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Canada’s chief oil- and gas-supplier province has decided upon a partial replacement for production royalties gutted by fallen commodity prices: consumer taxation billed as an environmental measure by a left-leaning New Democratic Party government.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is betting that its offshore expertise and operational efficiencies will give it the upper hand after agreeing to pay $2 billion-plus for the ailing Gulf of Mexico deepwater portfolio of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX).

LyondellBasell announced Friday that it has selected its manufacturing complex in La Porte, TX, as the site for a new $700 million plastics plant.

Impairments to the value of its natural gas-heavy properties led to the sixth straight quarterly loss for Chesapeake Energy Corp. in the second quarter, but operations-wise, the super independent was running at full bore, highlighting a “transformation” in how it completes wells.

Canada stands to gain up to C$28.2 billion (US$22 billion) per year by breaking a 70-year-old habit of relying on the United States as the sole destination for oil exports, according a study released Tuesday.

Big Oil is throwing down investments worldwide to expand long-term reserves, while producers focused on the U.S. onshore have smaller, strategic dealmaking underway in the heart of the country, mostly in the Permian Basin and Oklahoma’s myriad, stacked reservoirs.

The United States now holds more recoverable oil reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia, thanks to the unconventional revolution, according to a three-year global review by Rystad Energy.

The 50 largest U.S. producers last year saw their revenues and capital spending plunge, as they attempted to cope in the first full year since 2004 that West Texas Intermediate oil spot prices averaged under $60/bbl, Ernst & Young LLP said.

Although Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is “incredibly excited” about opportunities developing in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) and Permian basins, the company said it is even more enamored of tiebacks in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and plans to devote future divestiture income there.