Category:

Duke Energy spends tiny percentage of revenue on coal ash cleanup

Duke Energy, the company responsible for a massive coal ash spill in January in North Carolina, raked in billions in revenue in the first quarter of 2014 but failed to spend more than a tiny fraction of its earnings on cleaning up its spill, according to its quarterly report released Wednesday. The company, the largest electrical utility in the United States, has also seen what one Duke stock owner called a “shareholder revolt” over a reluctance to provide more detailed disclosure of its political contributions. Duke denies there’s a mutiny, saying that management’s preference for less disclosure is supported by a majority of shareholders. Duke Energy, valued at about $51 billion, said it spent just $15 million dollars cleaning up the results of the coal ash leak, a figure dwarfed by its $6.62 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2014. “What’s clear is that they spent very […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EIA seeks comments on proposed expansion of gas, oil production survey

To accommodate the rapid growth and shifting location of US natural gas and crude oil production , the US Energy Information Administration is proposing to expand the geographic coverage of its current monthly natural gas production survey and add collection of state-level data on crude oil and lease condensate production. EIA has issued a request for public comments on the proposed changes in a Federal Register Notice published on May 6. “The current survey, the EIA-914 Monthly Natural Gas Production Report, collects natural gas production data from a sample of 240 well operators in five states and the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico that represent, as of December 2013, 66% of total US gross gas production, down from 82% in 2007 when the survey began,” EIA said. “Natural gas production has increased dramatically in some of the states outside the current EIA-914 survey—for example, Pennsylvania and Colorado, both of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

More processing, pipelines on tap for US shale plays

Shale development in the US continues to spawn support infrastructure. MarkWest Energy Partners LP , Denver, will expand Marcellus shale processing at two sites in West Virginia. Regency Energy Partners LP, Dallas, plans a new processing plant and NGL pipeline in North Louisiana. At its Sherwood complex in Doddridge County, W.Va., MarkWest will build an additional 200-MMcfd processing plant to accommodate production from Antero Resources Corp., based on a long-term, fee-based contract ( OGJ Online, Nov. 8, 2013 ). The new plant will expand total capacity at Sherwood to 1.2 bcfd by second-quarter 2015. The announcement said Antero continues to develop rich-gas acreage in northern West Virginia and is the anchor producer for Sherwood. At its Mobley complex in Wetzel County, W.Va., MarkWest will increase total processing capacity to 920 MMcfd with construction of an additional 200-MMcfd plant—Mobley V—to handle production from EQT Corp. Plans target in service by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Ukraine crisis: Separatists to debate Putin referendum call

Pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine are due to consider a proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin to delay referendums on autonomy. Mr Putin said putting off the vote could help create the conditions necessary for dialogue. Separatist leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk say they will put the matter before "people’s councils". But Ukrainian authorities said "anti-terror" operations would continue regardless of the rebels’ decision. The referendums are due to take place on Sunday and millions of ballot papers have been prepared. And in what appeared to be a further shift in Russian policy, Mr Putin also said on Wednesday that this month’s presidential elections in Ukraine were a move "in the right direction". His remarks came days after his spokesman said holding such an election would be absurd. Military operation continues Moscow has vowed to protect the rights of the largely Russian-speaking people in the south and east against […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Putin Announces Pullback From Ukraine Border

President Vladimir V. Putin, faced with rising violence in southeastern Ukraine that threatened to draw in the Russian Army at great cost and prompt severe new Western economic sanctions, pressed pause on Wednesday in what had started to look like an inevitable march toward war. But it remained unclear to analysts and political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic whether he was truly reversing course on Ukraine or if this was just another of his judo-inspired feints. Using a far less ominous tone than in previous remarks about Ukraine, Mr. Putin told a news conference at the Kremlin that Russia had withdrawn its troops from along the border and that he had asked separatists to drop plans for a referendum on sovereignty this Sunday. Russia would even accept Ukraine’s presidential election on May 25, he said, if demands for autonomy from the country’s east were recognized. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Putin Calls on Pro-Russian Separatists in Eastern Ukraine to Delay Independence Vote

President Vladimir Putin moved to pull Ukraine back from the brink of breakup Wednesday, calling on separatists to put off a secession vote, softening his attacks on a presidential election and saying his troops had withdrawn from the border. Mr. Putin’s change of tone came after , which has taken dozens of lives and brought East-West relations to their lowest point since the Cold War. But Washington was dismissive and immediately questioned whether Moscow was genuinely committed to stabilizing Ukraine, where the government in Kiev is strongly pro-Western. The Pentagon said it had seen no evidence to back Mr. Putin’s claim that he had called back the tens of thousands of troops deployed to Ukraine’s border last month. The Obama administration noted Mr. Putin failed to call on the pro-Russian separatists to lay down their arms or vacate to the referendum they plan to hold on Sunday. Kiev and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Sweden's Vattenfall abandons research on CO2 storage

Swedish energy giant Vattenfall said Tuesday that it had given up its research on CO2 capture and storage, intended to make the company’s coal power plants greener. "Vattenfall will discontinue its R&D (research and development) activities regarding coal power with CCS (carbon capture and storage)," the group said in a statement explaining its new research plans. The state-owned giant had been investing in this technology for more than 10 years, with plans for a power plant equipped with CCS in 2016. Capturing and liquifying CO2 coming from carbon combustion to later store it underground was meant to curb greenhouse effect gas emissions, but its costs and the energy it requires make the technology unviable. These difficulties had already forced Vattenfall to give up in 2011 a large project at a pilot plant in Jaenschwalde, in eastern Germany. The European Union then demanded the reimbursement of funding worth 45 million […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Sweden’s Vattenfall abandons research on CO2 storage

Swedish energy giant Vattenfall said Tuesday that it had given up its research on CO2 capture and storage, intended to make the company’s coal power plants greener. "Vattenfall will discontinue its R&D (research and development) activities regarding coal power with CCS (carbon capture and storage)," the group said in a statement explaining its new research plans. The state-owned giant had been investing in this technology for more than 10 years, with plans for a power plant equipped with CCS in 2016. Capturing and liquifying CO2 coming from carbon combustion to later store it underground was meant to curb greenhouse effect gas emissions, but its costs and the energy it requires make the technology unviable. These difficulties had already forced Vattenfall to give up in 2011 a large project at a pilot plant in Jaenschwalde, in eastern Germany. The European Union then demanded the reimbursement of funding worth 45 million […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Of Fossil Fuels and Human Destiny

There have been hundreds of books and essays written on the evolution of Homo sapiens and I assume you are familiar with that history. In this short essay I am going to point out a few things that are usually left out of that story, the part that deals with the very nature of the species Homo sapiens. First I would like to point out a few things that are common to all species, not just Homo sapiens. All species produce more offspring than can possibly survive to adulthood and reproductive age. Some produce hundreds of offspring and leave it to chance that a few will survive. Others produce far fewer offspring and care for them for months to years to increase their chances of survival. However if there is ever an abundance of food for any species, that species will multiply its numbers to take advantage of that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Russia and the Ukraine – The Worrisome Connection to World Oil and Gas Problems

What is behind the Russia/Ukraine problem? It seems to me that what we are seeing is Russia’s attempt to fix a two-part problem: Some oil and gas exporters, including Russia, are not receiving enough oil and gas revenue to meet their needs. They are not able to collect enough taxes to provide the services they have promised to their citizens, plus allow the amount of reinvestment that is needed to maintain production. Russia is starting to experience economic contraction because of the low revenue situation. This situation very closely related similar problems I have written about  previously. In one post I talked about major independent oil companies not producing enough profit to provide the revenue needed for reinvestment, and because of this, cutting back on new investment. In another , I talked about the problem of too low US natural gas sales prices, relative to the cost of extraction. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple