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Everywhere but Northeast, fewer homes choose natural gas as heating fuel

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Census Bureau American Community Survey Note: Geographic areas based on Census regions . LPG is liquefied petroleum gas. On a national basis, natural gas has long been the dominant choice for primary heating fuel in the residential sector. Lately, electricity has been gaining market share while natural gas, distillate fuel oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas (propane) have declined. Part of the national change in heating fuel choice can be attributed to population migrations farther west and south. But even within Census regions, electricity has been gaining market share at the expense of natural gas. The Northeast is the exception, as both natural gas and electricity have been increasing while distillate fuel oil and kerosene have declined. In the Midwest, most homes are heated by natural gas. The Midwest also has the highest percentage of homes heated by propane, although both natural […]

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Natural Gas a Bridge to Nowhere

A study published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters  found that switching from coal to natural gas would not significantly lower the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change . The natural gas processed at this plant isn’t the answer to reducing carbon emissions, a new study says. Photo credit: Shutterstock “That’s chiefly because the shift would delay the deployment and cost-competitiveness of renewable electricity technologies for making electricity,” concluded the three researchers from the University of California Irvine, Stanford University and Seattle-based nonprofit Net Zero. “Increased use of natural gas has been promoted as a means of decarbonizing the U.S. power sector, because of superior generator efficiency and lower CO2 emissions per unit of electricity than coal,” said the study. “We model the effect of different gas supplies on the U.S. power sector and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Across a range of climate policies, we find that abundant […]

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Russia, Ukraine in talks on gas as winter looms

AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic BERLIN (AP) — Russia and Ukraine are holding talks to solve their long-running gas dispute as pressure mounts for a solution to head off a winter supply crisis in Ukraine and beyond. Friday’s meeting in Berlin between the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers, brokered by EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, comes more than three months after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Kiev. The dispute, part of a wider conflict over Ukraine’s relations with Russia and the West, involves the price of Russian gas supplies and Kiev’s historic gas debts. A sense of urgency is beginning to mount. Much of the Russian gas supplied to EU countries passes through pipelines that cross Ukraine. "European and Ukrainian energy and gas supplies are very closely connected with each other," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said this week. "Winter is nearing, so time is pressing." Russia shut off supplies to […]

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Hungary halts flow of gas to Ukraine

General view of the gas station near the border between Ukraine and Poland in the settlement of Drozdovychi, 120 km (75 miles) west of ukrainian city of Lviv. Hungary has stopped supplying gas to Ukraine through a “reverse flow” pipeline just days after the head of Russia’s Gazprom monopoly visited Budapest, Ukraine’s gas utility said. Naftogaz, the Ukrainian distributor, said Hungary had stopped transporting gas at 19.00 Ukrainian time on Thursday, notifying Kiev that it was halting supply “for technical reasons” until further notice. It came after Alexei Miller, Gazprom chief executive, on Monday met Hungary’s premier Viktor Orbán, Naftogaz said. The stoppage put further pressure on Ukraine and the EU ahead of trilateral talks with Russia in Berlin on Friday over restoring gas supplies to Ukraine after Gazprom suspended them because of a dispute over pricing and payment arrears. Hungary, together with Slovakia and Poland, have been helping […]

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Oil Marginally Lower But Nymex Crude Retains Overnight Gains

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were slightly lower in Asian trading hours Thursday on bearish market sentiment as geopolitical tensions appeared to ease. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded at $92.66 a barrel at 0450 GMT, down $0.14 in the Globex electronic session. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.21 to $96.74 a barrel. Brent crude prices continued to trade in a narrow range after the U.S. and its allies stepped up airstrikes in Syria, this time targeting mobile oil refineries controlled by Islamic State. Oil prices had surged in June when Islamic State militants made rapid progress in Iraq, but "this has stalled or more likely is on the cusp of being put into reverse with help from U.S. air strikes," Ed Morse, head of commodities at Citi Research said in a quarterly report. He said […]

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WTI Trades Near 1-Week High as U.S. Supplies Drop; Brent Steady

West Texas Intermediate traded near the highest price in almost a week as crude inventories shrank in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent was steady in London. Futures were little changed in New York after rising 1.4 percent yesterday. Crude supplies dropped by 4.27 million barrels to 358 million last week, Energy Information Administration data showed. A gain of 750,000 barrels was forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. U.S. and Arab warplanes struck small refineries in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State extremists, according to the Pentagon. “Declining crude stockpiles in the U.S. are what’s supporting oil prices today,” Hong Sung Ki, an analyst at Samsung Futures Inc. in Seoul, said by phone. “I don’t see other factors that would drive crude prices down even further.” WTI for November delivery was at $92.82 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 2 cents, […]

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Natural Gas Rises But Holds in Range Ahead of Inventory Data

By Nicole Friedman NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices gained Wednesday but held below $4 a million British thermal units ahead of weekly government storage data, which is expected to show another large stockpile gain. Natural gas for October delivery settled up 9.5 cents, or 2.5%, at $3.911/mmBtu on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Moderate weather has kept natural-gas prices within a range between $3.75 and $4/mmBtu for most of the summer. Natural-gas demand is highly dependent on weather, as hot weather prompts demand for gas-powered electricity to run air-conditioners and cold weather leads to use of natural gas as a heating fuel. The weather is expected to stay mild in the next two weeks. "Nothing has changed in the weather data to lead to a surge in prices," said NatGasWeather.com in a note. "With only a couple days left to trade the October contract, some position squaring could have aided the […]

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Analysts See 92-Billion-Cubic-Feet Rise in U.S. Natural Gas Inventories

By Nicole Friedman Analysts and traders expect government data scheduled for release Thursday to show natural gas inventories rose by more-than-typical levels for this time of year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to report that 92 billion cubic feet of gas were added to storage during the week ended Sept. 19, according to the average forecast of 18 analysts and traders surveyed by The Wall Street Journal. The EIA is scheduled to release its storage data for the week on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EDT. For the Sept. 19 week, the median estimate is for a rise of 92 bcf. Estimates range from an increase of 81 bcf to a rise of 96 bcf. The estimate for Sept. 19 is above last year’s 82-bcf build in storage for the same week, and more than the 79-bcf five-year average build for that week. If the storage estimate is […]

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Ample Supply Shields Oil as U.S. Jets Strike Militants

Plentiful oil supplies are pinning oil prices near a two-year low as the U.S. extends its campaign against Islamic State militants into Syria. Brent crude , which has traded below $100 a barrel for more than two weeks, touched $95.60 a barrel yesterday, the lowest since July 2012, after the broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War struck Islamic State targets in Syria. U.S. aircraft began bombing the group six weeks earlier in Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer and holder of the world’s fifth-biggest reserves. “The impact for oil prices from the U.S. airstrike is effectively zero,” Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS AG in Zurich, said yesterday by e-mail. “The market focus has shifted from supply risks to oil glut fears to weak oil demand from China, Europe and Japan .” An increase in global crude supply that prompted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to consider […]

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Islamic State Oil Sites Targeted in U.S.-Arab Strikes

U.S. and Arab warplanes attacked small oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by Islamic State to undercut the extremist Sunni group’s revenue and impede its mobility, the Pentagon said. As the U.K. prepared for a parliamentary vote tomorrow to authorize joining the broadest Arab-U.S. military coalition since the 1991 Gulf War, aircraft and drones operated by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attacked 12 “modular” refineries Islamic State uses in its oil-smuggling operations, U.S. Central Command said in an e-mailed statement. “These small-scale refineries provided fuel to run ISIL operations, money to finance their continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria and an economic asset to support their future operations,” the command said in statement, which used an acronym of another name used to identify the group. Islamic State may have been raising more than $2 million a day from oil sales in Iraq and Syria, paid […]

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