Dallas, Texas — At a time when the economy is on a seemingly constant downslide, it is hard to know exactly where the real estate market in any given city is going. Home sales everywhere are down and foreclosures are occurring in record numbers. New construction and commercial real estate sales have slowed down tremendously and Realtors all over the country are working hard with potential home buyers to invest in a home and get home sales back on the incline.

However, for the commercial real estate market in Texas, things are continuing to look up; particularly in the commercial real estate sector. According to Lewis Realty Advisors, a real estate valuation and consulting firm located in Houston, Texas, major metropolitan areas around the state are continuing to post gains in significant areas such as employment and population, two of the most important groups in terms of business.

David Lewis, who is the founder of the company, tells Dallas Business Journal that while he does not feel as though Texas is not immune to some of the same economic problems that has affected other regions of the country, he does see many positive trends in the area of real estate and in the general economy of the state of Texas.

The report names Dallas/Forth Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio as top gainers in terms of job growth in the nation. Coinciding with those numbers are increased numbers of population growth for all four cities as well. The economy in Texas relies mainly on healthy education, technology and health care sectors. However, the energy sector is what continues to drive the Texas economy, with a large presence in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Lewis’ view of the numbers is that because Texas is seeing overall growth, it is a signal that Texas real estate is performing just as well and likely will continue the trend for the foreseeable future.

Source: NewsWire

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- BP PLC (BP) and its partners Monday got a green light to kick off one of Angola’s largest oil and gas investments, worth $10 billion.

The news come as the country is steadily ramping up production after becoming Africa’s largest oil producer, bypassing Nigeria where violence has hampered output.

The announcement is also good news for U.K. giant BP, whose ambitions have been challenged by a dispute in Russia and delays in the U.S.

In a statement, BP said state-owned Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, or Sonangol, had authorized it and its partners to develop a series of deepwater oil discoveries in offshore Angola’s Block 31.

Construction work is expected to start during 2008 with first oil planned in 2011 and building to a plateau of about 150,000 barrels a day by 2012, BP said.

Natural gas production is expected to plateau at 185 million cubic feet a day, a BP spokesman added.

The company and its partners will invest $10 billion in the developments, most of it in the four years prior to the plateau production, a person familiar with BP’s plans said.

BP is the operator and 26.7% owner of the license. The other shareholders in Block 31 are an Exxon Mobil Corp. unit with 25%, Sonangol with 20%, Statoil ASA (STO) with 13.3%, Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) with 10% and a Total SA (TOT) subsidiary with 5%. Sonangol is the concessionaire.

BP has invested heavily in Angola, an African country that has proved more secure than Nigeria, and where the company’s fortunes contrast with setbacks elsewhere.

In Russia, BP is under attack following a dispute with its local partners in joint-venture TNK-BP Holding (TNBP.RS) while it has suffered a three years delay with its giant platform Thunder Horse in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

By contrast, BP’s 200,000 barrels-a-day Greater Plutonio met its deadline when it started producing at the end of 2007. The most recent project will also help Angola’s plans to ramp up of its production. Angola’s Petroleum Minister

Desiderio Costa said earlier this month that oil output is already expected to rise to 2 million barrels a day in 2008, from a current 1.9 million barrels a day.Source:  CNN Money

As President Bush calls for repealing a ban on drilling off most of the coast of the United States, a shortage of ships used for deep-water offshore drilling promises to impede any rapid turnaround in oil exploration and supply.

In recent years, this global shortage of drill-ships has created a critical bottleneck, frustrating energy company executives and constraining their ability to exploit known reserves or find new ones. Slow growth in oil supplies, at a time of soaring demand, has been a major factor in the spike of oil and gasoline prices.

Mr. Bush called on Congress Wednesday to end a longstanding federal ban on offshore drilling and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration, arguing that the steps were needed to lower gasoline prices and bolster national security. But even as oil trades at more than $135 a barrel — up from $68 a year ago — the world’s existing drill-ships are booked solid for the next five years. Some oil companies have been forced to postpone exploration while waiting for a drilling rig, executives and analysts said.

Demand is so high that shipbuilders, the biggest of whom are in Asia, have raised prices since last year by as much as $100 million a vessel to about half a billion dollars.

“The crunch on rigs is everywhere,” said Alberto Guimaraes, a senior executive at Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that has discovered some of the most promising offshore oil but has been unable to get at it.

“Almost 100 percent of the oil companies are constrained in their investment program because there is no rig available,” he said.