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Asian Century sails into troubled waters in the South China Sea

Only weeks after the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott introduced “Team Australia to help China build the Asian Century” to the Boao Forum on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea we get a foretaste how this much hyped Asian Century will look like: many fights over oil and gas. In a well prepared action China moved a 30,000 ton, 1$ billion semi-submersible drilling rig (HD 981) into position in contested waters 220 kms off the Vietnamese coast near the Paracel islands, and just 330 km South East of Hainan where Abbott spoke. Vietnamese coast guard boats tried to interrupt the positioning of the rig but were attacked by water cannons and rammed by Chinese boats. For Vietnam control over offshore oil and gas is absolutely vital because oil production has peaked 10 years ago and gas is expected to peak by 2018. Abbott would neither know […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Beijing Shakes Up Its Biggest Energy Company

China is shaking up its largest energy company by breaking apart its monopoly on natural-gas pipelines, which for years has discouraged the independent development of promising new supplies of the cleaner-burning fuel. State-controlled PetroChina Co. said late Monday that it will establish a new subsidiary containing some of its gas pipelines and that the business will eventually be sold. The subsidiary, known as PetroChina Eastern Pipelines Co., will hold the first and second phase of its West-East pipeline, which connects gas fields in China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang with consumers in Shanghai to the east and in Guangdong to the south. PetroChina, the listed unit of China National Petroleum Corp., said that after the sale it won’t retain any ownership of the business, which it said will have 29 billion yuan ($4.65 billion) in net assets. PetroChina didn’t give a timetable or name a potential buyer. Those factors […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pakistan needs Iran's gas, envoy says

-Pakistan’s energy sector is in such disarray that it has few choices apart from a natural gas pipeline from Iran, the former Iranian envoy to Pakistan said. Ambassador Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian told Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency there are rivals to a pipeline clouded by sanctions imposed on Iran’s energy sector. "Owing to the grave conditions of energy (supply and demand) in Pakistan, some of the country’s major cities spend half of the day without electricity, meaning that Pakistan’s need to energy is real and inevitable," he said Sunday. Iran last year pulled out of a finance deal for Pakistan because of sanctions pressure. Pakistan was slated to get 21 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Iranian pipeline. The U.S. government supports a rival pipeline that would deliver natural gas to Pakistan from Turkmenistan. Last year, Washington said it was negotiating […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pakistan needs Iran’s gas, envoy says

-Pakistan’s energy sector is in such disarray that it has few choices apart from a natural gas pipeline from Iran, the former Iranian envoy to Pakistan said. Ambassador Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian told Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency there are rivals to a pipeline clouded by sanctions imposed on Iran’s energy sector. "Owing to the grave conditions of energy (supply and demand) in Pakistan, some of the country’s major cities spend half of the day without electricity, meaning that Pakistan’s need to energy is real and inevitable," he said Sunday. Iran last year pulled out of a finance deal for Pakistan because of sanctions pressure. Pakistan was slated to get 21 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Iranian pipeline. The U.S. government supports a rival pipeline that would deliver natural gas to Pakistan from Turkmenistan. Last year, Washington said it was negotiating […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pipeline, energy bill backers vow to keep up fight

Supporters of a popular energy savings bill and the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline say they will keep trying to force Senate action on the measures, even after they were defeated amid partisan gridlock in the Senate. The energy legislation would tighten efficiency guidelines for new federal buildings and provide tax incentives to make homes and commercial buildings more efficient. The pipeline measure would force a decision by President Barack Obama on the long-delayed project to carry oil from Canada to the United States. Both proposals fell victim to election-year politics Monday night, as a procedural motion to end debate on the energy bill without amendments fell five votes short of the 60 votes needed for approval. The demise of the energy bill also sealed the fate of the pipeline measure. Senate Democratic leaders said the pipeline vote could occur only after Senate action on an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale gas may be ready for British grid

British shale gas explorer Cuadrilla could start testing delivery rates through the nation’s transmission system, Chief Executive Francis Egan said. Egan said gas from shale deposits in the country could start flowing through the nation’s transmission system by the end of next year, albeit at low volumes. "After the initial flow test period, which is up to 90 days, if the flow rates look good then we would want to tie the well into the gas transmission system and flow it for a longer period to assess the flow rate over 18 to 24 months," he said Sunday. The company was the target of major demonstrations last summer when its work in the southern village of Balcombe was viewed as a prelude to hydraulic fracturing, known also as fracking. In January, Cuadrilla sent a letter to village residents saying it was applying for an extension […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Negligence Charges Brought in Quebec Derailment and Fire

The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway and three of its employees have been charged with criminal negligence in connection with a derailment that killed 47 people and incinerated much of downtown Lac-Mégantic, Quebec , last July, officials said on Monday. In a brief statement, the office of Quebec’s director of criminal prosecutions said that Thomas Harding, the engineer and sole employee working on the train, was among those arrested. Federal accident investigators have found that Mr. Harding failed to apply the minimum number of required hand brakes after parking the train for the night. The train was carrying crude oil from North Dakota. A fire in the locomotive led to the loss of the train’s air brakes. Combined with the lack of hand brakes, that eventually allowed the train to run out of control into the town. The unexpectedly volatile nature of the Bakken crude oil led […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chemical spill fails to loosen coal’s grip on West Virginia politics

It has been more than five months since a leak at a chemical storage facility left more than 300,000 West Virginians without drinking water. Today voters across West Virginia are heading to the polls for the first time since the spill to participate in the state’s primary elections. In the immediate aftermath of the leak, some West Virginians, including Benjamin Seebaugh, believed its devastating impact would serve as a wake-up call for the state, which is known for its lax regulatory environment. Now they’re not so sure. “Many of us truly believed this would be the impetus for tangible change in West Virginia relating to environmental relations and the energy industry,” says Seebaugh, 22. A lifelong West Virginia resident and a Democratic Party activist, he felt that the proximity of the incident to the state’s seat of power was also significant. “Even though West Virginia is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Drilling Productivity Report

Sources & Uses Crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, diesel, propane, and other liquids including biofuels and natural gas liquids. Natural Gas Exploration and reserves, storage, imports and exports, production, prices, sales. Electricity Sales, revenue and prices, power plants, fuel use, stocks, generation, trade, demand & emissions. Consumption & Efficiency Energy use in homes, commercial buildings, manufacturing, and transportation. Coal Reserves, production, prices, employ- ment and productivity, distribution, stocks, imports and exports. Renewable &Alternative Fuels Includes hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and ethanol. Nuclear & Uranium Uranium fuel, nuclear reactors, generation, spent fuel.  Total Energy Comprehensive data summaries, comparisons, analysis, and projections integrated across all energy sources. Highlights This Week in Petroleum › Weekly Petroleum Status Report › Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report › Natural Gas Weekly Update › Electric Power Monthly › Quarterly Coal Report › Monthly Energy Review › Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2009 › Electricity Data Browser › Topics Geography

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EIA: US Shale Output To Rise In June

Oil production across U.S. shale fields will likely rise by 75,000 barrels-per-day in June after rising nearly as much in May, monthly estimates from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Monday. The largest increase will be recorded in the south Texas Eagle Ford shale, where output will rise by just over 26,000 bpd to about 1.4 million bpd between May and June, according to EIA’s drilling productivity report. Bakken oil production will rise to just under 1.1 million bpd in June, some 22,000 bpd above a month earlier. The Permian basin in West Texas and New Mexico will produce 1.5 million bpd next month, about 21,000 bpd higher than May figures. Meanwhile, gas production will rise 0.48 billion cubic feet month-over-month to 39.3 bcf in June, EIA’s estimates show. The drilling report is based on drilling rigs data and estimates of changes […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple