Energy News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A security zone has been set up around the site of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to safeguard any evidence of the environmental disaster earlier this year, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Full Story »

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on Tuesday halted further leasing of state land for natural gas drilling, citing the need to protect forests from the drilling boom and renewing his call for a drilling tax that failed to pass last week. Full Story »

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell will announce on Tuesday a moratorium on future natural gas drilling in state forests, state officials said on Monday. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European Union sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme will likely force the closure of a gas field off Scotland jointly owned by British group BP and Tehran, an EU spokesman said Tuesday. Full Story »

BEIJING (AFP) - The water level in China's Three Gorges Dam reached full capacity Tuesday for the first time since the world's biggest hydroelectric project began generating power in 2008, state media said. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States approved on Monday a permit for the largest solar energy project in the world -- four massive plants at the cost of one billion dollars each in southern California. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - BP will not quit the United States over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster that had "threatened the very existence" of the energy giant, its new chief executive Bob Dudley said here on Monday. Full Story »

LONDON (Reuters) - BP's new chief executive said its rivals and the media had helped cause a climate of fear during the summer when the oil giant's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well caused the worst ever oil spill in the United States. Full Story »

LONDON (AFP) - BP is selling its interests in four Gulf of Mexico deepwater fields to Marubeni Oil and Gas of Japan for 650 million dollars just months after acquiring them, the group said on Monday. Full Story »

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating a large brown slick floating near the mouth of the Mississippi river and said on Saturday it could be weathered oil from the BP spill or just algae bloom. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - An unspecified company has filed the first request to drill for oil and gas in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico since exploration there was temporarily halted after the massive BP oil spill. Full Story »

TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan (Reuters) - Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom could take part in a project to build gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan, Russia's energy tsar Igor Sechin said on Friday. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States launched a renewable energy initiative to boost biofuel production to create jobs, lessen the effects of climate change and wean the country off oil imports, an official said. Full Story »

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Some leading offshore drilling contractors, after reporting declines in quarterly profits, said on Thursday there were encouraging signs for activity in the Gulf of Mexico next year despite a shortage of permits. Full Story »

NEW YORK (AFP) - Chevron on Thursday announced plans to build new oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico just days after US authorities lifted a ban on deepwater drilling there after the disastrous BP spill. Full Story »

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Kuwait has added at least 12 billion barrels of crude oil to its reserves, which are estimated at over 100 billion barrels, following a comprehensive study, a newspaper reported on Thursday. Full Story »

ATLANTA, Oct 21 (Reuters Legal) - U.S. environmental groups filed a suit on Wednesday against British-based oil giant BP Plc saying the world's worst offshore spill inflicted "ongoing unlawful" harm on endangered wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico. Full Story »

TEHRAN (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez left Iran late Wednesday after signing 11 deals focused on energy cooperation between the two major oil producers who are foes of the United States, state television said. Full Story »