Thirteen companies submitted bids for 116 of 3,873 blocks offered in the Nov. 28 Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 229 in New Orleans.
A coalition of 33 national, regional, and state oil and gas associations expressed concern to leaders of two key congressional committees over the possible elimination or restriction of the federal tax deduction for intangible drilling costs.
Senex Energy Ltd., Brisbane, said its Kingston Rule-1 unconventional gas exploratory well in Australia’s southern Cooper basin encountered 53 m of net gas pay in tight sands and 170 m of shale and coal in various formations in the Early Permian section.
The US Environmental Protection Agency temporarily suspended BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP PLC, and BP affiliates from new contracts with the federal government, citing what EPA called BP’s lack of business integrity regarding the Macondo deepwater well blowout and resulting oil spill.
The author of a study projecting a 17 million b/d increase in global oil production by 2020 has criticized a recent forecast by the International Energy Agency that the US will become the world’s top oil producer by 2020 (OGJ Online, Nov. 13, 2012).