Latest Oil Gas Headlines

All the headlines from our Oil Gas Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Texas Regulatory Commission Says it Won’t Cut Oil Production

May 6 2020 // After overseeing the state’s energy sector through one of Texas’ largest oil booms in recent years, the Texas Railroad Commission has suddenly found itself in the middle of two global crises that have delivered...

Floods Hit Canada’s Oil Sands Hub in Fort McMurray, Forcing Some Evacuations

Apr 28 2020 // Floods have forced mandatory evacuations in parts of Fort McMurray, the hub for Canada’s oil sands industry, even as the province of Alberta tries to stem the spread of the coronavirus.The Regional Municipality of...

Emergency Order Allows Oil Wells to Shut Down in Oklahoma

Apr 27 2020 // The Oklahoma Corporation Commission approved an emergency order on April 22 that allows oil producers to stop or reduce production without losing their leases for non-production.The three-member, all-Republican panel that...

Analysis: It’s Not the Whole Texas Economy, But Energy Is a Critical Piece

Apr 22 2020 // If it lasts, this week’s plunge in oil prices could hit the Texas economy in ways that make it much harder for state and local governments to help the state’s residents.It’s part of a double whammy on the...

10 Years Later: Oil Drilled Deeper; Rules Relaxed After BP Oil Spill

Apr 20 2020 // Ten years after an oil rig explosion killed 11 workers and unleashed an environmental nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, companies are drilling in deeper and deeper waters, where payoffs can be huge but risks are greater...

Coronavirus Confirmed on Offshore Oil Platforms in Gulf

Apr 17 2020 // The new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has been confirmed in more than two dozen people working on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said.While an offshore rig might seem like an unlikely place for the...

Rising Sea Levels Could Double Extreme Flooding Events on Coastline, Report States

Apr 16 2020 // “Sea-level rise will radically redefine the coastline of the 21st century.”That’s from a new study that shows rising sea levels could lead to extreme flooding events in some U.S. coastal areas doubling...

Regulator: Thousands of Oil Wells Idled in North Dakota

Apr 16 2020 // A top state oil regulator estimates that North Dakota producers have idled thousands of wells — amounting to more than a quarter of the oil wells in the state — as the U.S. oil industry crashed during the coronavirus...

Texas’ Oil and Gas Regulators Not Ready to Cut Production

Apr 15 2020 // Facing a steep drop in oil demand with much of the world staying home to practice social distancing, more than 55 energy executives, analysts and critics appeared one after another Tuesday at a video meeting of the Texas...

Railroads Resist Oil Companies’ Demands for Storage in Rail Cars Citing Safety Concerns

Apr 13 2020 // Railroads are clamping down on rising demand from oil companies to store crude in rail cars due to safety concerns, sources said, even as the number of places available to stockpile oil is rapidly dwindling.Oil demand is...

Explosion at North Carolina Fuel Plant Damages Nearby Homes; No Serious Injuries

Apr 9 2020 // An explosion at a hydrogen fuel plant in North Carolina has damaged nearby homes but left workers without any serious injuries.News outlets report that the explosion occurred at the OneH2 Inc. hydrogen fuel facility in the...

As Demand Sinks Amid Pandemic, Texas Shale Producers Ask State to Cut Oil Output

Apr 1 2020 // Two Texas oil companies with large footprints in the West Texas oil patch have sent a letter to state regulators formally requesting an emergency meeting to consider reducing oil production as demand for oil around the...

Oil Industry Seeks Easing of Environmental Regulation During Pandemic

Mar 26 2020 // The Environmental Protection Agency said this week that it’s reviewing a request from the oil and gas industry to ease enforcement of hazardous air and water pollution and other regulatory issues during the...

Overturned Tanker Yields Large Oil Spill Near California Dam, Cleanup Needed

Mar 25 2020 // A tanker truck overturned down an embankment, spilling up to 6,000 gallons of crude oil into a river that flows into a dam and reservoir near the city of Santa Maria, authorities said.The driver was no injured and the...

Pipeline Owner Agrees to Pay $60M in 2015 California Spill

Mar 16 2020 // The owner of an oil pipeline that spewed thousands of barrels of crude oil onto Southern California beaches in 2015 will pay $60 million to to settle allegations that it violated safety laws, the U.S. Environmental...

Fire Kills Five People at Petronas-Aramco Oil Refinery in Malaysia

Mar 16 2020 // A fire killed five people at an oil refining complex in southern Malaysia owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco, forcing the closure of the facility that was set to begin full commercial operations this year.It was the second...

One U.S. State May Look at Insurers’ Fossil Fuel Investments and Underwriting to Combat Climate Change

Mar 5 2020 // A Connecticut lawmaker has plans for a bill that not only calls for the state to look at which insurers have fossil fuel investments – a growing trend among government entities as of late – but also which ones are...

Coronavirus Fears Drive Up Credit Risk for Gulf Crude Exporters

Feb 25 2020 // The cost of insuring against sovereign debt defaults by Gulf Arab states has risen in recent days as markets price the risk the coronavirus outbreak represents for the crude export-dependent region.Conventional spreads on...

How One County Plans to Vet Insurers for Fossil Fuel Investments

Feb 20 2020 // “We have front row seats,” said Elise Jones, a Boulder County commissioner.Jones along with two other commissioners oversees government affairs in the Colorado county of 330,000 or so at the base of the...

Salvage Firm Wants Judge to Halt Removal of Capsized Cargo Ship in Georgia

Feb 19 2020 // A maritime salvage company is asking a federal judge to stop the Coast Guard and a rival firm from carrying out their plans to remove a cargo ship that overturned five months ago on the Georgia coast.The multiagency team...