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Water for coal

In January, a chemical used to clean coal spilled into the Elk River, which runs through the middle of West Virginia, contaminating the state’s primary water supply. Suddenly, 300,000 people were left without water for drinking, washing, or bathing. Connect with Fault Lines While the crisis made national headlines, the spill was not an isolated incident. Coal mining has been poisoning rural West Virginia residents’ water for years with little attention paid to various accidents and their consequences. After all, this is one of the poorest regions of the country, and it is economically dependent on a single extractive industry. The people of West Virginia are both wedded to coal and at its mercy, and the industry’s deep pockets regularly influence politicians to fight against environmental regulation that could benefit the health of their constituents. Fault Lines heads to coal country to see how West Virginia’s main industry impacts […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The great imaginary California oil boom: Over before it started

It turns out that the oil industry has been pulling our collective leg. The pending 96 percent reduction in estimated deep shale oil resources in California revealed last week in the Los Angeles Times calls into question the oil industry’s premise of a decades-long revival in U.S. oil production and the already implausible predictions of American energy independence . The reduction also appears to bolster the view of long-time skeptics that the U.S. shale oil boom–now centered in North Dakota and Texas–will likely be short-lived, petering out by the end of this decade. (I’ve been expressing my skepticism in writing about resource claims made for both shale gas and oil since 2008.) California has been abuzz for the past couple of years about the prospect of vast new oil wealth supposedly ready for the taking in the Monterey Shale thousands of feet below the state. The U.S. Energy Information […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Fracking Hotbed, a Muted Approach to Regulation

Ohio annually processes thousands of tons of radioactive waste from hydraulic-fracturing, sending it through treatment facilities, injecting it into its old and unused gas wells and dumping it in landfills. Historically, the handling and disposal of that waste was barely regulated, with few requirements for how its potential contamination would be gauged, or how and where it could be transported and stored. With the business of fracking waste only growing, legislators in 2013 had the chance to decide how best to monitor the state’s vast amounts of toxic material, much of it being trucked into Ohio from neighboring states. But despite calls to require that the waste be rigorously tested for contamination, Gov. John Kasich and the state legislature signed off on measures that require just a fraction of the waste to be subjected to such oversight. The great majority of the byproducts creating during the drilling process – […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Increased U.S. oil production has yielded transportation bottleneck

The increase in crude oil production in Texas and other spots in the U.S. has created issues in the transportation and refining sectors of the oil industry. Crude oil traditionally has been transported by truck and a network of sophisticated pipelines in Texas.  However, many crude oil acquisition companies are exploring rail to get large amounts of crude to refineries. On May 19, a large train with more than 100 cars designed to carry crude oil traveled through North Texas, which is very unusual.  A majority of the trains traveling parallel to U.S. Highway 287 from Wichita Falls to Fort Worth are transporting coal produced in Wyoming to power plants in South Texas. U.S. oil production was 8.434 million barrels per day in May 16, according to the Energy Information Administration.  One year ago, U.S. oil production was 7.250 million barrels per day.  Oil production has increased 1.184 million […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukrainians back Poroshenko to find way out of crisis

Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate manufacturer, claimed the Ukrainian presidency with an emphatic election victory on Sunday, taking on a fraught mission to quell pro-Russian rebels and steer his fragile nation closer to the West. A veteran survivor of Ukraine’s feuding political class who threw his weight and money behind the revolt that brought down his Moscow-backed predecessor three months ago, the burly 48-year-old won 55 percent in exit polls on a first-round ballot marred by the reality that millions were unable to vote in the troubled eastern regions. Results will not be announced until Monday but runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko, on 13 percent, made clear she would concede, sparing the country a tense three weeks until a runoff round. Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King", has no time to lose to make good on pledges to end "war" with separatists in the Russian-speaking east, negotiate a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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In Russia, Tune Changes About Leader in Ukraine

Petro O. Poroshenko, the billionaire businessman who won Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday , was portrayed last month in a bilious campaign profile on Russian television here as money-grubbing, devious, a radical sympathizer — in short, a run-of-the-mill Ukrainian politician to Russian eyes. The program on NTV, a Kremlin ally, said he owned a mansion resembling the White House, clear evidence of dangerous Western sympathies. The report mocked him as “The Chocolate Rabbit,” twisting his usual nickname, “The Chocolate King,” from his confectionary fortune. A scientist, or at least someone wearing a white coat, materialized on screen to denounce his popular Roshen chocolate brand as riddled with carcinogens. Then as Mr. Poroshenko emerged as the front-runner, a change occurred. The attacks ceased, and his chocolate factory in southern Russia, which government police had shuttered , was allowed to operate again. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia even […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crude Futures Rally Ahead of Long Holiday Weekend

Oil prices rose Friday ahead of a long U.S. holiday weekend amid a bullish fundamental picture and nervousness ahead of national elections in Ukraine. Light, sweet crude for July delivery gained steadily throughout the day and at one point was poised to settle at a nearly 12-week high, before falling back to end 61 cents, or 0.6%, higher at $104.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for July, the global benchmark, ended up 18 cents, or 0.2%, at $110.54 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Gasoline futures extended gains to settle at a near one-month high ahead of the start of summer driving season beginning this Memorial Day weekend, with reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, for June delivery rising 1.77 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.0235 a gallon on the Nymex. Brokers said there was nothing specific in the market that drove trading Friday […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Crude Climbs to Five-Week High on U.S. Supply Drop

West Texas Intermediate oil climbed to a five-week high after U.S. crude inventories tumbled. Brent approached $111 a barrel. Futures capped a third weekly gain in New York . U.S. crude supplies dropped 7.23 million barrels in the seven days ended May 16, the Energy Information Administration said May 21. Stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma , the delivery point for WTI, fell to 23.4 million barrels last week, the least since December 2008. Prices also advanced as violence flared ahead of Ukraine’s May 25 presidential election and unrest continued in Libya . “This has been a pretty solid week for WTI,” Amrita Sen, chief oil market strategist at Energy Aspects Ltd., a research company in London , said by phone. “Prices are up because of the drop of inventories. Cushing supplies are getting close to minimum operating levels.” WTI for July delivery increased 61 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Prices Inch Up on Profit-Taking, Bargain Buying

Natural-gas futures ticked higher Friday as traders took advantage of prices that had fallen to nearly seven-week lows. Prices for the front-month June contract settled 4.6 cents higher, or 1.1%, to $4.405 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading for the July contract has now surpassed trading for June. June options expire Tuesday and the contract expires Wednesday. The July contract rose 4.8 cents, or 1.1%, to $4.405/mmBtu. Many short sellers who had bet prices would drop bought back in to lock in profits, while other traders made bargain buys after two days of losses had dropped the price by 4.2%, analysts and traders said. Options traders were also active, working to limit the price from any big swings on the session before their options expire, said Scott Gettleman, an independent trader in New York. "Nobody wants to get hurt…so […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Total Agrees to Lukoil Shale Deal, Brushing Off Russia Sanctions

Total SA (FP) agreed to seek shale oil in Western Siberia with OAO Lukoil (LKOD) , brushing off U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea. Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie signed the deal at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in a demonstration of Total’s commitment to Russia, after officials from companies including Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and ASA Statoil withdrew from the meeting. Total and Moscow-based Lukoil will set up a venture to seek so-called tight oil in the Bazhenov area of Siberia under their agreement, the French company said in a statement . Siberian shale has “huge potential,” de Margerie said. Investment in the venture will be $120 million to $150 million in the first two years, according to Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov. Total says its Russian business isn’t affected by sanctions against the country, including on Gennady Timchenko , shareholder of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple