Oil

The price of crude oil has risen to an almost three-year high, following US President Donald Trump's unilateral decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, as well as bullish US crude inventory numbers.

Recoverable oil reserves in the United States now tops that of both Russia and Saudi Arabia, according to an evaluation by a Norway-based independent oil and gas data firm.

Despite heavy regulations imposed under President Obama, the US energy industry is driving an “American renaissance,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in Washington on Tuesday. Gerard also laid out goals for oil lobbyists in 2016.

Critical reaction to President Barack Obama’s blocking of the Keystone XL pipeline from the oil industry amounted to a shrug, perhaps because the US has constructed enough pipeline in the last five years to equal 10 Keystone projects, a new report stated.

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and an Eastern Kentucky oil company agreed this month to keep secret a settlement related to a lawsuit over the company's repeated contamination of the Kentucky River.

Welsh songstress Charlotte Church performed a soulful live rendition of “Requiem for Arctic Ice” outside Shell’s headquarters in London on Wednesday to protest the energy giant’s attempts to drill for oil in the Arctic. 

Campaigners will stage a theatrical protest against BP’s sponsorship of the Edinburgh International Festival on Sunday. They argue cultural institutions across the UK are offering a veil of legitimacy to the firm as it continues to drive climate change and cause environmental destruction.

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into allegations of corruption against British company Soma Oil and Gas Limited following a raid on its offices in London.

Analysts from Morgan Stanley, who had predicted the 2015 in drop in oil prices to be as steep as in 1986, now say that it may be much worse.