Sources include: Dow Jones (DJ), New York Times (NYT), Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and the Washington Post (WP).
January 10 The White House announces that President Clinton will not designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a national monument prior to his departure from office. Environmentalist groups had been pressing for national monument status for the ANWR to prevent oil drilling. (DJ)
January 17 OPEC agrees at a meeting of ministers in Vienna, to reduce members' production quotas by per day. The move comes in response to OPEC members' concerns about declining prices. Analysts expect the actual production cuts to total somewhat less than per day, as some OPEC members had quotas above their actual production capacity. (NYT, WP)
February 20 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California, allowing a lower court ruling in favor of Unocal to stand. The ruling may eventually have effects beyond the California market, as tighter environmental standards for fuels take effect across much of the country.(DJ, WSJ)
February 28 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces that it intends to proceed with implementation of tighter restrictions on sulfur content in diesel fuel, which were proposed by the Clinton administration. The rule, which will require a reduction of 97% in sulfur content by 2006, has been opposed by many in the refining industry. (DJ)
March 4 Tests in recent days confirm the world's largest oil find in three decades in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea. Kashagan is a single reservoir at least across, and two-and-a-half times the size of the nearby Tengiz field. (WSJ)
March 6 United States Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham formally establishes the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, a government-owned reserve to be used in emergency circumstances. (US Department of Energy)
March 15 The world's largest oil rig, located offshore Brazil and operated by the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, suffers three explosions. This one platform accounted for more than 5% of Petrobras' total production. On March 20 Petrobras 36 Oil Platform sinks with of fuel and crude oil aboard. (WSJ)
March 17 OPEC decides to cut output by 4% or per day, effective April 1. The cut is aimed at preventing a price collapse in a time of weakening demand. (NYT)
March 26 Kazakhstan's Prime Minister opens an oil pipeline from the giant Tengiz Field to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Monday, giving the Central Asian producer its first direct link to international markets. The pipeline will carry of oil per day by the end of the year, and eventually per day. (NYT)
April 17 A letter from U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Gale Norton to Florida Governor Jeb Bush is released, stating that the Bush administration has decided to go ahead with plans to auction (24,000 km²) of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. Department of the Interior estimates that the area contains of oil and of natural gas. (USAT)
April 30 U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney previews the administration's energy plan in a speech in Toronto, Canada. Cheney, stating that conservation alone cannot solve America's energy needs, calls for increased domestic production of fossil fuels and increased usage of nuclear power to meet America's energy demand. He also calls for construction of new coal and gas power plants, as well as upgrading and expanding of the country's transmission grid. (WSJ, USAT)
May 17 President Bush issues the administration's new energy policy. Among the plan's 105 specific recommendations are calls for reduced regulations to encourage more oil, gas, and nuclear production, tax incentives to boost coal output, and other tax incentives to promote conservation and alternative fuels. The plan also calls for increasing energy assistance to low-income households and for making the electricity grid more interconnected, both domestically and with Mexico and Canada. (LAT, WP, WSJ)
May 18 Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its "Gas Initiative," three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion. They are: Core Venture 1: ExxonMobil (lead), Shell, BP, and Phillips; Venture 2: ExxonMobil (lead), Occidental and Enron (a joint bid); Venture 3: Shell (lead), TotalFinaElf, and Conoco. The Gas Initiative is the first major reopening of Saudi Arabia's upstream hydrocarbon sector since nationalization in the 1970s. (WMO)