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Charles Hall “Peak oil, declining EROI and the probability of degrowth”

Second Conference on Economic Degrowth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity March 26-29th 2010, Barcelona Peak oil is not some fuzzy academic concern but a reality: for the US in 1970, for some 60 of 80 oil-producing countries and, at least for the moment, for the world since about 2005. In addition the net energy delivered to society (as opposed to the total) is declining in recent decades from 30 or more to one to ten or less to one as we have exhausted our largest, shallowest, closest to shore and highest quality oil and gas fields. While technological improvements have slowed the effects of depletion the net effects are that there is a declining EROI (Energy Return on Energy [and money] Invested). Most alternatives to oil and gas except hydroelectric or coal have a small or very small EROI, and even for these the highest EROI sites in […]

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Oil Futures Ease Lower

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $103.97 a barrel at 0549 GMT, down $0.38 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.67 to $109.87 a barrel. Over the weekend, Petro Poroshenko declared victory in Ukraine’s presidential elections although pro-Russia separatists blocked voting in the eastern parts of the country. Russian President pledged on Friday to respect the outcome of the elections. U.S. financial markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday and there will be no floor trading for WTI. Overall oil supply in the U.S. is still rising, although the summer driving season is expected to boost demand. Despite one of the biggest jumps in oil production by countries outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the 1980s, elevated outages have kept prices high alongside rising geopolitical tensions, according to […]

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Brent Crude Falls as Ukraine Elects President; WTI Declines

Brent crude fell amid speculation Ukraine’s election of a new president may help ease months of tension with Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter. West Texas Intermediate slid in . Futures dropped as much 0.7 percent in London . Ukraine voted billionaire Petro Poroshenko as president yesterday, handing him the task of stemming separatist unrest in the country, a conduit for Russian oil and natural gas supplies to Europe. China , the second-largest oil user globally, announced plans to slow its pace of energy consumption. “Market tensions are easing over potential disruptions from Russia,” Barnabas Gan, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore , said by phone today. “The market was also anticipating that U.S. and European sanctions could have been imposed on the Russian oil industry, which didn’t come to pass. The success of the election could have possibly eliminated these fears.” Brent for July settlement declined […]

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Hedge Funds Buy Oil as Supply Drops Before Memorial Day: Energy

U.S. crude inventories declining from a record before the Memorial Day weekend spurred speculators to increase bullish bets on oil for a second week. Hedge funds raised their net-long position in benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures by 4.1 percent in the week ended May 20, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Prices climbed to a one-month high. Crude supplies fell the most in four months in the week ended May 16, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Refineries produced a record amount of gasoline before the holiday, the start of the summer driving season. AAA, the largest U.S. motoring group, expects it to be the busiest weekend since 2005. Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. “The decline in crude stocks, particularly after weeks and weeks of build, gave the impetus higher to WTI prices,” Harry Tchilinguirian , BNP Paribas SA’s London-based head of commodity markets strategy, said […]

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Saudi Press: Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom

On a local economic affair, Al-Yaum quoted under the title ” Natural gas production is the highest in the history of the Kingdom as saying that a report issued by Saudi Aramco recently indicated that the Kingdom’s reserves of natural gas rose to 288.4 trillion cubic feet in 2013, an increase from the rates which amounted to 284.8 trillion cubic feet in 2012, thanks to the company’s efforts through active expansion of mining operations and the use of techniques modern industrial operations in exploration and production. It noted that the Kingdom plans to make the largest increase in electricity generation in the Middle East to raise its capacity to generate electricity of about 60,000 megawatts currently to 120,000 megawatts in 2020, which is to be doubled in less than 7 years because of the rise in demand for electricity in the Kingdom. –More 10:58 LOCAL TIME 07:58 GMT

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Sisi on brink of presidency as Egyptians vote

Egyptians voted on Monday in a presidential election expected to sweep former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi into office, with supporters brushing aside concerns about human rights and hailing him as the strong leader the country needs. Three years after the historic uprising against Hosni Mubarak, the vote is set to restore a pattern of rule by men from the military after Sisi toppled Egypt’s first freely elected leader, Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. Voters lined up to cast ballots at heavily guarded polling stations from 9.00 a.m. (2.00 a.m. ET). Sisi faces only one challenger in the two-day vote: the leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi. "We see Sisi as a real man. Egypt likes a strong man," said Saber Habib, clenching his fist to illustrate his point as he waited to vote in the city of Suez, east of Cairo. "We want the country to […]

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Papua New Guinea became the world's newest significant energy exporter

SYDNEY—Papua New Guinea, a small Southeast Asian nation better known for its jungles and corruption, became the world’s newest significant energy exporter after an Corp-led facility began shipping natural gas. The cargo delivery from the US$19 billion PNG LNG project is the first from several new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminals in Papua New Guinea and Australia. These plants are due to start up over the next three years and will mark a shift in the global LNG trade’s epicenter, away from the Middle East. Work began on the PNG LNG project in 2010, when Asian gas users were looking to ramp up imports of fuels that burn cleaner than coal, and international energy companies were struggling to access resources not owned by foreign governments. The industry’s landscape has changed dramatically since then, with companies in North America now looking to export shale gas while China this week […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Papua New Guinea became the world’s newest significant energy exporter

SYDNEY—Papua New Guinea, a small Southeast Asian nation better known for its jungles and corruption, became the world’s newest significant energy exporter after an Corp-led facility began shipping natural gas. The cargo delivery from the US$19 billion PNG LNG project is the first from several new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, terminals in Papua New Guinea and Australia. These plants are due to start up over the next three years and will mark a shift in the global LNG trade’s epicenter, away from the Middle East. Work began on the PNG LNG project in 2010, when Asian gas users were looking to ramp up imports of fuels that burn cleaner than coal, and international energy companies were struggling to access resources not owned by foreign governments. The industry’s landscape has changed dramatically since then, with companies in North America now looking to export shale gas while China this week […]

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China scraps high-pollution vehicles in air cleanup

The Chinese government announced on Monday the country will eliminate 6 million high-polluting vehicles before the end of 2014 in a move to bring down air pollution. The mandatory rule applies to vehicles that do not meet exhaust emissions standards. Of the vehicles to be eliminated this year, 20 percent are in the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, as well as Hebei Province — all northern regions frequently troubled by smoggy air in recent years. In a further step, more vehicles will be scrapped next year, involving up to 5 million units in the nation’s economically developed regions, such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions, according to an action plan published by the State Council, China’s Cabinet. "Strengthening control on vehicle emissions will be a major agenda item for the country’s energy savings, emissions reductions, and low-carbon development […]

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37 dead, 6 missing in south China rainstorms

At least 37 people have died and six others remain missing after downpours hit provinces in south China, according to a statement from the China National Commission for Disaster Reduction on Monday. In south China’s Guangdong Province, the death toll from floods had risen to 17 as of 12:00 p.m. Monday, while three others were missing. The rainstorms also hit Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and five other southern provinces, leading to casualties. Hunan witnessed seven deaths and three missing, while four died in Guizhou, said the statement. A total of 5.51 million people were affected and 447,000 displaced with the collapse of 25,000 houses. Continuous downpours have led to floods in mountainous areas and raised the water level of rivers, where a large number of houses collapsed and farms were submerged. About 264,800 hectares of crops have been destroyed by the floods and other related […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 – […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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IAEA: Iran Stayed on Track With Nuclear Pledges

BRUSSELS-—Iran has complied with its main pledges in last November’s interim nuclear deal, the United Nations’ atomic agency said in its quarterly report on Friday, continuing to refrain from enriching uranium to near-weapon-grade levels and converting its stockpile of nuclear material into less dangerous forms. The International Atomic Energy Agency also confirmed that Iran met its pledge to start addressing questions about past nuclear work. However, the report cited satellite evidence that Tehran was carrying out fresh work to clean up a military site in Parchin where Western governments believe Iran has carried out work that could be used to develop nuclear weapons. The IAEA’s latest report on Iran’s nuclear program is the last one before a July 20 deadline set by Iran and six major powers to clinch a comprehensive nuclear deal. A critical report could have set back the negotiations intended to convince Tehran to curtail its […]

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Oil Companies Returning to Iran Face Challenge in Form of Revolutionary Guards

TEHRAN—As the thaw in relations between the West and Iran continues, the Islamic Republic is hoping to lure major oil companies back to invest in its all-important energy sector. But any oil firms that return to Iran will find a new force to be reckoned with: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force set up in 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to protect the country’s Islamic political system. In particular, oil companies will find it necessary to come to some sort of accommodation with engineering contractor Khatam ol-Anbia, a company wholly owned by the Guards whose name means "Seal of the Prophets." Khatam was set up in 1989 following Iran’s war with Iraq to provide employment for Revolutionary Guards and make use of skills developed in the conflict such as building roads and bridges. With up to 40,000 employees, according to U.S. government estimates, the company has expanded to […]

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Iran Is Providing Information on Its Detonators, Atomic Agency Says

WASHINGTON — For six years, international nuclear inspectors have been demanding that Iran turn over evidence of experiments that they suspect could have been part of a secret effort to solve the complex science of detonating a nuclear weapon. On Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency , the monitoring arm of the United Nations, said that it was finally beginning to see the information it had long sought — but that Iran insisted that the detonators were for non-nuclear purposes. The disclosure was buried in a report by the atomic agency that detailed major progress Iran had made in diluting most of its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, nuclear fuel that the West has long feared could be converted relatively quickly into weapons-grade material. Getting Iran to dilute that uranium was perhaps the biggest single accomplishment of the interim deal struck last year, creating room for the current negotiations, which […]

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Iran complies with its obligation under nuclear deal: IAEA report

Iran continues to cut its most sensitive nuclear stockpile by more than 80 percent in implementing a milestone nuclear deal with six world powers, and is cooperating with the UN nuclear agency to provide greater transparency of its nuclear plan, a UN confidential report showed on Friday. A monthly updating confidential report of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtained by Xinhua, showed Tehran has been curbing its disputed nuclear activities under the landmark Geneva deal agreed in last November since the pact came into force on Jan. 20. The report said Iran has cut the amount of its 20 percent enriched uranium by more than 80 percent by diluting or feeding the nuclear stockpile into the conversion process during the past four months, which amounted to 209 kg when the deal took effect. "Iran’s stock of UF6 enriched up to 20% U-235 has decreased […]

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Iraq files for arbitration against Turkey, Botas

Iraq on Friday took legal action against Turkey for facilitating autonomous oil exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) without Baghdad’s approval. In a statement given to Iraq Oil Report on Friday, the ministry claims Turkey’s transportation, storing and loading of Kurdish crude oil over the past five months violates the treaty that governs the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP). The ministry has filed a request for arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris against Tur… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Sale of Kurdish Oil to Europe Nations Angers Iraq Government

More than one million barrels of Kurdish oil were shipped from Turkey to Europe yesterday, Turkey’s energy minister and the Iraqi Kurdish administration said, prompting Iraq to try and block the transaction. The oil was despatched from the Turkish Mediterranean oil terminal at Ceyhan at 10 p.m. yesterday, and was probably destined for Italy or Germany, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said today. Iraq called the sale of the oil without the consent of its oil ministry “illegitimate.” Iraq began arbitration against the government of Turkey and a terminal operator in Ceyhan to prevent the transport, storage and loading of crude pumped directly by the Kurdistan Regional Government to Turkey, according to an e-mailed statement from Iraq’s Oil Ministry. The ministry and its official marketing company , SOMO, said yesterday that they “reserve the right” to embark on legal proceedings against companies loading Kurdish oil from Ceyhan without approval […]

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Kurds confirm oil exports to Europe

A tanker full of crude oil from the Kurdish region of Iraq left a Turkish port bound for European markets, the Kurdistan Regional Government said Friday. "A tanker loaded with over one million barrels of crude oil departed last night from Ceyhan towards Europe," the semiautonomous KRG said in a statement . "This is the first of many such sales of oil exported through the newly constructed pipeline in the Kurdistan region." A pipeline from the Kurdish north is sending oil to storage tanks in Ceyhan, a Turkish sea port. Exports of Kurdish oil, however, had been on hold because of the lingering stalemate between the Kurdish and central governments over who controls what in the Iraqi energy sector. KRG said it was operating according to rules spelled out in the Iraqi Constitution and invited outsiders to observe the sales in an effort to […]

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Tanker Carrying Iraqi Kurdistan's Crude Sets New Course for Iraqi Politics

An oil tanker carrying more than a million barrels of crude from Iraqi Kurdistan across the Mediterranean Sea on Friday signaled a shift in Iraq’s political and economic landscape. The ship bears the first load of oil that was recently piped from Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region into neighboring Turkey, where it was loaded at a port and is being shipped to world markets. Its voyage represents an act of defiance of Iraq’s newly elected central government by Turkish and Kurdish authorities. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday called the shipment an "illegitimate deed" and said it would file a complaint against Turkey in the International Court of Arbitration for abetting the sales. Mr. Maliki, whose party won the most seats in parliamentary elections last month, maintains that the Kurds must market the crude through Iraq’s oil-sales system, which would then pass a portion of the […]

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Tanker Carrying Iraqi Kurdistan’s Crude Sets New Course for Iraqi Politics

An oil tanker carrying more than a million barrels of crude from Iraqi Kurdistan across the Mediterranean Sea on Friday signaled a shift in Iraq’s political and economic landscape. The ship bears the first load of oil that was recently piped from Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region into neighboring Turkey, where it was loaded at a port and is being shipped to world markets. Its voyage represents an act of defiance of Iraq’s newly elected central government by Turkish and Kurdish authorities. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday called the shipment an "illegitimate deed" and said it would file a complaint against Turkey in the International Court of Arbitration for abetting the sales. Mr. Maliki, whose party won the most seats in parliamentary elections last month, maintains that the Kurds must market the crude through Iraq’s oil-sales system, which would then pass a portion of the […]

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Iraq’s future looks more like Kurdistan

Editor’s note: Marina Ottaway is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. The views expressed are the writer’s own. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has emerged as the clear winner of the Iraqi parliamentary elections . His State of Law coalition has won at least 92 seats of the 328 seats in the Council of Representatives, three times as many as the next largest party. In the 2010 elections, in contrast, al-Maliki lost by two seats to Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiyya Party, a coalition of secular Shia and Sunni organizations that has now completely disintegrated. There is therefore no doubt that al-Maliki will be asked by the president (when parliament can agree on one) to form the new government. In 2010, he had to battle with Allawi for months to get that chance. But putting together a coalition with the needed 164 votes may prove even harder than in 2010, […]

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22 Killed in Separate Violent Attacks across Iraq

In Northern Iraq, gunmen broke into a house of a policeman in South of the city of Mosul, and shot dead the policeman, his brother and one of his relatives, before they fled the scene, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In a separate incident, a car bomb went off near a police patrol in the Western part of Mosul, leaving two policemen and three passers-by wounded, the source said. Meanwhile, gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle on a main road near the city of Baiji, some 200 km North of Baghdad, killing a police officer and a policeman, and wounding another, a local police said. Near Baghdad, a police officer was killed and four policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Rashdiyah area, a police source said. In Anbar province, gunmen believed to be linked to the Islamic State […]

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Attacks Kill Nine as Pilgrims Converge on Baghdad

Baghdad:  Violence in Baghdad and north Iraq killed nine people on Friday as throngs of Shiite pilgrims converged on the Iraqi capital for annual commemoration rituals. The unrest came amid tight security measures in Baghdad, as Iraq grapples with a protracted surge in bloodshed that has left more than 3,700 people dead so far this year and fulled fears the country is slipping back into all-out conflict. Friday’s deadly violence struck in the capital and the restive northern province of Nineveh, leaving nine people dead and 22 others wounded, security and medical officials said. Mortar fire in north Baghdad killed three people, while two men were shot dead in the west of the capital. The mortar rounds slammed into the Zahra neighbourhood adjacent to Kadhimiyah, where tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims prepare to commemorate the death of a revered figure in Shiite Islam. For days worshippers from across […]

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Repsol leaves Argentina behind

MADRID, May 23 (UPI) –Spanish oil company Repsol said Friday it sold off its stake in Argentina’s YPF and the bonds it received from the nationalization of the state energy company. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner signed legislation in 2012 to seize the YPF shares held by the Spanish energy company Repsol said Friday it completed the sale of its assets in Argentina to JP Morgan Securities including the bonds it received as compensation for the expropriation of its 51 percent stake in YPF. "From the sale of the entire holding of Argentinean bonds, Repsol has obtained a total $4.99 billion in compensation for the expropriation," Repsol said in a statement . "This extinguishes the $5 billion debt recognized by Argentina." Repsol’s board of directors rejected a compensation offer made in June by the Argentine government. That deal would have given Repsol drilling rights to Argentina’s vast Vaca […]

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Ecuador to Sign Oil-Refinery Financing Deal With China

After about three years of negotiations, the government of Ecuador is preparing to sign a financing deal with China, valued at about $7 billion, to finance a new oil refinery known as the Refineria del Pacifico, an official said. The $10 billion refinery will process 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Thirty percent of the funds needed will come from the project’s partners and the remaining 70% will be financed by a group of Chinese banks headed by the Ltd. An official close to the deal, who asked not to be named, said Friday that the government of Ecuador will sign the financing deal, the first tranche of which will consist of about $2.5 billion and will be disbursed soon. The official said a high-level delegation of officials from China have been finalizing details in Quito, and President Rafael Correa will announce the deal Saturday during his […]

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China’s Gasoline Stockpiles Increase to Record High in April

’s gasoline inventories rose to a record high for a second month as refiners in the world’s second-largest oil consumer faced losses on exports. Stockpiles of the motor fuel increased by 0.69 percent in April from a month earlier, China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals, a newsletter published by the official Xinhua News Agency, said in an e-mail today. Supplies are estimated at 7.53 million metric tons, or 63.8 million barrels, the most since Bloomberg started compiling the data in January 2010. Refiners including China Petrochemical Corp. and PetroChina Co. are building inventories amid weak domestic demand, according to ICIS-C1, a Shanghai-based commodities researcher. Gasoline-export margins averaged minus 366 yuan ($58.70) a ton in the first four months of this year, said Chen Li, an ICIS analyst in Guangzhou. China exported a net 308,030 tons of the motor fuel in April, data from the General Administration of Customs in Beijing […]

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Gasoline Futures Gain on Higher Memorial Day Driving

Gasoline climbed to a three-week high as U.S. drivers were forecast to drive the most in nine years over Memorial Day weekend. Futures rose 0.6 percent. AAA estimates that 31.8 million people will travel 50 miles or more by car this weekend, up from 31.4 million a year ago and the most since 2005. Memorial Day, which falls this year on May 26, marks the start of the summer driving season. Gasoline supplies were 213.4 million barrels in the week ended May 19, according to the Energy Information Administration, down from 220.7 million a year earlier. “Gasoline is leading the way as we go into the holiday weekend with a gasoline demand forecast to be at the highest level in a number of years at the same time that inventories are about 3 percent lower than this time last year,” said Andy Lipow , president of Lipow Oil Associates […]

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Gas Rigs Slump as Pipeline Capacity Limits New Drilling

Rigs targeting natural gas in the U.S. slipped from a one-month high with drillers limited by a shortage of pipeline capacity to move supplies to market. The count dropped by one to 325 this week, data posted on Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) ’s website today show. Rigs drilling for the power-plant fuel declined in U.S. plays from the Fayetteville of Arkansas to the Haynesville in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, the Houston-based field services company said. Gas rigs in the Marcellus of the eastern U.S. were unchanged at 81, down from this year’s peak of 87. U.S. rigs drilling for natural gas slid by 29 in the past year even as prices gained, underscoring the record volume from existing rigs. The boom has companies jockeying for transportation capacity as output in the Marcellus alone is set to rise by 25 percent in June from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg […]

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Gas prices ahead of Memorial Day static year-on-year

U.S. drivers are paying an average $3.67 for a gallon of gasoline ahead of Memorial Day, the start of summer driving season, the Energy Department said Friday. Memorial Day, May 26, is considered the start of the summer driving season. After an increase of 42 cents per gallon from early February to late April, the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said prices are relatively static year-on-year. "Leading up to this year’s holiday, the national average retail price for regular gasoline is $3.67 per gallon, as it was this time last year," EIA said in a Friday. EIA said the retail price for a gallon of gasoline is largely based on the price of crude oil and the difference between that price and the price for wholesale gasoline. EIA said the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline peaked at […]

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API: U.S. oil production breaks 26-year record

April was strong for both oil production and refining, with production breaking a 26-year record, the American Petroleum Institute reported. said U.S. crude production for April was close to 8.3 million barrels per day, a 12.6 percent increase year-on-year and the highest level for any April since 1988. For the refining sector, API said gross inputs and exports of refined products grew 5.1 percent compared to last April to 16.1 million bpd. Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, which API uses as an indication of demand, rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to close to 19 bpd, the highest level for any April since 2010. "April brought strong year-over-year growth in both the production and refining sectors," API Chief Economist John Felmy said in a statement Thursday. "The oil and natural gas industry continues to provide a solid base for growth in the larger economy." API said more consumers […]

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Appeals Court Throws Out Energy Saving Rule

A federal appeals court dealt a blow to electricity-conservation efforts on Friday when it struck down a rule allowing big energy consumers to reap special payments in exchange for cutting their power use. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified a 2011 order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that promoted paying businesses to reduce electricity consumption during heavy times of demand. The court ruled that as a federal regulator FERC had gone too far, encroaching in retail electricity markets that are under the exclusive jurisdiction of states. The FERC order was considered integral to federal efforts to curb carbon emissions from power plants and support energy-efficiency investments by big consumers, from grocery store chains to aluminum manufacturers. But electricity suppliers struggling against low power prices and lackluster demand said those payments had become excessive. The Electric Power Supply Association filed the lawsuit on behalf of power generators that […]

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Average retail gasoline price is $3.67 per gallon heading into Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the summer driving season. Leading up to this year’s holiday, the national average retail price for regular gasoline is $3.67 per gallon (gal), as it was this time last year. After increasing 42 cents/gal from early February to $3.71/gal in late April, gasoline prices have fallen modestly in recent weeks as increasing refinery crude oil throughput and higher imports have added supplies to the market. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update The price of retail gasoline reflects both the price of crude oil and the wholesale gasoline crack spread (the difference between the price of wholesale gasoline and the price of crude oil). The price of North Sea Brent crude has averaged $109 per barrel (bbl) thus far in May, $6/bbl (14 cents/gal) more than the May 2013 average. However, lower wholesale gasoline crack spreads compared with […]

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Michigan gas stocks at end of October to be 18% lower year on year: PSC

The amount of natural gas in Michigan storage facilities at the end of October, the traditional end of the injection season, is expected to be about 18.47% less than was expected to be storage at the same point a year ago, figures from the state Public Service Commission show. The PSC said Friday it estimates there will be 499.4 Bcf in Michigan storage facilities at the end of October and estimates there will be 392 Bcf in storage at the end of December. PSC records show the regulator projected there would be 612.5 Bcf in storage in October 2013 and expected 409.1 Bcf would be in storage at the end of December 2013. Actual figures for the 2013 months were not immediately available from the PSC. Michigan, with its mixed economy, is considered by some to be a bellwether state for northern tier state economies. In its latest forecast […]

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Baker Hughes: US drilling rig count declines to 1,857

The US drilling rig count dropped 4 units to 1,857 rigs working during the week ended May 23, Baker Hughes Inc. reported. Baker Hughes also recently noted, however, that the US rig count in April reached its highest monthly total since September 2012, tallying 1,835, an increase of 32 units from March and 80 units from April 2013. Land-based rigs fell 8 units to 1,783 as offshore rigs gained 3 units to 60. Rigs drilling in inland waters edged up 1 unit to 14. Oil rigs subtracted 3 units to 1,528 and gas rigs lost 1 unit to 325. Rigs considered unclassified were unchanged from a week ago at 4. Horizontal drilling rigs relinquished 5 units to 1,243. Directional drilling rigs, meanwhile, gave up 2 units to 205 rigs working during the last week. Canada’s rig count edged up a single unit to a total of 154. A 3-unit […]

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Hamm: Bakken Oil Threatened By Safety Missteps

The godfather of North Dakota’s present oil bonanza predicted the state’s crude production will double to 2 million barrels daily by decade’s end but warned industry officials Thursday that future safety missteps would threaten that. "We can’t have any more issues," Harold Hamm, the chairman of Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources Inc., told expo-goers at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck. "It has to be done in an absolute safe manner. It’s going to take all of us." Hamm’s company is the biggest producer and largest leaseholder in the Bakken shale formation, with more than 1 million acres in North Dakota and Montana. The company, which has been drilling in North Dakota for almost 25 years, was among the first to tap a Bakken well in 2004 using horizontal drilling technology. The company was the first to drill a horizontal well in the underlying Three […]

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Home Counties shale oil survey finds ‘no bonanza’

More than four billion barrels of oil could be present in shale formations lying underneath Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire – although it is doubtful how much of it could ever be recovered through fracking, according to a long-awaited government study. Research by the British Geological Survey assessed the shale oil and gas potential of the Weald Basin, an area stretching underneath the Home Counties, including the South Downs National Park. It concluded that shale formations in the basin could contain between 2.2bn and 8.5bn barrels of oil with a mid-case estimate of 4.4bn – which would be equivalent to approaching a decade of UK consumption. But the geologists, commissioned by the government to assess the potential reserves, played down the prospects for an onshore oil and gas bonanza in the area because of the difficulty of extracting it. Robert Gatliff, director of energy and marine geoscience at the […]

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No Weaning Europe Off Russian Gas Says Gazprom

Gazprom’s boss said on Friday that Europe will become only more dependent on Russia for its supplies of natural gas in the near future as Asia is absorbing alternative supplies from Middle East countries. Alexei Miller also warned that global competition for Russian output is heating up as this week’s $400-billion gas deal between the Russian energy giant and China’s CNPC showed. "Gazprom was, is and will remain number one supplier to Europe", Mr. Millar said at the St. Petersburg Investment Forum. Mr. Millar’s comments come as Europe reassesses its economic ties with Russia, notably its dependence on the country for nearly a third of gas supplies, as relations have deteriorated with the deepening crisis in Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March. Gazprom has benefited from growing global competition for liquefied natural gas, Gazprom’s chief executive said, with the company intent […]

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U.K.’s South England Holds Billions of Barrels of Shale Oil

Shale rock underneath some of the wealthiest counties in southern England may contain billions of barrels of oil, a government report said. The Weald basin, covering counties south of London including Surrey, Sussex and Kent, may have oil in place of as much as 8.6 billion barrels, according to a report published today by the British Geological Survey. It didn’t say how much could be extracted profitably. The U.K.’s current extractable oil reserves are 3.1 billion barrels, data by BP Plc (BP/) show. The report is likely to add to the controversy about drilling for shale oil and gas in the U.K. The government wants to develop the resources to cut energy costs and boost the economy. Opponents say the process of hydraulic fracturing, using high volumes of water, sand and chemicals to drill shale, can damage the environment. Last year, the BGS said the Bowland basin, which extends […]

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Ukraine Prepares for Election as Violence Persists

Ukraine is preparing for a presidential election tomorrow amid persistent clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the country’s easternmost regions. Ukrainians will vote for a new leader to replace Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych, ousted after deadly protests in February. Billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko leads all candidates. If he fails to garner more than 50 percent backing, a second-round runoff will be held June 15. Preparations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are being disrupted by the fighting. “It’s not easy to prepare and conduct elections when huge financial, political, and military resources are used to disrupt them,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said today in a televised address. “It will be an expression of will of Ukrainians from the west, east, north and south. The choice will be fair and free.” While Russia earlier said the violence threatens to undermine the election’s legitimacy, President Vladimir Putin said he will […]

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Exxon Deepens Russian Ties as Ukraine Election Approaches

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) extended its partnership with Russia ’s state-controlled oil company even as U.S. and European nations threaten additional sanctions to punish Vladimir Putin’s regime for its actions in Ukraine. Exxon signed the agreement with OAO Rosneft (ROSN) Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin at a forum in St. Petersburg today, extending a pact that involves drilling for crude in the Arctic and Siberia and liquefying natural gas for export in Russia’s Far East, according to a statement on Moscow-based Rosneft’s website. Exxon didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Exxon is among American oil producers that rebuffed U.S. State Department pressure to skip the International Economic Forum this week in Putin’s hometown. With at least $30 billion already invested in Russia’s oil and gas sector, U.S. and European explorers are betting the Ukraine crisis won’t derail their aspirations to capture some of Russia’s 75 billion barrels […]

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JODI, the EIA and Their Data

There has been very little new data to report lately. The JODI, Joint Organizations Data Initiative , data for March came out a few days ago. JODI is very good as far as the data it reports goes. The problem is there is a lot of data they just don’t report. If a country does not report their production for a given month then JODI just leaves it blank. And some countries they can’t seem to get any data from, so JODI just gives them zero for every month. For those countries I just substitute EIA numbers. As far as OPEC goes JODI is very political, reporting the inflated numbers that Iran and Venezuela report. I use instead the EIA data for those two countries.  Anyway here is what I have from JODI. The Data is in kb/d, last data point March 2014: But for a few countries JODI […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple