Hunt Is On for Florida Oil

OptaSense can identify footsteps, vehicles from miles away

(NEWSER) - Major oil companies are relying on a new fiber-optic technology to keep an underground ear on intruders, the Independent reports. Devised by a British defense firm, the OptaSense system consists of microphones placed along sensitive fiber-optic cables already laid underground. The cables sense vibrations, the mics pick it up, and OptaSense compares the signals with other sound samples to identify what's afoot. More»

(NEWSER) - The “Great Florida Python Hunt” is on, but the prey population is likely smaller—and less dangerous—than advertised, Paul Quinlan writes in the Palm Beach Post. Proponents have said there could be 100-150,000 Burmese pythons in the Everglades, a figure the media has seized upon. But the biologist who’s the source of the 150,000 number—a “guesstimate”—puts the real figure nearer 30,000. More»

(NEWSER) - A government-controlled Russian oil firm will be allowed to search for and extract oil from Cuba's portion of the Gulf of Mexico under a deal signed yesterday, the BBC reports. The Russian firm will work alongside Cuba's state-run oil monopoly a matter of miles off the coast of America. Cuba believes it has some 20 billion barrels of oil in offshore reserves, although US estimates put the total closer to 5 billion. More»

(NEWSER) - With Florida’s python population exploding, state wildlife officials are going on the offensive, hiring a team of trained hunters to track down the alarmingly large snakes and take them out, the Miami Herald reports. “There’s one way to do this: kill the snakes,” says Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, who yesterday called for a hunt in the federally protected Everglades National Park, said to be home to 100,000 of them, each up to 20 feet long. More»

Low year-over-year pump prices, oil demand drive revenue down

(AP) - Exxon Mobil’s first-quarter profit fell 58% from the previous year to $4.6 billion—its lowest profit in more than 5 years—as the world's largest publicly traded oil company, along with the rest of the industry, saw gas prices deflate dramatically. This time last year crude was in the triple digits, in the midst of a historic run-up to almost $150 a barrel. But prices spent the rest of the year retreating and have hovered around $50 a barrel since March. More»