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Indians riot as heat wave prompts power cuts

Thousands of people enraged by power cuts during an extreme heat wave have been rioting across northern India, setting electricity substations on fire and taking power company officials hostage, officials said Saturday. The impoverished state of Uttar Pradesh has never had enough power for its 200 million people – about the population of Brazil – and many receive only a few hours a day under normal conditions, while 63 percent of homes have no electricity access at all. But recent temperatures that soared to 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 Celsius) have caused power demand to spike at 11,000 megawatts – far higher than the state’s 8,000 MW capacity – triggering blackouts that shut down fans, city water pumps and air conditioners. Thousands of people stormed an electricity substation Friday near the state capital of Lucknow, ransacking offices and taking several workers hostage for 18 hours until […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Second Natural Gas Pipeline to Link Russia, China

Russia and China could soon sign another major contract for gas pipeline construction after inking a landmark 30-year gas deal in Shanghai during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit in May, a senior Russian official said Wednesday. “Given the pace of Chinese economic growth … with an agreement on the compromise (gas) price formulas having been achieved, it is very likely that a contract could be signed in the very near future for the construction of a western route (gas pipeline) that will fully cross the Siberian Federal District,” Russian Presidential Administration Chief Sergei Ivanov told reporters in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. He said the contract on the western route, also called the Altai Natural Gas Pipeline, might be “less capital-intensive” than the eastern one, but “it’s no doubt going to cost us tens of billions of dollars,” ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The official said this project, like […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China president vows to limit population growth of largest cities

Chinese President Xi Jinping today promised to impose strict limits on population growth in the country’s largest cities, state media reported, as authorities seek to push migration towards smaller urban centres. Decades of rapid urbanisation in China have seen the proportion of its urban population swell to more than 50 per cent, creating massive conurbations such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Authorities will “strictly control the size of the population in especially large cities”, Xi said at a meeting of a Communist Party policy group, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Migration in China has for decades been limited by the country’s “hukou,” household registration system, which denies countryside residents equal access to health, education and housing benefits when they move to cities. But Xi said urban registration restrictions would be “fully liberalised” in towns and small cities, while relaxing restrictions in middle-sized cities. The report did not provide […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China's Nine Dash Line And The Law Of The Sea

Territorial disputes over tiny islands and reefs in the South China Sea are poisoning relations between China and its neighbours in Southeast Asia. "In recent months, China has undertaken destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told an audience in Singapore last month. "(China) has restricted access to Scarborough Reef, put pressure on the long-standing Philippine presence at the Second Thomas Shoal, begun land reclamation activities at multiple locations, and moved an oil rig into disputed waters near the Paracel Islands," Hagel complained at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The defense secretary’s speech drew an angry response from China, which rebuked him for making "harsh, provocative" comments – signalling a further deterioration in the already strained relationship between the two countries. According to Hagel, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China’s Nine Dash Line And The Law Of The Sea

Territorial disputes over tiny islands and reefs in the South China Sea are poisoning relations between China and its neighbours in Southeast Asia. "In recent months, China has undertaken destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told an audience in Singapore last month. "(China) has restricted access to Scarborough Reef, put pressure on the long-standing Philippine presence at the Second Thomas Shoal, begun land reclamation activities at multiple locations, and moved an oil rig into disputed waters near the Paracel Islands," Hagel complained at the Shangri-La Dialogue. The defense secretary’s speech drew an angry response from China, which rebuked him for making "harsh, provocative" comments – signalling a further deterioration in the already strained relationship between the two countries. According to Hagel, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A Cleaner Way Forward in the Eagle Ford Shale Play

With officials of the state of Texas earnestly examining the environmental impact of drilling operations, oil and gas companies are eagerly looking for new ways to make their drilling operations and consequent waste disposal more environmentally acceptable. New attention is being focused on potential contamination from drill cuttings and the oil-based drilling fluids that convey them. This is especially true in the Eagle Ford shale play, where high-performance water-based drilling fluids are emerging as a strong alternative to conventional oil based mud alternatives (OBM). New innovations in water-based fluid formulations allow engineers to provide comparable or even better performance than OBM, while mitigating the need for drill cutting disposal. Drill cuttings produced with conventional OBM must be disposed of via off-site land farming methods, as owners of the properties on which drilling has taken place typically forbid operators from burying the drilling waste on their land. This process results […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada's Surprise Light Oil Boom Delights Oil Sands Producers

Canada is enjoying an unexpected boom in production of ultra-light crude known as condensate, defying long-held predictions of dwindling supply. This surprising bounty from one corner of Alberta, better known as the home to Canada’s vast tar-like oil sands reserves, is a boon for firms like Vermilion Energy Inc and Chevron who have built up positions in the Duvernay, now hotly tipped as one of North America’s most exciting shale plays with vast reserves waiting to be tapped. It also is fuelling hope of cost relief for traditional heavy oil sands companies such as Cenovus Energy Inc, who in the past have paid premiums of up to $25 a barrel to buy imported condensate used to dilute their viscous oil sands production so that it can flow through pipelines. The change in outlook has been abrupt. A year ago, the Canadian Association of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada’s Surprise Light Oil Boom Delights Oil Sands Producers

Canada is enjoying an unexpected boom in production of ultra-light crude known as condensate, defying long-held predictions of dwindling supply. This surprising bounty from one corner of Alberta, better known as the home to Canada’s vast tar-like oil sands reserves, is a boon for firms like Vermilion Energy Inc and Chevron who have built up positions in the Duvernay, now hotly tipped as one of North America’s most exciting shale plays with vast reserves waiting to be tapped. It also is fuelling hope of cost relief for traditional heavy oil sands companies such as Cenovus Energy Inc, who in the past have paid premiums of up to $25 a barrel to buy imported condensate used to dilute their viscous oil sands production so that it can flow through pipelines. The change in outlook has been abrupt. A year ago, the Canadian Association of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Marcellus Remains Driver of US Shale Gas Revolution

The Marcellus shale play remains the driving force behind the North America shale gas revolution , with current production of 12 Bcf/d surpassing production from any shale gas play worldwide, said Jeanie Oudin, Wood Mackenzie Lower 48 analyst who focuses on the Northeast, Rockies and West Coast, at a media briefing Wednesday in Houston. Wood Mackenzie anticipates production to surpass 20 Bcfe/d in 2018, attributing the enormous growth to increasingly productive wells and operators achieving better than expected results through optimal completion methods. The Utica shale play in eastern Ohio also is garnering a lot of attention and capital from the oil and gas industry. Current production from the play is only 1 Bcf/d, but Wood Mackenzie sees production rising above 5 Bcf/d in 2018 as operators apply lessons they’ve learned in the Marcellus to the Utica. These lessons include pairing with midstream partners to ensure that takeaway capacity […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US shale boom is over, energy revolution needed to avert blackouts

UK officials have claimed Britain needs fracking for industry to ‘prosper’ and ‘the economy to grow’. Increasing data challenges these claims. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP I hate to say I told you so, but… In 2012, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast that the US would outpace Saudi Arabia in oil production thanks to the shale boom by 2020, becoming a net exporter by 2030. The forecast was seen by many as decisive evidence of the renewal of the oil age, while informed detractors were at best ignored, at worst ridiculed. Among my many reports exposing the geological and economic fallacies behind the shale boom narrative are this , this , this and this . Even here on the Guardian, one headline declared the IEA report shows that " peak oil idea has gone up in flames ." But the IEA’s latest assessment has proved the detractors right all along. […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA