Tullow Oil is to turn its focus towards South America later this year, aiming to start drilling offshore Suriname by October at an area close to where super-major ExxonMobil this week made a significant discovery off the coast of Guyana.

Norway is seeking greater leeway to restrict foreign ownership of its offshore fields, a move seen to be potentially targeting a growing Russian interest in its resources.

Given the fondness that the president-elect and so many of his appointees seem to have for Russian President Vladimir Putin, life may be about to imitate — if not exceed — art, says Nina L Khrushcheva.

The top Senate Republican says that Congress will investigate a CIA assessment that Russia interfered in the November election on behalf of Donald Trump, an intelligence conclusion that the incoming commander in chief has called "ridiculous".

British exploration firm Europa Oil and Gas is hopeful of landing a development partner for licences it holds off the Irish coast before the end of the year.

Standing up to energy producers and getting them to leave fossil fuels in the ground is the only way to fight climate change globally, writes Lili Fuhr    

Just as big tobacco deliberately misled the public on the cancer-causing effects of smoking, big oil attacked scientists who warned of the impending climate disaster and their attempts now to help ‘solve’ the problem should be shunned by governments, write Kelle Louaillier and Bill McKibben

Europa Oil and Gas is set to raise around £3.4m (€4.8m) via a share placing and open offer, with proceeds partially being earmarked to fund its activities in Irish waters.

Ireland’s exploration sector is set to receive a timely boost, with drilling primed to begin at one of Lansdowne Oil & Gas’ Celtic Sea assets in August.

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy smaller rival BG Group for £47bn (€65bn) in the first major energy industry merger in more than a decade, closing the gap on market leader ExxonMobil after a plunge in prices.

In spite of his previous attempts to quell the public obsession with his ailing golf career, Tiger Woods is truly the only spark that ignites the interest of the general US public.

President Vladimir Putin has lamented the latest round of US sanctions against Russia, saying they are stalemating bilateral relations and hurting not only Russian but also American businesses.

The United States has announced new sanctions on seven Russian government officials and 17 companies with links to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

CORK firm BioTector Analytical Systems saw 2013 out with a bang after winning the Irish Exporters’ Association’s Manufacturing Exporter of the Year award.

Providence Resources is in discussions with “a select number” of exploration and production companies from Asia, North America, and Europe regarding a farm-in to its Barryroe oil field in the Celtic Sea.

Irish-founded engineering services group, Kentz has secured a second major contract win in under a week, yesterday announcing the award of a five-year framework contract for general engineering services on the SAMREF refinery in Saudi Arabia.

Russian coast guards have boarded a Greepeace ship which is in the Arctic to protest against oil drilling.

Russia has blocked a Greenpeace ship from entering Arctic waters where the environmentalist group was planning to protest against oil exploration activities by Rosneft and ExxonMobil.

Russia has blocked a Greenpeace ship from entering Arctic waters where the environmentalist group was planning to protest against oil exploration activities by Rosneft and ExxonMobil, the group said.

Oil giant ExxonMobil has said it has no intention of pulling out of Irish waters, despite disappointing early drilling results from the highly-anticipated Dunquin prospect off the Kerry coast — in which it is a senior partner — last month.

The main representative body for Ireland’s exploration industry has called for the Government to hold back on plans to increase the potential tax take from companies drilling for oil and gas in Irish waters.

The first well to be drilled at the highly anticipated Dunquin oil and gas prospect off the Kerry coast has been abandoned, sending shares in the field’s Irish stakeholder — Providence Resources — plummeting by nearly 10%.

Texan exploration company Kosmos Energy has commenced 3D seismic surveys on the two prospects off the Co Kerry coast in which it bought controlling stakes earlier this year.

A long-range medevac mission — thought to be one of the largest ever undertaken by the Irish Coast Guard — was dramatically stood down midway through the operation last night after the condition of the casualty improved.

Providence Resources has said it is likely to submit bids in the next offshore Ireland licensing round, whenever that may be announced.

Ireland’s burgeoning offshore oil and gas industry has the potential to produce between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs per year and substantially increase the exchequer’s annual corporate tax take; but only if some existing barriers to entry for overseas players are removed, according to a new report.

Providence Resources has said that initial results from drilling activity at the highly-anticipated Dunquin prospect, off the coast of Kerry, should be known before the end of the summer.

Drilling activity has formally started at the Dunquin exploration prospect off the Kerry coast.

Oil exploration drilling programmes off the Irish coast are expected to increase materially in the coming years, according to Davy Stockbrokers, who view the entry of Kosmos Energy as a potential game changer in Irish oil exploration.

ExxonMobil is gearing up to finally begin drilling off the coast at the highly-anticipated Dunquin prospect, with the rig arriving in Cork late last week for preparation.

Global energy giant Exxon Mobil is due to start a $140m (€108m) exploratory drilling programme for gas and oil off the south- west coast.

Belgian police have said that a British oil executive shot dead in Brussels could have been the victim of a targeted assassination or a random mugging.

Kentz, the Irish-founded engineering services group, has been awarded a $50m (€38.3m) support services contract with the Russian subsidiary of US oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil.

After striking it rich off the Cork coast, exploration company Providence and its prospecting partners have lined up a specialist rig to try to find oil in difficult, deep waters 200km off the Kerry coast.

An updated technical study of the Drombeg exploration prospect off the west coast — which is 80% owned by Providence Resources — suggests that the field is larger and of more significance than initially thought.

Providence Resources could sell 40% of its shareholding in the Barryroe oil and gas field, off the Cork coast, later this year.

Drilling is expected to start next year on the Dunquin oil and gas licence off the West coast of Ireland — which is 16%-owned by Providence Resources.

It’s not only toxic — it’s driven by a right-wing billionaire who profits more from flipping land than drilling for gas. Is energy’s latest boon just another scam founded on hot air? Jeff Goodell reports

Iraq today signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. to tap natural gas in the south, one of the biggest agreements by the OPEC member to develop an energy sector battered by years of neglect and war.

MY colleagues and I recently attended a briefing by a company named Kentz.

BP, the operator of the Gulf of Mexico well that caused the worst ever US oil spill last year, said profit declined less than expected as it increased an asset sales target 50% to $45 billion (€32.3bn).

THE Irish Offshore Operators’ Association has called on the Government to better promote Ireland as a viable target for overseas oil and gas exploration companies; adding that the development of even one major oil discovery off the Irish coast could deliver nearly €16 billion in direct taxes to the Exchequer.

The FTSE 100 Index was dragged lower today as continued fears over the pace of economic recovery offset the impact of merger and acquisition activity in the oil and gas sector.

BP denied a report its embattled chief executive would leave soon, as it lined up $7 billion (€5.46bn) in asset sales to help pay for the worst oil spill in US history, lifting its shares yesterday.