Oil prices fell May 15 in the New York market as benchmark US crude came under heavy selling pressure from the economic and political turmoil in Europe that also undermined the equity market.

Statoil is transferring operatorship of Vilje oil field offshore Norway to Marathon Oil Norge, effective Sept. 1 if approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Total UK Ltd. reported a well intervention operation stopped the G4 well natural gas leak on the Elgin complex in the UK North Sea within 12 hr of when workers started pumping heavy mud into the well.

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and the British Geological Survey have authorized TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. to release on line new and historical data for all land and offshore wells in the UK.

CBM Asia Development Corp., Vancouver, BC, and Continental Energy Corp., Jakarta, formed a joint study and bid group to investigate coalbed methane opportunities in Indonesia.

An independent review of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s draft report on water near Pavillion, Wyo., concluded scientific analysis fails to support EPA’s suggestion that hydraulic fracturing possibly contributed to water contamination, the Independent Petroleum Association of America reported.

More than two thirds of federal offshore tracts leased by the oil and gas industry and more than half of the federal onshore acreage companies hold in the Lower 48 remains idle, the US Department of the Interior said in a new report. Groups representing producers immediately dismissed the allegation as tired election year rhetoric.

The American Petroleum Institute announced it will try to make more access to federally controlled energy resources, commonsense regulations, quicker permit decisions, and market-based renewable and alternative energy research and development provisions in the 2012 Democratic and Republican party platforms.

Unconventional oil and gas resources topped a list of areas that the governments of Canada and Poland have identified as having “potential for further dialog and cooperation.”

Oklahoma City independent Chesapeake Energy Corp. is confident it will complete assets sales to help resolve financial concerns, its chief executive officer told analysts and investors during a conference call in which he also outlined a new $3 billion loan.

The drop in energy prices accelerated May 14 in a broad market selloff after political parties in Greece failed to form a new coalition government over the weekend.

BHP Billiton Petroleum is considering whether to write down its US shale gas assets by the end of the quarter, as it already plans to cut the number of shale gas wells it drills in the coming months, the company’s chief executive officer told the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association conference in Adelaide.

The Obama administration is reaching out to the oil and gas industry more than it did initially to develop regulations, but it is not an election-year gimmick, a leading White House official said.

After a 1-day break in the recent losing streak, oil prices retreated again May 11 because of continued economic and political turmoil in Europe, the weakening euro, and less-than-expected growth in China’s industrial production and power output, among other issues.

Government regulators can work with oil and gas producers to monitor data, but this does not eliminate the risk of incidents such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, panelists said in a May 2 session of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

Witnesses testifying before a congressional subcommittee field hearing in Denver on May 2 said US Department of the Interior efforts to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public land will duplicate measures already implemented by some states.

The US Environmental Protection Agency released draft underground injection control (UIC) program permitting guidance for Class II wells that use diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing.

Al Armendariz, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Region 6 administrator in Dallas, resigned effective Apr. 30 after apologizing 4 days earlier for a 2010 videotaped remark comparing his enforcement philosophy to an ancient Roman army invading a village and crucifying a few leaders to bring everyone else into line.

Recent advances in managing human and environmental risks associated with drilling and production operations in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico were brought into sharp focus for delegates attending a panel discussion Apr. 30 at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

TransCanada Corp. has submitted a new Presidential Permit application to the US Department of State for its Keystone XL Pipeline from the US-Canada border in Montana to Steele City, Neb.