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Venezuela: More Protests and Deaths

A university student, a National Guard captain and a third man were shot to death in separate incidents on Wednesday during anti-government protests in the central city of Valencia. Three National Guardsmen and several protesters were wounded. Two of the deaths occurred in the opposition-dominated neighborhood of Isabelica, where residents dissatisfied with the scarcity of basic items and rising unemployment have protested for weeks by blocking streets and throwing rocks at police officers.  The opposition has accused the government of supporting armed civilian thugs who attack protesters. A month of student-led demonstrations in a number of Venezuelan cities has left at least 25 people dead, according to the government.

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Japan Regulator Selects First Reactors for Possible Restart

Members of the media and Tokyo Electric Power Co. employees visit a control room at Fukushima Daiichi on March 10. Japan’s nuclear regulator said Thursday it would start wrapping up safety compliance screening of two reactors in southwestern Japan. TOKYO—Japan’s nuclear power regulator has chosen two reactors in southwestern Japan as the first candidates for being restarted under new regulations meant to prevent another disaster like the one at Fukushima in 2011. At its weekly board meeting Thursday, the Nuclear Regulation Authority selected Co. ‘s Sendai No. 1 and 2 reactors as the first on which it will aim to complete its screening process, with most major safety concerns having been cleared up during the past eight months of discussions. "There are still a few issues at Sendai. Please make sure they are solved before completion of the screening report," NRA chairman Shunichi Tanaka told fellow commissioners at the […]

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China Crude Processing Falls to Four-Month Low on Weak Demand

China refined the least crude in four months as fuel demand in the world’s second-largest oil consumer slowed amid a cooling economy. Processing in the January-to-February period fell 1 percent from a year earlier to 78.78 million metric tons, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on its website today. That’s equivalent to an average of 9.79 million barrels a day, the lowest rate since October. The bureau in Beijing combines data for the two months, citing distortions from the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, whose timing differs each year. Refiners are cutting oil processing as the pace of China’s economic expansion slows. Benchmark U.S. crude futures dropped the past three days, the longest losing streak in more than two months, after data on March 8 showed an 18.1 percent slump in exports. Industrial output rose 8.6 percent in January-February from a year earlier, the weakest for […]

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China output and retail data adds to slowdown fears

China’s industrial output rose 8.6% in January and February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Retail sales – a key measure of consumer spending – also increased 11.8% from the year before, government figures show. The figures were less than analysts had been expecting, adding to fears of a slowdown. Markets in Asia fell on the news, with both Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the Shanghai composite dropping. Fixed-asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 17.9%. The reporting period includes the Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell during both months. Threat continues The data comes as China’s leaders wrap up their parliamentary session, known as the National People’s Congress (NPC). During the session, the government unveiled plans to push ahead with a pilot programme of privately-owned banks, in order to help open up the financial sector. At the start of the NPC earlier this month, […]

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Aramco keen to raise natural gas output

Aramco keen to raise natural gas output thumbnail" align="right" border="0" style="padding: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 10px 15px; width: 226px; height: 170px;"/> Saudi Aramco plans to produce 200 million cubic feet per day (cfd) of unconventional natural gas by 2018 to supply a new phosphate project and a power plant, an industry source said. Saudi Arabia aims to develop shale gas for power generation in order to save more of its crude oil for export. Aramco is keen to increase gas output as it can fetch $100 per barrel by exporting crude oil versus around $4 if it sells it to a Saudi power plant. CEO Khalid Al-Falih said last year the company was ready to commit gas for the development of a 1,000 megawatt power plant which will feed a phosphate mining […]

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Eagle Ford Production to Keep Growing Through 2014

Production from the Eagle Ford unconventional oil play in South Texas is expected to keep growing through 2014 and to break the 1.5 million barrel per day (bpd) mark in 2015, an analyst told attendees at the Platts’ North America Crude Conference in Houston Feb. 27-28. Between now and the end of 2018, 4.4 million barrels of crude are expected to be produced in North America, said Suzanne Minter, manager of crude and natural gas analysis with Bentek Energy. In 2013, 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude production was grown; crude production this year will exceed that number, Minter noted. While infrastructure projects will bring this crude production to market, little has been done to grow incremental demand in the North America Lower 48 market, Minter noted. For this reason, the light crude market should be pretty aggressive and competitive in the near-term; by year end, Bentek […]

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Technology to Create New Water Source for Marcellus Operators

Oil and gas producers working in the Marcellus shale play near Pittsburgh now have a new option for water resources for hydraulic fracturing operations. Winner Water Services, a Pennsylvania-based joint venture between privately owned technology company Winner Global LLC and Columbus, Ohio-based Memorial Battelle Institute, a private, non-profit applied science and technology development company, was formed a year ago to provide water management services for oil and gas, including source water and water treatment. Initially focused on the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, Winner treats acid mine drainage water, which can be used in hydraulic fracturing in place of fresh water drawn of Pennsylvania’s lakes and streams. Using technology licensed from Battelle to the Winner family to treat acid mine drainage water, Sharon, Pennsylvania-based Winner has designed and is ready to install its first treatment system next month just outside of Pittsburgh, said John Ontiveros, Winner president and CEO, […]

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Chevron Trims Production Forecast On Project Delays, Rising Costs

Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, lowered expectations for its 2017 production on Tuesday, citing lower natural gas prices, rising costs and project delays. The company now expects to produce 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) by 2017. Chevron had previously forecast 2017 production of 3.3 million boe/d. "Our growth strategy remains intact, though some things have changed," chief executive John Watson said at the company’s analyst day in New York. The company has slowed development of its holdings in the Marcellus shale formation in the eastern United States due in part to low natural gas prices. Chevron plans to sell about $10 billion of assets in the next three years, an increase from the $7 billion in asset sales in the previous three years. Most of the new asset sales will be uncompetitive assets in the company’s oil […]

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EIA: Harsh winter affected US heating expenditures, oil production

Worldwide liquids fuels consumption will increased by 1.2 million b/d this year and by 1.4 million b/d in 2015, according to the latest outlook from the US Energy Information Administration. In last month’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA projected that global oil demand would climb by 1.3 million b/d in 2014 and 1.4 million b/d in 2015. The outlook for this year sees countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accounting for all consumption growth in 2014 and nearly all of the growth in 2015. EIA expects lower OECD consumption in 2014, led by projected consumption declines in both Japan and Europe. “China is expected to see the biggest jump in petroleum demand this year, with consumption increasing by 400,000 b/d. Japan and Europe are forecast to lead the decline in oil demand this year among industrialized countries as a group, with consumption falling by […]

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US propane, propylene stocks drop 1.09 million barrels week on week: EIA

US propane and propylene stocks fell 1.09 million barrels to 26.05 million barrels for the reporting week ended Friday, US Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday. The draw was above market expectations, which were for at most a 500,000 barrel draw, Gulf Coast sources said. Gulf Coast stocks fell 114,000 barrels to 15.50 million barrels. Midwest stocks saw a draw of 922,000 barrels to 7.5 million barrels. The East Coast saw a small build to 2.02 million barrels. Mont Belvieu, Texas, propane was stronger following the news, with March propane trading at $1.1075/gal, which was 1.75 cents higher than Tuesday’s assessment of $1.09/gal. –Mike McCafferty, [email protected] –Edited by Annie Siebert, [email protected]

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Obama Makes Diplomatic Push to Defuse Crisis in Ukraine

President Obama and Ukraine’s interim prime minister opened the door on Wednesday to a political solution that could lead to more autonomy for Crimea if Russian troops withdraw, as the United States embarked on a last-ditch diplomatic effort to defuse a crisis that reignited tensions between East and West. The tentative feeler came as Mr. Obama dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to London to meet with his Russian counterpart on Friday, two days before a Russian-supported referendum in Crimea on whether to secede from Ukraine. Mr. Obama said the world would “completely reject” what he called a “slapdash election,” but added he still hoped for a peaceful settlement. In a show of solidarity for the […]

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Shell Sets Plan to Boost Returns

LONDON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Thursday it would separate some of its Americas downstream businesses and sell nonstrategic positions, as well as cut spending in its Americas upstream business by 20% this year, in a bid to improve returns. In a statement before an investor presentation the Anglo-Dutch energy giant said it would drive sharper performance management of its portfolio than in the past, through a more detailed segmentation of the business into performance units. "With sharper accountability in the company, this approach will target growth investment more effectively, focus on areas of the business where performance improvement is most required, and drive asset sales from nonstrategic positions," Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said. The move follows PLC’s as it and other major oil companies have struggled to profit from the explosion of shale oil and natural gas there. BP is keeping ownership of such assets but is […]

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Exxon's Tillerson makes case for 'pro-energy policies'

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman Rex Tillerson called on energy sector employees to embrace the industry’s policies, including more export opportunities. Tillerson told the North America’s Building Trade Unions during a conference in Washington "sound energy policies" like more natural gas exports could add as many as 452,000 new jobs for the U.S. market by 2035. "Pro-growth energy policies can spur our economy by opening access to American resources, enabling investment and innovation, and by advancing energy and infrastructure projects that employ millions of Americans," he said in his Tuesday address. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for more oil and natural gas exports to increase U.S. economic leverage overseas. On the domestic front, Tillerson said the energy sector accounts for $1.2 trillion of the U.S. economy, which he said is the equivalent of 8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Leo Gerard, president […]

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Exxon’s Tillerson makes case for ‘pro-energy policies’

Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman Rex Tillerson called on energy sector employees to embrace the industry’s policies, including more export opportunities. Tillerson told the North America’s Building Trade Unions during a conference in Washington "sound energy policies" like more natural gas exports could add as many as 452,000 new jobs for the U.S. market by 2035. "Pro-growth energy policies can spur our economy by opening access to American resources, enabling investment and innovation, and by advancing energy and infrastructure projects that employ millions of Americans," he said in his Tuesday address. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for more oil and natural gas exports to increase U.S. economic leverage overseas. On the domestic front, Tillerson said the energy sector accounts for $1.2 trillion of the U.S. economy, which he said is the equivalent of 8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Leo Gerard, president […]

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Gazprom says South Stream making progress

The South Stream natural gas pipeline for Europe is making steady progress, Alexei Miller , chairman of Russian energy company Gazprom, said. Miller briefed members of the South Stream supervisory board in Zurich, Switzerland, to review the pipeline’s progress. "The South Stream project is steadily progressing," he said in a statement Tuesday. "Contracts for laying the first string as well as for procuring pipes for the second string will be signed before the end of this March." Gazprom said it plans to commission parts of South Stream before the end of 2015. The pipeline is designed to have an annual capacity of 2.2 trillion cubic feet. Gazprom envisions South Stream as a means to add diversity to an export market that depends on Soviet-era gas transit networks through Ukraine, where geopolitical tensions add a layer of risk to Russia’s export options. Ukraine descended into chaos when ousted President Viktor […]

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Harsh winter curbs U.S. crude oil production

A harsh winter season curbed U.S. crude oil production, though future activity should make up for the loss, EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said. The Energy Information Administration said in its short-term energy outlook severe winter weather cut into production in Northern Plains states like Montana and North Dakota, hosts to the Bakken reserve areas. Output from Bakken hit the 1 million barrels per day mark in November, but averaged 900,000 bpd because of late-season storms. "Bad weather conditions cut into U.S. crude oil production this winter, but much of the production slowdown will be made up over the next few months by accelerated well completions," Sieminski said in a statement Tuesday. "Crude oil production in the Bakken formation in North Dakota and Montana fell in December, but is expected to rebound to 1 million barrels per day this month." EIA expects strong growth from […]

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U.S. to Sell 5 Million Barrels in Test for Oil Reserves

The U.S. has conducted two previous test sales from the oil reserve, including a 4… The U.S. has conducted two previous test sales from the oil reserve, including a 4 million barrel sale in August 1990, months before the U.S. attack on Iraq. Close Close Open Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg The U.S. has conducted two previous test sales from the oil reserve, including a 4 million barrel sale in August 1990, months before the U.S. attack on Iraq. The Obama administration said it plans to sell 5 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a test of the distribution system. The sale of less than 1 percent of the total stockpile has been scheduled for some time and isn’t tied to turmoil in Ukraine or other geopolitical events, said William Gibbons, an Energy Department spokesman. “Due to the recent dramatic increase in domestic […]

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Canada sees some future energy work in arctic waters

Canada, despite tough operating conditions, expects future projects to target its northern arctic waters, the head of the National Energy Board said. NEB Chairman Gaetan Caron told delegates at an arctic energy conference in Calgary of the risks and prospects of operating in the frigid northern climate. Caron said more than 100 wells were drilled in the Canadian waters of the Beaufort Sea since 1973, though only one was completed in the last 20 years. "However, seismic exploration has continued and there is potential for further drilling activity," he said in his Tuesday remarks. U.S. drilling operations in arctic waters are generally on hold. Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in January a series of mishaps in its drilling campaign off the Alaskan coast meant his company lacked a "clear path forward" in the arctic. For Canada, a joint venture between BP and Exxon Mobil has expressed […]

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Putin Opens Up Europe’s Energy Fault Line Along Oder-Neisse

By moving forces into the Crimea region, the Russian president caused a jump in natural… By moving forces into the Crimea region, the Russian president caused a jump in natural gas prices from the U.K. to Germany, highlighting Europe’s dependence on gas piped through Ukrainian territory. Close Close Open Photographer: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg By moving forces into the Crimea region, the Russian president caused a jump in natural gas prices from the U.K. to Germany, highlighting Europe’s dependence on gas piped through Ukrainian territory. Vladimir Putin’s play to wrest control of Ukraine is accentuating divisions in the European Union over how to balance climate and energy policies, driving a wedge between and its eastern neighbor Poland. By moving forces into the Crimea region, the Russian president caused a jump in natural gas prices from the U.K. to Germany, highlighting Europe’s dependence on gas piped through Ukrainian territory. […]

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Angela Merkel accuses Russia of adopting ‘law of the jungle’

German chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday accused Russia of resorting to “the law of the jungle” in the Crimea crisis, in a tough speech to parliament in which she warned that the EU would go ahead with its planned sanctions unless Moscow changed course. In the strongest language she has ever employed in her dealings with Russia, Ms Merkel said: “In a period of great uncertainty in Ukraine, Russia has not proven to be a partner for stability in a neighbouring country to which it is historically, culturally and economically closely related, but exploits its weaknesses.” Moscow had acted illegally, using the methods of the 19th and 20th centuries, she said. ”The law of the jungle is placed against the strength of the law, unilateral geopolitical concerns against understanding and co-operation.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from […]

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EU Puts Brakes on Russia Natural Gas Pipelines

The European Union has slammed the brakes on two big Russian pipeline projects to supply more natural gas to Europe, as part of its efforts to turn up the heat on Moscow over its incursion into Crimea. The move will deal a blow to Russia’s ambitions of increasing its gas exports and bypassing Ukraine as a transit country. It comes as the 28-country bloc is weighing other options to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas, which accounts for over a third of EU supplies. Six EU countries, including Bulgaria and Lithuania, depend exclusively on Russia for natural gas. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said this week that it would freeze high-level talks on South Stream, a pipeline that aims to carry up to 15% of Europe’s annual gas demand via the Black Sea. It is due to be completed by 2018. The commission warned last year […]

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Ukraine: Challenging the pipelines narrative

Of course it is all about surrounding the last truly free countries that can actually stop the Empire. Russia and China. If they can get Russia out of their Crimean navy base, they have locked them into only North Atlantic/Arctic/North Pacific Ocean access. Plus, it allows NATO (US) missiles to be based on Russia’s border. If they (the Elite) think that Russia is going to give it up without a fight, they are badly mistaken or what I see is totally BS. This could eventually bring out the nukes as Obama has already said he will strike first if he wants to. Putin may just beat him to the red button. I give it 50:50 at this point. Another Cuban missile crises in the works. Are you prepared? Arthur on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 […]

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Oil drops below $99 on China slowdown jitters

The price of oil dropped below $99 a barrel Wednesday as the possibility of a deeper economic slowdown in China fed expectations of weaker demand. Benchmark U.S. crude for April delivery was down $1.34 to $98.70 at 1030 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped $1.09 to close at $100.03 a barrel Tuesday. China’s lower exports in February have fueled worries of a further slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy, which would tamp down demand for energy. China’s economic growth of 7.7 percent last year was the lowest in two decades. Oil prices have been dropping after being pushed higher last week by fears that Russia’s military incursion into the Crimean peninsula might lead to U.S. and European sanctions on one of the world’s largest energy suppliers. Expectations of larger U.S. stockpiles and potential weaker demand as winter ends later brought futures back […]

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WTI Falls as Crude Stocks Rise, Widens Discount to Brent

West Texas Intermediate dropped to its lowest intraday level in almost five weeks, widening its discount to Brent amid rising crude inventories in the U.S. WTI declined as much as 1.4 percent in New York , expanding the discount to the European benchmark to $9 a barrel for the first time since Feb. 17. Crude stockpiles expanded by 2.63 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said yesterday. An Energy Information Administration report today may show supplies climbed by 2 million, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. Brent’s losses were capped amid instability in Libya , holder of Africa ’s biggest reserves. “You have rising inventories, especially crude inventories, in the U.S.,” said Andy Sommer, an analyst at Axpo Trading AG in Dietikon, Switzerland , said by phone. “The refinery maintenance season, which is pretty heavy in the U.S., is ahead of us. The forecast is […]

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Natural Gas Sags as End of Winter Nears

Natural gas fell Tuesday as market watchers anticipated the end of winter, when demand for the heating fuel is expected to subside. Natural gas for April delivery settled down 4.6 cents, or 1%, at $4.605 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices soared above $6/mmBtu last month as frigid temperatures fueled unusually strong demand for gas-powered indoor heating. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Concerns about natural-gas supplies amid the unusually cold weather led to wild swings in the market, with prices moving 5% or more on 16 days in January and February. This month, on the other hand, has yet to see prices […]

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Kurdistan Authorities, NGOs Struggle to Cope With Influx of Anbar Refugees

An hour after giving birth in Iraq’s war-torn Anbar province, 16-year-old Heyan Hussein was bundled into a vehicle with her newborn baby and whisked north to the city of Kalar in the Kurdistan Region, the only peaceful portion of Iraq which has become a last haven for tens of thousands of refugees from all parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.  “I left the city of Fallujah (in Anbar) 15 days ago, one hour after my son was born,” the teenager said, clutching her baby as she stood in line with her parents at a food distribution carried out by two foreign non-governmental organization (NGO). “My husband is still there with his own parents. There was no room for him to come with us,” she explained. Hussein stressed that the Iraqi government was not differentiating between civilians and the terrorists they are fighting, a sentiment […]

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Libya’s Prime Minister Ousted in Chaos Over Tanker

Libya’s transitional Parliament voted on Tuesday to remove its prime minister as his government conceded that despite days of bluster it was powerless to stop a tanker from sailing away with an illicit shipment of Libyan oil. The ouster of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan underscored the explosive danger of loss of control over Libya’s petroleum, the lifeblood of its economy. With negligible military or police forces, oil revenue has been the last bargaining chip for the weak transitional government in its struggle to subdue the fractious local militia and tribes that took up arms during the rebellion that overthrew Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi . The tanker escaped with the oil in defiance of military threats from Tripoli and legal warnings from Washington, and its voyage has evoked the lawlessness that prevailed on the same coast two centuries ago, when Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison sent the Marines […]

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Political Killings Still Plaguing Post-Qaddafi Libya

People opposing an extension of the national government’s powers blocked a main street in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi last month.” data-mediaviewer-credit=”Abdullah Doma/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images” data-mediaviewer-src=”http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/12/world/TRIPOLI/TRIPOLI-superJumbo.jpg” itemid=”http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/12/world/TRIPOLI/TRIPOLI-master675.jpg” itemprop=”url” src=”http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/03/12/world/TRIPOLI/TRIPOLI-master675.jpg”> TRIPOLI, Libya — For Judge Jamal Bennour, one of the leaders of the Libyan uprising, the day the revolution turned sour was when his friend and fellow lawyer, Abdul-Salam al-Musmari, was shot dead in front of him. It was last July, nearly two years after the two had helped topple Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and a year since they had left government, ceding power to the General National Congress. The two friends had lingered after Friday Prayer in their mosque in Benghazi, and were walking home when a man leaned out of a passing four-wheel-drive car and shot Mr. Musmari in the chest. “It was just a moment,” his friend said. “We lost Abdul-Salam. It […]

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Libya's ousted PM leaves country despite ban

Libya’s ousted prime minister has left the country despite a ban on travel, hours after parliament removed him from office in a no-confidence vote. Officials in Tripoli on Wednesday could not confirm the departure of Ali Zidan, Libya’s first democratically chosen leader who had struggled for 15 months to stem the country’s spiraling descent into chaos. But in nearby Malta, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state-owned television that Zidan had made a brief stop-over on the Mediterranean island late on Tuesday, before traveling on. The Western-backed Zidan was ousted in a parliament vote on Tuesday as Libya faces a series of crises, including an escalation over oil ports seized by an eastern militia. Soon after parliament voted, Libya’s general prosecutor banned Zidan from travel pending an investigation into corruption allegations.

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Libya’s ousted PM leaves country despite ban

Libya’s ousted prime minister has left the country despite a ban on travel, hours after parliament removed him from office in a no-confidence vote. Officials in Tripoli on Wednesday could not confirm the departure of Ali Zidan, Libya’s first democratically chosen leader who had struggled for 15 months to stem the country’s spiraling descent into chaos. But in nearby Malta, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state-owned television that Zidan had made a brief stop-over on the Mediterranean island late on Tuesday, before traveling on. The Western-backed Zidan was ousted in a parliament vote on Tuesday as Libya faces a series of crises, including an escalation over oil ports seized by an eastern militia. Soon after parliament voted, Libya’s general prosecutor banned Zidan from travel pending an investigation into corruption allegations.

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Libyan parliament sacks PM after tanker escapes rebel-held port

Libya’s parliament voted Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office on Tuesday after rebels humiliated the government by loading crude on a tanker that fled from naval forces, officials said, in a sign of the worsening chaos in the OPEC member state. Libyan gunboats later chased the tanker along Libya’s eastern Mediterranean coast and opened fire, damaging it, a military spokesman said. Italian naval ships were helping move the tanker to a Libyan government-controlled port, he said. But Italy denied any of its vessels were in the area at the time and the reported firing incident could not be confirmed. Western powers fear the vast North African state could even break apart with the government struggling to rein in armed militias and tribesmen who helped oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but want to grab power and oil revenues. Zeidan, a liberal weakened for months by […]

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China Slowdown Is Rocking Raw Materials

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $99.41 a barrel at 0455 GMT, down $0.62 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.31 to $108.24 a barrel. Nymex WTI crude extended losses and traded below $100 a barrel while Brent crude gave up overnight gains and moved into negative territory as concerns over a slowdown in China dominated market sentiment. "Global risk sentiment remained somewhat fragile on the back of lingering concerns over Chinese GDP growth," Singapore-based OCBC Bank said in a report. The slide in oil prices wasn’t as pronounced as prices of industrial metals like copper. Markets expect China’s industrial production data due on Thursday to provide more cues. China’s fuel consumption has been increasingly driven by the transport sector and industrial fuels like diesel has seen limited growth with oil […]

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Fears Spread That Venezuela Is Approaching Bloody Face-Off

The gunmen descended a street on Monday night toward a park taken over by student demonstrators in the western city of San Cristóbal, the crucible of the protests that have shaken Venezuela . They opened fire, and a 23-year-old student leader, Daniel Tinoco, fell. Hit in the upper body, he died before he got to a hospital, fellow protesters said. Less than a week earlier, in Caracas, someone opened fire and killed a 25-year-old soldier, Acner López, who was riding on a motorcycle. Residents said he was in a group of soldiers shooting tear gas at demonstrators and apartment buildings. The shot that killed him, investigators believe, came from someone in one of the apartments. These two deaths, among more than 20 that the government says are linked to over a month of protests, are emblematic of a spiral of violence that people on both sides […]

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California Gov. Jerry Brown Faces Protests Over Fracking as Epic Drought Looms

California Gov. Jerry Brown is having a hard time maintaining his green image. Like President Obama, Brown has stumped about the dangers of climate change and the need to take action. But Brown’s message runs afoul of his own actions to open California to more oil and gas drilling enabled by hydraulic fracturing and other extreme extraction methods. Demonstrators protested the governor and the president’s hypocrisy on the issue of fracking (Obama’s been singing the praises of natural gas) when the two were part of a climate change task force (or “task farce” as demonstrators made clear) in Los Angeles last month. It’s not the first time Brown has come under attack since signing SB4 in September, a law to regulate fracking in California. Supporters of SB4, introduced by Fran Pavley, have called it the “toughest law in the country” (though it’s an extremely low bar) but opponents say […]

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EIA: Harsh winter affected US heating expenditures, oil production

Worldwide liquids fuels consumption will increased by 1.2 million b/d this year and by 1.4 million b/d in 2015, according to the latest outlook from the US Energy Information Administration. In last month’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA projected that global oil demand would climb by 1.3 million b/d in 2014 and 1.4 million b/d in 2015. The outlook for this year sees countries outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accounting for all consumption growth in 2014 and nearly all of the growth in 2015. EIA expects lower OECD consumption in 2014, led by projected consumption declines in both Japan and Europe. “China is expected to see the biggest jump in petroleum demand this year, with consumption increasing by 400,000 b/d. Japan and Europe are forecast to lead the decline in oil demand this year among industrialized countries as a group, with consumption falling by […]

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Is the Propane 'Shortage' Really a Shortage?

Thanks to this past winter’s infamous "polar vortex" low-pressure system that has driven Arctic air farther southward than usual, even the U.S. Gulf Coast experienced a succession of winter storms.  Americans living in higher latitudes have had to endure repeated bouts of extraordinarily frigid temperatures. For those in the Midwest and Northeast, prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – or propane – surged this winter as supplies tightened. Government officials and media reports labeled the supply situation – which has eased in the past few weeks – a propane "shortage," but the propane industry has countered that the country’s overall supply of propane is actually strong. In fact, the United States became a net exporter of LPG in 2012 – a status it had last attained in the early 1980s. Instead, a veritable "perfect storm" of factors has limited the distribution of LPG to customers in the Midwest and […]

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Is the Propane ‘Shortage’ Really a Shortage?

Thanks to this past winter’s infamous "polar vortex" low-pressure system that has driven Arctic air farther southward than usual, even the U.S. Gulf Coast experienced a succession of winter storms.  Americans living in higher latitudes have had to endure repeated bouts of extraordinarily frigid temperatures. For those in the Midwest and Northeast, prices for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – or propane – surged this winter as supplies tightened. Government officials and media reports labeled the supply situation – which has eased in the past few weeks – a propane "shortage," but the propane industry has countered that the country’s overall supply of propane is actually strong. In fact, the United States became a net exporter of LPG in 2012 – a status it had last attained in the early 1980s. Instead, a veritable "perfect storm" of factors has limited the distribution of LPG to customers in the Midwest and […]

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Natural gas output rising in five of six biggest US shale plays in April: EIA

Production in the Permian Basin is expected to increase by 39,000 Mcf/d to 5.369 Bcf/d in April from projected March output of 5.330 Bcf/d. Month-over-month gas output is projected to fall in one of the basins studied. In the Haynesville Shale play, gas production is expected to fall by 76 Mcf/d to 6.390 Bcf/d in April from 6.466 Bcf/d in March. The EIA report also shows that average per-rig gas production will increase in five of the six basins studied. The report projects that per-rig gas output in the Bakken Shale will increase by 9 Mcf/d to 497 Mcf/d in April from 488 Mcf/d in March. Per-rig production in the Eagle Ford Shale is expected to increase 8 Mcf/d to 1,280 Mcf/d in April from March gas output of 1,272 Mcf/d. In the Haynesville Shale, production from an average rig is expected to increase by 25 Mcf/d in April […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US refinery runs to hit record high in 2014, as domestic production grows: EIA

The ability of the US refining sector to absorb burgeoning domestic production, particularly from areas like the Bakken and Eagle Ford that are heavily slanted towards light, sweet crude, is likely to be a central focus of the debate over whether to lift US restrictions on crude oil exports. Many producers have warned that the US will soon be oversupplied with light crude, as the bulk of the US refinery system is optimized to take heavier oil. Without the ability to export crude, US production could be shut in, producers say. But some refiners, who are opposed to lifting the de facto ban on exports, say they are rapidly adjusting their infrastructure to process lighter slates and that fears of an upcoming crude glut in the US are overblown. The US largely bans exports of crude under restrictions imposed by Congress in the wake of the 1973 Arab oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake Accused of Underpaying Gas Royalties

Pennsylvanians who embraced the natural-gas drilling boom that has swept the state are starting to sour on one of the biggest names in the business: Chesapeake Energy Corp. Some property owners are accusing Chesapeake of shortchanging them on royalty payments for pumping oil and gas from their land. The public outcry has grown so loud that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, a longtime industry supporter who has received campaign contributions from the company, wrote an open letter last month asking the state attorney general to investigate. Chesapeake declined to comment on the royalty disputes, but said in a recent letter to the governor that it is abiding by the terms of its contracts with landowners. In Bradford County, a rural area in northern Pennsylvania where a lot of the drilling has taken place, anti-Chesapeake sentiment is running high, said Doug McLinko, a county commissioner. "Bradford County is a pro-gas part […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Climate chief warns battle to curb warming is becoming harder

The struggle to curb global warming is becoming increasingly fraught and costly, the head of the world’s leading climate science authority has warned. “We will have to work much harder to win this battle now than we would have been required to do 10 or 15 years ago,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the FT in an interview. Speaking in London, Dr Pachauri said he was still optimistic the world would find a way of curbing the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet to potentially dangerous levels. “The challenge is daunting but I don’t for a moment feel pessimistic,” he said, explaining there were many examples of technical advances and political actions underway to combat the problem. The IPCC was set up in 1988 to give governments an expert assessment of how the climate is changing, and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine's EU Neighbors See US Gas as Russian Hedge

Four Central European nations are urging the United States to boost natural gas exports to Europe as a hedge against the risk that Russia could cut its supply of gas to Ukraine, but the White House says such a move would take more than a year. Ambassadors from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic made their appeal Friday in a letter to John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. A similar letter was expected to be sent to Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the Senate. The letter from the four nations, known as the Visegrad Group, asks for Congress to support speedier approval of natural gas exports. It notes that the "presence of U.S. natural gas would be much welcome in Central and Eastern Europe." The ambassadors say the unrest in Ukraine has revived Cold War memories, and energy security […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukraine’s EU Neighbors See US Gas as Russian Hedge

Four Central European nations are urging the United States to boost natural gas exports to Europe as a hedge against the risk that Russia could cut its supply of gas to Ukraine, but the White House says such a move would take more than a year. Ambassadors from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic made their appeal Friday in a letter to John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. A similar letter was expected to be sent to Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the Senate. The letter from the four nations, known as the Visegrad Group, asks for Congress to support speedier approval of natural gas exports. It notes that the "presence of U.S. natural gas would be much welcome in Central and Eastern Europe." The ambassadors say the unrest in Ukraine has revived Cold War memories, and energy security […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale, the last oil and gas train

How much faith can we put in our ability to decipher all the numbers out there telling us the United States is closing in on its cornering of the global oil market? There’s another side to the story of the relentless U.S. 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 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 outrageous claims should have […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Peak Oil Denial: Reality Is Still Here

Page added on March 10, 2014 At the risk of starting a cat fight where truth may too quickly become a casualty, why don’t we more forcefully challenge those who deny peak oil (and global warming) and who do so for reasons that generally ignore reality in favor of narrowly-defined interests? Those motivations will ultimately do nothing but promote more eventual harm by denying the truths to those who clearly need them the most…. Of course, we run the risk of getting bogged down in he said/she-said arguments that quickly devolve into the lowest forms of ‘debate’, but why let those types of offerings go unchallenged? They feed on themselves, and it is tiresome and time-consuming to have to rebut all the nonsense. But if we don’t, uninformed readers and listeners have no reason to at least consider the possibility that there may indeed be other facts out there […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Is Natural Gas-Fired Electricity An Intermittent Resource?

Wind power is only available when the wind is blowing. Similarly, cloudy skies means less solar power. The use of renewable energy resources for generating electric power is limited by the fact that renewable resources are not always available. This is why renewable energy is commonly described as an “ intermittent ” energy resource. Intermittency, or “ variability,” is renewable energy’s Achilles heel. Intermittent resources are considered potentially problematic because the output from individual units may vary widely in response to variation in available wind and solar energy, which can only be predicted to a moderate degree of accuracy. The assumption seems to be that non-renewable energy resources – namely, fossil fuels – are not intermittent. If the past three months have taught us anything, it is that not all fossil fuels are created equal in terms of availability. Unlike coal and fuel oil, natural gas cannot be stored […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Choppy as Markets Weigh Ukraine Crisis, U.S. Stockpiles

Crude-oil futures were choppy in Asian trading hours Tuesday on market uncertainty around the Ukraine crisis and concerns over weakening oil demand in the U.S. as winter ends. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $101.06 a barrel at 0447 GMT, down $0.06 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.14 to $107.94 a barrel. After reacting sharply to weak Chinese trade data on Monday, oil markets will look to U.S. oil inventory data this week to gauge the trajectory of post-winter oil demand. The weekly data from the American Petroleum Institute are due later Tuesday. Oil inventories at the Nymex delivery point of Cushing, Okla. may fall further and test the bottom of the five-year range at 25.1 million barrels, Tim Evans, energy futures specialist at Citi Futures, said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Crude Trades Near Three-Week Low, Brent Holds Steady

West Texas Intermediate traded near the lowest price in more than three weeks amid speculation that crude stockpiles expanded in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent was steady in London . Futures were little changed in New York after losing 1.4 percent yesterday, the first drop in three days. Crude inventories are forecast to have risen by 1.85 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey before an Energy Information Administration report tomorrow. Stockpiles climbed to 363.8 million in the prior seven days, the highest level since December. WTI is trading near a technical indicator that supported prices last week. “There’s an anticipated increase in supply in the U.S. as we make the changeover from the winter grade to the summer grade of petroleum,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may buy WTI contracts at $100.50 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Futures Edge Higher on Forecasts for Cold Weather

Natural-gas futures seesawed Monday but ended the day slightly higher, as traders focused on weather forecasts and storage levels that appear on track to end the season at a multi-year low. Natural gas for April delivery settled up 3.3 cents, or 0.7%, at $4.651 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Forecasts are calling for another winter storm to cut across the U.S. this week, and longer-term outlooks are calling for cold temperatures to persist in much of the country, notably the northern central and northeastern states. "A tug of war is going on between seasonally inclined traders looking at the calendar and watching the mid-continent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Deepwater rig market said to be in pullback mode: analysts

The global deepwater rig market, which was booming for the past few years, appears to be pulling back, with contract dayrate expectations for even high-specification rigs down about $50,000/d from late 2013 and at least one rig temporarily idle, observers said. The trend, which began to surface last year, was initially thought to be one of supply — the sheer number of newbuild floaters announced in 2010-2011 that are only now coming into the market. But experts are now acknowledging demand may also be an issue, International Strategy and Investment Group oil services analyst Jud Bailey said. On the supply side, David Ethan Hensel, driller Ensco’s senior vice president of marketing, said last month 27 new semisubmersibles and drillships are slated for delivery by year’s end, of which 13 are uncontracted. Five of these are in discussions with operators and may find work this […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple