The government is calling off a recently announced moratorium on applications to build solar plants on public lands.
The Bureau of Land Management decision came after public opposition to its original decision.
The BLM wanted to put new applications for solar plants on federal land on hold while reviewing potential environmental impacts from such plants.
That process could [...]

Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE:PAA) announced that a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (“OXY”), has entered into definitive agreements to acquire an aggregate 10% equity interest in the general partner of PAA directly from the existing owners. Closing is expected to occur within the next 30 to 45 days and is subject [...]

Tesco Corporation announced that Robert L. Kayl, the Company’s Vice President and Controller, has been named Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective July 2, 2008. Julio Quintana, TESCO’s President and Chief Executive Officer said, “Bob has played a key role at the Company since arriving in 2005; we are fortunate to have [...]

GulfMark Offshore, Inc. today announced it has closed on the previously announced acquisition of Rigdon Marine. The combined company will initially operate 90 vessels with an additional 16 vessels under construction for delivery through 2010. Geographically diversified, the GulfMark fleet will operate 24 vessels in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and bring the total Americas [...]

La Cortez Energy, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jaime Ruiz Llano to the Company’s Board of Directors.
Jaime Ruiz Llano has been involved in government affairs in Colombia for the past 20 years. Mr. Ruiz has held various high level government positions throughout his career. In 1991, Mr. Ruiz was elected as [...]

A new study from consultants Wood Mackenzie finds consolidation in the energy industry tends to boost shareholder value rather than diminish it.
The report analyzed the strategy used and value created in deals completed by 38 companies between 2001 and 2006. The companies included major oil companies, independents, Asian national companies and Russian players.
The 195 transactions [...]

U.S. state attorneys general are meeting in Idaho for a conference aimed at addressing the location of power plants, efforts to restrict energy use, renewable energy mandates and other energy-related legal issues likely to arise in the coming years.
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden told his counterparts from across the country that attorneys general are often [...]

Nigerian oil output could fall by nearly a third by 2015 if the country does not garner more investment, the Financial Times reported Thursday.
The business daily quoted a progress report by advisers to President Umaru Yar’Adua that it had seen as saying that funding shortfalls “portend a grave danger not just to the reform process [...]

Brazil aims to build seven new oil refineries and quintuple its natural gas output over the next two decades, the head of the government’s energy studies agency said on Tuesday.
“It’s the first time Brazil has done an integrated planning study for energy resources,” said Mauricio Tolmasquim, the head of the agency, known by its acronym [...]

THE world’s largest untapped oil reserves - in the Canadian Arctic - have become the new front line in the battle between environmentalists and the energy industry.
Shell, a self-styled “green” energy company, is to invest billions of dollars in exploiting the Athabasca tar sands.
Environmentalists say the tar sands are the world’s dirtiest oil deposits and [...]