BP PLC, operator of the deepwater Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, moved significantly closer to finishing a relief well when it lifted the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blowout preventer onto a vessel late Sept. 4 after having installed .......

Responding to criticism for letting politics sway science, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change resorted to politics.

Denbury Resources Inc. and Encore Energy Partners LP have ended plans to exchange assets under a deal that was to have supported a carbon dioxide-injection project at Elk basin oil field on the Wyoming-Montana border.

BP PLC, operator of the Macondo well, removed the failed Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer on Sept. 3 and started to slowly lift it through 5,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico to the Helix Q4000 multiservice vessel.

Rowan Cos. Inc. said two of its jack up drilling rigs are expected to leave the Gulf of Mexico late this year for work in the Middle East under contract with Saudi Aramco.

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOE) has launched an investigation of the Sept. 2 explosion at a Mariner Energy Inc. production platform in the Gulf of Mexico, BOE Director Michael R. Bromwich said on Sept.......

BHP Billiton has brought its Ravensworth oil field on stream off Western Australia.

Crude oil futures prices pushed past the $75/bbl mark helped by encouraging US economic data, supportive production news, and a fire on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said.

US drilling activity fell with 1,653 rotary rigs working, 3 less than the previous week. The count was up sharply, however, from the 1,009 units drilling during the comparable period in 2009, Baker Hughes Inc. reported.

Mariner Energy Inc. reported a fire was extinguished Sept. 2 at its production platform in 340 ft of water on Vermilion Block 380 in the Gulf of Mexico about 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay, La.

BP PLC has started operations to replace the Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible's failed blowout preventer with the Development Driller II’s BOP so that a relief well can be completed on the deepwater Macondo well i.......

US Interior Sec. Ken Salazar exceeded his authority when he order 77 federal oil and gas leases in Utah withdrawn in early 2009, a federal court judge ruled on Sept. 1 in Salt Lake City.

Husky Energy Inc. will acquire certain conventional west-central Alberta natural gas assets from Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, for $450 million.

Russia’s oil companies will supply most of the oil needed for a joint refinery project between China National Petroleum Corp., 51%, and Russia's Rosneft, 49%, according to a senior Chinese government official.

Malaysia’s Petronas Carigali Overseas Bhd. made an oil and natural gas discovery with its Ham Rong-2X well in the Ham Rong oil field off northern Vietnam, according to local media reports.

Oil prices in the New York market recovered Sept. 1 from heavy losses a day earlier, lifted by better-than-expected macroeconomic data, analysts said.

An oil and natural gas platform owned by Mariner Energy Inc. exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay off Louisiana on Sept. 2, and 13 people went into the water, the US Coast Guard in New Orleans reported.

The OGX Maranhao joint venture reported gas indications in two more Devonian intervals at an exploratory well in Brazil’s onshore Parnaiba basin.

The federal onscene coordinator for the oil spill response is developing a comprehensive subsurface oil monitoring plan to help scientists from various institutions and agencies measure any oil remaining in the Gulf of Mexico following the deep.......

Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. (Takreer) let a $623 million contract to GS Engineering & Construction Corp. for a pipeline project that will connect Abu Dhabi’s two refineries with various terminals in the emirate.

A unit of JKX Oil & Gas PLC has spudded Staro Oryahovo South R-1, the first of two wells that will test amplitude-supported gas prospects in Bulgaria.

Tullow Oil PLC will greatly expand its position in East Africa rift basins by taking farmouts in Kenya and Ethiopia from Africa Oil Corp., Vancouver, BC.

Petrodorado Energy Ltd., Calgary, is launching a three-well exploratory drilling program on the Buganviles and Talora blocks in Colombia’s Upper Magdalena Valley basin.

Enterprise Products Partners LP reported its operating subsidiaries entered into long-term agreements with EOG Resources Inc. to provide comprehensive midstream energy services for EOG's growing crude oil and associated liquids-rich natural gas.......

The Fos Cavaou LNG terminal on France's Mediterranean coast has been authorized to operate at its full 8.25 billion cu m/year capacity, up from the 20% allowed since April when a restriction was placed on the facility.

Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, increased its exploration holdings in Papua New Guinea by purchasing the stakes of two Australian companies—Cue Energy Resources Ltd. and Mosaic Oil Ltd.—in onshore retention lease PRL8 in the foreland.......

The front-month crude price dropped 3.7% Aug. 31 in the New York market on “fears that Hurricane Earl would put a damper on East Coast Labor Day plans and gasoline demand,” said analysts in the Houston office of Raymond James & .......

Rex Energy Corp. entered into a joint venture agreement with Sumitomo Corp. subsidiary Summit Discovery Resources II LLC, to sell and transfer interests valued at $140.4 million in its Marcellus shale assets in Pennsylvania.

BP PLC tentatively planned to remove a capping stack from the top of the Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible blowout preventer on Sept. 2, pending the anticipated arrival of calmer seas in the Gulf of Mexico, a federal spo.......

Petronas agreed to buy BP PLC’s Malaysian ethylene and polyethylene production for $363 million in a transaction expected to close by yearend, subject to certain conditions.

The Christina Lake in situ oil sands project operated by Cenovus Energy in northeastern Alberta is testing what Baker Hughes Inc. calls the world’s first “ultra-temperature” electrical submersible pumping systems in steam-assi.......

PT Medco CBM Sekayu is drilling exploration wells on the Sekayu coalbed methane production sharing contract area in Indonesia’s South Sumatra basin, said partner CBM Asia Development Corp.

Mitra Energy (Indonesia Sibaru) Ltd. plugged and abandoned the Mojo-1 exploratory well on the 3,180-sq km Sibaru block between East Java and East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Phoenix Exploration LP, Houston, is drilling a projected 18,800-ft exploratory well on the Marathon prospect in Atchafalaya Bay in South Louisiana.

Despite concerns expressed by the oil and gas industry, protests and leasing delays have not significantly affected prices bid for federal onshore leases, the US Government Accountability Office said on Aug. 30.

Neon Energy Ltd., Perth, has completed and turned to production at an average 230 b/d of oil its Lombardi 15-27H horizontal development well near the crest of the southern lobe of North San Ardo field in California’s Salinas basin.

A Saudi investment group has joined a Bangladeshi industrial conglomerate to invest nearly $1 billion in an expansion of Bangladesh’s only refinery.

The 50-50 engineering joint venture of Clough Australia, Perth, and BAM International, the Netherlands, has been awarded a letter of intent to proceed with the design and construction of the LNG and condensate offloading jetty proposed for Exxo.......

Pulled down by a tumbling equities market despite a report that consumer spending hit a 4-month high, the front-month crude oil contract fell 1.3% to below $73/bbl, ending a 3-day rally Aug. 30 in the New York market.

Trinidad and Tobago announced the offering of 11 deepwater blocks for bid in its 2010 licensing round.

BP PLC is proceeding with its Andrew Area Development project in the central UK North Sea.

Production from Kom Ombo Block 2 in southern Egypt is 700 b/d of 37° gravity sweet crude.

Iroquois Gas Transmission System LP began a binding open season Aug. 30 for its Wright Transfer Compressor (WTC) project, which would add as much as 15,400 hp of transfer compression at Iroquois' existing interconnection with Tennessee Gas Pipe.......

EXCO Operating Co. LP’s Thomas 36-1 well in North Louisiana’s Johnson Branch field had a post-completion clean-up rate of 15 MMcfd of gas with 7,000 psi flowing casing pressure from the Haynesville shale, said 37% working interest o.......

Eni let a multimillion dollar contract to Halliburton to provide integrated energy services toward redeveloping giant Zubair oil field near Basra in southern Iraq.

SK Energy Co. Ltd., Seoul, plans to shoot 3D seismic over La Mocha Consuelo, highest-potential prospect on the 570,000-acre SSJN-5 block in Colombia’s Lower Magdalena basin based on encouraging results from reprocessed 2D seismic.

Nelson Energy Inc., Shreveport, is drilling a horizontal Austin chalk exploratory well east of North Bayou Jack oil and gas field in eastern Avoyelles Parish, La.

BG Group PLC will farm out a 35% interest in the P1722 license in the UK Central North Sea to KazMunaiGas Exploration Production, Astana, Kazakhstan.

Natural gas prices continued to deflate with the front-month contract falling more than 4% on Aug. 27 in the New York market, but crude continued to climb for a third consecutive session, closing above $75/bbl.

Seas with 6-8 ft waves caused BP PLC and its contractors to wait for calmer weather before proceeding with plans to replace Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible blowout preventer with another BOP, a federal spokesman said A.......

A process and related technology that research at the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) helped to develop could enhance the use of natural gas and the world’s vast methane hydrate resources,.......

Kuwait Oil Co. has let a contract valued at $430 million to Petrofac for water-injection work in two northern Kuwaiti oil fields.

The first hydraulic fracturing operation in a shale gas reservoir in North Africa took place earlier this year in El Franig field in west-central Tunisia in the Ghadames basin, said Cygam Energy Inc., Calgary.

Amid indications the economic recovery is slowing, the front-month crude contract price fell for five consecutive sessions to an 11-week low of $71.63/bbl Aug. 24 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Frontier Oil Corp. has restarted the crude unit at its 52,000-b/d refinery at Cheyenne, Wyo., after a fire-related shutdown.

ShaMaran Petroleum Corp., Vancouver, BC, acquired a 33.5% of the shares of General Exploration Partners Inc., a subsidiary of Aspect Energy International LLC.

Canacol Energy Inc., Calgary, said the Los Cuervos-Barco reservoir at its Rancho Hermoso-6 development well in Colombia made 6,205 b/d of 35° gravity oil with 7% water cut on an electric submersible pump from perforations at 9,726-43 ft mea.......

Chinook Energy Inc., formerly Storm Ventures International Inc., plans to spud the TT3 appraisal well on the Sud Remada permit in Tunisia in early October 2010, said Cygam Energy Inc., Calgary.

Sagres Energy Inc., Calgary, completed its phase one commitments under production sharing agreements with Petroleum Corp. of Jamaica on blocks 9, 13, and 14 on Pedro Bank off Jamaica.

Investcan Energy Corp. began shooting seismic on Exploration License 1107 in the Hopedale basin off Labrador.