Oil and Gas

Pelosi indicates openness to offshore drilling vote

TheHill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House. Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.

Bush Acts on Drilling, Challenging Democrats

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Bush lifted nearly two decades of executive orders banning drilling for oil and natural gas off the country’s shoreline on Monday while challenging Congress to open up more areas for exploration to address soaring energy prices. Democrats in Congress, joined by environmentalists, criticized the step and ridiculed it as ineffectual, while most Republicans and industry representatives applauded it as long overdue. The lifting of the moratorium — first announced by Mr. Bush’s father, President George Bush, in 1990 and extended by President Bill Clinton — will have no real impact because a Congressional moratorium on drilling enacted in 1981 and renewed annually remains in force. And there appeared to be no consensus for lifting it in tandem with Mr. Bush’s action.

Fears, Again, of Oil Supplies at Risk

New York Times

THEY are the nightmares, the worst confluence of misguided decisions and startling violence, that politicians and oil executives ponder briefly and then shoo away: That sympathizers of Osama bin Laden sink three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and choke off the narrow, bow-shaped channel that funnels 14 million barrels a day from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. That the United States attacks Iraq, and Israel launches a huge strike against the Palestinians, driving them from their camps and staking out more land -- all of which spurs the Persian Gulf states to cut off oil for the West. Or perhaps that a popular uprising, led by sympathizers of Mr. bin Laden, topples the ruling Saud family in Saudi Arabia, by far the world's largest oil producer.

Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

CNS News.Com

(CNSNews.com) - As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles. The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

McCain touts energy conservation and oil exploration

Yahoo News

DALLAS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain will call on Tuesday for energy conservation and the lifting of a ban on oil and natural gas exploration as two ways to help address the nation's "dangerous" dependence on foreign oil. McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's presidential nomination, has made energy independence and fighting climate change key components of his bid for the White House. Rising oil and gasoline prices have put energy concerns at the center of the contest between McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to succeed President George W. Bush after the November election.

Corn jumps to record for 6th day on Midwest floods

Yahoo Finance

NEW YORK (AP) -- Corn prices climbed further into record territory Thursday after more rain doused the Midwest, leaving flooded corn crops deeper underwater and threatening livestock owners who depend on the grain to feed their herds. Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil ending slightly higher and gold, silver and copper all declining. Heavy showers pelted parts of the Corn Belt on Wednesday, dumping a half inch to 2.5 inches of water over already-flooded parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.

BP chief Tony Hayward says lack of investment to blame for oil spike

The Telegraph

BP chief executive Tony Hayward has played down the prospect that the surge in oil may unwind anytime soon as the industry's lack of investment in production capacity catches up with it. BP chief executive Tony Hayward was speaking in Kuala Lumpur "Producers are being hampered by 25 years of low investments, because of low prices," Mr Hayward told the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur today. "The result is a supply chain being stretched to breaking point." Crude oil surged on Friday to a record $139.12 a barrel in New York, although it had eased off to trade at $137 early on Monday. Fears about the ability of the oil industry to quickly tap new reserves come on top of existing forecasts that the world will exhaust its oil supplies in the next half century.

GM to close 4 factories, may drop Hummer

MSNBC News

WILMINGTON, Del. - General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles. CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker’s annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the iconic Hummer brand will be reviewed and potentially sold or revamped.

OPEC unhappy with oil price surge: El-Badri

Breitbart.com

OPEC chief Abdala El Badri on Thursday said members were unhappy with surging prices he blamed on speculators and a weak US dollar. "We are not very happy with this increase in oil prices," said El-Badri during a visit to Ecuador. "Volatility has nothing to do with the fundamentals. It has nothing to do with world demand," he said, stressing that a dropping dollar was driving prices higher. "The price was at 130 dollars and today is at 135, so it's really a crazy market," he said. El-Badri, OPEC's secretary general, is on a week-long working visit to the two OPEC member states in Latin America, Venezuela and Ecuador. Tuesday he met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas and with Minister of Energy and Petroleum/President of PDVSA, Rafael Ramirez. In a statement released by the cartel on Wednesday, El-Badri said that OPEC remained committed "to working for the stability of the international oil market, noting that the current high oil prices are not influenced by market fundamentals, as the market is well-supplied. "OPEC will continue to monitor global oil markets regularly and is ready to act if and when necessary to ensure market stability and adequate supplies," the statement added. Crude oil prices rocketed to record highs above 135 dollars on Thursday, driven by growing concerns that energy supplies will fail to meet demand, analysts said. Prices later pulled back to just below 133 dollars owing to profit-taking.

Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says

Bloonberg

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said. Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as ``the shadow CIA.''

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