Oil And Gas

SAN FRANCISCO -- There's "a whole lotta shakin' goin' on," as the song says -- and some of it may be our fault.Humans have inadvertently triggered a small number of earthquakes in recent decades, most of them harmless, by drilling for oil and building reservoirs in geologically touchy spots, scientists say.These "induced earthquakes" -- possibly of as great a magnitude as 5.5 -- may help explain how subterranean fluids influence and perhaps spark natural earthquakes,...

OKLAHOMA CITY - Dominion Resources Inc., which owns Virginia's largest utility, agreed yesterday to acquire Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas Corp. for $2.3 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt to increase its natural gas reserves by 60 percent. Dominion will pay $20 in cash and 0.3226 share for each Louis Dreyfus share. Dominion will assume about $505 million in debt. The purchase will double the size of Dominion's energy trading operations over three years, and leave it with an estimated 4.6 trillion cubic feet of gas and oil reserves to supply utility customers and fuel power plants.

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.

Editor: All right, this is it. I have truly had enough. I cannot figure out how anyone in their right mind would think that a gasoline tax would be beneficial in any way to Marylanders. The poor and downtrodden already are having a difficult time finding and maintaining a job. How is making the "getting to it more difficult" going to help anyone? Should Marylanders sacrifice food and/or shelter so that they can get to work, only to come home to a box because they can't now pay rent or a mortgage?

SULPHUR, La. - This is the White House's vision of oil and gas production on the nation's environmentally sensitive lands: At Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, dozens of terns lay their eggs on a temporary board road through a marsh, within yards of a state-of-the-art, low-impact oil drilling rig. This is the environmentalists' view: At a gas well in the middle of Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, a pipe carries wastewater laden with salt and toxic...

The Bush administration's proposal to drill for oil and gas off the Maryland coast, 15 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, disturbs us -- not merely for the environmental impact on the bay, but also for the shortsightedness it represents.The proposal, which calls for drilling up and down most of the East Coast, is only one piece of the administration's legislative agenda, which also includes passage of a new federal highway bill. Off-shore drilling and an improved road system are ostensibly answers to the problems of foreign oil dependency, changing demographics and a crumbling physical infrastructure.

Both major-party candidates for governor of Virginia say they support ending a federal moratorium on exploratory gas and oil drilling along the Atlantic coast, a move that environmentalists warn could pollute beaches in Maryland and elsewhere. Congress has been debating an end to a quarter-century ban on Atlantic coast drilling to help lower natural gas prices that had been soaring even before hurricanes smashed Gulf Coast wells. During a debate Sunday night in Richmond, Virginia's Republican candidate for governor, Jerry W. Kilgore, and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine both said the industry should be allowed to explore for gas off the coast.

Houston-based Shell Oil Co. plans to reduce its U.S. work force by as many as 4,650 employees in response to disappointing financial results.ARCO Oil and Gas, a large employer in Dallas and Plano, Texas, also said yesterday that it is analyzing company operations in a bid to boost its financial performance. But the company declined to speculate on the possibility of employee layoffs.A growing number of U.S. oil companies may be forced to consider layoffs or other cost-cutting measures if natural gas prices remain deeply depressed and oil prices continue at moderate levels, said Steve Smith, an energy analyst for Bear Stearns in New York.

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.

WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen areas off Maryland and near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay are being considered for oil and gas drilling rights by the Bush administration, although lawmakers are working to scrap a plan they say is environmentally risky.The proposal for oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic coast -- part of the five-year national energy plan unveiled by President Bush earlier this year -- enters its first phase this summer with the release of a draft report that will consider 1,000 proposed tracts from New Jersey to Georgia.