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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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