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Human-Related Climate Change Led to Extreme Heat, Scientists Say

The savage heat waves that struck Australia in 2013 were almost certainly a direct consequence of the human release of greenhouse gases, researchers said Monday. It is perhaps the most definitive statement climate scientists have made that ties a specific weather event to global warming. Five groups of researchers, using distinct methods, analyzed the heat that baked Australia for much of last year and continued into 2014, shutting down the Australian Open tennis tournament at one point in January. All five came to the conclusion that last year’s heat waves could not have been as severe without the long-term climatic warming caused by human activity. “When we look at the heat across the whole of Australia and the whole 12 months of 2013, we can say that this was virtually impossible without climate change,” said David Karoly, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne who led one research […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Volcanoes May Be Next Hurdle for Nuclear Restarts in Japan

The volcanic eruption of Japan’s Mt. Ontake over the weekend may strengthen the argument of activists campaigning to keep the country’s 48 reactors shut. Japan’s atomic plants are off-line for safety checks as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that caused the meltdown of three reactors in Fukushima more than three years ago. The Nuclear Regulation Authority has said two reactors at a plant run by Kyushu Electric Power Co. (9508) in southern Japan meet new safety standards, indicating they are closest to restarting. Kyushu Electric’s plant, known as Sendai, is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from another active volcano called Sakurajima. It’s also not far from a cluster of calderas, volcanic craters caused by past eruptions. “The NRA has been criticized for not taking the elevated risk of volcanic eruption into account,” Stephen Church, a Tokyo-based partner at equity researcher JI Asia, said in a note yesterday. […]

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US FERC Approves Dominion’s Cove Point LNG Export Facility

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – U.S. federal regulators on Monday approved construction of Dominion Resources Inc’s liquefied natural gas export project in Cove Point, Maryland. Cove Point is the fourth U.S. LNG export project to get the green light to begin construction from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. It will be able to export up to 5.75 million metric tons of LNG a year when fully operational. Dominion’s facility is one of about two dozen projects that hope to ship a growing bounty of domestic natural gas to countries in Asia and Europe. The Cove Point site, a little more than an hour’s drive southeast of Washington, D.C. on Chesapeake Bay, boasts four large storage tanks and a pier built in the 1970s to import LNG from Algeria, underscoring just how much U.S. market dynamics have changed. "We are pleased to receive this final approval that allows us to […]

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Study finds solo hybrid drivers in California HOV lanes amplify congestion

« Honeywell Global Turbo Forecast projects 49M turbocharged vehicle sales, $12B revenue per year by 2019 | Main 30 September 2014 Allowing single-occupant low-emission cars in California to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on congested highways exacerbates the congestion and causes up to about $4,500 per car in adverse social costs annually, including increased commute times and carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new study in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. The authors, from Cornell University, University of Colorado, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley, calculated that the Clean Air Vehicle Stickers (CAVS) policy results in a best-case cost of $124 per ton of reductions in greenhouse gases; $606,000 per ton of nitrogen oxides reduction; and $505,000 per ton of hydrocarbon reduction—exceeding those of other options readily available to policymakers. The California law enabling single-occupant access to the HOV lanes was meant to stimulate sales for fuel-efficient, ultra low-emission […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Conoco Uses Exemption to Export Crude to South Korea

ConocoPhillips (COP) is shipping a cargo of Alaska North Slope crude to Asia, making rare use of a Bill Clinton-era exemption to U.S. oil export restrictions. Conoco, Alaska’s largest oil producer, will deliver the cargo to Asia in the fourth quarter, Houston-based company spokesman Daren Beaudo said by e-mail. The shipment was first reported by Louisville, Kentucky-based Genscape Inc., an energy intelligence firm. The Polar Discovery, a 140,000-deadweight ton oil tanker, left the oil port of Valdez in Alaska on Sept. 26 after filling with cargo, according to vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The ship reported today that its destination is Yeosu, South Korea. It’s scheduled to arrive Oct. 10. “ConocoPhillips has the capability to export a limited amount of its Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude oil production to non-U.S. customers as allowed by law,” Beaudo said. “This will enable the state of Alaska and ConocoPhillips to potentially […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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New Eagle Ford wells continue to show higher production

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Drillinginfo Increased drilling and improved drilling efficiency have led to significant crude oil production increases in the Eagle Ford region in southern Texas. These increases have occurred despite the region’s relatively high well decline rates. However, by offsetting the natural declines through the use of new recovery techniques, further production increases are possible. Horizontal drilling combined with an increasing number of hydraulic fracturing stages in tight formations like the Eagle Ford typically enhance initial production rates when compared to past results. These higher initial production rates are often accompanied by initially larger decline rates, before gradually leveling off to a consistent level of decline for the remaining years of the well life. While initial production rates have steadily increased since 2009, first-year decline rates in the Eagle Ford have fluctuated between 60% and 70%. Most notably, decline rates over the second year […]

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The EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly

The EIA has just published their Petroleum Supply Monthly  with US production, and other data, for July 2014. US C+C production fell by 3,000 barrels per day in July. After a big leap in April things have slowed down considerably in the last three months. US production in July was 8,537,000 barrels per day This is US production since 1920. We are just over 1.5 million barrels per day below the monthly high of 1,044,000 barrels per day of in November 1970. GOM Production Up or Down Total Production Total US -3,000 8,537,000 Texas 28,000 3,102,000 New Mexico 22,000 332,000 North Dakota 18,000 1,111,000 Oklahoma 10,000 353,000 Montana 5,000 332,000 California -4,000 442,000 West Virginia -7,000 17,000 Colorado -7,000 228,000 Gulf of Mexico -8,000 1,406,000 Alaska -63,000 422,000 The EIA expects the Gulf of Mexico to hit 2 million barrels per day i the next couple of years. I […]

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US poised to become world’s leading liquid petroleum producer

Drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale in Webb County, Texas The US is overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum, in a sign of how its booming oil production has reshaped the energy sector . US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency, the watchdog backed by rich countries. More On this story On this topic IN US Economy With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991. Riyadh has stressed that the rise of the US should not detract from its own critical role in oil markets. It says it has the ability to increase its output by 2.5m b/d if […]

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Encana becomes major Permian shale player

Canadian energy company Encana becomes major Permian shale player with acquisition of Texas rival. UPI/Gary C. Caskey CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Canadian energy company Encana Corp. said Monday it acquired Texas rival Athlon Energy to become one of the largest oil players in the Permian shale basin. "This transformative acquisition further accelerates our strategy and provides us with a prime position in what is widely acknowledged as one of North America’s top oil plays," Encana President and Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles said in a statement. Ecanana paid cash for the acquisition, giving the Canadian company control over 140,000 net acres in the Permian shale basin in Texas. Permian production increased 58 percent from 2007 to reach 1.35 million bpd last year, which represents 18 percent of total U.S. crude oil production. In a July brief, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said the Permian basin has exceeded […]

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More initial oil coming from Eagle Ford shale

U.S. Energy Department assesses oil production from Eagle Ford shale in southern Texas. UPI/Gary C. Caskey WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Oil production from the Eagle Ford shale play should increase with improved drilling efficiency, though the area is prone to declines, analysis Monday finds. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, a division of the Energy Department, said the increase in drilling and improvements in drilling efficiency have led to more oil from the Eagle Ford shale region in southern Texas. "These increases have occurred despite the region’s relatively high well decline rates," an EIA briefing said. "However, by offsetting the natural declines through the use of new recovery techniques, further production increases are possible." The Texas government said oil production in July, the last full month for which data are available, increased more than 25 percent year-on-year to around 2.15 million barrels per day thanks in part to production […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple