House Republicans on Wednesday took the first steps toward overturning a new Obama administration plan for managing wildlife and oil development in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.  More »

The Coast Guard will kick off hearings Monday on how a Shell rig used for Arctic Ocean exploratory drilling ended up aground off a remote Alaska island.  More »

The pace of regulatory change has slowed since the days just after the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, but oil companies and offshore contractors are still dealing with repercussions.  More »

Oil companies seeking to drill in Arctic waters must have emergency equipment capable of reining in runaway subsea wells, a top Obama administration official said, answering a question facing ConocoPhillips and other firms with drilling rights in the region.  More »

The Swiss-based Noble Corporation reported first quarter 2013 earnings of $150 million, up 25 percent from $120 million for the same time last year.  More »

ConocoPhillips on Wednesday said it would abandon its plans to begin drilling for oil in Arctic waters north of Alaska because of “uncertainties of evolving federal regulatory requirements” for oil exploration in the region. The move follows similar decisions by Statoil and Shell, which is pausing its own Arctic oil hunt after experiencing several high-profile mishaps last year.  More »

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Donskoy was quoted by national media as saying Monday that the companies will develop the Severo-Vrangelevsky field in the Chukchi Sea and the Severo-Zapadny field in the Pechora Sea.  More »

Federal regulators have focused scrutiny on Shell’s Arctic drilling program, but top Obama administration officials say ConocoPhillips and other companies planning to search for oil in the same area better be paying attention.  More »

News reports focused on Arctic drilling problems experienced by Shell, but the unregulated ship traffic is a bigger concern up North, said Begich, D-Alaska.  More »

Drawing on comments filed by a half million Americans in opposition to Arctic drilling, environmentalists are urging President Barack Obama’s nominee for Interior secretary, Sally Jewell, to halt exploration in the region.  More »

The Coast Guard has officially closed down the broad operation overseeing the response to the Dec. 31 grounding of Shell’s Kulluk drilling rig, as the oil company prepares to send the vessel to an Asian port for repairs.  More »

Exxon Mobil Corp. vastly expanded its reach in Russia’s Arctic on Wednesday, announcing it had signed an agreement to grow its exploration territory there by more than five-fold.  More »