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Eni’s Net Profit Drops 14%

Eni SpA’s fourth-quarter net profit dropped 14% on the year, as the Italian oil and natural gas company suffered disruptions to its large business in Africa, weaker refining results and the appreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar. Despite the profit decline, Eni said Thursday it will increase its 2013 dividend by 1.9% on the year as it seeks to attract investors with higher payouts who are nervous about the underlying business trends and weak results from its gas activities. In January, Eni kick-started its share buyback program worth up to €6 billion ($8.16 billion) in another shareholder-friendly measure. Eni joins its peers in reporting dismal earnings for the last quarter, as production disruptions in Africa, an explosion of costs and increased competition in refinery activities, amid weak demand, hit results. France’s Total SA said Wednesday that net profit for the period fell 31%, Royal Dutch Shell […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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UK storms: Homes left without power and travel disrupted

Blackpool in Lancashire is among areas that have been battered by wind and rain Tens of thousands of homes are without power and commuters are facing renewed travel disruption after hurricane-force winds battered the UK on Wednesday. Forecasters are predicting some respite on Thursday from stormy weather but another Atlantic low could bring gales of more than 80mph from Friday onwards. Sixteen severe flood warnings remain for Berkshire, Surrey and Somerset – all already hit by severe flooding. Train services in parts of the UK are cancelled and some roads are closed. Prime Minister David Cameron will chair the first meeting of a new Cabinet committee on flood recovery later. It comes after road and rail travel was hit by high winds, which closed major routes and caused delays and cancellations throughout Wednesday. A man, thought to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A Star Is Born: U.S. Scores Fusion-Power Breakthrough

U.S. scientists replicated the power of the sun, if only for a fleeting moment, creating a miniature star that has rekindled hopes that nuclear fusion could one day offer a source of cheap and boundless energy on Earth. In experiments done at a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory last fall and published in a scientific journal Wednesday, researchers blasted the world’s most powerful laser at a target the size of a small pea. It triggered a fusion reaction that unleashed a vast amount of energy—for a fraction of a second. "For the first time anywhere, we’ve gotten more energy out of the fuel than what was put into the fuel" when using this technique, said Omar Hurricane, physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and lead author of the study in the journal Nature. The research is a long way from achieving what’s known as ignition, where the overall […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Update and EIA Short Term Energy Outlook

OPEC Update and EIA Short Term Energy Outlook The OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report  is just out with OPEC crude only production numbers for January 2014. OPEC Crude production was up 28,000 bp/d in January but that was after December production had been revised upward by 240,000 bp/d. November production was revised down by 51,000 bp/d. Of course Saudi is always the one to watch because it is generally believed that they have spare capacity. I think they had spare capacity back in 2011 but are now producing flat out, just like every other OPEC producer. Saudi crude production was down 115,000 bp/d in January but that was after December production had been revised upward by 119,000 bp/d and November revised up 52,000 bp/d. I think that surge upward early in 2013 is a telling indication. That was Manifa coming on line. Libya had the biggest gain in January, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Should we be worried about ‘peak oil’?

Every now and then, in reading about global warming and other environmental issues, I come across a reference to ‘peak oil’, usually as yet another example of how humans blindly pursue their own short-term interests, scarcely heeding the crisis that is waiting for them ahead. And of course we humans do have a tendency to do just that, some of the time, at least. Anyway, I marked down ‘peak oil’ as a subject to read about, and after some time at the computer, protected by air-conditioning that is doubtless increasing the heat outside, offer you the results of my reading. First, ‘peak oil’ is as contentious as AGW itself. The phrase itself prompts 55,600,000 hits on Google, and there are a dozen or so variants of the phrase as well. You may not be surprised to learn that there are ‘peak oil deniers’ […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Rise on Strong China Trade Data, Easing US Inventories

Crude-oil futures rose in Asian trading hours Wednesday on strong Chinese trade data including record oil-import volumes and market expectations that U.S. supply bottlenecks will start to ease. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $100.59 a barrel at 0618 GMT, up $0.65 in the Globex electronic session. March Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.17 to $108.85 a barrel. U.S. crude-oil supplies rose by 2.1 million barrels last week, but inventories at the oil-delivery hub of Cushing, Okla. fell by 2.5 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, showed late Tuesday. The API also said gasoline stockpiles fell by 479,000 barrels, while distillate stocks dropped by 1.5 million barrels as heating oil demand remained strong due to cold weather. The closely watched survey from the Energy Information Administration is due […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Rises to 7-Week High as Distillate Supplies Decline

West Texas Intermediate rose to its highest intraday level in seven weeks after an industry report showed U.S. distillate supplies shrank and a potential historic winter storm threatens to coat Georgia with ice. Futures gained as much as 0.8 percent in New York , where heavy snow is forecast. Distillate fuels, including heating oil and diesel, fell by 1.45 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said yesterday after the market settlement. Government data today will show a drop of 2.13 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. China , the second-biggest oil consumer, imported a record amount of crude for a second month in January, customs data showed. “We’ve had a strong winter in the U.S., especially in the north-east and this is why heating oil demand in the U.S. has increased,” said Frank Klumpp, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany . “Until we […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil back above $100 on tighter supply outlook

The price of oil bounced back comfortably above $100 a barrel Wednesday on expectations of tighter supplies and record imports of crude by China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer. By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. crude for March delivery was up 92 cents to $100.86 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 12 cents to $99.94 on Tuesday. Increased demand for heating oil due to frigid weather in the U.S. has lifted prices in recent weeks. In a report Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Department estimated that Americans will consume 5 percent more fuel this winter to heat their homes. Additionally, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said U.S. distillate stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels, while crude oil stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels. Just as inventories of distillates tighten, refineries are starting to undergo seasonal maintenance, which lowers supplies and boosts prices heading […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Rallies as High Demand Looks Set to Continue

-Natural gas snapped a four-day losing streak Tuesday as traders bet that near-term forecasts for frigid temperatures would keep demand hefty for the heating fuel. Natural gas for March delivery settled up 24.5 cents, or 5.4%, at $4.824 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This weekend could be colder than previously forecast in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, where a snowstorm is expected Wednesday and Thursday, said Bethesda, Md.-based Commodity Weather Group LLC in a note Tuesday. The snowstorm could continue to boost natural-gas demand, which has been vigorous all winter. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Market watchers are also expecting a weekly government […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Oil Output Rises as Group Sees More Demand Growth

OPEC crude production gained for a second month in January as the group boosted its forecast for global oil-demand growth this year. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, responsible for 40 percent of the world’s oil, said that supply from its 12 members increased by 28,000 barrels a day to 29.71 million barrels a day in January as Libya pumped more, according to its monthly report. That compares with 29.68 million barrels a day in December, OPEC said, citing data from secondary sources. The group raised its estimate for global demand growth amid an improving outlook for the world economy. “Demand in 2014 is projected to see some improvement,” OPEC said. “Economic conditions in the U.S. and Europe may turn out better than expected.” Brent crude futures have slipped 1.6 percent this year, trading at about $109 a barrel in London today. That’s within the $100 to $110 range […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple