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Oil prices dipped again Tuesday despite new indications that the U.S. manufacturing and housing industries may be on the mend.
Exxon Mobil may be synonymous with Big Oil, but two major deals announced this month show the company is focused on expanding natural-gas output.
The season's first Atlantic hurricane and two other storms have done nothing to spur a rise in energy prices, largely because supplies are high and demand low, but oil companies are keeping close watch on their offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday added to the industry's worst midyear showing in years, stung by slumping global energy demand that threatens to further slow exploration and production.
Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday reported its lowest profit in nearly six years, a 66 percent plunge from the second quarter a year ago as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company confronted sharply lower crude and gas prices and anemic demand for refined products.
Imagine having a nice ripe orange, ready for squeezing, but being able to get out only a small amount of juice. There's got to be more, you just can't get at it.
ConocoPhillips became the second oil major in as many days to report plunging profits for the second quarter, saying Wednesday its earnings fell a whopping 76 percent because of the year-over-year fall in oil and gas prices and lousy refining results.
Valero Energy Corp. on Tuesday reported a $254 million loss for the normally robust second quarter, and the nation's largest independent refiner said it could lose money for the rest of the year if a weak economy persists.
Schlumberger Ltd. exemplified the ongoing troubles for oil and gas industry, reporting Friday its second-quarter earnings tumbled 57 percent and offering an uncertain outlook for the rest of 2009 and beyond.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter earnings fell 70 percent from a year ago as results were hit hard by lower oil and natural gas prices. But the company's profit topped Wall Street expectations and its production rose.
Halliburton on Monday said its profit tumbled for a second straight quarter, primarily from a falloff in natural-gas production in North America, and the oilfield services giant offered little hope for an uptick in drilling before year's end.
Big Oil is set for another big flop.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said Tuesday it will make its first major investment in greenhouse-gas reducing biofuels in a $600 million partnership with biotech company Synthetic Genomics Inc. to develop transportation fuels from algae.
Chevron Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter earnings from pumping oil will be improved from the first three months of the year, when low crude and natural-gas prices contributed to the worst results in years for oil companies.
Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, energy baron T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday, and he's looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines.
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, said Tuesday second-quarter production rose by more than 100,000 barrels from a year ago, but lower crude and natural-gas prices and refining margins are expected to hurt results.
ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, says its second-quarter production rose by more than 100,000 barrels from a year ago. But it says lower crude and natural-gas prices and refining margins are expected to hurt results.
International oil companies poised for a return to Iraq find themselves in an unfamiliar spot, preparing to assist rather than lord over drilling operations and taking risks that at first glance don't appear worth the effort.
Even with crude prices on the rise, three of the biggest oilfield services companies say they've cut more jobs as they adjust to sluggish exploration and drilling activity.
Oil and gas companies have accelerated their spending on lobbying faster than any other industry, training their gusher of profits on Washington to fight new taxes on drilling and slow efforts to move the nation off fossil fuels.
For generations, General Motors fueled America's love affair with the automobile, building cars that defined their owners' status in life and the industrial might of the nation. But less than a year after entering its second century, the company that survived wars, international rivalry and even the Great Depression is being driven by the government into bankruptcy court.
As tens of millions tank up and hit the road for Memorial Day weekend, gas prices are rising fast enough to revive painful memories of the $4-a-gallon summer of 2008.
Halliburton chairman and CEO Dave Lesar reassured shareholders Wednesday the oilfield services company has no ties to former subsidiary KBR Inc., even though the two are still often linked in legal matters.
The U.S. oil and gas industry, facing greater regulation and heavier taxes at home, must do a better job of explaining its vital role in the global economy's future, the chief of the nation's third-largest oil company said Wednesday.
A group of Exxon Mobil shareholders is appealing to investors in the nation's biggest mutual funds to help change the oil giant's approach to environmental issues and corporate governance.
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