Occidental Petroleum Corp., Texas’s biggest producer of oil, has just increased its fortunes with a historic discovery in California. The company just discovered an enormous natural gas and oil field that holds the equivalent of 250 million barrels of crude, which makes it the largest discovery in the state in the last 35 years.
The field, which is located in California’s Kern County, belongs mostly to Occidental, and if the discovery pans out, it could boost Occidental’s California reserves by almost a third. Occidental decided last month to drill 20 exploratory wells last month, which means that this discovery has the …read more

If you were on the road this time last year, you surely remember the pain you felt each time you went to fill up at the gas station. Crude oil prices skyrocketed last year, reaching an astronomical $145.29 a barrel, but this year, oil prices remain relatively tame at $66.73 a barrel. Slackening demand for oil across the world has seen prices fall by almost $3 recently.
Oil prices have appeared to be on a rollercoaster ride over the past year. From the record-high prices reached last year, oil plummeted to about $34 per barrel in December as the economic crisis …read more

Two massive Houston-based energy corporations will become one when Enterprise Products Partners LP completes its acquisition of Teppco Partners LP for the sum of $3.3 billion. These two pipeline operators, both owned by billionaire Dan Duncan, will form the largest energy partnership in the United States.
 
The move has proven to be mutually beneficial. Teppco owners will receive 1.24 units of Enterprise stock for their Teppco units, which comes out to 9.3 percent more value than Teppco stocks alone. Enterprise will see earnings rise by next year and will be able to save about $20 million in costs.
 
All together, the conglomerated …read more

Economists are predicting that rising gas prices will hit $4 per gallon this spring. Currently, the national average is $3.303 for a gallon of gas, about 60 cents higher than a year ago.
Of course, the rise in gasoline prices is clearly related to the price of crude oil… Right? Not necessarily. Gas prices are expected to continue to climb even if crude oil levels off.