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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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Flint Hills North Pole Refinery Shutting Amid ‘Enormous’ Costs

Flint Hills Resources LLC will begin to permanently halt operations in May at the North Pole refinery, Alaska ’s largest by capacity, citing poor economics and “enormous” costs for cleaning up soil and groundwater. The subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc. will take the extraction unit at the refinery near Fairbanks out of service on May 1, ending gasoline production, and shut the No. 2 crude unit by June 1, ceasing the output of jet fuel and all other refined products, the Wichita, Kansas-based company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. It will continue to sell fuels at terminals in Anchorage and Fairbanks. The announcement follows the shutdown of the refinery’s No. 1 crude unit in early 2012 because of what Flint Hills described at the time as “challenging economics” and rising crude prices. Cleaning contaminated soil and groundwater has further compounded costs, the company said. “Our company has spent […]

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Vulnerable Senate Democrats Urge Keystone XL Approval

Four politically vulnerable Senate Democrats are urging U.S. President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, spotlighting the implications of an election-year decision that may influence which party controls the chamber. At a rally yesterday in Washington, Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas joined Republicans, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., oil-industry lobbyists and labor leaders to call on the administration to authorize the $5.4 billion Canada-U.S. oil pipeline. Two other Senate Democrats who face tough November re-elections — Mark Begich of Alaska and Kay Hagan of North Carolina — weren’t at the rally but also have voiced strong support for the project. “The president is in a bit of a squeeze on this,” said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. Rejecting Keystone will give Republicans running against the four Democrats a “green light” to attack over a project that’s popular […]

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Suncor posts gains from Canadian oil sands

Suncor Inc., the premier developer of Canadian oil sands, said production set a record in the fourth quarter with 409,600 barrels of oil per day. Suncor said its production from oil tar sands operations in Canada during the fourth quarter was a record 19.4 percent higher year-on-year. For all of its operations, the company said production rose to an average 558,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day during the fourth quarter, which represents less than 1 percent growth from the same quarter in 2012. Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams in a statement Monday the company was taking advantage of the global oil market dynamics by exploiting as many transit options as possible. "Looking ahead to 2014, we have already increased the flow of inland crude barrels to our Montreal refinery and begun shipping bitumen to the Gulf Coast to capture global pricing on […]

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Refining Margins Fall, Income Drops Following Asset Sales

BP PLC’s fourth-quarter profit fell 25%, hit by lower refining margins and lost income from asset sales, as the company continued to try to recover from the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. BP has sold close to $40 billion in assets and taken more than $42 billion in write-downs related to legal settlements and cleanup costs since the Gulf of Mexico spill in April 2010. The company also pleaded guilty to a dozen felony counts in the U.S. related to the accident, in which 11 workers died. The result: a smaller company that is pumping less crude oil. BP reported its results after competitors including Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. posted disappointing quarterly profits amid soaring oil-field costs and rising challenges in boosting oil output industrywide. But BP’s numbers underscore that it is still struggling with its own specific challenges—primary among them the fallout […]

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Suncor Results Miss Expectations, Co. Cuts Production View, Raises Dividend

Suncor Energy Inc. ‘s fourth-quarter results missed expectations, and it cut its outlook for production this year due to lower projected output overseas even as its oil-sands production hit a record high. Canada’s biggest oil and gas company by market capitalization also announced some shareholder-friendly moves, including a 15% increase in its quarterly dividend and an expanded share buyback. Suncor had fourth-quarter net income of 443 million Canadian dollars ($399 million), or 30 Canadian cents a share, compared with a loss of C$574 million, or 38 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Year-earlier results included an impairment charge of close to C$1.5 billion related to its Voyageur upgrader project in Alberta. The latest results included C$340 million in impairment charges and other items, mostly related to Suncor’s operational limbo in Libya and Syria. Operating earnings slipped 1.5% to C$973 million, or 66 Canadian cents a share, in the fourth […]

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BG Reports $1.08 Billion Loss

BG Group PLC reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.08 billion as it wrote down its U.S. shale-gas business and assets in Egypt. Despite the loss, the oil-and-gas company predicted it still would meet a target to be cash-flow positive next year. Production in Brazil is ramping up, capital expenditures are expected to decline and the first exports of liquefied natural gas from the Queensland Curtis project in Australia are expected for this year’s fourth quarter, the U.K.-based company said Tuesday. "Clearly we also have to address the near-term challenges we face in Egypt and deliver our plans consistently and effectively," Chief Executive Chris Finalyson said. The U.K.’s third-largest natural-gas producer warned last week that profit would be lower in the past quarter as instability in Egypt hit production and exports. BG also cautioned that low natural-gas prices in the U.S. made production from shale assets in the country […]

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Ukraine racking up gas debts, Gazprom says

Russian energy company Gazprom said top executive Alexei Miller grilled Ukraine’s vice prime minister on repayment of Kiev’s natural gas debt. Gazprom said Monday in a statement Miller met in Moscow with Ukraine’s acting Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Boiko to discuss "the issues of operation in the winter period and repayment of the existing gas debt by [Ukraine’s natural gas company] Naftogaz Ukrainy." Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office said Ukraine is already falling behind on its energy bills and owes Gazprom more than $3 billion, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Gazprom in 2009 cut gas supplies to Ukraine because of contractual disputes. That left downstream consumers in Europe in the cold for several weeks as most of their Russian gas runs through the Soviet-era transit system in Ukraine. After Ukraine’s November decision to suspend association talks with the European Union, Putin cut […]

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‘Biogasoline’ from plant waste – Peak Oil

Gasoline-like fuels can be made from cellulosic materials such as farm and forestry waste using a new process invented by chemists at the University of California, Davis. The process could open up new markets for plant-based fuels, beyond existing diesel substitutes. “What’s exciting is that there are lots of processes to make linear hydrocarbons, but until now nobody has been able to make branched hydrocarbons with volatility in the gasoline range,” said Mark Mascal, professor of chemistry at UC Davis and lead author on the paper published Jan. 29 in the journal  Angewandte Chemie . Traditional diesel fuel is made up of long, straight chains of carbon atoms, while the molecules that make up gasoline are shorter and branched. That means gasoline and diesel evaporate at different temperatures and pressures, reflected in the different design of diesel and gasoline engines. Biodiesel, refined from plant-based oils, is already commercially available […]

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Peak Oil Denial: Nonsense Keeps Rolling Along # 7

At the risk of starting a cat fight where truth may too quickly become a casualty, why don’t we more forcefully challenge those who deny peak oil (and global warming) and who do so for reasons that generally ignore reality in favor of narrowly-defined interests? Those motivations will ultimately do nothing but promote more eventual harm by denying the truths to those who clearly need them the most…. Of course, we run the risk of getting bogged down in he said/she-said arguments that quickly devolve into the lowest forms of ‘debate’, but why let those types of offerings go unchallenged? They feed on themselves, and it is tiresome and time-consuming to have to rebut all the nonsense. But if we don’t, uninformed readers and listeners have no reason to at least consider the possibility that there may indeed be other facts out there […]

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Drop Washington’s Counterproductive Oil and Natural Gas Export Ban

Page added on February 4, 2014 For years people have been told to expect a dismal energy future. But because of rapid free market innovation, Americans now can look forward to a future of energy abundance. The U.S. could even become a leading exporter—if Washington gets out of the way. Successive presidents and Congresses imposed controls, approved subsidies, created bureaucracies, and issued proclamations. The most common commitment was to achieve “energy independence.” But President Ronald Reagan set the stage for today’s energy advances by unilaterally eliminating oil price controls and pushing Congress to drop natural gas price and use restrictions. His successors, however, have regressed back to expensive social engineering. George W. Bush declared war on the common light bulb. Barack Obama poured billions into the coffers of well-connected alternative energy firms, several of which, such as Solyndra, have gone bankrupt. And everyone continued to support the authoritarian Gulf […]

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NYMEX No Future For Crude Oil Futures

According to Leah McGrath Goodman’s well-researched book “The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked the World’s Oil Market”, the start of Nymex oil trading was in major part due to traders who stumbled upon oil futures after screwing up Maine potato futures. Their trading “industry” or gambling party had been built on predicting the Maine potato harvest, and—much more importantly—trying to manipulate potato prices, to the point that regulators were finally forced to act. They shut down the potato futures market in 1976, after repeated defaults on physical deliveries of more than 25 000 tons of potatoes. As Goodman explains, the traders were forced to cast around for something else to trade. Then-Chairman of the Nymex, Michael Marks tried to boost futures trading in boneless beef and plywood, but that didn’t work. In 1978 however, Marks hit on the right thing and introduced heating oil […]

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Oil prices kept in check by global economy fears

The price of oil was little changed Tuesday, with the outlook for energy demand kept in check by weak manufacturing in China and the U.S. Benchmark U.S. crude for March delivery was up 19 cents to $96.62 a barrel at 0830 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.06 to close at $96.43 on Monday. Oil prices took a hit this week after surveys of purchasing managers in the world’s two biggest economies indicated weakness in manufacturing last month. A trade group in the U.S. reported that manufacturing barely expanded in January as cold weather cut shipments and forced some factories to shut down. On the weekend, a Chinese manufacturing index by a government-affiliated agency reported that activity declined to just above the level that indicates contraction. Feeble manufacturing could indicate broader economic weakness that results in reduced demand for energy. Brent crude, […]

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WTI Oil Trades Near One-Week Low as Crude Stockpiles Seen Rising

West Texas Intermediate traded near the lowest price in a week amid speculation crude inventories increased in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Futures were little changed in New York after declining the most in almost a month yesterday as a U.S. manufacturing gauge dropped more than forecast. Crude stockpiles probably gained by 2.25 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before a report from the Energy Information Administration tomorrow. “The data out of the U.S. is showing things aren’t as good as expected when it comes to the economy,” David Lennox , a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, said by phone today. “That’s going to have an impact on the oil price because the U.S. is a big consumer.” WTI for March delivery was at $96.64 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange , up 21 […]

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Diesel Slips as Slower Chinese Growth Threatens Global Demand

Diesel futures in New York slipped as slowing Chinese growth threatens global distillate demand. The fuel fell as much as 1 percent after China ’s official Purchasing Managers ’ Index (EC11CHPM) decreased to a six-month low in January as output and orders slowed. U.K. manufacturing also expanded at a lesser pace last month. “Slower economic growth outside the U.S. will result in slower increases in demand for diesel,” said Andy Lipow , president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston. Ultra low sulfur diesel for March delivery fell 2.58 cents to $2.9713 a gallon at 10:40 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange . Trading volume was 19 percent above the 100-day average. The Chinese Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50.5, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said Feb. 1 in Beijing. In the U.K., the Purchasing Managers’ Index declined to 56.7 last […]

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Natural Gas Eases Ahead of Warmer Weather

-Natural gas skipped a thin line between gains and losses Monday as market watchers weighed moderating weather forecasts against concerns that supplies could be exceptionally low at winter’s end. Natural gas for March delivery settled down 3.8 cents, or 0.8%, to $4.905 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Unusually cold temperatures across the U.S. have boosted natural gas to record highs in recent weeks amid robust demand for gas-fueled heating in homes and offices. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Domestic demand for natural gas hit an all-time high in January, according to energy-analytics firm Bentek Energy, owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc. (MHFI). […]

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BP Fourth-Quarter Profit Drops as Disposals Hurt Oil Output

BP Plc (BP/) , Europe ’s second-largest oil company, said fourth-quarter profit fell from a year earlier as output declined and refining margins weakened. Profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes dropped to $2.8 billion from $3.9 billion a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement. That matched the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. BP follows Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Exxon Mobil Corp., the two biggest oil companies by market value, in reporting lower earnings as the cost of drilling rises, refining profits slump and oil prices stagnate. Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley has sold less profitable fields in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill and focused on profit margins rather than volume targets. “Capital discipline is central to BP’s strategy,” Dudley said in a statement. That’s “making the right investment choices, sticking to our capital limits, and […]

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Dozens killed in series of deadly Baghdad bombings

A new series of car bombings in and around Baghdad on Monday killed at least 23 people, officials said, as Iraq’s Shia-led government grapples with a stubborn Sunni extremist-led insurgency in the western Anbar province. Eight people were killed in two separate car bombs on Monday — one of which was detonated by a suicide attacker — in the town of Mahmudiyah, just south of in the Iraqi capital . Five others were killed by vehicles rigged with explosives in the  Baghdad neighborhoods  of Baladiyat and Hurriyah. A further three explosions — one in Sadr City and two in Abu Disheer — on Monday evening killed 10 people and injured 20. In western Baghdad, also on Monday, police found the bodies of three men and one woman who were all killed by bullets to the head, officials said. And in another incident, two soldiers were killed in clashes with […]

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Iran Giving Food Away to Millions for Relief

The Iranian government has started handing out food packages for millions of its citizens both to help those with low income and to try to lower inflation on food, local news media reported on Monday. Across the capital, Tehran, and in the rest of the country, long lines of people waited in government-owned department stores, where the food is being distributed. President Hassan Rouhani has said the handouts are intended to “ease the pressure” on Iranians and demonstrate some of the immediate benefits from the recent interim nuclear agreement with world powers. All government employees and citizens making less than 5 million rials, or $170, a month are eligible to receive the food package, which contains more than 20 pounds of rice from India, two frozen chickens from Turkey, three dozen eggs, more than two quarts of vegetable oil and two packs of processed cheese. Over 15 […]

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Al Qaeda Breaks With Jihadist Group in Syria Involved in Rebel Infighting

; Al Qaeda’s central leadership has officially cut ties with a powerful jihadist group that has flourished in the chaos of the civil war in Syria and that rushed to build an Islamic state on its own terms, antagonizing the wider rebel movement. The animosity between the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and other rebel groups has fueled the deadliest infighting yet between the foes of President Bashar al-Assad and has sapped their campaign to depose him. Though the isolation of the group could lead to greater unity among other rebel forces, it is unlikely to assuage fears in the United States and elsewhere about the increasing power of extremists in Syria. The break between Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, announced late Sunday on jihadist websites, served both […]

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Libya Sends Army to End Blockade

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said Monday he had ordered the army to end the blockade imposed by armed protesters on oil terminals in the east of the country. The country’s oil production has fallen sharply after rebels blocked the terminals in the summer last year, bringing the government on the brink of a financial crisis. But in a news conference posted on his website, Mr. Zeidan said he asked "the minister of defense to order the chief of staff to move toward oil ports." Mr. Zeidan has frequently warned he would use force to end the blockade by an armed group seeking autonomy for the eastern region of Cyrenaica. But though the Libyan navy has shot at tankers trying to enter the rebel-held ports, no concrete action has been taken to retake the terminals. The blockade of the terminals has cut the country’s production to nearly a third […]

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Russia says Syria to remove chemical weapons this month

– Syria plans to send a large shipment of toxic agents out of the country this month and can complete the removal process by March 1, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "Literally yesterday the Syrians announced that the removal of a large shipment of chemical substances is planned in February. They are ready to complete this process by March 1," state-run Russia news agency RIA quoted Gatilov as saying. The operation to dispose of Syria’s chemical stockpile under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States is far behind schedule and a deadline for sending all toxic agents out of Syria this week will be missed, Reuters reported last week. U.S. officials accused Damascus of dragging its feet and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Friday to put pressure on Assad’s government […]

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Chevron Chooses Seplat-Led Bid for Nigerian Oil Blocks

Chevron Corp. has notified the Nigerian government it has selected a preferred bidder—a group led by Lagos-based Seplat Petroleum Development Co.–as the buyer of onshore oil assets the U.S. major has been seeking to sell for eight months, according to people familiar with the matter. Chevron is planning to sell the assets for $800 million to a group led by Seplat, according to these people. Seplat is part owned by French independent oil company Maurel & Prom . The onshore blocks, in the eastern part of the Niger Delta, are still at an exploration stage and aren’t yet producing oil. The government has the last word on whether the sale will go forward. A spokeswoman for Chevron declined to comment. "I can confirm we [made] a bid," said Seplat Chief Executive Austin Avuru. He declined to say if he has been notified that Seplat was the favored bidder […]

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In China’s war on bad air, government decision to release data gives fresh hope

BEIJING — China’s Communist state is hardly known for its transparency. So when environmental groups appealed to the government last year to disclose official data on air pollution, they were not expecting much. “Way beyond our expectations, the government actually said yes,” said Ma Jun, head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing. “I am quite amazed.” Since Jan. 1, the central government has required 15,000 factories — including influential state-run enterprises — to publicly report details on their air emissions and water discharges in real time, an unprecedented degree of disclosure that is shedding light on the who, what, when and where of China’s devastating environmental problems. The reporting requirement is part of a striking turnaround by China’s government, which is also publishing data on the sootiest cities and trying to limit the use of coal. The country’s appalling air is blamed for more than a […]

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Fukushima Wash-Up Fears in U.S. Belie Radiation Risks: Energy

Seaborne radiation from Japan ’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will wash up on the West Coast of the U.S. this year. That’s raising concerns among some Americans including the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fairfax, which passed a resolution on Dec. 6 calling for more testing of coastal seafood. At the same time, oceanographers and radiological scientists say such concerns are unwarranted given existing levels of radiation in the ocean. The runoff from the Japanese plant will mingle with radiation released by other atomic stations, such as Diablo Canyon in California . Under normal operations, Diablo Canyon discharges more radiation into the sea, albeit of a less dangerous isotope, than the Fukushima station, which suffered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. “There’s a point to be made that we live in a radioactive world and the ocean just has radioactive isotopes in […]

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New study suggests reported PAH emissions in oil sands region greatly underestimated

« New study suggests reported PAH emissions in oil sands region greatly underestimated Results from a new modeling assessment of contamination in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) suggest that officially reported emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in that region have been greatly underestimated. The study, which was carried out by University of Toronto Scarborough Environmental Chemistry professor Frank Wania and his PhD candidate Abha Parajulee, is published as an open access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science . We sought to use a dynamic multimedia environmental fate model to reconcile the emissions and residue levels reported for three representative PAHs in the AOSR. Data describing emissions to air compiled from two […]

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ExxonMobil expands Permian acreage, enters Utica agreement

XTO Energy Inc. , a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., has agreed to fund development to gain operating equity in 34,000 gross acres in the liquids-rich Wolfcamp in Texas’s Midland and Upton counties, increasing the company’s holdings in the Permian basin to just more than 1.5 million net acres. XTO also has signed an agreement with American Energy–Utica LLC (AEU) that will enable AEU to earn 30,000 net acres of XTO’s Utica basin leasehold in Ohio’s Harrison, Jefferson, and Belmont counties. In the Wolfcamp, Endeavor will continue to operate shallow production while XTO will drill and operate horizontal wells in the deeper intervals. “The Wolfcamp shale is a vast, tight oil resource with tremendous potential,” said XTO Pres. Randy Cleveland. “The presence of multiple, stacked pay zones creates the potential for capital-efficient horizontal development, and the proximity to XTO’s ongoing Wolfcamp operations will offer operating cost efficiencies.” In the Utica, […]

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Chu: Decision to build Keystone XL pipeline a political one

The decision on whether to permit the construction of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline is a political one and not one of that is scientific in nature, according to former US Energy Sec. Steven Chu. Speaking at a news conference in Port of Spain Chu said, “I don’t have a position on whether the Keystone Pipeline should be built. That is for the secretary of State and the president. But I will say that the decision on whether the construction should happen was a political one and not a scientific one.” Chu then told OGJ that he wanted to expand his statement to say that the studies commissioned by the administration were, in fact, scientific. Late last week, the US State Department said in its long-awaited final supplemental environmental impact statement that the 1,700-mile proposed construction and operations of the Keystone XL line would not have significant environmental […]

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California governor slams GOP water proposal

California Gov. Jerry Brown, whose state is facing its worst drought in decades, harshly criticized on Monday an effort by congressional Republicans to roll back environmental rules limiting how much water agencies can pump out of the fragile San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta in dry years. The emergency legislation would allow state and federal water managers to send water to farms and communities in California’s parched breadbasket during the summer, when the impact of the drought begins to hit hardest. The legislation is scheduled for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. It would roll back pumping restrictions imposed over the past two decades that required officials to keep a certain amount of water flowing through the delta to protect fish. In wet years, restrictions decreased – but for the past three dry years, little pumping has been allowed, and barring an onslaught of rain, none is […]

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Gas leak stopped in Gulf of Mexico

The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said a gas leak was stopped in the Gulf of Mexico but work was needed to prevent more gas from leaking. The bureau confirmed Saturday the flow of natural gas from the so-called A-7 well in the gulf was stopped by pumping in what it described as weighted drilling fluids. "While the natural gas flow has stopped, there is additional work required to secure the well that includes setting barriers to ensure that no natural gas is released," the safety agency said in a statement. The bureau said all of the people working on the drilling rig were evacuated as a security precaution. No injuries were reported. It said it was notified of the leak Thursday by EnVen, a Kenyan energy company. The rig was leased by Rowan. an offshore drilling company with headquarters in […]

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Keystone Foe Steyer Urges Review of ‘Defective’ Analysis

Billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democratic Party donor and Keystone XL foe, called on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to begin a review of the “defective” environmental analysis on the pipeline released last week. The final environmental impact statement on Keystone “has suffered from a process that raises serious questions about the integrity of the document,” Steyer, who hosted President Barack Obama at his San Francisco home in April, wrote to Kerry yesterday in a letter. Steyer is the former chief executive officer of the hedge fund Farallon Capital Management LLC and a major donor to Obama, who is being pressed by political supporters to reject the pipeline amid more signs it is headed for approval. TransCanada Corp. (TRP) ’s $5.4 billion project would carry Canadian oil sands crude to U.S. refineries in Texas . The State Department, which reviews all pipelines that cross international boundaries, […]

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GM, Ford sales stall

The top three U.S. sellers blamed extreme weather for poorer-than-expected auto sales in January, as analysts predicted a rebound in February and March. U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co and Japan’s Toyota Motor Sales USA saw January auto sales plummet, missing analysts’ estimates for the month. But early sales results were mixed for other companies and brands, with Chrysler Group, a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Nissan North America reporting increases and topping analysts’ estimates. "The bad weather only seemed to affect our competitors’ stores," teased Chrysler as it reported double-digit sales increases for its Jeep and Ram truck brands. While snow and bone-chilling weather likely hurt total U.S. auto sales for the month, analysts said any dip in January sales shouldn’t cut into the industry’s months’ long rebound, which has been outpacing the recovery of the overall U.S. economy since the […]

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Oh no! The oil price could fall

While I rarely agree with Ambrose Evans-Pritchard I do appreciate his continual columns on the energy industry and related topics. One recent column of his looked at oil price movements in the near term, predicting that oil prices may fall due to a surge in supply (and moving on to the even less likely conclusion that this will be the trigger for global deflation – surely the economic stimulus caused by cheaper energy would outweigh the loss in income for oil suppliers !) – Coming ‘oil glut’ may push global economy into deflation . Personally I think the US shale oil boom will end pretty quickly if oil prices drop much below current levels so there’s no chance of any long term "oil glut" depressing prices for any significant period of time. I do agree with his concluding paragraphs at leas… To avoid confusion, let me be clear that […]

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Oil Lower on Weak China Data

Oil futures were trading lower in London Monday, continuing a price drop that began Friday, after poor economic data called China’s recovery into question. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was down 55 cents, or 0.5%, at $105.85 a barrel. Light, sweet crude for March delivery was down 48 cents, or 0.5%, at $97.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Official Chinese Manufacturing PMI for January came in at a six-month low. The dip in fortunes for one of the world’s biggest manufacturers and oil consumers reinforcing concerns about the slowing growth, said JBC Energy. "Only the gloomiest of commentators would have predicted such a traumatic beginning to the year," said David Hufton, a market analyst at oil brokerage PVM. One cause might be Federal Reserve tapering, but PVM said this was well signaled and that a further $10 billion cutback was "priced in" to oil’s […]

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WTI Drops a Second Day on Concern China Demand May Slow

West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a second day amid speculation that China ’s fuel demand will shrink as economic growth slows in the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. Futures dropped as much as 0.7 percent in New York , extending a 0.8 percent loss on Jan. 31. A Purchasing Managers ’ Index was at 50.5 for January, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said in Beijing on Feb. 1. That’s the lowest reading in six months, while a separate report on the non-manufacturing sector also signaled a deterioration. Manufacturing data from the U.S. and the euro region are due today. “Oil is joining other commodities in being a bit nervous about softer figures in China,” said Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may buy WTI contracts at about $95 a barrel. “Although the PMI figures were […]

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Energy Storage Market Set To Explode

hawaii maui wind project hawaii maui wind project Energy storage is often heralded as the “holy grail” of the energy market. It seems that a number of researchers and companies have worked hard and long enough that this holy grail is ready to see the light. According to market research firm IHS, the energy storage market is set to “explode” to an annual installation size of 6 gigawatts (GW) in 2017 and over 40 GW by 2022 — from an initial base of only 0.34 GW installed in 2012 and 2013. The IHS report  pits the US as the largest market for grid-connected energy storage installations through 2017. It projects that the US will install 43% of the capacity additions from 2012–2017. Germany and Japan are projected to be other top markets, as any regular reader, long-time of CleanTechnica would surely assume. What will rule the day in the energy […]

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Netanyahu Criticizes Kerry Over Boycott Remarks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and some of his senior ministers on Sunday strongly criticized groups who are threatening a boycott of Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians. Their remarks were a sharp retort to Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned a day earlier that the risk of boycotts would intensify should the current Middle East peace effort fail. In a swift response to the Israeli criticism, the State Department said that Mr. Kerry had always opposed calls for boycotts and expected “all parties to accurately portray his record and statements.” The heated exchange comes as the Obama administration prepares to complete and present a “framework” accord in the coming weeks, which would be a first step toward a comprehensive agreement and serve as a basis for a continuation of negotiations. “Attempts to impose a boycott on the state of Israel are immoral and […]

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Iran getting first batch of oil money

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, said some of the $4.2 billion in oil revenue freed by nuclear agreements is on its way to Iranian accounts. Araqchi said Saturday the funds would be deposited in an Iranian bank account in Switzerland. "As far as I know, all necessary measures have been taken and transfers are under way," he told the Islamic Republic News Agency. The Iranian Students News Agency reported the first transfer totals $550 million. Iran, under the terms of a six-month nuclear agreement reached with Western powers in November, secured access to funds frozen by international sanctions. In return, Iran agreed to suspend some of its nuclear research activity. The Iranian currency, the rial, collapsed in 2012 under sanctions pressure. Under new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the government said it’s expecting major new investments in its energy sector. Iranian oil officials said […]

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733 Iraqis Killed in January, U.N. Reports

At least 733 Iraqis were killed during violence in January, not including casualties from an embattled western province, the United Nations said on Saturday. Most of the victims — 618, or 84 percent — were civilians; the other 115 were members of the security forces. The figures, issued by the United Nations mission to Iraq , excluded deaths in Anbar Province because officials could not verify the “status of those killed,” the mission said in a statement. They also excluded insurgent deaths. At least 1,229 more Iraqis were wounded last month, the statement said. Baghdad was the most affected province, with 297 people killed and 585 wounded. In Anbar Province, Islamist militants tied to Al Qaeda seized control of Falluja and parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi, after the authorities dismantled a protest camp of Sunni Muslims angry at what they see as second-class treatment by the […]

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Car bombings in Iraq kill at least 10 people

Iraqi officials say car bombings in and near Baghdad have killed at least 10 people. A police officer says a parked car bomb went off Monday near the local council building of the town of Mahmoudiyah, followed by another car bomb at an outdoor market nearby. The blasts killed six people and wounded 15. The town is located about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad. The officer also says an explosives-laden car ripped through a commercial area in Baghdad’s northern Hurriyah neighborhood, killing four people and wounding 11. Two medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media. The attacks come as Iraq’s Shiite-led government is fighting a stubborn Sunni extremist-led insurgency in the western Anbar province. © 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten […]

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Baghdad attacks kill 16 as Iraq presses Anbar assault

Iraqi SWAT troopers take part in an intensive security deployment on the outskirts the city of Ramadi, 100 km (62 miles) west of Baghdad, January 30, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer BAGHDAD: A series of attacks in and around Baghdad, including a spate of car bombs, killed 16 people Monday as Iraqi forces pressed an assault against militant-held areas of Anbar province. The latest bloodshed comes amid a surge in violence that left more than 1,000 people dead last month, the worst such figure in nearly six years, as security forces grapple with near-daily attacks and protracted battles with anti-government fighters. Foreign leaders […]

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At markets, Chavez successor falls short

“This is so depressing,” said Maria Plaza, 30, a lawyer, an hour and a half into her wait. “Pathetic.” Depressing, in an otherwise bright, modern supermarket that sells $100 bottles of Spanish wine, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and organic rice puffs. Pathetic, in a country with the world’s largest petroleum reserves and oil prices at nearly $95 a barrel, yet unable to supply basic goods because of its crumbling local currency and a shortage of U.S. dollars. “Soon we’ll be using newspaper, just like they do in Cuba!” said an elderly man nearby, inching forward in line. “Yeah! Like Cuba!” others shouted. The fate of Venezuela’s revolution, it seems, will be decided at the supermarket. Nearly a year after Chávez’s death of complications from cancer at age 58, his hand­picked successor, Nicolás Maduro, is struggling to contain food shortages, spiraling inflation and rampant crime. The arrival of basic staples such […]

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China breaks world record for car sales in 2013

Car sales surged in the U.S. last year, as the automotive industry came roaring back from the dark days of the recession. But the 15.6 million vehicles sold in America last year still lags behind China, which in 2013 reportedly became the first country to sell more than 20 million. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says those 2013 sales figures are a 14 percent increase over 2012’s data. And a new report from IHS Automotive expects passenger vehicle sales in the People’s Republic to rise further in 2014, as global and domestic automakers vie for the lucrative national market. According to IHS, sedans saw the largest growth by volume in China last year, reaching 7.3 million units and accounting for nearly 47 percent of the nation’s passenger vehicle […]

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Currency crisis at Chinese banks 'could trigger global meltdown’

Figures published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in October showed foreign currency loans booked in China, as well as cross-border borrowing by Chinese companies, had reached $880bn (£535bn) as of March 2013, from $270bn in 2009. Analysts say this figure is now likely to exceed $1 trillion and is continuing to grow, raising the prospect of the potentially dangerous vulnerability of the Chinese financial system to a rising dollar. “It is very hard to work out the exposures of individual banks to the Chinese financial system, but it seems to us there are some very large numbers on some of the bank’s balance sheets,” said the analyst. “Without a doubt, that has been on the rise [foreign currency borrowing] and was really starting to grow fast in the latter half of last year and it’s only going to continue. For the time being, it is only a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Currency crisis at Chinese banks ‘could trigger global meltdown’

Figures published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in October showed foreign currency loans booked in China, as well as cross-border borrowing by Chinese companies, had reached $880bn (£535bn) as of March 2013, from $270bn in 2009. Analysts say this figure is now likely to exceed $1 trillion and is continuing to grow, raising the prospect of the potentially dangerous vulnerability of the Chinese financial system to a rising dollar. “It is very hard to work out the exposures of individual banks to the Chinese financial system, but it seems to us there are some very large numbers on some of the bank’s balance sheets,” said the analyst. “Without a doubt, that has been on the rise [foreign currency borrowing] and was really starting to grow fast in the latter half of last year and it’s only going to continue. For the time being, it is only a […]

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World stocks fall as China manufacturing slows

Global stocks were mostly lower Monday as signs of weakness in another China manufacturing survey added to lingering jitters about developing economies. In early European trading, major benchmarks were lackluster. Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.2 percent to 6,522.24 but France’s CAC-40 was down 0.1 percent to 4,163.23. Germany’s DAX fell 0.1 percent to 9,293.72. Futures augured modest gains on Wall Street, with Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures both up 0.1 percent. The Nikkei 225, the barometer for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed down 2 percent at 14,619.13 as the yen has reversed some of its weakness against the dollar in recent days, which is a negative for exporting stocks. Also negative for sentiment was an official Chinese manufacturing survey that showed factory output grew at a slower rate in January compared with December. The survey released on the weekend followed a HSBC […]

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China's non-manufacturing PMI drops in January

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for China’s non-manufacturing sector slipped for a third straight month in January due to a slowdown in the real estate sector, new data showed. The index dropped to 53.4 percent last month, the lowest since February 2012, from 54.6 percent in December, according to official figures released on Monday. The index tracks non-manufacturing sectors including construction, software, aviation, railway transport and real estate. A PMI reading above 50 percent indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 percent reflects contraction. The monthly indicator is released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). CFLP Vice Chairman Cai Jin attributed the drop mainly to a slowdown in the real estate sector in the past two months. The price index for real estate dropped to below 50 percent from December to January, while that […]

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China’s non-manufacturing PMI drops in January

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for China’s non-manufacturing sector slipped for a third straight month in January due to a slowdown in the real estate sector, new data showed. The index dropped to 53.4 percent last month, the lowest since February 2012, from 54.6 percent in December, according to official figures released on Monday. The index tracks non-manufacturing sectors including construction, software, aviation, railway transport and real estate. A PMI reading above 50 percent indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 percent reflects contraction. The monthly indicator is released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). CFLP Vice Chairman Cai Jin attributed the drop mainly to a slowdown in the real estate sector in the past two months. The price index for real estate dropped to below 50 percent from December to January, while that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple