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Cold weather impacts petroleum demand, API says

A lingering cold spell in much of the United States is suppressing the demand for petroleum and petroleum products, the American Petroleum Institute said. API said the delivery of petroleum products, a measure of demand, declined 0.6 percent in February to 18.5 million barrels per day, the lowest average for any February since 1998. API Chief Economist John Felmy said the cold weather was suppressing demand for petroleum products like gasoline. "Cold weather tends to have a dampening effect on the economy, which helped reduce demand for many types of fuel in February," he said in a statement Thursday. API said demand for gasoline declined 0.2 percent from February 2013, though it was up 1.1 percent from the previous month. January’s gasoline demand of the equivalent of 8.4 million barrels per day, however, was a 13-year low for the month. API said crude oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rail delivery of oil up 2.9 percent from 2013, AAR says

Petroleum product delivery on the U.S. rail system for the week ending March 15 was up 2.9 percent year-on-year, the Association of American Railroads said. The AAR said 14,365 railcars of petroleum and petroleum products, or about 10 million barrels, were delivered on the U.S. rail system last week. While a 2.9 percent increase year-on-year, last week’s deliveries were 2.8 percent less than the week ending March 8. Last week, the rail group said fourth quarter 2013 delivery was the equivalent of about 76 million barrels of oil. For the entire year of 2013, about 285 million barrels of oil traveled on the U.S. rail network, a 74 percent increase from the previous year. So far this year, 99.6 million barrels of petroleum and petroleum products traveled by rail in the United States, a 7 percent increase from the same period last year, AAR […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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What does U.S. know about Putin's oil wealth?

The most startling part of Washington’s sanctions on Russian businessmen loyal to President Vladimir Putin may be a single sentence that contains an explosive allegation: that Putin himself profits from the world’s No. 4 oil trading company, Gunvor. Among the people the United States sanctioned on Thursday as part of its drive to put pressure on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine was businessman Gennady Timchenko, a long-time acquaintance of Putin and, until this week, co-owner of Geneva-based Gunvor, which trades nearly 3 percent of the world’s oil. In announcing the sanctions, the Treasury Department went a step further, adding a single sentence that hits squarely at one of the most controversial topics that Putin has faced in 13 years as the Kremlin ruler and head of the government. "Timchenko activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin. Putin has investments in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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What does U.S. know about Putin’s oil wealth?

The most startling part of Washington’s sanctions on Russian businessmen loyal to President Vladimir Putin may be a single sentence that contains an explosive allegation: that Putin himself profits from the world’s No. 4 oil trading company, Gunvor. Among the people the United States sanctioned on Thursday as part of its drive to put pressure on Russia for its intervention in Ukraine was businessman Gennady Timchenko, a long-time acquaintance of Putin and, until this week, co-owner of Geneva-based Gunvor, which trades nearly 3 percent of the world’s oil. In announcing the sanctions, the Treasury Department went a step further, adding a single sentence that hits squarely at one of the most controversial topics that Putin has faced in 13 years as the Kremlin ruler and head of the government. "Timchenko activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin. Putin has investments in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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As Sanctions Start, Russia Feels a Sting

American and European sanctions rattled Russia’s economy on Friday, with Moscow’s stock indexes opening sharply lower, rating agencies threatening to reduce the country’s creditworthiness, and hints of trepidation coming from Russia’s tycoons as they concluded an annual conference here. But if the aim of the sanctions is to put economic pressure on the wealthy allies crucial to President Vladimir V. Putin’s continued grip on power, there were few signs they would succeed, largely because those targeted were among the new generations of oligarchs who owe their fortunes and loyalties to Mr. Putin. And even though Russia has become more integrated in the global economy, those who were not targeted — other billionaires and millionaires who have prospered in the Russia that emerged under Mr. Putin’s rule — have not shown signs of breaking ranks , either, since the prospects of sanctions first arose. One of those […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrodollar Alert: Putin Prepares To Announce “Holy Grail” Gas Deal With China

If it was the intent of the West to bring Russia and China together – one a natural resource (if “somewhat” corrupt) superpower and the other a fixed capital / labor output (if “somewhat” capital misallocating and credit bubbleicious) powerhouse – in the process marginalizing the dollar and encouraging Ruble and Renminbi bilateral trade, then things are surely “going according to plan.” For now there have been no major developments as a result of the shift in the geopolitical axis that has seen global US influence, away from the Group of 7 (most insolvent nations) of course, decline precipitously in the aftermath of the bungled Syrian intervention attempt and the bloodless Russian annexation of Crimea, but that will soon change. Because while the west is focused on day to day developments in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category: Uncategorized

In its World Water Day Report, the UN highlights the need for cooperation between water and energy industries

The world needs to manage its use of water and energy if it wants to have enough of either vital resource, a new United Nations report states .  Most of the world’s energy production requires water, and demand for the resource is set to spike in the coming decades, most notably in China’s expanding economy. The boom in hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — in the United States, in particular, puts even more pressure on water sources, according to the report.  With fracking, water and chemicals are pumped into the ground to break up deposits of trapped gas. To generate electricity, many plants burn coal or use nuclear fuel to heat water, creating steam that turns turbines and produces electricity. In essence, a   river runs through every light switch.  “Decisions concerning energy production need to take account of the limits of water resources, the water requirements of other […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Drift Lower, WTI Trades Under $100/Bbl

Crude-oil futures slipped in Asian trading hours Friday on a strong dollar even as oil traders remained on edge as the sanctions contest between Western countries and Russia spilled over to the oil-trading business. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $98.31 a barrel at 0527 GMT, down $0.59 in the Globex electronic session. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.39 to $106.06 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude extended overnight losses, dropping below the $100 a barrel mark, as it came under pressure from a strong greenback as markets reacted to U.S. Federal Reserve commentary Thursday that interest rates could start rising in the fall. "The appreciation in the U.S. dollar has inevitably hurt overseas demand for the U.S.-denominated benchmark crudes, resulting in downward pressure," analyst Tan Chee Tat at Phillips Futures said. President […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple