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West Virginia Chemical-Spill Site Avoided Broad Regulatory Scrutiny

The site of a West Virginia chemical spill that contaminated the water supply for 300,000 people operated largely outside government oversight, highlighting gaps in regulations and prompting questions on whether local communities have a firm grasp on potential threats to drinking water. The storage facility owned by Freedom Industries Inc. on the banks of the Elk River was subject to almost no state and local monitoring, interviews and records show. The industrial chemical that leaked into the river, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, isn’t closely tracked by federal programs. Before last week’s spill, a state regulator said environmental inspectors hadn’t visited the site since 1991. Residents and businesses in the state capital of Charleston and nine surrounding counties have been without water for drinking, bathing or other uses since Thursday, when an estimated 7,500 gallons of MCHM leaked from a one-inch hole in a tank at the Freedom site, breached a containment […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ford's Aluminum F-150 Marks New Era

When Ford Motor Co. unveils its new, aluminum F-150 pickup truck on Monday, it will do more than reveal a critical new product. It will mark a new era for the auto industry in which successfully managing big technological risks will separate winners from losers. Six years after the financial crisis, oil prices have stabilized and the U.S. auto industry has rebounded from depths not seen since the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ford’s Aluminum F-150 Marks New Era

When Ford Motor Co. unveils its new, aluminum F-150 pickup truck on Monday, it will do more than reveal a critical new product. It will mark a new era for the auto industry in which successfully managing big technological risks will separate winners from losers. Six years after the financial crisis, oil prices have stabilized and the U.S. auto industry has rebounded from depths not seen since the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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West Virginia water emergency nears fifth day, with no end in sight

Around the swollen Elk River, now flowing with a chemical that no one can pronounce, myriad streams and rivulets tumbled from the hillsides this weekend, the result of a drenching downpour. Logs and branches floated downstream, toward the junction with the Kanawha in the heart of the city. Potholes on the beat-up country roads had turned into deep puddles. As they say: Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. “DO NOT USE WATER” say the signs taped over sinks at the airport, and in the state capitol the sinks are entirely wrapped in plastic bags. People line up for free water at the fire stations, or buy it directly at the Dollar General, $1.60 for a 20-ounce Dasani, $39 for a flat of 24 bottles. A chemical used in coal processing has leaked from an old tank along the Elk and invaded the water […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shell Venture Starts Fracking Giant Russian Shale Oil Formation

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and OAO Gazprom Neft began a drilling campaign to assess the potential of Siberia’s Bazhenov formation, reckoned to be one of the world’s largest deposits of shale oil. Salym Petroleum Development, the venture between Shell and Gazprom Neft, has started drilling the first of five horizontal wells over the next two years that will employ multi-fracturing technology, according to a statement today. The Bazhenov layer, which underlies Siberia’s existing oil fields, has attracted Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) because it’s similar to the Bakken shale in the U.S., where advances in drilling technology started a production boom. Exxon will also start a $300 million pilot project drilling in a different part of the Bazhenov with OAO Rosneft (ROSN) this year. “This is a big theme for Russia,” according to Ildar Davletshin, an oil and gas analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. “Bazhenov holds […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Italy Taps Oil for Crisis Fix

The impoverished region of Basilicata, in the instep of the Italian boot, has long been called the Texas of Italy for oil reserves so abundant that crude bubbles out of natural springs. For years, though, local governments have hindered production amid complaints that the region wasn’t getting its fair share of the rewards and worries about potential harm to its tourism industry and the environment. Now, the Italian government—hungry for revenue and desperate to create jobs and jump start the recession-weary economy—is trying to clear the path for the country’s own Eni ENI.MI -0.17% ENI S.p.A. Italy: Milan € 17.37 -0.03 -0.17% Jan. 13, 2014 10:31 am Volume : 1.89M P/E Ratio 8.64 Market Cap €63.23 Billion Dividend Yield 6.33% Rev. per Employee €1,611,870 01/10/14 Italy’s Eni Shuts Nigeria Pipe… 01/08/14 Lebanon Again Delays Offshore … 12/26/13 For Big Oil, Asset-Sale Option… More quote details and news » […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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France's Total enters UK shale gas market through license buys

France’s Total has bought a 40% interest in two shale gas exploration licenses in the UK, the company said Monday, confirming reports over the weekend. The deal marks Total’s entrance into the UK shale gas exploration market, and the licenses 139 and 140 are situated in Gainsborough Trough, East Midlands. The licenses lie on the Bowland Shale region and span a total of 240 square kilometers. Total and fellow French company GDF Suez have both looked to strengthen their shale gas expertise abroad after France banned shale gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing in 2011. GDF Suez announced in October that it had bought stakes in 13 UK shale gas licenses from Dart energy, also in the Bowland Shale region. The transaction announced by Total Monday is a farm-in deal and partners in the licenses will include GP Energy Limited, a subsidiary of Dart Energy […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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France’s Total enters UK shale gas market through license buys

France’s Total has bought a 40% interest in two shale gas exploration licenses in the UK, the company said Monday, confirming reports over the weekend. The deal marks Total’s entrance into the UK shale gas exploration market, and the licenses 139 and 140 are situated in Gainsborough Trough, East Midlands. The licenses lie on the Bowland Shale region and span a total of 240 square kilometers. Total and fellow French company GDF Suez have both looked to strengthen their shale gas expertise abroad after France banned shale gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing in 2011. GDF Suez announced in October that it had bought stakes in 13 UK shale gas licenses from Dart energy, also in the Bowland Shale region. The transaction announced by Total Monday is a farm-in deal and partners in the licenses will include GP Energy Limited, a subsidiary of Dart Energy […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fears of global oil crisis aired at Transatlantic Energy Security Dialogue

“We are betting our entire national economic life on the hope — indeed the expectation — that the fracking boom will continue until well into the 2020s, and that, at a rate and cost we desire, significant amounts of ‘yet to be discovered’ oil will somehow be found to meet the demand.” “If any of that proves incorrect, we have no plan, no alternative, and have given no thought to how we would respond in such a case.”The speaker is national-security expert Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, a veteran of four tours of duty with the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am not a military man, but I worry just as much about the energy security of my own country as he does about his. In the UK, the government, the civil service and most of the big energy companies seem perfectly content to replicate the grand gamble […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple