Energy & Oil

• Thursday, February 7th 2013 - 21:53 UTC

  Aubrey McClendon and the Destruction of the Natural Gas Market

  

  Aubrey McClendon is gone – or at least he's on his way out from Chesapeake energy (CHK). But the destruction of the natural gas market, where he was the ringleader in the shale gas land grab and cratering well price, is his real legacy, and not likely to be recovered from anytime soon. While Aubrey will now go into a very wealthy retirement, he leaves behind a decimated market and a long road to making natural gas a true transition fuel to energy independence and a renewable future.

• Thursday, February 7th 2013 - 21:44 UTC

  Argentina says Falklands’ issue “smells too much like petroleum

  

  Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman said on Thursday that the British government’s position on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands issue “smells too much like petroleum”, revealing that UK’s biggest interest in keeping the invaded archipelago is due to the potential oil findings.

• Wednesday, February 6th 2013 - 05:33 UTC

  US fund sues YPF and underwriters for a misleading and untrue 2011 prospect

  

  Argentina’s oil and gas corporation YPF, seized by the government last year, was sued by an investor who accused the company of making false statements prior to its March 2011 public offering.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2013 - 20:51 UTC

  Colombia reaches sustained production of over a million barrels of oil per day

  

  Colombia announced that it produced an average of 1.01 million barrels of oil per day in January, marking the first time that average crude output for a month surpassed the one million-barrel mark that the government had set as a target for the country's oil industry.

• Tuesday, February 5th 2013 - 17:13 UTC

  Petrobras still going strong but 2012 low profits and high debt pound on prospects

  

  Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras posted a net benefit of 21.182 billion Reais (approx 10.6bn dollars) in 2012, which is 36% below 2011, reported the company in a filing, but in the fourth quarter profits totalled 7.747bn Reais (approx 3.9bn dollars) 53% higher than in the same period in 2011.

• Friday, February 1st 2013 - 23:18 UTC

  Petrobras prepares to extract heavy oil with 140.000 bpd FPSO unit

  

  After months of delays, the P-63 floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO) has made its temporary home in Brazil's Port of Rio Grande, Petrobras and the Quip consortium said on Thursday.

• Friday, February 1st 2013 - 18:47 UTC

  Argentine court confirms setback for Chevron in 20-year old dispute with Ecuador

  

  An Argentine appeals court has upheld an embargo on the assets of Chevron Corp.'s local subsidiary, a legal setback for the company, which had said the embargo compromised its operations in the country. A lower court judge issued the embargo last year as part of a decades-old legal dispute involving claims that Chevron is responsible for environmental contamination in Ecuador.

• Thursday, January 31st 2013 - 07:52 UTC

  Petrobras raises gasoline and diesel prices, but markets say it’s insufficient

  

  Brazil's state-run oil company Petrobras said in a market filing that it would increase refinery prices for gasoline and diesel by 6.6% and 5.4%, respectively, starting on January 31. However the market’s reaction was negative with the Bovespa stock exchange falling to a seven-week low.

• Thursday, January 31st 2013 - 07:25 UTC

  Dutch court has Shell ‘off the hook’ in four of five pollution claims in Nigeria

  

  Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, isn’t liable in four out of five claims bought by Nigerian farmers for pollution, a Dutch court ruled. However the company’s local venture must pay compensation in one case.

• Wednesday, January 30th 2013 - 15:34 UTC

  US economy contracts in fourth quarter, first time since 2009 global recession

  

  The US economy unexpectedly shrank at an annualised rate of 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2012, initial official estimates indicate. If confirmed, it would be the first contraction logged by the US economy since the 2009 global recession. The world's largest economy grew 3.1% in July to September.