July 17 (Reuters) – A brightening outlook for offshore
drillers indicates they will emerge looking relatively healthy
from what is set to be a tough round of quarterly earnings for
companies serving the oil and gas business.

Brisk production and exploration activity at sea contrasts
with the troubles facing U.S.-focused oilfield services
companies. Halliburton (HAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Baker Hughes (BHI.N: Quote, Profile, Research) face
supply chain challenges and costlier materials, which have been
flagged by analysts and companies for months.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the second-largest U.S. oil company, said on Wednesday second-quarter profit would be higher than the previous quarter as improved refining margins offset lower oil prices.

Analysts had been expecting a net profit of $3.20 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, down from $3.27 in the first quarter and $3.85 in the same quarter a year before.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the second-largest U.S. oil company, said on Wednesday second-quarter profit would be higher than the previous quarter as improved refining margins offset lower oil prices.

Analysts had been expecting a net profit of $3.20 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, down from $3.27 in the first quarter and $3.85 in the same quarter a year before.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Canadian Solar Inc (CSIQ.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is expected to decide within months whether to build a factory that could produce 700 megawatts per year of new, more efficient solar cells, the firm’s head said on Tuesday, with any facility likely to be in China.

Chief Executive Shawn Qu said at a conference in San Francisco that there was a good chance the company, which already carries out most of its production in China, would take the step despite oversupply in the solar equipment market. He declined to comment on the potential cost.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve is prepared to pull back on its super-easy monetary policy when the time is right, keeping inflation under control as it has during the tepid recovery, a top Fed official said on Monday.

“Just as in any recovery, we are going to ‘take away the punch bowl’ once the party really gets going to slow the economy down and dampen inflationary pressures and keep inflation low,” S an Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams told the Western Economic Association International in a talk that focused largely on why the Fed’s unprecedented easy monetary policy so far has not led to inflation.

, June 29 (Reuters) – Hydraulic fracturing
has brought together greens and growers in California through a
shared concern about the impact of the practice on water in a
state where it is often in short supply.

The strawberry industry lined up alongside environmentalists
to voice their fears over fracking at a public hearing in
Salinas at the Steinbeck Institute, named for a renowned author
whose writing immortalized the region’s agricultural history.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – U.S. carbon capture firm Skyonic has signed up BP Plc and ConocoPhillips as investors to back construction of a commercial plant in Texas that will turn carbon dioxide into chemicals for sale or into solids for placement in landfills.

While funding from the two oil companies may only be in the millions of dollars, it supports a novel method of capturing carbon and turning a profit at the same time, Joe Jones, Skyonic’s founder and chief executive, said in Reuters telephone interview from London on Monday.

By Braden Reddall and Julie Gordon

(Reuters) – The hunt for substitutes for rare earth minerals is gaining momentum as auto makers, lighting companies and clean tech developers seek to reduce their reliance on thin and unreliable supplies of the raw material.

Rare earths, found in everything from Apple Inc’s iPhones to energy-efficient lighting and wind turbines, gained global attention last year as China, which produces more than 90 percent of global supply, repeatedly clamped down on exports. Prices of the individual oxides, alloys and metals soared.

June 15 (Reuters) – U.S. oilfield services company FTS
International has once again put off plans for what had been a
highly anticipated initial public offering of shares, at least
for the “foreseeable future.”

The company formerly known as Frac Tech said on Friday it no
longer expected an IPO any time soon, citing the state of the
market. In a sign of how fast the fortunes of the fracking
industry changed, this comes only six months after FTS was
drawing investment interest from Chinese oil majors.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 11 (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor
Masaaki Shirakawa on Monday called for exchange-rate flexibility
in major Asian economies, warning that a lack of this may
trigger abrupt shifts in capital flows.

Shirakawa also said a solution to Europe’s debt problem
ultimately rests with the ability and efforts of peripheral
countries to boost productivity and growth.