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End of Mexico’s 75-Year Oil Monopoly Set as States Ratify Bill

Mexico’s bill that ends a 75-year state oil monopoly will be sent to President Enrique Pena Nieto for enactment after a majority of states ratified the proposal. San Luis Potosi, Puebla and Yucatan were among states that approved the legislation over the weekend, bringing the number of those that have endorsed the plan to 17 of 31. Mexico’s most significant economic overhaul since the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted in 1994 had been approved by Congress on Dec. 12. The bill ends the monopoly held by Petroleos Mexicanos , or Pemex, and will allow companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) to develop the largest unexplored crude area after the Arctic Circle. The changes could bring an additional $20 billion in foreign direct investment and strengthen the peso, according to Carlos Capistran, chief Mexico economist at Bank of America Corp. The passage of […]

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Australian coal projects at risk of being 'stranded'

Australian coal projects are in danger of becoming "stranded," a new report by the University of Oxford warns. The report says Australia has proposals for 89 coal mines which could more than double annual output from about 430 million tons in 2011 to about 980 million tons by 2020. China is seen as a key export market for those projects. But the report, commissioned by HSBC’s Climate Change Center of Excellence, points to the changing nature of China’s outlook for coal and the impacts on resource-rich Australia, currently the world’s largest exporter of coal to China. "China’s demand for coal is changing as a result of environment-related factors, including environmental regulation, developments in cleaner technologies, air pollution, improving energy efficiency, developments in gas markets and political activism," Ben Caldecott, co-author of the report was quoted as saying by Business Green. "This could lead […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Australian coal projects at risk of being ‘stranded’

Australian coal projects are in danger of becoming "stranded," a new report by the University of Oxford warns. The report says Australia has proposals for 89 coal mines which could more than double annual output from about 430 million tons in 2011 to about 980 million tons by 2020. China is seen as a key export market for those projects. But the report, commissioned by HSBC’s Climate Change Center of Excellence, points to the changing nature of China’s outlook for coal and the impacts on resource-rich Australia, currently the world’s largest exporter of coal to China. "China’s demand for coal is changing as a result of environment-related factors, including environmental regulation, developments in cleaner technologies, air pollution, improving energy efficiency, developments in gas markets and political activism," Ben Caldecott, co-author of the report was quoted as saying by Business Green. "This could lead […]

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Executive Moving to Shanghai Finds No Escape From China’s Smog

Bill Russo moved more than 700 miles from Beijing to Shanghai on Dec. 1 and thought he’d left the smog behind him. Five days later, he was wheezing again. “What was shocking was how bad it’s been,” said Russo, a vice president at car stereo maker Harman International Industries Inc. “Shanghai over the years had a reputation of being better,” said the executive, who had some of the fine-particle masks he left behind in Beijing sent to him. Record levels of pollution this month busted perceptions of Shanghai as a place to escape the smog that’s shrouded Beijing and other parts of China. Worsening air quality in the country’s commercial hub prompted warnings to keep children indoors, spurred companies from Unilever to Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co. to give workers face masks, and may hinder Shanghai’s push to be a global financial center by 2020. “I […]

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China energy corruption probe widens

The chief accountant for China National Petroleum Corp has been “taken into custody to assist in an investigation” into high-level corruption, in an apparent widening of a probe into Asia’s largest energy company. Wen Qingshan, the chief accountant at CNPC and chairman of CNPC subsidiary Kunlun Energy, was taken into custody to assist with the investigation in recent days, according to numerous reports from Chinese media. Kunlun’s shares were suspended in Hong Kong on Tuesday and the company released a statement in the afternoon saying Mr Wen had resigned as chairman and executive director of the company with immediate effect due to “personal matters” At least a dozen serving and former top executives of CNPC and PetroChina , its Hong Kong and New York-listed subsidiary, have been detained in recent months as part of a sweeping graft inquiry into the power base of one of China’s most powerful politicians. […]

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Coal group’s woes threaten China’s trust industry

A Chinese mining boss who threw a multimillion-dollar wedding for his daughter last year is now struggling under a pile of debts that threaten to trigger a major default in the country’s shadow banking industry. Until a few weeks ago Xing Libin was known as the wealthiest man in Liulin, a county in northern China that struck it rich over the past decade thanks to bulging coal deposits. Looking more like a tousled professor than a slick tycoon, Mr Xing acquired mining rights for what local media said was “the price of a cabbage” and built his unlisted company, Liansheng Resources Group, into a big player in the Chinese coal industry. Mr Xing put his success on display in March 2012 at a Rmb70m ($11m) party to jointly celebrate his daughter’s wedding and his company’s 10th anniversary. He rented three aircraft to fly family and friends to the resort […]

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India may face gas shortage

A Parliamentary standing committee has expressed fear that India could witness acute shortage of natural gas in two years, which may not be met even through imports due to lack of infrastructure. “As the government pursued the economic policy to achieve high growth, the demand for natural gas has also sharply increased in India during the past few years, and is expected to escalate further,” said the Parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and natural gas in a report. “As during 2012-13 there was only 134 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) of gas available including the imported LNG against the demand of 286 mmscmd. Thus there was huge unmet demand of 152 mmscmd,” it said. It said that in 2015-16, the expected gap would be to the tune of 300 mmscmd. “As against the demand of 439 mmscmd, the available gas supply would be 139 mmscmd […]

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U.S. Crude Output to Climb Toward Record by 2016, EIA Says

U.S. crude oil production will approach a record by 2016, climbing to the highest level in 46 years as rising output from shale formations lifts domestic supplies, reducing the nation’s need for foreign oil. Domestic output will grow annually by about 800,000 barrels a day to 9.5 million in 2016, nearing the record level of 1970, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook for 2014. Natural gas production will grow 56 percent to 37.6 trillion cubic feet by 2040, boosting liquefied natural gas exports to 3.5 trillion, the EIA said today. “The production growth we’ve seen is exceeding what anyone would’ve predicted a few years ago,” John Auers , senior vice president of Tuner Mason & Co., a consulting firm in Dallas , said by phone today. “It’s surprised everyone. We’ll be reaching even higher production very quickly because of breakthroughs in technology.” U.S. oil production […]

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Oil boom brings relief to U.S. pumps, AAA says

The high rate of North American crude oil production helped U.S. consumers in 2013 recover from the highest retail gasoline prices on record, AAA said Monday. AAA reported a national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline of $3.22, six cents cheaper than the same time last year. For the year, AAA said the national average so far was $3.50 per gallon. "Last year the annual average was $3.60 per gallon, which was the highest of all time," AAA spokesman Michael Green said in response to e-mailed questions. "Most drivers have paid cheaper gas prices this year because refineries increased capacity to take advantage of increased North American crude oil supplies." The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a Dec. 10 market report the average rate of U.S. crude oil production for November was 8 million barrels per day, the highest monthly […]

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US oil production to test record high in 2016

US crude oil production will come close to its record highs in just three years time as the shale boom sends output soaring, according to the government’s Energy Information Administration. The forecast marks a spectacular reversal from the assumptions of five years ago, when US crude production appeared to be in inexorable long-term decline. The EIA said on Monday that it had revised sharply higher its estimates of future US crude output to about 9.5m barrels a day in 2016. That is very close to the previous peak in US production of 9.6m b/d in 1970 and almost double its low point of 5m b/d in 2008. The prediction, made in the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook , shows how improvements in the techniques of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – “fracking” – made economic by higher oil prices have unlocked oil and gas reserves that were not previously commercially […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple