Category:

Amid growing violence, Lebanon presses on with Med gas auction

As Lebanon stands on the brink of a new spasm of sectarian bloodletting, Energy Minister Gebran Bassil says he plans to go ahead with moves to launch exploration of offshore gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean on Jan. 10. That’s when the Energy Ministry has scheduled an auction in which some 46 international oil companies selected in April will bid to exploration rights on half a dozen offshore blocks, the first step toward exploiting what could be Lebanon’s last chance at finding economic salvation, and possibly political harmony, since independence from France in 1943. But with Lebanon’s fractious religious sects at each other’s throats again, the victims of regional power rivalries as much as their own historical feuding, Lebanon’s prospects of an energy bonanza seem to be slipping away. Bassil told an oil and gas conference in Beirut Wednesday that he was committed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Zambia: Power Deficit Serious Issue

IT is evident that Zambia, like many other countries in the sub region is experiencing an electricity deficit. The problem is not exclusively Zambian. The entire sub-region is experiencing a power deficit largely due to the industrial growth which has by far outstripped the power generating capacity of most countries, Zambia inclusive. Industrialisation, coupled with urbanisation and the loud cry by rural parts of Zambia to be included on the national electricity grid, has stretched the capacity of Zesco to limits, forcing the company to start rationing. That is why Zesco has embarked on the Zambia Power Rehabilitation Project (PRP) whose overall objective is to supplement Government’s efforts of enhancing the ability of Zambia’s electricity supply industry to provide electricity at least cost and in an efficient manner to stimulate more and inclusive growth in the Zambian economy. The PRP involves the rehabilitation and up-rating of the three major […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Chevron's $6.4 bln China gas project pushed back again-sources

A $6.4 billion gas project being built by Chevron CVN.X in China is facing further delays due to disagreements with partner PetroChina ( 0857.HK ) over how to develop the technically tricky fields, three industry sources said. The Chuandongbei project, the U.S. firm’s largest investment in China, is now not expected to deliver first gas until the second half of 2014, nearly 7 years after the firms clinched a 30-year deal to produce 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The latest setback follows a series of delays for Chuandongbei, which Chevron has described as one of its larger capital projects for 2013. PetroChina initially expected first gas to be delivered in 2010, while its parent CNPC forecast just four months ago that production would start by end-2013. China, the world’s top energy user, but the fourth-largest consumer of gas, is racing to unlock supplies […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Chevron’s $6.4 bln China gas project pushed back again-sources

A $6.4 billion gas project being built by Chevron CVN.X in China is facing further delays due to disagreements with partner PetroChina ( 0857.HK ) over how to develop the technically tricky fields, three industry sources said. The Chuandongbei project, the U.S. firm’s largest investment in China, is now not expected to deliver first gas until the second half of 2014, nearly 7 years after the firms clinched a 30-year deal to produce 7.6 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The latest setback follows a series of delays for Chuandongbei, which Chevron has described as one of its larger capital projects for 2013. PetroChina initially expected first gas to be delivered in 2010, while its parent CNPC forecast just four months ago that production would start by end-2013. China, the world’s top energy user, but the fourth-largest consumer of gas, is racing to unlock supplies […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Releasing radioactive water an option for Fukushima?

TOKYO, Dec. 5 (UPI) — The International Atomic Energy Agency has suggested that Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, consider discharging less harmful radioactive water from the site into the sea. The recommendation was included in a preliminary report released Wednesday, following a 10-day review by IAEA’s 19-member team — headed by Juan Carlos Lentijo, the agency’s Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology — to observe the decommissioning process at the plant, stricken by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Tepco last month started the delicate operation of removing more than 1,000 nuclear fuel-rod assemblies from the spent fuel pool inside the damaged No. 4 reactor building. Tepco expects to complete that process by the end of 2014. The overall decommissioning work at the stricken nuclear plant, however, is expected to take as long as 40 years. In addition to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

China Chases Renewable Energy as Coast Chokes on Air

New figures in China show the country adding clean, renewable electricity generation faster than it is expanding capacity of more polluting sources. But change can’t happen fast enough for residents in eastern China, who are now choking on soupy air associated with coal-burning plants more often associated with the country’s north. Led by hydropower, renewable energy sources made up 57% of newly installed electricity-generating capacity during the first 10 months of 2013, according to China’s National Energy Administration. The figures, published to the NEA’s website Wednesday, showed 20% expansion from the same period a year earlier. Renewable energy accounted for a larger portion of growth in electricity-generating capacity than traditional, more polluting sources such as coal. Thermal-power capacity accounted for 43% of the additional capacity added. Hydropower […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Shrugging Off Winter's Bite In N. Dakota Oilfields

The extreme cold slamming the Great Plains isn’t about to cool off one of the hottest segments of the American economy: North Dakota’s oil patch. The roustabouts, roughnecks and thousands of others swept up in the state’s oil boom know they have to keep rigs operating in all conditions. One way workers stay safe is by taking timeouts in “doghouses” — small heated buildings near rigs. Craig Hovet, who is working well maintenance in the middle of the patch, says he loves what he does. He jokes that the prospect of temperatures not cracking single digits “keeps out the riffraff.” Technological advances in oil drilling have helped make North Dakota the second-leading oil producing state, pulling nearly a million barrels a day out of the ground. Post a Comment

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Shrugging Off Winter’s Bite In N. Dakota Oilfields

The extreme cold slamming the Great Plains isn’t about to cool off one of the hottest segments of the American economy: North Dakota’s oil patch. The roustabouts, roughnecks and thousands of others swept up in the state’s oil boom know they have to keep rigs operating in all conditions. One way workers stay safe is by taking timeouts in “doghouses” — small heated buildings near rigs. Craig Hovet, who is working well maintenance in the middle of the patch, says he loves what he does. He jokes that the prospect of temperatures not cracking single digits “keeps out the riffraff.” Technological advances in oil drilling have helped make North Dakota the second-leading oil producing state, pulling nearly a million barrels a day out of the ground. Post a Comment

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EIA: Texas Crude Oil Production Hits Monthly Record in September

Texas produced oil at a record rate in September, according to data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).  Daily crude oil production in the Lone Star State for the month averaged 2.7 million barrels of oil, the highest figure since the EIA began tracking monthly figures in 1981. In less than three years, Texas has more than doubled its year-on-year daily oil production, based on the September daily average figure. University of Michigan economist Mark Perry noted that oil production in Texas had increased by more than 25% year-on-year for 25 months in a row, according to the A.P. “Output in America’s No. 1 oil-producing state – Texas – continues its phenomenal, meteoric rise,” Perry wrote. “That production surge has to be one of the most significant increases in oil output ever recorded in the U.S. over such a short period of time.” The all-time monthly Texas record for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Marcellus/Utica produced ethane to reach USGC markets in January: Enterprise

Ethane from Enterprise Products Partners’ ATEX pipeline is set to arrive at the Mont Belvieu complex starting in January, the first time that barrels from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays will reach US Gulf Coast markets. Line filling on the ATEX line started in late November and it is set to begin delivering ethane to Mont Belvieu in January, Enterprise said Thursday. “The ATEX project provides producers in the rapidly growing Marcellus/Utica region with the critical ethane takeaway capacity that is needed now to allow them to continue developing their reserves, as well as gain access to the largest NGL market in the US,” said Jim Teague, chief operating officer of Enterprise. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: Gas Daily Gas Daily Gas Daily offers the most detailed coverage of natural gas prices at interstate and intrastate pipeline and pooling points […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple