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On This Day In History, Gas Prices Have Never Been Higher

On This Day In History, Gas Prices Have Never Been Higher It seems not a day goes by when the mainstream media (or your local friendly asset gatherer) proclaims the drop in gas prices from a Middle-East-turmoiling Summer as “great news” and very positive and an implicit tax cut… as they try to juice hopes and dreams of a better-than-expected holiday spending season. The sad truth – something unusual in this new normal – is that regular gas prices (at $3.258) have never been higher on Christmas Eve . It seems context does matter…   Yesterday, we inched out 2012′s $3.247 and moved to $3.258 per gallon…   This is the first time since March that gas prices have been at seasonally-comparable record highs. zerohedge

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Russia drops charges vs 16 Greenpeace activists

Greenpeace says investigators have dropped charges against 16 activists who were detained in Russia’s Arctic in September. Authorities on Tuesday notified one crew member that his criminal case was closed. The remaining 29 activists were summoned to receive similar notifications on Wednesday. Greenpeace on its official Twitter account on Wednesday listed 16 activists who had their criminal cases closed. The 30 crew members aboard a Greenpeace ship were detained in September and held in custody for two months before they were released in November pending trial. They were originally charged with piracy, but that was then downgraded to hooliganism. All non-Russian crew members are expected to have the charges against them dropped and be allowed to leave Russia. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy […]

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Jet Fuel by the Acre

In an unmarked greenhouse, leafy bushes carpet an acre of land here tucked into the suburban sprawl of Southern California. The seeds of the inedible, drought-resistant plants, called jatropha, produce a prize: high-quality oil that can be refined into low-carbon jet fuel or diesel fuel. The mere existence of the bushes is an achievement. Hailed about six years ago as the next big thing in biofuels, jatropha attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, only to fall from favor as the recession set in and as growers discovered that the wild bush yielded too few seeds to produce enough petroleum to be profitable. But SGB, the biofuels company that planted the bushes, pressed on. Thanks to advances in molecular genetics and DNA sequencing technology, the San Diego start-up has, in a few years, succeeded in domesticating jatropha, a process that once took decades. SGB is […]

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KiOR expects to produce 920K gallons of cellulosic biofuels by year end; short-term focus on economics

&KiOR expects to produce 920K gallons of cellulosic biofuels by year end; short-term focus on economics Cellulosic gasoline and diesel company KiOR, Inc. expects that, given current and anticipated operations through the remainder of the year, its Columbus, Mississippi facility will produce approximately 410,000 gallons of renewable fuel during the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing full year production total from the facility to approximately 920,000 gallons. ( Earlier post .) The ratio between gasoline, diesel and fuel oil expected to be produced during the year is approximately 35% gasoline, 40% diesel, and 25% fuel oil. In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the 2013 percentage standards for four […]

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The Man Who Predicted the Future for BP Says Peak Oil Is Nigh

One of the more famous portraits of peak oil. Image: Wikimedia In a year that saw the United States reach near-historic levels of fossil fuel production , it seemed that the words ‘peak oil’ were scarcely uttered. But it’s still a looming question, that we have yet to satisfactorily answer—when are we going to run out of oil? Have we already started to? A renowned geologist, and a former top analyst for BP no less, says the answer is yes.  "We are probably in peak oil today, or at least in the foot-hills," Dr. Richard Miller said recently at a talk in London. According to the Guardian , Miller "prepared BP’s in-house projections of future oil supply for BP from 2000 to 2007," and is bringing peak oil back into focus at the end of a petroleum-soaked year. He says that oil production has already peaked in 37 oil-producing countries, and that […]

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Brent Supported by Sudan Unrest

Crude oil was slightly up in London trading Tuesday, but with low volumes evident ahead of the Christmas holiday period. Brent crude for February delivery was up 24 cents, or 0.2%, to $111.81 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. U.S. crude-oil futures for January were down 1 cent a barrel at $98.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Violence in South Sudan, one of east Africa’s oil producing states, has worsened in recent days. The country’s oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau sought to assuage fears that production would be affected, saying "oil continues to flow normally in Upper Nile state," according to a report in the Sudan Tribune. "There is no problem there. It is only in Unity state where there are some issues but it has not stopped flowing. We only reduced the number of workers in Unity state to minimal level because of security reasons", he said […]

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Brent Crude Rises on Escalating Violence in South Sudan

Brent crude advanced to near its highest level in three weeks as violence in South Sudan forced a partial shutdown of oil production facilities. Futures were up as much as 0.3 percent and are poised to end the year higher for the fifth time. Fighting in South Sudan , which exports about 220,000 barrels a day, has killed at least 500 people and led to the evacuation of employees from India ’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. There will be no floor or electronic trading tomorrow due to the Christmas holiday. “There is thin holiday trading today and Brent prices are being sustained by political concerns surrounding South Sudan,” Andrey Kryuchenkov , an analyst VTB Capital in London , said by phone. “We’ll wait and see how the broader market reacts to the instability there as more news trickles out.” Brent for February settlement rose as much as 28 […]

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WTI Oil Drops for Second Day Amid Signs Gains Are Unsustainable

West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a second day, trimming its first monthly advance since August, amid speculation that recent price increases may be unsustainable. Futures dropped as much as 0.4 percent after failing to extend gains above the 200-day moving average. WTI has risen 6.6 percent so far this month. Gasoline stockpiles in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, are forecast to have expanded for a fifth week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before government data this week. “Crude is seeing some resistance around the 200-day moving average, and that’s giving traders a reason not to move too far away from this level,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone today. “After recent gains, we are at a level where traders might be comfortable to just wait and see if the news can catch up to the prices. People in […]

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Speculators ‘Throwing Money’ at Natural Gas on Icy Blast: Energy

Hedge funds got more bullish on natural gas as a blast of cold air swept across the U.S., pushing prices to the highest level in more than two years. Money managers increased net-long positions , or bets on rising prices, by 33 percent in the week ended Dec. 17, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Bullish wagers advanced for a fourth week and to a six-month high. Prices rose 21 percent during the four weeks as below-normal temperatures spread across the lower 48 states and a storm dumped as much as 18 inches of snow from the Midwest to the Northeast. U.S. inventories have fallen faster than the five-year norm since early November, government reports show. “Wall Street has been throwing a lot of money at this market,” said Stephen Schork , president of Schork Group Inc., a consulting group in Villanova, Pennsylvania . “It’s […]

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Natural Gas Futures Rally on Forecast for Sustained Cold Spell

Natural gas futures climbed to a roughly 2 1/2 year high Monday, before paring some of those gains as weather forecasts called for the return of frigid temperatures in key regions of the country, potentially bolstering near-term demand for the heating fuel. Natural gas for January delivery rose 7.6 cents, or 1.7%, to $4.492 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, Nymex prices soared as much as 2.6% to their highest level since July, 21, 2011. Following a brief period of unusually warm temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., MDA Weather Services, a Gaithersburg, Md., weather forecaster, said it expects cold temperatures to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple