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IEA Says North America to Be a Products Titan

So Peak Oil is dead, yeah? Well, to a point. The Financial Times editorializes that while the “bell-curve” theory of production has been broadly disproved, the oil price remains stubbornly high because Peakists were right about the easy oil having been already found and drilled. North America is on course to produce 20% of the world’s oil supply by the end of this decade, and become a “titan of unprecedented proportions” in oil-products markets. So says the International Energy Agency, which points out that just a decade ago the U.S. was the largest importer of refined products. All this is thanks to that shale revolution, of course. U.S. crude-oil production in 2013 increased by a massive 15% from a year earlier , reaching the highest level since oil tycoons looked like Larry Hagman . In 2015, output should be close to the 1970 historical peak. The effect has been so […]

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Ukraine forces battle separatists after truce 'refused'

Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists were locked in fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine on Thursday after rebels rejected a call to lay down their arms in line with a peace plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, government forces said. Heavy fighting broke out at around 4 a.m. near the town of Krasny Liman, which itself has been under government control since early this month. "We issued an ultimatum to the terrorists overnight to surrender their weapons. We guarantee their safety and investigation in line with Ukrainian law … They refused," said government forces spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov. "Now we are trying to narrow the encirclement. They are trying to break out," Seleznyov said. No details of the fighting were immediately available from the rebels side. Poroshenko, installed as a president on June 7, is pushing a peace plan to end the separatist rebellion including an […]

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Ukraine forces battle separatists after truce ‘refused’

Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists were locked in fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine on Thursday after rebels rejected a call to lay down their arms in line with a peace plan proposed by President Petro Poroshenko, government forces said. Heavy fighting broke out at around 4 a.m. near the town of Krasny Liman, which itself has been under government control since early this month. "We issued an ultimatum to the terrorists overnight to surrender their weapons. We guarantee their safety and investigation in line with Ukrainian law … They refused," said government forces spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov. "Now we are trying to narrow the encirclement. They are trying to break out," Seleznyov said. No details of the fighting were immediately available from the rebels side. Poroshenko, installed as a president on June 7, is pushing a peace plan to end the separatist rebellion including an […]

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Rebels Reject Ukrainian Leader’s Cease-Fire Idea

After Ukraine’s new president, Petro O. Poroshenko, told reporters in Kiev on Wednesday that he might soon order a temporary, unilateral cease-fire as part of a broader 14-point peace plan, it took all of several seconds for pro-Russian militants to rule it out. “I am a condemned man,” said a stick-thin fighter who, like many others here, identified himself only by an alias, Tarik, for security reasons. Sipping tea in the gloom of the lobby of Donetsk’s rebel-occupied administration building on Wednesday afternoon, he patted the magazine of the automatic rifle slung across his chest. Any cease-fire would certainly be violated by the Ukrainian Army, he said, adding that he and other pro-Russian separatists would be arrested the minute the government had the opportunity. “What peace can they possibly offer me?” he asked. “If they want peace, then they can leave.” Tarik and a dozen other […]

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Putin Advisor Proposes “Anti-Dollar Alliance”

It has been a while since both Ukraine, and the ongoing Russian response to western sanctions (which set off the great Eurasian axis in motion, pushing China and Russia close together, and accelerating the “Holy Grail” gas deal between the two countries) have made headlines. It is still not clear just why the western media dropped Ukraine coverage like a hot potato, especially since the civil war in Ukraine’s Donbas continues to rage and claim dozens of casualties on both sides. Perhaps the audience has simply gotten tired of hearing about mixed chess/checkers game between Putin vs Obama, and instead has reverted to reading the propaganda surrounding just as deadly events in the third war of Iraq in as many decades. However, “out of sight” may be just what Russia’s political elite wants. In fact, as VoR’s  Valentin Mândr??escu reports, while the great US spin and distraction machine is […]

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The Third Russia-Ukraine Gas War

At 10 am on Monday, June 16, 2014, Gazprom, a Russian gas monopoly, cut off supplies of gas to Ukraine. This is the third time in the last ten years when Gazprom has tried to use a cut-off to force the Ukrainian government to accept a deal it did not want to accept. In the previous two cut-offs —in January 2004 and January 2009, that is, in the middle of bitter cold winters—Ukraine bowed to the pressure and agreed to unfavorable contracts with high prices, tough clauses, and heavy penalties. Each time, Russia used Gazprom and energy prices as a political instrument to pressure pro-Western governments in Ukraine. Although the current cut-off is motivated by the same political factors, the outcome could be different this time. In a nutshell, Gazprom wants to sell gas to Ukraine at $485 per thousand of cubic meters. Ukraine insists on the price of […]

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End of Oil and Gas Still Many Decades Away

With the June 16 release of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2014, there is some continuing good news. The end of oil and natural gas is still at least a half-century or more away. The reserves-to-production (R/P) ratios for both fossil fuels are well above 50 years. The end of oil is further away than ever. Back in 1980, the R/P ratio (a.k.a., time to depletion at current production rates) for global oil reserves was less than 30 years — now it has increased to more than 53 years. In other words, over the past 35 years we have been discovering new oil reserves at a far faster rate than we have been depleting old reserves. 14 Comments on "End of Oil and Gas Still Many Decades Away" No, we’ve simply been adding things to the list of what we call “oil.” As I said elsewhere, the […]

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Climate Change: The Bigger Picture

several cars submerged by floodwaters I’ve noticed some parallels among three defining institutions of our civilisation: money, war, and mainstream religion. All three demand, in one way or another, the sacrifice of the immediate, the human, or the personal in service to an overarching ulterior goal that trumps all. Disciplined by economic exigency, millions of people sacrifice time, energy, family, and what they really care about in pursuit of money. Disciplined by an existential threat, a nation at war turns away from culture, leisure, civil liberties, and everything of no utility to the war effort. Disciplined by the promise of heavenly rewards or hellish punishments, the believer distances themself from unimportant worldly things. Anyone who is wary of these institutions might also be wary of the standard climate change narrative, which lends itself to the same mentality of sacrifice to an all-important end. If we agree that the survival […]

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IEA says ‘peak oil demand’ could hit as early as 2020

Little more that a year after the International Energy Agency added its voice to the chorus chiming that peak oil was dead , a new report from the uconservative adviser to industrialised nations suggests it has changed its tune. Only this time it is not peak supply that is on its radar, but peak demand. The IEA’s Medium-Term Oil Market Report 2014 has predicted that global growth in oil demand may start to slow down as soon as the end of this decade, due to environmental concerns and cheaper alternatives, and despite boosting its 2014 forecast of global demand by 960,000 barrels per day. oil comp While supply is forecast to remain strong – thanks largely to the unconventional, or “tight” oil revolution currently underway in north America – the IEA says it expects the global market to hit an “inflexion point”, by the end of 2019, “after which […]

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Brent Oil Drops as Iraq Conflict Seen Sparing South; WTI Steady

Brent fell from the highest price in nine months amid speculation that violence in Iraq won’t spread to the main oil-producing areas in the nation’s south. West Texas Intermediate was steady in New York . Futures dropped as much as 0.4 percent in London . Islamist militants fought with the army in a town near Baghdad and with Kurds in the oil-rich northern province of Kirkuk, as the U.S. weighed options to stem an offensive that threatens to fracture OPEC’s second-biggest producer. U.S. crude inventories probably slid by 750,000 barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey shows before an Energy Information Administration report today. “Until we see something happen in the south of Iraq, I suspect we’ve seen the top of any significant price surge for Brent,” David Lennox , a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, said by phone today. “It’s really become a sectarian conflict and […]

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Crude Mixed Ahead of U.S. Inventory Report

Crude-oil futures were mixed in Asian trade Wednesday, with the U.S. oil benchmark supported by an expected drop in weekly oil stockpiles, while Iraq concerns still linger. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in July traded at $106.52 a barrel at 0608 GMT, up $0.16 in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.20 to $113.25 a barrel. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, a trade body, said its data showed a 5.7-million-barrel drop in U.S. crude stocks for the week ended June 13. The more definitive survey data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration is due later Wednesday and analysts expect oil inventories to have fallen by 1.1 million barrels. "Geopolitical risks to supply remain the key support for Brent crude oil, with ongoing tensions along Ukraine’s eastern border and the instability in Iraq making supplies […]

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Oil Futures Diverge as Iraq Remains in Focus — Update

The gap between the benchmark oil contracts diverged to its widest in nearly a month Tuesday as Brent prices continued to rise on uncertainty about Iraqi supply while U.S. prices retreated for a second straight session. Light, sweet crude for July delivery settled down 54 cents, or 0.5%, at $106.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose 51 cents, or 0.5%, to $113.45 a barrel, the highest price since Sept. 9. The gap between the two contracts expanded to $7.09 a barrel, the largest price difference since May 27. So far, Iraqi oil exports, which mostly come from the country’s south, haven’t been halted. Iraq exports about 2.5 million barrels a day, and an outage would represent a large loss to global supplies. Iraqi government forces turned back Sunni militants […]

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Natural Gas Settles Near Flat as Traders Assess Demand

Natural gas barely budged Tuesday as traders expected a heat wave to subside, reducing demand for the fuel in June before above-normal temperatures return in July. Natural gas for July delivery settled up 0.2 cent at $4.709 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Forecasters said hot weather covering the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard was expected to pass Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a return of cool weather over much of the country in the next five to 10 days. The heat wave had been expected to drive gas-fired demand for electricity to power air conditioners, which would divert production to immediate use and impede efforts to rebuild stockpiles depleted by the severe U.S. winter. The Southeast will remain hot and humid next week, but widespread hot temperatures aren’t expected to reach the central and eastern U.S. until […]

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OPEC facing 'headwinds,' IEA says

North American oil output is expected to rise at the same time OPEC begins to face strong "headwinds," the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. "By the end of the decade, North America will have the capacity to become a net exporter of oil liquids," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in a statement from Paris . "At the same time, while OPEC remains a vital supplier to the market, it faces significant headwinds in expanding capacity." The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest market report global oil demand is expected to increase by 1.14 million barrels per day this year. It expects the global economy will need 29.7 million barrels of its crude oil per day in 2014, a decline of 400,000 bpd from the previous year. IEA in its annual five-year outlook report backed OPEC’s estimates, noting global oil demand is expected to […]

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OPEC facing ‘headwinds,’ IEA says

North American oil output is expected to rise at the same time OPEC begins to face strong "headwinds," the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. "By the end of the decade, North America will have the capacity to become a net exporter of oil liquids," IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in a statement from Paris . "At the same time, while OPEC remains a vital supplier to the market, it faces significant headwinds in expanding capacity." The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its latest market report global oil demand is expected to increase by 1.14 million barrels per day this year. It expects the global economy will need 29.7 million barrels of its crude oil per day in 2014, a decline of 400,000 bpd from the previous year. IEA in its annual five-year outlook report backed OPEC’s estimates, noting global oil demand is expected to […]

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With War at Doorstep, Iran Sees Its Revolutionary Guards in a Kinder Light

They came to celebrate the short life of Ali Reza Moshajjari, a local boy from a south Tehran neighborhood and apparently the latest Iranian victim of the escalating sectarian conflict in neighboring Iraq and in Syria. He was a member of Tehran’s 209 battalion of the Imam Ali garrison of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Iranian news media said, and representatives of elite units of the corps stood solemnly in a line, as men clad in black entered the mosque. As the service got underway, a chanter’s voice boomed through the mosque, echoing in the lofty dome, lined with blue and green tiles. “Our godless enemies behead our soldiers,” he said. From the women’s quarters, behind a panel segregating them from the men, a loud wailing commenced. Men shook their heads, and some clenched their fists. “Our youth was a special martyr,” the chanter said of […]

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Iraq Foretells Oil's Dystopian Future

When things go down in the Middle East, oil prices go up. Even axioms have their nuances, though. Amid what may be the unraveling of Iraq, oil prices characteristically have risen, with Brent crude breaking back above $112 a barrel. Yet Iraq’s real significance for oil may have less to do with what transpires this summer and more over the rest of this decade. The direct threat to the country’s oil exports actually isn’t acute yet. For now, the insurgency is focused in central Iraq, away from the main oil-producing and exporting areas in the south and the largely Kurdish-controlled north . The bigger issue is what the sudden advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham means for Iraq’s oil-production growth prospects. In its latest medium-term forecast, released Tuesday, the International Energy Agency cut its supply-growth outlook for Iraq. It now expects Iraq to be […]

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Iraq Foretells Oil’s Dystopian Future

When things go down in the Middle East, oil prices go up. Even axioms have their nuances, though. Amid what may be the unraveling of Iraq, oil prices characteristically have risen, with Brent crude breaking back above $112 a barrel. Yet Iraq’s real significance for oil may have less to do with what transpires this summer and more over the rest of this decade. The direct threat to the country’s oil exports actually isn’t acute yet. For now, the insurgency is focused in central Iraq, away from the main oil-producing and exporting areas in the south and the largely Kurdish-controlled north . The bigger issue is what the sudden advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham means for Iraq’s oil-production growth prospects. In its latest medium-term forecast, released Tuesday, the International Energy Agency cut its supply-growth outlook for Iraq. It now expects Iraq to be […]

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Kurd Oil Supply Seen Growing as Region Grabs Territory

Iraq ’s Kurdish region may be able to gain more autonomy and increase crude exports after taking control of territory around the nation’s fourth-largest oil field, analysts from Saxo Bank A/S and JBC Energy GmbH said. Kurdish troops are protecting the Kirkuk oilfield and surrounding areas after an offensive by Islamist insurgents last week prompted Iraqi central-government forces to flee. The Kurdistan Regional Government plans to double its crude exports next month to as much as 250,000 barrels a day and has built a new pipeline that could ship Kirkuk oil to international markets, Ashti Hawrami , KRG’s natural resources minister, said at a conference in London today. “The current situation could lead to a better environment for exports if the Kurdish region gets more autonomy and can ship its oil, and the south of Iraq continues to grow,” David Wech , managing director at JBC Energy GmbH in […]

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Iraq Crude Oil Exports Surge in South While Violence Hits North

Iraq’s crude oil exports from its southern terminals in the Persian Gulf are poised to accelerate at a time when fighting has plunged the country’s north into chaos and Islamist militias are advancing toward Baghdad. Exports of Basrah Light crude , the country’s main grade, may reach about 2.8 million barrels a day next month, according to a preliminary loading plan obtained by Bloomberg News on June 16. That’s 11 percent more than this year’s average and would be close to matching a three-decade high reached in February. OPEC’s second-largest producer shipped 5.43 million barrels from Basrah on June 11, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi said in Vienna the following day. “The only infrastructure that is currently producing and supplying international markets is in the south and will remain untouched,” Kyle Stelma, managing director of Dubai-based Dunia Frontier Consultants, which researches Iraq for clients, said by phone yesterday. […]

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Ankara: More Kurdish oil set for exports

Ankara expects a third tanker loaded with oil from the Kurdish north of Iraq will leave port before the end of the month, the energy minister said. Two tankers loaded with oil from the Kurdish north, United Emblem and United Leadership , have left the Turkish port city of Ceyhan in recent weeks. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Monday a third tanker should leave before the end of the month. "A third tanker is scheduled on June 22 to export the oil coming from northern Iraq," he said . Neither of the vessels loaded with Kurdish crude oil have made port calls outside of Ceyhan. Exports of Kurdish oil prompted the government in Baghdad to issue a complaint with international arbiters. The statement from Yildiz comes as Iraq struggles to control an insurgency from Islamist militants who took control over key northern Iraqi cities in recent weeks. Turkey’s […]

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Militants lay siege to Iraq's largest oil refinery

Islamic militants laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery Wednesday, threatening a facility key to the country’s domestic supplies as part of their ongoing lightning offensive, a top security official said. The attack comes militants have seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq – and as the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart and the doubts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion now haunt those trying decide how to respond. The official said fighters of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, late Tuesday night. The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with fighters targeting it with mortar shells. A small fire started on the facility’s periphery, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak […]

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Militants lay siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery

Islamic militants laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery Wednesday, threatening a facility key to the country’s domestic supplies as part of their ongoing lightning offensive, a top security official said. The attack comes militants have seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq – and as the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart and the doubts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion now haunt those trying decide how to respond. The official said fighters of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, late Tuesday night. The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with fighters targeting it with mortar shells. A small fire started on the facility’s periphery, he said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak […]

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Iraq militants walk fine line in seized areas

In the week since it captured Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work. Getting around is easier now that much-despised blast walls and security checkpoints are gone. But the militants’ restraint may only be temporary: In Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad that the group and its tribal allies solidified control over at the start of the year, residents say the militants have begun meting out Shariah, or Islamic law, punishments in private, flogging lawbreakers and cutting off thieves’ hands. And across the Syrian border in their urban stronghold of Raqqa, the insurgents are much more open about their ideology, killing people execution-style in the main square, banning music and imposing an Islamic tax […]

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As Sunnis Die in Iraq, a Cycle Is Restarting

As Sunni militants rampaged across northern Iraq last week, executing Iraqi soldiers and government workers and threatening to demolish Shiism’s most sacred shrines, Iraq’s Shiites suffered mostly in silence, maintaining a patience urged on them by their religious leaders through months of deadly bombings. On Tuesday, though, there were signs that their patience had run out. The bodies of 44 Sunni prisoners were found in a government-controlled police station in Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. They had all been shot Monday night in the head or chest. Then the remains of four young men who had been shot were found dumped Tuesday on a street in a Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen. By evening, it was Shiites who were the victims again, as a suicide bombing in a crowded market in Sadr City killed at least 14 people, local hospital officials said. It is […]

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Fears of sectarian violence rise in Baghdad after killing of Sunni imam and prison inmates

Iraq’s capital lurched closer to a renewed cycle of sectarian slaughter Tuesday after the bodies of a Sunni cleric and his aides, allegedly kidnapped by Shiite militiamen, were found in a Baghdad morgue and dozens of inmates were killed in a prison as insurgents battled security forces about 35 miles north. The Association of Muslim Scholars said Imam Nihad al- Jibouri and two of his aides were executed after being abducted by men dressed as members of the security forces. The killings are reminiscent of the tit-for-tat violence of the worst days of Iraq’s 2005-2007 civil war. The Sunni group warned of retaliation. Baghdad has remained relatively calm amid a rampage in the north by al-Qaeda-inspired militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But with thousands of Shiite volunteers answering a call to arms from religious leaders and the Shiite-led government, many Sunnis in […]

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Sunni militants pound Iraq's biggest oil refinery

‘There is growing panic… they think the jihadis are coming in” Continue reading the main story Islamist-led militants have attacked Iraq’s biggest oil refinery with mortars and machine guns, reportedly attacking from two directions. Smoke billowed from a spare parts warehouse on the site at Baiji, 210km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, security and refinery sources told Reuters. Government forces have made new air strikes on militants advancing towards the capital. Fighting is also reported in the western city of Ramadi. The government is battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, after the militants overran the second city, Mosul, last week. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared on television with Sunni Muslim and Kurdish leaders on Tuesday to […]

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Sunni militants pound Iraq’s biggest oil refinery

‘There is growing panic… they think the jihadis are coming in” Continue reading the main story Islamist-led militants have attacked Iraq’s biggest oil refinery with mortars and machine guns, reportedly attacking from two directions. Smoke billowed from a spare parts warehouse on the site at Baiji, 210km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, security and refinery sources told Reuters. Government forces have made new air strikes on militants advancing towards the capital. Fighting is also reported in the western city of Ramadi. The government is battling to push back ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and its Sunni Muslim allies in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, after the militants overran the second city, Mosul, last week. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared on television with Sunni Muslim and Kurdish leaders on Tuesday to […]

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ISIL's advance puts Saudi Arabia between Iraq and a hard place

The battle between Iraq’s government and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which threatens to  plunge Iraq back into the chaos of sectarian civil war  puts Saudi Arabia in an increasingly awkward position. The Saudis have long been at loggerheads with the Iran-backed Shia-dominated government   of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, seeing Iraq as a key theater of its battle for influence with Tehran that also plays out in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. But while ISIL poses the deadliest challenge yet to Maliki, its rapid emergence as a key regional player threatens Saudi interests as well as those of Iran. Still, the military effort to reverse ISIL’s rapid gains over the past week with possible U.S. and Iranian assistance is likely, at least in the short term, to strengthen the hand of Riyadh’s adversaries in Iraq. The Saudis took several days to respond to […]

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ISIL’s advance puts Saudi Arabia between Iraq and a hard place

The battle between Iraq’s government and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which threatens to  plunge Iraq back into the chaos of sectarian civil war  puts Saudi Arabia in an increasingly awkward position. The Saudis have long been at loggerheads with the Iran-backed Shia-dominated government   of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, seeing Iraq as a key theater of its battle for influence with Tehran that also plays out in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. But while ISIL poses the deadliest challenge yet to Maliki, its rapid emergence as a key regional player threatens Saudi interests as well as those of Iran. Still, the military effort to reverse ISIL’s rapid gains over the past week with possible U.S. and Iranian assistance is likely, at least in the short term, to strengthen the hand of Riyadh’s adversaries in Iraq. The Saudis took several days to respond to […]

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Iraq’s largest oil fields reduce staff

The international oil companies in charge of Iraq’s two most prolific oil fields have significantly reduced their presence in Basra after a shockwave of violence struck northern Iraq and Shia militia activity and recruitment began to spike throughout the south. BP and ExxonMobil, which operate Rumaila and West Qurna 1, respectively, have sent most or all of their foreign staff out of the country, according to varying accounts given by Iraqi workers at those fields. There is no indication that… 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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Iraq blowback: Isis rise manufactured by insatiable oil addiction

Following the bulk of western reporting on the Iraq crisis, you’d think the self-styled ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ‘ ( Isis ) popped out of nowhere, took the west completely by surprise, and is now rampaging across the Middle East like some random weather event. The reality is far more complex, and less palatable. The meteoric rise of Isis is a predictable consequence of a longstanding US-led geostrategy in the Middle East that has seen tyrants and terrorists as tools to expedite access to regional oil and gas resources. Since the second world war, as British historian Mark Curtis documented extensively in his seminal study, The Ambiguities of Power , US and UK goals in the Middle East have focused on oil. As a secret British document from 1958 explained: "The major British and other western interests in the Persian Gulf [are] (a) to ensure free access […]

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American Airlines cutting flights to Venezuela

American Airlines said Tuesday that it will cut nearly 80 percent of its flights to Venezuela in a dispute over revenue being held by the South American country. American said that beginning July 2 it will operate 10 flights per week instead of the current 48. And it will only fly to Venezuela from Miami, scrapping flights from New York, Dallas and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airline says Venezuela is holding on to at least $750 million in revenue that American wants to bring back to the U.S. Other airlines are locked in similar disputes. The International Air Transport Association, a trade group for major world airlines, said this month that Venezuela is holding $4 billion in airline money because of problems with the country’s currency-control system. Air Canada and Italy’s Alitalia have suspended all flights to Caracas and Panama’s Copa has reduced […]

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Gazprom Expects $25 Billion Prepayment in China Gas Deal

Gazprom OAO will receive $25 billion from China as a prepayment under the terms of a $400 billion contract Russia’s natural-gas monopoly signed last month though the details and timing of payments and delivery of the gas aren’t yet finalized, the company’s deputy chief executive said Wednesday. Gazprom’s Alexander Medvedev said he would not disclose the price that China National Petroleum Corp. has agreed to pay for the Russian gas but insisted the deal will make money for the state-controlled Russian energy group. The lack of details of the contract, which is seen by analysts as the Kremlin’s attempt to reduce its dependence on the European gas market, has raised questions in Russia about whether the criteria for striking the deal were primarily political rather than economic . In the […]

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BP, China Confirm 20-Year LNG Supply Pact

BP PLC and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation have signed heads of agreement for the supply of up to 1.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year over 20 years, starting in 2019. BP said its expects a full commercial contract to be agreed in mid-2014. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that BP would sign a $20 billion long-term contract to supply LNG to southeast China, quoting the company’s chief executive. Speaking to reporters at the World Petroleum Congress, Bob Dudley said the 20-year deal would be signed with Chinese state-owned Cnooc in London in front of British Prime Minister David Cameron and Premier Li Keqiang during the Chinese leader’s three-day visit to Britain . BP added that it would likely supply LNG from its global portfolio, using its own LNG tanker fleet and chartered ships delivering gas to a number of terminals in China. […]

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China and Vietnam to Hold Talks Amid Standoff Over Disputed Oil Rig

This video grab image taken on June 1, 2014, from a Vietnam Coast Guard ship shows the Chinese Coast Guard ship chasing a Vietnamese vessel near the site of the Chinese oil rig in the disputed waters in the South China Sea. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images China and Vietnam will hold high-level talks on Wednesday as relations remain strained over the deployment in early May of a Chinese drilling platform to waters claimed by Hanoi and Beijing. The meeting between Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi will be the first official contact between the Asian neighbors after more than six weeks of angry confrontations. While neither side is likely to back down in their dispute over the Paracel Islands and the surrounding waters of the South China Sea, the diplomatic opening is the first sign that Beijing and Hanoi are seeking to […]

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China, Britain vow to jointly combat climate change

LONDON, June 17 (Xinhua) — China and Britain agreed here on Tuesday to deepen their cooperation in fighting climate change during a visit by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to the European country. Hailing the existing "strong relationship" on low carbon cooperation, the two countries agreed to intensify bilateral policy dialogue and practical collaboration through the China-Britain Working Group on Climate Change, according to a joint statement released by both sides. The statement warned that unless actions were taken now, the impact of climate change will worsen in coming decades, giving examples of sea levels rising and ice melting faster than expected. Noting that climate change and air pollution "share many of the same root causes" and "same solutions," China and Britain pledged to work together toward a global framework for ambitious action to bring about low carbon transitions in their own countries. The two sides also called on the […]

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Obama’s New Emission Rules: Will They Survive Challenges?

The sweeping nature of President Obama’s proposed regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants is likely to open his initiative to serious legal challenges. To date, however, the courts have given the federal government wide latitude in regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act. The Obama Administration’s recent announcement that it plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants evoked cries of protest and warnings of economic doom from the political right, and praise from the center and the left. As the controversy over the proposed rules continues to unfold, two important questions loom: What is the likelihood that these new regulations will actually be put into effect, and how big an impact would they have on the fight to slow climate change? Two things could completely derail the rules. First, if a Republican president is elected in 2016, he or she could halt […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Upshot of Domestic Oil Boom: Fewer Shocks

The latest spasm of violence in the Middle East has sent crude-oil prices climbing in recent weeks, a familiar action-reaction that frequently has proved to be a drag on economic growth. Yet that dynamic figures to ease in coming months and years as U.S. dependence on Mideast oil is, by a variety of measures, at a generational nadir. In the current flare-up of unrest, Islamist militants have swept across northern Iraq, threatening Baghdad and spurring fears that violence could disrupt the country’s 2.7 million barrels a day in exports. Amid this, the U.S. crude-oil benchmark on the New York Mercantile Exchange has climbed to around $107 a barrel, the highest level since September. The oil-price instability has been playing out broadly since late 2010, when a string of popular political revolutions across the Middle East drove up the price of crude to $113 a barrel from $85 over five […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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IEA Sees Spread of Shale Revolution Before End of Decade

The shale boom that has transformed the oil industry in the U.S. will spread beyond North America before the end of the decade, sooner than previously expected, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. Associated Press LONDON—The shale boom that has transformed the oil industry in the U.S. will spread beyond North America before the end of the decade, sooner than previously expected, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday, while at the same time warning of significant aboveground risks to conventional supply over the next five years. The use of techniques such as "fracking" to unlock previously inaccessible oil reserves in the U.S. have transformed the country’s oil industry, putting it on track to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020, according to the IEA. However, a mixture of legal, political and investment constraints have meant […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Breaking Bad Meets Fargo Reveals Underbelly of Shale Boom

Even in the underbelly of North Dakota ’s Bakken oilfields, the murder of Doug Carlile stands out, a tale of a Matt Damon look-alike felon, an Indian tribal leader and an accused hit man with a check list that included items like “practice with pistol.” There’s even a voice from the grave: “If I disappear or wake up with bullets in my back, promise me you will let everyone know that James Henrikson did it.” Those were the words Doug Carlile spoke to his family about his business partner before a masked gunman cut him down in the kitchen of his Spokane, Washington , house last December. Police say that Carlile’s murder was probably motivated by a series of complex business transactions that “went bad” in North Dakota’s oil fields . Spurred by breakthroughs in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, North Dakota now produces more than 1 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API: We can't wait any longer for Keystone XL

The American Petroleum Institute said the time for waiting for the administration of President to decide on the Keystone XL oil pipeline is over. "The administration has demonstrated it lacks the political leadership to take the steps necessary to make U.S. energy security a reality," API President and CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement Monday. "We cannot stand by while the administration waits — and waits — until it is politically convenient to do the right thing." API said Senate leaders are expected to vote Wednesday on a measure to build the pipeline. Pipeline planner TransCanada submitted an application for a permit to build Keystone XL across the U.S.-Canadian border more than five years ago. President Obama said he’d weigh the pipeline against its environmental footprint. Those in favor of Keystone XL said it will provide a layer of energy security and be a source of economic stimulus […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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API: We can’t wait any longer for Keystone XL

The American Petroleum Institute said the time for waiting for the administration of President to decide on the Keystone XL oil pipeline is over. "The administration has demonstrated it lacks the political leadership to take the steps necessary to make U.S. energy security a reality," API President and CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement Monday. "We cannot stand by while the administration waits — and waits — until it is politically convenient to do the right thing." API said Senate leaders are expected to vote Wednesday on a measure to build the pipeline. Pipeline planner TransCanada submitted an application for a permit to build Keystone XL across the U.S.-Canadian border more than five years ago. President Obama said he’d weigh the pipeline against its environmental footprint. Those in favor of Keystone XL said it will provide a layer of energy security and be a source of economic stimulus […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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North Dakota Production Tops 1 Million Barrels a Day

North Dakota , home to the Bakken shale formation, became the fourth state in U.S. history to produce more than 1 million barrels of oil a day in April. Output increased by 2.5 percent from March to 1,001,149 barrels a day, the state’s Department of Mineral Resources reported today. Texas, California and Alaska have crossed the million-barrel mark. Only Texas remains above it, at almost 3 million barrels a day. Production will increase through the summer as better weather allows crews to finish more wells, Lynn Helms, the department’s director, said during a conference call with reporters today. “Permitting and drilling activity indicates that we’ll continue to see production grow and build well above 1 million barrels a day,” he said. Oil and gas from the Bakken and other shale formations helped the U.S. produce the equivalent of 87 percent of its energy needs in 2013, the highest level […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada Approves Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline

The Canadian government approved Enbridge Inc. (ENB) ’s Northern Gateway pipeline, eliminating the final major regulatory obstacle for the conduit that would move Alberta oil to the Pacific coast for shipment to Asia. The approval of the C$6.5 billion ($6 billion) project by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet is subject to Enbridge satisfying the 209 conditions placed on the proposal by a regulatory review panel in December, Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford said in a statement today from Ottawa. “The proponent clearly has more work to do in order to fulfill the public commitment it has made to engage with Aboriginal groups and local communities along the route,” Rickford said in the statement . Canada’s petroleum producers are seeking ways to get land-locked and price-depressed Alberta crude to world markets, especially after delays to TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Harper’s government has made building energy infrastructure a national […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Gas Siphoning Seen Unlikely in Ukraine Seeking EU Ties

Ukraine seeking closer ties to the European Union means natural gas flows from Russia to the 28-nation bloc are unlikely to be disrupted, according to Maplecroft Ltd. and Energy Aspects Ltd. UkrTransGas is shipping full volumes from Russia to Europe, the Ukrainian pipeline operator said yesterday, one day after its own supply was cut by Russia amid a two-month long pricing dispute. All imports needed to meet domestic needs can be replaced with gas from Europe for now, Naftogaz Ukrainy’s Chief Executive Officer Andriy Kobolyev said. Russia’s OAO Gazprom (GAZP) cut supplies after a payment deadline expired, echoing disputes that disrupted flows in 2006 and 2009, when the state-run company accused Ukraine of siphoning off transit gas, a charge it denied. Ukraine, which carries Russian gas meeting about 15 percent of the European Union’s needs, is seeking closer ties with the bloc after former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted […]

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Europe lends cash to Polish gas project

The European Investment Bank said a Polish natural gas pipeline project will add a layer of diversity to the European gas corridor. EIB said it was lending $132 million to Polish natural gas transmission company Gaz-System for the expansion of a pipeline that could bring gas, including domestically sourced liquefied natural gas, to the border of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine "This marks an important step towards better security of the energy supply in Europe," Laszlo Baranyay, EIB vice president in charge of lending in Poland, said in a statement from Luxembourg . The EIB said the Polish gas project is "crucial" to European energy security . Dubbed the Lwowek-Odolanow gas pipeline, it will have a length of 100 miles once it’s completed in 2017. Russian energy company Gazprom said Monday it would send natural gas through Ukraine only if it was paid in advance. European consumers get […]

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Gazprom Neft readies for arctic drilling

Russian energy company said it plans to conduct drilling operations in the northern Pechora Sea during the ice-free months of 2014. The company said a drilling platform was delivered to the Dolginskoye field in the arctic waters of the Pechora Sea. "An exploration well will be drilled from the platform during the ice-free months of 2014 to further investigate the field’s geological structure and prepare it for full-scale development," the company said in a statement Monday. Changing weather patterns are leaving parts of the arctic region ice-free for longer periods of time, giving energy companies more time to try to exploit the estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and 1.6 quadrillion cubic feet of undiscovered natural gas thought to lie beneath the arctic waters. Gazprom Neft is the oil arm of the Russian energy company Gazprom, which was the target of Greenpeace demonstrations against arctic […]

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Gazprom says flow of gas to Europe uninterrupted

MOSCOW (AP) — An explosion at a key pipeline in Ukraine has not disrupted the flow of gas to Europe, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday. The blast, which occurred Tuesday far from where government troops are fighting pro-Russia separatists, came a day after Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over price and overdue payments. Moscow says it is waiting for Kiev to pay at least $1.9 billion of its $4.5 billion debt before the talks on clearing the debt and agreeing on prices could resume. Gazprom said Monday that it would need to start pumping by mid-October to insure adequate winter supplies for Ukraine. Vitaly Markelov, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, told reporters on Wednesday that gas flows had not been disrupted and that European customers are receiving the contracted amounts. Markelov refused to speculate on the cause but said poor maintenance of pipelines in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple