Crude Petroleum Extraction

WASHINGTON—OPEC’s decision to slash oil production has the U.S. considering responses that could include measures aimed at breaking the cartel’s hold on markets or limiting U.S. oil exports should shortages emerge.The cutback by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies is the latest dilemma for President Biden, who has sought to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels while at the same time keeping consumer prices in check. A long fall in gasoline prices has started to reverse,…

WASHINGTON—The decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies to cut oil production has Washington looking at ways to hit back.U.S. lawmakers are pushing bills that aim to break up the cartel; charge it in front of the World Trade Organization; or even seize assets its members own in the U.S. The White House, after Wednesday’s action by OPEC+ to slash oil production by 2 million barrels daily, threatened to join Congress in efforts to loosen the cartel’s power over energy…

VIENNA—The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies on Wednesday agreed to slash two million barrels a day, delegates said, in a move likely to push up already-high global energy prices and help oil-exporting Russia pay for its war in Ukraine. The decision could undermine a plan by the Group of Seven wealthy nations to cap the price of Russian oil on the global market, a key part of the West’s economic battle with Moscow. It came less than three months…

SYDNEY—An indigenous clan on remote islands in northern Australia scored a legal victory against energy giant Santos Ltd. , in a case that could have a wide-ranging impact on how resource companies handle relations with traditional landowners. On Wednesday, an Australian judge threw out a regulator’s approval of Santos’s environmental plan to drill for natural gas in the Barossa gas field, about 85 miles off the coast of the Tiwi Islands near Darwin. The case…

Dozens of small drillers helped fuel a resurgence in the busiest U.S. oil patch over the past two years. But they tapped many of their best drilling spots, and will have to ease their rapid pace of drilling as their inventory shrinks, analysts and executives say.Private oil companies in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico emerged from the pandemic-induced oil downturn last year as a growth engine for U.S. shale, now running almost half of the working drilling rigs there, up from a quarter before the pandemic.…

Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY 1.75% entered the thick of the pandemic among the worst prepared of its U.S. oil-and-gas peers. Struggling with debt from an ill-timed $38 billion deal, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub was fending off activist investor Carl Icahn, who controlled two board seats.Two years later, the company has emerged as the top performer in the S&P 500, and Ms. Hollub has traded Mr.…

Momentum is building among oil producers behind the idea of cutting crude production to stabilize the market, with OPEC’s president the latest to back Saudi Arabia’s suggestion that the alliance might pump less—comments that pushed the price of a barrel back over $100 earlier this week. The growing consensus among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russian-led allies, known as OPEC+, threatens to keep energy prices elevated despite Biden…

As the pandemic set in, investors including Warren Buffett ditched shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY 9.88% Now, the oil-and-gas producer is the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year, and a newfound favorite of the veteran investor.More than two years after selling off its common shares of Occidental, Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B -2.30% is the company’s…

Warren Buffett’s bid to boost his big stake in Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY 9.88% even further isn’t expected to serve as a prelude to a full takeover of the resurgent energy company by the widely watched billionaire, at least for now.In a regulatory filing Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B -2.30% had received…

In a regulatory filing Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that Berkshire Hathaway had asked for and received its permission to buy up to 50% of the driller’s shares. Berkshire has been loading up on Occidental’s shares this year, amassing roughly 20% of the company’s stock, public filings show, leaving many analysts to speculate whether Mr. Buffett would seek control of the company, one of the largest U.S. oil producers. Occidental’s shares jumped to lead stock gains among the S&P 500 Friday, up…