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Nuclear important in Japan’s latest draft energy policy

Japan’s government on Tuesday released an energy policy document in which nuclear power is considered an important electricity source. The plan is a toned-down revision of a draft document released in December, which said nuclear power also serves as a "foundation" for the stability of the country’s energy supply, Kyodo News Service reports. The government is required to review its energy plan at least every three years. The last plan, in 2010, called for Japan to boost its reliance on nuclear power to about 50 percent of its total electricity in 2030. Prior to the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, nuclear power provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The plan released Tuesday does not include any numerical targets for Japan’s medium- to long-term energy mix. "It was impossible to plan any energy mix, […]

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Chinese man sues government over smog

A Chinese man in a smoggy northern city has become the first person in the country to sue the government for failing to curb air pollution, a state-run newspaper reported on Tuesday. Li Guixin, a resident of Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, submitted his complaint to a district court, asking the Shijiazhuang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau to "perform its duty to control air pollution according to the law," the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily said. He is also seeking compensation from the agency for residents for the choking pollution that has engulfed Shijiazhuang, and much of northern China, this winter. "The reason that I’m proposing administrative compensation is to let every citizen see that amid this haze, we’re the real victims," Li was quoted as saying by the newspaper. It is unclear whether the court will accept Li’s lawsuit. His lawyer, Wu Yufen, declined to comment, telling Reuters, "this information is quite sensitive." The court and the Shijiazhuang environmental protection bureau could not […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Water Rationing Begins Outside Malaysia Capital Amid Drought

Water rationing began in areas surrounding Malaysia ’s capital after a prolonged drought, as Selangor state officials sought to wrap up talks to nationalize the local industry. “The supply of raw water in Selangor state is in a critical condition,” Khalid Ibrahim, the state’s chief minister, said in a faxed statement late yesterday. “The water levels at a few dams have been shrinking to reach an alarming stage.” Rationing may also start in parts of Negeri Sembilan, south of Kuala Lumpur, if there is no rain in coming days, the New Straits Times reported today, citing the state’s Chief Minister Mohamad Hasan. Several other states have also reported shortages amid rising concerns over the potential impact on Malaysian palm oil crops if the drought continues. Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to discuss the situation in cabinet tomorrow, including the possibility of cloud-seeding, the official Bernama news service said. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Clouds on the horizon for fracking companies?

The Oil & Gas Journal has published an article with the headline, " Chesapeake mulls spinoff, sale of oil field services division ". The article is especially interesting since Chesapeake is one of the largest companies in fracking. On Chesapeake Energy Corporation’s website one can read that they are the second largest producer of natural gas and the eleventh largest company for production of oil and NGL in the USA. Further, one can read that, “The company’s operations are focused on discovering and developing its large and geographically diverse resource base of unconventional natural gas and oil assets onshore in the U.S. The company also owns substantial marketing, compression and oilfield services businesses.” On 11 February 2014 the company submitted an “Investor presentation” and they explained that they were required to make such “forward-looking statements” by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Issues Emergency Testing Order to Crude Oil Rail Shippers

Federal regulators issued emergency rules Tuesday requiring extensive tests on crude oil moving by rail, concluding the system had become "an imminent hazard to public health and safety and the environment." The order is aimed at operations in one of the U.S.’s booming oil fields, the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, where production has far outpaced the availability of pipelines to move crude to refineries. In just a few years, hundred-car trains full of Bakken oil have started moving through major North American cities—and been involved in several explosive accidents. The Transportation Department said the order is aimed at Bakken crude but will cover shipments from anywhere. While oil is classified as a hazardous material, it isn’t generally linked to explosions. But Bakken crude is more volatile than other oils and is more likely to emit flammable gases, as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. The order […]

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Britain's North Sea plan draws mixed reviews

London’s decision to breathe new life into the North Sea was welcomed by the energy sector, though climate fears surfaced given heavy flooding in the country. The British government said it supported recommendations from retired businessman Ian Wood to secure more oil and natural gas reserves from the North Sea. The government expects to secure $330 billion in the next two decades through the recovery of the 3 billion to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent Wood says is still left in the North Sea. British energy company Dana Petroleum, which last year started a nine-well, $1.6 billion development project in the North Sea, welcomed the decision. Chief Executive Officer Graham Scotton said in a statement Monday the call to change the face of North Sea operations through more efficient use of new and existing infrastructure "is absolutely vital to the industry’s future success, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Britain’s North Sea plan draws mixed reviews

London’s decision to breathe new life into the North Sea was welcomed by the energy sector, though climate fears surfaced given heavy flooding in the country. The British government said it supported recommendations from retired businessman Ian Wood to secure more oil and natural gas reserves from the North Sea. The government expects to secure $330 billion in the next two decades through the recovery of the 3 billion to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent Wood says is still left in the North Sea. British energy company Dana Petroleum, which last year started a nine-well, $1.6 billion development project in the North Sea, welcomed the decision. Chief Executive Officer Graham Scotton said in a statement Monday the call to change the face of North Sea operations through more efficient use of new and existing infrastructure "is absolutely vital to the industry’s future success, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Accidents Prompt U.S. to Require Tests of Oil on Trains

U.S. energy companies using rail to carry crude must conduct tests to help ensure the oil cargoes won’t explode or eat holes through tank cars after rising train derailments spurred new emergency rules. The order issued yesterday by the U.S. Transportation Department inspired some protests, but mainly confusion as refiners and producers tried to understand what the new requirements will mean to their operations and how broadly they will apply to shipments across the country. “What do you want us to do? What do you want us to test for?” said George Stutzmann, director of supply, trading and business development for oil refiner Alon USA Energy Inc. (ALJ) “I’m not really sure what this means or what they expect from us,” he said on the sidelines of a conference in Glendale, California , held to discuss the markets for oil by rail. Oil explorers including Continental Resources (CLR) Inc. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rail Projects Boosting Oil Flow to California Refineries

California , the third-biggest refining state in the U.S., is about to see a flood of oil by rail from places such as Canada and North Dakota as suppliers seek to tap a market isolated from the rest of the country. The western U.S. may bring 500,000 barrels of light oil by rail a day in 2015 as the region’s refiners seek to replace shrinking output in California and Alaska and more costly foreign imports, Mark Smith, Tesoro Corp. (TSO) ’s vice president of development, supply and logistics, said at a conference yesterday. California refineries can run 1.63 million barrels a day, the most in the U.S. after Texas and Louisiana, government data show. The western U.S. has become one of the nation’s most dependent on foreign oil as it lacks pipeline access to crude from shale in the middle of the country. Companies from Alon USA Energy Inc. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S.-Canada water talks make KXL 'look silly'

Debates over Canadian oil pipelines are going to "look silly" compared with future U.S-Canadian discussions over water, the Canadian envoy to Washington said. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year visited Washington make his case for the Keystone XL oil pipeline planned from Alberta oil fields. TransCanada’s planned pipeline has been the source of heated debate on both sides of the border, though Canadian Ambassador to the United States Gary Doer said future debates will be over fresh water. "I think five years from now we will be spending a lot of our time diplomatically and a lot of our work on dealing with water," he said in an interview with the Edmonton Journal, published Monday. Doer said the United States and Canada have claims to 20 percent of the fresh water in the world in the five Great Lakes and share borders […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple