ThinkstockA federal judge in New Orleans has denied a motion by BP plc (NYSE: BP) to suspend payments to some claimants for damages suffered as a result of the 2010 disaster in…
Paul Ausick ThinkstockIn what may be a Pyrrhic victory, Anglo-Dutch oil supermajor Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS-A) is the market leader among branded gasoline sellers in the U.S. for the first half of…
ThinkstockThe U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly initiated a formal investigation into the way oil and refined product benchmark prices are set. The investigation parallels one begun earlier this year in…
ThinkstockRussia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft has signed a 25-year deal to supply $270 billion worth of crude oil to China, and the country’s largest independent natural gas producer, Novatek, has agreed to…
Paul Ausick ThinkstockThe process for setting benchmark oil prices has never been particularly transparent, depending as it does on self-reporting by traders of offer and sale prices to energy pricing agencies like Platts, a…
ThinkstockRecent information from Japan and the United Kingdom shows that accelerated recoveries from deep recessions are underway. There may be a way to track how these governments worked to turn around their…
ThinkstockLast year was a good year for oil and gas stocks, but unless a company had a refining and marketing operation, it was not a great year. Share prices rose by at…
ThinkstockTwo days ago, officials of the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union, raided the offices of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A), BP PLC (NYSE: BP), Statoil ASA…
ThinkstockJust two weeks ago, the $76 billion merger was completed that created London-traded Glencore Xstrata. Today, shareholders shook up the company’s board of directors by booting chairman John Bond and another director.…
Paul Ausick U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning as investors weighed conflicting data from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. In Europe, retail sales declined more than expected in Germany, Italy’s unemployment rate remained…
courtesy of BP plcBP PLC (NYSE: BP) reported first-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. The oil and gas supermajor posted diluted earnings per American Depositary Share (ADS) of $5.20 on…
Paul Ausick courtesy of AOL, IncSoftbank signals it will not increase its bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). (Reuters) Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) will dump its Europe presence via selling its…
U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning after the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that personal income and spending both rose by 0.2%, which was slightly higher than expected for spending and…
Jon OggStocks have enjoyed a serious bull market, and we still have the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both up by double digits so far in 2013. As…
courtesy of BP plcThe April 2010 well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that took 11 lives and dumped 5 million barrels of crude in the Gulf of Mexico will cost BP…
Paul Ausick 
