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Baker Hughes: US drilling rig count drops to 1,768

The US drilling rig count relinquished 14 units to settle at 1,768 rigs working during the week ended Dec. 20, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. A decline of 16 units in land rigs to 1,687 was nicked by a 2-unit increase in offshore rigs to 61. Rigs drilling in inland waters were unchanged from a week ago at 20. Oil rigs were also down 16 units, settling at 1,395. Gas rigs collected 3 more units to reach 372. Rigs considered unclassified gave up 1 unit to settle at 1 total.   Directional drilling rigs fell 7 units to 223 while horizontal drilling rigs were down 5 to 1,140. In Canada, a 28-unit drop in oil rigs brought that total to 227 and the country’s overall total to 398. Unchanged from a week ago were gas rigs at 171. Canada has 14 mores rigs compared with this week last year.   […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals Linked to Fracking Found in Colorado River

The Colorado River flows through the town of Rifle in Garfield County, Colorado. Photo (taken 1972) by David Hiser,courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Flickr/Creative Commons. The Colorado River flows through the town of Rifle in Garfield County, Colorado. Photo (taken 1972) by David Hiser, courtesy of U.S. National Archives, Flickr/Creative Commons. This week, more evidence came in that hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) poses potentially serious risks to drinking water quality and human health. A team of researchers from the University of Missouri found evidence of hormone-disrupting activity in water located near fracking sites – including samples taken from the Colorado River near a dense drilling region of western Colorado. The Colorado River is a source of drinking water for more than 30 million people. The peer-reviewed study was published this week in the journal Endocrinology . Fracking is the controversial process of blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Winds of over 100mph batter Britain

Gales and Heavy Rain Threaten Festive Getaway Britain has been hit by a fresh band of stormy weather overnight, with further flooding expected and more than 17,500 homes thought to be still without power. Winds of over 100mph hit certain parts of Britain on Thursday night, adding to the difficulties caused by storms on Christmas Eve, which caused chaos to the train networks and left hundreds of flights grounded at Gatwick airport. Tony Glover, of the Energy Networks Association, said conditions for those without power were “horrendous”, but that network companies were working “incredibly hard, around the clock” to get them reconnected. He added: “The flooding is a major issue for us and getting a cherry picker out into a flooded area is one hell of a challenge with the fact that the weather itself continues. There is debris and roads are blocked.” By Friday morning, the Met Office […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Drill here? Maybe. Drill now? That’s impossible

Southern political leaders and the oil industry want to find out if there’s enough oil and natural gas off the Atlantic coast to justify drilling for it. That’s a reasonable request that should be part of the country’s energy plan. What’s not reasonable is some politicians’ leap to the conclusion that offshore oil and gas will add immeasurably to southern states’ economies, creating thousands of new jobs and scores of new onshore businesses. Nobody knows enough about what’s under the Atlantic Ocean floor to make such an assertion. Gov. Pat McCrory has long supported an “all of the above” energy strategy and has backed both drilling and wind farms off the North Carolina coast. The governor is vice chairman of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, an eight-state group pressing Washington to open up more of the sea floor for oil and gas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Move Higher in Asia; Brent Trades Around $112/Bbl

Crude-oil futures moved slightly higher in Asian hours Thursday, with markets reopening after the Christmas holiday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February traded at $99.39 a barrel at 0606 GMT, up $0.17 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.12 to $112.02 a barrel. U.S. oil markets digested weekly oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, which was published after Nymex WTI crude closed 31 cents higher at $99.22 a barrel on Tuesday. Oil stockpiles for the week ended Dec. 20 rose by 500,000 barrels, API data showed. A rise in inventory is bearish for oil, but the API data conflicted with market expectations of a drop in weekly oil stockpiles. U.S. oil stocks are expected to have declined by 2.2 million barrels, on average, last week, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crude oil prices edge further above $99

Oil prices edged up above $99 Thursday, the first trading day after Christmas, as violence in South Sudan stoked concerns about the country’s oil production. Benchmark U.S. oil for February delivery was up 17 cents to $99.39 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract inched up 31 cents to close at $99.22 on pre-Christmas Tuesday after briefly dropping below $99. Oil prices gained nearly 3 percent last week as optimism about the U.S. economic recovery lifted expectations for the country’s energy demand. Worries over instability in South Sudan have led some analysts to predict the contract may top $100 a barrel for the first time since mid-October. On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council voted to increase U.N. peacekeeping forces in conflict-torn South Sudan by nearly 80 percent. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was up 11 cents […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Oil Rises for Second Day on U.S. Supplies, Sudan Disruption

West Texas Intermediate rose for a second day on speculation crude stockpiles shrank in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Violence forced a partial production shutdown in South Sudan. Futures climbed as much as 0.4 percent in New York. U.S. crude stockpiles dropped by 2.3 million barrels last week, a fourth weekly decline, according to a Bloomberg News survey before government data tomorrow. Prices are extending gains above technical resistance along the 200-day moving average. “WTI is trying to reach $100, but it may meet profit taking around that level,” Ken Hasegawa , an energy-trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo , said by phone today. A loss of crude output from South Sudan “will be a support factor for Brent,” he said. WTI for February delivery increased as much as 43 cents to $99.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was […]

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Israeli electricity sector cuts gasoil, fuel oil demand in favor of gas

Israel’s electricity sector kept cutting its use of gasoil and fuel oil in the first 11 months of the year and in November marked its first month on record without any fuel oil consumption, the Energy and Water Ministry said Wednesday. The change is due to the sharp rise in natural gas demand by Israel Electric Corp. and private power producers since the start of commercial production at the huge Tamar offshore gas field. According to ministry figures, the power sector consumed 282,000 mt of gasoil over January-November, down 85% from the same period of 2012, and 80,000 mt of fuel oil over the same period, down 92% year on year. In November, the sector consumed 2,000 mt of gasoil and no fuel oil, the ministry said. Israel’s total demand for refined products over January-November fell 24% year on year to 9.224 million mt, […]

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Egypt designates Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group

he Egyptian government intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, formally listing the group as a terrorist organization after accusing it of carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a police station that killed 16 people. The move marked a major escalation in the army-backed government’s campaign to suppress the Islamist movement that propelled Mohamed Mursi to the presidency 18 months ago but has been driven underground since the army toppled him in July. It gives the authorities the power to charge any member of the Brotherhood with belonging to a terrorist group, as well as anyone who finances the group or promotes it "verbally, or in writing". "This is a turning point in the confrontation. This is an important tool for the government to close any door in the face of the Brotherhood’s return to political life," said Khalil al-Anani, a Washington-based expert […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's Nov natural gas pipeline imports rise 8% on year to 2.4 bil cu m

China imported 1.73 million mt of natural gas via pipelines in November, up 8.2% year on year, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed Tuesday. Customs data records natural gas trade data in mt, similar to LNG imports. The volume works out to about 2.4 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas imported last month. Imports from Turkmenistan fell 5.1% year on year to 1.52 million mt in November, while Uzbekistan volumes totaled 150,228 mt. Myanmar pipeline imports totaled 41,263 mt, the highest volume since transmission via the Myanmar-China pipeline started in early August. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: International Gas Report International Gas Report International Gas Report is a biweekly report that intelligently analyzes what is happening in the natural gas industry, improving your vision and sharpening your competitive edge. Through its unrivalled network of global correspondents, it covers […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple