Occidental Petroleum agreed to buy Texas shale driller CrownRock in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $10.8 billion as consolidation heats up in North America’s most-prolific oil basin.

The Biden administration released plans Sept. 29 to hold three auctions of offshore drilling rights over the next five years — part of what it cast as an effort to phase down oil leasing in favor of clean energy.

The Biden administration on Sept. 14 issued oil and natural gas leases to companies that nabbed the Gulf of Mexico drilling rights in a government auction later invalidated by a federal court.

The war in Ukraine has touched off a feud between the White House and U.S. oil industry as many companies reap record profits from rising prices despite pumping less crude than before the pandemic, leaving American consumers beset by surging gasoline costs.

New oil and gas leasing within 10 miles of Chaco Culture National Historical Park will be prohibited for the next two years as officials consider a proposal to withdraw federal land in the area from development for a 20-year period, the U.S. Department of Interior said Nov. 15.

The U.S. government cut its oil production forecast for the first time in six months as drillers scale back in smaller shale plays and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Noble Energy Inc. and other companies exploring for oil and natural gas in Colorado jumped in pre-market trading Nov. 7 after voters rejected a plan that sought to limit their ability to drill in the state.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The first oil and gas production wells in federal Arctic waters have been approved by U.S. regulators. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Oct. 24 announced it issued a conditional permit for the Liberty Project, a proposal by a subsidiary of Houston-based Hilcorp for production wells on an artificial island in the Beaufort Sea.