Shell Nigeria has said its Forcados oil export terminal remains closed, seven weeks after it was shut down to repair a sabotaged undersea pipeline. Militants had claimed responsibility for the Continue Reading
Mexico’s financial health is at risk because of a declining oil sector. WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) — Mexico’s fiscal health is in jeopardy because of a declining rate of oil production, an analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.EIA updated its country profile for Mexico, noting the oil sector accounted for 13 percent of the country’s export earnings last year. Mexico is one of the top 10 oil-producing countries in the world, with an estimated 10 billion barrels of proven reserves as of 2013. EIA said Mexico produced an average 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, a level that’s more than 20 percent less than its peak from 2004-09. "Notably, crude oil production in 2013 was at its lowest since 1995 and continues to decline thus far in 2014," it said in its Thursday report. EIA said the decline in oil production was having a direct […]
A farmer works her land near a lead smelter in Hunan Province. Soil in China’s leading rice-producing region shows high levels of heavy metal contamination, in a study that suggests that the proximity of mining and industry to agricultural areas is posing serious threats to the country’s food chain. In “ Cadmium Rice: Heavy metal pollution of China’s rice crops, ” researchers for Greenpeace East Asia sampled farmland and uncultivated soil, water and rice grown near a smelter of non-ferrous metals in Hunan Province, China’s top rice producer. In some locations of the study, the researchers found soil containing cadmium levels more than 200 times the national health standard, adding to a growing body of evidence that parts of the country’s soil are heavily degraded after decades of fast industrialization and high economic growth. All but one of the rice samples exceeded the maximum level of cadmium in rice […]
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China Shenhua Energy, the country’s largest coal producer, posted a decline in first-quarter net profit compared with a year earlier, citing falling coal prices. Net profit went down 9.9 percent to 10.4 billion yuan (about 1.66 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months, said a report on the website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Saturday. During the January-March period, Shenhua Energy’s revenue dipped 0.1 percent on an annual basis to 60.9 billion yuan, it added. The Beijing-based company attributed the poor performance mainly to rising production costs and falling coal prices. While the cost of producing every tonne of coal increased 4.6 percent on an annual basis to 127.8 yuan, the Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index, a key indicator of coal prices in China, plummeted from 631 yuan per tonne at the end of last year to 530 yuan at the end of […]
China Shenhua Energy, the country’s largest coal producer, posted a decline in first-quarter net profit compared with a year earlier, citing falling coal prices. Net profit went down 9.9 percent to 10.4 billion yuan (about 1.66 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months, said a report on the website of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Saturday. During the January-March period, Shenhua Energy’s revenue dipped 0.1 percent on an annual basis to 60.9 billion yuan, it added. The Beijing-based company attributed the poor performance mainly to rising production costs and falling coal prices. While the cost of producing every tonne of coal increased 4.6 percent on an annual basis to 127.8 yuan, the Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index, a key indicator of coal prices in China, plummeted from 631 yuan per tonne at the end of last year to 530 yuan at the end of […]
Oil services company says it will be able to reveal fracking ingredients without revealing secrets. HOUSTON, April 25 (UPI) — Oil services company Baker Hughes said it could disclose the ingredients of hydraulic fracturing fluids without comprising trade secrets.Energy companies have been reluctant to disclose all of the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. The drilling practice, known also as fracking, involves the injection of large volumes of water mixed with abrasives and trace amounts of chemicals to coax oil and natural gas out of shale formations. The oil services company said "it is possible to disclose 100 percent of the chemical ingredients we use in hydraulic fracturing fluids without compromising our formulations." The disclosure is at odds with other major companies like Schlumberger and Halliburton, who argue their chemical components should be protected. Baker Hughes said Thursday it would take several months before the disclosure policies goes into effect […]
The U.S. federal government isn’t meeting its obligations when it comes to the safety of transporting crude oil by rail, North Dakota legislators said.Canada this week ordered older models of DOT-111 railcars out of service in response to a series of derailments, including last year’s accident in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, which left more than 40 people dead. Nebraska Rep. Kevin Cramer said the U.S. federal government, however, wasn’t showing the same level of responsibility as its Canadian counterparts. "Communities and industry have waited more than two years for new rules concerning the DOT-111 tanker, while rail demand continues to accelerate," the Republican lawmaker said Thursday. "The federal government must do better." Cramer, Sens. John Hoeven , R-N.D., and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D,. met in Casselton, N.D., with U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to discuss ways to improve rail safety. About 950 barrels of oil spilled when two trains operated by BNSF […]
Wind turbines are silhouetted by the setting sun near Beaumont, Kan. Kansas ranks sixth in the country in wind output, which jumped by a third last year and equalled 19 percent of the state’s electricity. In state capitals across the country, legislators are debating proposals to roll back environmental rules, prodded by industry and advocacy groups eager to curtail regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. The measures, which have been introduced in about 18 states, lie at the heart of an effort to expand to the state level the battle over fossil fuel and renewable energy. The new rules would trim or abolish climate mandates — including those that require utilities to use solar and wind energy, as well as proposed Environmental Protection Agency rules that would reduce carbon emissions from power plants. But the campaign — despite its backing from powerful groups such as Americans for Prosperity — […]
North Dakota this week confirmed the discovery of a new radioactive dump of waste from oil drilling. And separately, a company hired to clean up similar waste found in February at another location said it had removed more than double the amount of radioactive material originally estimated to be there. The twin disclosures highlight a growing problem from North Dakota’s booming Bakken oil development, and for other oil and gas operations across the country: the illegal disposal of radioactive material from drilling sites. Rocks deep in the earth contain naturally radioactive material, and when those rocks are drilled for oil and gas the drilling equipment and water can become slightly irradiated. As more drilling occurs across the nation, experts warn of a brewing crisis of leftover radioactive materials. Health officials have said that radioactive filter socks — tubular nets that strain liquids during the oil production process — and […]
Rising production of natural gas in the Marcellus shale play in the Appalachian basin continues to outpace the growth in the region’s pipeline takeaway capacity, which has led to supply backups in the region, the US Energy Information Administration reported in a weekly gas report. Because of this fact, EIA observed, new gas production is unable to flow to areas of high demand, “placing downward pressure on prices in the region.” EIA noted that this phenomenon has also “contributed to a number of natural gas wells in Marcellus remaining backlogged, with a Feb. 28 report from Barclay’s estimating that more than 1,300 wells there are drilled but not completed.” EIA noted that several proposed and recently completed projects will provide additional pipeline infrastructure to relieve some of the Marcellus supply glut. “Projects that have recently come online, such as Transcontinental Pipeline Co.’s (Transco) Northeast Supply Link, have expanded the […]
