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Exxon Sees Little Climate Change Risk to Assets

Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said on Monday that risks related to climate change pose little risk to its oil and gas reserves because the resources will be needed to meet expected growth in energy demand. Responding to queries from shareholder activists, the company also said it is "confident" that none of its oil and gas reserves will lose value or become "stranded" if governments act to slash carbon emissions. "We believe producing these assets is essential to meeting growing energy demand worldwide, and in preventing consumers – especially those in the least developed and most vulnerable economies – from themselves becoming stranded in the global pursuit of higher living standards and greater economic opportunity," Exxon said in a report released in response to call from activist shareholders. Earlier this month, the Irving, Texas-based company agreed to detail the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Taking on More Saudi Oil Despite Shale Glut

The U.S. Energy Department said imports from OPEC increased year-on-year, with Saudi Arabia accounting for the bulk of additional oil. While oil production from the United States has increased, the data show the global market is still interconnected. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported the amount of petroleum imported from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was 3.57 million barrels per day in December, the last full month for which data are available from EIA. While only 0.5 percent higher year-on-year, the increase suggests the global energy market is still interconnected despite the success of shale. Imports from Venezuela, the No. 2 OPEC exporter to the United States, declined 22 percent from December 2012 to 846,000 bpd. Petroleum imports from Saudi Arabia in December, however, were 1.5 million bpd, a 47 percent increase year-on-year. For non-OPEC members, the United States imported about 1 million bpd from Mexico […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia hikes gas price for Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Tuesday sharply hiked the price for natural gas to Ukraine and threatened to reclaim billions previous discounts, raising the heat on its cash-strapped government, while Ukrainian police moved to disarm members of a radical nationalist group after a shooting spree in the capital. Alexei Miller, the head of Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant, said Tuesday that the company has withdrawn December’s discount that put the price of gas at $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters and set the price at $385.50 per 1,000 cubic meters for the second quarter. The discount was part of a financial lifeline which Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to Ukraine’s President, Viktor Yanukovych, after his decision to ditch a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow. The move fueled three months of protests which led Yanukovych to flee to Russia in February. Radical nationalist […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia Signals It Will Withdraw Troops From Ukraine Border

Russia signaled on Monday it was pulling some troops away from its border with Ukraine, a move that met with skepticism in the West but could represent the Kremlin’s first notable concession after weeks of frantic diplomacy by the U.S. and Europe. It remained unclear just how many troops Russia was withdrawing. The German government said President told Chancellor Angela Merkel by phone that he had "ordered a partial withdrawal" of military forces massing along Ukraine’s eastern border. Russia’s Defense Ministry said an infantry battalion—a relatively small number of troops—had been ordered to return from a position near Ukraine to their base some 800 miles to the east. Ukrainian officials said as many as 20,000 Russian troops had apparently been moved back from the border in recent days, but that some 40,000 remained. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he couldn’t confirm whether Russian forces were pulling troops back. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Will Rising Oil Output Bring Down Prices?

  It’s all about supply and demand—the first, last, and everything for estimating the projected path of prices. Geopolitics can and does intrude, of course. This is oil, after all. But the raw numbers of economics have the last word eventually—even for the world’s most valuable commodity. The price of  Crude Oil has been trending higher this year, but three key events on the supply side will create new headwinds for the bulls. In particular, expectations for higher output in three crucial oil-producing nations: Iraq, Iran, and the US. The catalysts for increased supply are different for each country, but the expected results will be the same: more oil. Say bye-bye to the peak-oil narrative, at least for now. Global production, by the way, has already been bumping up against all-time highs recently, based on the Energy Information Administration’s latest data through October 2013. Total world output of crude […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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On oil-water nexus

In addition to the conventional energy market issues, mainly oil, related to price and production, the industry seems to be gearing for a new worry — how to handle the oil-water nexus. A recent UN Water Day has a very simple message to deliver: Water needs energy and energy needs water. The interdependencies between the two is strengthened and consolidated by the day. After all some 90 percent of power generation is water-intensive. Using various parameters to look into the crystal ball, the world seems to be heading toward increasing its energy consumption by more than a third in only two decades. Such increase requires an additional increase of 85 percent of water consumption according the consumers’ watch dog, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). With such increase comes completion for supplies as the world population will top 9 billion people, who need an additional 50 percent in agricultural […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA