Continental Resources Inc News

Oilman Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc., told a University of Oklahoma dean last year that scientists studying links between oil drilling and earthquakes should be dismissed, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Bloomberg, citing emails obtained through a public records request, said Hamm indicated he wanted to see some scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, which is based at the university, let go. Scientists have said the reinjection of drilling and fracking wastewater into disposal walls could be tied to earthquakes. Bloomberg said a university spokeswoman denied any interference from Hamm, who has been a donor to the university. Bloomberg said no changes were made to the university's team of scientists.

More than a dozen U.S. oil producers have joined to lobby the federal government to reverse the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, a move that supporters hope would create jobs and boost national security, a spokesman for one of the companies and a lobbyist for another one said on Friday. Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, or PACE, is the first lobbying group to form on reversing the ban. "The end game here is legislative repeal of the ban," said a lobbyist for one of the member producers, who did not want to be named because the group was only recently formed. Congress passed the trade restriction in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo caused fears of domestic oil shortages.

Ending a 40-year old ban on U.S. crude oil exports would not raise domestic gasoline prices because it would put more petroleum onto global markets, where fuel prices are primarily set, a study by The Aspen Institute said on Tuesday. As the U.S. oil boom of the last six years builds an excess of light crude along the Gulf Coast refining hub, calls have risen for Congress and the Obama administration to relax the ban on shipments to global customers. The restriction was put in place in the 1970s following the Arab oil embargo. Many politicians have not embraced lifting the ban so far, fearing that they could be punished at the ballot box for any increase in gasoline prices.

Continental Resources Inc, the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, promoted Jack Stark to president on Wednesday, less than a week after Rick Bott quit the position. Stark, 59, had worked at Continental since 1998, most recently as head of exploration. The promotion instantly makes Stark the top contender to replace founder and Chief Executive Harold Hamm. Bott stepped down as president last week, a move that surprised many on Wall Street, and even some inside the company. Continental is set to hold an analyst day on Thursday in Oklahoma City. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by David Gregorio)

Continental Resources Inc, the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, said on Thursday that Rick Bott, its president and chief operating officer, had resigned. Bott, 54, was widely considered the likely successor to Continental Chief Executive Officer Harold Hamm, 68. His departure leaves a talent gap at the top of the company, which is in the midst of an ambitious attempt to double its 2012 production levels by 2017. Continental said Bott's duties will be divided between remaining executives. It was not immediately clear why Bott resigned or if he had secured a new job. Before joining Continental in 2012, Bott had worked at Cairn India Ltd and in Devon Energy Corp's international division. Calls to Bott were not immediately returned.

U.S. regulators seeking data from refiners in the effort to gauge the volatility of North Dakota Bakken crude being shipped by rail will have the information by the end of May, according to the industry's trade group. Seventeen companies have anonymously submitted data from more than 1,000 samples to an undisclosed third-party auditor hired by the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM), the U.S. independent refining industry's trade group, the group's general counsel, Rich Moskowitz, said on Friday. A technical consultant is compiling the information into a report to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation by month's end, Moskowitz said. It will be submitted without companies identifying themselves because they consider the data proprietary.