No let up in the chaos of Nigeria. Rebels from the Niger Delta blew up a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline yesterday, forcing the firm to cut production, helping keep world oil prices near record highs as a consequence.
It was carried out while Shell was trying to repair damage caused by a series of similar attacks [...]

The record oil price of $135 a barrel is due to “market sentiment” rather than a shortage of supply, according to Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer.
“What we say and what we see is there are no physical shortages,” said van der Veer. “There are no tankers waiting in the Middle East, there [...]

Air pollution regulators in the Bay area have voted overwhelmingly to approve new rules that impose fees on businesses for emitting greenhouse gasses.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s board of directors voted 15-1 to charge companies 4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Experts say the fees, which cover nine counties [...]

One of the world’s largest oil companies will admit in court today that Britain’s biggest peacetime explosion was the result of negligence, according to the Times newspaper.
In a statement to the newspaper, Total UK confirmed that it had advised claimants against it and Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL), a joint venture with Chevron, that the [...]

As oil climbed to a humungous record of $135 a barrel, yesterday US senators once again lined up Big Oil’s biggest executives and pummeled them with questions.
“Where is the corporate conscience?” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies, who have earned a whopping $36 billion [...]