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PetroChina Net Beats Estimates as Gas Price Tempers Costs

PetroChina Co. Chairman Zhou Jiping. PetroChina Co. (857) is cutting spending as it prepares to invite private investment in line with the government’s push to reduce state dominance at the country’s biggest oil and gas producer. The company’s target for capital expenditure in 2014 at 297 billion yuan ($47.7 billion) is 7.1 percent lower than last year. PetroChina will keep investment at that level for “the next couple of years,” Chairman Zhou Jiping said yesterday at an earnings press conference in Hong Kong. China is pushing the most aggressive reforms in more than a decade as President Xi Jinping works to increase market forces in the economy. The government raised retail natural gas prices and signaled it will start allowing private companies to invest in areas traditionally dominated by state-owned giants. “One of the reasons […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Coal Sliding as Australian Flood Boost Lost in Drought

The drought across most of Australia ’s Queensland state means coal producers are exporting record volumes into an oversupplied market, depriving them of the usual price gains caused by weather disruptions. Shipments from Queensland, the biggest exporter of coal used in steelmaking, will rise 14 percent to 205 million metric tons in the 12 months ending June 30, the government says. The heavy rains that crimped output and boosted prices in three of the past four years by flooding pits such as Cockatoo Coal Ltd.’s Baralaba mine haven’t come this year. “Waters that we collected during that flood we’re now utilizing” to reduce dust and in the construction of a wall to protect against a 1-in-a-1,000 years flood, said Andrew Lawson, Cockatoo’s managing director. “Water is a risk and an opportunity,” said Lawson, who joined the company a year after flooding in 2010 halted output. Deluges in Queensland in […]

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North Carolina regulators cite Duke Energy for dumping coal ash

Environmental regulators in North Carolina have cited the country’s largest energy company for dumping millions of gallons of wastewater from coal ash ponds into a public waterway. The company could face $2.75 million in fines if the allegations are confirmed. The citations issued Thursday concern two coal ash ponds near the Cape Fear River,  where regulators allege Duke Energy  pumped the wastewater into a public canal, violating its environmental permit. Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal and contains high levels of toxic arsenic. In a statement to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, the company said the water pumped was within the limits of its permit and necessary to perform routine maintenance. “Our permit authorizes this type of maintenance specifically under the condition that we meet permit limits,” Duke Energy told Al Jazeera. “The water was being pumped to the existing, permitted outfalls.” However, Tom Reeder, director of North […]

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American Coal Feeding European Needs

Two stories from either side of the Atlantic Ocean ably demonstrate the interrelations at play in the energy sector. From Baltimore, The Wall Street Journal’s John Miller reports from a sprawling coal terminal that is at the front line of a booming business: selling American coal to the world. As the article explains, 2014 is on course to be the third straight year of record exports. Europe is the biggest target market, where demand is strong and, thanks to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, likely to grow further. A caveat comes from Brussels. The European Union’s climate chief, Connie Hedegaard, tells the Journal’s Vanessa Mock that although it is time to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Exxon Agrees to Disclose Its 'Carbon Risk'

Exxon Mobil is set to disclose the impact of carbon regulations on its investments, such as mining oil sands in Alberta, Canada. Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to disclose how the regulation of carbon emissions could affect the value of its oil and gas holdings, a sign that America’s biggest energy company is stepping up efforts to address shareholders’ environmental concerns. The oil giant will publish a report later this month explaining how it weighs the risks that regulations could make it prohibitively expensive to tap oil and gas, according to Arjuna Capital, an investment management firm focused on social responsibility that submitted a shareholder resolution asking for such a report. Exxon is set to disclose a range of measures in the report, including a calculation of the carbon emissions that its operations give off and a discussion of how it incorporates the risk of regulation into its spending […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Exxon Agrees to Disclose Its ‘Carbon Risk’

Exxon Mobil is set to disclose the impact of carbon regulations on its investments, such as mining oil sands in Alberta, Canada. Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to disclose how the regulation of carbon emissions could affect the value of its oil and gas holdings, a sign that America’s biggest energy company is stepping up efforts to address shareholders’ environmental concerns. The oil giant will publish a report later this month explaining how it weighs the risks that regulations could make it prohibitively expensive to tap oil and gas, according to Arjuna Capital, an investment management firm focused on social responsibility that submitted a shareholder resolution asking for such a report. Exxon is set to disclose a range of measures in the report, including a calculation of the carbon emissions that its operations give off and a discussion of how it incorporates the risk of regulation into its spending […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API says Gulf sale means it's time to open the Atlantic

The Interior Department’s auction in the Gulf of Mexico shows more U.S. offshore waters should be open for exploration, the American Petroleum Institute said. The Department of Interior said Wednesday it garnered more than $870 million in bids for the 1.7 million acres auctioned off in the gulf. API Director of Upstream Operations Erik Milito said the federal government has raised more than $17.3 billion from similar auctions in the last decade. "Holding lease sales in the Atlantic and more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico would make America stronger economically and diplomatically," he said in a statement. API said the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf could add as much as 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic production if it were opened up for exploration. Last month, the government released a final environmental impact statement for proposed seismic surveys in U.S. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API says Gulf sale means it’s time to open the Atlantic

The Interior Department’s auction in the Gulf of Mexico shows more U.S. offshore waters should be open for exploration, the American Petroleum Institute said. The Department of Interior said Wednesday it garnered more than $870 million in bids for the 1.7 million acres auctioned off in the gulf. API Director of Upstream Operations Erik Milito said the federal government has raised more than $17.3 billion from similar auctions in the last decade. "Holding lease sales in the Atlantic and more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico would make America stronger economically and diplomatically," he said in a statement. API said the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf could add as much as 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day to domestic production if it were opened up for exploration. Last month, the government released a final environmental impact statement for proposed seismic surveys in U.S. […]

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Canada courts China as energy partner

Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver told members of a Chinese trade group his country has the reserves available to meet growing energy demands. Oliver told members of the Canada-China Chamber of Industry and Commerce Association diversification of Canada’s export economy was a win-win situation for both sides. "Canada has the resources China needs," he said in a keynote address Wednesday. "We are an energy partner that China can depend on for the long term." Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week signed a free-trade agreement with South Korea. That deal is part of his administration’s effort to diversify an export economy that relies almost exclusively on the United States as its destination for oil and natural gas. Oliver said China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner and Canadian exports to China have more than quadrupled since 2003. Last year, China National Offshore Oil Corp. acquired Canadian rival Nexen for $15.1 […]

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Scottish renewables may falter alone, British minister says

British Energy Secretary Ed Davey said Scotland could face a difficult task in supporting its renewable energy ambitions if it breaks from the United Kingdom. Scotland holds a September referendum for independence from the United Kingdom. The government in Edinburgh said it could support itself economically through oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Davey told an energy conference in Edinburgh that while the Scottish people could endure alone, unity was better in terms of energy policies. Scotland, he said, is developing its renewable energy sector at a record pace. Scotland accounts for 10 percent of all households in the U.K., but gets 25 percent of all support for renewable energy generation. "If Scotland were to choose to go it alone, maintaining this level of support would take up a greater proportion of national finances," he said in remarks published Wednesday. "This has the potential to fundamentally change […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple