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Peak Oil And Global Warming A Question Of Culture

In The Beginning Was the Word Certainly for the last 20 years these two themes have tunneled into political consciousness, but there are huge differences. Peak Oil was never “official”, but Global Warming or at least anthropogenic global warming quickly became official, in the UN system, EU28 countries, the US, Japan, Canada and Australia, and some other developed countries. Today, in the cases of Japan, Canada and Australia the political commitment has already gone, and the downstream financial spinoff from the global warming theme, which enabled market operators to concoct and play with climate credit default swaps and a host of other all-new paper assets, has seriously ebbed. Outside of these countries, in the G20 and Russia, global warming always had a much tougher ride. Yet another stark Russia-versus-the West split occurred on this issue. Russia has a long and tortuous politically-charged obsession with a coming Ice Age – […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Extend Losses

Crude-oil futures were lower in Asian trading hours Friday on speculation a Libyan ports may reopen for exports next week and concerns of rising international supply. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $103.08 a barrel at 0551 GMT, down $0.32 in the Globex electronic session. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.28 to $107.18 a barrel. Libya’s National Oil Co. on Thursday lifted a force majeure on the al-Hariga crude export terminal with a daily capacity of 110,000 barrels, news reports said. Libyan government forces had taken control of the Al-Hariga and Zueitina ports on Wednesday ending a nine-month blockade by rebels, they said. "Libya aims to ship the first tanker from the harbor of Hariga within the next week," ANZ said in a note. While Al-Hariga accounts for 8.5% of Libya’s export capacity rebels retain […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Oil Rises to Five-Week High on Consumer Sentiment

West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to a five-week high as U.S. consumer confidence rose in April while gasoline demand grew. Brent’s premium to WTI shrank. WTI’s weekly advance was the biggest this year. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of sentiment climbed to 82.6, the highest level since July. Gasoline demand averaged over four weeks jumped to the most in three months April 4, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday. Prices reduced gains as U.S. equities dropped. The Brent-WTI gap contracted as Libya was poised to boost oil shipments. “As the economy grows, oil demand will grow,” said Tom Finlon, Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. “One of the most supportive things you can say about crude is the strong gasoline demand.” WTI for May delivery rose 34 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $103.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , the highest settlement […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Prices Slip 0.8%, End Four-Day Rally

Natural-gas futures declined for the first time this week, as traders who believe a healthy supply of gas is on the way jumped back into a market. Natural gas for May delivery settled down 3.5 cents, or 0.8% at $4.62 a million British thermal units Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The losses ended a string of four straight winning sessions that had seen gas prices rise to a one-month high of $4.655/MMBtu at the close of trading on Thursday. The pullback in prices fits a back-and-forth trend for the past seven weeks, as traders are caught between a year of high demand and predictions of record production to come. Prices have stayed within a 40-cent range as the country transitions from winter–when natural gas is used to heat homes–to spring–when surplus gas is put into storage. It will take weeks before there is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Loses Decades-Old Tie to Oil in Landmark Deal

A contract for France’s largest natural gas company to buy the commodity from Azerbaijan shows the decades-old structure of Europe’s energy market is starting to crumble. For the first time, GDF Suez SA (GSZ) signed a 25-year contract to buy gas from BP Plc and partners in the former Soviet republic at prices tied to those in Western Europe’s domestic gas markets, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be named because the terms are confidential. The change matters because purchases previously were made at prices tied to crude oil, which has doubled in the last five years, an expense then passed on to consumers. Europe’s gas contracts have been tied to oil since the 1960s as a way of providing certainty to suppliers who would then invest billions to build fields and pipelines. More recently, as gas prices fell and oil rose, utilities including […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Finance officials confident of global growth

An ambitious goal to boost global growth by $2 trillion in the next five years is within reach, finance officials of the world’s major economies believe, despite a variety of threats, including rising political tensions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. In a joint statement Friday, finance ministers and central bank governors from rich and developing nations skirted over substantial differences in such areas as central bank interest rate policies and whether to impose tougher sanctions on Russia because of its dealings with Ukraine. Their talks resume Saturday with meetings of the policymaking committees of the International Monetary Fund and its sister institution, the World Bank. The final Group of 20 communique pledged to keep working on concrete economic reforms that could boost global growth by 2 percent over the next five years. But finance officials concede that the economic reforms needed to achieve that goal will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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OPEC Chief Sees Output Bouncing Back After March Fall

OPEC’s output is set to rebound after tumbling in March, the secretary-general of the oil producers’ group said Friday. Production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell in March to its lowest level this year amid Iraqi and Libyan disruptions. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Petrostrategies energy conference, Abdalla Salem el-Badri said that "in the third and fourth quarter, we will increase production." OPEC, which supplies more than a third of the oil consumed globally each day, said Thursday that its production in March was 400,000 barrels a day below its agreed collective ceiling of 30 million barrels a day. "OPEC will respect" the ceiling, Mr. el-Badri said. The head of OPEC, himself a former Libyan oil minister, said that Libya would be a likely contributor to the output increase. Following a deal with rebels who had blocked ports in eastern Libya, he said […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Libya Poised to Boost Oil Shipments After Port Reopens

Libya , the OPEC nation producing at about 10 percent of capacity, is set to raise oil shipments next week as a tanker was booked to load crude from one of four ports seized last year by rebels. State-run National Oil Corp. lifted force majeure on the Hariga terminal yesterday, according to a statement on its website . Vienna-based oil company OMV AG provisionally booked a tanker to load as much as a million barrels of oil from the port next week, according to two traders with knowledge of the matter. Hariga has oil in storage ready to export, according to the oil ministry. Brent crude , a benchmark of half the world’s oil, has fallen about 3 percent this year amid speculation that Libya would restart shipments. The possible return of supply is weighing on prices, said Seth Kleinman, Citigroup Inc.’s London-based head of energy research, after the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq insurgents use water as weapon after seizing dam

Fallujah: Insurgents in Iraq have added water to their arsenal of weapons after seizing control of a dam in the west of the country that enables them to flood certain areas and prevent security forces from advancing against them. The dam helps distribute water from the Euphrates river on its course through the western province of Anbar, and is located some 5 kilometres south of the city of Fallujah, which was overrun by militants early this year. Iraqi troops have since been surrounding Fallujah and shelling the city in an effort to dislodge anti-government tribes and insurgent factions including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). In February, Isil took control of the Nuaimiya area where the dam is located, and began fortifying their positions with concrete blast walls and sand bags, according to anti-government tribesmen who said no other groups were involved in the takeover. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq anti-government fighters block Euphrates

Fighters in Iraq have added water to their arsenal of weapons after seizing control of a dam in the west of the country that enables them to flood certain areas and prevent government security forces from advancing against them. The dam helps distribute water from the Euphrates River on its course through the western province of Anbar, and is located some 3 miles south of the city of Fallujah, which was overrun by anti-government fighters early this year. Iraqi troops have since been surrounding Fallujah and shelling the city in an effort to  dislodge anti-government groups, including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant  (ISIL). Iraq is a patchwork of desert and arable land. Its inhabitable areas are fed by the Tigris from Turkey, the Euphrates from Turkey and Syria, and a network of smaller rivers from Iran. The decline of water levels in the Euphrates has also […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple