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Ukrainian gas situation 'normal'

Slovakian gas transit company Eustream said Friday the state of operations through Ukraine were in line with its expectations. The company said it hasn’t seen any pressure reductions or gas volume decreases at a compressor station on the border with Ukraine. "Gas flow from Ukraine is in normal mode," it said in a statement . European countries get about a quarter of their gas needs met by Russia, though most of that gas runs through Ukrainian pipelines built during the Soviet era. Ongoing crises in Ukraine is therefore putting European energy security at risk. Last month, the European Investment Bank 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 Eustream said Thursday it was proceeding with […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Ukrainian gas situation ‘normal’

Slovakian gas transit company Eustream said Friday the state of operations through Ukraine were in line with its expectations. The company said it hasn’t seen any pressure reductions or gas volume decreases at a compressor station on the border with Ukraine. "Gas flow from Ukraine is in normal mode," it said in a statement . European countries get about a quarter of their gas needs met by Russia, though most of that gas runs through Ukrainian pipelines built during the Soviet era. Ongoing crises in Ukraine is therefore putting European energy security at risk. Last month, the European Investment Bank 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 Eustream said Thursday it was proceeding with […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Biofuels are included in latest U.S. Navy fuel procurement

Source: U.S. Navy, used with permission Note: Above, clockwise from left: Fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO 187), aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93), and cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59). Great Green Fleet demonstration, July 2012. Recently the Department of Defense (DoD) released its annual procurement for bulk fuels to be delivered to its facilities in the eastern and inland United States and Gulf Coast. For the first time, this procurement requests military-specification diesel fuel and jet fuel that are blended with biofuels. The biofuels components, however, are optional and will only be accepted if certain cost and performance requirements are met. A similar procurement for the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions is expected to be released later this year. The U.S. Navy’s interest in biofuels is part of its goal to generate 50% of its energy from alternative sources by […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Russia Steps Up Help for Rebels in Ukraine War

Rather than backing down after last week’s downing of a civilian passenger jet, Russia appears to be intervening more aggressively in the war in eastern Ukraine in what American and Ukrainian officials call a dangerous escalation that will almost certainly force more robust retaliation from the United States and Europe. Russia has increased its direct involvement in fighting between the Ukrainian military and separatist insurgents, moving more of its own troops to the border and preparing to arm the rebels with ever more potent weapons, including high-powered Tornado rocket launchers, American and Ukrainian officials said on Friday. The officials, citing satellite images and other military intelligence, said that Russia had positioned heavy weapons, including tanks and other combat vehicles, at several points along the border where there has been intense fighting. On Thursday, Russia unleashed artillery attacks on eastern Ukraine from Russian territory, officials in Washington […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Drought drains critical US water supply

A huge volume of fresh water has disappeared from the drought-struck south west of the US in the past decade in what researchers say is a startling sign of the fragility of one of the country’s most important water supplies. Almost 65 cubic kilometres of water has been lost since late 2004 from the Colorado River Basin , an area roughly the size of France that is a vital but heavily used source of water for more than 30m people and 4m acres of farmland. The amount lost was nearly double the volume of the Colorado River’s Lake Mead , the largest man-made reservoir in the US, according to a study by scientists using data from Nasa satellites that can measure changes in water levels. “This is a lot of water to lose. We thought that the picture could be pretty bad, but this was shocking,” said the study’s […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Texas Petro Index: Seventh Record High as Production Closes in On All-Time

The continuing expansion in the energy sector propelled Texas oil production to new levels in the second quarter of 2014, as evidenced by Karr Ingham’s Texas Petro Index (TPI), which hit a record-high of 308.4 in June. Ingham, an economist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, covered the second-quarter TPI in a presentation at Houston’s Petroleum Club Thursday. The TPI is a composite index that is derived from a comprehensive set of upstream indicators, including the price per barrel of oil, rig count, drilling permits and completions, oil and gas production volume and other indicators. It provides a picture of the overall energy health of the state. The June 2014 TPI is 7.4 percent than it was in June 2013. Compared with the January 1995 base of 100 percent, the June 2014 TPI is up 213.7 percent. Texas oil production has been increasing for last 54 months, sending […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WWF: Arctic Oil Well Blowout Could Spread More Than 1,000 Km

CALGARY, Alberta, July 25 (Reuters) – Oil from a spill or oil well blowout in the Arctic waters of Canada’s Beaufort Sea could easily become trapped in sea ice and potentially spread more than 1,000 kilometres to the west coast of Alaska, a World Wildlife Fund study showed on Friday. The WWF contracted RPS Applied Science Associates to model 22 different oil spill scenarios and map the spread of the oil, potential impact on the water and shoreline, and interaction with sea ice, wildlife and the surrounding ecology. Types of oil spills analysed included shipping spills, shallow-water blowouts and deep-water blowouts. The BP Plc Macondo oil well rupture in 2010 that unleashed more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was a deep-water blowout. The remote Beaufort Sea is a section of the Arctic Ocean that spans the Canada-U.S. border. It comprises about 476,000 square […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Report Says EPA Fails to Stem Methane Gas Emissions From Pipelines

The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to control leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from the nation’s natural-gas pipelines, the agency’s inspector general said Friday. A report calls on the EPA to do more to control inadvertent emissions of methane, which has a more intense—though shorter—warming effect on the planet than carbon dioxide, the agency said. Natural gas consists almost entirely of methane. About $192 million of natural gas was lost in 2011 because of leaks in pipelines, known as distribution lines, that transport the fuel to end users, the inspector general said. That cost was borne by consumers, according to the report. The inspector general said a voluntary EPA program to encourage energy companies to address methane emissions hasn’t helped to reduce leaks. The nation’s plentiful supplies of natural gas are a central part of President Barack Obama ‘s strategy to address climate change, since burning natural […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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IEA Oil Market Forecast: Optimistic Assumptions And An Economy Unable To Grow Out Of Its Problems

IEA Oil Market Forecast: Optimistic Assumptions And An Economy Unable To Grow Out Of Its Problems The International Energy Authority (IEA) forecasts a yearly increase of 1.3% in global oil demand during the period 2013-2019. This contrasts with the assumption of global economic growth rising from 3.6% in 2014 to around 4% thereafter [1] . How does a 1.3% increase in oil usage support economic growth of about three times that amount? The oil intensity of growth has been decreasing over time, with global oil intensity falling from  1:1 (a 1% increase in global oil consumption required for each 1% of global economic growth) to a ratio of 0.75:1, between 1995 and 2009 [2] . An extrapolation of that trend would result in an average oil intensity of about 0.65:1 during the 2013-2019 time period, with 1.3% growth in oil demand driving about 2% global economic growth. The IEA […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Costs up for oil sands production

The costs of producing bitumen and synthetic crude in the Albertan oil sands have increased over the past year, says the Canadian Energy Research Institute in an annual report that projects steady growth in output. Compared with last year’s report, estimated costs of production before blending and transportation are up 4.4% for steam-assisted gravity drainage , 1.6% for mining without upgrading, and 5.9% for integrated mining and upgrading ( OGJ Online, May 29, 2013 ). The new estimates of plant-gate supply costs: $50.89/bbl (Can.) for SAGD, $71.81/bbl for stand-alone mining, and $107.57/bbl for integrated mining. CERI estimates the cost of stand-alone upgrading at $40.82/bbl. When the price of West Texas Intermediate crude is $100/bbl, the only economic production technology when blending and transportation are included in the estimate is SAGD, CERI points out. After those adjustments, the WTI-equivalent supply costs at the Cushing, Okla., pricing hub are $84.99/bbl (US) […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple