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Natural Gas Rebounds After Biggest Drop in Almost Nine Months

Natural gas rose in New York , rebounding from the biggest drop in almost nine months. Futures for February delivery climbed as much as 2.3 percent to $4.956 per million British thermal units in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange , and were at $4.932 at 2:48 p.m. in Singapore. Gas slid 6.5 percent yesterday, the most since May 2, after soaring to $5.442, the highest price since Feb. 16, 2010. The volume of all futures traded was about 58 percent below the 100-day average. Temperatures will continue to fall behind an “Arctic blast” that swept through the eastern third of the U.S., according to a forecast from the National Weather Service at 3:46 p.m. New York time yesterday. The system will also drop snow, sleet and freezing rain from South Texas to the Carolinas. “The combination of falling temperatures and gusty winds will make for bitter […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ethanol Gains as Gas Pipeline Outage May Curb Output

Ethanol gained the most in five weeks on speculation that natural gas pipeline shutdowns will force distillers to reduce production. Futures rose 2.1 percent, snapping the longest streak of losses since July, as TransCanada Corp. (TRP) shut three pipelines after an explosion and fire 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Natural gas is used to power ethanol plants. “That pipeline up in Canada is affecting things,” said Mike Blackford, a consultant at INTL FCStone in Des Moines , Iowa . “That may cause some of these plants to slow down.” Denatured ethanol for February delivery advanced 3.7 cents to settle at $1.794 a gallon on the Chicago Board of Trade. Today’s increase was biggest on a percentage basis since Dec. 19. Futures have fallen 25 percent in the past year. Gasoline for February delivery rose 0.61 cent to $2.6278 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Conway propane moves lower on correction: trade

Conway propane continued to slide on Tuesday morning as the market corrects from all-time high levels, sources said. Conway propane was heard trading at $2.25/gal, which was 65 cents lower from Monday’s assessment. "I think we had a tad of fear in the market last week," a Gulf Coast trader said. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: Oilgram News Oilgram News Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily futures summary Weekly API statistics, and much more Request a trial to Oilgram News Request More Information Conway propane hit a record high of $4.95/gal on Thursday as a tight Conway market saw a strong demand pull from cold weather. Enterprise was heard to have taken […]

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‘Fragile Five’ Is the Latest Club of Emerging Nations in Turmoil

The long-running boom in emerging markets came to be identified, if not propped up, by wide acceptance of the term BRICs, shorthand for the fast-growing countries Brazil, Russia, India and China. Recent turmoil in these and similar markets has produced a rival expression: the Fragile Five. The new name, as coined by a little-known research analyst at Morgan Stanley last summer, identifies Turkey, Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia as economies that have become too dependent on skittish foreign investment to finance their growth ambitions. The term has caught on in large degree because it highlights the strains that occur when countries place too much emphasis on stoking fast rates of economic growth. The new catchphrase also raises pressing questions about not just the BRICs but about emerging markets in general. The Morgan Stanley report came out in August, when there were reports […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Big Oil Companies Struggle to Justify Soaring Project Costs

Chevron Corp. , Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC spent more than $120 billion in 2013 to boost their oil and gas output—about the same cost in today’s dollars as putting a man on the moon. But the three oil giants have little to show for all their big spending. Oil and gas production are down despite combined capital expenses of a half-trillion dollars in the past five years. Each company is expected to report later this week a profit decline for 2013 compared with 2012, even though oil prices are high. One of the biggest problems: Costs are soaring for many of the new "megaprojects" to tap petroleum deposits needed to replenish depleting fields. Plans under way to pump oil using man-made islands in the Caspian Sea could cost a consortium that includes Exxon and Shell $40 billion, up from the original budget of $10 billion. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The globalization of pollution

THE NEXT time you’re in Los Angeles, take a deep breath. A significant portion of the pollution you’ll breathe into your lungs came from across the Pacific Ocean. Decades ago, Angelenos’ respiratory tracts may have been burned by the accumulation of local pollutants in and around Southern California’s valleys and basins. Since then, federal and state pollution controls did much to clean up the air. But a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that neither federal nor state authorities can as effectively restrain one pollution source: China. Chinese and American researchers estimated the amount and ultimate destination of smog-forming gases and particulates that Chinese factories pumped out in their production of export goods. Up to a quarter of the sulfate pollution in the western United States wafted over from those factories. Their emissions add a day of substandard air in the Los Angeles area […]

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Siege tactics in Syria come under scrutiny

The World Food Program has said it is poised to enter besieged areas with 500 bags of family rations and 500 sacks of wheat. But the aid trucks remain stranded outside Homs, and on Tuesday, the U.S. government laid the blame squarely on the government. “The only reason this assistance has not been delivered is that the regime has refused to let the convoy through,” said State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez, rejecting government claims that rebel snipers and armed groups were preventing entry. “The regime’s actions speak volumes to how little they value the lives of innocent civilians.” Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, in Geneva, said the government wanted to be sure the aid deliveries would not go to “armed groups” or “terrorists,” Reuters news service reported. “We want them to go to the women and children. We are still waiting for these assurances,” he said. Several areas […]

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Oryx encouraged by Kurdish oil prospects

Henry Legarre, chief operating officer at Oryx Petroleum, said his company was encouraged by results of drilling operations in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Oryx, which has headquarters in Alberta, Canada, said it completed drilling an exploration well in the Banan prospect in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The company said a third-party survey of the prospect in 2013 put the prospective oil resources at 102 million barrels of oil. Its Demir Dagh appraisal well in the region should be completed during the second quarter of 2014. "Observations during drilling of all wells on the Demir Dagh structure continue to be encouraging," Legarre said in a statement Monday. Both wells are in the Hawler license area in the Kurdish north. The Korean National Oil Corp., a minority partner for Oryx at Hawler, announced in March it made an oil discovery at the site. […]

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Iraqi airstrikes, artillery target militants in Fallujah; at least 7 dead in city

Iraqi government forces battling al-Qaeda-linked militants intensified airstrikes and artillery fire on the rebel-held city of Fallujah on Sunday, and at least seven people were killed there, according to hospital officials and tribal leaders. Religious and tribal leaders in the city, 30 miles west of Baghdad, said they feared an imminent assault by the army to expel militants and end a three-week standoff that has driven thousands of people from their homes. The al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is also fighting in neighboring Syria, took control of Fallujah and parts of nearby Ramadi, the provincial capital, on Jan. 1 with the help of sympathetic armed tribesmen. epa04044646 Icebreaker ‘Goermitz’ of the Stralsund Waterways and Shipping Office breaks floes in the access route to the Peenestrom harbour in Wolgast, Germany, 27 January 2014. Weather forcasts predict even more snow in the eastern regions of […]

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Provinces get additional oil revenue

The Iraqi Cabinet has increased revenue redistribution to oil and gas producing provinces, adding another $5.8 billion to the petrodollar allocation – and the ballooning draft 2014 budget – and heading off an exacerbating chorus of protest from provincial officials such as Basra and Missan, which had threatened to shut in production. The Cabinet decision follows weeks of protest and the formation of a coalition of governors of oil-producing provinces that publicly demanded action by the c…

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple