Centrica PLC has submitted the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Oda oil field in the North Sea to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Brian Partee is slated to become director of business development at Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) with the retirement of James P. Heintschel II effective Jan. 1.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service announced that it completed an initial review of a fresh petition to list the lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species, and found sufficient evidence that the petition may be warranted. This will trigger a thorough status review, the US Department of the Interior agency said on Nov. 29.

Shell Offshore Inc. has let a front-end engineering and design contract for the Vito platform in the Gulf of Mexico to Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Dallas.

A ground-breaking technique that allows green spaces to be mapped in 3D from an aircraft could boost biodiversity, aid human wellbeing and even help protect rainforests, say experts.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to curt their production levels by slightly more than 1 million b/d effective Jan. 1, 2017, to 32.5 million b/d from the cartel’s October production of 33.6 million b/d.

Canada’s federal government approved construction of two crude oil export pipelines on Nov. 29 while rejecting a third project. Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans-Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP) from Alberta to Burnaby, BC, near Vancouver, and Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 replacement south into US markets received green lights. Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to a British Columbia coastal site farther north did not.

Oil field services firm Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI), Houston, private equity firm CSL Capital Management LLC, and West Street Energy Partners LP (WSEP), a fund managed by the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs, have agreed to form a pure-play North American land pressure pumping company.

Prospects for a joint US House-Senate conference to send compromise energy-reform legislation to the White House before yearend are growing dim because so many significant disagreements have remained unresolved, a House Natural Resources Committee official said.