Officials in Alabama say tar balls that have been washing up on the state’s prime tourist beaches will be sent to Auburn University for testing.  More »

The government is moving too slowly in approving new deep-water drilling projects, but the pace stems from staffing problems and limited resources, not animosity toward the oil industry, Chevron CEO John Watson said today.  More »

Federal officials say a Louisiana refinery owned by well-known Houston oil men Oscar Wyatt and David Chalmers violated federal anti-pollution laws and obstructed justice during an investigation.  More »

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and six other Nobel Peace Prize winners urged fellow laureate, President Barack Obama, to reject TransCanada Corp.’s proposed $7 billion pipeline across six U.S. states.  More »

Canadian tar sands oil will almost certainly find their way to U.S. refineries even if a $7 billion pipeline from western Canada to the Gulf Coast doesn’t gain federal approval, a U.S. State Department consultant has concluded.  More »

Consol Energy Inc. says it’s sold Utica Shale gas exploration and development rights in Ohio to Hess Corp. for $593 million.  More »

After President Barack Obama delayed the ozone standards again, some are questioning whether Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson will continue in her role with the agency, according to a Politico story.  More »

Halliburton CFO Mark McCollum did something most sane people would be reluctant to do – he took a swing of fracking fluid a few weeks ago.  More »

Natural gas production in New York’s part of the Marcellus Shale could bring up to 24,795 full time drilling-related jobs and more than 29,000 jobs in other parts of the economy, according to an environmental and economic impact study released today by the Department of Environmental Conservation.  More »

BP has doubled the estimated reserves for its Mad Dog field in the Gulf of Mexico, after an appraisal well in an untested part of the field revealed even more oil than the British oil giant previously estimated. BP now estimates Mad Dog may hold as much as 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.  More »

House Republicans are proposing pipeline legislation that safety advocates say would block or undermine needed reforms after several accidents over the past year.  More »

Companies say they’re continuing to put crews back on Gulf of Mexico platforms that were shut down by Tropical Storm Lee. A new storm threat across the Gulf in the Bay of Campeche could lead to evacuations again, however.  More »