Atac Resources Ltd. Aug. 22 reported the start of a second phase of 2016 drilling at the Orion gold target, which is located within the Nadaleen Trend at the eastern end of the company’s Rackla Gold project in the Yukon Territory. The initial phase of the 2016 program at Orion consisted of rotary ai…

Golden Predator Mining Corp. Aug. 18 reported results from initial processing of its winter 2016 bulk sample program from the Ace of Spades Vein (formerly Sleeping Giant Vein) at its 3 Aces gold project in eastern Yukon Territory. A total of 87.83 dry tons (79.7 dry metric tons) from a stockpile est…

Banyan Gold Corp. Aug. 22 said it has filed for approval of its recently announced C$1.2 million non-brokered private placement. The filing, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, will consist of 8,157,349 flow-through shares at C7.5 cents each for gross proceeds of C$611,801.18; and 9,049,211 re…

As talk of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) potential, informal meeting in Algeria next month gears up the production freeze possibility, some wonder whether an actual gathering of all the OPEC big shots could foretell a new era of cooperation at the cartel.

Analysts at Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co. (TPH) said in a note to investors they don’t believe OPEC needs to make a move for the market to balance because it’s already happening.

As such, TPH said the net impact of OPEC and key non-OPEC members agreeing to a freeze is akin to TPH analysts Dave Pursell, Mark Meyer, and Clay Coneley agreeing not to dunk in a basketball game.

Since the second half 2015, non-OPEC production is down almost 1 million barrels per day (MMbpd) and OPEC has in turn increased .9 MMbpd, they said. An increase of 1.4 MMbpd from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq has been offset by declines in production in Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya.

“Bottom line: agreeing to not grow production is the same as Pursell not dunking – neither is possible,” they said. “Moreover, an OPEC ‘freeze’ would be tacit acknowledgement that Iran and Iraq are indeed producing at current capacity … which is nice.”

Meanwhile, in Iraq, no one has from that nation had pledged to attend the informal summit. But what Iraq has done is ask international oil companies operating there to boost output, according to a Bloomberg story Aug. 23. The idea being, perhaps, to agree to a freeze – albeit one at a high production level.  

Goldman Sachs (GS) noted in an Aug. 22 note to investors that along with Iraq, Nigeria and Libya have shown signs of an intent to boost output.

“Uncertainty on the sustainability and magnitude of these improvements remains large, but it is noteworthy that some crude oil is physically moving at this time,” they said.

What’s more, GS forecasts that oil will price between $45 per barrel and $50 per barrel through next summer.

“In our view, thawing relationships between parties in conflict in areas of disrupted production would be more relevant to the oil rebalancing than an OPEC freeze, which would leave production at record highs and could prove counter-productive if it supported prices further and incentivized activity elsewhere,” they said.

So in summary, one has to wonder just how serious OPEC is about “stabilizing the market” as opposed to protecting its market share.

OPEC may meet next month to talk about a production freeze. That freeze would hold OPEC nations production at record high levels. And this is supposed to diminish the world’s glut of crude oil and increase prices? The numbers don’t add up. However, they do point to OPEC’s protection of its market share – and necessity – under the auspices of global oil price stability.

Oil prices fell immediately following Wednesday’s release of the Energy Information Agency’s (EIA) Weekly Petroleum Status Report, which showed a large build to both crude and petroleum product inventories. Oil markets were boosted Tuesday on talk that Iran was potentially willing to join discussions around coordinated OPEC action to help stabilize oil prices, but the EIA data release brought traders back to the reality that global crude and petroleum product supplies remain at record levels.

The front-month West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract settled down 2.8 percent on the NYMEX at $46.77 per barrel, while the Brent front-month contract fell 1.8 percent on the ICE to $49.05 per barrel.

The EIA reported that for the week ending Aug. 19, U.S. stocks for crude and all products (excluding the strategic reserve) was at 1.4 billion barrels, representing a historic high for this time of year, and 9.1 percent higher than during the same period in 2015. U.S. crude inventories rose 2.5 million barrels, versus analyst expectations for a slight increase of about 200,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories were unchanged from the previous week, but at 232.7 million barrels are 8.5 percent higher than during the same time last year. Distillate, which includes heating oil and diesel, showed an increase of 100,000 barrels over the previous week.

After the American Petroleum Institute (API) released Tuesday evening its estimates for the week ending Aug. 19, which showed a rise in crude inventories of 4.5 million barrels, the market was bracing itself for more bearish data in the lead-up to the EIA release Wednesday morning.

There was some expectation for reduced crude demand due to the fact that several refineries in Louisiana were slowed down by flooding in the area, including ExxonMobil’s 502,000 bpd-Baton Rouge, Louisiana refinery. The EIA data showed that the Gulf Coast (PADD 3) region’s refineries, which accounts for over 45 percent of total U.S. capacity, operated at a reduced rate of 92.3 percent. This compares with a utilization rate of 94.7 percent during the prior week, and about 4 percentage points lower than during the same period last year.

The EIA data also showed that U.S. oil production fell by 49,000 barrels per day to 8.4 million barrels per day, which is almost 800,000 barrels per day less than the same time last year when the U.S. benchmark was trading at around $43 per barrel (the average price for August 2015). With oil prices up more than 10 percent for the month, trading in a range between $40 per barrel and about $50 per barrel, many market watchers are speculating that between $45 per barrel and $50 per barrel is the price point where many U.S. producers are encouraged to turn the spigots back on. 

Reports on Tuesday that Iran’s oil ministry was “open” to attending an informal September meeting among OPEC members and other oil major producers in Algeria to discuss a possible output freeze might have induced some profit-taking among traders. The gesture to attend the meeting is a nominal step forward in greater cartel cohesion, which has eroded since the fateful Nov. 27, 2014-meeting where OPEC (led by Saudi Arabia), decided to let market forces set the price.

That decision has led to an intense competition among members for market share. That said, Iran is currently producing at about 3.6 million barrels per day, and had previously stated that it would not be a party to any freeze until it had reached pre-sanction production levels of between 4.2 million barrels per day and 4.6 million barrels per day.

Given this imperative to ramp up to pre-sanction levels, it is unlikely Iran would agree to any freeze, which, would have a negligible impact – if any – to supporting prices, given the world’s largest oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are pumping crude at record levels. The fact remains that the global crude market is out of equilibrium by as much as 500,000 barrels per day, by some accounts.

Delia Morris has worked in the international upstream oil & gas industry for over 12 years, and is currently Director, Global Energy Sector at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence firm that provides strategic analysis and forecasting services. Please contact Delia at delia.morris@stratfor.com

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted Statoil permission to use the B platform on the Gullfaks field in the North Sea until January 1, 2036, which corresponds to the length of the production license.

Gullfaks B first came on stream in February 1988. In the application for extension, Statoil noted that the facility can be operated profitably up to 2031, and possibly even longer with further maturation of improved oil recovery projects and other measures.

The NPD believes that further operation of Gullfaks B is needed in order to recover the remaining resources on Gullfaks. The drilling rig has recently been upgraded and new wells are now being drilled from the facility.

“If the facility is operated in a safe and cost-effective manner, there is a potential for reserve growth and extended production,” said an NPD statement.

“A major effort has been made in recent years to recover oil from the Shetland/Lista reservoirs over Gullfaks. Gullfaks B could also be a relevant host platform for new deposits in the area,” the NPD added.

The current licensees on the field are Statoil, Petoro and OMV Norge. Final consent to the lifetime extension is contingent on approval from the Petroleum Safety Authority.

BW Group (BW) signed a 15-year agreement with Pakistan GasPort Limited (PGPL) earlier this week to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification services utilizing a newbuild floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) for Pakistan’s second LNG terminal at Port Qasim, Karachi.

BW will deploy the FSRU, Hull No. 2118, which is currently under construction at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in South Korea for this project. The FSRU, scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year, will have a storage capacity of 6 billion cubic feet (170,000 cubic meters) and a peak regasification capacity of 750 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d).

“We are proud to be selected as the FSRU supplier for the Pakistan project … we will leverage on our many years of experience to support Pakistan as they build their second LNG terminal,” Yngvil Asheim, managing director of BW LNG said in the press release.

Pakistan’s second LNG terminal development, which is targeted for commissioning by June 30, 2017, is expected to address the country’s energy deficit.

“This landmark project will reduce Pakistan’s gas deficit by 30 percent, ensure fuel for 3,600 megawatts of new power generation plants being constructed in Pakistan to reduce power outages by 80 percent, and save some $1.5 billion in annual foreign-exchange savings,” Iqbal Z. Ahmed, chairman of PGPL said.

Andes Energia plc, a producer and explorer in Argentina and Colombia, announced Thursday that oil and gas discoveries have been made in the Chachahuen block in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina. 

Around 20 feet of net oil pay was discovered in the sandstone of the Rayoso formation in exploration well Cerro Redondo x-1 and gas was found in exploration well La Orilla x-1 in the deeper horizon of the Lotena formation. Gas was also found in exploration well Remanso del Colorado x-1 in the deeper horizon of the Cuyo Group.

“The new oil discovery at the CoRe x-1 untapped a new reservoir to be appraised and developed, in the same way the presence of gas identified in the deeper horizons of wells LaO x-1 and Re Co x-1 opens a new exploratory frontier, which reaffirms the large scale hydrocarbon potential of Chachahuen,” said Nicolas Mallo Huergo, Andes Energia chairman.

Beach Energy Ltd. completed logging operations Thursday at the Callawonga-12 oil development well in PPL 220 on the western flank of South Australia’s Cooper Basin, with the well to be cased and suspended after reaching a total depth of 4,754 feet (1,449 meters) in the Westbourne Formation.

Joint venture partner Cooper Energy said the operator drilled the Callawonga-12 well 755 feet (230 meters) southeast from the Callawonga-3 production well to accelerate production from the northern part of the field. A gross oil column of 13 feet (24 meters) or approximately 6.6 feet (2 meters) net oil was interpreted in the primary target McKinlay Member and Namur Sandstone.

“This is a pleasing result which reinforces the remaining production and development potential upside in the Callawonga oil field,” David Maxwell, Cooper Energy’s managing director said in the press release.

After work is completed at Callawonga-12, the rig will leave the yard before returning in October to drill 1 to 2 exploration wells in PRL’s 85-104. Cooper Energy holds a 25 percent interest in PPL 220, with the balance held by the field operator.

Statoil revealed Thursday that the Fram C East production well offshore Norway has started production.

Fram C East was drilled from the existing Fram subsea template and production will be tied back to Troll C, an important North Sea hub, according to Statoil. The development will help maximize production from the Fram area, in addition to boosting Troll C production and activities.

Gas from the well will be transported to Kollsnes via Troll A, whereas oil will be piped to Mongstad for further processing. Originally estimated at $97 million (NOK 800 million), capital expenditures for the project were reduced to $73 million (NOK 600 million) thanks to “a simple, smart well concept and significantly increased drilling efficiency,” said Statoil in a company statement.

Fram C East was discovered in 2007. Statoil owns 45 percent of the asset, with ExxonMobil, Engie and Idemitsu owning 25 percent, 15 percent and 15 percent respectively.

(Bloomberg) — Bangkok is about to become a very important destination for sellers of liquefied natural gas.

In an oversupplied market where prices have cratered and new long-term contracts are rare, Thailand’s national oil company is bucking the trend and planning to go on a shopping spree. PTT PCL Chief Executive Officer Tevin Vongvanich hopes to nearly quadruple import capacity and said he plans to sign long-term agreements with several suppliers by the end of the year that would more than double what the country currently imports.

“We’re taking the opportunity of the buyer’s market situation of the LNG at this stage to secure a few more long-term contracts,” he said in an interview at his office in Bangkok. “It’s the sale time now for LNG, so we’re doing our shopping.”

The buying binge couldn’t come at a better time for LNG sellers. Spot LNG prices in Southeast Asia have fallen 62 percent since October 2014 as new export terminals have created a supply glut, while large buyers like Japan and South Korea have reduced demand.

Thailand doubled LNG imports last year to 2.7 million tons, about 1.1 percent of global trade, according to the International Group of LNG Importers. The country will boost imports to 3 million tons this year, Tevin said.

Committed Volume

PTT signed a long-term contract in 2012 to buy 2 million tons of LNG a year from Qatar. Tevin said he’s looking to diversify by seeking to add about 3 million tons a year of committed volumes from other suppliers.

“We were a bit fortunate that we didn’t commit before the price collapsed, so we have that flexibility of shopping around,” Tevin said. “Currently a lot of people have been knocking on our doors for the long-term contracts.”

PTT is doubling the annual capacity of its import facility to 10 million tons this year and will later increase it to 11.5 million tons. Further expansion plans, including adding a second terminal, with its size pending cabinet approval, would further boost capacity to as much as 19 million tons a year. The terminal upgrades alone could cost $1 billion to $2 billion, Tevin said. Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects Thailand’s imports to exceed 16 million tons a year by 2030.

Exploration Unit

“For Thailand, we’re obviously the energy importing country,” he said. “We’re also looking at not just the demand growth in the natural gas consumption, but also our natural resources declining because we have been producing for over 30 years. So, naturally the supplementary supply from LNG is negligible and it will grow more and more.”

PTT’s upstream unit, PTT Exploration & Production PCL, is also playing a role in the company’s LNG strategy. The drilling arm of the company owns an 8.5 percent stake in a 5,000-square-mile patch in the Rovuma offshore area in Mozambique. Tevin sees Mozambique as the next Qatar as the country has found sizable gas resources, which is an opportunity for its LNG strategy.

“They have potential to become a large LNG exporter in the future which match very well with the situation of Thailand where we need to look for additional import volume of LNG,” he said. “LNG is a grand strategy for the PTT Group at the moment.”

PTT added as much as 1.2 percent to 351 baht at 10:36 a.m. in Bangkok. Thailand’s SET Index gained 0.3 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok at ssuwannakij@bloomberg.net ;Tony Jordan in Bangkok at tjordan3@bloomberg.net ;Dan Murtaugh in Singapore at dmurtaugh@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net Abhay Singh, Alpana Sarma

Copyright 2016 Bloomberg News.

ASTANA, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Kazakh state oil firm KazMunayGaz has no immediate plans to make a new offer to the minority shareholders of its London-listed upstream unit, KazMunayGaz Chief Executive Sauat Mynbayev said on Thursday.

Minority shareholders of KazMunaiGas Exploration and Production (KMG EP) this month rejected KazMunayGaz’s proposal to give the parent company more control over its subsidiary and the option to sell their shares to KazMunayGaz.

Asked if KazMunayGaz was preparing another offer, Mynbayev said: “No, why should it be prepared? There are no (other) offers. We have made this offer already and this is it, no (more) offers.”

KazMunayGaz has a 58 percent stake in KMG EP.

Minority shareholders, including Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation, and funds overseen by managers such as BlackRock, own 34 percent.

(Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; writing by Olzhas Auyezov; editing by Maria Kiselyova and Jason Neely)

Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

OPEC’s informal September meeting in Algeria won’t result in a production freeze or a production cut, says global investment banking firm Jefferies.

“We could of course be wrong; it is possible that OPEC could announce some form of production freeze. However, the effects on the physical market would appear to be minimal,” said oil and gas analysts at Jefferies in a brief research note sent to Rigzone.

Freeze or no freeze, Jefferies said that it expects commercial inventories to begin to draw in the fourth quarter as supply and demand re-balance, setting the stage for a price recovery.

“We forecast a Brent oil price of $58 per barrel in 2017…and $72 per barrel in 2018,” stated Jefferies analysts.

Furthermore, Jefferies believes that the timing of the meeting could in and of itself keep prices supported until the market nears balance in 4Q.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has scheduled a meeting during Sept. 26 through to Sept. 28 in Algiers during the 15th International Energy Forum. 

OSLO, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Norway-listed offshore driller Seadrill, once the crown jewel in the business empire of shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, said the oil industry may be turning a corner as it posted second-quarter earnings above forecasts on Thursday.

At the height of the oil price boom, the company was the world’s largest offshore driller by market capitalisation, but it has been struggling as oil firms slash costs to counter a 57-percent decline in crude prices since mid-2014.

Seadrill’s share price has fallen by 90 percent over the past two years, against a 1.5 percent rise for the Oslo benchmark index over the same period.

But the cycle may be turning, Seadrill said on Thursday, joining other industry suppliers that have recently pointed to signs of recovery in demand from oil companies.

“Oil prices stabilized in the $40-50 range during the quarter and there is a growing belief that we are at or near the bottom of this downcycle,” Seadrill said in a statement.

Seadrill’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to $557 million in the second quarter, against $651 million a year ago and expectations for $512 million in a Reuters poll of analysts.

Its share were up 0.28 percent at 0739 GMT, outperforming an Oslo benchmark index down 0.76 percent.

Seadrill repeated that it expected to conclude the refinancing process of its $10 billion debt by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord Writing by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Mark Potter)

Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Cosco Corp. (Singapore) Ltd., China’s major ship repair & marine engineering and shipping group based in China, reported Wednesday that Cosco (Dalian) Shipyard Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of its 51 percent owned Cosco Shipyard Group Co., Ltd., has delivered two jackups to the Foresight Group of companies through United Arab Emirates-based drilling and rig management services firm Hallworthy International FZC.

Cosco Dalian signed the delivery documents for the two jackups,”N527″ and “N581” — possibly Vivekanand 2 (350′ ILC) and Vivekanand 3 (350′ ILC) — with the buyer recently.

According to Cosco, the jackups, both measuring 243 feet (74.09 meters) in length and 206 feet (62.80 meters) in width, are designed to operate in water depths of up to 350 feet, while equipped to drill to depths of up to 30,000 feet.

Separately, Cosco indicated that Cosco (Guangdong) Shipyard Co., Ltd., a unit of Cosco Shipyard, has delivered a platform supply vessel, named “VOS PASSION”, to its European buyer. The vessel is 274 feet (83.48 meters) in length, 59 feet (18 meters) in breadth and 26 feet (8 meters) in depth.

Aug 25 (Reuters) – Gazprom Neft, one of Russia’s top oil producers, made a net profit of 48.854 billion roubles ($752 million) in the second quarter of this year, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday citing the company’s statement.

Contacted by Reuters, the company declined to comment.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)

Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Mexico’s energy regulator said on Wednesday that 26 companies had qualified to participate in the country’s deep-water oil tender in December, the jewel in the crown of a landmark energy sector opening.

Of the 26 companies that have qualified for the so-called Round 1.4 tender, 16 are operators, including state-owned oil giant Pemex, and 10 are financial partners, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) said on Twitter.

Any consortia that form will be revealed on Nov. 28, the CNH said.

Below is the list of companies that have qualified:

• Atlantic Rim Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• BHP Billiton Petroleo Operaciones de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• BP Exploration Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
• Chevron Energia de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V.
• China Offshore Oil Corporation E&P Mexico, S.A.P.I. de C.V.
• Eni Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• ExxonMobil Exploracion y Produccion México S. de R.L. de C.V.
• Galp Energia E&P BBV.
• Hess Mexico Oil and Gas, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• Inpex Corporation
• Lukoil International Upstream Holding B.V.
• Mitsubishi Corporation
• Mitsui & Co. Ltd
• Murphy Sur S. de R.L. de C.V.
• NBL Mexico, INC
• ONGC Videsh Limited
• PC Carigali Mexico Operations, S.A. de C.V.
• Petro-Canada (International) Holdings B.V.
• Petroleo Brasileiro Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• Petroleos Mexicanos
• Repsol Exploracion Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
• Ophir Mexico Holdings Limited
• Shell Exploracion y Extraccion de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
• Sierra O&G Exploracion y Produccion, S. de R.L. de C.V.
• Statoil E&P Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
• Total E&P Mexico, S.A. de C.V.

(Reporting by Jean Luis Arce; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

BANGKOK, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Thailand’s military government plans to open bids in March 2017 for expiring oil and gas contracts held by Chevron Corp and PTT Exploration and Production, an energy ministry official said on Thursday.

Chevron’s Thai unit holds concessions to operate the Erawan gas field. PTTEP operates the Bongkot gas field. Contracts for the two offshore fields are due to expire in 2022 and 2023.

They have combined production of 2.2 billion cubic feet per day, or 76 percent of output in the Gulf of Thailand.

Thai authorities are drafting terms and criteria for the auction, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, Veerasak Pungrassamee, director general of the ministry’s Department of Mineral Fuels, told reporters.

The winners will be announced in September next year, he said, adding legislators will take three months to amend the energy law, one month longer than planned to make sure of continuity in production.

PTTEP, Thailand’s largest oil and gas explorer, has said it will bid to operate the Bongkot field. Chevron said it was committed to its Thailand investments, despite job cuts that have led to rumours of its exit.

Veerasak said the energy ministry also planned to hold a long-delayed auction for new oilconcessions in late 2017.

The military government put off a bidding round of concessions for 29 onshore and offshore blocks in early 2015 due to criticism of contract terms from politicians and activists.

The round was originally planned for 2011 but was on hold after devastating floods that year and then a political crisis that began in late 2013 and culminated in a military coup in May 2014.

(Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong, editing by William Hardy)

Copyright 2016 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

An initiative pushed by anti-fracking activists in Colorado that could almost eliminate hydraulic fracturing in the state likely won’t make it to the November ballot needed to become law, analysts say.

Senior Analyst David Tameron at Wells Fargo said in a note to investors that securing the needed signatures on Initiative No. 78 – officially the “Mandatory Setback for Oil and Gas Development” – has moved from “highly unlikely to extremely unlikely.” The markets appear to have noticed, too, as companies that operate in Colorado shale have seen their share prices increase during the last month.

The proposal would move the distance for a hydraulic fracturing operation from 500 feet or more to a minimum of 2,500 feet or more from an “area of special concern,” such as occupied housing, drinking water sources, sports fields and parks. The current law stipulates a 500-foot setback and expands to 1000 feet from schools and hospitals.

Based on the Colorado Secretary of State’s (SOS) rate of verification on other initiatives, Tameron said word on whether the proposal would officially make the ballot could come as early as Friday.

“In the highly improbable chance it moves to line-by-line verification process, then it could drag a little longer,” he said. “Either way, very, very unlikely for [the initiative] to make the ballot.”

For the signatures to count, the SOS must verify that the number of collected signatures represent 5 percent of the votes cast for SOS in the preceding election. Wells Fargo estimated that threshold would require 98,492 verified signatures.

Wells Fargo sources have said No. 78 received between 105,000 and 110,000 signatures submitted on the Aug. 8 deadline. Five of seven total initiatives brought to the SOS have been verified with an average of 70 percent on 165,000 signatures – suggesting a total of 141,500 signatures were needed, WF said.

The stock market has already assumed the proposal will fail, WF said, based on share prices of companies that operate in the Niobrara/DJ Basin, WF said.

During the last 30 days, movement in share price in the basin has been positive:

• PDC Energy Inc. (NYSE: PDCE) shares have increased by 31 percent to $67.74 per share
• Shares of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) grew 1 percent to $55.24 per share
• Bill Barrett Corp. (NYSE: BBG) has grown by 2.5 percent to $6.11 per share
• Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) increased 4 percent to $7.81 per share

Seeking opportunities economic at lower oil prices, some oil and gas firms are ramping up investment and activity in the STACK (Sooner Trend Anadarko Basin Canadian and Kingfisher Counties) and SCOOP (South Central Oklahoma Oil Province) plays in Oklahoma.

In June, Marathon Oil Corp. said it would acquire PayRock Energy Holdings LLC, a producer operating in the Anadarko Basin STACK play, for $888 million from venture capital firm EnCap Investments. Marathon’s acquisition of STACK assets – which Marathon President and CEO Lee Tillman called in a June 20 press release one of the best unconventional U.S. oil plays – is part of the company’s strategy for coping with low oil prices.

Devon Energy Corp. has also expanded its investment and activity in the STACK play; this includes its acquisition late last year of Anadarko Basin assets from Felix Energy LLC for $1.9 billion. Devon plans to deploy an additional $200 million in capital for its 2016 upstream program in the STACK and Delaware Basin, where it said it might add as many as seven operated rigs during the second half of 2016, the company said in an Aug. 3 press release.

Operators are still testing the limits of the STACK play, which was discovered by Newfield Exploration Co., said Jessica Van Slyke, research associate with Wood Mackenzie, to Rigzone. In the STACK, oil and gas companies are testing the oily potential of the Mississippian-aged Meramac moving west as well as the Osage and shallower, Pennsylvanian-aged Oswego northeast, Van Slyke said. This year, the play – the core of which exists where Kingfisher, Canadian and Blaine counties meet – has been among the most resilient in terms of rig count. Van Slyke attributed this resiliency to operators drilling to test new opportunities and to hold acreage by production.

Operators are also drilling the Woodford, which stretches across large portions of Oklahoma, Erika Coombs, senior energy analyst with BTU Analytics, told Rigzone. Oil and gas companies have previously drilled the Woodford as more of a gas formation; today, they are looking at formations that produce more oil.

Both the Anadarko – home to the STACK play – and Delaware basins have been a key focus of exploration and production investors for the past 12 to 18 months, Evercore ISI analysts said in an Aug. 14 research note. Second quarter results saw a progression of positive results from the STACK, suggesting the play can compete for capital with the most prospective of Lower 48 plays, including the Delaware in the Permian Basin.

However, the STACK remains in delineation stage with wells testing not only the prospectivity of the play aerially, but also the ultimate number of wells per interval and zone. Evercore ISI analysts said they were awaiting the results from several downspacing tests, which they view as potential catalysts for acreage and company valuations, as they help determine the ultimate location potential as the play moves into full field development. These downspacing tests include Devon’s Alma spacing pilot, which is currently testing five wells per section with 1,050-foot horizontal spacing in the Meramac formation. In its Born Free staggered pilot, Devon is testing a combination of 400-foot horizontal and 170-foot vertical interlateral spacing.

Some refer to a stratigraphic column with 10 plus zones, Evercore ISI analysts said. But with the Meramec, it is generally agreed there are two zones (Upper and Lower), with some portion of the play being thick enough to support a third zone, the Middle Meramec. Most also agree that at least one Woodford well would be drilled per section.

Evercore ISI analysts also noted that the average wells per pad remains the lowest of any of these five plays at 2.29 versus an average of approximately 3.6 wells per pad overall. This dynamic is enhanced by Oklahoma’s interest pooling laws, which force participation of operators who either cannot be located, with whom negotiations are unsuccessful, or apply to small tracts which do not of themselves constitute a complete drilling unit, Evercore ISI analysts stated.

The Scoop on the SCOOP

The SCOOP, which is a little more developed than the STACK, was discovered by Continental Resources in 2012. In general, the geology of Oklahoma is a bit complex, but especially in the SCOOP. Due to this complexity, some wells were taking 100 days to drill. But breakeven costs have come down as operators have expanded their understanding of the play, Van Slyke told Rigzone. Van Slyke attributed operator excitement over the play to breakeven prices for SCOOP as low as $40/barrel. In the SCOOP play, operators are targeting the Woodford and Springer plays.

While the SCOOP is advertised as a tight oil play with estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) as much as 2 million barrels of oil equivalent, as much as 60 percent of SCOOP well production in the core can be natural gas. Companies operating in the STACK play also need to realize that not all STACK rock was created equal. While some wells in the core have break evens as low as $35/barrel, that’s certainly not the case for all areas of the play, Van Slyke stated.

In an Aug. 3 press statement on the company’s second quarter 2016 earnings, Continental Chairman and CEO Harold Hamm attributed the performance of the company’s Bakken, SCOOP and STACK assets and personnel for Continental outperforming its second quarter production guidance.

Recent changes in Continental’s completion technique for its SCOOP Woodford acreage have boosted production by 35 to 40 percent, while increasing EURs by 15 percent to 2,000 thousand barrels of oil equivalent, according to an Aug. 16 analyst report by Wells Fargo Equity Research. The company currently has four rigs running in the basin targeting the condensate-window and starting completing an oil-window density pilot in July. Development so far has primarily been focused on Continental’s acreage within the condensate fairway, which Continental believes represents 40 percent of its total acreage position.

“Results from recent density testing support a mix of single and dual-zone development, with the driver being reservoir thickness,” Wells Fargo analysts noted. “In addition, should natural gas prices move meaningfully higher, this acreage position provides some natural gas optionality for the company and shareholders.”

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(Bloomberg) — After posting their worst-ever half-year results, two of China’s oil giants aren’t getting carried away by crude’s return to a bull market, forecasting a rocky path ahead.

PetroChina Co., the country’s biggest oil and gas company, and Cnooc Ltd., China’s main offshore explorer, reported the weakest earnings since they were both publicly listed. About a week after oil capped a 22 percent gain from its previous low, the two producers that together account for about 70 percent of the country’s crude output both struck a cautious note about the outlook for prices in the coming months.

“Looking ahead to the second half of the year, uncertainties still remain in both the international and domestic macro environment,” Cnooc Chairman Yang Hua said in the company’s filing on Wednesday. “Further recovery of international oil prices faces headwinds.”

Oil has whipsawed this year, flipping five times between bear and bull markets, as output from nations outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, including China and the U.S., declines in the wake of a price crash that began in 2014. The latest surge was driven by speculation that informal discussions among OPEC members next month may lead to action to stabilize the market.

Weak Recovery

PetroChina’s net income dropped 98 percent to 531 million yuan ($80 million), the state-run explorer said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. The company was saved from a loss by the 24.5 billion yuan gain it booked from the sale of Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Co., which it announced in November.

“In the second half of 2016, the recovery of the global economy will remain weak and financial markets will tend to be unstable due to significant political events including Brexit,” PetroChina’s Chairman Wang Yilin said in the company’s earnings release. “The overall supply in the international oil market will continue to be sufficient and the global oil price is likely to keep fluctuating at a low level.”

Brent crude has lost more than 50 percent in the past two years. The global benchmark traded at $49 on Thursday. Citigroup Inc. this week cut its forecast by $2 for the last two quarters of the year to $47 and $50 a barrel, respectively.

Positive Payout

Cnooc swung to a 7.74 billion yuan loss, compared with a net income of 14.7 billion yuan a year earlier. It booked a 10.4 billion yuan impairment on its assets. Most of the charge was related to its Canadian oil sands operations, Yang said Wednesday in Hong Kong.

Despite the loss, Cnooc decided to pay out a HK$0.12 interim dividend. PetroChina announced a special dividend of 0.02 yuan per share on top of its usual dividend distribution of 45 percent of profit.

“The positive here is the willingness to pay beyond its 45 percent payout policy” by PetroChina, Aditya Suresh, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Ltd., said in a research note.

High production costs, aging fields and low prices have resulted in a decline in China’s domestic crude output, helping drive imports by the world’s second-biggest consumer to a record. The country’s crude production in July tumbled to the lowest since October 2011 and has slipped 5.1 percent in the first seven months of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

PetroChina’s capital expenditures in the first half of the year fell 17.5 percent to 50.9 billion yuan. Cnooc’s spending for the period dropped 33 percent to 22 billion yuan. The offshore producer will attempt to control capital spending within the previously announced 60 billion yuan target through 2016, President Yuan Guangyu said Wednesday in Hong Kong

Cnooc shares fell 2.1 percent to HK$9.41 as of 9:37 a.m. in Hong Kong, while PetroChina lost 1.7 percent to HK$5.18. The city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 0.2 percent.

–With assistance from Dan Murtaugh. To contact the reporter on this story: Aibing Guo in Hong Kong at aguo10@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net Abhay Singh, Alexander Kwiatkowski

Copyright 2016 Bloomberg News.

(Bloomberg) – Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will join an informal meeting of OPEC members next month in Algiers, a state news service reported, ending uncertainty about whether OPEC’s third-biggest producer would participate.

Producers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on the sidelines of an energy policy group in the Algerian capital next month to consider conditions in the oil market, OPEC’s president, Qatar’s minister Mohammed Al Sada, said on Aug. 8. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, is working “to restore balance between supply and demand to support oil prices,” and OPEC and non-members will discuss potential steps in Algiers to stabilize markets, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Aug. 13.

“I will participate in this meeting,” Iran’s Zanganeh was cited as saying by the oil ministry’s news service Shana. Zanganeh had not previously committed to attending the meeting, and he didn’t comment on the position Iran will take at the talks. Zanganeh also said he will meet with OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo “in the near future.”

Price Gains

Crude oil has gained about 11 percent since OPEC said it would meet informally to discuss prices and supply, on speculation that the group could agree to freeze output levels. Benchmark Brent crude was trading near $49 a barrel on Thursday in London.

A meeting of OPEC and other producing countries in April ended without agreement in Doha when Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran be part of the any deal to limit output. Iran had ruled out a ceiling on its production until it recovered the output levels it had before the U.S. and European Union tightened international sanctions on its oil industry in 2012.

Iran’s production has risen to 3.85 million barrels a day since sanctions were eased in January, Zanganeh said this month, still less than its target for the end of this year of 4 million barrels a day. OPEC as a whole has boosted output to record levels since adopting a Saudi-led decision in 2014 to protect the group’s global market share by forcing out higher-cost producers.

The International Energy Forum, comprising 73 countries that account for about 90 percent of the global supply and demand for oil and natural gas, will meet in Algiers on Sept. 26-28.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anthony DiPaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net; Sam Wilkin in Dubai at swilkin1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net Bruce Stanley, Stephen Voss

Copyright 2016 Bloomberg News.

Oil & Gas Development Co. Ltd. (OGDCL), operator of the Nashpa Development and Production Lease, reported Wednesday the successful testing and completion of Nashpa # 6 & 7 development wells in the Nashpa field in the district of Karak and Kohat in Pakistan’s KPK Province.

The Nashpa #7 well, drilled to a depth of 15,079 feet (4,596 meters) to test the hydrocarbon potential of Datta and Shinawari formations, produced 2,700 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 7.4 million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d) of gas through a 36/64 inch choke at wellhead flowing pressure of 1,886 pounds per square inch guage (psig). OGDCL said the laying of a 1.16 mile (1.86 kilometer) pipeline has been completed and the well would be injected into the system within the week.

Meantime, the Nashpa #6 well, drilled to a depth of 16,486 feet (5,025 meters) to test the hydrocarbon potential of Kingriali, Datta, Shinawari, Samanasuk, Lumshiwal and Lokhart formations, successfully tested in the Lumshiwal and Lokhart formations. The zones produced 2,550 bpd of crude oil and 16.3 MMscf/d of gas through a 36/64 inch choke at wellhead flowing pressure of 2,667 psig. OGDCL is laying a 0.4 mile (0.7 kilometer) pipeline and the well would be injected into the system by mid-September.

“Both the development wells Nashpa # 6 & 7 would add to the signficant hydrocarbon reserves base of the OGDCL, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. (PPL) and Government Holdings (Private) Ltd. (GHPL) and the country,” OGCDL said in the statement.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — THERE are shameful photos of me on the internet.

In one series, my groceries are being packed into plastic bags, as I’d forgotten to bring cloth ones. In other shots, I am getting in and out of … cars. There are video snippets of me giving talks, or standing on the street. Sometimes I see the cameraman, sometimes I don’t. The images are often posted to Twitter, reminders that I’m being watched.

In April, and reported that , an arm of the Republican opposition research group , had decided to go after me and , another prominent environmentalist, with a campaign on a scale previously reserved for presidential candidates. Using what The Hill called “an unprecedented amount of effort and money,” the group, its executive director said, was seeking to demonstrate our “epic hypocrisy and extreme positions.”

Since then, my days in public have often involved cameramen walking backward and videotaping my every move. It’s mostly when I travel (I’ve encountered them in at least five states so far, as well as in Australia), and generally when I’m in a public or semipublic space. They aren’t interested in my arguments; instead, these videos, usually wordless, are simply posted on Twitter, almost always with music. One showed me sitting in a church pew, accompanied by the song “Show Me That Smile.” The tweet read, “Ready for his close-up.”

Someone also went to the archive at Texas Tech University, where my papers are stored, and asked for copies of everything in all 54 boxes. He identified himself as being with a group that is affiliated with America Rising Squared.

This effort has resulted in all kinds of odd things appearing on right-wing corners of the web: out-of-context quotations from old books and articles apparently put on display to prove I’m a zealot, and photos from God knows who intended to make me out as a hypocrite (the plastic bags, for instance, and my travel by car, which, you know, burns gas). Mostly, they’ve just published those creepy videos, to remind me that I’m under surveillance.

I understand that this isn’t horrible in the way that police brutality is horrible, or having your home swept away by a flood is horrible. I know that in other parts of the world, environmentalists have worse things than cameras pointed at them. , in the last two years, activists have been assassinated after getting in the way of megaprojects.

And I get, as well-meaning friends keep reminding me, that at some level it’s all tribute to our movement’s work in helping kill the Keystone pipeline and highlighting Exxon’s climate history, campaigns that cost the industry a lot of money. But I also understand that the simple fact that I’ve done nothing wrong is no defense against the destruction of a reputation: These are the same kind of people who turned John Kerry, a bona fide war hero, into a traitor through twisting and manipulation.

Merely having someone with a camera follow you somehow makes you feel as if you’re doing something wrong. My house is covered in solar panels, and I plug my car into a socket those panels power. But environmentalists also live in the world we’re trying to change: We take airplanes and rent buses for rallies; we make a living, shop for groceries. None of this should demand an apology. Changing the system, not perfecting our own lives, is the point. “Hypocrisy” is the price of admission in this battle.

And despite what the industry and its advocates insist, that does not make us all equally responsible for the climate crisis.

We’re fighting for policy changes that will make it possible for us to have better choices: utilities that offer us renewable options, electric trains that make short-haul flights obsolete, public transit. Exxon and its ilk have been fighting for decades to keep these choices out of our reach, and then claim that we are voting with our dollars every time we sit in traffic or heat our homes with fossil fuels supplied by a utility that has a monopoly. They can play gotcha as much as they want, but all it proves is how badly we need better options. And we are still going to fight like heck to make sure options are available to everyone.

And yet, for all that logic, I still find myself on edge. To be watched so much is a kind of never-ending nightmare. And sometimes it’s just infuriating. I skipped the funeral this summer of Patrick Sorrento, an important mentor to me at my college newspaper, because I didn’t want my minder to follow me and cause a distracting spectacle. When my daughter reports someone taking pictures of her at the airport, it drives me nuts. I have no idea if it’s actually this outfit; common decency would suggest otherwise, but that seems an increasingly rare commodity.

There’s plenty else that scares me this summer, of course: Every month we’re breaking temperature records, and Donald J. Trump has introduced a new snarl to our public life. Against these fears, the best one can hope for is a kind of resiliency. For a planet in desperate trouble, it’s good news that the price of a solar panel has plummeted. For our nation, there’s the hope that the social fabric — the Little Leagues and Methodist churches and Black Lives Matter assemblies and League of Women Voters and library guilds and N.A.A.C.P. chapters — remain just strong enough that we’ll escape the narcissistic nihilism of Mr. Trump.

As for me, there’s comfort in the knowledge that the climate movement doesn’t depend on me. For years now, I’ve been stepping back, mostly because I think the kind of movement we need is one that has thousands of leaders in thousands of places, connected like the solar panels on the roofs of an entire planet.

It’s stronger that way, because different voices bring different arguments to the fore. But another good reason for that distributed model, one that I’ve thought of often this summer, is that even a successful attack on one person does little damage to the whole movement, in the same way that you can smash the solar panels on my roof and not black out the Eastern Seaboard.

When that doesn’t cheer me up sufficiently, I fall back on my colleagues all over the world. A good thing about movements is that you really do have brothers and sisters, and they do have your back. The fossil-fuel industry may threaten us as a planet, as a nation, and as individuals, but when we rise up together we’ve got a fighting chance against the powers that be.

And perhaps that realization is just a little bit scary for them.

Here’s what to expect in the week ahead.

Signatures due for ballot measures to limit fracking.

Monday is the deadline for environmental activists in Colorado to submit the signatures required to put two proposals on the state’s ballot in November. Both would restrict hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas fields. Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, allows oil companies to fracture shale and other hard rocks with water, chemicals and sand to free oil and gas. Environmentalists contend that the practice can pollute air and local water supplies, but the companies insist it is safe. The more aggressive of the two initiatives would amend the Colorado Constitution to within 2,500 feet of occupied buildings, water resources and public spaces like parks. Clifford Krauss

DRUG INDUSTRY

earnings may indicate if it can correct course.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals will report its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, providing new clues about how and whether the company can climb out of its current morass. One focus will be on how Joseph C. Papa, Valeant’s new chief executive, plans to reduce the company’s debt to avoid possible violations of its covenants in 2017, according to David Maris, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. There is also speculation that Valeant will for 2016, having done so twice already. Mr. Papa was in late April, replacing J. Michael Pearson, who had built Valeant through serial acquisitions and aggressive price increases on old drugs. But the once high-flying company fell to earth starting last fall as about those price increases, the high debt from all those acquisitions and Valeant’s once-secret relationship with a mail-order pharmacy. Valeant faces various federal investigations and its stock has fallen more than 90 percent from its peak a year ago. Andrew Pollack

ENTERTAINMENT

Iger to discuss ’s third-quarter results.

It was the Disney earnings call that sent shock waves through the media industry: One year ago, Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, acknowledged that fewer people were subscribing to ESPN as part of a traditional cable package, about the future of television. Disney’s stock has since fallen 20 percent. So, when Mr. Iger again takes the mike on Tuesday to discuss its fiscal third-quarter results, all eyes will be on ESPN. Insight into Disney’s latest thoughts about piping its television networks to consumers over the internet is hoped for.

Wall Street will also be paying attention to Disney’s theme parks. How is the new doing? How strong is Disney World in Florida, where an led to negative headlines? Are safety fears (especially after the nightclub shooting in Orlando) taking any toll? Brooks Barnes

ECONOMY

Macy’s earnings and national sales data.

Two important indicators of the health of the economy will come out this week. Macy’s, the nation’s largest department store, is scheduled to report earnings on Thursday. The retailer has struggled to compete against the growth of discount and low-cost rivals, particularly online, and revealed unexpectedly . And on Friday, the Commerce Department will release retail sales data. Analysts expect the data to show that spending climbed slightly in July. Rachel Abrams

Estimating August consumer sentiment.

On Friday morning, the will report its initial estimate of consumer sentiment in August. Economists expect to see a slight rise in the index to 91.3, from a , reflecting healthy hiring, a strong housing market and continued low energy prices. The stock market’s July rebound after the vote by Britain in June to leave the European Union also bodes well for the consumer outlook this summer. Nelson D. Schwartz

In an effort to halt the advance of the in Colorado, environmental activists said they submitted enough signatures on Monday to place on November’s ballot two initiatives aimed at severely limiting hydraulic fracturing.

If either measure passes, it would represent the most serious political effort yet in the United States to stop hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the technique used to blast through shale and other hard rocks with water, sand and chemicals to release oil and .

One of the Colorado ballot initiatives would establish local control over oil and gas operations, including fracking, while the other would prohibit drilling and fracking in a buffer zone 2,500 feet around occupied buildings, waterways and open public spaces like parks. That could effectively prohibit new exploration and production in as much as 95 percent of the surface area of the state’s five top petroleum- and gas-producing counties, according to Colorado regulators.

The Colorado secretary of state’s office has 30 days to authenticate the signatures, and challenges are considered probable. If the signatures hold up, oil industry officials say the contest should be a close, hard-fought battle.

With the exception of New York State, which has banned fracking for its relatively modest reserves, few oil- and gas-producing states have put up any serious barriers to the practice.

Led by a coalition of environmental organizations, activists fanned out across the state to collect signatures. They argue that local communities should have the right to limit fracking, which they say pollutes the air and jeopardizes local water supplies. Some 98,500 signatures are needed to get on the ballot. Activists said they submitted more than 100,000 signatures for each initiative.

“At stake is the people’s right to say no to fracking in their communities, the people’s right to protect their well-being and safety and their families from industrial development in their backyards,” said Jason Schwartz, a spokesman for Greenpeace.

Business groups have begun a concerted effort to oppose the initiatives, raising more than $13 million. Anadarko Petroleum and Noble Energy, the two oil companies that stand to lose the most, have each contributed $5 million or more to the opposition campaign. Opponents have cited a recent study by the University of Colorado that warned that the more stringent initiative — the one that would create buffers — could cost the state 54,000 jobs between 2017 and 2021, and decrease state and local tax revenue.

“This is bigger than any individual company,” said John M. Christiansen, an Anadarko vice president. “These potential ballot measures would carry massive consequences for Colorado’s economy, public education, public services and every consumer.”

The nation’s shale boom of recent years has made Colorado one of the fastest-growing energy producers. Between 2004 and 2014, oil production in the state quadrupled, according to the Energy Department, although it is now slowing because of the slump in prices. The state’s vast Niobrara shale field contains an estimated two billion barrels of oil, making it one of the nation’s largest.

The propositions could also have an effect on the presidential race in Colorado, which is considered a swing state.

Divisions on the issue cross party lines.

Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, told a Denver television station last week that he supported fracking but, in a break with the oil industry and many state Republicans, he suggested that localities should have a say in the matter. “There’s some areas, maybe, they don’t want to have fracking,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think if the voters are voting for it, that’s up to them.”

Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, has argued in favor of tight regulations on fracking and supported the right of states and localities to prohibit it.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, has opposed a ban on fracking and in the past has encouraged compromise. Representative Jared Polis, also a Democrat, has donated $25,000 to a group that supports local controls on oil and gas operations.

Efforts to put the initiatives on the ballot have been in the works for two years, and were energized by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision in May to of local prohibitions as illegitimate infringements on the right of the state to regulate oil and gas exploration and production.

YONKERS — This city’s mayor, Mike Spano, likes to stroll along the Hudson River waterfront and marvel at the changes since the 1980s. Hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private investment have transformed a once forlorn riverfront marred by abandoned industry into a vibrant place where people live and play.

But a — up to 600 feet long — to anchor off the shore of the state’s fourth largest city here, just north of New York City, and in other spots stretching some 70 miles north to Kingston, threatens to undo that progress, Mr. Spano said. The plan, by the private maritime industry, would create 10 new anchorage sites along the Hudson River, with more than 40 berths, or parking spots.

The rise of the United States as a major oil producer in recent years is having unintended consequences for picturesque suburban communities that view the Hudson as a majestic backdrop, not a conduit for international trade. They fear that the very quality that makes these towns so charming — unfettered water views — will be destroyed.

In December, Congress ended a 40-year ban on the export of most crude oil produced in the lower 48 states, a move that came as the industry is booming, helped by new methods of blasting through hard rocks with water, sand and chemicals that have opened up areas for oil exploration. As a result, oil production has nearly doubled to more than nine million barrels a day.

But all of that oil needs to go somewhere, and that’s where rail lines and barges — and thus the Hudson River — come in.

Under the proposal, Yonkers and two villages to the north, Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry, would have by far the most barges at anchor, with 16 berths spread across 715 acres on the water. Officials and many residents say the plan would, in a sense, bring the communities that have worked hard to shed their industrial pasts back to the future.

“To reindustrialize the waterfronts of these communities would do long-term damage to what has been two decades of reinvestment taking place on our shores,” Mayor Spano said. “For us to go backward is just unconscionable.”

The proposal for berths on the Hudson came from maritime organizations worried about congestion on the river and the safety of barge operators. Earlier this year, the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey and the American Waterways Operators asked the Coast Guard for permission to establish new anchorage sites on the Hudson.

Congestion at the Port of Albany and around New York Harbor, combined with occasionally hazardous weather conditions, has created a need for places where barge and tugboat operators can stop and wait — similar to planes on a runway.

The Maritime Association, in a letter to the Coast Guard in January, cited the nation’s growing role as an energy producer, adding that boat traffic would increase on the Hudson River “significantly over the next few years with the lifting of the ban on American crude exports for foreign trade.” The letter added that new “anchorages are key to supporting trade.” Barge traffic has already expanded on the Hudson, with crude oil coming by rail from North Dakota to the Port of Albany where it is loaded onto barges bound for eastern refineries.

Amid resistance from elected officials and environmentalists, the Coast Guard said that the approvals process had just begun and that the public would have ample time for comment. The Coast Guard is through early September, and public hearings will follow.

“Once the comment period is over, we will take that and analyze it and figure out the best course of action going forward,” said Allyson Conroy, a chief warrant officer for the Coast Guard. “We could whittle down the number of anchorage sites.”

Because some of the barges will carry oil, some officials and environmental groups have expressed concern that the barges will function as cheap storage sites until the worldwide glut of oil abates. But Ms. Conroy said that was not the case, emphasizing that the berths would resemble parking spaces. “They come here and park and catch up on rest and then move on,” she said.

Still, groups like say that the introduction of so many places on the river for the barges to anchor would pose a number of problems — among them ruining views, generating noise and light pollution, hurting sturgeon habitat and creating unacceptable environmental risks.

Accidents involving crude oil are notoriously difficult to clean up, said John Lipscomb, the boat captain for Riverkeeper. “Trying to corral crude oil in a moving river is virtually impossible,” Mr. Lipscomb said. “Riverkeeper and many others in the Hudson Valley would prohibit any transport of crude oil on the river.”

Others worry that parked barges filled with millions of gallons of crude oil could become terrorist targets. State Senator Terrence Murphy, a Republican, said such a scenario, on its own, made the plan untenable. His district includes a proposed anchorage site that would contain three berths off Montrose Point in northern Westchester County.

“You’re going to have three barges sitting right there,” said Mr. Murphy, who has begun a . “Could you imagine blowing holes in them and letting all the oil leak into the Hudson River? Or you blow them up and set them on fire?”

But for many residents, the notion of unspooling a string of barges on the river, whose history and scenery helped win the Hudson River Valley a coveted designation, makes little sense.

Just north of Yonkers, the villages of Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry — affectionately called the “river towns” — have made their own investments in the waterfront. Many residents were drawn to the communities because of the river and the backdrop of the Palisades.

Bill Fernandez, of Dobbs Ferry, keeps his 21-foot sport-fishing boat at a tidy marina in Hastings, called Tower Ridge Yacht Club. When he learned about the plan, he immediately wondered how he would navigate around walls of steel. Then he remembered the views.

“It’s fine when they are moving,” Mr. Fernandez, 49, said referring to the occasional passing barge. “But to have them parked here would be horrible.”

Officials in both Dobbs Ferry and Hastings-on-Hudson said they planned to pass resolutions opposing the anchorage sites. Last year the waterfront park in Dobbs Ferry reopened after a $7 million renovation, with fresh paths and landscaping, as well as a new fishing pier and floating dock.

“We have a new beautiful park that encourages people to use the water,” said Mayor Hartley Connett of Dobbs Ferry. “People are kayaking more and canoeing more. The idea that you’d have these giant floating structures is at odds with that. We are going to do everything we can to fight it.”

Perhaps sensing the growing pushback, the Coast Guard has gone to lengths to explain that the plan was not of its making. “This is nothing that the Coast Guard proposed, but is something that has been asked of us,” Ms. Conroy said.

Nonetheless, she said, there were real concerns about river safety. “Imagine a truck driver who is driving across the country and needs to sleep, eat and rest,” she said. “On the Hudson, the distance is not as great, but if you add environmental factors like fog and ice, it can be very tricky. We want to make sure that maritime traffic is safe.”

For more than a year, much of the public scrutiny of was captured by the #Exxonknew hashtag — shorthand for revelations about decades-old research on conducted by the company while it funded groups promoting doubt about climate science.

Articles about that research have energized protests against Exxon Mobil and the fossil fuel industry and had a role in initiating queries by at least five attorneys general, led by of New York.

Early on, his office demanded extensive emails, financial records and other documents from the company, leaving many observers with the impression that a deeper look into the company’s past was the focus of the investigation.

But in an extensive interview, Mr. Schneiderman said that his investigation was focused less on the distant past than on relatively recent statements by Exxon Mobil related to climate change and what it means for the company’s future.

In other words, the question for Mr. Schneiderman is less what Exxon knew, and more what it predicts.

For example, he said, the investigation is scrutinizing a by Exxon Mobil stating that global efforts to address climate change would not mean that it had to leave enormous amounts of oil reserves in the ground as so-called “stranded assets.”

But many scientists have suggested that if the world were to burn even just a portion of the oil in the ground that the industry declares on its books, the planet would heat up to such dangerous levels that “there’s no one left to burn the rest,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

By that logic, Exxon Mobil will have to leave much of its oil in the ground, which means the company’s valuation of its reserves is off by a significant amount.

“If, collectively, the fossil fuel companies are overstating their assets by trillions of dollars, that’s a big deal,” Mr. Schneiderman said. And if the company’s own internal research shows that Exxon Mobil knows better, he added, “there may be massive securities fraud here.”

Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon, dismissed the idea that its forecast could be viewed as fraudulent.

“If it turns out to be wrong, that’s not fraud, that’s wrong,” he said. “That’s why we adjust our outlook every year, and that’s why we issue the annual forecast publicly, so people can know the basis of our forecasting.”

The company has said allegations that it secretly developed a definitive understanding of climate change before the rest of the world’s scientists are “.”

Mr. Schneiderman has praised reports from publications, including and the , that detailed Exxon Mobil’s past research.

And all indications were that his office planned to use its subpoena powers to unearth new documents that might show a disconnect between what the company was saying publicly and what it was saying privately about climate change over several decades.

In the interview, however, Mr. Schneiderman said his focus lay elsewhere. “The older stuff really is just important to establish knowledge and the framework and to look for inconsistencies.”

He called his efforts a straightforward fraud investigation, like many that he and his predecessors have taken on in subjects as wide-ranging as the crash of mortgage-backed securities and Volkswagen’s diesel engine deceptions.

Mr. Schneiderman also mentioned, as an example of questionable public statements by Exxon Mobil, in 2010 by its chief executive, Rex Tillerson, who said that while the company acknowledged that humans were affecting the climate through greenhouse gas emissions to some degree, it was not yet clear “to what extent and therefore what can you do about it.”

Mr. Tillerson added, “There is not a model available today that is competent” for understanding the science and predicting the future.

Mr. Schneiderman disagrees, and cited the industry’s own extensive climate research and the actions it has taken in response, including exploration in the melting Arctic and of offshore oil platforms to compensate for rising sea level.

“These guys have the best science for their engineering purposes,” he said. “We’re confident they’re not wasting shareholder dollars to do things that are inconsistent with the science they have internally.”

Since November, when the investigation was , and as other state attorneys general announced their support, Mr. Schneiderman’s intentions have been questioned and, he said, misconstrued.

Supporters of Exxon Mobil have accused him and his colleagues of using prosecutorial powers to pursue political ends and of trying to squelch the First Amendment rights of the company, its scientists and anyone who agrees with them.

Lamar Smith, a congressman from Texas and chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, accused the attorneys general of “” and has issued demanding internal documents from Mr. Schneiderman and another state attorney general, as well as eight groups that have supported the investigations.

Hans von Spakovsky, a conservative commentator, compared the investigation by the attorneys general to the , and the Daily Caller asked whether Mr. Schneiderman had suggested “.”

Mr. Schneiderman talks about such accusations with incredulity.

“This is an investigation,” he said. “It is a civil fraud case. No one is being prosecuted — we’re not out to silence dissenting views.” He has said, however, that if criminal actions turn up in the evidence the state gathers, criminal charges could be filed.

When asked about the First Amendment implications of investigating Exxon’s statements, he repeated a sentence he has uttered many times: “The First Amendment doesn’t protect you for fraud.”

He added, “Three-card monte operators can’t say, ‘Hey, I’m just exercising my First Amendment rights!’”

When asked about the focus of Mr. Schneiderman’s investigation, Joel Seligman, an expert in securities law who is the president of the University of Rochester, said that “at some level, this is a plain-vanilla investigation — and there is no guarantee it will lead to a case.”

Exxon Mobil has sued to block subpoenas from and the , but the company has provided hundreds of thousands of pages of documents to New York.

If the investigation does turn up the kind of evidence that could lead to a civil case, it is still unclear whether New York or the other states might win, said David M. Uhlmann, a former top federal prosecutor of environmental crime and a professor at the University of Michigan law school.

Until governments impose the kind of regulations that will lead to concrete action to slow or reverse climate change, he said, “We’re going to continue to drill for oil and frack for gas.’’ In that case, he continued, Exxon may “utilize a significant portion of its reserves, which means it may not even be wrong when it states that it expects to utilize its reserves.”

Even if Exxon is wrong in saying that it expects to be able to use all its reserves, “The question is whether they know that they are wrong and are therefore lying to investors,” he added.

The investigation, Mr. Schneiderman said, mirrors an earlier inquiry into a coal giant, Peabody Energy. In 2013, he issued subpoenas for internal documents related to climate change, and found false statements to shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Simple stuff like ‘it’s impossible to predict the effect of a carbon tax on the coal market,’ and they paid a consultant a lot of money to predict the effect of a carbon market,” he said.

Peabody pledging to to its business.

Mr. Schneiderman has also been accused of with environmental groups, but he said, “People bring information to us all the time. If it’s got merit to it, we follow up on it.”

Groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists have investigated the fossil fuel industry for years, he said, and so “it would be malpractice for us not to meet with people like this.”

The industry’s tactics come “straight out of the tobacco playbook,” he said. “It’s delay, and sowing doubt.”

Mr. Schneiderman has refused to comply with the congressman’s subpoena, stressing the importance of federalism — normally an argument used by conservatives against federal overreach.

When asked for comment, Kristina Baum, a spokeswoman for the Science committee, said that Mr. Smith was unavailable.

Metropolitan Diary

By ESTELLE ERASMUS

Dear Diary:

It was a balmy summer Friday evening in 1992. The crowd resembled a horde of marching ants as they scurried about, focused on leaving the city.

I was not one of them. I had a mission.

It was to baby-sit the bright blue full-size replica of an animated train — insured for $100,000 — based on Thomas the Tank Engine, as featured on a popular British children’s television series. I was a young promotions director for the show’s American counterpart.

My job was to hand the train over to a security team, who would drive it into the Midtown hotel hosting the annual licensing show. The rental company that had dropped it off would pick it up afterward.

There was one problem.

“According to our insurance, I can’t roll the train inside with gasoline in it,” a guard informed me. “The hall closes at 9 p.m. You have till then to empty it.”

I ran to the corner pay phone (before cellphones). The rental company owners and my company’s top brass were nowhere to be found.

People noticed I was distraught.

One man suggested I call a gas station, so I did. They refused to come. I faced the thought that I might have to sleep in the train overnight.

As I sobbed hysterically, convinced I’d lose my job, a lanky, long-haired guy wearing ripped jeans and a stained T-shirt made me an offer: “Give me 25 bucks and I’ll suck out the gas.”

“Done.”

As I watched, he put his mouth on the valve, sucked hard and spit the gasoline out onto the steamy pavement. Twice.

“All gone,” he said.

“Here’s your money,” I said.

He went on his way, as did the train to the licensing show, with minutes to spare.

SUGAR LAND, Tex. — The -refining business has always been a tough way to make money.

Stiff competition, heavy regulation and high operating costs make for some of the lowest profit margins in the petroleum industry. And in the last year, profits have been even harder to come by because of the global fuel glut that has translated into bargain-basement prices for the gasoline and diesel that refiners produce.

But lately, the game has been tougher still for people like Jack Lipinski, chief executive of CVR Energy, an independent operator of two refineries in Oklahoma and Kansas. The problem involves a soaring cost that is outside of his control.

This year, on top of everything else, CVR Energy will have to spend as much as $235 million on credits for renewable fuels. That is nearly double what the company spent last year on the credits, and it exceeds the company’s total labor, maintenance and energy costs.

Mr. Lipinski blames the federal program that requires CVR to buy the credits, but he also suspects a role by unknown market speculators who may be driving up the costs of the credits.

“I have no way of fixing it,” Mr. Lipinski said in an interview at his headquarters in this Houston suburb. “It’s a black pool of speculation that could cause bankruptcies in our sector.”

The Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the credits, discounts charges of widespread abuse. And the issue may be only a short-term problem, as it was in 2013, drove the price of the credits to unsustainable heights before bursting.

But now, the profits and share prices of many independent refiners like CVR, PBF Energy and the HollyFrontier Corporation are slumping.

Valero of Texas, the world’s biggest independent refiner, has projected that the credits could cost the company as much as $850 million this year, compared with $440 million in 2015.

Small and medium-size refiners process roughly half the nation’s transportation fuels. Unless the price of credits falls significantly, refinery executives warn of a wave of consolidation that could concentrate refining in fewer hands, leading to higher prices for drivers at gasoline and diesel pumps.

The credits are part of a federal program put in place a decade ago by President George W. Bush and Congress. Refiners of gasoline and diesel fuel are required to add a certain amount of renewable fuel — corn ethanol or other biofuels — to each gallon of petroleum-based fuel they refine. The program was meant to trim oil imports, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help corn farmers.

If a refiner cannot or does not want to add biofuels to its product — which is CVR’s situation — the company is required to buy a per-gallon credit from refiners that do.

These credits originally sold for a few cents a gallon under the system supervised by the E.P.A. But as an unregulated trading market has emerged, the price has swung wildly for the credits, which are known as RINs, for Renewable Identification Numbers.

The ethanol RIN price approached $1.50 a gallon in the 2013 bubble before falling below 25 cents. And it recently spiked at nearly $1 before slipping back somewhat.

Ethanol is broadly unpopular in the oil industry, largely because biofuels compete with petroleum products for market share. And many say the policy to promote ethanol is antiquated after a six-year drilling frenzy in the United States that has resulted in reduced imports and cheap gasoline.

But the industry is divided on the question of who should be responsible for RIN purchases — those who refine gasoline, as is now the case, or those who blend gasoline with ethanol or other biofuels.

So far, the E.P.A. has declined to change the policy. And industry experts see little chance of any change, at least until after the November elections.

The independent refiners say they are penalized by the system, because their operations are equipped to process only petroleum products — not ethanol, which absorbs water and can cause damaging corrosion in pipelines and storage facilities.

The refiners could buy or construct special ethanol blending terminals, but the smaller players say such investments are not financially feasible.

RINs are simply numbered tags created when ethanol or another biofuel is produced. When the biofuel is blended with gasoline or diesel — usually at a terminal near the filling stations where it will be sold — the resulting RINs can be sold to anyone.

If the blender does not sell the credit to a refiner, it can sell it to a hedge fund or a Wall Street bank, which can save the credits or trade them, like commodities contracts. RINs are generally valid for a year, though refiners can retain up to 20 percent of their credits for the next year. Once an RIN has been submitted to the E.P.A., it is out of circulation.

Many refiners loathe the RIN system, but others in the petroleum industry benefit from high RIN prices.

Many big oil companies make money blending ethanol for their gas stations and from trading the credits. RIN sales are also a big profit maker for gasoline station chains like Murphy USA and RaceTrac that also blend ethanol. And higher RIN prices also indirectly help ethanol producers like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland because they create more demand for fuel blending.

Jack N. Gerard, the top oil lobbyist as head of the American Petroleum Institute, opposes the federal mandates for renewable fuels. But this month, he took sides on the question of who should bear the burden, when he wrote a letter to the E.P.A. urging the agency to maintain the current requirement that puts the onus on refiners.

With any change, he wrote, “compliance plans, investments, and commercial agreements that were premised on the current structure would be disrupted.”

In some years, there is an excess of ethanol and RINs in the market, and the RIN price tumbles. But the high prices lately are evidently the result of investors and blenders stockpiling RINs in the expectation that the E.P.A. will raise the blending requirements in 2017.

The refiners point out that the credits are sold in private transactions that they say lack transparency. They argue that the E.P.A. is not equipped to supervise the market in the way that a financial regulator like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange would be able to.

“RINs should be trading at 20 to 30 cents and not 70 to 80 cents now,” said George J. Damiris, chief executive of HollyFrontier, which operates five refineries. “So any market premium above that cost of production is due to scarcity and speculation.”

E.P.A. officials say that they so far have found no sign of significant market manipulation, but they will continue to be vigilant.

“Industry and academic analysts have pointed out as recently as this summer that higher RIN prices are an expected outcome of rising R.F.S. requirements,” said Christopher Grundler, director of E.P.A.’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, referring to the renewable fuel standards.

Some analysts say the high RIN prices will create incentives for more ethanol consumption. Several large independent gas station chains that blend biofuels, including RaceTrac, have announced that they will soon begin pumping more fuel with higher concentrations of ethanol to generate more RINs that they can sell.

Most gasoline now sold in the United States is 10 percent ethanol. But there are higher concentrations, like E-15, which is 15 percent ethanol, and even E-85, or 85 percent.

But gasoline containing ethanol is less efficient than gasoline without it. And only about 6 percent of the vehicles in the United States are so-called flex-fuel vehicles designed to run on biofuel concentrations as high as E-85.

The EPA granted a waiver for E-15 gasoline for use in all cars built since 2001, but several auto manufacturers have warned against its use.

Mr. Lipinski, of CVR Energy, expressed skepticism that the ethanol market would take off any time soon under current government policy.

“Nobody’s buying E-85,” he said, shrugging. “Who’s going to pay the same or more for a fuel that gives you 35 percent less gas mileage?”

“It’s a black pool of speculation that could cause bankruptcies in our sector.”

As if the hadn’t created enough doom and gloom for the energy industry, the soaring cost of credits for renewable energy has made the business of oil refining even harder.

Gasoline and diesel fuel refineries are required to add a certain amount of renewable fuel, like corn-based ethanol, to each gallon of petroleum-based fuel they refine. Refiners that do not do this must buy credits from refiners that do. The Environmental Protection Agency administers those credits, but an has emerged, creating huge price swings.

Jack Lipinski, the chief executive of CVR Energy (and the person quoted above), has had to double what his company spends on credits — exceeding his total costs for labor, maintenance and energy. Other independent refiners like him say they are penalized by the system because their operations are equipped to process only petroleum products.

But the industry itself remains divided over who should be responsible for purchasing the credits — those who refine the gasoline (as is currently the case) or those who blend it with biofuels.

The Deal Professor’s Lessons from the Dispute

After Viacom’s ownership saga, that can still be put into use:

1. Remember what your end-game is and what is reasonable given your situation. Philippe P. Dauman, the outgoing chief executive, seems to have failed to have recognized that he faced an uphill fight — despite having practiced law himself. He also seemed to be unaware of the public-relations aspect of his fight over Viacom.

2. Be aware of your own loyalties — corporate officers are better off leaving their loyalty with the company, where it legally belongs.

3. Bad governance breeds bad conduct. In the case of Viacom, everyone shares the blame, but Sumner M. Redstone particularly so. He ran Viacom as his personal fief.

4. Litigation has its uses, but using it as a corporate weapon can lay waste to a company.

5. A dual-class stock system does not necessarily allow the founder to build a company. It can be abused as the founder’s ownership level declines and he gives himself private benefits. And a public corporation should not be run forever as a family business.

Let us now hope that those involved in the dispute devote just as much energy to fixing the company’s governance problems and ensuring Mr. Redstone is appropriately cared for.

Did Overpay for Medivation?

Does Pfizer know something other companies don’t? Medivation is a good fit, but , it is expensive. Cancer therapies with fat margins are appealing for big drug companies, but Pfizer will have to share the rights to Xtandi, Medivation’s best-selling prostate cancer drug, with a Japanese company.

Medivation’s future drugs targeting other cancers could justify paying a 120 percent premium, or 11 times estimated sales for 2017. But for the moment, it still just looks like Pfizer is overpaying, .

The Financial Times’ compares the pharmaceutical industry’s approach to business with the treatments it sells, arguing pointedly: “Both are often about staving off decline.”

At least this deal marks a welcome return, however, to the emphasis on the business of drug discovery.

Near Cannon Ball, N.D. — It is a spectacular sight: thousands of Indians camped on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Our elders of the Seven Council Fires, as the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is known, sit in deliberation and prayer, awaiting a federal court decision on whether construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline from the Bakken region to Southern Illinois will be halted.

The Sioux tribes have come together to oppose this project, which was approved by the State of North Dakota and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, owned by a Texas oil company named Energy Transfer Partners, would snake across our treaty lands and through our ancestral burial grounds. Just a half-mile from our reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans and irrigation water for thousands of acres of farming and ranching lands.

Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company’s assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe.

The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from Day 1 using the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which grants exemption from environmental reviews required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by treating the pipeline as a series of small construction sites. And unlike the better-known Keystone XL project, which was finally canceled by the Obama administration last year, the Dakota Access project does not cross an international border — the condition that mandated the more rigorous federal assessment of the Keystone pipeline’s economic justification and environmental impacts.

The Dakota Access route is only a few miles shorter than what was proposed for the Keystone project, yet the government’s environmental assessment addressed only the portion of the pipeline route that traverses federal land. Domestic projects of this magnitude should clearly be evaluated in their totality — but without closer scrutiny, the proposal breezed through the four state processes.

Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency.

It’s a familiar story in Indian Country. This is the third time that the Sioux Nation’s lands and resources have been taken without regard for tribal interests. The Sioux peoples signed treaties in 1851 and 1868. The government broke them before the ink was dry.

When the Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Missouri River in 1958, it took our riverfront forests, fruit orchards and most fertile farmland to create Lake Oahe. Now the Corps is taking our clean water and sacred places by approving this river crossing. Whether it’s gold from the Black Hills or hydropower from the Missouri or oil pipelines that threaten our ancestral inheritance, the tribes have always paid the price for America’s prosperity.

Protecting water and our sacred places has always been at the center of our cause. The Indian encampment on the Cannonball grows daily, with nearly 90 tribes now represented. Many of us have been here before, facing the destruction of homelands and waters, as time and time again tribes were ignored when we opposed projects like the Dakota Access pipeline.

Our hand continues to be open to cooperation, and our cause is just. This fight is not just for the interests of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, but also for those of our neighbors on the Missouri River: The ranchers and farmers and small towns who depend on the river have shown overwhelming support for our protest.

As American citizens, we all have a responsibility to speak for a vision of the future that is safe and productive for our grandchildren. We are a peaceful people and our tribal council is committed to nonviolence; it is our constitutional right to express our views and take this stand at the Cannonball camp. Yet the lieutenant governor of North Dakota, Drew Wrigley, has threatened to to end this historic, peaceful gathering.

We are also a resilient people who have survived unspeakable hardships in the past, so we know what is at stake now. As our songs and prayers echo across the prairie, we need the public to see that in standing up for our rights, we do so on behalf of the millions of Americans who will be affected by this pipeline.

As one of our greatest leaders, Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota, once said: “Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.” That appeal is as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.

The company will also set up one Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) depot and a new bottling plant in Agartala

The company will also set up one Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant (POL) depot and a new bottling plant in Agartala

To split or not to split?

That is the question facing this summer. The Danish shipping-to-oil conglomerate has been hit by what it calls a “perfect storm” and so is now contemplating a historic break-up into two parts.

Its container shipping business, the world’s largest, has had to contend with , as freight rates hit record lows.

Maersk’s oil production and drilling rig businesses were meant to act as hedges to shipping, allowing it to benefit in part from high energy prices. But instead they have been hit by the plunge in oil prices, leaving a conglomerate that is suffering on all fronts.

The 112-year-old company is not known for its radicalism, so it demonstrated the scale of the problem when Maersk’s chairman publicly floated the idea of a split. But playing around with the corporate structure is not going to be sufficient for Maersk: it needs to rediscover growth as well.

Soren Skou, chief executive since the end of June, is the man charged with delivering a strategic review by the end of next month. He owes his position to what insiders call a “struggle of wills” that pitted chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen and the family that controls the company against its last chief executive, Nils Andersen.

Mr Andersen lost and was fired. That same day, Mr Rasmussen told the Financial Times and others that a break-up was being discussed.

Now that such a dramatic idea has been floated, insiders say there is little chance of backtracking.

The favoured solution currently is for Maersk to split in two: a transport business formed around Maersk Line in container shipping and APM Terminals, which runs ports worldwide; and an energy business centred on oil production and drilling rigs.

A different outcome is possible. There are technical issues to clear up about Maersk’s oilfields in the North Sea.

But it is clear that Maersk Line — which Mr Skou has headed since 2012 and will continue to lead — will return to its position as the dominant part of the Danish group.

The oil business is praised by Mr Skou for cutting costs by a quarter in the past year, making it profitable if crude prices sink back to $40 to $45 per barrel again. But Maersk Oil recently lost its biggest asset — a Qatari oilfield — and insiders worry about whether it can offer much in the way of revenue growth to the conglomerate.

That is because top-line growth — or the lack of it — is arguably Maersk’s biggest issue. It certainly seems a bigger problem than having to explain its ragbag of assets, especially after Mr Andersen sold off stakes in Denmark’s largest bank and supermarket, symbols of its role as the country’s pre-eminent company.

In his first interview as chief executive, Mr Skou told the FT that boosting revenues would be one of his main priorities. Revenues are lower than they were a decade ago and have fallen consistently in the past five years.

The second quarter was a demonstration of why top-line growth will be tricky, at least without an acquisition. Maersk Line managed to increase its volumes by 7 per cent compared with a year earlier. But a 24 per cent drop in freight rates meant revenues fell by a fifth.

A wave of consolidation is taking place in container shipping at the same time as overcapacity bedevils the industry. Maersk, like its peers, is likely to turn to acquisitions. After all, Maersk Line is keen to hold on to its position as the market leader. It looked at buying Neptune Orient Lines, the Singapore-based shipping group that was eventually sold to French rival CMA CGM late last year.

Still, Maersk’s record in acquisitions gives pause for thought. The Danish group concedes itself that it botched the integration of its last big deal, the takeover of P&O Nedlloyd in 2005.

In his four years as head of Maersk Line, Mr Skou has demonstrated he can prop up the bottom line by cutting costs by 39 per cent since the start of 2012. Now, with the distraction of a potential split as well, he has to show if he has the same expertise with the top line.