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The Next Logical Step For Natural Gas Supplies?

A California-based company claims that it has found a commercially viable technique to directly convert natural gas into liquid fuels or petrochemical building blocks. "Natural gas is the next logical step for the energy and chemistry industry," said Rahul Iyer, vice president of corporate development with Siluria Technologies, which is partnering with world-class refining and petrochemical companies to roll out its catalytic processes for producing ethylene and liquid hydrocarbon fuels or fuel blend stocks. Last month, Siluria announced that it raised nearly more than $30 million in a financing led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) – the venture investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company – in its fourth stage of financing, also known as a Series D financing round. In addition to SAEV, Siluria has partnered with Brazil-based petchem manufacturer Braskem and the German-headquartered gases and engineering firm The Linde Group to commercialize its oxidative coupling […]

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Oil Clogging U.S. Railways Seen Limiting Exports of Grain

Shipping companies probably will miss out on exports from the record U.S. grain harvest because the shale-oil boom is clogging up rail lines to ports. While the U.S. will reap the most crops ever, fourth-quarter export cargoes will be 15 percent lower than last year, according to RS Platou Markets AS, a Norwegian bank specialized in shipping. Rates for Panamaxes, the most commonly used vessels for grains, averaged $7,574 a day this year, headed for the lowest level since at least 1999, Baltic Exchange data show. The U.S. shale-oil boom means energy shipments are dominating rail networks at the expense of grains. The Association of American Railroads says crude moved by rail almost doubled last year. The bottlenecks may persist because the Energy Department is predicting the most oil output in 45 years in 2015. “If you’re an owner, you’re banking on a bumper season of exports,” Erik Nikolai […]

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Russia’s rich feel chill wind from the Kremlin

Few will invest in a country that uses state power so arbitrarily It is hard to imagine a worse moment for the Kremlin’s inner circle to launch an attempt to strong arm one of Russia’s wealthiest men out of a multibillion-dollar asset. For Tuesday’s house arrest of Vladimir Yevtushenkov , number 15 on the country’s rich list, on money-laundering charges, looks to be exactly that. If it is ever to achieve its ambition of catching up with more advanced economies, Russia urgently needs investment – both foreign and domestic – in new capacity and enhanced productivity to restart stalled growth. Yet even before it launched its military adventures in Ukraine , Russia’s rich preferred investing their profits in foreign assets, London mansions or Liechtenstein trusts to ploughing them into new Russian factories. More On this story On this topic Editorial The Kremlin’s undeclared war in Ukraine has sparked escalating […]

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Sanctions extend influence of hardmen in Putin’s Kremlin

The skyscrapers of Moscow City business district, center, stand beyond the illuminated towers of Red Square and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, July 17, 2014. OAO Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, natural gas producer OAO Novatek and OAO Gazprombank, the third-largest lender, are among those hit by the penalties, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg Russia’s business community and economic officials are in shock over the arrest of Vladimir Yevtushenkov , one of the country’s leading industrialists, and they are afraid. When Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the country’s big business club, sent a petition in support of Mr Yevtushenkov to President Vladimir Putin, he thought it wiser to do so by courier than in person. More On this story On this topic IN Europe Mr Yevtushenkov, one of the country’s richest men and main shareholder of the conglomerate […]

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EBRD: Sanctions hurting Russia

LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. and European governments have imposed punitive sanctions on Russian energy companies Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and others in response to the crisis in Ukraine . Last week, the European Union increased the pressure with sanctions on deep water energy operations, arctic oil exploration and shale projects. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said the sanctions were taking a toll on the Russian economy. "The Western sanctions, combined with uncertainty about their possible escalation in the future, have negatively affected business confidence in Russia, constrained the ability of corporations and banks to access international debt markets, and contributed to capital flight," the bank said in a briefing. The Kremlin last week said it was the duty of the government to support the energy sector during what Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin said were difficult operating conditions. In terms of Ukraine, the EBRD […]

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Scrap South Stream, Europe says

BRUSSELS, Sept. 18 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom touts South Stream as a pipeline that would help support European energy security by avoiding geopolitically sensitive territory in Ukraine. Russia meets about a quarter of Europe’s gas needs, though the bulk of those supplies run through the Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine. Members of the European Parliament passed a resolution Thursday expressing support for the ratification in Kiev of an association agreement with the EU. A cease-fire in eastern Ukraine appears to be holding, the resolution said, but it could break given recent Russian aggressions. "EU sanctions are just and must be stepped up," the resolution said. For South Stream, members of Parliament had their reservations, calling on "EU countries to cancel planned energy sector agreements with Russia, including the South Stream gas pipeline." European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger in June said the South Stream project should be put […]

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Exxon Said to Halt Arctic Oil Well Drilling on Sanctions

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) halted drilling on an offshore oil well intended as the first step in unlocking billions of barrels of crude in Russia ’s remote Arctic, according to people familiar with the project. Work stopped just a few days after the U.S. and European Union barred companies from helping Russia exploit Arctic, deep-water or shale- oil fields , said three people with knowledge of the rig’s operations who asked not to be named since they weren’t authorized to speak about the project. The U.S. sanctions, meant to punish Russia for escalating tensions in Ukraine, gave American companies until Sept. 26 to stop all restricted drilling and testing services. Exxon and Seadrill Ltd. (SDRL) ’s North Atlantic Drilling (NADL) unit are under the gun to finish or temporarily seal the $700 million well off Russia’s northern coast before the sanctions deadline, said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at […]

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The Musk Family Plan for Transforming the World’s Energy

Elon Musk, left, and Lyndon Rive at launch of SolarCity’s initial public offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 2012. Associated Press Elon Musk and his cousin, Lyndon Rive, have always been close. Their mothers are twins, and Messrs. Musk and Rive grew up together. "We’ve known each other for as long as we’ve been conscious," said Mr. Musk, speaking at a panel this week at a private conference in New York. There is an obvious, almost brotherly affection between the two men. Mr. Musk says Mr. Rive "is an awesome guy and really hardworking and driven, and you can trust him with anything." And when Mr. Rive recounts the drive to Burning Man in 2004 when Mr. Musk told him his next venture should be in solar power, Mr. Rive says that when Mr. Musk tells you what area to get into next, you get into it. Their […]

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World population growing, not slowing

The possibility that the world’s population will climb to 11 billion by the end of the century is gaining traction now that demographers are using probability methods for their projections. A paper published online on Thursday in the journal  Science details new methodology that shows that most of the world’s anticipated growth is in Africa, where population is projected to quadruple from about 1 billion today to 4 billion by 2100. “For the last 20 years, prevailing opinion was that world population would go up to 9 billion and level off in the middle of the century and maybe decline,” said Adrian Raftery, one of the paper’s lead authors and a professor of statistics and sociology at the University of Washington. “Population is going to keep growing. We can say that with confidence.” Not only with confidence but with an exact percentage. There is a 70 percent probability that world […]

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WTI Drops a Second Day as U.S. Crude Supplies Rise; Brent Falls

West Texas Intermediate dropped for a second day as crude stockpiles increased for the first time in five weeks in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent declined in London . Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent in New York . Crude inventories expanded by 3.67 million barrels to 362.3 million last week, a report from the Energy Information Administration showed yesterday. Supplies were forecast to fall by 1.5 million, according a Bloomberg News survey . The dollar rose after the Fed raised its target-rate forecast. “The surprise increase is adding weight to the market,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may buy West Texas contracts if prices drop to about $91.50 a barrel. “The Fed commentary with the raised interest-rate expectations fed directly into the currency markets , and that’s putting pressure on commodities.” WTI for October […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple