China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Limited, the listed unit of the country's largest offshore oil producer, announced Thursday that the company has made a new oil discovery in the Bohai Sea.

According to CNOOC Ltd, the new discovery LD 21-2 is located in the inverted structure belt of LD 22-27 in south Liaodong Bay, with its south part adjacent to LD 27-2 oilfield. The average water depth is 20 meters.

The mystery surrounding the deaths of at least 877 dolphins in Peru deepened on Wednesday as the government said human activity was not to blame but failed to pinpoint a natural cause for the massive die-off.

A final report from the Peruvian government's Ocean Institute, which manages one of the world's richest marine ecosystems, said the dolphins did not die from a lack of food, hunting by fishermen, poison from pesticides, heavy metal contamination, an infection or a virus.

Shortly before Thanksgiving in 2010, the leaders of the commission President Obama had appointed to investigate the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico sat down in the Oval Office to brief him.

After listening to their findings about the BP accident and the safety of deepwater drilling, the president abruptly changed the subject.

“Where are you coming out on the offshore Arctic?” he asked.

New Delhi: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday laid the onus of the petrol price hike on oil marketers. “The decision has been taken. Petrol is a deregulated commodity,” he said. The government had freed petrol prices in June 2010 when crude came down to around $40 a barrel from a historic high of $147 per barrel in July 2008. But in practice, oil companies do not move without a signal from the parent oil ministry which officially continues to deny any control.

A Peruvian minister has denied claims that explosions used in oil exploration are to blame for the deaths of hundreds of dolphins.

Fisheries Minister Gladys Triveno said a government investigation showed that natural causes were to blame.

She contradicted a study by an environmental group which suggested that explosions had caused the deaths.

The animals have washed up along Peru's northern coastline since the beginning of the year.

Cutting cross party lines, Congress, SAD and BJP MPs have welcomed the TAPI project that will provide a major boost to power plants and other gas-based ancillary units in the state. Minister Petroleum S Jaipal Reddy is slated to visit Turkmenistan next week to sign a sale and purchase agreement. Sukhbir Badal, Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, who was in Delhi today, said: “The TAPI project will revolutionise Punjab. It will help in industrialisation.” Punjab is already on the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) pipeline grid.

A coalition of environmental and tribal groups filed a challenge Wednesday to a federal air-emissions permit for a Royal Dutch Shell RDSA -1.84% PLC drilling ship, the latest legal maneuver aimed at stopping the oil giant's exploration plan off Alaska's Arctic coast.

The Obama administration gave Shell the go-ahead last year to move forward with plans to drill for oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. The coalition's court challenge targets a ship that Shell plans to deploy for drilling in the Beaufort Sea starting as early as mid-July when the sea-ice clears.

New Delhi: India will buy gas from Turkmenistan at a price indexed to fuel oil, a cheap byproduct of oil refining, instead of crude that makes imports costlier than domestic supplies. The Cabinet on Thursday approved the model agreement for buying the Turkman gas that would be wheeled across Afghanistan and Pakistan through a $7.6-billion pipeline. Oil minister S Jaipal Reddy would join his counterparts from the participating countries to witness the signing of the gas sale purchase agreement in Turkman capital Ashgabat on May 23 and 24.

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company Ltd (Bapex) has determined, through a seismic survey, presence of around 150 million barrels of oil in old gas fields of Kailashtila and Haripur in Sylhet.

No less than 40 percent of this small reserve could be commercially produced, said Bapex Managing Director Mortuza Ahmad Faruque.

This implies that around 700 barrels a day could be produced from the two fields under Sylhet Gas Field Company Ltd.

Roughly, seven barrels equal to a tonne.

India’s energy needs explained
n India explained to the US delegation the long-term projections of its energy needs
n The details included those pertaining to key suppliers of oil, natural gas and the possible external energy sources in Africa, North America and Southeast Asia
n It was pointed out that India was currently importing crude oil from 30 countries
n The US delegation was also told about the incentives being provided on renewable energy sources