offshore drilling

The American Petroleum Institute is taking issue with the president's State of the Union demand to end subsidies and tax breaks for oil producers. While Obama didn't say just which subsidies he'd cut, the industry isn't waiting for specifics to defend itself.

As rapid economic growth and a population boom take place in the developing world, oil will play an increasingly vital role, no matter what its drawbacks. That puts the likes of Schlumberger, Weatherford and Baker Hughes in a sweet spot.

An oil company was ordered to pay $22.9 million for understating the amount of royalty it owed the federal governments for oil pumped from offshore oil leases. A federal judge ruled that Kerr-McGee Corp. understated the value of the oil and natural gas produced from the leases, allowing it to pay...

In Friday's legal news, two more people pleaded guilty in a bid-rigging scheme that involved deals with some 160 U.S. municipalities; California public schools are being sued for charging fees for various school essentials; and Alaska is suing the U.S. government for 'banning' offshore drilling.

The news of a fire on Vermillion, a Mariner Energy-owned oil-rig platform in the Gulf, drew instant comparisons with the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in April and caused the huge BP oil spill. But stark differences exist between the two incidents.

A bill that passed the House of Representatives on Friday would, among other things, eliminate the $75 million cap on liabilities related to oil spills. The overhaul of the nation's offshore drilling regulations would require oil companies to pay the full cost involved with any spills.

Does BP's selling of several legacy assets mean the beginning of the end for the oil giant? No, says one observer. It frees up cash for oil-spill cleanup and gives Apache assets not connected to the politically toxic world of offshore drilling.

The Obama administration issued a revised moratorium on offshore drilling Monday that's no longer based on drilling depth. The new edict supersedes a previous ban that called for a blanket offshore deepwater drilling moratorium.

Noble is looking to strike it rich with a $2.16 billion acquisition of FDR Holdings, also known as Frontier Drilling. Noble, an offshore drilling contractor, is seeking to expand its footprint in the mid- and deepwater drilling zones.

Two days after rescinding an Obama administration moratorium on new deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a district court judge again rebuffs the government's attempts to ban drilling.