The U.S. natural gas industry will create 1.5 million jobs by 2015, in large part because of the surge in production from unconventional shale beds that require hydraulic fracturing, according to an IHS study released Wednesday.

What started as a family construction firm in the 1960s, Essar Group, based in Mumbai India, now is a behemoth of a company. It is fully integrated in steel production, oil and gas production and refining, electric generation and shipping on five continents with revenue of more than $27 billion.

India's supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) is set to expand as Petronet, the country's largest LNG importer, seeks $1 billion to expand its import capacity.

Leaders of the world's 12-member crude oil cartel gather this week in Vienna to discuss and perhaps set a production ceiling for the group in what is expected to rubber stamp the current state of affairs. It is also expected to feature a fierce tug-of-war between Saudi Arabia, the cartel's dominant producer, and Iran.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said her administration's environmental policies have had no influence on the coal industry's current hardships, despite enforcing tougher emission standards the industry says increases their costs and dampens demand for coal.

The price of natural gas in the U.S. could be soon set for a steep rise, reaching levels not seen since in years, said one industry consultant.

Clean energy advocates may be celebrating the decline of coal-fired power. But in the heart of Kentucky's Appalachia, ground zero for coal country, mining is essentially the economy. And there, no coal means no recovery

France's agriculture ministry intends to revoke a key permit allowing the use of a pesticide believed by scientists to harm bumblebee and honeybee populations.

Two Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) directors -- members of the audit committee now dealing with the personal finances of the company's CEO -- offered their resignations Friday after they attracted little support at the annual shareholders meeting.

The effect of the nation's declining demand for coal is causing added drag on some leading rail companies, and shareholders are not happy.

The 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill may prove to be a jobs booster for the region, if money paid in damages is spent to restore the Gulf's coast.

The price of gold on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by more than 2 percent on Thursday, ending six days of consecutive price increases so far this month.

Richard Schulze, the founder and largest shareholder of Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), the biggest U.S. electronics chain store, told the company's board Thursday he is resigning, effectively immediately. A reason for the abrupt departure was not publicly disclosed.

One more U.S. state is joining the ranks of those considering opening their doors to fracking, the controversial drilling technique that has brought jobs and revenue across the U.S. while being accused of being environmentally damaging. Kansas is, like North Carolina and New York, debating whether to say yes to oil and gas companies that want to drill in the state.

Citing lax laws and concerns about their water supply, farmers in Australia are pressuring lawmakers to impose a moratorium on the controversial drilling technique known as fracking.

Brazil's oil regulator announced Monday it could affix a fine Chevron Corp., would have to pay for a November oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro by this summer.

The American Petroleum Institute and America's Natural Gas Alliance are criticizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's most recent natural gas emission estimates and suggest actual industry emissions are half what federal regulators say.

Chinese oil company CNOOC said the localsubsidiary of U.S. oil company ConocoPhillips is cleaning up a small and contained oil spill, on the site where a much larger spill occurred last year.

The North Carolina Senate could begin debating that state's first piece of legislation to allow hydraulic fracturing in oil-and-gas drilling next week.

The troubled Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE:CHK), the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country, announced Friday it has made a significant discovery of crude oil and natural gas in the Anadarko Basin beneath the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma.