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Energy Department says gas prices should fall after Labor Day

The Energy Information Administration, which crunches numbers for the Energy Department, said a decline in the price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was the main driver behind lower gasoline prices in the United States. Oil prices account for more than half of the price at the pump. Brent as of Monday was priced at $100.49 per barrel, up about $1 from the previous week. For Thursday, Brent was priced at $102.72. Nationally, motor club AAA said the price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.43 per gallon, two cents lower than Monday. EIA said Monday’s price was the lowest price on the Monday before Labor Day in four years. Looking ahead, EIA said the monthly average price per gallon is expected to keep falling through the end of the year to reach $3.30 by December. "Gasoline prices often fall after Labor Day as seasonal demand wanes and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Texas reviews seismic link to fracking

A Texas energy regulator said it was reviewing industry practices for hydraulic fracturing brought into question after a series of seismic events in the state. The city of Azle, which lies in the area of the Barnett shale natural gas field, has reported nearly two dozen tremors since November. A regional profile from the U.S. Geological Survey says so-called induced earthquakes , those caused by injecting fluid underground for the purpose of extracting oil or natural, may be at play in parts of Texas. Ramona Nye, a spokeswoman for the Texas Railroad Commission, told energy news website Rigzone the agency was serving as the facilitator in talks between those in the industry and researchers from Southern Methodist University. "[They] are the ones directly investigating whether there is a link between North Texas Azle area oil and gas disposal wells and seismic events in that area," she said Wednesday. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Energy Industry Will Flourish in Independent Scotland, Says Minister

The role and future of oilfields off Scotland and their revenue streams have been a source of debate in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum. BP ETAP (Eastern Trough Area Project) oil platform in the North Sea, pictured here in February, is around 100 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images ABERDEEN, Scotland—Scotland votes next month on whether to split from the U.K., and Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing is trying to reassure oil companies that the country’s large energy industry will flourish after independence. "Our (energy) policy has been primarily designed by industry," Mr. Ewing said in a recent interview, promising that won’t change in an independent Scotland. Britain’s oil and natural-gas reserves, much of them off Scottish shores in the North Sea, have become a particularly fraught flash point in the debate over independence, which culminates in a Sept. 18 referendum. Recent polling suggests Scots […]

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Rail deliveries of U.S. oil continue to increase in 2014

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Association of American Railroads Note: Values in graph represent monthly averages of weekly rail carloadings. The amount of crude oil and refined petroleum products moved by U.S. railroads increased 9% during the first seven months of this year compared with the same period in 2013. In July, monthly average carloadings of oil and petroleum products were near 16,000 carloads per week, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR). The increase in oil volumes transported by rail reflects rising U.S. crude oil production, which reached an estimated 8.5 million barrels per day in June for the first time since July 1986. AAR estimates that more than half of the nearly 460,000 carloads tracked in its petroleum and petroleum products category from January through July consisted of crude oil, up from around 3% in 2009. With the average rail tank car holding around […]

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BP confirms fire at Whiting refinery

HOUSTON, Aug. 28 08/28/2014 An overnight fire at BP PLC’s 413,000-b/d refinery in Whiting, Ind., has resulted in only minimal interruptions to operations at the site, the company said. The fire, which broke out at about 9:00 p.m. on Aug. 27 following an “operational incident” at an unidentified process unit on the north end of the complex, was extinguished at 10:55 p.m. by the refinery’s in-house fire department, BP said. No serious injuries have been reported as a result of the incident, and an employee that was taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure has since been released, the company said. The incident has minimally impacted operations at the Whiting complex, and production of petroleum products at the refinery remains ongoing, said BP. Details regarding the precise nature of the operational incident that caused the fire or the exact unit involved were not disclosed. Last year, BP […]

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Crisis deepens as Ukraine says Russian troops back rebel advance

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday that Russian forces had entered his country and the military conflict was worsening after Russian-backed separatists swept into a key town in the east. Poroshenko said he was cancelling a visit to Turkey and conferring with defense chiefs because of the "rapidly deteriorating situation" in the eastern Donetsk region, "as Russian troops have actually been brought into Ukraine". A NATO military officer said: "We assess well over 1,000 Russian troops are now operating inside Ukraine… They are supporting separatists (and) fighting with them." Russia says it has no involvement in the conflict between pro-Moscow rebels and the Ukrainian military, in which more than 2,200 people have been killed since April. It denies sending in weapons or troops, despite the capture of 11 soldiers inside Ukraine this week who Moscow said had probably crossed the border by accident. Russia’s envoy […]

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Ukraine Accuses Russia of Invasion

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russian forces had entered Ukraine and seized the coastal town of Novoazovsk, putting a diplomatic response to the crisis in doubt. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Ukraine on Thursday accused Russia of invading the country, dashing hopes of progress toward a diplomatic resolution and challenging the West to respond. A senior official of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said that more than 1,000 Russian troops were fighting alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, by far the largest such force ever reported by the Western alliance. But he stopped short of calling it an invasion, saying it represented an "incursion" apparently aimed at preventing Kiev’s forces from defeating pro-Russian rebels, rather than a broader assault on Ukraine. Kiev said Russian forces have seized the coastal town of Novoazovsk and several villages near the border with Russia. Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko called an emergency meeting with his […]

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EU to Broach Interim Russia-Ukraine Gas Deal in Meeting Friday

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s energy chief will be on a mission to broker a truce in the long-running natural-gas feud between Russia and Ukraine, and avert gas shortages in Europe this winter when he travels to Moscow Friday. After more than two months of gridlock, Günther Oettinger will discuss a possible interim deal with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak ahead of three-way talks as early as next week. The talks coincide with a sharp escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. On Thursday, Ukraine accused Russia of invading the country, saying Russian troops seized the coastal town of Novoazovsk and other villages along the border. During his visit, Mr. Oettinger will warn that the "worsening of the situation is counterproductive to a solution of the gas talks and could potentially harm long-term energy relations with the Russian Federation. These talks are of common interest for all sides, also for […]

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US Energy Boom Better Than Sanctions Against Russia

Hess To Form MLP For North Dakota Oil, Gas Transport Assets This opinion piece presents the opinions of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Rigzone. U.S. oil production is surging, and it’s helping to cripple the Russian economy. It’s a win-win situation With 40 percent of the Russian economy hinging on oil and gas sales, America’s oil and gas boom is doing more to bring President Vladimir Putin to his knees than any of the sanctions being imposed by the U.S. and Europe. Competition in the form of increased U.S. energy exports is the last thing Putin wants to see, so that’s exactly what we should do. Russia is currently the third-largest oil producer and the top exporter of natural gas, and you better believe that Putin uses these advantages to push his agenda regionally and globally. Russia needs oil prices to stay above $110 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Futures Slightly Lower in Subdued Trading

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures fell slightly in Asia Thursday as trading remained subdued in a well-supplied market. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $93.57 a barrel at 0523 GMT, down $0.31 in the Globex electronic session. October Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.13 to $102.59 a barrel. Nymex crude-oil prices didn’t react much to data that showed U.S. oil stocks fell 2.1 million barrels to 360.5 million barrels–the lowest level since Jan. 31–in the week ended Aug. 22. "A crude stock decline was driven by continuing high refinery operations," BNP Paribas said in a report. However, crude stocks at the Nymex delivery point of Cushing, Okla., rose for a fourth successive week, by 500,000 barrels. "Record-setting liquid fuels production growth in the United States has more than offset the growth of unplanned global supply disruptions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple