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Witnesses disagree on Keystone XL’s potential US security impacts

Witnesses at a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing sharply disagreed on whether the proposed Keystone XL crude oil pipeline would help or hinder US security. The Mar. 13 hearing came days after the deadline for submitting public comments to the US Department of State, which is considering whether the project would be in the national interest ( OGJ Online, Mar. 6, 2014 ). “I hope this can be a balanced, thoughtful hearing—[one] that puts aside some of the politics that have surrounded this debate, and deal with the underlying question of what is in our national interest,” Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the committee’s chairman, said in his opening statement. DOS continues to deliberate that question, but the final decision whether to grant TransCanada Corp., the project’s sponsor, the necessary cross-border permit rests with US President Barack Obama. Mar. 12 marked 2,000 days since TransCanada submitted its original applications, noted […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Growth in US Hydrocarbon Production from Shale Resources Driven by Drilling Efficiency

Growth in US Hydrocarbon Production from Shale Resources Driven by Drilling Efficiency" alt="Growth in US Hydrocarbon Production from Shale Resources Driven by Drilling Efficiency thumbnail" align="right" border="0" style="padding: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 10px 15px; width: 226px; height: 170px;"/> <img alt="graph of new well production per rig, oil and natural gas, as explained in the article text" src="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2014.03.11/main.png" border="0"/> Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, March 2014 Drilling Productivity Report The productivity of oil and natural gas wells is steadily increasing in many basins across the United States because of the increasing precision and efficiency of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in oil and natural gas extraction. Many resource-producing basins are experiencing an increasing yield over time in either oil (Bakken, Eagle Ford, Niobrara) or natural gas (Marcellus, Haynesville). The geology of each oil and natural gas resource play is diverse, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hess starting up North Dakota natgas plant, may boost Bakken output

Hess Corp will begin selling natural gas from its Tioga, North Dakota, plant this month, firing up the station weeks after severe weather delayed its expansion, the company said Friday. The plant’s start-up may help boost oil production from the prolific Bakken shale after about 100 producing wells had to be shut earlier this year to minimize flaring due to the delays, the state Industrial Commission said this week. "Due to the unusually harsh winter weather, we’re slightly behind our initial plans, but we expect to start selling residue gas this month," Hess spokesman John Roper said. The plant will be able to process 250 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) when it starts operating, nearly twice as much as its initial design. The station had been shut since late last year as Hess worked on the expansion. North Dakota flares nearly 36 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Unskilled and Destitute Are Hiring Targets for Fukushima Cleanup

Fukushima Daiichi workers boarding a bus to take them to the damaged nuclear plant. The workers are housed in a village where, they said, there was little to do. NARAHA, Japan — “Out of work? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to go? Nothing to eat?” the online ad reads. “Come to Fukushima.” That grim posting targeting the destitute, by a company seeking laborers for the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is one of the starkest indications yet of an increasingly troubled search for workers willing to carry out the hazardous decommissioning at the site. The plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, known as Tepco, has been shifting its attention away, leaving the complex cleanup to an often badly managed, poorly trained, demoralized and sometimes unskilled work force that has made some dangerous missteps. At the same time, the company is pouring its resources into another plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, that it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Squelching Efforts to Measure Fukushima Meltdown

In the chaotic, fearful weeks after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, in March 2011, researchers struggled to measure the radioactive fallout unleashed on the public. Michio Aoyama’s initial findings were more startling than most. As a senior scientist at the Japanese government’s Meteorological Research Institute, he said levels of radioactive cesium 137 in the surface water of the Pacific Ocean could be 10,000 times as high as contamination after Chernobyl, the world’s worst nuclear accident. Two months later, as Mr. Aoyama prepared to publish his findings in a short, nonpeer-reviewed article for Nature, the director general of the institute called with an unusual demand — that Mr. Aoyama remove his own name from the paper. “He said there were points he didn’t understand, or want to understand,” the researcher recalled. […]

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Crimea parliament declares independence after vote

Crimea’s regional parliament has declared the region an independent state, after its residents voted overwhelmingly to break off from Ukraine and seek to join Russia, news agencies reported. Sunday’s referendum is not recognized by the West, and the United States and the European Union are preparing sanctions against Russia, whose troops have been occupying Crimea for several weeks. A delegation of Crimean lawmakers is set to travel to Moscow Monday for negotiations on how to proceed further. Russian lawmakers have suggested that formally annexing Crimea is just a matter of time.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Commodities Cushioned From Crimea Crisis by Ample Supply

Unprecedented natural gas reserves in Europe , record global grain output and the threat of mutual economic calamity from oil sanctions are cushioning commodity prices even as the Ukraine-Russia conflict spurs a gold rally. While U.K. gas prices, a European benchmark, rose 5.1 percent since the crisis began at the end of February, they are still the lowest for this time of year since 2010. Brent crude fell 1 percent. After wheat advanced 15 percent and corn 4.6 percent, both remain about a quarter below the peaks in 2010, the last time Russia and Ukraine curbed shipments. Gold reached a six-month high on March 14 as demand for a haven grew. Abundant supply is limiting some price swings caused by Russia ’s incursion into Crimea, where a majority in a disputed vote yesterday chose to join Russia, preliminary results show. Europe gets about a third of its gas from […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia’s $160 Billion Stick Hinders Crimean Sanctions

2014. Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds Sunday after residents in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing and were expected to slap sanctions against Russia for it. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) Close Close Open Pro-Russian people celebrate in Lenin Square, in Simferopol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 16, 2014. Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds Sunday after residents in Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. The United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing and were expected to slap sanctions against Russia for it. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) As U.S. and European officials threaten sanctions in their face-off with Russia over , Vladimir Putin’s $160 billion in oil and natural gas exports […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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16% of Natural Gas Consumed in Europe Flows Through Ukraine

. Europe, including all EU members plus Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and the non-EU Balkan states, consumed 18.7 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in 2013. Russia supplied 30% (5.7 Tcf) of this volume, with a significant amount flowing through Ukraine. EIA estimates that 16% (3.0 Tcf) of the total natural gas consumed in Europe passed through Ukraine’s pipeline network, based on data reported by Gazprom and Eastern Bloc Energy. Two major pipeline systems carry Russian gas through Ukraine to Western Europe—the Bratstvo (Brotherhood) and Soyuz (Union) pipelines. The Bratstvo pipeline is Russia’s largest pipeline to Europe. It crosses from Ukraine to Slovakia and splits in two to supply northern and southern European […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple