Billion

A review of Alberta government royalties says Canada’s chief natural gas and oil-producing jurisdiction must accept and cope with painful reality that the shale revolution turned its prime export customer into a rival supplier.

The former government revenue star in Canada’s chief producing jurisdiction — the Alberta natural gas royalty — is all but vanishing as prices stay down on glutted North American markets.

California investors on Friday received formal permission to try breaking into global trade in liquefied natural gas (LNG) by shipping Canadian production overseas from a terminal proposed in eastern Quebec.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), whose natural gas-heavy portfolio runs across the U.S. onshore and into the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), is moving to combat commodity price declines by slashing more from capital spending plans, but it also may have to combat corporate raider Carl Icahn, who has acquired stakes in the company.

The Permian Basin led the way in helping Apache Corp. boost its output in North America during the second quarter, but low commodity prices forced another huge writedown, the second quarter in a row.

An uptick in U.S. midstream dealmaking lifted acquisition activity between April and June, while upstream transactions fell by half from a year ago, a new report by PwC US said.

Royal Dutch Shell plc, whose profits fell 37% in the second quarter, plans to cut 7% of its workforce — an estimated 6,500 jobs — and is reducing capital spending across the board as it reacts to what may be a prolonged period of low natural gas and oil prices.

BP plc lost $6.3 billion in the second quarter, reflecting the landmark Macondo well settlement and a near-40% decline in oil prices from a year ago.

National Oilwell Varco (NOV) said that despite low world oil prices, it has letters of intent to acquire several unspecified companies in the oilfield equipment sector and is seeking additional merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities in the field, as it continues its stock buyback program and reduces its backlog for new rig systems.