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Australia Axing Pollution Levy Marks First U-Turn on Climate

Australia ’s decision to repeal its levy limiting fossil-fuel pollution makes it the first nation to turn back from a market approach to fighting global warming. Prime Minister Tony Abbott ’s government won final approval from Parliament yesterday to scrap a levy about 300 companies paid for their carbon dioxide emissions. The move leaves Australia, the largest polluter per capita among industrial nations, without a system for reducing greenhouse gases as it prepares to host a meeting of the Group of 20 nations. “Australia is bereft of a credible climate policy just as the international community focuses on deeper reduction targets,” said John Connor, chief executive officer of The Climate Institute, a Sydney-based environmental group. He called the move an “historic act of irresponsibility and recklessness.” The about-face sets up Abbott for a clash with Europe and the U.S., which asked for climate policy to be on the G-20 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China rainstorms affect millions

  A rescuer works at the site of landslide in Dakuo Village of Zhijin County in the city of Bijie, southwest China’s Guizhou Province, July 17, 2014. Six people died and another two were injured in the rain-triggered landslide here, local authorities said on Friday. Rainstorms have lashed Guizhou this week, triggering landslides and floods in many parts of the province. (Xinhua) GUIYANG/CHONGQING, July 18 (Xinhua) — Millions of people have been affected as days of heavy rain in southwest and central China have caused floods and landslides while also halting train services. The downpours have killed 10 people and left 10 missing as of Friday in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, Guizhou’s provincial department of civil affairs told Xinhua. In the latest case, six people were killed and two injured in a rain-triggered landslide in Guizhou, local authorities said on Friday. The landslide happened at around 4 a.m. on […]

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China Flexes Might With Energy Giants

A Chinese coast guard vessel fired water in May at a Vietnamese vessel off the coast of Vietnam after China deployed an oil rig in disputed South China Sea waters. AP Executives at Talisman Energy Inc. are excited about promising oil-and-gas prospects off the coast of Vietnam and the Canadian company is gearing up to drill two exploratory wells there this year. "I would describe these as world-class exploration blocks," says Paul Ferneyhough, the Calgary, Alberta, company’s vice president for Asia-Pacific operations. The U.S. calculates that the South China Sea likely holds nearly 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. There is a problem: Proceeding with drilling could bring Talisman into conflict with China, which claims some of the blocks as its own. Talisman declined to comment on China’s position. The company says it accepts Vietnam’s assurances that it has the right to […]

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U.S. welcomes Chinese rig movement

The row between China and Vietnam over an oil rig in contested waters highlights the need to find a solution in international law, the U.S. government said. China National Petroleum Corp. announced it completed drilling and exploration activity in waters of the South China Sea disputed with Vietnam and pulled its rig out of the area . The May deployment of the CNPC rig sparked international concerns over China’s claims to regional maritime territory. The U.S. government said it had no stance on territorial jurisdiction, but viewed Chinese actions as provocative. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the government welcomed the announcement the rig had left controversial waters . "The oil rig incident has highlighted the need for claimants to clarify their claims in accordance with international law to reach a shared understanding on appropriate behavior and activities in disputed areas," she told reporters during […]

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Oil and natural gas resource categories reflect varying degrees of certainty

. The graphic shown above is applicable only to oil and natural gas resources. Crude oil and natural gas resources are the estimated oil and natural gas volumes that might be produced at some time in the future. The volumes of oil and natural gas that ultimately will be produced cannot be known ahead of time. Resource estimates change as extraction technologies improve, as markets evolve, and as oil and natural gas are produced. Consequently, the oil and gas industry, researchers, and government agencies spend considerable time and effort defining and quantifying oil and natural gas resources. For many purposes, oil and natural gas resources are usefully classified into four categories: Remaining oil and […]

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Natural Gas Weekly Update

Tight oil drilling lifts associated natural gas production While the number of natural gas-directed drilling rigs is particularly low right now, gas production continues rising, and is currently up 5% year-over-year. One key reason for the gas production boost is the significant increase in natural gas reserves and production associated with tight oil drilling and production. As noted in the Natural Gas Weekly Update of June 25, production of associated gas has been growing in those areas of the country where tight oil production has also been growing because tight oil production requires the presence of natural gas to drive liquids to the wellbore. The importance of tight oil drilling and production on natural gas supply is further illustrated by the 103% increase in Lower 48 natural gas reserves associated with oil, which increased from 21.9 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) at year-end 2007 to 44.5 Tcf at year-end 2012. […]

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U.S. Oil Export Ban Seen Weakening Rather Than Dying

The four-decade-old ban on most crude exports from the U.S., now the world’s largest producer, will be weakened bit by bit as government rulings allow exceptions, say energy analysts including IHS Inc. The Commerce Department’s permission for Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD) and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) to ship abroad ultra-light oil known as condensate foreshadows a chain of incremental actions that will chip away at the restriction until it’s obsolete. As much as 1.2 million barrels a day may be freed for export on the recent rulings alone. The ban was passed by Congress in 1975 in response to the Arab oil embargo that cut global supplies, quadrupled crude prices and created gasoline shortages in the U.S. at a time when the country’s own crude production was shrinking. Now that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are unleashing record volumes of light oil from U.S. shale formations and […]

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API: US petroleum demand up in June, second quarter

Total US petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, rose 1.5% in June vs. a year ago to average just above 19 million b/d, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s most recent Monthly Statistics Report . For the second quarter, petroleum demand increased 1.5% compared with the same period last year. “A wide range of measures show continued strength in petroleum demand and domestic supply last month, with imports around 20-year lows,” said API Chief Economist John Felmy. “Increased US production in recent years has provided an almost barrel-for-barrel counterweight to various disruptions in global supply from overseas.” Gasoline demand last month gained 4% from June 2013 to average 9.3 million b/d while distillate deliveries increased by 3% to average 3.8 million b/d. Jet fuel demand also increased by 8.4% over the same period, while demand for “other oils” fell by 5.5%. Residual fuel deliveries fell by 10.9%, marking […]

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Peak Petroleum Engineer? Or Still Time To Join The Boom?

Petroleum engineers are among the best paid professionals in the United States. Only chief executives and some specialist doctors earned more last year, according to federal government pay data. Petroleum engineers were paid an average of $132,000 a year, with the top 10 percent on more than $187,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These figures include everyone from the newest graduates to the most experienced engineers with decades of experience, and are based on median earnings in May 2013. Petroleum engineers earned almost four times as much as the average employee across the economy, who was on just $35,000 a year. Oil and gas specialists in all fields have benefited from the shale boom and the broader energy revolution sweeping the United States and Canada in […]

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Obama’s latest sanctions against Russia include oil, gas firms

In response to continued unrest in Ukraine, US President Barack Obama has announced new sanctions against Russia that include—for the first time—operations of Russian state-owned energy firms. “On top of the sanctions we have already imposed, we are designating selected sectors of the Russian economy as eligible for sanctions,” he told reporters at the White House on July 16. “We are freezing the assets of several Russian defense companies. And we are blocking new financing of some of Russia’s most important banks and energy companies. “These sanctions are significant, but they are also targeted—designed to have the maximum impact on Russia while limiting any spillover effects on American companies or those of our allies,” Obama said. Targeted firms include oil producer Rosneft ; Gazprombank , which is affiliated with its leading state-owned natural gas firm; Novatek , the country’s biggest independent gas producer; and Vnesheconomicbank (VEB), which promotes […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple