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U.S., Allies Target Islamic State Oil Assets

The latest user generated content from the ground in Syria following Tuesday’s airstrikes against Islamic State. WSJ’s Mark Kelly reports. The U.S. and Arab allies launched a second major wave of airstrikes in Syria targeting mobile oil refineries controlled by Islamic State, the Pentagon said. Inside Syria, local residents reported that the radical fighters were taking measures to evade attacks such as moving into civilian areas in towns and cities in eastern Syria. The warplanes hit 12 modular oil refineries located in remote areas of eastern Syria, the Defense Department said. U.S. officials said the latest airstrikes on Wednesday aimed at cutting off a key source of income for Islamic State forces, which smuggle oil from captured Syrian infrastructure and sell it on the black market. U.S. officials said the money from the oil has allowed Islamic State militants to finance their operations in Iraq and Syria. Refugees wait […]

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Saudi Arabia using more crude oil than ever

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) — Saudi Arabia aims to use more renewable energy, but for now it burns more crude oil directly than any other nation in the Middle East, a Wednesday report found. By 2023, Saudi Arabia plans to have 120 gigawatts of solar and nuclear power available, more than twice what’s installed currently. Saudi Arabia has few alternative options for power generation , with no domestic coal reserves and a natural gas sector stymied by a lack of foreign investments. As a result, it’s one of only a few nations in the world that utilizes crude oil directly for power generation . A report for the U.S. Energy Information Administration, a branch of the Energy Department, found Saudi Arabia burned 900,000 barrels of oil per day in July, the highest ever recorded for that month. "Saudi Arabia used an average of 700,000 bpd of crude oil for […]

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Saudi Arabia uses largest amount of crude oil for power generation since 2010

Saudi Arabia is one of a handful of countries that burn crude oil directly for power generation, according to the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI). During the summer, Saudi Arabia typically experiences an increase in electricity consumption as domestic demand for air conditioning rises. Saudi Arabia burned 0.9 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil in July, the highest ever recorded in JODI data for the month of July and the highest overall since August 2010. Saudi Arabia used an average of 0.7 million bbl/d of crude oil for power generation during the summers from 2009 to 2013. During that same period, Iraq and Kuwait, the next two largest users of crude oil for power generation in the Middle East, each averaged roughly 0.08 million bbl/d of crude burn. Generally, countries are more likely to consume natural gas or coal to meet higher summer electricity demands. But Saudi […]

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Blackouts Present Biggest Risk to South Africa’s Economy

South Africa has an electric bill coming due that’s threatening everything from its swimming pools to its sovereign debt. Consumers are asked almost daily to switch off their water heaters, pool pumps and anything else that will save power during peak periods. Industrial customers are also asked to conserve energy, even if it means reducing production. And when that’s not enough, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. orders managed blackouts. The state-owned utility can’t provide reliable electricity to run Africa’s second-largest economy. It has a long-term plan to expand generating capacity by more than 40 percent, while facing a 225 billion-rand ($20 billion) funding shortfall through 2018. The company has faced supply shortages for years and has said it may be another five years before it can guarantee the lights will always be on. “Eskom is in dire straits,” said Anne Fruhauf, southern Africa analyst at New York-based risk adviser Teneo […]

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Asian LNG Buyers Bet on Growing Supply, Evolving Markets

ByEric Yep A liquefied natural gas tanker is berthed at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Futtsu gas-fired thermal power plant. Bloomberg News Asian natural-gas consumers are betting that a new wave of gas supply and a rapidly evolving marketplace will help reduce prices in the next two to three years, executives said at a gas conference in Singapore. Liquefied natural gas is priced higher in Asia due to the additional cost of converting the gas into a liquid and transporting it on ships. Gas producers have also enjoyed strong prices as the fuel was in short supply after the Fukushima nuclear disaster shut Japan’s nuclear reactors and regional demand surged. “Asian buyers currently pay a premium for LNG; in 2012, this premium amounted to almost $130 billion,” said Seah Moon Ming, chief executive of Singapore’s Pavilion Energy. Pavilion Energy is a portfolio company of state-investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. […]

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Emissions From India Will Increase, Official Says

In a blow to American hopes of reaching an international deal to fight global warming, India’s new environment minister said Wednesday that his country would not offer a plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a climate summit next year in Paris. The minister, Prakash Javadekar, said in an interview that his government’s first priority was to alleviate poverty and improve the nation’s economy, which he said would necessarily involve an increase in emissions through new coal-powered electricity and transportation. He placed responsibility for what scientists call a coming climate crisis on the United States, the world’s largest historic greenhouse gas polluter, and dismissed the idea that India would make cuts to carbon emissions. “What cuts?” Mr. Javadekar said. “That’s for more developed countries. The moral principle of historic responsibility cannot be washed away.” Mr. Javadekar was referring to an argument frequently made by developing economies — […]

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China-Russia pipeline deal to shape global LNG prices: Tokyo Gas official

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (Platts)–24Sep2014/1143 pm EDT/343 GMT The deal between Russia and China for importing some 38 billion cubic meters/year of natural gas through a pipeline connecting the two countries represents a key development not only for the two parties involved, but also for the role it will have in shaping the global price of LNG, according to Shigeru Muraki, vice chairman of the board at Japan’s Tokyo Gas. Speaking at the Adam Smith Sakhalin Oil and Gas 2014 conference in the Russian Far East late Wednesday, September 24, Muraki said that the many LNG export projects coming on stream in the next years in countries such as Australia, Russia and the US will not only have to compete between each other for demand, but also against the price set by pipeline imports deals such as the one between Russia and China, which has an estimated price of around $12/MMBtu. Russia […]

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BP Told It Can’t Claw Back Oil-Spill Damage Overpayments

BP Plc (BP/) was barred by a U.S. judge from recovering hundreds of millions of dollars it claims to have overpaid some victims for economic losses from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill . BP had sought to claw back millions of dollars after the court revised the method for calculating the damages. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans rejected that bid, quoting from language of a release people had to sign to receive payment under the settlement. BP told claimants, “If you sign this release, that’s it, it’s over for you. It doesn’t matter if the law changes or not, or if the interpretation of the settlement terms changes for better or worse,” Barbier said. “I don’t know how you get around it.” The company’s attempt to recover the money was “classic hair-splitting,” Barbier ruled. “The only conclusion is that this language bars BP from […]

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Report: New shale methods could yield huge results

HOUSTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) — A Wednesday report for energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie finds emerging shale technology could add at least 1 million barrels per day to U.S. output. Primary recovery from oil deposits in the United States relates to natural pressure in the reservoir. Secondary recovery involves water or gas injection into the well to increase production. Enhanced oil recovery techniques include further stimulation from steam, gas or chemical injections into the well. Wood Mackenzie finds enhanced oil recovery is still in its infancy in U.S. shale plays like Bakken, Eagle Ford and Permian. The consultant group finds the emerging shale technology could result in a 100 percent increase in recovery rates and add between 1.5 million and 3 million barrels per day in oil production by 2030. Some of the early efforts at enhanced oil recovery have been problematic. Regulators in Canada placed restrictions on steam […]

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Hess issues paperwork for IPO

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) — U.S. energy company Hess Corp. said Wednesday it filed the paperwork for an initial public offering it said could help advance its Bakken crude oil ambitions. Hess Corp. said its subsidiary, Hess Midstream Partners, filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to its proposed initial public offering . "The offering is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2015," the company said in a statement. Hess said it intends to use the master limited partnership as the primary vehicle to support its Bakken production growth . The company in January said it plans to spend $2.85 billion of the $5.8 billion budgeted this year for exploration and production on exploiting shale reserves, mostly in North Dakota. Oil production from the Bakken and Three Forks area of North Dakota topped the 1 million barrel per day mark for the first […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple