NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Keystone XL, the oil pipeline
long seen as the key to easing the bottleneck at Cushing,
Oklahoma, may be further delayed, but this development is no
longer disastrous for inland North American producers.

Backed by TransCanada , Keystone XL has run up
against fierce opposition from environmental groups determined
to stop the growth of Canada’s oil sands sector.

NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Mexico’s plodding state oil
monopoly Pemex rarely catches anyone by surprise but its shock
stake-building in Spain’s Repsol may well be the exception that
proves the rule.

Pemex [PEMX.UL] announced in late August it would nearly
double its stake in Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to nearly 10 percent and
join with the Spanish group’s biggest, and most disgruntled
shareholder, Sacyr Vallehermoso (SVO.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The weakness of the gasoline
market in the United States has been hidden, at least in the
short term, by mounting exports, which have distorted weekly
demand estimates.

Between January and May, the Energy Information
Administration’s weekly “product supplied” figure — a proxy
for wholesale demand — has overstated U.S. gasoline
consumption by an average of 279,000 bpd when compared to the
more detailed monthly data that EIA produces.

NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Canadian oil sands producers
exposed to the heavy crude market are quaking as West Texas
Intermediate crude oil futures slide dangerously near their
break-even levels.

Although no production shut-ins have been announced and
managers are likely to opt to ride out the storm in the hope
the current downturn is short-lived producers operating at the
margin will almost certainly trim investment budgets.

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) – One of the big surprises in
recent years for the oil market has been the reversion of the
steady decline in U.S. crude output and the emergence of its
shale sector as a nontrivial source of global supply growth.

New unconventional shale oil plays, such as the Eagle Ford
Shale in Texas, have transformed within a few short years from
highly speculative exploration projects to potentially major
oil producers.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Karl picked up power as it moved across the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and was expected to become a hurricane later on Thursday as it headed for the coast of eastern Mexico.

Karl’s maximum winds had increased to near 65 miles per hour, though no damage was reported at Mexican offshore oil drilling platforms in the area.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Worsening violence is
undermining energy projects in Mexico, oil services giant
Schlumberger Ltd said on Wednesday in a rare acknowledgment of
the toll a bloody drug war is taking on the energy sector.

Schlumberger, the Houston-based company that is one of
state oil monopoly Pemex’s [PEMX.UL] top service providers,
blamed the drug violence for a worse-than-expected performance
by its Mexican operations in the text of a presentation to be
given later on Wednesday by Chief Executive Andrew Gould.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 8 (Reuters) – The Mexican government
proposed on Wednesday a 2011 investment budget for state oil
monopoly Pemex that was more than 30 percent below what the
company had said earlier this year it would need.

The government of President Felipe Calderon proposed Pemex
[PEMX.UL] be allotted 286.3 billion pesos ($22.2 bln) for
capital spending in 2011, up 9 percent from 2010 but well short
of the 376 billion pesos the company wanted.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Mexico’s state oil monopoly
Pemex should be able to quickly repair the hydrotreater at its
275,000 barrels-per-day Cadereyta refinery that was damaged in
an explosion on Tuesday, a company source said on Wednesday. The repairs should be complete within 14 days, the source said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media. "It was an unfortunate accident because a worker was killed but the damage was not that great," the source said. Initial surveys of the refinery show no significant damage to any process units, the source added. The accident was caused by a leak in a compressor in the hydrogen recirculation segment of the coker gas oil hydrotreater, causing the explosion and fire that killed one worker and injured 10. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Take a Look: [ID:nN07216960] Factbox on Pemex refining operations: [ID:nN07234898] Graphic of refinery's location: link.reuters.com/dew89n ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> The 40,000 bpd hydrotreater was immediately shut down following the accident along with the refinery's 54,000 bpd coker. Pemex [PEMX.UL] said it would cut crude oil runs at the refinery by 15,000 bpd to approximately 200,000 bpd while repairs were being made. The remaining 30 process units at the refinery are running normally. Some U.S. oil traders expressed skepticism that Pemex would be able to repair the unit as quickly as forecast. "It is hard to believe they can be back in two weeks. To come back on a high pressure hydrotreater in two weeks after a fire looks aggressive." The explosion at Cadereyta, Mexico's third largest refinery by distillation capacity and its most sophisticated facility, pushed up oil product prices on Tuesday on concerns it would force Pemex to increase fuel imports. Oil product traders said it might be difficult to tell if Pemex was increasing imports given its already significant presence in the market. Analysts said the incident would likely only influence prices in the very short term due to high fuel stocks in the United States. (Additional reporting by Joshua Schneyer in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

MEXICO CITY, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Mexico’s state oil company
Pemex is increasingly optimistic about the potential of what
appears to be a new cluster of light crude oil fields around
its Tsimin discovery, according to company executives.

The side-by-side Tsimin and Xux discoveries are believed to
hold the equivalent of 1.5 billion barrels of proved, probable
and possible oil reserves said Manuel Teran, a Pemex engineer
working on the discoveries, at a petroleum engineering
conference this weekend.