oil exploration

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Obama Approves Sonic Gun for East Coast Oil Search

Eastern Seaboard will be open for exploration in 2018

(Newser) - The Obama administration is opening the Eastern Seaboard to oil exploration for the first time in decades, it announced today, and it's approving the use of a controversial sonic cannon in the effort. Companies will be able to apply for permits from Delaware to Florida in 2018, when the...

Romney: I'll Make US an Energy 'Superpower'

Candidate tries to shift focus to energy with oil-friendly plan

(Newser) - Mitt Romney will unveil an energy plan today that he says will make the US an "energy superpower," in what the AP sees as an attempt to shift the focus away from issues like rape, abortion, and welfare, and put it back on the economy. Romney's plan...

Exxon Strikes Deal With Russia for Arctic Drilling

Company teams with state-owned Rosneft for exploration

(Newser) - Exxon Mobil scored a major coup in the search for Arctic oil today, signing a deal with Russia to explore areas with state-owned Rosneft, reports Reuters . The deal gives Exxon access to spots controlled by Moscow in the Kara Sea, which has become a much sought-after region within the petroleum...

Feds: Big Oil Not Using the Leases They Have

Interior Department issues report to push back against complaints

(Newser) - With oil companies and Republicans criticizing the Obama administration for being too slow to issue new offshore drilling permits in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Interior Department hit back with a report yesterday revealing that the industry isn’t using the majority of the leases it already...

Obama Doesn't Really Want to Drill, Baby, Drill
Obama Doesn't Really Want to Drill, Baby, Drill
Sarah Palin
Apr 1, 2010 1:19 PM CDT

Obama Doesn't Really Want to Drill, Baby, Drill

Democrats' energy plans amount to a stalling tactic

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s new energy proposal is less “drill, baby, drill,” and more “stall, baby, stall,” Sarah Palin complains in a blog post on the National Review . Obama today said he’d “consider potential areas for development” while “studying protecting sensitive areas in the...

Russia to Drill for Oil Off Cuba

(Newser) - A government-controlled Russian oil firm will be allowed to search for and extract oil from Cuba's portion of the Gulf of Mexico under a deal signed yesterday, the BBC reports. The Russian firm will work alongside Cuba's state-run oil monopoly a matter of miles off the coast of America. Cuba...

Untapped Oil Could Lube US-Cuba Ties

(Newser) - Oil trapped deep in the Gulf of Mexico could help ease the US-Cuba trade ban and decades of strained relations, the Washington Post reports. With 5 billion to 20 billion barrels of crude lying untapped in Cuba's territorial waters, some experts argue it's time for US companies to help drill...

Oil's Slide as Chaotic as Its Rise

Plunging crude prices can be almost as disruptive as their rise

(Newser) - Crude oil prices have fallen 38% from their July high of $147.27 a barrel, and the decline is causing nearly as much consternation around the world as its meteoric rise in the first half of the year, reports the Washington Post. Oil-dependent governments are worried about revenues and forecasters...

Supplies Drop as Big Oil's Power Shrivels

State-owned firms don't churn it out like Shell

(Newser) - A rapidly changing world order has left the giant oil companies all monied up with nowhere to drill, the New York Times reports. The Western oil giants' share of production has plummeted from over half in the 1970s to just 13% today. Production is falling as oil supplies remain in...

US Ship Joins Race for Arctic Resources

Mapping the continental shelf integral to oil and gas rights

(Newser) - A Coast Guard cutter will this week begin mapping Alaska’s continental shelf, Reuters reports, in a first step toward mining data that could be used to establish rights to oil exploration in the Arctic. Melting ice caps, which one scientist calls "bad for the Arctic, but very very...

Obama Shifts Tack on Offshore Drilling

Candidate says he would accept drilling as part of energy package

(Newser) - Barack Obama softened his opposition to offshore oil drilling yesterday, telling the Palm Beach Post in an interview  that he would be willing to accept  "a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage"  it if necessary to avoid a deadlock on...

Save the Earth: Drill in the US
 Save the Earth: Drill in the US 
Opinion
Aug 1, 2008 12:21 PM CDT

Save the Earth: Drill in the US

Letting other countries produce oil cures nothing: Krauthammer

(Newser) - Asked why she so vehemently opposes offshore drilling, Nancy Pelosi recently replied, “I’m trying to save the planet.” Which is a nice thought, Charles Krauthammer writes in the Washington Post, but it’s completely illogical. We’re not saving the planet by leaving the drilling to the...

Bush Will Lift Ban on Offshore Drilling

White House spins decision as attempt to motivate Congress

(Newser) - President Bush is about to lift the ban on offshore drilling that's stood since his father was in office, White House press secretary Dana Perino announced today. The move will be meaningless unless Congress follows suit, the AP reports. Two bans on the practice are in place: an executive order...

Would-Be Oil Barons Venture Into Kurdistan

Northern Iraqi region awash in untapped black gold—and risk

(Newser) - Kurdistan, Iraq’s mostly autonomous northern region, is brimming with oil, but the big oil companies won’t touch it. The Kurdish government gladly hands out exploration contracts, but taking one invites the wrath of the central government in Baghdad. That’s left the forbidden fruit to “wildcatters,”...

Hunt Is On for Florida Oil
 Hunt Is On for Florida Oil 
Jul 5, 2008 10:01 AM CDT

Hunt Is On for Florida Oil

2006 compromise opened up protected area; others could soon follow

(Newser) - The record-breaking price of oil is shifting public opinion toward lifting a moratorium on new offshore drilling, reports the AP. Four companies acquired rights to explore parcels of land off the Florida coast in March, under a 2006 Congressional compromise that opened up 8.3 million acres off the Panhandle...

GOP Going 'Green,' With Oil on the Side

Party's newly crafted policy backs renewable energy—plus drilling

(Newser) - An elite group of Republican senators met yesterday to craft an energy policy which the GOP claims is greener than the Democrats' plan, and more likely to control gas prices. Republicans will emphasize conservation—along with more nuclear plants and oil drilling—and have dubbed Barack Obama's opposition to increased...

Ship Shortage Stalls Offshore Oil Drilling

Oil companies frustrated by inability to exploit new discoveries

(Newser) - A severe shortage of deep-sea drilling rigs will hold up exploitation of offshore oil for years, the New York Times reports. Existing rigs are booked solid for five years, and shipbuilders around the world are scrambling to fill dozens of new orders. Oil companies are frustrated by their inability to...

Seabed Rights Add Up to Long Division

UN team weighs international claims on underwater territory

(Newser) - The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has a big job. As some 60 countries rush to claim the ocean seabed—and the oil reserves beneath—the 21-person team of part-time scientists must settle disputes, relying on geology and the sometimes arcane Law of the Sea. “...

There's Plenty of Oil Left: Study
There's Plenty of Oil Left: Study
Jan 17, 2008 9:37 AM CST

There's Plenty of Oil Left: Study

Researchers say new discoveries more than offset worked-out fields

(Newser) - New oilfields being brought online more than offset losses from depleted fields, says an optimistic report released today. Though it cited an Iran-sized 4.5% annual loss, key oil industry adviser CERA contends “there is no impending short-term peak in global oil production," reports the Wall Street Journal....

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