Escalating violence in Iraq threatens to unleash an oil price spike that would put an end to the greatest period of price stability for nearly half a century, BP's chief economist has warned.

Escalating violence in Iraq has spooked world sharemarkets and pushed up oil to its highest price in nine months.

Almost 140 jobs are to be axed at Solid Energy's Stockton mine, the company announced today.

The oil and gas industry is suddenly brimming with upstart millennials after decades of failing to attract and retain new entrants.

China has signed a long-awaited deal for Russian natural gas, giving China a new energy source and Russia a diplomatic boost.

China is stockpiling oil for its strategic petroleum reserve at a record pace, intervening on a scale large enough to send a powerful pulse through the world crude market.

A hopelessly one-sided conflict will be renewed in Ruakaka, Northland, on Thursday.

For Nestle, life at the top of the $81 billion coffee market just got more difficult.

Bathurst Resources, which has cut jobs and delayed the start to its Denniston mine, may raise up to $6.87m in a discounted share placement.

Many areas too remote or dangerous for humans could be opened for exploration.

Net oil imports to the US could fall to zero by 2037 because of robust production in areas including North Dakota and Texas's Eagle Ford formation.

The fog was just beginning to lift on the Houston Ship Channel on March 22 as a bulk carrier and a fuel barge found themselves on a crash course.

In 1945 Jan Arps published a formula, which has become one of the most widely used measures, to predict how much crude oil a well will produce.

An attempt to have the Court of Appeal order the liquidation of Greymouth Petroleum was described by one of the judges hearing the appeal as a tactic to "extort."

A long-running and acrimonious dispute between two rich-lister shareholders of Greymouth Petroleum and their former colleague at the oil and gas company is heading back to court.

Labour is looking at the Norwegian model for regulating the oil and gas industry, including stronger environmental safeguards and steeper taxes.

Big international oil and gas recruitment company Air Energi is moving into New Zealand in what is being described as a vote of confidence in the sector here.

Revelations that a "worst-case" oil well blowout in New Zealand waters could take five weeks to plug.

The first taste of petroleum money could be just weeks away in Dunedin, as oil giant Anadarko prepares to move its drilling ship into Otago waters.

Two southern cities are battling it out for hosting rights to an oil and gas base, after confirmation oil giant Shell wants to drill a test well in the deep south.

A significant gas find in the Great South Basin would provide the largest economic boom to NZ people would ever remember, an analyst said.

Shell hopes drilling will produce Maui-size gas reserves