural Resources Authority said Thursday.

Shell announced today that it has achieved yet another milestone in the Ursa/Princess Waterflood project

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc can explore for oil in Alaska's Arctic waters, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Anchorage, who dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block the companies' exploration plans.

...oil companies, amid a global drilling frenzy, are stretched so thin they will be hard-pressed to take on big new projects anytime soon. More than 400 major drilling and production projects are competing for engineers, rigs, seismic equipment and steel to build platforms, and the costs of doing the work have skyrocketed.

America's energy independence will not be found in offshore oil drilling.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Shell Oil (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile,Research) said on Friday it would delay its 2008 drilling plan in Alaska's Beaufort Sea for a year because of an ongoing legal challenge filed by groups concerned about the potential impact on whales, walruses and other marine mammals.

The EPA permit allows Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Dutch-owned Royal Dutch Shell PLC, to release up to 245 tons of nitrogen oxides at each of its drilling sites in the Beaufort Sea.

A bill introduced in Congress this week would "compel" oil and natural gas companies to produce from federal lands they are leasing. If only it were that easy to find and produce oil. Imagine, an act of Congress that could do what geology could not.

George Bush, responding to public alarm over soaring petrol prices, yesterday proposed overturning decades-old bans on drilling for oil off the US coast and in the pristine Alaskan wilderness.

George W. Bush yesterday offered his support to John McCain's plan to lift the ban on fresh oil drilling off the US coast and accused Democrats of contributing to record energy prices by restricting domestic production.

President George W Bush is to ask Congress to end a 27-year ban on drilling for oil in US coastal waters, the White House says.

President Bush, reversing a longstanding position, will call on Congress on Wednesday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling...

Anyone wondering why U.S. energy policy is so dysfunctional need only review Congress's recent antics. Members have debated ideas ranging from suing OPEC to the Senate's carbon tax-and-regulation monstrosity, to a windfall profits tax on oil companies, to new punishments for "price gouging" – everything except expanding domestic energy supplies.

Eni owns a 15% working interest in Stones. Shell (operator 35%), Marathon (25%), and Petrobras (25%) are the other partners.