Smart Money Trickles Back Into Energy

Deepwater discovery could have huge implications for region

(NEWSER) - Discovery of a massive field of natural gas off the coast of Israel could transform the Jewish state's economy and even alter the balance of power in the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reports. Houston-based Noble Energy confirmed yesterday that the so-called Leviathan field has 16 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it the biggest deepwater discovery in a decade. More»

Investors are not sold on financial recovery, it seems

(NEWSER) - Americans love the stock market—that is, they used to love the stock market. But shaken by the financial crisis, investors withdrew $33.12 billion dollars from domestic stock market mutual funds in the first seven months of this year, finds the New York Times . Instead, they're putting their money in options deemed safer, like bonds. “This is very unusual,” one economist says. More»

Natural gas companies squabble with Big Oil as Senate negotiates

(NEWSER) - With the Senate set to consider legislation to tax carbon and rein in global warming, a split has emerged among the energy lobby that may make it easier to pass a clean-energy law. Natural gas producers favor a bill, while their colleagues in the oil industry oppose it; electric companies are sparring over whether to favor coal or renewables; and wind and solar producers are angling for advantages. All the confused lobbying, says one environmentalist, "tells you people believe it is real." More»

(NEWSER) - The European Union's powerful competition commissioner slapped two energy companies with record fines of $1.53 billion today for cartel misbehavior. GDF Suez and E.ON, two of the world's biggest gas producers, colluded to avoid competition in French and German energy markets and drive up prices. It's the first time that the commission has imposed antitrust fines on an energy company, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»

Commodity Commission to hold hearings on 'purely financial' energy futures trading

(NEWSER) - Federal regulators may impose new limits on the amount of energy-futures contracts that speculators can buy, the New York Times reports, an attempt to curb severe price fluctuations in commodities like oil and natural gas. Oil prices swung from $145 per barrel last summer to $33 in December, movement some attribute to purely financial investors who bet on the direction of price movements. More»