Read the latest insights and analysis from the experts at Oil Change International.
Everywhere you look there is carnage in the oil industry as the reality of low oil prices begins to bite. From North America, to the North Sea and the Arctic, the low crude oil price is reshaping the size, shape and prospects of the industry.
As if the plummeting oil price was not bad enough, there was more bad news for the oil industry yesterday after President Obama signed a Presidential memorandum to protect the vast Bristol Bay in Alaska from future oil and gas drilling.
Shell has become the latest western company to cease its activities in Russia due to sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine. The oil giant has suspended its operations with its joint venture partner Gazprom Neft to frack Russian shale oil.
There was grim news over the weekend for those fighting Arctic drilling as the Russian energy giant Rosneft announced that it had struck oil in the world’s most northerly well, deep in the Arctic.
As Europe gives Russia a week’s grace to reverse its military actions in Ukraine or face a new round of sanctions, the oil industry just carries on investing with Russia regardless.
For the oil industry business comes first. After years of preparation, on Saturday Exxon began drilling a $700 million well in the Kara Sea in Russia's Arctic. It is Russia’s most northerly well.
Earlier this week in London, in a novel action which some are calling a “playtest”, over 50 young children gathered outside Shell's London headquarters to protest against the oil giant’s Arctic drilling programme and its controversial collaboration with the iconic children’s toy-maker, Lego.
Late last week, the Norwegian government issued a license to energy giant Statoil to allow it to start drilling in the controversial Arctic waters of the Barents Sea.
Ignoring the potential threat of further sanctions, both Exxon and BP have strengthened ties with Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, in deals that can also only be seen as bad news for the climate.
Today is the 25th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster and although a quarter of a century has passed since the disaster, its effects are still being felt today.
