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Indian Shares Fall As Oil Prices Stoke Fiscal Worries

Indian shares fell Friday as the turmoil in Iraq pushed up global crude oil prices, raising worries that India’s import bill could go up and hurt the government’s weak financial position. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex closed down 1.4% at 25228.17 points, while the National Stock Exchange 50-stock Nifty index ended 1.4% lower at 7,542.10 points. India imports about three-quarters of the oil it consumes and Iraq is among its top suppliers. Any increases in global crude oil prices push up the country’s import bill and also increase the subsidies it pays to local fuel retailers. "India is at a risk as all the fiscal control programs will go for a toss if oil prices rise further," said Daljeet Kohli, head of research at IndiaNivesh Securities. Although markets have rallied in recent months, most of the gains have been on the back of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Xi stresses efforts to revolutionize energy sector

BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for more efforts to revolutionize the country’s energy production and consumption habits, in light of changing dynamics in the global energy market. While presiding over a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, Xi, head of the group, acknowledged that China faces challenges to cope with rising energy demand, supply restraints, huge environment costs and backward technology. To ensure national energy security, China needs to take steps to rein in irrational energy use and control the country’s energy consumption by fully implementing energy-saving policies, said Xi. Energy supply reform will take place to establish a diversified system that contains cleaner use of coal and non-coal fuel including oil, gas, nuclear power and new energy. Xi urged further efforts in energy technology innovation to forge the industry into a new powerhouse to fuel economic […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's power consumption rises 5.2 pct in Jan.- May

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) — China’s power consumption rose 5.2 percent in the first five months from a year earlier, official data showed on Saturday. The Jan.-May growth figure was in line with the rate in the first four months, according to the National Energy Administration. In May alone, power use, an indicator of economic activity, gained 5.3 percent from a year ago, picking up speed from the 4.6 percent growth in April.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s power consumption rises 5.2 pct in Jan.- May

BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) — China’s power consumption rose 5.2 percent in the first five months from a year earlier, official data showed on Saturday. The Jan.-May growth figure was in line with the rate in the first four months, according to the National Energy Administration. In May alone, power use, an indicator of economic activity, gained 5.3 percent from a year ago, picking up speed from the 4.6 percent growth in April.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Senate Energy, Natural Resources Committee to Vote on Keystone XL Pipeline

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote on legislation Wednesday that would approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline. It is expected that the committee will approve the bill, which Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) co-sponsored. The voting of this legislation comes on the heels of Canada’s Finance Minister Joe Oliver, Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s visit to New York for media interviews and an energy conference. Canada’s intention is to keep the issue alive with the U.S. public and business, said Oliver, while arguing that President Obama has unfairly entangled the $5.4 billion pipeline with U.S. politics. “This is a democracy, and I’m sure the government listens to the people,” Oliver said to Bloomberg. The proposed pipeline has been an ongoing political debate and is in its sixth year of review under Obama’s administration. On Wednesday, when the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada's rig count rises by 30 to 244 for the week ending Friday: Baker Hughes

The US oil and natural gas rotary rig count fell by six to 1,854 rigs for the week ending Friday, but is up 83 rigs from the 1,771 total posted in the comparable week a year ago, Baker Hughes said in its weekly report. US gas rigs in the most recent week totaled 310, down 10 from a week ago. The oil rig count rose by six to 1,542. There were two miscellaneous rigs this week, down two from the week prior and down three from five a year ago, according to Baker Hughes data. The horizontal rig total fell by two this week to 1,248. Canada’s rig count rose by 30 to 244, and is up 68 from a total of 176 the same week a year ago. Canada’s oil rig count was 149, up 27 week on week, while the gas rig total was 95, up three […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada’s rig count rises by 30 to 244 for the week ending Friday: Baker Hughes

The US oil and natural gas rotary rig count fell by six to 1,854 rigs for the week ending Friday, but is up 83 rigs from the 1,771 total posted in the comparable week a year ago, Baker Hughes said in its weekly report. US gas rigs in the most recent week totaled 310, down 10 from a week ago. The oil rig count rose by six to 1,542. There were two miscellaneous rigs this week, down two from the week prior and down three from five a year ago, according to Baker Hughes data. The horizontal rig total fell by two this week to 1,248. Canada’s rig count rose by 30 to 244, and is up 68 from a total of 176 the same week a year ago. Canada’s oil rig count was 149, up 27 week on week, while the gas rig total was 95, up three […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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No more gas talks planned, Russia says

With a payment deadline looming, a Kremlin spokesman said Russia would sit on the sidelines Friday of talks on gas debt issues with Ukraine. Russian, Ukrainian and European Union representatives are working to find a way to settle ongoing gas disputes. Russian energy company Gazprom says Ukraine owes billions of dollars for recent gas deliveries. Debt disputes in 2006 and 2009 resulted in a Gazprom decision to cut gas through Ukraine, which left downstream consumers in Europe short of energy supplies. A spokeswoman for the Russian Energy Ministry told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS no talks were planned before Monday. The report said European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger had expected to continue trilateral talks by phone. The commissioner said Friday he was hoping for a solution to the crisis before next week. He said much of the situation may depend "on the political decision of the Russian government." Gazprom has […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The inevitable demise of the fossil fuel empire

The latest data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other sources proves that the oil and gas majors are in deep trouble. Over the last decade, rising oil prices have been driven primarily by rising production costs. After the release of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook last November, Deutsche Bank’s former head of energy research Mark Lewis noted that massive levels of investment have corresponded to an ever declining rate of oil supply increase: "Over the past decade, the oil and gas industry’s upstream investments have registered an astronomical increase, but these ever higher levels of capital expenditure have yielded ever smaller increases in the global oil supply. Even these have only been made possible by record high oil prices. This should be a reality check for those now hyping a new age of global oil abundance." Since 2000, the oil industry’s investments have risen by 180% – […]

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Rebels shoot down Ukrainian military plane, 49 killed

Pro-Russian separatists shot down a Ukrainian army transport plane with an anti-aircraft missile as it came in to land early on Saturday in the eastern city of Luhansk, killing all 49 military personnel on board. The toll is the highest suffered by government forces in a single incident since they launched a military operation to halt the rebellion in east Ukraine against the country’s pro-European leaders in Kiev and to try to prevent the country splitting up. The Defence Ministry said in a statement the Il-76 plane was shot down in a "cynical" attack by rebels using an anti-aircraft weapon and a heavy-caliber machine gun. It gave no death toll but Vladislav Seleznyov, spokesman for the military operation in east Ukraine, said by phone: "Forty-nine people were killed. All were Ukrainian military personnel." The Prosecutor General’s office said nine crew and 40 paratroopers had been […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple