NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Gulf of Mexico oil drillers will be busier this year than at any point since the BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) oil spill in 2010 that upended their industry and soiled their reputation along with parts of the marshy Louisiana coast.

Eight more deepwater rigs are expected in the Gulf this year, based on what oil companies tell contractors including Transocean (RIGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Ensco (ESV.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Seadrill (SDRL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Such an influx would bring the active deepwater count to 29, just short of the level before the well blowout two years ago this month that killed 11 people and destroyed a Transocean rig.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Gulf of Mexico oil drillers will be busier this year than at any point since the BP oil spill in 2010 that upended their industry and soiled their reputation along with parts of the marshy Louisiana coast.

Eight more deepwater rigs are expected in the Gulf this year, based on what oil companies tell contractors including Transocean (RIGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), Ensco (ESV.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Seadrill (SDRL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research). Such an influx would bring the active deepwater count to 29, just short of the level before the well blowout two years ago this month that killed 11 people and destroyed a Transocean rig.

NEW ORLEANS, March 26 (Reuters) – Schlumberger Ltd,
the world’s largest oilfield services company, said its results
would be hurt by downward pricing pressure for hydraulic
fracturing services, which reached North American liquids basins
in the first quarter.

Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said on top of that pressure,
already widely seen in natural gas areas due to weak gas prices,
the shift of equipment to liquids-rich basins was adding to
costs and leading to lower utilization.

, March 21 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell
Plc’s CEO challenged major technology firms to speed up
the pace of energy-related innovation, admitting his own
industry had trouble thinking “outside the box”.

Shell CEO Peter Voser, addressing guests at a business and
technology forum dinner south of San Francisco, said new energy
technologies now take between 25 and 30 years of development
before they account for just 1 percent of overall supply.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19 (Reuters) – The surreal inland lake
known as the Salton Sea, which sits below sea level in a desert
east of San Diego, is mainly known as an ecological disaster
born of failed water engineering schemes and massive fertilizer
runoff.

But the region is now emerging as a key location for a
venerable but unsung technology that could be crucial to
California’s ambitious renewable energy plans: geothermal power.

By Matt Daily and Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aims to grow output by a fifth by 2017, driven by big Australian projects moving gas to energy-hungry Asian markets, while it also tries to squeeze another $150 million in cost savings out of its refining arm.

Closer to home, in the Marcellus shale, the second-largest U.S. oil company said reservoir outcomes were exceeding expectations, although it was investing there at a “measured pace” in light of depressed North American natural gas prices.

By Matt Daily and Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to increase output by a fifth in five years, driven by big Australian projects moving gas to energy-hungry Asian markets, while it also tries to squeeze another $150 million in cost savings out of its refining arm.

Closer to home, in the Marcellus shale, the second-largest U.S. oil company said reservoir outcomes were exceeding expectations, although it was investing there at a “measured pace” in light of depressed North American natural gas prices.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 7 (Reuters) – General Motors Co
chief executive Dan Akerson said it may be two years
before its European division is back in profit as the continent
sheds over-capacity the same way the U.S. industry had to over
the past half decade.

The world’s largest automaker has lost money in Europe for
the last 12 years.

Feb 29 (Reuters) – Transocean Ltd
may face another $473 million in potential U.S. back taxes,
according to its annual regulatory filing, in which it also said
a judge partly cleared the company in a similar tax dispute
dating back eight years.

The company, owner of the world’s largest offshore oil rig
fleet, said the latest assessment received this month for 2008
and 2009 related to accounting between subsidiaries, for both
engineering services performed between them and transfer pricing
for rig charters.

Feb 28 (Reuters) – An international tribunal has found
that it has jurisdiction to decide if Ecuador violated a treaty
with the United States requiring it to guarantee a fair trial to
Chevron Corp in an environmental lawsuit that ended in
an $18 billion judgment against the oil company.

A Tuesday posting on Chevron’s website that was attributed
to the tribunal read: “The tribunal declares that it has
jurisdiction to proceed to the merits phase of these arbitration
proceedings.”