The Canadian government is reported to have offered financial support to the Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline project. Imperial Oil, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), leads the project, which includes ConocoPhillips Corporation,…
When China’s CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE:CEO) lost out to Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) in a bid for Unocal, it found other places to invest. Like Nigeria and Indonesia. Those investments are expected to start paying off…
OPEC must know something the rest of the world does not know. Its chief believes that crude prices will recover to $75 sometime this year. Either OPEC expects to cut its supply by another…
Nothing like a holiday weekend to soften the blow of bad news. Add in another day for a presidential inauguration, and it’s hard to see how ConocoPhillips Corporation (NYSE:COP) could have planned better to…
Russia has begun to ship gas to Europe through the Ukraine again. The dispute over whether Ukraine firm Naftogaz was siphoning fuel is now over, at least for now. Russia faces a significant threat…
Yesterday’s story about Venezuela opening the bidding for its oil resources raised an interesting question. What are the chances that Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), with nearly $40 billion in cash at the end of…
If there was ever any concern that consumers would face higher gas prices, many are now assuming that this economic worry may be gone. And the case for deflation is growing. More and more…
Back in 1998-1999, the Clinton administration wrote contracts for offshore drilling that were supposed to provide royalty relief for oil companies if oil prices fell below $25/barrel. Somehow, the contracts were written without a…
Lower oil prices were supposed to be good for the refiners. Yesterday, Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) released its interim update for the fourth quarter of 2008. Today, Tesoro Corporation (NYSE:TSO) followed suit, releasing preliminary…
It is probably no huge shock that downgrades are coming more than upgrades now that oil has come down so much. Too bad these were not the calls several months ago. Here are some…
The price of gas is going up. Saudi Arabia, the lead member in OPEC, says that it is serious about cutting production this year. Last year’s cuts did nothing to stop the drop in…
Short selling is not always just used as a bet against a stock, but that is what Wall Street evaluates short interest for. We did note a drop in short selling on NASDAQ from…
Oil field services company Basic Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE:BAS) reported this morning that December 2008 operations were even lower than expected. Drilling rig utilization reached just 66% in December, down from 83% in November…
Encore Acquisition Company (NYSE:EAC) announced this morning that it would cut its capital spending budget for 2009 by $150 million to $210 million. The company primarily buys and operates long-lived, slowly declining assets that…
Low commodity prices are likely to have a "significantly negative impact" on 2008 proved oil & gas reserves, according to Fitch Ratings. Wonder how long it took the analysts to figure that out.