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Russia presses Kiev on gas as armed stand-off continues

Pro-Russian activists stand guard at a barricade as they block access to the Ukrainian Security Service building in the eastern city of Lugansk on Tuesday Russia threatened to force Ukraine’s cash-strapped government to pay in advance for its gas imports, adding fresh pressure to Kiev as it struggled to defuse a stand-off with armed pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east. The prepayment idea was raised by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s prime minister, at a meeting of senior officials convened on Wednesday by President Vladimir Putin to discuss a feud over Ukraine’s unpaid gas bills after the country missed a $2.2bn payment on Monday night. “If this critical situation continues, I think we have every reason to move to a system of prepayment for gas supply,” Mr Medvedev said. Mr Putin took a more conciliatory stance, asking the government to “refrain from applying this possibility” until further consultations had taken […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Advisers Needed to Handle North Dakota's Oil Wealth — Practice Management

–State’s oil boom is creating more millionaire households that need financial advice –North Dakota now ranks 29th in millionaires households per capita –Advisory firms hope more advisers are willing to move to the state despite cold weather and lack of infrastructure By Matthias Rieker For two years, Wells Fargo financial adviser Melissa Moulton would commute from Sioux Falls, S.D., to western North Dakota, spending two work weeks a month with clients who needed advice on how to handle their newfound wealth. She kept getting invited to weekend barbecues and fishing excursions, so she decided to make a permanent move up north. "I saw an opportunity to reach new clients," Ms. Moulton says. Today, advisory firms such as Wells Fargo hope there are more advisers like Ms. Moulton willing to take a chance on a state getting richer but where advisers are scarce. The state’s historic oil boom, and businesses […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Advisers Needed to Handle North Dakota’s Oil Wealth — Practice Management

–State’s oil boom is creating more millionaire households that need financial advice –North Dakota now ranks 29th in millionaires households per capita –Advisory firms hope more advisers are willing to move to the state despite cold weather and lack of infrastructure By Matthias Rieker For two years, Wells Fargo financial adviser Melissa Moulton would commute from Sioux Falls, S.D., to western North Dakota, spending two work weeks a month with clients who needed advice on how to handle their newfound wealth. She kept getting invited to weekend barbecues and fishing excursions, so she decided to make a permanent move up north. "I saw an opportunity to reach new clients," Ms. Moulton says. Today, advisory firms such as Wells Fargo hope there are more advisers like Ms. Moulton willing to take a chance on a state getting richer but where advisers are scarce. The state’s historic oil boom, and businesses […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chevron 1st Quarter Production on Pace to Slide

Chevron and Exxon have spent lavishly to boost their oil and gas output, but production has been dropping and profits have been muted. Chevron Corp. said its first-quarter global oil and gas production is expected to drop from the year-ago quarter, as poor weather led to downtime in the U.S., Canada and other regions. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company in market value after , forecast first-quarter earnings to be lower than the fourth quarter, hurt by foreign-currency fluctuations and asset impairments and other charges. The company said global oil-equivalent production in January and February totaled 2.58 million barrels a day, down 2.5% from the year-ago period. Throughout the oil giant’s interim report, Chevron compared the first two months of the first quarter with the entire quarter of the year-earlier period and all of the fourth quarter […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shell remains committed to Alaskan arctic

The arctic waters off the Alaskan coast may be one of the more promising reserve basins in the nation, but exploration will have to wait, Shell said Wednesday. Ann Pickard, executive vice president for Shell’s arctic programs, said arctic nations have decided to open their waters to exploration and her company aims to develop those reserves responsibly. Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard published a 152-page report on Shell’s operations in Alaska. Shell’s drillship Kulluk struck ground off the Alaskan coast in 2012, and the Coast Guard blamed harsh winter conditions and the company’s efforts to escape Alaskan tax laws for the incident. Kulluk’s grounding off the Alaskan coast followed a 2012 exploration season in the arctic waters of Alaska that was complicated by equipment failures. The company in January said it was suspending its efforts to explore Alaskan waters because of costs and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Houston Fills With Crude Oil That Can’t Be Shipped Out

Houston and the rest of the U.S. Gulf Coast have more oil than the region can handle. Stockpiles in the region centered on Houston and stretching to New Mexico in the west from Alabama in the east rose to 202 million barrels in the week ended April 4, the most on record, Energy Information Administration data released today show. Storage tanks are filling as new pipelines carry light, sweet oil found in shale formations to the coast and U.S. law keeps companies from moving it out. Most crude exports are banned and the 13 ships that can legally move oil between U.S. ports are booked solid. The federal Jones Act restricts domestic seaborne trade to vessels owned, flagged and built in the U.S. and crewed by citizens. “You can’t get all that light, sweet crude out, it’s all kind of piling up,” said Jeff McGee , the founder of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Two-Person Crews on Oil Trains to Be Required in U.S.

U.S. regulators, acting after a oil-train derailment last year ignited a fireball that killed 47 people in Canada , said they intend to require at least two crew members for crude shipments, a proposal opposed by the railroads. The Federal Railroad Administration also will establish minimum crew size standard for most freight trains and passenger rail lines, the agency said in a statement today. “We are committed to taking the necessary steps to assure the safety of those who work for railroads and shippers, and the residents and communities along shipping routes,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. The agency is acting after a train that was operated by one person was left unattended for the night in July and rolled into the center of Lac-Megantic, triggering a fatal explosion that destroyed half the town. The Association of American Railroads , whose members include Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Citi vs. Chevron: two opposing views of the oil price future

In another of our occasional guest blog entries, Steven Kopits of Princeton Energy Advisors considers the clashing views of Citi Commodities Research and Chevron regarding the likely path of oil prices. Steve can be reached at [email protected]. The direction of oil prices is once again a hot topic. In a recent Barron’s article , Ed Morse, Citigroup’s head of global commodity research, forecasts a collapse in global oil prices to $75 /b over the next three to five years. By contrast, Chevron has announced that it is budgeting with $110/b oil for 2017, with the company’s CEO John Watson stating, “There is a new reality in our business… $100/bbl is becoming the new $20/bbl in our business….costs have caught up to revenues for many classes of projects.” And for good measure, he adds, “If $100 is the new $20, consumers will pay more for oil.” Thus, two diametrically opposed […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Countdown to 48-hour deadline in Donetsk

Ukraine’s top police official gave a 48-hour deadline to separatists who have occupied the regional government building  in Donetsk Wednesday, as activists in the eastern city continued to dig in and expand their makeshift defenses and arsenals. Donetsk’s regional governor, meanwhile, sounded a more conciliatory note after meeting for talks with leaders of the separatists for more than two hours. As crowds of at least 1,000 massed throughout the day outside the administration building in the center of the city, the comments by acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov appeared to deepen the resolve of the scores of masked, camouflaged men roaming the building and its exterior — many wearing orange construction helmets, carrying makeshift clubs and hospital surgical masks. Speaking at a government meeting in Kyiv, Avakov said “antiterrorist operations" were underway in Donetsk and two other regions that have seen pro-Russian activists seize government buildings. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Polar Politics Threaten Norway’s Deepest Drive in Arctic

An ice chunk that can swell to the size of Russia will shape Norway ’s future oil income. The Arctic ice cap floats above vast deposits of oil and gas while sustaining along its perimeter one of the most biologically productive ecosystems on earth, supporting polar bears , walruses, commercially important fisheries and huge populations of migratory birds. The Norwegian government, seeking to sustain oil revenues that have fueled the country’s prosperity, has floated plans to let drillers push closer than ever to the ice cap — only to run into the strongest opposition yet. The uproar frames a larger and increasingly contentious fight over whether the Arctic Ocean’s mostly untouched oil and gas reserves can be safely or economically exploited. Key political allies of Norway’s Conservative Party-led government that help keep it in power are pushing to cut plans to offer 54 blocks in the Arctic Barents Sea […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple