Blowout

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. officials see the Macondo deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) well blowout from last year as no longer a threat to the company’s future earnings results as it was in the recently completed third quarter. A $4 billion settlement with BP plc has resolved all of the major pending litigation involving Anadarko.

The Interior Department on Monday extended 1,381 deepwater oil and natural gas drilling leases to compensate for delays caused by the Macondo well blowout and subsequent offshore drilling moratorium.

A Gulf of Mexico (GOM) lease sale that was delayed by the Macondo well blowout is back on the calendar for December, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) said. During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on July 15 BOEM Director Michael Bromwich said the federal agency was “working very hard to do a lease sale in the western Gulf before the end of the year.” If it is delayed, “it would only slip a very little bit” to January. “We’ve been pushing very hard because we know how important it is to get that lease sale.” The western leasing area of the GOM generally is viewed as less attractive commercially to oil and gas operators than tracts in the central GOM, where the Macondo well was being drilled. A sale of central GOM leases remains on track to be completed before June 30, when the current five-year leasing plan is scheduled to expire, the BOEM chief said.

A Gulf of Mexico (GOM) lease sale that was delayed by the Macondo well blowout last year is back on the calendar for December, the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) said last week.

Having stonewalled shale gas drilling for three years, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released its recommendations on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) late Thursday. The list includes requiring full disclosure of fracking chemicals and a ban in all primary aquifers, the watersheds of New York City and Syracuse, and all state-owned land, including state parks.

In the wake of the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the region has become significantly less attractive for gas and oil investment , according to the Fraser Institute’s Global Petroleum Survey 2011 of energy executives.

Having stonewalled shale gas drilling for three years, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released its recommendations on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) late Thursday. The list includes requiring full disclosure of fracking chemicals and a ban in all primary aquifers, the watersheds of New York City and Syracuse, and all state-owned land, including state parks.

In the wake of the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the region has become significantly less attractive for gas and oil investment , according to the Fraser Institute’s Global Petroleum Survey 2011 of energy executives.

Officials with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) said they plan to make an announcement Friday on the status of the state’s long-awaited environmental impact study on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Marcellus Shale.