Oil

The ban means BP will not be able to receive government contracts, loans or grants — at least for a while.

In any mining boom, some people are there to work in it, others are there to supply them. Need a knife in Williston, N.D.? Talk to Bobcat John.

North Dakota's oil boom has drawn thousands of workers to the state, overwhelming small towns. Rents are sky high. Workers live in barracks called mancamps. And there's not much to do besides work. One promoter brought martial arts fighting to town — the Williston Basin Blowout.

The company has started buying its stock to boost its share price and rumors are buzzing the stock purchase is a defensive move to stave off a buyout from a competing firm.

A boom fueled by hydraulic fracturing of shale should add millions of jobs in the U.S. The question: How long will it last?

The International Energy Agency is forecasting that the U.S. will become the biggest oil producer in the world within the next decade.

Every fracking well requires miles of pipe. The result is new investment in Ohio steel mills — which also benefit from cheap natural gas for fuel.

The presidential campaign talks a lot about coal in Ohio, but the fossil fuel of the moment is oil. Fracking has made possible a second oil boom, more than a century after the state's first one.

The state-controlled Russian oil firm Rosneft is reported ready to enter a multi-billion dollar joint venture with the British oil giant BP to create the world’s biggest listed oil company.

Higher production could make Iraq the world's second-largest oil exporter. Most of the added oil won't go to the U.S., but to countries helping Iraq rebuild its oil facilities and basic infrastructure.