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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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple