Ben Bernake, Federal Reserve Chairman, stated that the U.S. economy is facing “significant” risks to growth, while the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its forecast for world oil-demand growth for 2008 and 2009. in apart chances John Kilduff, an analyst at futures brokerage MF Global, said “Signs of economic contraction and financial-market malaise are [...]

Wachovia Capital Markets analyst Tim Curran says in a note to investors that Transocean will lease-purchase and manage a newbuild drillship that Brazil’s Petrobras is building to use for projects offshore the West African nations of Angola and Nigeria.
Curran says Transocean will run the drillship under a 10-year contract, with an option for a [...]

Shares of Allis-Chalmers Energy dropped about 5 percent in afternoon trading, after the oilfield drilling and services company raised its offer for Bronco Drilling by 12 percent, to $18.25 a share from $16.33.
Bronco shares have risen since the buyout was first announced in January. They closed at $18.10 Friday, but lost some ground in Monday [...]

Brazil’s Petrobras plans to hire 40 deep and ultradeepwater rigs by 2017. That’s good news for drilling and oilfield services companies, although it’s not entirely clear what Brazil’s state-run oil company has in mind.
“We’re investigating the (1) expected mix of existing, already under construction, and yet-to-be-ordered rigs; (2) expected mix of drillships and semis; (3) [...]

Wachovia Capital Markets analyst Tom Curran says Allis-Chalmers Energy’s drilling and completion operations in Argentina are being impacted by a labor dispute between labor unions and oil companies.
“Our source said that, thus far, the strike has prevented Allis-Chalmers from driving to certain locations and delivering equipment, but did not quantify how many or to what [...]

Oil prices rose to an intraday trading record above $112 a barrel Tuesday after the U.S. dollar fell further and crude supplies to the U.S. and elsewhere were disrupted.
The main driver of crude’s rally was a decline in the greenback relative to the euro on Monday, analysts said. Crude oil’s recent run above $100 a [...]

Shares of Delta Petroleum Corp. stumbled Wednesday after the oil and gas producer announced plans to issue more stock and an analyst voiced concerns about “continued dilution” to per-share earnings.
Late Tuesday after the market close, Delta said it would sell 6.2 million shares and separately offer $100 million in convertible senior notes due 2037. The [...]

PRB Energy, Inc. announced the election by the Board of Directors of Paul L. Maddock, Jr. (Jay) and Sigmund J. Rosenfeld to its Board of Directors effective February 1, 2007.
Robert W. Wright, Chairman and CEO, stated, “We are exceptionally pleased that Mr. Maddock and Mr. Rosenfeld are joining our board. Both Jay and Sig bring [...]

After instituting floors on over two-thirds of its natural gas production and part of its oil production, the CEO of Petroleum Development Corporation also decided to lessen his exposure to volatile natural gas prices by selling stock.
On September 28th, CEO Steven R. Williams sold 100K shares at $40.66 to reduce his holdings to 319.7K shares. [...]

Just as the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to end a quarter-century federal moratorium on offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, environmentalists and Gov. Mark Sanford expressed their concerns about how such a move would affect South Carolina’s coastline and the state’s $10 billion tourism industry.
They were joined by energy experts, economists and trade [...]