he National Petroleum Council (NPC) issued a report to Energy Secretary Steven Chu on September 14 stating that oil fields in the United States could one day produce as much crude oil as Venezuela.

Goldman Sachs made a prediction on Sunday, September 11, that the United States will become the world's largest oil producing country by 2017.

Legislation has recently been drafted that would alter the process of hiring inspectors and increase discussion related to drilling operations.

Junior exploration and production company Crimson Exploration (CXPO:NASDAQ) announced Monday that it has started production of two wells in the Eagle Ford Shale.

Investment bank Dundee Securities recently began covering Wild Stream Exploration (WSX:TSXV) and provided it with a Buy rating and a target share price of C$14.50.

Financial services firm Raymond James announced on September 13 that it is reluctantly downgrading Geokinetics Inc. (GOK:AMEX) to Market Perform from Outperform based on a recent accident in Mexico which caused at least three deaths.

Surge Energy (SGY:TSVX) recently announced that it has drilled a horizontal well located at Valhalla South in Western Alberta which yielded five-day test rates of 1,992 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Calgary-based Gran Tierra Energy (GTE:TSX) and its co-venturer Petrogas (BOE:TSXV) announced their discovery of a significant supply of oil in the Neuquen Basin of Argentina on September 12.