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Expanded Panama canal ‘should be in operation’ by Jan 2016

Tokyo (Platts)–7Mar2014/225 am EST/725 GMT The Panama Canal Authority expects the expanded canal "should be in operation by January 2016" after a trial period, Silvia de Marucci, ACP’s manager of marketing and forecasting, said Friday. Marucci made the comments in response to a question at the International LP Gas Seminar in Tokyo. "In January 2016, we are expecting to be operational" after a period of testing at both the Atlantic and Pacific side of locks, Marucci said. At the moment, the expansion is 65% complete, she added. The latest target is seven months behind a previous estimate of June 2015. The project was originally scheduled for completion this year. Next week, ACP intends to sign a final agreement with its contractor for the expansion project, Marucci told Platts ahead of the conference Friday. "Works were stopped about a month ago but resumed two weeks ago and we are very […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Two dead in Venezuela violence as protests drag on

A Venezuelan soldier and a motorcyclist died in a confused melee sparked by the opposition’s barricading of a Caracas street, officials said on Thursday, boosting the death toll from nearly a month of violence to 20. Demonstrators have for weeks staged rallies and set up barricades to demand the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro, leading to clashes with security forces and government supporters. Motorcycle drivers clearing a barricade in the middle-class neighborhood of Los Ruices were attacked by residents from nearby buildings who threw rocks and later shot at them, National Guard Gen. Manuel Quevedo told Reuters. The motorcyclist who was killed, Jose Cantillo, who was in his early twenties, was shot in the neck, Quevedo said. "Make no mistake, the National Guard and the armed forces are going to continue patrolling the streets to restore order," he said in an interview at the scene of […]

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China Needs Industry to Enlist in 'War on Pollution'

China’s newly declared "war on pollution" includes measures designed to curb smog and speed up industrial reform, particularly for the country’s massive state enterprises. The question now is whether those influential companies will water down the measures, as they have previous attempts at environmental controls. At a once-a-year meeting of China’s legislature, government officials pledged a series of reforms and pollution-reduction targets that take aim at energy-intensive heavy industries such as steel, aluminum, cement and coal. Officials said they are aimed at addressing the bouts of heavy air pollution that have plagued some major cities and generated headlines even among media outlets tightly controlled by the state. "Smog is affecting large parts of China, and environmental pollution has become a major problem, which is nature’s red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech to China’s legislature on Wednesday. "We […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China Needs Industry to Enlist in ‘War on Pollution’

China’s newly declared "war on pollution" includes measures designed to curb smog and speed up industrial reform, particularly for the country’s massive state enterprises. The question now is whether those influential companies will water down the measures, as they have previous attempts at environmental controls. At a once-a-year meeting of China’s legislature, government officials pledged a series of reforms and pollution-reduction targets that take aim at energy-intensive heavy industries such as steel, aluminum, cement and coal. Officials said they are aimed at addressing the bouts of heavy air pollution that have plagued some major cities and generated headlines even among media outlets tightly controlled by the state. "Smog is affecting large parts of China, and environmental pollution has become a major problem, which is nature’s red-light warning against the model of inefficient and blind development," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a speech to China’s legislature on Wednesday. "We […]

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Robots Star in Cleanup of Japanese Nuclear Plant

On a routine day at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear-power plant, a snakelike robot is cleaning the floor of the reactor buildings while another maps radiation density with a 3-D camera. In the three years since several of the plant’s reactors suffered meltdowns caused by Japan’s March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, it has become clear that melted fuel rods and debris inside the reactor buildings have to be cleaned up before the risks of radioactive discharge from the site can be contained. That’s where the robots come in. Robots are crucial in the cleanup, but that doesn’t mean they are […]

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The end of airlines predicted by no other than former Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon in July 2008

The Sydney Morning Herald published the following article 2 days after Qantas CEO Alan Joyce announced a 1 st half year loss of $252 million and job cuts of 5,000. Mayday: how Qantas went from national icon to corporate tragedy Qantas is a company of tribes at war with itself, and anyone who questions its strategy. It also is suffering from a case of the Boy Who Cried Wolf after so many years of warning that it was close to collapse unless the government bowed to its wishes. At one time, a phrase was coined by Dixon known as “constant-shock syndrome”. http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/mayday-how-qantas-went-from-national-icon-to-corporate-tragedy-20140228-33rax.html The SMH article describes how Chairman Leigh Clifford selected Alan Joyce as successor for CEO Geoff Dixon in May 2008. That was the month when oil prices were skyrocketing towards $130 a barrel as a result of extra demand from China for the Olympic Games. After 2 […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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At Energy Confab, Oil Chiefs Fret Over Costs

Underneath their swagger and bravado, global energy chiefs gathered here for their annual U.S. conference expressed a palpable sense of dread over the soaring costs of their signature oil and gas projects. "All of us are facing new realities and pressures," John Watson , chairman and chief executive of Corp. , told a hotel ballroom jammed with an international assortment of men in suits and the occasional woman. "Labor and capital costs have doubled over the last decade." To pay for the rising price of extracting fossil fuels, the industry needs triple-digit oil prices, Mr. Watson warned. "The $100 barrel is the new $20," he said—a sobering statement since global oil prices haven’t been in the $20 range since 2002. Where once concerns focused on the apparent shortage of new elephant-size oil and natural gas fields, this year’s CERAWeek produced a lot of anxiety over soaring costs. Executives "are […]

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Shale, the Last Oil and Gas Train: Interview with Arthur Berman

How much faith can we put in our ability to decipher all the numbers out there telling us the US is closing in on its cornering of the global oil market? There’s another side to the story of the relentless US shale boom, one that says that some of the numbers are misunderstood, while others are simply preposterous. The truth of the matter is that the industry has to make such a big deal out of shale because it’s all that’s left. There are some good things happening behind the fairy tale numbers, though—it’s just a matter of deciphering them from a sober perspective.    In a second exclusive interview with James Stafford of Oilprice.com , energy expert Arthur Berman discusses: •    Why US gas supply growth rests solely on Marcellus •    When Bakken and Eagle Ford will peak •    The eyebrow-raising predictions for the Permian Basin •    Why […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report

    Historical Comparisons Stocks billion cubic feet (Bcf)   Year ago (02/28/13) 5-Year average (2009-2013) Region 02/28/14 02/21/14 net change implied flow   (Bcf) % change (Bcf) % change East 525     607     -82     -82       933     -43.7     895     -41.3     West 190     217     -27     -27       346     -45.1     304     -37.5     Producing 481     524     -43     -43       825     -41.7     754     -36.2         Salt 88     96     -8     -8       193     -54.4     131     -32.8         Nonsalt 393     428     -35     -35     […]

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U.S. exporting more petroleum products, EIA says

U.S. exports of petroleum products topped the 4 million barrel per day mark in December, a monthly record, the Energy Information Administration said. EIA said the United States exported 4.3 million barrels per day worth of products ranging from gasoline to jet fuel in December, the first time exports topped 4 million bpd for any single month. Not counting the United States, EIA said in its weekly petroleum report published Wednesday that global consumption of petroleum products increased 7.6 percent from 2008 to 6.5 million barrels per day last year. "Since 2008, exports of petroleum products from the United States have increased 1.7 million bpd, supplying about 25 percent of the growth in petroleum product demand outside of the United States," the administration said. Nearly three quarters of the petroleum products leave the United States from the Gulf Coast, home to about 50 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple