NEW ORLEANS — The federal government on Wednesday will offer 21.9 million acres off the Texas coast to oil and gas developers, though low oil prices are likely to limit interest. The last two comparable lease sales in the western Gulf of Mexico brought $109.1 million last year and $100.1 million in 2012. A March 18 sale in the far ...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s approval of the final permit to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean clashes with the message President Barack Obama will deliver when he visits Alaska to emphasize the dangers of climate change, some environmental groups say. As much as the groups praise Obama for his overall body of work — from stricter fuel-efficiency standards ...

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Still another coastal community in South Carolina has gone on record against offshore seismic testing and drilling for fossil fuels. Local media outlets report that North Myrtle Beach City Council voted 6-0 Monday to oppose offshore drilling. The advocacy group Oceana says 21 communities in South Carolina, including Charleston, Columbia and Myrtle Beach, have now ...

SINGAPORE — The dramatic slump in crude oil prices over the past year or so has cast a huge pall over the once-buoyant offshore and marine sector. Oil has plunged to below US$50 a barrel from a high of $115 in June last year and this has caused super oil majors such as BP, Chevron and Shell to tear up ...

MOSCOW – Russia said on Tuesday it has resubmitted a claim to the United Nations for some 1.2 million square km of the Arctic shelf, a drive to secure more of the mineral-rich region where other countries have rival territorial interests. The Russian economy is overwhelmingly reliant on natural resources and the Arctic’s estimated huge oil and gas reserves are ...

Photography and imagery in the energy industry really has come a long way since I first entered the industry as a wet-behind-the-ears marketing communications guy back in the early 1970s.  I remember all too well one of my first assignments.  I was working for an energy industry magazine at the time (it was a print magazine, you remember those), and ...

Rowan Cos Plc’s quarterly profit more than doubled as the driller cut costs and ensured continued demand by deploying ultra-deepwater rigs and lowering prices. The company’s net income jumped to $84.7 million, or 68 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $32.8 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier. In the prior-year quarter, a ...

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, one of the world’s top-five offshore rig contractors, reported a much higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by demand for its high-tech ultra-deepwater rigs and a drop in operating costs. Modern, faster rigs are cheaper to run and they can drill more efficiently, making them attractive to oil and gas companies, which are looking to cut spending due ...

Hercules Offshore Inc., an offshore oil field services company, will declare bankruptcy next month as part of a major financial restructuring plan to wipe out its $1.2 billion in debt. According to Reuters, in April, Hercules retired several rigs and last November, laid off 324 employees in response to dropping oil prices and decreasing demand for its shallow water drilling ...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Obama administration has given Royal Dutch Shell PLC approval to begin limited exploratory oil drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast. The two permits issued Wednesday clear the way for drilling in Chukchi Sea, but with conditions. Shell can only drill the top sections of wells because the company doesn’t have critical emergency response equipment on site to ...