Oil And Gas

On June 29, the Bush administration quietly approved a keystone of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy: furthering our addiction to oil through the 5-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program. The program governs the sale of all offshore oil and gas leases in federal waters over the next five years and anticipates the drilling of more than 10 billion barrels of oil and more than 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in some of our most pristine and sensitive marine habitats.

Why haven't my ConocoPhillips shares done better this year? They had been great. - R.M., via the Internet Oil and gas price movements are the overriding consideration for this company, one of the nation's largest oil companies and refiners. It also must cope with oil-producing nations that can extract better contracts from it than before energy prices began their substantial run. ConocoPhillips, the result of the 2002 merger of Conoco and Phillips, owns a 20 percent equity stake in Russia's Lukoil, giving it access to significant hydrocarbon reserves but also political risk.

What do you think will happen with my shares of Chevron Corp.? - C.C., via the Internet The second-largest U.S. oil company, created by the 2001 merger of Chevron and Texaco, is expected to continue its long track record of using strong cash flow to reward shareholders. Its financial results are directly affected by the price of crude oil, which has provided a dramatic boost over the past two years, and its ability to expand international exploration and production. The company operates in oil and gas in more than 180 countries.

Has OPEC infiltrated Congress? That sure would explain the latest energy bill. Make that the "anti-energy" bill. Both the Senate-approved version and the forthcoming House one are bad enough for what they contain. But they're worse for what they lack: even one drop of additional domestic oil. America remains the world's only oil-producing nation that has placed a significant amount of its reserves off limits. Yet the lawmakers behind these misguided "energy" bills seem more than happy to keep it that way. A recent Interior Department study estimates that 21 billion barrels of oil lie untapped beneath federally controlled lands, mostly in the West and Alaska.

Alternatives to autos offer better future Michael Dresser seems to think that traffic is our main transportation problem ("Pile-up," March 18). That's not so. Our current highway-sprawl-long-distance-commuting traffic problem is a product of cheap oil, and the days of cheap oil are numbered. Many oil experts believe we are at or near the peak of global oil production. We've been burning more than we discover since around 1980. As oil production declines, we will find we have bigger problems than traffic.

This is an edited excerpt of a Los Angeles Times editorial, which was published Friday.THE states of the Caspian Sea region are rich in energy resources and eager to maintain the independence from Moscow.The West wants to diversify its sources of oil and natural gas and at the same time try to head off a reassertion of Russian dominance in Central Asia.These interests have now joined in the proposed construction, with U.S. financial help, of oil and gas pipelines from Azerbaijan to Turkey.

Retired Col. Rex Applegate,84, a military tactics expert with an international reputation for his knowledge of riot control, counter- terrorism and combat techniques, died Tuesday of pneumonia, stroke and heart disease in Roseburg, Ore. He was a commando in Nazi-occupied France during World War II and was one of the first people assigned to the Office of Strategic Services, which became the CIA.Robert Gorham Davis,90, a literary critic and professor emeritus...

PARIS -- In a head-on challenge to U.S. efforts to economically hobble Iran, a French-led consortium has signed a $2 billion investment deal to develop a giant natural gas field in the Persian Gulf. The United States reacted swiftly yesterday, saying it will take action if the deal violates U.S. law."We regret this decision by [French energy giant] Total. We will investigate whether this violates the embargo law. We will apply the law," State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said at the United Nations, where Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is attending the opening of the General Assembly.

WASHINGTON -- One year after President Clinton pleased environmentalists by declaring a wide swath of southern Utah a national monument, his administration decided yesterday to open the region to oil and gas drilling.The Bureau of Land Management, taking advantage of what critics say was a loosely worded presidential declaration, gave Conoco Inc. permission to explore for oil and gas in the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on the basis of a lease signed before Clinton declared the land off-limits.

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Here's a geography quiz. In what region of the world did Alexander the Great score great victories, the Silk Road flourish, Islam produce some of its most renowned scholars and Tamerlane build the fabled monuments of Samarkand?Hint: Russia and Britain staged their 19th-century ''Great Game'' of spies and skirmishes across this region's forbidding deserts and mountains.Don't feel bad if you can't come up with a name. This region is just emerging from 70 years of Rip Van Winkle-like isolation from the world under Soviet rule.

Now, when the first signs of economic recovery may be in sight, it's time to ponder what kind of recovery we are likely to witness. Will it be the traditional V-shaped recovery in which economic growth bounces back from a slump, or will it be a W-shaped, double-dipped one in which one crisis follows the other for several years to come? Much of this depends on the price of oil. Nearly a year ago, oil prices hit their near $150 peak. This price shock, according to some economists, contributed materially to the recession that a few months later caused prices to collapse by nearly $100 a barrel.

ARLINGTON, Va. -Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current electricity demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday. Simply harnessing the wind in relatively shallow waters - the most accessible and technically feasible sites for offshore turbines - could produce at least 20 percent of the power demand for most coastal states, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, unveiling a report by the department's Minerals Management Service that details the potential for oil, gas and renewable development on the Outer Continental Shelf.

WASHINGTON -The Obama administration put the brakes yesterday on a push to expand oil and gas drilling off the U.S. coastline and promised to speed development of offshore wind farms. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he will extend public comments for six months on a last-minute proposal by the Bush administration to open swaths of the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf coasts for drilling. He also ordered Interior Department staff to compile data on the potential benefits from oil, gas and renewable development offshore, and he pledged public hearings on drilling, including one to be held on the West Coast.

President-elect Barack Obama has stated that his economic stimulus package will include a major initiative to build an alternative energy infrastructure. Mr. Obama's resolve, even in the face of declining energy prices, is laudable. The question is, will his program be bold and comprehensive enough to truly break the grip of our dependence on foreign oil? The Pickens Plan, introduced last summer, is the only proposal on the table that goes far enough to have a realistic chance of reducing our dependence on foreign oil by 50 percent over the next 10 years.

China may send ships to help fend off pirates BEIJING: China said yesterday that it was considering sending warships to help fight pirates off the Somali coast, a sign of its increasing willingness to flex its military muscle. Although China has participated in U.N. peacekeeping operations in Africa, its navy has seldom left the Pacific region. China is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council that has not joined the United States in a growing international fleet fighting a brazen wave of piracy launched from Somalian shores.

Wondering how all that extra money you're spending on gasoline is split up among government taxes, refinery production and corporate marketing, among other things? It's not going to refiners, who have seen their margins drop as they scramble to turn more oil into gas. It's not going to corner gas stations, many of whom say they are being forced out of business by falling profits. And it's not going to the federal government, which is seeing its gas tax revenue slide as people drive less to save money.

HOUSTON - Oil prices headed in an unusual direction - down - for the second consecutive day yesterday, leaving energy experts to wonder whether the drop is the beginning of a lasting trend or just a brief pause before another surge. Oil settled at $136.04 a barrel, a drop of $5.33, or 3.8 percent. Analysts said the immediate causes included the strengthening of the dollar in recent days and the apparent veering northward of Bertha, the first hurricane of the 2008 hurricane season, meaning it was likely to miss the oil and natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

It's hard to say who is to blame for soaring oil prices. There are lots of villains in sight - those enriched oil executives grilled by Congress, OPEC conspirators, futures market speculators, inept regulators, indifferent politicians, environmentalists, Latin American dictators - the list goes on and on. To a greater or lesser extent, they are all to blame. The oil companies for feeding our addiction, OPEC for keeping us hooked by stabilizing prices and supply, speculators for manipulating the world oil market, commodities' regulators for failing to stop them, politicians for pandering to the oil companies and others for putting their special interests first.

In the realm of energy policy, there are a great many bad ideas and very few good ones. The usual practice of presidential candidates is to 1) sift through all these proposals, 2) separate the wheat from the chaff, and 3) keep the chaff. This year, the two parties are competing to show who is most eager to discard sound economics and long-term prudence in favor of appeasing aggrieved motorists. Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton are pandering with a proposal to punish oil companies with a windfall profits tax. Sen. John McCain has targeted the same group by urging a federal gas tax holiday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. What motivates them is high pump prices, which are at odds with the popular view of cheap gasoline as a national birthright.

Under the forces of supply and demand, gasoline prices should be falling, giving a break to households and placing a cushion under the falling U.S. economy. Under the forces of 2008, the nation has more gasoline in the tank than at any time since early 2002 - yet gas is $3.15 a gallon with no peak in sight. Blame speculators, a falling dollar, the federal deficit and continued, breakneck growth by China and India. Spare a thought for Federal Reserve chief Ben S. Bernanke while you're at it. His main tools to forestall a recession are adding to the problem.