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Fukushima Watch: Some Power Companies in Black without Nuclear Restarts

The latest earnings show that many of Japan’s major utilities generated a profit in the first half of this fiscal year, even without the help of their nuclear power plants. Amid uncertainty about whether nuclear restarts can win regulatory approval, that is good news for shareholders. But it puts the utilities themselves in a difficult position, since they have been loudly complaining that without their nuclear plants, they will remain in the red. Five of the nine regional utilities that have nuclear power plants posted a net profit for the six months ending Sept. 30. They include Tokyo Electric Power Co., whose Fukushima Daiichi plant in northern Japan was at the center of the nuclear crisis that led to the shutdown of nuclear plants amid safety concerns. Also making profits were Tohoku Electric Power Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Kansai Electric Power Co. and Chugoku Electric Power Co. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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CNPC raises gas output from Turkmen fields to meet Chinese winter demand

Singapore (Platts)–12Nov2013/419 am EST/919 GMT China National Petroleum Corp has ramped up production at its gas fields in Turkmenistan in anticipation of higher winter demand in China, the company said Tuesday. Gas from the Amu Darya project’s 31 wells is now flowing at rate of 19.8 million cubic meters/d or nearly 700,000 Mcf/d, while sales volumes have risen 11.7% year on year to 18.1 million cu m/d, CNPC said. Gas production comes from two blocks in the Bagtyiarlyk contract area on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. CNPC signed a production sharing agreement for the acreage in 2007 and production started in 2010. CNPC said it has primarily carried out capacity expansion at Block A, where the gas processing capacity is now 6.5 billion cu m/year, while sales gas send-out capacity has reached a new high of 18 million cu m/d. A second phase development will see […]

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China May Loosen Energy Price Controls After Planning Meeting

China may announce looser energy price controls and the break up of the domestic duopoly of PetroChina Co. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (386) after a four-day Communist Party meeting ends today. “We expect an announcement on liberalizing of resource price and an opening up of the energy industry to more private investment,” Simon Powell, head of oil and gas research at CLSA Ltd., said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Any fuel price reforms would be mildly positive for Sinopec and natural gas price liberalization would help PetroChina.” China Petroleum is known as Sinopec. Chinese Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng said last month reforms to be discussed at the meeting of the party’s Central Committee meeting will be unprecedented “and will promote profound changes in every area of the economy and society.” Yu is ranked fourth in the seven-strong Politburo Standing Committee headed by party chief and President Xi […]

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U.S., Pakistani officials to discuss energy issues

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) — A U.S. State Department official in charge of energy policy aims to help tackle Pakistan’s energy woes with visiting Pakistani officials, the department said. Carlos Pascual, U.S. coordinator for international energy affairs, is part of a group scheduled to meet Tuesday with Pakistani Minister of Natural Resources Shahid Abassi and Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif. The meeting is part of a strategic energy dialogue announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during his August visit to Pakistan. “This working group fosters cooperation on Pakistan’s energy sector, including power generation, renewable energy, gas, and reform priorities,” the State Department announced Sunday. Pakistan’s aging infrastructure and energy sector mismanagement have left most the country without a reliable source of electricity, observers say. The State Department said the U.S. government helped Pakistan add 1,000 megawatts of power to its grid since 2009. Pakistan’s interest in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. gasoline prices continue decline

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) — The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline Monday in the United States is the cheapest it’s been since February 2011, AAA said. “Most drivers today are paying the cheapest gas prices in nearly 33 months,” AAA spokesman Michael Green told United Press International. “Today’s national average price of gas is $3.19 per gallon, which is the cheapest since Feb. 22, 2011.” AAA said about 25 percent of the retail filling stations in the United States are selling gasoline for less than $3 per gallon while 10 percent have prices above $3.50. Arkansas had the lowest state average Monday with $2.93 per gallon. California had the highest price in the Lower 48 states with a state average of $3.61. “The national average could fall very close to $3 per gallon by the end of the year due to abundant supplies, declining demand […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The secret, dirty cost of Obama's green power push

AP Photo CORYDON, Iowa (AP) — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country “stronger, cleaner and more secure.” But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today. As farmers rushed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The secret, dirty cost of Obama’s green power push

AP Photo CORYDON, Iowa (AP) — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country “stronger, cleaner and more secure.” But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today. As farmers rushed to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The Hunt for Biofuels Looks Beyond Ethanol

For biofuels, the future won’t look much like the past. We’re heading, some believe, for a post-ethanol age. Today, nearly all plant-based liquid fuels are either used to make ethanol, which is blended with gasoline, or biodiesel. But efforts to increase the amount of ethanol in gas are opposed by auto makers and others who say the environment and economy are better served by more efficient engines and the shift to hybrid, electric and natural-gas vehicles. There are critics, too, who say making biofuel from edible plants—most ethanol is based on corn or sugar cane—is a poor use of land and crops needed to feed growing populations. Now energy experts see a growing role for new biofuels that use nonedible plant material and are hydrocarbons, like petroleum fuels, and so don’t require a separate infrastructure. “Biofuels have a much broader future than ethanol,” says Thomas Foust, director of biofuels […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Carlyle Seeks Over $7 Billion in New Energy Funds by 2015

Carlyle Group said it plans to raise more than $7 billion in new capital for energy and power investments by 2015. On Monday at Carlyle’s first investor day since it went public last year, the Washington, D.C., firm said it had already started fundraising for two $1.5 billion vehicles: one for midmarket private equity energy transactions outside of North America and another for midmarket private equity power transactions in North America. Both funds target deals requiring roughly $150 million of equity. The firm also said it plans to raise a $4 billion midmarket North American energy investment fund, with the bulk of assets expected to be in exploration and production. Carlyle’s energy experts expect pressures on natural gas prices to ease in the next few years. Utilities across the country are decommissioning coal fired power plants and nuclear power plants in favor of natural gas plants, which will increase […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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North Dakota’s Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing

North Dakota’s Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing Page added on November 12, 2013 It’s well known that water has been key to the shale oil and gas rush in the United States. But in one center of the hydraulic fracturing boom—North Dakota—authorities are finding that the initial blast of water to frack the wells is only the beginning. The wells being drilled into the prairie to tap into the Bakken shale need “maintenance water”—lots of it—to keep the oil flowing. (See related photos: “ Bakken Shale Boom Transforms North Dakota .”) So while the water first pumped down the hole to crack rock formations and release the underground oil and natural gas typically totals 2 million gallons (7.5 million liters) per well, each of North Dakota’s wells is daily drinking down an average of more than 600 gallons (2,300 liters) in maintenance water, according […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple