Leases on vast state-owned coal tracts in southeastern Montana will be offered for bid by the end of the year, but possibly not in time to fulfill an investment bank’s request for an expedited timeline, state officials said.
A London-based bank, Rothschild, had requested the state put the Otter Creek coal tracts near Ashland up for [...]

Halliburton Co. is thinking about buying U.K.-based Expro International Group PLC in an all-cash deal.
Halliburton confirmed talks with Expro after a private equity consortium led by London-based Candover Group said it will buy Expro for $3.2 billion.
In a statement, Halliburton said its cash offer would top Candover’s but gave no specifics.
Expro provides services and products [...]

Oil prices hit a record high $117 a barrel Friday as jitters over Nigerian oil supplies outweighed a rally in the dollar and fears of an economic slowdown in giant energy consumer China.
U.S. light crude settled up $1.83 at $116.96 a barrel, before hitting a record $117. London Brent crude gained $1.49 to $113.92.
Oil prices [...]

Mechel, a leading Russian mining and metals company, said on Thursday it had acquired 95.69% of shares in the UK-based Oriel Resources Plc, which owns assets in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Mechel made a $1.498 billion purchase offer to Oriel, a London-based chrome and nickel mining and processing company valued at around $1.2 billion, in late March. [...]

A recent surge in steel prices continued Wednesday with ArcelorMittal saying it will increase prices by $250 a ton on some steel shipments — a move that will benefit steel companies such as U.S. Steel Corp., analysts said.
Strong global demand has increased prices for hot-rolled coiled steel from $529 a ton in October to $845 [...]

Crude futures rolled past $115 a barrel, hitting a new record on concerns about how much gas will be available during the peak summer months. The weekly inventories report from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a much bigger decline in gasoline supplies than forecast by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
The report [...]

Crude oil prices climbed to within a penny of $114 a barrel, setting new records as concerns mounted about global supplies.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose as high as $113.99 a barrel for the first time on the New York Mercantile Exchange before settling at $113.79, up $2.03 from Monday’s record settlement price of [...]

Shares in UK natural gas producer BG Group Plc jumped nearly 6 percent as investors started betting on the potential size of the Carioca oil discovery in Brazil after the chief of the country’s petroleum agency revealed the site could be holding around 33 billion barrels of oil equivalent, making it one of the world’s [...]

Oil prices hit all-time highs above $115 a barrel Thursday with reports that oil and gasoline stocks in the United States were lower than expected and as the dollar hit record lows.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose as high as $115.52 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It [...]

Oil set a record above $115 a barrel on Thursday as a drop in U.S. gasoline inventories raised concern of tighter supply and a weak dollar boosted investor demand for commodities.
A U.S. government report on Wednesday showed a surprise drop in crude inventories and a larger-than-expected decline in stocks of gasoline. Demand for the motor [...]