Lebanon & Syria Discuss Potential Offshore Oil Riches

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman held discussions with Syrian President Bashar Assad over their land and sea borders and their potential offshore oil wealth.

Clean energy proponents have planned peaceful demonstrations this weekend that will draw a human line separating the coast from offshore drilling.

Shawna Meisner, the director of the Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic offshore sports fishing tournament in the Gulf of Mexico, had been one of the last holdouts.

Jude    Maritime News     Clean energy proponents, Destin, Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic, Fla., Gulf of Mexico, Hands Across the Sand, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Lebanese-Syrian summit, offshore drilling, offshore sports fishing tournament, spreading BP oil spill, Syrian President Bashar Assad, team fishing competition

Drill Ban brings in Hard Times for Rig Workers

In addition to the fishermen and hoteliers whose livelihoods have been devastated by BP’s hemorrhaging undersea oil well, another group of Gulf Coast residents is beginning to suffer:

There is no reason to stop Chevron from drilling Canada’s deepest offshore well until there is solid evidence on the cause of BP’s catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Newfoundland’s natural resources minister said on Thursday.

Citizens and residents of the United States have run out of time to come forward and disclose their bank accounts in UBS in Switzerland.

Jude    Maritime News     BP’s undersea, Canada's third largest oil producing province, Chevron, deepwater oil rigs, Fishermen, gulf coast residents, Gulf of Mexico, hoteliers, oil well

Drilling Moratorium May Do More Economic Damage Than the Oil Spill

The six-month moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico imposed by President Obama is taking a toll on the economy of Louisiana that could far exceed the damage to other industries caused by the BP oil spill.

The moratorium on new deepwater projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico will cut planned spending on exploration and production projects by about $1.6 billion from previous forecasts, according to a Barclays Capital survey of oil companies.

Oil and natural gas explorer EXCO Resources Inc said it would buy some Haynesville and Bossier shale property from Southwestern Energy Co for about $355 million.25

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Greece still dominates shipping, China catching up

Greece is still the largest shipping country in the
world in terms of dry/bulk cargo and tanker fleet
capacity, despite the growing presence of China
which ranks third, just behind Japan.

Abu Dhabi based National Petroleum Construction
Company (NPCC) has contracted Chinese shipyard
Zhenhua Heavy Industries for the construction of
their DLS 4200 derrick lay vessel developed by
Ulstein Sea of Solutions (USOS).

Keppel opened its new integrated safety training
facility, the Keppel Safety Training Centre. Located
at Keppel Shipyard in Tuas, the Centre offers a
complete range of safety training and certification
courses in both trade-specific and broad-based
skills for its workforce across all levels.

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Obama defends offshore drill ban in court

The Obama administration defended a six-month moratorium on U.S. deepwater offshore drilling in court on Wednesday, saying the freeze was needed to ensure safety after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is floating a bill that would force offshore oil producers to drill so-called relief wells along with their exploration wells, a measure aimed at preventing months-long spills like the one in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is some bad news for the Communities along the Gulf Coast, They are already struggling to keep summer tourists, face a new challenge so as to whether to go ahead with plans to launch fireworks over the oily waters on the Fourth of July.

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Effort to repeal oil tax fails in Senate

The Senate on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have repealed some $35 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks as it continued work on a bill that would raise taxes on investment fund managers. As the environmental fallout from the BP PLC oil spill threatens to taint the entire oil industry, Exxon Mobil Corp. is giving its two cents worth. In blog form.

State Representative Dan Scripps says the Michigan Constitution should ban drilling for oil in the Great Lakes.

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Time to Lift Ban on Offshore Drilling

Gulf region lawmakers are demanding an end to the moratorium on offshore oil drilling imposed by the Obama administration, saying the cost to workers’ livelihoods exceeds the risk of another spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Leaders of America’s largest oil companies Tuesday defended the safety of, and necessity for, continued deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Speaking before a Congressional panel investigating the ongoing oil leak from the wreckage of BP’s Deepwater Horizon.

Texas Republicans in the House are pushing back against the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore deepwater drilling, and they’re using enough rhetorical flourishes to make a high school English teacher proud. In a press conference today decrying the economic affects of the drilling ban, lawmakers offered a bevy of analogies to explain the ongoing situation in the Gulf of Mexico.

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An Inside story of ‘The Deepwater Horizon’

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico was built in South Korea.

After Lebanese media rushed to declare last week that Israel’s offshore natural gas fields actually belong to Lebanon, Hezbollah also weighed in and warned Israel not to touch what it called Lebanon’s resources.

President Barack Obama likely will name a new chief to oversee federal management of offshore oil and gas exploration tomorrow after returning from a two-day visit to the region hit by the BP Plc oil spill, an administration official said.

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BP’s Oil Spill to Prompt Global Standards for Offshore

BP Plc’s oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico will prompt crude-producing nations to adopt international standards amid “an increased concern about the planet,” Mexico’s environment minister said.

Total SA, Europe’s third-biggest oil company, has put all its deepwater exploration and production projects under review following BP Plc’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Chevron Distances It’s Ways From BP

Chevron Corp. has come out swinging in its fight to continue drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, arguing that not all oil firms should be tarred with the brush of BP PLC’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Iran finalised a $7 billion “peace pipeline” deal on Sunday to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, Iran’s state television reported.

Oil and natural-gas rigs operating in the U.S. rose by 1.4 percent as increases in drilling in Texas exceeded declines in the Gulf of Mexico.

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