Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. announces that it has reached agreement with a number of arms-length accredited investors to privately place up to 14 million equity units at US$0.50 each with each unit comprised of a common share and a 15 month half-warrant, each full warrant being exercisable at US$1.00 per common share. $5.61 million of [...]

Federal regulators will place stricter limits on foreign exchanges that trade U.S. oil.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will require the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange to adopt position limits used in the U.S. for trading West Texas Intermediary crude contracts.
Foreign officials also will share daily trading data with U.S. authorities and report violations when they [...]

Exxon Mobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices.
The world’s largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820-company owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the U.S.
The Irving-based company didn’t [...]

Universal Energy Corp., announced today that drilling at its Lone Oak prospect in Texas is progressing. The proprietary 3-D seismic with the corresponding subsurface well control provides excellent objectives for this drilling program. “We are pleased with the progress of the well,” commented Billy Raley, Chief Executive Officer of Universal Energy Corp. Raley continued, “Our [...]

Striker Oil & Gas, Inc. (OTCBB:SOIS) continues to build upon the investments made in 2007 for acquiring and developing new properties. We have experienced an increase in oil and gas production and reserves year to year from 2007 to 2008. We continue to implement our drilling program during 2008 as we continue our strategy to [...]

Oil prices rebounded sharply from a dip below $132 a barrel, ending higher Thursday in another volatile session fueled by a rising dollar and concerns about supplies. Gas prices reached new record at the pump, rising to a national average of $4.06 a gallon, and are likely to keep climbing.
Light, sweet crude for July [...]

Citi Investment Research analyst Faisel Khan says the EIA report shows low refinery utilization has reduced inventories of gasoline, “but with crude rally continuing, refining stocks remain under pressure.”
Most refiners’ shares fell in afternoon trading. Holly Corp. lost 56 cents at $40.36. Valero Energy Corp. gave up 24 cents at $44.36, and Tesoro Corp. dropped [...]

The federal government formed an interagency task force to assess developments in oil and other commodity markets.
It is made up of staff from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the departments of Treasury, Energy and Agriculture. The task force will examine oil supply and demand factors, investor [...]

AUSTRALIAN iron ore producers, arguing for a freight premium to be included in this year’s contract prices with reluctant Chinese steelmakers, are expected to shrug off the emergence of a new iron ore exchange market created by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.
The exchange gives smaller Chinese steel producers a chance to hedge their costs in [...]

BP PLC Chief executive Tony Hayward told an oil and gas conference in Malaysia that governments should lower trade barriers and cut taxes for the industry to boost production and help stabilize global oil prices.
Hayward says the world is not short of petroleum resources, but high operating costs, rising taxes and lack of access are [...]