House Passes Bill to Halt Big Oil Tax Breaks

Company expects to get 700M barrels

(NEWSER) - Exxon announced the discovery of two oil wells and a natural gas deposit in the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico that could collectively contain 700 million barrels. Two of the finds had been made in 2009 and 2010, but the company waited until today to unveil the amount of oil inside, reports the Wall Street Journal . The third well was found after the lift of the deep-water drilling moratorium imposed following last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster. More»

Exxon, Chevron, others learn from BP's mistakes

(NEWSER) - Four oil giants are teaming up to create an early-response system to contain disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill. Exxon, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and ConocoPhillips are committing an initial $1 billion to create the nonprofit Marine Well Containment Co., though maintaining the "strike force" will cost more over time. The system is expected to be ready in 18 months, the Wall Street Journal reports, and the companies presumably hope to get back in the good graces of the White House. (BP was not invited to join "because we didn't want to distract them," explains an Exxon official.) More»

Companies argue spill was a fluke

(NEWSER) - Lord help us if there’s another deepwater spill, because the big oil companies all have a pretty much identical response plan to BP, congressional Democrats complained today, grilling executives from Chevron, Exxon, Shell, BP, and Conoco Phillips. All the companies hired the same third party to draft their plans, the Wall Street Journal reports, and that company itself told Congress they are “cookie-cutter” documents. Ed Markey found that two of the plans “are such dead ringers for BP’s that they list a phone number for the same long-dead expert.” More»

(NEWSER) - Stocks jumped at the open today, with the Dow up 61 points, the Nasdaq adding 0.5%, and the S&P gaining 0.7%, powered by strong moves in its energy and basic materials sectors. That was due in part to the surge in fuel prices, with oil clearing $71 a barrel. Chevron and Exxon Mobil each rose 1%. Shares in industrial companies also climbed, with Caterpillar up 1.3%. If it holds, the Dow's move will put it in positive territory for the year. More»

Governor's much-touted initiative could be derailed as gas, oil prices fall

(NEWSER) - A sour economy and tumbling oil prices might sink Sarah Palin’s oft-touted Alaskan natural-gas pipeline, the Wall Street Journal reports. Low prices and increased natural-gas production in the lower 48 are causing energy companies to reconsider the $30 billion project. Without the revenue-generating pipeline, Alaskans who depend on the state’s dividend checks might soon actually be paying taxes themselves. More»