Category:

Russian Gas Giant Discusses South Stream Project as EU Meets on Potential Gas Disruptions

As the European Union hosted talks Tuesday on the threat of disruptions to natural-gas supplies amid Russia-Ukraine tensions, OAO executives were in Brussels trying to press ahead with their own pipeline project. Russia’s state-run energy giant wants to build a €16 billion ($22 billion) pipeline to send natural gas from Russia, across the Black Sea, and into Italy. The route avoids Ukraine, through which about half of Europe-bound Russian gas flows. But in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, that pipeline, called South Stream, has become another political flash point between East and West. And a handful of large European companies, all partners with Gazprom in the offshore section of the project, are walking a fine line between the two sides. The talks held Tuesday by EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger focused on growing concerns in Brussels about a potential disruption of natural-gas supplies to Ukraine itself. Those […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EU Said to Back More Energy State Aid in Concession to Industry

The European Union, under pressure from Germany , will allow more generous state aid to 65 energy-intensive industries than earlier planned to help with the cost of boosting renewable sources, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The European Commission, the EU regulatory arm, will approve support in the form of cuts in environmental taxes if the beneficiaries cover at least 15 percent of the additional costs, compared with the previously proposed 20 percent, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks aren’t public. The provisions will be included in state-aid guidelines for 2014-2020 to be adopted today. The guidelines will define state-support rules to help spur renewables as nations including Germany seek tools that would shield industry from rising power bills during the EU’s shift to a low-carbon economy. The own-contribution of state-aid beneficiaries may be further reduced to 0.5 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

BlackLight Power Announces Sustained Production of Electricity Using Photovoltaic Conversion

BlackLight Power, Inc. today announces that it achieved sustained electricity production from a primary new energy source by using photovoltaic technology to transform brilliant plasma, with power comprising millions of watts of light, directly into electricity. By applying a very high current through its proprietary water-based solid fuel in BlackLight Power’s breakthrough Solid Fuel-Catalyst-Induced-Hydrino-Transition (SF-CIHT) technology, water ignites into brilliant plasma, an extraordinary bright flash of extraordinary optical power that has a power density of over 1,000,000 times that of any prior controllable reaction. Remarkably, the light emitted from the plasma is nearly a perfect spectral equivalent of the Sun, but at 50,000 times the intensity. BlackLight Power has now successfully converted the brilliant plasma directly into electricity using photovoltaic cells (solar cells) which have been increasingly perfected to convert the Sun spectrum into electricity for more than five decades costing an estimated $1 trillion. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Noted Scholar Vaclav Smil Says What We Produce and Use Depends on Where We Are

If you want to understand the future of energy, says Vaclav Smil, you need to think locally—and skeptically. There are no easy fixes or pat global answers in the slog to add energy while reducing carbon emissions—only hard choices, notably about getting people to use energy more wisely, the wide-ranging author and scholar at the University of Manitoba told Wall Street Journal contributing editor Jeffrey Ball. Bill Gates recently wrote this about Mr. Smil, who has penned some three dozen books, writing on subjects as varied as energy, food and the decline of U.S. manufacturing: "There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." Mr. Smil explored what he sees as the limits of wind and solar power; the profligate use of energy in China; the even more profligate use of energy in the U.S.; and the admirable energy efficiency of Japan. Here are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Crude Rebounds Ahead of Inventory Data

Crude-oil futures bounced back in Asian trading hours Tuesday ahead of initial U.S. oil inventory data and with fresh tensions in Ukraine. On the New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May traded at $100.94 a barrel at 0407 GMT–up $0.50 in the Globex electronic session. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.27 to $106.09 a barrel. Initial U.S. oil stocks data from the American Petroleum Institute trade body and the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s short-term energy outlook are expected later Tuesday. Nymex WTI crude prices have been supported by a nine-week downtrend in oil inventories at the delivery point of Cushing, Okla. and traders expect a further drop of 1 million barrels in the week ended April 4, analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures said in a note. However, total U.S. oil stocks have increased in 10 of the last 11 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

WTI Rebounds as Gasoline Stockpiles Seen Shrinking; Brent Gains

West Texas Intermediate crude rebounded amid speculation gasoline supplies dropped for a seventh week in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent rose in London on renewed tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine. Futures gained as much as 1 percent in New York, rising for the third time in four days. Gasoline inventories probably shrank by 1 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts before Energy Information Administration data tomorrow. Russia called on Ukraine to halt all military preparations in the east “immediately” or risk civil war. “The market is starting to look forward to tomorrow’s U.S. oil inventory data, where gasoline stocks are expected to fall for a seventh week in a row,” Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB AB in Oslo, said today in a report. “The geopolitical risk is increasing with increasing tension between Russia and Ukraine […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Speculators Cut Bullish Oil Bets by Most in Nine Months

Fewer than three weeks into spring, oil speculators are already thinking about the summer. Hedge funds and other money managers boosted bullish wagers the most since February, betting that refineries will need to buy more crude to accelerate gasoline output before the peak U.S summer driving season. Fuel supply is already tight, with consumers paying the most at the pump in seven months. U.S. refineries are processing the most oil since January as plants come out of seasonal maintenance, squeezing crude stockpiles for the first time in 11 weeks. Speculative bets on rising prices for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade, are the highest for this time of year since 2006, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. “Refinery runs are up and as long as they are up, it’s mighty hard to get crude to build,” said Tom Finlon, the Jupiter, Florida-based director of Energy Analytics Group LLC. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Natural Gas Boosted by Colder Weather Outlook

Natural-gas futures gained Monday as weather forecasts indicated stronger demand for the heating fuel in the next two weeks than previously expected. Natural gas for May delivery settled up 3.7 cents, or 0.8%, to $4.476 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. April typically represents a turning point for the natural-gas market, as demand falls enough to allow producers to begin refilling inventories after a winter of withdrawals. About half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Due to this winter’s unusually frigid weather, stockpiles are at 11-year lows. Supplies as of March 28 stood at 822 billion cubic feet, meaning that producers would need to inject about 3 trillion cubic feet of gas into storage by the end of October to meet last year’s pre-winter level. The EIA is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Greenpeace sees growth in renewable energy use

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace said Monday major world economies were showing an increase in renewable energy in their grids. "Renewable energy has expanded, fallen in price and is ready to challenge traditional, polluting forms of energy," Kaisa Kosonen, a senior political adviser for Greenpeace International, said in a statement . A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found the burning of fossil fuels was a contributing factor to abnormal weather phenomena. Greenpeace said, with IPCC members set to convene Saturday in Berlin, the focus should be on renewable energy resources. IPCC’s report showed the level of greenhouse gas emissions have increased since its 2007 report, though global solar power capacity has increased by a factor of 10 and wind capacity has increase threefold since then. Demand dynamics, meanwhile, have shifted to Asian economies. Chinese coal consumption is changing in response to major […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Obama Administration Shows Optimism on Iran Nuclear Talks

With nuclear talks set to resume in Vienna on Tuesday, the Obama administration says it is convinced it can conclude an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear program by the July 20 target date despite significant political hurdles. U.S. officials said a string of meetings among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany—the so-called P5+1—and Iran have steadily moved ahead since a temporary agreement was reached in November. Drafting of the terms of the deal is set to begin in May, U.S. and Iranian officials said ahead of the latest round of talks in Vienna. The P5+1 has set July 20 as the target to reach a permanent accord, although that can be extended by six months if necessary. "I’m absolutely convinced that we can [meet the deadline], though the real issue is…about the choices that Iran has to make, and some of them are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple