Emphasizing that it is not the final version of the proposed Marcellus Shale legislation, a state Senate committee this afternoon approved changes to their lingering drilling impact fee bill.

The 61-page amendment adds a slew of provisions to beef up the state's environmental regulations, and was passed by the Senate panel unanimously.

But the big surprise to those who have been referring to that bill for months as an impact fee measure was the removal, for now, of the fee itself. Read more »

Oil’s current price is $88 per barrel, which is at least $30 higher than it should be.

The demand for oil in the U.S. has been declining since 2005, and global demand has grown less than 4%. Global oil prices in 2005 ranged from $42 to $58 per barrel. So, under a natural demand-and-supply analysis, the cost of gasoline should not have increased any more than 4% since 2005, for a current price of $60 per barrel, not $88. Read more »

Drilling is at a seven-year low in the North Texas natural gas fields. But even as drilling pace slackens in the Barnett Shale, it's booming in other oil and gas fields of Texas such as the Permian Basin of West Texas and the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas.

The number of active Barnett Shale drilling rigs has fallen to 53, their lowest since June 11, 2004. That's barely more than one-fourth of the peak count of 203 active Barnett rigs on Sept. 5, 2008, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in Sunday's edition. Read more »

Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, reported third-quarter profit that failed to meet analysts’ estimates as income from the Middle East and Asia declined.

Net income fell to $1.3 billion, or 96 cents a share, from $1.73 billion, or $1.38, a year earlier, Houston- and Paris- based Schlumberger said in a statement today. Last year’s quarterly result included one-time gains from Schlumberger’s purchase of Smith International Inc. Read more »

Quicksilver Resources Inc said it intends to create a master limited partnership (MLP) by spinning off a portion of its Barnett shale assets as the gas-focused company looks to pay off debt.

The cash-crunched company plans to generate more than $400 million through an IPO of the MLP. The company intends to file for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission this year.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based company has about $940 million in public debt, which it expects to eliminate over the next two years.

The company's long-term debt stands at $1.83 billion.. Read more »

A reluctance to invest in energy infrastructure in Middle Eastern and North African countries, partially because of unrest in the region, could drive up oil prices, an economist warned Tuesday October 18, 2011.. Read more »

Kinder Morgan Inc struck a $21 billion deal to buy rival El Paso Corp, combining the two largest North American natural gas pipeline companies and making a big bet on the fast-growing market for that fuel.

Despite weak natural gas prices, production of the fuel has been rising as energy companies pile into shale fields -- underground formations rich in oil and gas. Read more »

CNOOC Limited (the "Company", NYSE: CEO, SEHK: 0883) announced today that, on October 14, an oil sheen was discovered near Jinzhou 9-3 West oilfield in Bohai Bay. Until now, the company has been effectively cleaning up the oil sheen on the sea surfaced.

According to investigation, the oil spill was caused by the leak from a subsea connecting pipeline damaged by a work vessel during its operations. Initial estimate indicated the amount of leakage was about 0.38 cubic meters. Read more »

Many people likely would be surprised to learn that while they own their homes and the land the houses sit on, they may not own the minerals beneath the surface.

People in northern Minnesota are discovering the hard way, now that the state Department of Natural Resources has offered four mining companies the lease rights to the minerals beneath their homes.

Some landowners are fighting back and putting pressure on top state officials who will decide today whether to let the sales go ahead. Read more »

Oil fell from its highest in more than two weeks in New York before a government vote in Slovakia on the euro area’s bailout fund that may endanger a recovery in the region’s economy. Read more »