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.

An Eni SPA-led group said a gas discovery offshore northern Mozambique has opened a new play in Eocene sand and hiked the overall potential of the Mamba complex to 47-52 tcf of gas in place.

Engine durability tests by the Coordinating Research Council, which studies the interaction of engines and petroleum products, found leaks from uneven valve seat wear and pittage in two of eight 2001-09 vehicle engines run for 500 hr on a 15% ethanol-85% gasoline fuel blend, the organization supported by the American Petroleum Institute and automobile manufacturers said.

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.

Laricina Energy Ltd., Calgary, reported “encouraging” production test results at its Saleski pilot in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the first steam-assisted gravity drainage project in the Upper Devonian Grosmont carbonate.

Excelerate Energy LP, Houston, will develop the first US floating natural gas liquefaction plant for Port Lavaca, between Galveston and Corpus Christi, Tex. The Lavaca Bay LNG project will be designed to export LNG by 2017.

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.

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.

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.

Petrolia Inc., Rimouski, Que., has been issued drilling permits for two wells in the Gaspe area of Quebec that target conventional prospects of the Bourque reef complex.

CAMAC Energy Inc., Houston, said it has signed production sharing contracts on two newly created deepwater blocks off Kenya in addition to two Lamu basin land blocks previously awarded.

Tethys Petroleum Ltd. said its Chegara Production Ltd. subsidiary signed a 25-year production enhancement contract that covers the Chegara group of fields in Uzbekistan.

BG Group is preparing to spud its sixth wildcat offshore southern Tanzania after reporting a fifth gas discovery at the Mzia-1 exploratory well on Block 1.

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.

Petrobank Energy & Resources Ltd., Calgary, has adjusted its 2012 development plans for heavy oil projects in Canada toward cold production, in one case to prepare the reservoir for its proprietary toe-to-heal air injection (THAI) process.

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.