A senior Kuwaiti oil official says his country plans to spend $55 billion on oil projects in the next five years.
Jamal al-Nouri, managing director for planning at state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., says the money will be used for production, refineries, and building new tankers. He says some will also be spent on oil investments in [...]

The energy world sat up and took notice earlier this month when the head of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency said a new offshore find could hold an incredible 33 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Haroldo Lima caught a lot of criticism for that from state-run Petrobras, which said it had not yet quantified reserves in that [...]

UBS Investment Research raised its forecast for the price of natural gas to $9 per 1,000 cubic feet from $7.25 per 1,000 cubic feet.
“We believe improved domestic natural gas demand trends, soaring coal prices and likely increases in the cost of electricity generation, and increased competition for LNG (liquefied natural gas) from the Asian Pacific [...]

Members of the Rockefeller family, descended from the founder of what is now Exxon Mobil Corp., want the oil giant to split the roles of chairman and CEO and to put more focus on renewable energy.
The family members, who describe themselves as the company’s longest continuous shareholders, say they are concerned that the Irving, Texas-based [...]

Oil and natural gas producer Stone Energy Corp. plans to buy Bois d’Arc Energy in a cash and stock deal valued at about $1.8 billion, including debt.
Bois d’Arc stockholders will get $13.65 in cash and 0.165 shares of Stone stock for each share of Bois d’Arc they own. The offer price values the company at [...]

The EIA report did not encourage investors to scoop up refiners’ shares. Lower oil prices notwithstanding, the rise in inventories was bearish for refiners, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Paul Cheng, who has a negative outlook for the sector.
“We expect gasoline margin may have already peaked and will likely resume their downward spiral by early [...]

Oil prices fell after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and a government report said fuel supplies unexpectedly fell last week.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell $2.17 to settle at $113.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Fed, as expected, said it will cut the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage [...]

Nigerian oil workers ended a strike that cut the country’s oil output over the last several days. The head of the union at an Exxon Mobil Corp. unit said members would return to work after negotiators reached an agreement with management about pensions.
Exxon Mobil said in a statement that it was restarting production.
Nigeria produces about [...]

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. plans to sell part of its stake in offshore oil production sites in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. The sale covers a number of holdings that combined account for about 80 percent of ATP’s total proved and probable reserves.
The energy production company hired Scotia Waterous (USA) Inc. [...]

Shares of oilfield service companies declined as crude prices fell and Cameron International Corp. issued a disappointing earnings outlook for the second quarter.
Cameron’s first quarter net income of $126.3 million, or 55 cents per share, beat the Wall Street forecast of 54 cents a share. The 34 percent revenue increase to $1.34 billion also topped [...]