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Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity May Worsen As Most Petrol Stations Run Out of Stock

The current fuel scarcity in the country may worsen this week as more filling stations ran out of supply at the weekend. THISDAY gathered from the managers of some petrol stations in Lagos that the few filling stations that had fuel, exhausted their stock at the weekend and would likely not have the product this week. However, the marketers disagreed with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that they were hoarding the product and attributed the scarcity to the delay in the release of the first quarter import allocation. According to them, the tight supply would linger until the marketers begin to bring in the product, adding that the situation was worse in Lagos, because of its large population as the commercial nerve centre. Sources hinted that the situation was getting out of hand in some parts of the North, South-east and South-west, as the Department of Petroleum Resources […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale-Oil Boom Spurs Refining Binge

U.S. refiners haven’t built a major new fuel-processing plant since 1976, in part because of environmental regulations. But a flood of oil from Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota has companies rushing to expand existing plants and build small new processors around the country. Valero Energy Corp. , Marathon Petroleum Corp. and other refiners are engineering ways to expand fuel-making capacity at their aging plants without the cost of building entirely new refineries to take advantage of the increase in light sweet crude flowing from U.S. wells. The gasoline, diesel and other fuels they are producing can either be burned in the U.S. or sold around the world because they aren’t subject to the export ban Congress imposed on crude in the early 1970s. American refiners are set to add at least 400,000 barrels of oil-refining capacity a day to existing plants between now and 2018, according to information compiled […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela protests

Thousands of opposition demonstrators in Venezuela have marched through the streets of Caracas in new protests against the government. At the end of the march, activists clashed with police in the opposition strongholds of Chacao and Altamira. President Nicolas Maduro extended the traditional carnival holidays until the end of this week and asked Venezuelans to rest and celebrate peace. At least 17 people have been killed in more than three weeks of unrest. Opposition leaders have asked people to ignore the carnival season, when many Venezuelans traditionally go to the seaside. They are demanding the release of dozens of demonstrators and activists arrested since last month, including high-profile politician Leopoldo Lopez. The opposition blames the left-wing policies of Mr Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A cascade of woes hitting Venezuela’s oil industry

At a conference that annually celebrates–for the most part–the explosion of North American supply, a panel that featured two PDVSA alumni turned into a bleak review of an almost unfathomable crisis gripping the Venezuelan oil industry. The strife in the streets of Caracas, and the lines of people waiting to buy the basic stuff of life, are almost secondary to the fact that, as the panelists noted, the Venezuelan government has mortgaged the future of its oil industry. Waiting for the country’s rapidly sinking ship of state to be righted by an increase in production, and maybe a boost in prices too, increasingly appears to be a pipe dream. The two panelists discussing this on day two of the Platts Crude Oil Market-Americas conference in Houston were Alberto Cisnernos Lavalier, CEO and president of Caracas-based Global Business Consultants, and Ramon Espinasa, the lead oil and gas specialist in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China discovers huge oil, gas deposits

China discovered nearly 1.1 billion tonnes of oil deposits and 616.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in 2013, said the Ministry of Land and Resources. Of the new discoveries, 202 million tonnes of oil and 381.9 billion cubic meters of natural gas can be exploited with the current technologies, according to the ministry. The production of oil and natural gas last year stood at 210 million tonnes and 117.6 billion cubic meters, rising 1.4 percent and 9.1 percent year-on-year, respectively. "Oil and natural gas discoveries maintained a strong momentum in 2013 with steady production increase as China strengthened its exploration efforts and made breakthroughs," said the ministry. China is one of the world’s largest energy consumers, and a large part of its demands, especially in oil and natural gas, depends on imports.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural gas field discovered on Gaza’s coast

Palestinian MP Dr Salem Salama, a member of the economic committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, announced that the Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip has discovered a natural gas field off the coast of the central province. In remarks to Sout Al-Aqsa on Monday morning, he noted that the field is only 200 to 300 meters away from the central province’s beach, which means that the natural gas can be easily extracted. “The fact that the field is so close to the beach will facilitate the work of any company that might invest in this field. The return will be great for the Gaza Strip, in economic terms” , he added. Salama also revealed that the Palestinian Legislative Council has summoned the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Economy to provide more details about the subject and to discuss the government’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China could meet 2015 shale gas target on Sinopec, CNPC efforts: analysts

Recent progress at shale gas projects operated by China’s state-owned giants Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp. suggest the country is on track to meet the 2015 production target set by the central government, analysts said Monday. China is targeting shale gas output of 6.5 billion cubic meters/year by 2015 and 60 billion-100 billion cu m/year (5.8-9.7 Bcf/day) by 2020 under its official plans. Analysts had earlier criticized these targets as unrealistic given the huge challenges facing operators in China’s nascent shale gas sector. The country’s total shale gas output in 2013 was just 200 million cu m, the Ministry of Land and Resources said in January. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: International Gas Report International Gas Report International Gas Report is a biweekly report that intelligently analyzes what is happening in the natural gas industry, improving your vision and sharpening […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's manufacturing, services sectors diverge in February

China’s services sector regained some momentum in February but its manufacturing sector struggled, separate surveys showed on Monday, with the divergence adding to the difficulty in assessing the strength of the economy at the start of 2014. Data for the world’s second-largest economy has been mixed, and the Lunar New Year holidays have made it harder to assess momentum. Weak investment and declining manufacturing PMI readings have been countered by surprisingly buoyant exports and bank lending. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to a three-month high of 55.0 in February, while the final Markit/HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 48.5, its third straight decline. That followed an official manufacturing PMI on Saturday which fell to an eight-month low of 50.2, just above the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion. "It’s a domestic investment-led slowdown. You see exports strong, so external demand is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s manufacturing, services sectors diverge in February

China’s services sector regained some momentum in February but its manufacturing sector struggled, separate surveys showed on Monday, with the divergence adding to the difficulty in assessing the strength of the economy at the start of 2014. Data for the world’s second-largest economy has been mixed, and the Lunar New Year holidays have made it harder to assess momentum. Weak investment and declining manufacturing PMI readings have been countered by surprisingly buoyant exports and bank lending. The official non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to a three-month high of 55.0 in February, while the final Markit/HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 48.5, its third straight decline. That followed an official manufacturing PMI on Saturday which fell to an eight-month low of 50.2, just above the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion. "It’s a domestic investment-led slowdown. You see exports strong, so external demand is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hundreds of Keystone XL pipeline opponents arrested at White House

More than 500 protesters chanting, “Hey, Obama! We don’t want no pipeline drama,” marched to the White House Sunday, demanding that President Obama stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline extension that would daily carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast. About 200 protesters, who marched from Georgetown University, through the streets of D.C., stopping in front of the house of Secretary of State John Kerry to drop “a fake oil spill,” were arrested after they used plastic zip ties to lock themselves to the White House fence. “We are here to tell President Obama to stop a pipeline that he has the control to stop,” said Justin Filtz, 26, who traveled from Stevens Point, Wisc. “The XL pipeline is like a line in the sand if we are going to stop climate change.” The segment of the Keystone XL pipeline that would run […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple