DOHA, Qatar (AP) — A meeting of oil-rich countries in Qatar that had been expected to boost crude prices by freezing production fell apart Sunday as Iran stayed home and vowed to increase its output despite threats by Saudi Arabia. Oil prices, which hit a 12-year low in January by dipping under $30 a barrel, had risen above $40 in ...
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Lower US supply to underpin oil price despite talks failure
LONDON (AP) — The failure by oil-rich nations to freeze output hit crude prices Monday but many analysts say that, in the longer-term, oil is likely to keep recovering as many companies, particularly U.S. shale producers, scale back production plans. The effort to reach a consensus on freezing production to support prices failed after Iran stayed away from a weekend ...
Read More »Surging oil production, low prices to challenge Doha meeting
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — OPEC isn’t what it used to be. Ahead of a planned meeting of most of the cartel and other major oil producers in Qatar to approve a freeze on oil production, some OPEC members are pumping record levels of crude even as prices wallow at less than half their level two years ago — a clear ...
Read More »Weak oil prices prompt Fitch to cut Saudi Arabia’s rating
LONDON (AP) — Saudi Arabia suffered another credit ratings downgrade on Tuesday after Fitch lowered its view on the oil-rich kingdom in light of the fall in energy prices. In a note, Fitch said it was reducing its rating on Saudi Arabia by one notch to AA- from AA and warned that another downgrade was more likely than an upward ...
Read More »Feds invest nearly $7M in small business to boost clean tech
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The federal government is investing nearly $7 million in 33 small businesses across the country to build partnerships with national laboratories in hopes of speeding up development of clean energy technology, the U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday. The selected businesses represent only a fraction of the hundreds that applied to participate in the first round ...
Read More »Cheap oil buoys consumers, shakes up global governments
Cheap oil will be sticking around for a while. That reality is wreaking havoc and causing uncertainty for some governments and businesses, while creating financial windfalls for others. Less expensive crude is delighting consumers in some regions, while leading to widespread job losses elsewhere. Oil has fallen from $107 to around $30 in the past 19 months. Furious production by ...
Read More »North Dakota oil output rises slightly in November
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources says the state’s oil production increased by about 5,200 barrels a day in November, while natural gas production rose to a record level. The agency says the state produced an average of 1.17 million barrels of oil daily in November. The November production was about 51,200 barrels per day less than ...
Read More »Western Energy Alliance Responds to Pres. Obama’s Address
DENVER – In his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his go-it-alone posture on key issues, including energy production and the environment. The president will continue side-stepping Congress by using executive actions to implement his climate change goals, which include rules targeting oil and natural gas producers across the West. Tim Wigley, president of Western Energy ...
Read More »Continental Resources CEO sees oil rising to $60 by year end
NEW YORK — Oil executive Harold Hamm says he expects the price of oil to rise to about $60 by the end of the year as drillers in North Dakota, Texas and elsewhere cut production and whittle down the current glut in the market. Oil fell to $30 this week, a 12-year low, down 72 percent from $107 in June 2014. ...
Read More »Oil keeps falling. And falling. How low can it go?
DALLAS — The price of oil keeps falling. And falling. And falling. It has to stop somewhere, right? Even after trending down for a year and a half, U.S. crude has fallen another 17 percent since the start of the year and is now probing depths not seen since 2003. “All you can do is forecast direction, and the direction ...
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