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Environmentalists say NC river is ‘toxic soup’ after coal ash spill

Environmentalists and residents of North Carolina and Virginia are anxiously waiting for toxicity test results from the Dan River, where tens of thousands of tons of coal ash spilled earlier this week. Danville’s city manager has released a statement saying that while preliminary findings indicate the area drinking water is safe, they await final confirmation. North Carolina’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources has yet to provide an official determination, but people around the Dan River report that the spill was having visible and adverse effects. The spill originated from a 27-acre pond of coal ash and slurry — the waste product of burning coal — at a defunct  Duke Energy  power plant along the Dan River in Eden, N.C.   Hundreds of workers are trying to cap the leaking pipe, which has so far allowed 82,000 tons of toxic ash and 27 million gallons of contaminated water to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Accustomed to Floods, but ‘Nothing Like This,’ in Southern England

Muchelney Under Water Tommaso Protti for The New York Times MUCHELNEY, England — The village of Muchelney has become an island. Cars stand idle; locals canoe across the flooded plain or take a police boat down the road-turned-river connecting them to what they now call the “mainland.” About halfway, a silver sedan bobs in the water, its roof barely protruding. It has been there for five weeks. Even by Britain’s rain-soaked standards it has been a wet winter. For several parts of the country, it was the wettest January on record, and it is still raining. Large swaths of southern England remain on flood alert. Muchelney and the adjacent hamlet of Thorney, about 120 miles southwest of London, are among the hardest hit areas — though it took the government awhile to realize this. Roderic Baillie-Grohman, 57, was standing in knee-deep water in his living room here one recent […]

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Chesapeake Energy Predicts 2014 Capex Decline

Chesapeake Energy Corp. expects to spend less on capital improvements in 2014, as the natural-gas company works to trim costs after years of liberal spending. The company projected $5.2 billion to $5.6 billion in 2014 capital expenditures, representing a 20% reduction from the midpoint of 2013’s outlook. After adjusting for 2013 asset sales, the company expects to generate 8% to 10% production growth this year, consisting of 8% to 12% oil production growth, 44% to 49% natural gas liquids production growth and 4% to 6% natural gas production growth. Per-unit production and general and administrative expenses are expected to decline in 2014. The Oklahoma City company, which spent billions of dollars more than it made from operations in recent years, has started spending less, but its cost-control efforts have raised concerns among investors about the company’s growth prospects. New Chief Executive Doug Lawler has mapped out a strategy of […]

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Natural gas shortage hits California power supply

Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use Thursday in a rare mid-winter conservation alert, after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas for Southern California power plants. "While the natural gas shortage is only impacting Southern California power plants, statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Californians," the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s power grid, said in a statement. Requests for Californians to curtail their power use typically occur in summer, when temperatures soar and air conditioners roar, especially across Southern California. The so-called Flex Alert, in which residents are asked to turn off unneeded lights, avoid using large appliances or equipment, and turn off electrically powered heaters, was set to expire at 10 p.m. Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear if the conservation request would […]

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Keystone XL Pipeline Records Sought in Sierra Club Suit

Keystone XL pipeline records are being sought by the Sierra Club in a lawsuit claiming the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to make public documents related to its review of TransCanada Corp. (TRP) ’s project. The Army Corps has wrongly withheld records describing the pipeline’s path in relation to communities and sensitive water resources, according to the environmental group’s complaint filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco. TransCanada applied more than five years ago for a permit to build the pipeline through the U.S. heartland, connecting oil sands in Alberta with refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. The 875-mile (1,409-kilometer) pipeline would run from the U.S.-Canada border to Steele City , Nebraska. From there it would connect to an existing network. Moving Crude Through the Pipes In its final environmental review, the U.S. State Department on Jan. 31 found the Canada-U.S. oil pipeline wouldn’t […]

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Britain wind farm proposal scaled back in face of opposition

The developer of a controversial offshore wind farm in the English Channel announced this week it has reduced its size and moved it farther from shore. Eneco Wind U.K. Ltd. and EDF Energy Renewables, developers of the Navitus Bay wind farm, are seeking planning permission to begin construction by 2017 in hopes of generating energy by 2019. Following complaints it would despoil the natural beauty of the England’s Hampshire coast, the companies said Thursday they have instituted changes that would reduce its generating capacity from 1.1 gigawatts to 970 megawatts with 23 fewer turbines, while cutting the area of the farm from 67.5 to 60 square miles. Its revised boundaries would put the farm up to 2 miles further away from Christchurch, England, and 1 mile further from Bournemouth. However, critics noted the new boundaries wouldn’t alter its proximity to Swanage, England, or […]

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Rising Coal Use Clouds Europe's Future

The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. That is hardly what the climate doctor ordered—and it is part of what many experts see as an energy-policy mess that is weighing on the Continent’s industrial base. So who is to blame? We could start with Americans. They have turned the energy world on its head by exploiting large amounts of shale gas—natural gas tightly embedded in rocks deep underground. As a result, natural-gas prices in the U.S. have fallen, displacing coal as the country’s least-expensive energy source. Losing their home market, U.S. coal producers have sought […]

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Rising Coal Use Clouds Europe’s Future

The European Union sees itself leading the world in curbing carbon-dioxide emissions and doing more than any other region to mitigate climate change. But it is also increasing the share of electricity being generated by the most carbon-intensive energy source of all: coal. Coal-fired electrical-generation plants are being started up in Europe—and comparatively clean gas-fired generating capacity is being shut down. That is hardly what the climate doctor ordered—and it is part of what many experts see as an energy-policy mess that is weighing on the Continent’s industrial base. So who is to blame? We could start with Americans. They have turned the energy world on its head by exploiting large amounts of shale gas—natural gas tightly embedded in rocks deep underground. As a result, natural-gas prices in the U.S. have fallen, displacing coal as the country’s least-expensive energy source. Losing their home market, U.S. coal producers have sought […]

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Norway Plans to Tame Statoil Domination as Output Shrinks

Norway , which has watched its crude output fall every year since 2000, wants to attract large producers to compete with Statoil ASA (STL) as the state-controlled company cancels and delays key projects. Western Europe’s largest oil and gas producer now needs a broader group of big companies with the technological know-how and financial strength to help develop resources, Petroleum and Energy Minister Tord Lien said. “We need more large players,” Lien, who took power in October, said yesterday in an interview in Oslo. Statoil last year delayed an investment decision on its Johan Castberg oil project in the Arctic Barents Sea, citing rising costs and a tax increase by the previous government. It then pushed back by a year the start of its Johan Sverdrup field, delaying what may be the biggest Norwegian oil discovery since 1974. The company also scrapped plans for a pipeline to the Kristin […]

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Limits to Growth–At our doorstep, but not recognized

Page added on February 6, 2014 How long can economic growth continue in a finite world? This is the question the 1972 book The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows and others sought to answer. The computer models that the team of researchers produced strongly suggested that the world economy would collapse sometime in the first half of the 21st century. I have been researching what the real situation is with respect to resource limits since 2005. The conclusion I am reaching is that the team of 1972 researchers were indeed correct. In fact, the promised collapse is practically right around the corner, beginning in the next year or two. In fact, many aspects of the collapse appear already to be taking place, such as the 2008-2009 Great Recession and the collapse of the economies of many smaller countries such as Greece and Spain. How could collapse be so […]

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Peak Oil: Investment Issues # 3

CAPEX, AGAIN   [T]he 2013 WEO has the oil industry’s upstream capex [see this and this ] rising by nearly 180 per cent since 2000, but the global oil supply (adjusted for energy content) by only 14 per cent. The most straightforward interpretation of this data is that the economics of oil have become completely dislocated from historic norms since 2000 (and especially since 2005), with the industry investing at exponentially higher rates for increasingly small incremental yields of energy. [1] I pretend no expertise whatsoever in any and all economic matters … never have. But I understand just enough to realize that those numbers (from that excellent article by energy analyst Mark Lewis) suggest that the oil industry isn’t getting anywhere near its expected “bang for the buck.” And since those increased investments are made possible courtesy of the […]

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Oil Futures Narrow Ahead of U.S. Data

A lack of significant cues and a mixed U.S. oil inventory saw narrow movement only in oil futures in Asian hours on Thursday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $97.61 a barrel at 0620 GMT–up $0.23 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.03 to $106.28 a barrel. U.S. crude-oil supplies rose by 400,000 barrels in the week ended Jan. 31, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Analysts expected supplies to have risen by 2.2 million barrels, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal. The increase was more than offset by a 5.8 million-barrel drop in refined-product stocks, BNP Paribas said. "Essentially this was a mixed bag that elicited a mixed and limited price response. Upcoming refinery maintenance in the face of crude production increases is likely to become […]

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WTI Trades Near Three-Day High as Distillate Supply Drops

West Texas Intermediate crude advanced for a third day after a U.S. government report showed distillate stockpiles shrank as freezing weather boosted demand for heating fuels. Futures gained as much as 0.5 percent in New York . Distillate supplies , including heating oil and diesel, fell by 2.36 million barrels to 113.8 million in the seven days ended Jan. 31, data from the Energy Information Administration showed yesterday. A second winter storm of the week swept into the Northeast, dumping snow as temperatures dropped. The U.S. is the world’s biggest oil consumer. “It’s mostly due to cold weather and high demand in heating oil in the U.S.,” Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader at Bayerische Landesbank in Munich, said by phone. “Sooner or later it will come down but I wouldn’t bet on falling oil prices in the coming days.” WTI for March delivery rose as much as 52 cents […]

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Iran May Halve Fuel Oil Exports in March on Abadan Maintenance

Iran may reduce fuel oil exports by 50 percent next month as maintenance work at the Persian Gulf state’s Abadan refinery cuts output, according to an official at National Iranian Oil Co. The country may ship about 200,000 metric tons of fuel oil in March, compared with as much as 400,000 this month and 350,000 tons in January, said the official, who asked not to be identified because of internal company rules. The state-run company, known as NIOC, plans to shut half of its 390,000 barrel-a-day Abadan refinery for 20 to 30 days next month, said the official. The maintenance plan isn’t final and may change, according to the official. The Middle East nation reduced fuel oil exports to an average of 200,000 tons a month in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from about 600,000 tons earlier in the year as demand from domestic power plants climbed during winter, […]

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Iran Willing to Modify Its Arak Reactor, Official Says

An Iranian official said for the first time that Iran may modify a heavy-water reactor near Arak, signaling a willingness to compromise on one of the most contentious issues in efforts to curtail its nuclear program. “We can do some design change — in other words, make some change in the design in order to produce less plutonium in this reactor and in this way allay the worries and mitigate the concerns,” Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told Iran’s official English-language Press TV in an interview today. The uncompleted Arak heavy water reactor was a stumbling block that almost derailed nuclear talks between Iran and other nations last November, when France ’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius insisted that Iran agree to halt work there before world powers would sign onto a six-month deal to ease some of the sanctions that have hobbled Iran’s […]

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Iran's president regrets food ration problems

In a rare move, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that he regrets any troubles with the distribution of a food ration to the poor, following reports that three people have died waiting for the goods in subzero weather. Local media have reported that the three died in recent days while standing in line in freezing temperatures. Authorities were quoted as saying that they had pre-existing heart problems. Most provinces in Iran have experienced unusually low temperatures in recent days. Rouhani told state TV that he "as the president expresses regret if people have faced trouble in receiving the commodity basket." It’s unusual for an official in Iran to take responsibility for problems in a governmental plan. The ration for the poor includes eggs, cooking oil, chicken, rice and cheese. The program was instituted under Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, originally just for government workers. Rouhani’s […]

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Iran’s president regrets food ration problems

In a rare move, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday that he regrets any troubles with the distribution of a food ration to the poor, following reports that three people have died waiting for the goods in subzero weather. Local media have reported that the three died in recent days while standing in line in freezing temperatures. Authorities were quoted as saying that they had pre-existing heart problems. Most provinces in Iran have experienced unusually low temperatures in recent days. Rouhani told state TV that he "as the president expresses regret if people have faced trouble in receiving the commodity basket." It’s unusual for an official in Iran to take responsibility for problems in a governmental plan. The ration for the poor includes eggs, cooking oil, chicken, rice and cheese. The program was instituted under Rouhani’s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, originally just for government workers. Rouhani’s […]

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Iraqi Tribes to Take Lead in Falluja Fight, U.S. Says

The Iraqi Army is planning to cordon off a key Sunni city now occupied by jihadists so that Sunni tribes can lead the mission to secure it one neighborhood at a time, a senior State Department official told Congress on Wednesday. “The plan is to have the tribes out in front, but with the army in support,” said Brett McGurk, the State Department’s top official on Iraq, describing preparations to try to oust the jihadists from the city of Falluja, in Anbar Province. The Iraqi strategy to take on the militants has been developed with advice from American military officers, including General Lloyd J. Austin III, the head of the United States Central Command, who met in Baghdad last week with Iraqi officials and military […]

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48 killed, 119 wounded in Iraq violence

A total of 48 people were killed and 119 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, mostly in the capital city of Baghdad, officials and police said. A series of bomb explosions rocked the Iraqi capital from morning to evening on Wednesday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 91 others. In the morning, a car bomb went off at a parking lot outside the Iraqi Foreign Ministry building in the city center, which is adjacent to the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses some government offices and the U.S. embassy, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua […]

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Jihadist Return Is Said to Drive Attacks in Egypt

In just the last two weeks, Islamist militants have detonated a car bomb at the gates of the capital’s security headquarters, gunned down a senior Interior Ministry official in broad daylight and shot down a military helicopter over Sinai with a portable surface-to-air missile. But perhaps most alarming to officials in Cairo and Washington are the signs that the swift increase in the scale and effectiveness of the attacks may come from a new influx of fighters: Egyptians returning from jihad abroad to join a campaign of terrorism against the military-backed government. “Egypt is again an open front for jihad,” said Brian Fishman, a researcher in counterterrorism at the New America Foundation in Washington. “The world is being […]

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Libya rebels say oil crisis can be resolved, but no end in sight

Eastern separatists blockading three of Libya’s oil export terminals say the six-month-old crisis crippling the country’s energy industry could be resolved within weeks. But there’s little sign of any breakthrough. Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said Monday he’s ordered the army, a force that has still to coalesce as a state institution capable of protecting the state, to lift the blockade of the ports of Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Zueitina that began in July 2013. But on Tuesday the military said it had received no orders, from Zeidan or the Defense Ministry, to move against the rebels holding the ports through which the bulk of Libya’s oil exports pass. "If we receive any orders, the matter will be studied at that time," said army spokesman Ali Alsheikhi — a reply that suggested the army doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to confront […]

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Oman’s $3 Billion Railroad Plan to Blunt Iran Oil Risk: Freight

Oman , which faces Iran across the Strait of Hormuz , said it’s poised to start raising cash for a $3 billion rail line offering an alternative route for oil and freight shipments that funnel through the 21 mile-wide channel. The nation of 3.3 million people, located on the southern side of the strait, is considering issuing bonds by the end of 2014 to kick-start funding for the track across some of the Arabian peninsula’s harshest terrain, Abdulrahman Al Hatmi, a director at Oman National Railway Co., said in an interview. Iranian threats to close the Hormuz waterway have been a recurrent theme in Western relations with the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution. While tensions have begun to ease after an interim deal aimed at halting Iran’s nuclear program , Al Hatmi said the “very expensive” rail line is more than justified by the new trade opportunities bypassing […]

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Uganda Signs Deal With Foreign Companies to Develop Oil Sector

The government of Uganda has signed a long awaited deal with foreign oil companies to develop its oil sector, bringing to an end several years of protracted talks and opening the way for the development of the country’s crude oil reserves. The deal is based on a Memorandum of Understanding with U.K.’s Tullow Oil PLC, France’s Total SA and China’s Cnooc Ltd. cooperating on plans to develop the country’s oil sector. Those plans include a 60,000 barrels-a-day oil refinery, an oil export pipeline to Kenya’s northern port of Lamu and a crude-fired electricity plant in Uganda’s oil region, Irene Muloni, Uganda’s energy and minerals minister, told reporters in Kampala Thursday. The agreement between the energy multinationals and the Ugandan government could result in up to $15 billion to $17 billion in new investment, company officials said. The new investment will go toward the development of up to 20 […]

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Panama Canal Expansion on 'Brink of Failure' Due to Financing Dispute

Work to expand the Panama Canal so bigger ships can fit through the 100-year-old waterway has virtually ground to a halt, and the consortium in charge of the construction effort said the project is now on the "brink of failure" after talks broke down between the contractors and Panama’s government over who is going to pay for $1.6 billion in cost overruns. The storied canal, built by American engineers, is among the world’s most vital shipping routes, acting as a shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans that shaves nearly two weeks off travel times for ships that otherwise would need to travel around South America at Cape Horn. But the canal has become too narrow for the world’s ever-larger ships, including those hauling products such as natural gas and other fuels. Countries including the U.S., which is fast becoming a net exporter of natural gas as it uses […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Panama Canal Expansion on ‘Brink of Failure’ Due to Financing Dispute

Work to expand the Panama Canal so bigger ships can fit through the 100-year-old waterway has virtually ground to a halt, and the consortium in charge of the construction effort said the project is now on the "brink of failure" after talks broke down between the contractors and Panama’s government over who is going to pay for $1.6 billion in cost overruns. The storied canal, built by American engineers, is among the world’s most vital shipping routes, acting as a shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans that shaves nearly two weeks off travel times for ships that otherwise would need to travel around South America at Cape Horn. But the canal has become too narrow for the world’s ever-larger ships, including those hauling products such as natural gas and other fuels. Countries including the U.S., which is fast becoming a net exporter of natural gas as it uses […]

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Warring parties trade fire over Keystone XL pipeline

U.S. Sen. David Vitter said he’s had enough "dilly dallying" on the Keystone XL pipeline, but environmental groups said a federal review needs more vetting. The U.S. State Department published its final report on Keystone XL Friday saying there were few environmental problems tied to TransCanada’s proposed 1,179-mile oil pipeline. A federal permit is needed because the pipeline would cross the U.S. border with Canada. The State Department said its report isn’t a "decision document" and President Obama said he’d weigh the project against its environmental footprint. Vitter, R-La., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said Keystone XL has been through a thorough review since it was submitted for approval more than five years ago. "The [Obama] administration should now move beyond dilly dallying and approve this job creating project," he said in a statement Tuesday. Vitter was joined […]

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Marathon Oil Sales Volume Drops

Marathon Oil Corp. reported lower fourth-quarter sales volume, though the crude oil and natural gas producer’s bottom line grew 16% due to fewer income tax provisions. The company had generally posted higher production in recent periods, boosting earnings. Marathon, which has focused on drilling in oil-rich unconventional fields since it spun off its downstream and petroleum operations in 2011, has boosted investments in U.S. oil plays such as shale formations like the Bakken in North Dakota. For the latest quarter, Marathon Oil posted a profit of $375 million, or 54 cents a share, up from $322 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding asset sales, adjusted profit from continuing operations rose to 60 cents from 55 cents a share. Revenue fell 22% to $3.29 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 71 cents a share on $3.57 billion in revenue. […]

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US shale under fire over thirst for water

Gov. Jerry Brown formally proclaimed California in a drought Friday Jan. 17, 2014, saying the state is in the midst of perhaps its worst dry spell in a century and the conditions are putting residents and their property in "extreme peril." (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) ©AP Folsom Lake in California recedes in state’s worst dry spell in a century Water shortages have put the US oil and gas industry on a “collision course” with other users because of the large volumes needed for hydraulic fracturing , a group of leading investors has warned. Almost 40 per cent of the oil and gas wells drilled since 2011 are in areas of “extremely high” water stress, according to […]

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Victory for the Arctic Ocean: No Drilling Next Summer or Maybe Ever

The wild Arctic Ocean just got a blast of good news. Yesterday Shell Oil bowed to the inevitable and announced it will not be drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska this summer. Now the region’s coastal villages and its whales, dolphins, and polar bears will be spared a repeat of Shell’s disaster-laden attempt to drill two summers ago. Shell’s decision follows on the heels of a federal court ruling last week. The court agreed with NRDC and our allies that the Bush administration wildly underestimated the potential for oil spills and other hazards when it decided to issue oil leases off Alaska’s remote north coast. That violates federal law and throws the whole lease program into limbo. This opens up a priceless opportunity for the Obama administration. It is their chance to step back from a leasing program not of their making and develop a fresh approach […]

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Poland to Accelerate Work on Setting Regulations for Shale Gas Industry

Poland will speed up work on setting regulations for its nascent shale gas industry, officials said Wednesday after a London-listed operator hit reserves it described last month as being potentially commercially viable. Poland is one of the most promising exploration sites for shale gas in the European Union, with enough estimated reserves to allow for decades of consumption. So far only some 50 wells have been drilled, with mixed results and too few to evaluate Poland’s shale gas potential more precisely than in initial estimates. According to a report from the Polish Geological Institute in March 2012, the country has reserves of between 346 billion and 768 billion cubic meters of recoverable shale gas. Poland’s Environment Minister Maciej Grabowski said Wednesday he expects to see some 30 new shale gas drillings carried out this year as the government puts its new, more business-friendly regulations on a fast track. The […]

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Future food; We can grow enough, but how will we distribute it?

When we talk about the future of food, we usually start with world population growth. Estimates say we’ll pass the 8 billion-people mark around the spring of 2024. The worry for decades has been if we will be able to feed all those hungry mouths. The number of hungry mouths may not be the problem. A 2002 United Nations study showed that global agricultural production would exceed the population’s needs just six years after we hit the 8 billion mark. How we distribute and sell food in the future could be far more important – and more interesting.      Moving it “Oil isn’t cheap,” Katie Camden says when asked about the future of food distribution. “Plus, over the next 10 to 20 years, it’s not going to get any cheaper.”   Camden started her career in neuroscience, but then she moved into the food business. She and her husband, […]

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Oil Futures Gain in Asian Trade Ahead of Weekly Inventories

Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trading hours on Wednesday ahead of a weekly U.S. oil inventory report and after news the U.S. had granted crude-oil-export licenses. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $97.65 a barrel at 0548 GMT–up $0.46 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.23 to $106.01 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude extended gains while Brent rebounded after settling at its lowest this year in overnight floor trade–narrowing the Brent-WTI spread to around $8.28 a barrel. U.S. oil stocks rose by 384,000 barrels in the week ended Jan. 31, data from the American Petroleum Institute trade group showed late on Tuesday. The more closely watched data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due later on Wednesday. U.S. oil stocks likely rose by 2.2 million barrels on […]

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WTI Rises a Second Day as U.S. Freeze Seen Curbing Supply

West Texas Intermediate crude rose for a second day following speculation a U.S. government report will show distillate inventories fell amid colder weather in the country, the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures climbed as much as 0.9 percent in New York . Distillate supplies , including heating oil and diesel, probably shrank by 2.5 million barrels to 113.7 million last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before data from the Energy Information Administration today. An industry report yesterday showed stockpiles dropped 1.46 million. A second winter storm this week is moving into the U.S. Northeast. “The U.S. winter is keeping levels high because of the increase in demand,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by phone. “There are still some very chilly places. Once we get the winter behind us I’m looking for prices to drift lower as milder weather approaches.” […]

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U.S. Oil Prices Climb as Possible Cushing Supply Declines Take Center Stage

U.S. oil prices pushed higher Tuesday as traders bet that the opening of a new pipeline would begin to drain crude stockpiles at a key storage hub, while another cold spell is expected to further tighten heating-oil supplies. Meanwhile, Brent futures fell to a three-month low as traders worried weak economic data could weigh on global crude demand. Light, sweet crude for March delivery climbed 76 cents, or 0.8%, to $97.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex crude rebounded from a 1.1% loss in Monday’s session and rose for the first time in three trading days. […]

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Natural-gas futures jumped nearly 10% Tuesday

Natural-gas futures jumped nearly 10% Tuesday on expectations another wave of colder-than-average weather will generate even more demand for the heating fuel. Households across the Midwest and Northeast have consumed record amounts of natural gas this year amid frigid temperatures. Forecasters are calling for cold weather to persist through mid-February, with some predicting below-normal temperatures into March. The resulting spike in heating demand has revived the formerly sleepy gas market, sending investors scrambling to exit from bets that prices would stay low and into new wagers that futures will rally further. On Tuesday, natural gas for March delivery shot up 9.6%, to $5.375 a million British thermal units. Futures are within striking distance of a four-year high of $5.557 set last Wednesday. Traders and analysts say it is a return to traditional trading patterns for a commodity that was known for big price moves before a surge in […]

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Natural-Gas Prices Surge on Frigid Weather Forecasts

Natural gas surged Tuesday on expectations that another bout of widespread colder-than-average weather in the next two weeks would sustain high demand for the heating fuel. Natural gas for March delivery settled up 47 cents at $5.375 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Frigid weather this winter has sent natural-gas prices soaring and restored large one-day price swings to the volatile market, which has been subdued by high supplies in recent years. Tuesday’s 9.6% price gain only brought prices to their highest level since Wednesday, when futures hit a four-year high of $5.557/mmBtu. Updated weather forecasts Monday night and Tuesday called for unusually cold weather in the first two weeks of February to extend […]

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Turnabout on Global Outlook Darkens Investor Mood

A series of sudden, unfavorable events has in just a matter of weeks changed bright optimism about the pace of growth in the global economy this year to a deepening sense of doubt. The warning signs are plentiful: Tumbling stock prices around the world, disappointing economic reports in the U.S. and China, hasty interest-rate increases in major developing countries including Turkey, India and South Africa, and whispers of disappointment in corporate earnings conference calls. They are combining to send a signal that the global economy might not be on the strong footing it appeared to be at the start of 2014. Another closely watched indicator will arrive Friday, when the Labor Department releases its estimate of U.S. job growth in January. Still, that report, like other recent U.S. releases, could offer murky guidance due to quirks related to bad winter weather, only adding to uncertainty about the outlook. Investors […]

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Libya says bandits disrupt oil from Sharara field

Libyan oil industry officials said bandits caused production from the Sharara oil field to drop by 40 percent by blocking a pipeline to downstream facilities. Field manager Hassan al-Sideek said bandits forced a valve to close from Sharara, blocking 40 percent of the delivery of crude oil to the Zawia oil refinery and terminal, the Libya Herald reported Monday. Operations at Sharara, in the western Libyan desert, were shuttered in October by regional protesters calling for more local authority. The field has the capacity to produce 350,000 barrels of oil per day. In January, Libyan Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi said the restart of the Sharara oil field in the west of the country had contributed to recent production gains. Maintenance crews were told by gunmen near the pipeline the rebels would only speak with government officials. "We don’t know what they want," a […]

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Four bombs hit central Baghdad, killing 13

Four bombs struck near Baghdad’s heavily-fortified "Green Zone" and a busy square in the center of the capital on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, security sources said. The blasts came a day after two rockets were fired into the Green Zone, home to the prime minister’s office and Western embassies, and are likely to heighten concerns about Iraq’s ability to protect strategic sites as security deteriorates. On Wednesday, security sources said two parked car bombs were detonated opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, killing five people. The Interior Ministry said in a statement the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who blew himself up as he was being searched. The other car was driven by a suicide bomber who blew himself and the vehicle up outside a restaurant close to a checkpoint one street away from the Green Zone, killing four people, the […]

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India can't yet use Turkish banks to pay for Iranian oil

Turkish Trade Minister Nihat Zeybecki said the mechanisms aren’t yet in place to help process payments from India for Iranian crude oil. The European Union in January lifted restrictions on insurance and transport of Iranian crude oil. The decision was made in response to Iran’s decision to suspend some nuclear research activity according to the terms of an interim deal reached last year with Western powers. Zeybecki told Indian newspaper the Hindu his country was acting in line with existing embargoes and couldn’t help India with its payments for Iranian crude oil. "When we talk about embargoes, we can see that there is a bit of relaxation or opening in the embargoes," he said in an interview published Monday. "But, currently the normal procedures are ongoing." India was routing about half of its payments for Iranian crude oil through Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, but […]

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India can’t yet use Turkish banks to pay for Iranian oil

Turkish Trade Minister Nihat Zeybecki said the mechanisms aren’t yet in place to help process payments from India for Iranian crude oil. The European Union in January lifted restrictions on insurance and transport of Iranian crude oil. The decision was made in response to Iran’s decision to suspend some nuclear research activity according to the terms of an interim deal reached last year with Western powers. Zeybecki told Indian newspaper the Hindu his country was acting in line with existing embargoes and couldn’t help India with its payments for Iranian crude oil. "When we talk about embargoes, we can see that there is a bit of relaxation or opening in the embargoes," he said in an interview published Monday. "But, currently the normal procedures are ongoing." India was routing about half of its payments for Iranian crude oil through Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, but […]

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Shell starts new work in deep Gulf of Mexico waters

Shell said Tuesday production began at its Mars B development in the Gulf of Mexico, which should help boost regional production by 66 percent by 2016. Shell said it started production from Mars B using its Olympus platform, which the company said was its largest deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Olympus is floating in roughly 3,100 feet of water off the coast of Louisiana. Shell said the entire Mars field produced an average 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day last year. With Olympus in place, Mars field production should reach 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2016. John Hollowell, executive vice president for Shell’s deep water operations in the Americas, said in a statement Tuesday the Mars developments showcase Shell’s ongoing commitment to deep-water activity. "Olympus is the latest, successful start-up of our strong portfolio of deep-water projects, which […]

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Asians concerned about future of energy: study

Energy shortages and higher energy prices are among the chief concerns of people surveyed in nine Asian countries, a study commissioned by Shell indicates. Shell Pakistan, in a news release Tuesday announcing the findings of the "Future Energy Survey," noted that by 2030, the world will require 40 percent to 50 percent more energy, water and food, amid rising demand and increasing population. The study by Paris-based market research firm Ipsos involved 8,446 participants in nine Asian countries — Brunei, Korea, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — from January to December 2013: Specific concerns revealed by the survey, Shell says, include: 91 percent of respondents in Thailand and 70 percent in South Korea cited energy shortages as a chief concern; 91 percent of respondents in India and 79 percent of respondents in Singapore cited higher energy prices; in Vietnam, water shortages […]

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Swarms of Earthquakes Shake Up Shale Gas Fields

Research  conducted by U.S. Geological Survey geophysicists suggests it was induced by injection into deep disposal wells in the Wilzetta North field. Photo Credit: Brian Sherrod, USGS. The locals call it “incoming,” and some compare the violence of the tremors to living in a war zone. Others say it’s like having their homes hit by a truck. The scene is north Texas, home to the Barnett Shale, the largest unconventional gas field in the United States. There, industry, often touted as the new engine of the U.S. economy, has punctured and fractured the landscape with 17,000 gas wells, as well as thousands of disposal sites to get rid of related toxic waste fluids. It’s in north Texas where the unconventional gas industry, together with what it calls the “safe and proven” […]

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IHS Automotive forecasts global production of plug-in vehicles to rise by 67% this year

« IHS Automotive forecasts global production of plug-in vehicles to rise by 67% this year Global electric vehicle production forecast for 2014. Source: IHS Automotive. Click to enlarge. Driven by tighter emission standards in Europe, worldwide production of plug-in electric vehicles(PEVs)—including both battery-electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models—will increase by 67% this year, according to IHS Automotive, driven by Polk. The jump in the PEV market this year contrasts with an expected 3.6% rise in global manufacturing of all motor vehicles expected in 2014. Total production of PEVs is projected to rise to more than 403,000 this year, up from slightly more than 242,000 in 2013. Growth will accelerate sharply from the […]

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Firms Fined Over Volatile Oil on Rails

Federal regulators proposed civil penalties against three oil companies for allegedly failing to test North Dakota crude properly, which could have led to putting volatile oil into railroad tank cars too weak to handle it. The fines, while small, are the first penalties to emerge from a widening investigation into how the oil industry is testing the flammability of crude pumped from the Bakken Shale of North Dakota, and whether it is using tank cars strong enough to keep oil cargoes from exploding in case of a derailment. On Tuesday, the government proposed fines totaling $93,000 against Hess Corp. , Whiting Petroleum Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. The companies allegedly either didn’t test—or improperly tested—crude oil bound for railcars. As a result, a combustible type of oil could have been loaded into railcars not designed to handle such volatile liquids, regulators said. Hess couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. […]

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Texas, Ohio shale basins get Exxon's attention

Exxon Mobil Corp. said its subsidiary, XTO Energy Inc., is moving deep into the Permian shale basin in Texas and the Utica shale area in Ohio. XTO President Randy Cleveland said in a statement moves on acreage in the Permian basin in Texas and the Utica basin in Ohio show his company is committed to exploiting "high-margin" shale reserve areas in the United States. XTO acquired the Permian acreage for an undisclosed sum from rival Endeavor Energy Resources. Endeavor stays on as the operator, though XTO takes charge of drilling operations in the shale basin. American Energy-Utica LLC agreed Monday to fund XTO’s development costs in the latter’s core Utica shale area of 55,000 net acres in exchange for 30,000 acres of XTO’s Utica holdings. Cleveland said one well from its assets in the Utica area was producing about 15 million cubic feet […]

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Texas, Ohio shale basins get Exxon’s attention

Exxon Mobil Corp. said its subsidiary, XTO Energy Inc., is moving deep into the Permian shale basin in Texas and the Utica shale area in Ohio. XTO President Randy Cleveland said in a statement moves on acreage in the Permian basin in Texas and the Utica basin in Ohio show his company is committed to exploiting "high-margin" shale reserve areas in the United States. XTO acquired the Permian acreage for an undisclosed sum from rival Endeavor Energy Resources. Endeavor stays on as the operator, though XTO takes charge of drilling operations in the shale basin. American Energy-Utica LLC agreed Monday to fund XTO’s development costs in the latter’s core Utica shale area of 55,000 net acres in exchange for 30,000 acres of XTO’s Utica holdings. Cleveland said one well from its assets in the Utica area was producing about 15 million cubic feet […]

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'Influence' part of Keystone XL conversation

With environmental activists telling the U.S. government to shun the Keystone XL pipeline, the White House shifted the focus to "ideological" influence. The Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and more than a dozen environmental campaign groups held "protest vigils" Monday to express frustration with a State Department assessment on the Keystone XL oil pipeline. TransCanada submitted its application to build the pipeline more than five years ago. It needs federal approval as a cross-border pipeline. President Obama said he’d weigh the project against its environmental footprint and the State Department last week said it saw few problems with the pipeline in that regard. Amanda Starbuck, climate director for Rainforest Action Network, said in a statement protesters took to the streets in more than 270 cities to "demonstrate their personal opposition to Keystone XL." Groups like hers say there were problems cited by the State […]

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