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Oil Down in Asia, Brent-WTI Spread Widest Since April

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trading hours Thursday as investors weighed the impact of rising U.S. oil inventories and the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $96.54 a barrel at 0432 GMT, down $0.23 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.29 to $109.57 a barrel. The premium of Brent crude over Nymex WTI is at around $13 a barrel, its widest since April as supply disruptions in the Middle East have supported Brent prices while WTI is under pressure due to rising U.S. oil stocks. U.S. crude inventories rose more than expected in the week ended Oct. 25, by 4.1 million barrels to 383.9 million barrels, compared with an expected increase of 2.2 million barrels, Energy Information Administration data showed. […]

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WTI Oil Trades Near Four-Month Low as U.S. Crude Stockpiles Gain

West Texas Intermediate traded near a four-month low as crude stockpiles gained for a sixth week in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Libya may resume production from one of its largest oil fields by next week. Futures were little changed in New York and poised for a second monthly drop. Crude inventories rose by 4.1 million barrels to 383.9 million last week, data from the Energy Information Administration show. Supplies were projected to climb by 2.4 million, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. Libya’s Sharara field may restart within 10 days, Salah A. Ben Ali, the manager of international cooperation at the Oil and Gas Ministry, said at a conference in Singapore . “It’s tough times for the oil market,” said Ric Spooner, a chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The reason for the decline is apparent, with the U.S. data showing a […]

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Natural Gas Falls for Third Straight Day Ahead of Inventory Report

–Natural gas slide continues for third straight day –Traders concerned about high supplies and weak demand amid forecasts for warmer-than-normal weather –EIA data expected to show stockpiles above five-year average for last week By Brett Philbin NEW YORK–Natural gas futures fell for the third straight session on Wednesday, as traders await a government inventory report expected to show high supplies for this time of year amid forecasts for warm temperatures at the start of the winter heating season. Natural gas for December delivery settled 0.9 cents lower, or 0.2%, to $3.620 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have finished lower in eight of the past nine trading days. “The weather forecast isn’t ominous for the next few weeks and we’re going to start winter with a comfortable amount of gas in the ground,” said Stephen Schork, editor of The Schork Report, an energy […]

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Iran attempts to woo investors with new energy contract terms

TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (UPI) — A new way of thinking about Iranian energy contracts could help meet the expectations of domestic and foreign investors, an Iranian lawmaker said. Shana, the Iranian Oil Ministry’s official news agency, said the government expects to unveil a new framework for oil contracts within the next six months. “It seems that the existing contracts could not meet the expectations of domestic and foreign investors and contractors and we need to reconsider them,” Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, a lawmaker tasked with assessing energy contracts, was quoted as saying Tuesday. Western sanctions on Iran’s energy sector are designed to starve it of revenue it could use to finance its controversial nuclear program. “In revision of oil contracts, key and positive points in the oil contracts [signed in] Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the North Sea littoral states will be studied and taken into account,” Manouchehri said. “In […]

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Iraqi PM: US aid needed to battle al-Qaida

AP Photo WASHINGTON (AP) — A bloody resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq is prompting Baghdad to ask the U.S. for more weapons, training and manpower, two years after pushing American troops out of the country. The request will be discussed during a White House meeting Friday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side. Al-Maliki will discuss Iraq’s plight in a public speech Thursday at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington. “We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not,” Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support […]

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U.S. General Decries Spiraling Iraq Violence

TAMPA, Fla.—The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Iraq has entered a downward spiral of violence that threatens to drive the country’s leader further into the hands of Iran and heighten sectarian tensions across the region. With Iraqi security forces responding inadequately, U.S. officials are concerned that al Qaeda will develop a haven stretching from western Iraq into Syria. “If left unchecked, we could find ourselves in a regional sectarian struggle that could last a decade,” Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview here. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders on Wednesday, at the start of a visit to Washington and is set to meet President Barack Obama on Friday. The Washington visit comes at a pivotal moment. Gen. Austin and other U.S. officials have blamed […]

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Lebanon's energy minister say gas reserves now near 96 tcf

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Energy Minister Gebran Bassil says natural gas reserves off Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast are far greater than previously estimated, saying there may be 95.9 trillion cubic feet plus 865 million barrels of oil. The estimates mark a massive increase in Lebanon’s potential energy wealth, fueling growing expectations the violence-prone country is on the brink of a boom that will, at a stroke, eliminate its deepening economic distress — a debt approaching $60 billion — as it stumbles from day to day without a government and faces calamity from the spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria. Indeed, the figures cited by Bassil, whose term has been marked by a steadily deteriorating electrical supply that leaves much of Lebanon without power daily, are almost too good to be true, even with his caveats. “The current estimate, with a probability of 50 percent, for almost […]

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Lebanon’s energy minister say gas reserves now near 96 tcf

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Energy Minister Gebran Bassil says natural gas reserves off Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast are far greater than previously estimated, saying there may be 95.9 trillion cubic feet plus 865 million barrels of oil. The estimates mark a massive increase in Lebanon’s potential energy wealth, fueling growing expectations the violence-prone country is on the brink of a boom that will, at a stroke, eliminate its deepening economic distress — a debt approaching $60 billion — as it stumbles from day to day without a government and faces calamity from the spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria. Indeed, the figures cited by Bassil, whose term has been marked by a steadily deteriorating electrical supply that leaves much of Lebanon without power daily, are almost too good to be true, even with his caveats. “The current estimate, with a probability of 50 percent, for almost […]

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Iraqi tribes say Lukoil project must fuel better life

Al-Toraba, BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) – Sheikh Mansour Hamid al-Imara clutches his prayer beads and watches a huge new oil facility nearing completion across the road from his village, hoping that Russian operator Lukoil will offer his poor tribesmen a better way of life. "When the lights are on at the Lukoil plant, it’s a victory for us," he said, sipping tea with tribal elders in their reed meeting house, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the southern oil hub of Basra. "We are sitting on a huge pool of oil and want to take advantage of our resources. And the people of our tribe should be the first to be employed." After struggling for decades from sanctions and wars, most recently the U.S.-led invasion from 2003-2011, expectations run high among the 150,000 tribesmen living on West Qurna-2, the world’s second-largest undeveloped oilfield. Their sheer number leaves Lukoil with a […]

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Nigeria: Crude Oil Output Fluctuates Between 2.2 Million and 2.3 Million Barrels Per Day

Barely three years after the Amnesty Programme introduced by the federal government for repentant militants curbed the destructive attacks on oil workers and facilities, creating conducive environment for oil companies to re-open oil fields, Nigeria’s crude oil production figure has become very erratic, following several attacks on the major arteries from February to date. This is coming as the Senate and the House of Representatives could not agree on when the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) will be passed into law. Whereas the Senate said yesterday that the passage of the reform bill earlier scheduled for this year, would not happen before 2015, the House promised it would be passed before the end of 2015. The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu, who made the revelation on the country’s erratic crude oil production yesterday, said the daily crude oil production figure ranges between […]

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Shell Looks to Sell Nigerian Pipeline

Royal Dutch Shell RDSB.LN +0.55% Royal Dutch Shell PLC B U.K.: London GBp 2277.00 +12.50 +0.55% Oct. 30, 2013 4:35 pm Volume : 4.93M U.K.: London GBp 2142.50 -134.50 -5.91% Nov. 15, 2012 4:37 pm Volume : P/E Ratio 9.45 Market Cap GBp140.15 Billion Dividend Yield 5.04% Rev. per Employee GBp3,340,510 10/30/13 Shell Seeks to Exit Violent Pa… 10/22/13 Chinese Hunt for Oil in Brazil… 10/20/13 Shell’s Pennsylvania Plans Rem… More quote details and news » RDSB.LN in Your Value Your Change Short position PLC is trying to exit an oil-rich but violent part of Nigeria, say people briefed on the company’s plans to sell a leak-prone pipeline and several oil wells there. In recent weeks, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant has had early talks with Nigeria-based companies over selling them four oil-production blocks and a major pipeline in the southern Niger Delta, say two people with knowledge of the […]

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Fukushima Watch: Watchdog Approves Tepco’s Plan to Retrieve Fuel Rods

Japan’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday gave a green light to a plan by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to remove fuel rods stored in a pool at the unit 4 building at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a process that will secure the fuel and help prevent any new massive radiation release at the facility. Tepco will remove about 1,300 spent fuel rods and 200 new fuel rods stored in a pool in the reactor building, moving them in batches to a more secure storage facility on the site. The procedure, in which the 4 meter-long rods will be pulled out of the pool at a time, is considered unprecedented in its scale. Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, has expressed concerns about the fragile state of the nuclear fuel left in three reactors and the spent fuel pool in the No.4 building. If improperly handled […]

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U.S. Asks China to Team Up on Oil

Over the past five years, China has amassed hundreds of millions of barrels in strategic petroleum reserves. Now the U.S. wants China to work with it to coordinate releases of those barrels when needed to help ensure oil market stability. U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Wednesday during a trip to Beijing that China is willing to discuss a coordination agreement on the use of strategic petroleum reserves. Mr. Moniz said he expects both countries to hold “stronger” and more “active” discussions about that coordination in the coming year. Associated Press/Xinhua China is relatively new to managing petroleum reserves, and is building its capacity in three phases. The first phase, holding 100 million barrels, was completed in 2008. The second phase was finished last year, bringing the reserves to 270 million barrels, enough for about 50 days of cover. A third phase, to be finished by 2020, will […]

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Solar Rebound Beating Dot-Com Recovery as Demand Surges

Solar industry manufacturers are rebounding from a two-year slump faster than technology companies recovered from the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The benchmark BI Global Large Solar Energy Index of 15 manufacturers, which slumped 87 percent from a February 2011 peak through November 2012, has regained 55 percent of its value in the past year. The technology-dominated Nasdaq Composite (CCMP) index reached its post-bubble low in October 2002 and regained 37 percent of its March 2000 peak value in the next year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Suppliers including California ’s SunPower Corp. (SPWR) , which has gained more than fivefold this year, and China ’s Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. (YGE) are driving the rally as panel prices stabilize. Installations at power plants and on roofs will swell 40 percent this year from a 6.1 percent pace last year. “The worst is probably behind us,” Jenny […]

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Work completed on North Dakota natural gas pipeline

BISMARCK, N.D., Oct. 30 (UPI) — A new 80-mile natural gas pipeline in North Dakota will help the state reduce the amount of gas burned off during oil production, the state’s governor said. Gov. Jack Dalrymple marked the completion of an 80-mile natural gas pipeline with developer Alliance pipeline. “This state-of-the-art pipeline will help us reduce flaring, add value to our natural resources and support our nation’s energy security,” he said in a statement Tuesday. Flaring is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction. Dalrymple’s office said Alliance plans to solicit state producers to satisfy the 12-inch pipeline’s designed capacity for 126 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The pipeline is designed to deliver natural gas from a Hess Corp. gas processing plant near Tioga to the Chicago-area market hub. Alliance started building the $170 million pipeline one year ago. Hess said the pipeline would […]

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U.S. reviewing whether or not to allow oil, gas work in Atlantic Ocean

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) — The U.S. government doesn’t necessarily need a full set of data on the reserve potential in the Atlantic basin to consider a lease sale, a director said. Tommy Beaudreau, director of the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said his agency should have enough information on hand to consider the east coast for a five-year lease plan beginning in 2017. “You don’t have to have a complete set of seismic data … to schedule a sale,” he said in an interview with the Platts energy news service published Tuesday. In a five-year lease plan outlined in 2011, BOEM said the oil and natural gas potential in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf is not well understood and surveys of these areas are incomplete and out of date. “We have a strategy for evaluating whether and, if so, under what configuration to have sales, […]

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Critics cry foul over U.S. legislation for oil and gas pipelines

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) — A pipeline bill proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives would serve as a “rubber stamp” for oil sands projects, the National Wildlife Federation said. The House Energy and Commerce Committee heard testimony Tuesday on the North American Energy Infrastructure Act. The bipartisan legislation would cut the time it takes for a federal review of cross-border pipelines. “If passed, [the bill] would create a near rubber stamp approval process for massive tar sands pipelines like Keystone XL and deny public participation,” the NWF said in a statement. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., the committee’s chairman, is a supporter of Keystone XL. He said Tuesday the measure was needed because of increased oil and natural gas production in the United States. New pipeline projects, he said, “can get delayed for years on end.” Keystone XL was proposed more than five years ago. TransCanada wants to build […]

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Tanker Owners Scramble to Keep Up With Energy Boom

LONDON—Shipping operators and investors are pouring billions of dollars into building new oceangoing tankers to transport diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel—scrambling to keep up with North America’s energy boom. The shipbuilding frenzy is another knock-on effect of an energy revolution unfolding in the U.S. and Canada, where new drilling and extraction technology has unlocked vast new reservoirs of crude oil and natural gas. The U.S. still imports part of its crude-oil needs, but the newly tapped American oil has lowered costs for refiners. That is allowing them to better compete with their overseas rivals, ratcheting up exports and fueling demand for new tankers. New York-based Scorpio Tankers Inc. STNG -0.84% Scorpio Tankers Inc. U.S.: NYSE $ 11.78 -0.10 -0.84% Oct. 30, 2013 4:02 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.07M U.S.: NYSE $ 11.78 0.00 0.00% Oct. 30, 2013 4:39 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 31,234 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap […]

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US ethanol stocks, days of supply plunge to lowest recorded level: EIA – Agriculture

Biofuelscan Houston (Platts)–30Oct2013/1251 pm EDT/1651 GMT US overall ethanol stocks and days of supply for the reporting week ended last Friday both fell to their lowest recorded levels by the Energy Information Administration, agency data showed Wednesday. Specifically, US overall weekly ethanol stocks plunged 538,000 barrels to 14.961 million barrels. The previous record low was at 15.39 million barrels for the reporting week ended October 4. The EIA first started tracking ethanol stocks in the reporting week ended June 4, 2010. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: Biofuelscan Platts Biofuelscan is a daily report, covering the latest worldwide biofuel news and prices. It provides a daily summary of market events and developments, along with closing market price assessments from the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Platts Biofuelscan includes prices assessmenst for ethanol, ETBE, renewal indentification number (RIN) biofuels (US market0 and biodiesel. It also includes graphs depicting historic […]

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Activists Feel Powerful Wrath as Russia Guards Its Arctic Claims

MOSCOW — Gizem Akhan, 24, was about to begin her final year studying the culinary arts at Yeditepe University in Istanbul. Tomasz Dziemianczuk, 36, took a vacation from his job as a cultural adviser at the University of Gdansk in Poland that has now unexpectedly turned into an unpaid leave of absence. Dmitri Litvinov, 51, is a veteran activist who as a child spent four years in Siberian exile after his father, Pavel, took part in the Red Square protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. “I didn’t expect my son to get in their clutch,” the elder Mr. Litvinov said in a telephone interview from Irvington, N.Y., where he settled to teach physics in nearby Tarrytown after being expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974. Dmitri Litvinov and the others are just three of the 30 people aboard a Greenpeace International ship, the Arctic Sunrise, who […]

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Looking for a Way Around Keystone XL, Canadian Oil Hits the Rails

HOUSTON — Over the past two years, environmentalists have chained themselves to the White House fence and otherwise coalesced around stopping the Keystone XL pipeline as their top priority in the fight against global warming. But even if President Obama rejects the pipeline, it might not matter much. Oil companies are already building rail terminals to deliver oil from western Canada to the United States, and even to Asia. Since July, plans have been announced for three large loading terminals in western Canada with the combined capacity of 350,000 barrels a day — equivalent to roughly 40 percent of the capacity of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is designed to bring oil from western Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. Over all, Canada is poised to quadruple its rail-loading capacity over the next few years to as much as 900,000 barrels a day, up from 180,000 today. […]

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Keystone XL Review Hijacked by Activists TransCanada Says

TransCanada Corp. (TRP) chief executive Russ Girling acknowledged that opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have slowed its approval, though he said his company remains committed to the project. “There’s no question that the noise outside is having an influence on the process,” he said today, in an interview in Washington . “The project has been hijacked by activists that are opposed to the development of all fossil fuels.” Girling, who met with State Department officials about the project yesterday, expressed frustration with the five-year review by U.S. regulators, saying the process for evaluating cross-border energy projects must change. He said he has stopped giving the company’s investors an estimate of when the approval process will be complete. “I think we have exhausted everything that could possibly be asked,” he said. Still, he said TransCanada, which is based in Calgary, would continue pushing to build the $5.3 billion link […]

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Suncor Approves $12.9 Billion Oil Sands Project With Teck, Total

Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) , Canada’s largest energy company by market value, will proceed with the C$13.5 billion ($12.9 billion) Fort Hills oil sands project as it seeks to increase production. The venture with Total SA (FP) and Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK/B) will begin producing crude in 2017, adding 180,000 barrels a day of output in northern Alberta , the company said yesterday in a statement. Calgary-based Suncor’s share of the costs will be C$5.5 billion. The approval comes after Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams earlier this year canceled another venture with Total in a bid to reduce costs and boost profitability. Fort Hills, which had initially been slated to start in 2016, has 3.3 billion barrels of reserves and will produce oil for about 50 years, the company said. “This project will be a significant source of long-term cash flow for the company and contribute strong returns for […]

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Russia's Gazprom says no to shale natural gas production

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom said it wasn’t ready to examine the shale natural gas potential in the country because of abundant conventional reserves. The board of directors at Gazprom met Tuesday in Moscow to survey the prospects for shale natural gas production. “The meeting participants affirmed that at the moment shale gas production in Russia would be inexpedient due to the abundance of conventional gas reserves with their recovery cost being considerably lower than the estimated cost of shale gas production,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, it was pointed out that shale gas production was related to considerable environmental risks.” Last year, the United States produced an average 25.7 billion cubic feet per day in shale natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this month the United States passed Russia as the world’s leading natural gas producer thanks in part […]

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Russia’s Gazprom says no to shale natural gas production

MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom said it wasn’t ready to examine the shale natural gas potential in the country because of abundant conventional reserves. The board of directors at Gazprom met Tuesday in Moscow to survey the prospects for shale natural gas production. “The meeting participants affirmed that at the moment shale gas production in Russia would be inexpedient due to the abundance of conventional gas reserves with their recovery cost being considerably lower than the estimated cost of shale gas production,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, it was pointed out that shale gas production was related to considerable environmental risks.” Last year, the United States produced an average 25.7 billion cubic feet per day in shale natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said this month the United States passed Russia as the world’s leading natural gas producer thanks in part […]

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Gazprom’s Demands Shouldn’t Scare Europe – MoneyBeat – WSJ

By Alexis Flynn Here’s your morning jolt of news, insight and analysis on the global energy business. Send us tips, suggestions and complaints: [email protected] Click here to receive this morning email newsletter GAZPROM SPAT REVIVES BAD MEMORIES Hopes that competitive natural gas markets—thanks in large part to the U.S. shale boom—had finally put paid to Gazprom’s ability to squeeze its Western neighbors may be premature. Like the villain in a slasher film, returning from the dead for one last bout of terror, the state-owned gas giant looks to be reprising its tactics from 2006 and 2009, when a payment dispute led Russia to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. Reviving memories of past “gas wars,” Gazprom complained yesterday that Ukraine still owed it hundreds of millions of dollars that needed to be paid immediately, the Journal’s James Marson reports from Moscow . Although Gazprom hasn’t threatened to halt deliveries, […]

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Russia and shale can solve Europe’s energy problem

The sooner the region realises its energy policy is a mess, the sooner it can grow, says Paolo Scaroni The aim of European energy policy should be to combine economic growth with environmental sustainability. However, we have ended up with energy costs that hamper growth – yet greenhouse gas emissions have not fallen despite the decline in energy consumption. The problem is that we have, so far, failed to grasp the implications of the US shale revolution for Europe. Thanks to the rapid increase in efficient non-conventional gas production, US companies pay about $3.50 per million British thermal units (mBtu) for their natural gas. That is about a third of what Europeans pay. Turning to electricity, not only are European consumers hit by relatively high gas feedstock prices, but they also have to pay an extra charge to cover the more than €30bn of incentives to invest in renewables […]

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Green Car Congress: UPS begins operational rollout of ORION advanced route optimization software

« Argentina’s largest ethanol plant begins operations; Vogelbusch technology | Main | Petrobras says it will increase production capacity by 1M barrels per day in 2013 » Print this post UPS begins operational rollout of ORION advanced route optimization software ORION infographic ORION infographic. Click to enlarge. UPS has launched its ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation) advanced route optimization software. The rollout of ORION is intended to optimize 10,000 delivery routes by the end of the year, reduce miles driven and reinforce UPS’ sustainability efforts. US deployment to nearly all 55,000 routes is planned to be completed in 2017 and global deployments are planned for the future. ORION contains more than 250 million address data points. The software combines customers’ shipping requirements with customized map data the company has compiled to provide UPS drivers with optimized routing instructions that meet service-level requirements, while reducing miles driven. Most routes […]

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WTI Oil Declines for a Second Day as U.S. Crude Stockpiles Gain

West Texas Intermediate fell, extending a second monthly loss, as an increase in crude stockpiles in the U.S. signaled slowing demand in the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures slid as much as 0.8 percent in New York after the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said inventories rose by 5.9 million barrels last week. Supplies climbed by 2.4 million barrels to 382.2 million, the highest level in four months, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before data from the Energy Information Administration today. “We’re seeing a picture of weakness,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The drop in demand from U.S. consumers is likely to weigh” on prices, he said. WTI for December delivery declined as much as 80 cents to $97.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange . It was at $97.70 at 4:05 p.m. Singapore […]

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Oil Falls Ahead of FOMC Meeting

Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trade Wednesday as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the outcome of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting later in the global day. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $97.76 a barrel at 0606 GMT, down $0.44 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.15 to $108.86 a barrel. The decline in oil futures is in contrast to gains in Asian stock markets as risk sentiment picked up with recent downbeat U.S. economic indicators raising expectations that the Federal Reserve would continue monetary stimulus into early next year. Analysts said any impact from the Fed’s upcoming announcement will likely be limited as the oil markets are currently driven by fundamental factors. Crude has been under pressure recently as increasing U.S. inventories and easing Middle […]

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November Natural Gas Expires Down 2.1% at $3.496/MMBtu

-Price settles at one-month low amid warm weather forecasts -Moderate temperatures expected to curb demand, lift inventories -Incoming front-month December sheds 4.8% in past two sessions (Adds cash-market prices.) By David Bird NEW YORK–Forecasts for unseasonably warm temperatures in key gas-heating markets sent natural-gas futures prices down 2.1% to a one-month low as the November-delivery contract went off the board Tuesday. Analysts said that as long as normal winter temperatures remain elusive in the Midwest and Northeast U.S., prices will remain under pressure from strong output, which will increase already sizable inventories. Widespread forecasts call for above-normal temperatures in the key consuming regions through the end of the first week of November, reducing the need for homeowners and businesses to crank up gas-fired heating. November gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 7.3 cents to settle at $3.496 per million British thermal units, the lowest price since […]

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Brent Adds to Premium Over WTI as Libyan Production Falls

Brent crude rose the most in two weeks as Libyan output fell, widening the premium to West Texas Intermediate. Futures also gained on speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will maintain the pace of stimulus. Brent oil traded in London surged 2.5 percent after state-run National Oil Corp. said crude production in Libya declined to 250,000 barrels a day because of labor protests. WTI in New York advanced 0.9 percent a day before the Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day meeting at which it is likely to delay reducing, or “tapering,” monthly bond purchases until March, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. “The Libyan production drop is the main driver and is also the reason why Brent is stronger,” said Jacob Correll, a Louisville, Kentucky-based commodity analyst at energy management firm Schneider Electric Professional Services. “There’s a growing belief that the Fed will agree to keep the […]

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Goldman Sachs Cuts OPEC Crude Output Forecasts For 2013 on Libya

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said crude production in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will decline this year by more than the bank previously estimated because of renewed disruptions in Libya. OPEC’s output will decline by 760,000 barrels per day from last year, according to the bank, which had previously projected an annual loss of 570,000 a day. The supply reduction will keep Brent futures supported at $110 a barrel despite an accumulation in oil inventories amid weaker-than-expected fuel demand, Goldman said. Libya’s production will remain capped at 650,000 barrels a day this year as a result of political disputes, the bank predicted. “The conflicts in the country’s east appear more permanent in nature given the diversity of involved parties, which makes a near-term resolution seem increasingly unlikely,” analysts led by Jeffrey Currie in New York said in a note to clients on Oct. 28. “We believe that […]

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Green Car Congress: PwC’s Autofacts forecasts global light vehicle assembly to reach 81.8M units in 2013, up 3.3% from 2012

« Navistar completes heavy-duty product transition to SCR for emissions compliance | Main Print this post PwC’s Autofacts forecasts global light vehicle assembly to reach 81.8M units in 2013, up 3.3% from 2012 Global light vehicle assembly will reach 81.8 million units in 2013, representing a 3.3% year-over-year gain, according to Autofacts, PwC’s automotive analyst group. While there has been speculation around the long-awaited recovery of the European Union (EU), 2013 is poised to mark a turning point, setting the stage for recovery in 2014. This will bring the region in sync with the recent recoveries in North America and Eastern Europe and the continued growth in developing Asia-Pacific and South America, according to the consultancy. “ Consumer demands and regulatory requirements are motivating the global automotive industry to push ahead with technological breakthroughs on a larger scale ,” said Rick Hanna, PwC’s global automotive leader. “ Innovation ranging […]

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U.N. Atomic Agency and Iran Call Meeting Productive

Iran and the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency said Tuesday that they had held a “very productive” two-day meeting aimed at resolving questions about the Iranian atomic energy program, and that they would reconvene Nov. 11 in Tehran. The announcement, made in an unusual joint statement issued at the conclusion of the meeting, did not specify what progress had been made, but it said Iran had presented a new proposal. The tone of the statement suggested renewed optimism that the concerns of the nuclear monitoring group, the International Atomic Energy Agency, would be addressed. The meeting, held at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, was the first face-to-face encounter between Yukiya Amano, the director general, and an Iranian delegation dispatched by Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, who has made it a priority to resolve Iran’s enduring nuclear dispute and reduce tensions with the West. Mr. Amano has been outspoken in […]

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Iran outlines plan to win back Western oil interest  

Iran outlines plan to win back Western oil interest Page added on October 29, 2013 Iran is planning to offer international companies more lucrative contracts to attract at least $100 billion worth of investment in its oilfields over the next three years, the Financial Times reported on Monday. An adviser to Iran’s oil minister, Mehdi Hosseini, was quoted in the Financial Times article as saying the Islamic republic would scrap its current system of “buyback” contracts, which do not allow foreign companies to book reserves or take equity stakes in Iranian projects. According to the article, Hosseini said a new “win-win” type of contract, details of which are expected to be announced in London next March, was in the works and leading companies could benefit, “whether American or European”. Iran said last week that it would reach out to old oil buyers and was ready to cut prices if […]

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In Iraq, Sunni attacks spark Shiite calls to arms

AP Photo BAGHDAD (AP) — The wave of attacks by al-Qaida-led Sunni extremists that has killed thousands of Iraqis this year, most of them Shiites, is provoking ominous calls from Shiite leaders to take up arms in self-defense. They generally insist they’ll do it legally, under the banner of the security forces. But Iraq’s young democracy is still struggling, nearly two years after U.S. troops withdrew, and the specter of armed Shiite and Sunni camps revives memories of the sectarian fighting that took the country to the brink of civil war in the mid-2000s. Since April, bombings and shootings have killed more than 5,500 people. Averaging at least two a week, they target outdoor markets, cafes, bus stations, mosques and pilgrimages in Shiite areas. Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who will meet with President Barack Obama on Friday, says he wants American help in quelling the violence. Departing […]

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Suicide bombers kill 11 military, police in Iraq dinner attack-police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers killed at least 11 military and police officers and wounded 19 late on Tuesday by blowing themselves up outside a Sunni militia leader’s house in northern Baghdad as he was hosting dinner. Police in the Sunni neighborhood said the leader of the Sunni "Sahwa" militia, Saeed Jassim, was not hurt, but the commander of the military battalion deployed in the region and his deputy were among those who were killed. In Mosul, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives detonated the car near a police checkpoint in the west of the city late on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including three policemen, police and medical sources said. Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist insurgents who have been reinvigorated by growing resentment of the government that came to power after the U.S.-led invasion […]

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Starved Syria civilians flee besieged Damascus suburb

People walk from the rebel-held suburb of Moadamiya to government-held territory, helped by aid workers 29 October 2013 Last updated at 17:59 Thousands of Syrian civilians have finally been allowed to leave the besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiya. The BBC’s Lyse Doucet, who was at the scene, describes a tide of desperate people leaving the area, which has been closed off since March. Supplies in Moadamiya had been running desperately short, and residents had pleaded to be saved from starvation. The exodus of civilians has been made possible by an apparent relaxation of a blockade by government forces. The Syrian army had previously said that rebel-held areas of Damascus such as Moadamiya could surrender or starve. At least three of Damascus’s suburbs – Yarmouk, Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiya – have been besieged by government forces for several months. Analysis A tide of people fled Moadamiya today – some on […]

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Central Bank falls victim to Libya's rampant crime, anarchy

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Gunmen rob millions from Libya’s central bank. Boatloads of protesters storm an oil terminal like pirates. Tribesmen block a port – and contradict the prime minister when he tells the nation it will reopen soon. Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions. Ten gunmen intercepted the van on Monday when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch. "The security situation is very bad in Sirte. When I heard about the robbery, I thought I was reading a detective […]

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Central Bank falls victim to Libya’s rampant crime, anarchy

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Gunmen rob millions from Libya’s central bank. Boatloads of protesters storm an oil terminal like pirates. Tribesmen block a port – and contradict the prime minister when he tells the nation it will reopen soon. Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions. Ten gunmen intercepted the van on Monday when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch. "The security situation is very bad in Sirte. When I heard about the robbery, I thought I was reading a detective […]

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Libya oil crisis deepens as protesters shun talks

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s oil crisis deepened on Tuesday after protesters blocking western fields shunned talks and locals denied that an eastern terminal would reopen, frustrating government efforts to end three months of disruptions. Libya’s oil exports have dropped to less than 10 percent of capacity or 90,000 barrels per day, Reuters calculations show, as renewed protests this week halted operations at western ports and fields, supporting global oil prices. The head of Italy’s Eni, the biggest foreign oil company in Libya and part owner of the Mellitah joint venture, said exports from Mellitah terminal had not been stopped though there was social unrest. Traders, however, said crude oil loading remained suspended from both Zawiya and Mellitah ports in the west. Natural gas exports are carried to Italy via pipeline and sources have said those supplies come mainly from an offshore field and have been steady for the last […]

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Nearly half of Kazakhstan's oil reserves in giant Kashagan field

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) — Nearly half of Kazakhstan’s proven oil reserves are situated in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The EIA, the U.S. Energy Department’s statistical arm, said Kazakhstan is estimated to hold 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Kashagan, the fifth largest oil field in the world in terms of volume, holds an estimated 13 billion barrels of oil. The North Caspian Operations Co., a consortium of national and international energy companies, announced the first barrels of oil from Kashagan were produced Sept. 11 . A production rate of 75,000 barrels of oil per day from the field was reached in early October. The EIA said Kashagan suffered several “repeated delays” that it says were associated with the high cost of operating the offshore field. Kazakhstan became an oil producer in 1911 but didn’t achieve a meaningful production […]

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Nearly half of Kazakhstan’s oil reserves in giant Kashagan field

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) — Nearly half of Kazakhstan’s proven oil reserves are situated in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The EIA, the U.S. Energy Department’s statistical arm, said Kazakhstan is estimated to hold 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Kashagan, the fifth largest oil field in the world in terms of volume, holds an estimated 13 billion barrels of oil. The North Caspian Operations Co., a consortium of national and international energy companies, announced the first barrels of oil from Kashagan were produced Sept. 11 . A production rate of 75,000 barrels of oil per day from the field was reached in early October. The EIA said Kashagan suffered several “repeated delays” that it says were associated with the high cost of operating the offshore field. Kazakhstan became an oil producer in 1911 but didn’t achieve a meaningful production […]

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Nigeria: Warning Shots From the Niger Delta

Perhaps it was a “minor fire incident” that happened at a unit of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company last Tuesday. The refinery’s authorities promptly promised to investigate the exact cause of the fire, but they are yet to make their findings available, 10 days after. Terrorist group MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), on the other hand, claimed it was responsible for the “sabotage” a few hours after the fire. The group’s spokesman “Jomo Gbomo” said it was targeting the nation’s oil and gas industry to protest President Jonathan’s reliance on “an unsustainable and fraudulent Niger Delta amnesty programme” for peace and security in the region. About the same time, a sister of a presidential adviser linked to the amnesty programme, Mr Oronto Douglas, was in the grip of kidnappers. Two Americans also got kidnapped off the coast of Bayelsa State. As these events signify, […]

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Bread prices in Argentina rise as corn and wheat scarcity kicks in

BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 29 (UPI) — Argentina’s wheat and corn distribution chaos, caused by erratic supplies and now widespread scarcity, has finally reached bakeries that are charging exorbitant prices for bread despite government warnings of a crackdown. Corn and wheat shortages began several months ago and weren’t relieved despite what critics called the government’s stopgap measures. The timing of the grain shortage and its direct impact on bakeries couldn’t be worse, critics said as media furor over bread prices and and shortages captured headlines days before Argentina’s mid-term elections. Gaps in supplies of corn were also reported across the country, Argentine media reported. Traders said wholesale prices for both corn and wheat were double those on Chicago markets as profiteering set in. Bakeries said they couldn’t avoid price hikes, forced as they were to pay ever higher rates for flour. Weather vagaries would likely impact on the new wheat […]

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Indian president calls for stricter regulations to conserve water

India’s president has called for stricter regulations to conserve the country’s water supply. “Population expansion, rapid urbanization and developmental needs have exerted tremendous pressure on India’s water availability,” President Pranab Mukherjee said in his opening address Monday at the India Water Forum 2013 in New Delhi. While India has 17 percent of the world’s population, it holds only 4 percent of the world’s renewable water resource, Mukherjee said, noting that in 10 years — from 2001 to 2011 — the per-capita availability of water in India dropped from 1,816 cubic meters per year to 1,545 cubic meters and is projected to fall to 1,140 cubic meters by 2050. The president said India’s current legal framework regarding water is inconsistent and inadequate to deal with the country’s complex water situation. “A broad over-arching national legal framework of general principles on water could pave the way for essential legislation on water […]

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US senators unveil federal 25% renewable power bill – Electric Power

Washington (Platts)–29Oct2013/327 pm EDT/1927 GMT Two US Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a bill requiring utilities to generate 25% of their electricity from renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, by 2025. The bill, introduced by Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Udall of New Mexico, is similar to the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard, a ballot initiative approved by that state’s voters in 2004 that requires investor-owned utilities to generate 30% of their electricity from renewables by 2020, the senators said. The senators plan to attach the bill as an amendment to an energy efficiency bill, which is expected to be voted on sometime this year. A similar bill, the Renewable Electricity Promotion Act, was introduced in 2010, but never made it out of committee. –Brian Scheid, [email protected] –Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, [email protected]

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Fukushima Is Here  

Fukushima is Here.300dpi.jpg Page added on October 29, 2013   500 people assembled on October 19th on Ocean Beach in San Francisco and formed the letters with their bodies to demonstrate their growing concern about eventual fallout on the west coast. Credit and More Information: FukushimaResponse.org An ocean current called the North Pacific Gyre is bringing Japanese radiation to the West Coast of North America: The leg of the Gyre closest to Japan – the Kuroshio current – begins right next to Fukushima : While many people assume that the ocean will dilute the Fukushima radiation, a previously-secret 1955 U.S. government report concluded that the ocean may not adequately dilute radiation from nuclear accidents, and there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation . Physicians for Social Responsibility notes : An interesting fact for people living on the US west coast is also included in the UNSCEAR [United […]

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