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Iran-Iraq gas pipeline completed

Iranian natural gas is reaching an Iraqi power plant though a now-completed cross-border pipeline, an Iraqi official said. Alireza Gharibi, managing director of the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Co., said last month water was sent through a 60-mile pipeline crossing the Iranian border into Iraq as part of an initial testing process. An Iraqi official told Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency on condition of anonymity the pipeline was now feeding gas across the border to a gas-fed power plant in Diyala province. "Iran’s gas will be fed into al-Mansurya power plant once the pre-startup tests on the pipeline (built to transport natural gas to Iraq) are complete," the source said Sunday. The pipeline is designed to export 176 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from Iran’s offshore South Pars field. Iraq, for its part, has struggled to ensure around-the-clock electricity despite its vast natural resource wealth. […]

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Oil companies bring staff back to Iraq

British energy company Genel Energy said Monday it started returning staff to the Kurdish north of Iraq following improvements in the security situation. "Genel’s primary consideration is the safety and wellbeing of our employees," the company said in a statement. "The decision to resume full operations has been made following a close monitoring of the situation, and in consultation with the Kurdistan Regional Government, Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government, and other well-placed authorities." As U.S. airstrikes targeting terrorists with the Islamic State got under way in August, the company said it was taking the "prudent and precautionary step" of pulling non-essential staff from the Kurdish north. The company said operations at the Taq Taq and Tawke oil fields in the Kurdish region of Iraq were safe and secure . Production from the two fields is unaffected by the violence and combined production is on a record […]

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Iraq files claim against Greek oil shipper

The Iraqi Oil Ministry said it started legal proceedings in a Greek court against Marine Management Services, which operates five vessels, including United Kalavrvta, en route to a port in Galveston, Texas. "Marine Management Services is liable for damages of at least $318 million, and possibly significantly more, as a result of its willing and active participation in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s illegal crude oil export scheme," the ministry said. The Iraqi and semiautonomous Kurdish governments have been involved in tit-for-tat legal proceedings in U.S. courts over the 1 million barrels of oil loaded onto United Kalavrvta. The U.S. government said the destination of crude oil is a commercial matter, but sided with Baghdad’s claims that it’s the sole entity in charge of oil exports. Both Iraqi governments make competing claims over the legality of exports . Baghdad accused Marine Management Services of turning off ship transponders to avoid […]

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Iraqi parliament approves new government headed by Haider al-Abadi

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi parliament approved a new government headed by Haider Abadi as prime minister on Monday night. No interior or defense minister was named but Abadi pledged to do so within a week. Adel Abdel Mehdi from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq was named oil minister while Ibrahim Jafaari, a former premier, was named foreign minister. His deputy prime ministers were named as Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd and Iraq’s only post-Saddam Hussein foreign minister, and Saleh Mutlaq, a secular Sunni Muslim who served in the same position in the last government. The parliament approved for the ceremonial posts of vice presidents the last prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, former premier Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi’ite, and the last parliament speaker Usama al-Nujaifi. The three have been seen as political rivals. Abadi, like Maliki from the Shi’ite Islamist Dawa party, pledged to mend Baghdad’s relations with Iraqi […]

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EU official: gap with Iran over nuclear program can be narrowed

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Iran is far apart from the six world powers negotiating with it over scaling back its nuclear program, but that gap could be narrowed in talks next week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Monday. Iran and the powers failed to meet a July 20 target date for an agreement and are due to hold their first negotiating round since then in New York on Sept. 18. The deadline for a deal has been extended to Nov. 24. "My hope is that we will make progress. … We believe although we are far apart, there is the possibility of being able to narrow the gap," Catherine Ashton told reporters in Ottawa when asked about her expectations for the New York round. "But we are determined in so doing to do it fully aware that the world is watching and expecting that any agreement must […]

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Anadarko’s Mozambique Project Shows Appetite for Natural Gas

Anadarko has cleared this portion of forest near Mocimboa da Praia, Mozambique, as part of preparations for a new onshore drilling site. Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal Few roads lead to this fishing village on the eastern shores of Africa. Drinking water and electricity are in short supply. Hazards include venomous snakes, malaria-bearing mosquitoes and gun-toting antigovernment rebels. But this is where Anadarko Petroleum wants to build one of the biggest projects ever attempted by a Western energy company. It has pledged to install acres of air-conditioned housing, an airstrip and a port—and to relocate almost 3,000 villagers currently living in mud huts. The search for oil has drawn companies to remote locations throughout the petroleum industry’s history. But Anadarko isn’t here for black gold. The American company is after something more abundant, albeit less lucrative: natural gas located about 30 miles offshore. There is more than […]

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China saving billions on low oil prices

The Chinese government said Monday it could save as much as $5 billion per month on import bills in part because of falling crude oil prices. Global crude oil prices are shrugging off geopolitical concerns in the Middle East and Eastern Europe as few supply problems have been associated with the turmoil. The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was down 1 percent to around $100.8 per barrel as of Monday morning. Lu Ting, a Chinese analyst of Bank of America Merril Lynch, told the official Xinhua News Agency there was a general sense of malaise across most sectors of a Chinese economy showing signs of a slowdown. "One of the rare positive effects of slowing investment growth is declining commodity prices," he said. With the Chinese economy still outpacing most others, Lu said China could save as much as $5 billion per month on its import […]

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The EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report

The Eia’s latest Drilling Productivity Report  is out. However they have only updated the PDF file. The spreadsheets have not been updated and still have last month’s data. But I will give you what the PDF file shows and perhaps add some charts tomorrow if they get around to updating the Excel spreadsheets. The EIA says Bakken new wells will produce 100,000 bpd in October but all the old wells will decline by 73,000 bpd and leave a net increase of 27,000 bpd. If these numbers are correct and September production was 1,152,000 bpd then that means the monthly decline rate is 6.33%. The EIA says Eagle Ford new wells will produce 154,000 bpd in October but all the old wells will decline by 123,000 bpd and leave a net increase of 31,000 bpd. If these numbers are correct and September production was 1,551,000 bpd then that means the […]

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Power Plants Heading Out to Sea in Post-Fukushima Japan

One of the biggest hurdles to building new power plants in Japan is finding a place that’s safe from earthquakes and tsunamis. That place may turn out to be 30 miles at sea. Sevan Marine ASA (SEVAN) , a Norwegian builder of offshore oil-drilling vessels, is proposing a $1.5 billion natural gas-fired power plant that will float on a cylindrical platform bigger than a football field moored off the Japanese coast. It’s one of several innovative efforts Japan is considering for generating electricity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 prompted widespread public concern over how the country will produce electricity — and where. Already, plans are being made to dot the coast off Fukushima with some of the largest floating wind turbines in the world. “We are now focusing on mainly floating offshore wind, but we want to push various types of technical development and research” for floating […]

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CO2 levels in atmosphere rising at dramatically faster rate, U.N. report warns

Greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2013, a U.N. report says, in part because of rising emissions from automobiles and smokestacks. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images) Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose at a record-shattering pace last year, a new report shows, a surge that surprised scientists and spurred fears of an accelerated warming of the planet in decades to come. Concentrations of nearly all the major greenhouse gases reached historic highs in 2013, reflecting ever-rising emissions from automobiles and smokestacks but also, scientists believe, a diminishing ability of the world’s oceans and plant life to soak up the excess carbon put into the atmosphere by humans, according to data released early Tuesday by the United Nations’ meteorological advisory body. The latest figures from the World Meteorological Organization’s monitoring network are considered particularly significant because they reflect not only the amount of carbon pumped into the air by […]

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California Replaces Oil by Rail From Canada With Domestic

California , the nation’s largest gasoline market, has cut its oil-by-rail volumes from Canada by 86 percent this year while buying more crude made in America. The most populous U.S. state received 3,142 barrels a day by rail from Canada in July, down from 6,669 in June and a peak of 22,871 in December, California Energy Commission data show. Meanwhile, it more than doubled the oil delivered by rail from Colorado , took a record amount from Utah and brought in more barrels from New Mexico and North Dakota. The oil-by-rail shipments have surged to a seasonal record as the state’s refiners, lacking direct pipeline access, turn to trains to bring in production from U.S. shale formations. The boom has boosted domestic output to the highest level in 28 years, bringing the nation closer to energy independence. “In the California scheme of things, the change in Canadian rail volumes […]

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Punitive regulations would harm Pennsylvania, PIOGA president says

WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 8 09/08/2014 A severance tax and other election-year proposals potentially could dismantle Pennsylvania’s unprecedented natural gas production growth, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association’s president warned. “From severance tax proposals of 5-10% to legislation to retroactively impose a $3 million/well ‘fee’ for every well that has been drilled on state forest land, it appears that some elected officials want to scrap the effective policies and regulations that have allowed Pennsylvania to become the second-largest natural gas producer in the US in 5 short years,” PIOGA Pres. Louis D. D’Amico said on Sept. 4. The proposals have come from Keystone State politicians from 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Tom Wolf to members of the state’s General Assembly from both parties, he said. “With natural gas production at an all-time high, a reasonable 5% severance tax would generate over $1 billion in 2015,” Wolf said in a Sept. […]

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Shell Turns On Taps at Cardamom Field in Gulf of Mexico

Hess To Form MLP For North Dakota Oil, Gas Transport Assets Production is now underway from the Cardamom development, the second major deep-water facility Shell has brought online in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico this year, following the start-up of Mars B in February. Oil from the Cardamom subsea development (100-percent Shell) is piped through Shell’s Auger platform. When at full production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boepd), Auger’s total production capacity will increase to approximately130,000 boepd. "Cardamom is a high-value addition to Shell’s production at the Auger platform and is another example of our excellence in deep-water project delivery," said Marvin Odum, Shell Upstream Americas director. "The work to extend the production life of our first deep-water, tension-leg platform is impressive and involved advanced exploration and development technology.  Our additional opportunities in deep water mean that this will remain an important, high-return growth area for […]

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Canadian rail struggles to keep up with grain, oil transport

The statistics of 2013 speak for themselves — record grain output in the Canadian Prairies of 76 million mt and record crude-by-rail (CBR) loadings from neighboring Alberta and Saskatchewan of 250,000 b/d. And with Canadian oil sands production continuing to rise, there’s a growing concern over the possibility of a standoff between the grain and oil industries for rail space and locomotives. Adding to that concern is the fact that last year neither the number of grain hoppers nor the tank cars being hauled by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway increased significantly to keep pace with the unprecedented demand to move both commodities from interior regions to consuming markets. But while there are no new hoppers to be delivered over the short term, the order books of tank car manufacturers are bulging with 40,000 additional cars due to be delivered by late 2015 to carry more crude from […]

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EU adopts new Russia sanctions but delays action

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Monday shied away from slapping new economic sanctions on Russia right away over its actions in eastern Ukraine. Instead, the 28-nation bloc said the punitive measures will come into force "in the next few days" depending on how well the cease-fire agreement in eastern Ukraine will be upheld. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement delaying the sanctions would leave time for "an assessment of the implementation of the cease-fire agreement and the peace plan." "Depending on the situation on the ground, the EU stands ready to review the agreed sanctions in whole or in part," Van Rompuy said. Ukraine, Russia and the Kremlin-backed separatists agreed Friday to an immediate cease-fire and an exchange of prisoners. While the truce appeared to hold on Monday, the agreement seemed fragile over the weekend when occasional fighting occurred. The EU sanctions are […]

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Kremlin comes to rescue of Rosneft

| License Photo The Kremlin has a vested interest in ensuring sanctions-strapped oil company Rosneft can maintain operations, the Russian prime minister said Monday. Western governments have enacted sanctions on Russia’s energy and defense sectors in response to crises simmering on the Ukrainian border with Russia. When Russian oil company Rosneft was targeted, Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin , himself sanctioned, he said the company’s strategy was affected. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told Russian business daily Vedemosti it was incumbent upon the government to prop up Rosneft with more than $40 billion from a national welfare fund. "The company needs to keep up production, since Rosneft is a major contributor to the budget," he said. "In this regard, we have to help them by maintaining the investment level." Sechin in July said the government-controlled oil company was operating under difficult conditions because of the sanctions, but added he […]

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Russia Sees Oil Output Edging Down In 2015

Hess To Form MLP For North Dakota Oil, Gas Transport Assets MOSCOW, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Russian oil production, a major source of government revenue, may decline slightly next year, having risen steadily since 2009, the Energy Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said oil production in 2015 was seen at 525 million tonnes (10.54 million barrels per day) compared to an expected 525.3 million tonnes this year. Last year’s oil output, which generates 40 percent of state revenues, stood at 523.3 million tonnes, a post-Soviet high. Output declined by 0.6 percent in 2008 because of a global financial crisis, but has risen steadily since 2009 thanks to the introduction of a more favourable tax regime and other fiscal measures. With Russia’s $2 trillion economy heavily dependent on crude exports and on the brink of recession, oil production and prices are closely monitored by the Kremlin. The government is […]

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Why Peak Oil Refuses To Die

By | Sun, 07 September 2014 00:00 | Perhaps you’ve seen one of the recent barrage of articles claiming that fears of an imminent peak and decline in world oil production have either been dispelled (because we actually have plenty of oil) or are misplaced (because climate change is the only environmental problem we should be concerned with). I’m not buying either argument. Why? Let’s start with the common assertion that oil supplies are sufficiently abundant so that a peak in production is many years or decades away. Everyone agrees that planet Earth still holds plenty of petroleum or petroleum-like resources: that’s the kernel of truth at the heart of most attempted peak-oil debunkery. However, extracting and delivering those resources at an affordable price is becoming a bigger challenge year by year. For the oil industry, costs of production have rocketed; they’re currently soaring at a rate of about […]

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BP Gets Support From U.K. Government in U.S. Lawsuit Over Spill

BP Plc (BP/) got support from the U.K. government in its U.S. court fight over the level of compensation required under a settlement of lawsuits stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The U.K. told U.S. Supreme Court judges in a filing that decisions to authorize payments to people who were not injured by the spill raises “grave international comity concerns by undermining confidence in the vigorous and fair resolution of disputes.” The filing shows the government’s interest in the treatment of one of the country’s most prominent companies. BP, the second-largest British oil producer, is seeking a ruling from the U.S.’s top court after failing to persuade a Louisiana district judge and an appeals court to limit payments under a 2012 settlement to compensate victims of the spill. BP says payments are unfairly being to made to claimants whose businesses couldn’t have been affected by the […]

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Brown pledges ‘Burns Night declaration’ for Scotland

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – SEPTEMBER 08: A Yes campaign placard is placed in a window in the Grassmarket on September 8, 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Better Together campaign has denied plans to set out a timetable for giving more powers to Scotland were a sign of panic. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Scots were promised “modern home rule within the United Kingdom” on a breakneck timetable on Monday if they rejected independence next week, as a new poll confirmed that support for separation was growing. Gordon Brown , former Labour prime minister, was given the task of trying to halt the independence bandwagon , promising a “Burns Night declaration” on new powers on tax and spending for the Scottish parliament by January. More On this story On this topic IN UK Politics & Policy The promise of new powers for Holyrood came as a TNS poll put the […]

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Poll shows Scottish independence vote too close to call as London offers more powers

EDINBURGH (Reuters) – The rival campaigns in Scotland’s fight over independence are running neck-and-neck nine days before the referendum, with a surge in support for those who wish to break away from the United Kingdom, a TNS poll showed on Tuesday. The number of people saying they would vote "No" to independence had dropped to 39 percent, down from 45 percent a month ago. "Yes" support was slightly behind at 38 percent but had gained ground from 32 percent a month ago. "This poll reveals a remarkable shift in voting intentions," said Tom Costley, head of TNS Scotland. "It is too close to call and both sides will now be energized to make the most of the last few days of the campaign and try and persuade the undecided voters of the merits of their respective campaigns." The poll follows one in a Sunday newspaper that put the pro-independence […]

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Norway Losing Out to Sweden in $6 Billion Wind-Power Boom

Divergent tax policies mean Norway risks missing out on most of a $6 billion wind-power boom while neighboring Sweden benefits. Norway, which aims to triple wind capacity by the end of the decade, has erected one turbine for every seven installed in Sweden since the countries signed a pact to share renewable production two years ago. Norway, western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer, has so far installed less than 10 percent of what it’s expected to complete by 2020 under the accord. The countries’ mismatched tax rules threaten to deny Norway investment in an industry where jobs will triple by 2030, according to the European Wind Energy Association in Brussels. While Statkraft AS, Norway’s state-owned power company, didn’t build any wind projects in its home country in the eight years through 2013, it spent as much as 7.5 billion kroner ($1.2 billion) on turbines in Sweden. “Changes must […]

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Brent Crude Falls Below $100 For First Time in 14 Months

Brent crude fell below $100 a barrel for the first time since June 2013, amid a slowdown for imports into China , the world’s second-biggest oil consumer. The global benchmark slipped as much as 0.8 percent in London to $99.99 a barrel in London. The last time it traded below $100 was June 24, 2013. China’s purchases declined 2.4 percent in August, compared with a 1.6 percent drop in July, data from Beijing-based customs administration show. Exports rose by 9.4 percent. West Texas Intermediate dropped to a four-day low. “Demand fears will take some time to dissipate,” Andrey Kryuchenkov , an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said by e-mail. “China’s slowing imports this morning did not help lift these concerns. The Atlantic basin supply glut is still in place.” Brent for October settlement traded 72 cents lower at $100.10 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange […]

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Big Oil Firms Drive Subsea Exploration

Ezra Holdings chief executive and managing director Lionel Lee Ezra Holdings When an energy company wants to produce oil or gas in a remote undersea location, companies like Singapore-headquartered Ezra Holdings provide the logistics and ships to support the operations, often in harsh climates and rough seas. Spending on deep-water exploration has been strong in the past few years on the back of high oil prices and strong demand. Revenues have ballooned at Ezra’s subsea business, where it competes with companies like Paris-listed Technip SA and Norway’s Subsea 7 SA . The subsea segment, which installs equipment like oil pipelines on the seabed, generated over 70% of Ezra’s US$1.3 billion in revenue last year. The subsea business was the brainchild of Ezra’s chief executive and managing director, Lionel Lee, 40 years old, whose father founded the company in 1992 as an offshore-services firm. The younger Mr. Lee joined Ezra […]

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Iran-Iraq Gas Pipeline Complete

"Iran’s gas will be fed into Al-Mansoureh power plant once the pre-startup tests on the pipeline (built to transport natural gas to Iraq) are complete," an informed Iraqi source, who asked to remain unnamed, told FNA on Saturday. He said the supply of Iranian gas supplies should have already started, and explained that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist operations have caused the delay. "We will be able to receive Iran’s gas more safely due to the efforts of the (Iraqi) armed forces to get rid of the ISIL," he added. Iran has agreed to export 25 million cubic meters (mcm) per day of gas to Iraq. The 270-kilometer pipeline stretches from the village of Charmaleh, located in Iran’s Western province of Kermanshah, into the town of Naft Shahr on the border with Iraq. The pipeline, which is estimated to earn Iran USD 3.7 billion […]

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Qatar’s Support of Extremists Alienates Allies Near and Far

CAIRO — Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. “Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad, not aid,” implored the sheikh, Hajaj al-Ajmi, recently identified by the United States government as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. Qatar is a tiny, petroleum-rich Persian Gulf monarchy where the United States has its largest military base in the Middle East. But for years it has tacitly consented to open fund-raising by Sheikh Ajmi and others like him. After his pitch, which he recorded in 2012 and which still circulates on the Internet, a sportscaster from the government-owned network, Al Jazeera, lauded him. “Sheikh Ajmi knows best” about helping Syrians, the […]

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Genel Energy Returns Workers to Kurdistan on Improved Security

Genel Energy Plc (GENL) , the largest oil producer in Iraqi Kurdistan, is returning workers to the region’s fields after security improved. “The decision to resume full operations has been made following a close monitoring of the situation,” the London-based company said today in a statement. Genel, which removed inessential personnel from non-producing assets in August, said output wasn’t affected and it had been pumping about 234,000 barrels of oil a day from its fields. The U.S. expanded its air strikes against Islamic State militants, while President Barack Obama plans to rally Sunni Arab states to help him defeat the insurgents. Kurdistan explorers including Oryx Petroleum Corp. and ShaMaran Petroleum Corp. have also resumed operations in the region To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at [email protected] Tony Barrett

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Destroying ISIS May Take Years, U.S. Officials Say

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials. The first phase, an air campaign with nearly 145 airstrikes in the past month, is already underway to protect ethnic and religious minorities and American diplomatic, intelligence and military personnel, and their facilities, as well as to begin rolling back ISIS gains in northern and western Iraq . The next phase, which would begin sometime after Iraq forms a more inclusive government, scheduled this week, is expected to involve an intensified effort to train, advise or equip the Iraqi military, Kurdish fighters and possibly members of Sunni tribes. The final, toughest and most politically controversial phase of the operation — destroying the terrorist […]

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Israel Steals Gaza’s Offshore Natural Gas

While Gazans suffer from daily power shutdowns, Israel is signing an important deal to sell gas to Jordan, gas which, researchers say, was stolen from Palestinians. In addition to confiscating Palestine’s energy resources, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only power station in its latest military offensive. Photo: “Gaza electricity; ‘enemy of the (Jewish) state’” wrote the Middle East Online during the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead. While Gazans suffer from daily power shutdowns, Israel is signing an important deal to sell gas to Jordan, gas which, researchers say, was stolen from Palestinians. In addition to confiscating Palestine’s energy resources, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only power station in its latest military offensive. On July 29, 2014, RT reported: Over a million people in Gaza could be without electricity after Israeli tank shells hit the fuel depot of the enclave’s only power station, causing it to shut down. Its director, Mohammed al-Sharif, said, […]

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Nigeria: Oil Theft – Messy Blame Game Continues As Nation Bleeds

Nigeria’s public treasury has continued to bleed as stakeholders trade blame over who is stealing oil in the country and what quantity is actually stolen. Oilprice.com, an online publication, reported last year that Nigeria was losing an estimated 400,000 barrels per day, citing figures attributed to Nigeria’s coordinating minister for the economy and finance minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The large volume of oil allegedly stolen on a daily basis last year was equivalent to a revenue loss of about $1.7 billion a month and $20.4 billion annually. This earned Africa’s largest economy the No. 1 position among countries most plagued by oil theft in the world ahead of Mexico, Iraq, Russia, and Indonesia. The amount lost by Nigeria annually was reported to be more than the country spent on education and healthcare combined. According to data provided by the chief of naval staff last week, daily oil theft in […]

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Egypt’s power outages continue to intensify

A huge power outage caused black-outs across Cairo on Thursday causing major disruption across the city of some 20 million people at the height of the morning rush hour. Services were completely suspended on one of the city’s three metro lines and heavily disrupted on a second, the state MENA news agency reported. The electricity outage brought subway services in Cairo to a complete halt, inconveniencing the roughly 3.5 million Egyptians who use it every day. Water supplies to households and businesses were also disrupted, while the power outage also affected numerous state institutions including state television channels and radio stations which could not air without electricity to run their facilities. Energy ministry spokesman Mohamed al-Yamani said that "power is gradually being restored" after a fault cut supply to "some Cairo neighbourhoods". But two hours later, the whole of the city centre and several outlying districts were still without […]

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India Minister Says Country Not on Verge of Electricity Crisis

NEW DELHI—India’s power minister said Sunday that the country isn’t on the verge of an electricity crisis even though many of its power plants are running low on coal.  Piyush Goyal —who concurrently heads the ministries for power, coal and renewable energy—told reporters Sunday that power plants are facing coal shortages because they are producing more electricity to make up for shortfalls in the yearly monsoon rains, which have crimped generation by hydroelectric power plants.  Generation by coal-powered stations between June and August was around 21% higher than in the same period last year, Mr. Goyal said. But domestic coal production and imports haven’t kept up , which has forced plants to use up their inventories. "You will appreciate that when you produce 20% more power whereas your supply has gone up by only 5% or 6%, the stocks are bound to fall," he said.  He said that stronger rains […]

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China is net exporter of oil products in August, fourth time in 2014

China’s crude oil imports in August recovered to 25.19 million mt or an average 5.96 million b/d, surging 17.5% year on year, according to preliminary data released Monday, September 8, by the country’s General Administration of Customs. The volume was 6% higher than the July volume of 5.62 million b/d, which had been the first year-on-year contraction in crude imports since October 2013. China resumed crude exports last month after a five-month hiatus since March, shipping out 110,000 mt, although this was a 47.6% slide from August 2013. This brought the country’s net crude imports in August to 25.08 million mt, or 5.93 million b/d, up 18.2% year on year. Article continues below… Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily futures […]

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China Oil Data Show August Crude Imports Rise to 25.19 Mln Tons

By Wayne Ma China imported 25.19 million metric tons of crude oil in August, equivalent to 5.96 million barrels a day, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Monday. Imports were 17.5% higher than the 21.43 million tons of crude shipped in during the corresponding month last year, and up around 6.0% from 23.76 million tons in July, according to Wall Street Journal calculations. Refined oil product imports totaled 2.53 million tons, while exports totaled 2.73 million tons, the data showed. China exported 110,000 tons of crude oil in August, according to the preliminary data. Write to Wayne Ma at [email protected]

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China’s Copper Imports Slow Due to Probe

An employee unloads copper at a factory in Nantong, Jiangsu province. Reuters China’s commodity imports in August mostly softened, led by a 12% decline in the volume of copper shipments from a year earlier due to the fallout from a government probe into metal financing at Chinese ports. Copper imports fell to 340,000 metric tons, according to customs data Monday. Chinese authorities earlier this year launched investigations into alleged fraud involving aluminum and copper stocks used as collateral for loans in China. Commodity-backed financing has fueled imports of copper in recent years, but this appears to be ebbing due to the investigations. “Banks became much more cautious” after the probe, said OCBC economist Xie Dongming. “They don’t want to give financing with that sort of collateral anymore.” There were other factors at play. Local copper processing mills that had shut down for maintenance or due to breakdowns restarted operations […]

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China’s August imports fall unexpectedly but exports buoyant

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s import growth unexpectedly fell for the second consecutive month in August, posting its worst performance in over a year and stoking speculation about whether authorities should loosen policy further to revive domestic demand. Imports by the world’s second-biggest economy fell 2.4 percent in August compared with a year ago, the General Administration of Customs said on Monday, missing a Reuters estimate for a 1.7 percent rise. It was the second straight month that China’s import growth was surprisingly weak, raising concerns that tepid domestic demand exacerbated by a cooling housing market is increasingly weighing on the economy. In contrast, China’s exports were surprisingly buoyant in August amid stronger global demand. They jumped 9.4 percent from a year earlier to beat a forecast rise of 8 percent, although the growth rate slowed from 14.5 percent in July. That pushed the trade surplus to an unexpected all-time […]

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Halcon’s Wilson Drills More Debt Than Oil in Shale Bet

Bloomberg Markets Magazine Floyd Wilson raps his fingertips against the polished conference table. He’s just been asked, for a second time, how he reacted when his Halcon Resources Corp. (HK) wrote off $1.2 billion last year after disappointing results in two key prospects. Wilson once told investors that the acreage might contain the equivalent of 1.2 billion barrels of oil. He fixes his interlocutor with a blue-eyed stare and leans forward. At 67, he bench-presses 250 pounds (110 kilograms) and looks it. Outside the expansive windows of his 67th-floor executive suite, downtown Houston steams in its July smog . He responds, unsmiling, with a one-syllable obscenity: “F—.” Wilson has reason to curse, Bloomberg Markets magazine will report in its October issue. On the wall behind him hang framed stock certificates of the four public energy companies he’s built in his 44-year career. The third, Petrohawk Energy Corp., discovered the […]

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In shadow of oil boom, North Dakota farmers fight contamination

North Dakota is in the midst of an oil boom. Farmers are coping with the environmental and financial costs of wastewater spills from the drilling. Dermot Tatlow / LAIF / Redux ANTLER, N.D. — Last summer, in a wet, remote section of farm country in Bottineau County, landowner Mike Artz and his two neighbors discovered that a ruptured pipeline was spewing contaminated wastewater into his crop fields. “We saw all this oil on the low area, and all this salt water spread out beyond it,” said his neighbor Larry Peterson, who works as a farmer and an oil-shale contractor. “The water ran out into the wetland.” It was August, and all across Artz’s farm the barley crop was just reaching maturity. But near the spill, the dead stalks had undeveloped kernels, which, the farmers knew, meant that the barley had been contaminated weeks earlier. Soon after, state testing of […]

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The West Without Water

The West Without Water Dr. B. Lynn Ingram is a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley, California. The primary goal of her research is to assess how climates and environments have changed over the past several thousand years based on the geochemical and sedimentologic analysis of aquatic sediments and archaeological deposits, with a particular focus on the US West. She is the co-author of “The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow” together with Dr. Frances Malamud-Roam, which received great reviews. In this interview, Dr. Ingram shares her thoughts on the current drought in the US Southwest within the larger climate record and potential implications for the future. E. Tavares: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us today. Your research focuses on long-range geoclimatic trends using a broad sample of historical records. In this […]

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As Polls Tighten, Britain Promises Scots More Self-Rule if They Reject Independence

LONDON — Shaken by polls showing momentum shifting toward independence for Scotland, the British government will offer proposals for greater political and fiscal autonomy for the Scots if they vote to remain within the United Kingdom in a referendum on Sept. 18, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said on Sunday. The narrowing polls have caused considerable anxiety among politicians and business leaders, driving down the value of the pound and raising questions among investors about the stability of the economy and the fate of the current British government. The vote, which could bring an end to the 307-year union between Scotland and England, is also regarded as important to the future of the British prime minister, David Cameron. As leader of what is still formally known as the Conservative and Unionist Party, Mr. Cameron, already facing internal divisions over Britain’s membership in the European Union, may not […]

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Supporters of Scottish independence take narrow poll lead for first time

LONDON (Reuters) – Supporters of Scottish independence from Britain have taken their first opinion poll lead since the referendum campaign began, indicating a real possibility that they might win, according to a YouGov survey for the Sunday Times newspaper. With less than two weeks to go before the Sept. 18 vote, the poll put the "Yes" to independence campaign on 51 percent against "no" camp on 49 percent, overturning a 22-point lead for the unionist campaign in just a month, the Sunday Times said. YouGov said that the results excluded those who would not vote and those who did not plan to vote or did not know how they would vote. With those groups included, secessionists would be on 47 percent and those championing the United Kingdom would be on 45 percent, it added. It said that the poll, conducted after pro-independence leader Alex Salmond was widely judged to […]

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EU Need for Russian Gas Via Ukraine Wanes as Stores Fill

Europe ’s reliance on Russian natural gas shipments via Ukraine is declining after the region pumped a record volume of the fuel into underground inventories, minimizing the risk of shortages during the coming winter. The blue line on the CHART OF THE DAY shows average daily flows at Velke Kapusany on the Slovakian-Ukrainian border, the biggest single entry point for Russian gas into the European Union, last month fell to a record, according to data from Slovak grid operator Eustream AS going back to 2011. The red histogram shows the 28-nation bloc has pumped a record volume of gas into storage, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, a lobby group in Brussels. Russia, which meets about 15 percent of Europe’s gas demand through Soviet-era pipelines across Ukraine, halted supplies to its neighbor on June 16 in a dispute over debt and prices, echoing similar spats in 2006 and 2009 that […]

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New EU Sanctions to Stop Fundraising by 3 Russian Oil Giants

A Rosneft logo at the company’s headquarters in Moscow. New sanctions from the European Union will expand the number of companies unable to raise money in the bloc’s capital markets. Bloomberg News BRUSSELS—New European Union sanctions on Russia will expand the number of Russian companies unable to raise money in the bloc’s capital markets to include three major state-owned oil companies, according to documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. Under a modest expansion of sanctions introduced in late July, the three oil companies— Gazpromneft , the oil-production and refining subsidiary of OAO Gazprom , oil transportation company Transneft , and oil giant Rosneft—will be forbidden from raising funds of longer than 30 days’ maturity. Five state-controlled banks, including Sberbank and VTB Bank , already barred from raising funds for longer than 90 days under the July sanctions, will also have the maximum maturity cut to 30 days. The […]

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Pound falls as poll puts nationalists ahead for first time this year

Sterling Chart Sterling fell to a 10-month low on Monday after the campaign for a Yes vote on Scottish independence took the lead in a poll that left the pro-union camp scrambling to head off a surge in support for a breakaway from Britain. Chancellor George Osborne on Sunday promised within days “a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland”, including more control over taxes, welfare spending and job creation if the country rejects independence on September 18. However, behind the scenes some senior Tories were preparing for possible defeat. More On this story On this topic IN UK Politics & Policy The pound was down 1 per cent against the dollar in early trading to $1.6163, its weakest level since last November. Sterling is 0.2 per cent weaker versus the euro, the single currency now able to buy 80.02p. UK government debt is underperforming peers, too, […]

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UK wades into BP fight over US payouts

PASCAGOULA, MS – JULY 1: Oil cleanup workers pick up oily globs as they remove residue washing ashore from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on July 1, 2010 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Millions of gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf since the April 20 explosion on the drilling platform. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Britain has for the first time waded in to BP ’s legal battle over payouts for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, saying US court rulings against the energy group raise “grave international comity concerns”. In a filing to the US Supreme Court, the UK government said BP had “gone to great lengths to restore the gulf coast”, but was being forced to pay large sums to individuals and businesses who were not affected by the spill. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas It warned that the […]

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Ukraine and Russia Face Gaps in a Truce and a Chasm on the Issues

MOSCOW — Scattered fighting threatened a shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as officials now confront a task even more formidable than maintaining the truce: fashioning some form of decentralized governance in the war-ravaged region that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will accept and that President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine can deliver without turning his country against him. But just two days after the truce was signed in Minsk, Belarus, calling for “decentralization of power” as the most important step after a halt to the violence, Yuri V. Lutsenko, an influential adviser to Mr. Poroshenko, published an article on Sunday denouncing the idea of creating a special autonomous zone in the east — which Russia has demanded — saying it would be “a cancerous tumor in the Ukrainian organism.” The article on the Ukrainska Pravda news site by Mr. Lutsenko, who is leading Mr. Poroshenko’s political […]

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A Stress Test for E.U. Energy Supplies

Political Economy Europe is conducting two stress tests. One is on its energy suppliers, to see how badly they would fare if flows of Russian natural gas were disrupted. The other is on eurozone banks to ensure they are strong enough to finance economic recovery. It is hard to know which of the two stress tests is more important. But it is clear that an effective system of energy security requires many of the same elements as financial stability. One is the need for credible stress tests. Europe flunked its original bank tests by modeling conditions that were not sufficiently stressful. The new test being conducted by the European Central Bank looks more credible. The European Union is only now conducting its first gas test. Member states submitted their results last month to the European Commission , which is now reviewing them before coming up with recommendations next month. […]

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On The Brink Of A Major Crisis: “This Will Be A Literal Collapse of the Entire Global Monetary System”

Discussions of the possible collapse of the U.S. dollar often center around how such an event will affect the domestic economy. But the dollar doesn’t just operate inside of a bubble. It is the world’s reserve currency for a reason. Some sixty-six countries world-wide either utilize it as their primary currency or peg their own currencies to its exchange rate. What this means, as noted by Future Money Trends in the micro documentary below, is that if and when the dollar does come under attack the fallout will be everywhere. The collapse will happen simultaneously and affect billions of people worldwide. This is 33% of the nations of the world all submitting their currency sovereignty to the US Federal Reserve. If and when the U.S. loses its currency status this will be a literal collapse of the entire global monetary system… A system that is built on lies, fraud and […]

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Oil’s Losing Streak Continues

Oil prices extended losses for a second day Friday as investors abandoned bullish positions amid mixed economic data, cooling tensions in Eastern Europe and perceptions that the world’s oil supply is more than adequate. Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $1.16, or 1.2%, to settle at $93.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices for the global Brent contract fell $1.01, or 1%, to $100.82 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Both contracts have been on a pronounced slide since mid-June as the geopolitical strife that stoked fears of supply disruptions earlier in the year has so far proved an unfounded threat, and supplies have mounted amid increasing production in the U.S., Libya, Iraq and elsewhere. There was little in the way of fundamental drivers for the market Friday, with no major news about supply-demand balances, and the disappointing U.S. jobs report had little […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple