Dec 5 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp added $15 billion to
the cost of the Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) export
complex, as the U.S. oil company’s largest single development
joins a growing list of Australian LNG projects to run over
budget.

The new $52 billion estimate for Gorgon, now 55 percent
complete, came on Wednesday alongside Chevron’s $36.7 billion
overall 2013 budget for capital and exploratory spending. That
compares with a 2012 budget of $32.7 billion, and is just shy of
the $37 billion annual budget of far-larger Exxon Mobil Corp
.

Dec 4 (Reuters) – Oilfield activity outside North America
will drive a 7 percent increase in 2013 global energy
exploration and production (E&P) spending to a record high of
$644 billion, according to a Barclays survey.

While budgets will grow 9 percent in international markets
to $460 billion, North America spending will “take a breather”
after years of growth and be roughly flat in 2013, Barclays
found in a survey of more than 300 oil and gas companies.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Duke Energy Corp’s (DUK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief executive will step down at the end of 2013 as part of a settlement with North Carolina regulators over the utility’s leadership after it took over Progress Energy.

The dispute began when Duke CEO Jim Rogers assumed control of the combined company after the $18 billion purchase closed in July, even though Bill Johnson of Progress had long been slated to take the helm of what became the largest U.S. power utility.

Nov 18 (Reuters) – Railroads, pipeline companies and
refiners stand to do especially well from a U.S. drilling
bonanza that is upending the energy trade balance for the
world’s largest economy.

An anticipated surge in U.S. oil output to the highest
levels in the world would give a boost to those who move crude
to where it can be turned into finished products and even
shipped abroad.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that U.S. interest rates may need to stay near zero until early 2016 to forcefully lift employment, and she strongly backed adopting inflation and unemployment thresholds to guide policy.

Yellen, viewed as a front-runner to succeed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke when his term expires in January 2014, argued that an optimal path for U.S. monetary policy would keep rates on hold for longer than expected, at the cost of a bit more inflation.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Albert Einstein once wrote that he would rather have been a plumber than a physicist because of the independence it would allow him. Faced with the growing power of big oilfield service firms – playfully derided as “plumbers” by some in the industry – many oil men might now feel the same way.

Breakneck expansion across the energy business in the past decade has seriously leveled the global playing field, leaving the oil “majors” exposed to competition in areas where they once reigned supreme.

Nov 13 (Reuters) – Albert Einstein once wrote that he would
rather have been a plumber than a physicist because of the
independence it would allow him. Faced with the growing power of
big oilfield service firms – playfully derided as “plumbers” by
some in the industry – many oil men might now feel the same way.

Breakneck expansion across the energy business in the past
decade has seriously leveled the global playing field, leaving
the oil “majors” exposed to competition in areas where they once
reigned supreme.

LOS ANGELES/SAN FRANCISCO Nov 7 (Reuters) – Energy producers
braced for tighter regulation in President Barack Obama’s second
term, with coal companies expecting more emissions restrictions
and drillers anticipating less access to federal land even as
his platform promotes energy independence.

Opponents already believe that Obama has waged a “war on
coal” through the administration’s push for stricter regulation
of greenhouse gas emissions by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA).

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp posted earnings on Friday that were much lower than expected as maintenance exacerbated a decline this year in oil and natural gas production, and shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company slid 2.5 percent.

Third-quarter production fell to 2.52 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2.60 million bpd a year earlier. With a fourth-quarter bounce expected, Chevron expected 2012 production to average about 2.6 million bpd, or 97 percent of its original 2.68 million bpd target.

By Braden Reddall

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp posted much lower-than-expected quarterly earnings on Friday as maintenance exacerbated a steady decline in oil and natural gas production and as a huge fire at one of the company’s California plants hit the refining business.

Shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company fell more than 1 percent in early trading.