China's CNOOC buys stake in US energy project (AFP)

U.S. drillers that set up rigs amid the rolling farmland of eastern Ohio on projections underground shale held US$500-billion of oil are packing up.

CALGARY • The $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project was long ago mothballed and exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea is on ice, but Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod is determined to see the region’s billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas developed. What’s more, he believes he’s found the financiers to pay for it.

By Bret Jensen:Domestic energy production has exponentially increased over the last few years due to fracking technology. No place has ramped up energy production more than the Bakken reserves. Numerous E&P outfits with shale acreage/production have seen their shares doubled, tripled or more in the past twelve to eighteen months, and it is certainly harder to find bargains now than it was in 2010.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s purchase of a stake in Israel’s largest natural gas deposit takes Asia-Pacific oil and gas acquisitions to a record US$99-billion this year, tying the U.S. for the first time. Australia’s second-largest petroleum producer yesterday said it will pay partners including Noble Energy Inc. an initial US$696-million and as much as US$2.3-billion for part of the Leviathan field. Deals by U.S. energy companies have fallen 35% to US$98.7-billion in 2012, while Asia-Pacific purchases increased 3.8%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

1. REUTERS -- "Oil output from shale prospects in unconventional sources from North Dakota to Texas could reach 1.5 million to 2 million barrels-per-day (bpd) in the coming five to seven years, twice as much as the 700,000 bpd currently produced in these places."

China National Petroleum Corp., the country’s biggest oil company, is seeking its first stake in the U.S. as Chinese explorers with US$40-billion of cash try to join an energy renaissance unlocking billions of barrels of crude. “We are currently studying” investing in U.S. oil, Jiang Jiemin, chairman of the state-run company, said Monday at the National People’s Congress meetings in Beijing. Domestic rival China Petrochemical Corp. last month agreed to buy stakes in an Oklahoma field from Chesapeake Energy Corp. for US$1.02-billion.

The Green River Formation is a largely vacant region of mostly federal land on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains that includ