crude oil

About fifty miles southwest of Midland, Texas, deep in the oil-saturated Permian Basin, more than 100 workers are busy laying out roads and water lines, preparing to build an elaborate complex of fans, each as large as a tennis court. When they start running in 2024, the fans will suck massive amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air. The carbon will be funneled thousands of feet down deep wells into geological formations, where it should remain for centuries.  The company behind this environmental moonshot…

Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -1.66% has held preliminary talks with Pioneer Natural Resources Co. PXD -1.06% about a possible acquisition of the U.S. fracking giant, as the oil major hunts for a blockbuster deal in the shale patch, according to people familiar with the matter.Discussions between the two companies about a potential deal have been informal, the people said. But after posting record profits in 2022, Exxon is…

U.S. production of renewable diesel hit 5 million gallons a day for the first time in January, according to recent U.S. Energy Information Administration data, continuing a two-year boom.The biofuel is a key part of federal and state government plans to mitigate climate change by cutting carbon emissions. Production has swelled since 2021. Incentives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California, combined with pandemic-depressed demand for conventional fuels, motivated many energy companies to start…

Exxon has abandoned a multibillion-dollar wager on finding oil in the deep waters off Brazil after a series of disappointing wells left it with nothing to show for more than five years of work in a country it touted as a key source of growth, according to people familiar with the matter. After failing for the third time to find commercially viable amounts of crude there last year, the Texas oil giant has shifted geologists and engineers from working on the offshore acreage it began snapping up with partners for $4 billion…

DUBAI—An oil production cut by Saudi Arabia and its allies demonstrated how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is willing to set aside U.S. concerns to pursue a nationalist energy policy aimed at funding an expensive makeover of his kingdom.This weekend’s move came as a surprise after Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told industry analysts privately in February that the kingdom would tolerate oil prices slipping to around $65 or $70 a barrel,…

ConocoPhillips COP -1.03% Chief Executive Ryan Lance was only a budding oilman when he first set foot in Alaska. Nearly four decades later, his company reigns supreme over the U.S. Arctic. At a time when investors profess gloomy views of long-term demand for oil and demand quick returns from companies, Mr. Lance’s contrarian strategy sets him apart. The CEO says that a dearth of investments in oil and gas means that the world will need new…

CAIRO—After years of underinvestment in North Africa’s energy infrastructure, global oil-and-gas giants from Halliburton Co. and Chevron Corp. to Eni SpA are ramping up their presence in the region as demand from Europe grows.Executives in the industry are betting it is worth drilling again in some of the hardest places to do business in the world as Europe increasingly turns to other sources for its energy needs after shunning its…

LONDON—U. K. billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has built one of the world’s most unconventional conglomerates, a sprawling collection of assets that includes a global chemicals business and baubles like a centuries-old London pub and a luxury British fashion brand.Now the 70-year-old tycoon, who was knighted in his home country but isn’t as well known outside of Europe, is making a deeper push into the U.S. market. Mr. Ratcliffe, majority owner of the privately held London-based chemicals giant…

Homeowners and businesses across the country have seen their gas bills go wild—and the turbulence isn’t going to calm down anytime soon.Last year was the most volatile on record for natural gas, boosting the cost to heat homes, generate electricity and manufacture economic building blocks such as fertilizer and steel. Prices in 2022 whipsawed from unseasonable lows to shale-era highs and back again. Benchmark gas futures, which determine what millions of Americans pay for heat and electricity, swung by at least 7% on 44…

Saudi Arabia’s national oil company reported record annual profit of $161 billion for 2022, the largest ever by an energy firm, continuing a dramatic turnaround for the global oil industry after the Ukraine war lifted crude prices and upended commodity flows.Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Aramco, said its yearly profit swelled by 46% in 2022, a period when Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, continued to rebuff U.S. requests to pump more oil to help tame surging…