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 ...

LONDON – After slashing spending by $180 billion to deal with one of the worst industry downturns in decades, oil companies are still bleeding cash and slipping further into debt to maintain dividends to shareholders. Depressed crude prices – at below $50 a barrel Brent crude is half what it was a year ago – mean even more cuts are ...

WHITING — BP lost $6.3 billion in the second quarter, largely as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement and slumping oil prices. The London-based oil giant, whose largest refinery is in Whiting, is hunkering down for an extended period of cheap oil. Brent crude oil is now averaging $58 a barrel, compared to $110 a barrel at ...

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge says BP will begin paying up to $1 billion in settlements to compensate local governments across the Gulf Coast for lost tax revenue and other economic damages they blame on the company’s 2010 oil spill. An order issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said all of the payments to local governments must ...

Five years after the Obama administration promised to move swiftly to permanently plug unused oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico, even more shafts are lingering for longer periods with only temporary sealing, an Associated Press investigation shows. It is not clear how many incompletely sealed wells may have leaked — they generally are not monitored as carefully ...

The cities of Key West and Marathon, the Monroe County School Board and the County Commission are all meeting separately to discuss what are believed to be settlement opportunities with BP and Transocean. The School Board was scheduled to hold a closed session with its lawyers Friday to discuss the issue. A BP settlement is on the agenda for Tuesday’s ...

COVINGTON, La. — Four governmental bodies in St. Tammany Parish have accepted money BP as part of a group settlement of local government claims for economic losses caused by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Advocate reports three more will take up the matter next week. The St. Tammany Parish Council this week accepted a $16.8 ...

LONDON – A brief period of high profitability for the world’s oil refineries is likely to come to an end as quickly as it began, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. Weak crude oil and relatively high prices for gasoline, diesel and petrochemical feedstock have pushed up refining profits sharply over the last six months, helping oil companies ...

BP <BP.L> said it has reached an $18.7 billion (12 billion pounds) settlement of damages claims from the U.S. government and five states after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill. The U.S. Justice Department said it could be the largest settlement with a single entity in American history and the total value would top $18.7 billion. The April 20, 2010 ...

FARMINGTON — Ten months after oil prices dropped south of $50 a barrel, drilling in the San Juan Basin is still down. Oil prices topped $60 a barrel in May, the first time since December that prices were that high. But despite the tenuous good news, area oil and gas companies are cautious or waiting on the sidelines altogether until ...