The U.S. Interior Department will release today its new five-year plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, as well Alaska and Virginia. The proposed drilling area includes major fishing areas and is set to be controversial. The new leasing plan “would significantly increase the nation’s domestic energy supplies while protecting … Read More
Offshore
Call for UK Firms to Quit the Niger Delta
A leading union leader from Britain’s offshore industry has called on all British oil companies to pull out of the volatile Niger Delta region until safety can be guaranteed. The call by Graham Tran, a regional officer of Amicus, one of the North Sea’s major unions, came as the search went on for a missing … Read More
China Finds an “Elephant”
After a decade-long search for oil from central Asian deserts to the floors of the Pacific, PetroChina has found an offshore field in Bohai Bay that could become China’s biggest new domestic petroleum source for years, with reserves of 2.2 billion barrels. The scale of the find, if confirmed, would be welcome news to the … Read More
Senate Bill Expands Drilling Closer to Shore
Oil-drilling advocates are pushing for a new bill that would allow energy exploration 45 miles from Florida’s coast, much closer that the current 125-mile limit. Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Senator Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., will propose more offshore drilling in a bill that would allow U.S. companies to drill in waters close to Cuba as … Read More
Republicans Open Up Gulf of Mexico
The Republican Congress may be on its last legs but it is still kicking. A plan to open more than 8 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling was included in a tax package that the House approved late last week. It means Big Oil’s proponents are one step away … Read More