Foreign

U.S. oil and natural gas mergers and acquisition activity (M&A) plunged in the second quarter from the first three months of 2012, with divestitures driving activity, according to PwC US.

In an attempt to lure foreign investment back to its shale natural gas plays following several high profile defections, the country’s finance minister said a severance tax on unconventional production will take effect in 2015 but no tax would be levied until 2020.

A bipartisan coalition of House lawmakers has called on Energy Secretary Steven Chu to expedite the approval of U.S. company applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to foreign countries.

The United States could take back the $300 billion it loses annually in foreign oil imports through an energy intensive strategy that exploits all of the nation’s energy resources — fossil fuels and renewables alike — retired Gen. Wesley Clark said last Tuesday at the Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, CA.

Continuing its basement-to-the-penthouse rise in the energy sector, North Dakota’s latest oil/gas production statistics make the state that had no drilling rigs operating in 1999 now the second biggest oil producer in the nation, trailing only Texas.

The United States could take back the $300 billion it loses annually in foreign oil imports through an energy intensive strategy that exploits all of the nation’s energy resources — fossil fuels and renewables alike — retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Tuesday at the Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, CA.

A Los Angeles-based husband-wife independent filmmaking team said Tuesday they have exceeded their fundraising goal and will continue with production of a pro-hydraulic fracturing (fracking) documentary film, FrackNation, to combat an upcoming sequel to the Oscar-nominated anti-fracking film Gasland by activist Josh Fox. The couple, however, will continue to fundraise for their project, they said.

Foreign energy producers Statoil ASA, BHP Billiton Ltd. and BG Group plc, which have eagerly — and substantially — invested in U.S. unconventional natural gas over the past few years, are eschewing the low-priced fuel and following other operators to domestic liquids and oil plays, executives said last week.

Irish ex patriot journalist/filmmakers Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer call their project “the film that will tell the truth about fracking,” on their website, which includes the slogan, “There are two sides to every story, and then there is the truth.”