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Qatar, Shell Scrap $6.5 Billion Project Amid Oil Collapse

Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) called off plans to build a $6.5 billion petrochemical plant in the emirate, saying the project is no longer commercially feasible amid the upheaval in global energy markets. The companies formed a partnership for the al-Karaana project in 2011 and planned to operate it as a joint venture, with state-run QP owning 80 percent and Shell the remaining 20 percent. They decided not to proceed after evaluating quotations from bidders for engineering and construction work, the companies said today in a joint statement. The expected capital cost of the petrochemical complex planned in Ras Laffan industrial city “has rendered it commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry ,” they said. Al-Karaana is the second petrochemical project in Qatar to be canceled in recent months due to unfavorable economics. Industries Qatar, the state-controlled petrochemical and steel […]

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China’s First Advanced Nuclear Reactor Faces More Delays

BEIJING—China’s ambitions to be a leader in nuclear technology have been dealt a fresh blow, as construction of its most advanced reactor is facing a new delay. The project—which China is developing with Westinghouse Electric Co. of the U.S.—faces new development problems and now isn’t expected to start up until 2016 at the earliest, the chief engineer at China’s state-owned reactor technology company said Thursday. “We discovered some new problems during tests so we need to delay it more until next year,” Wang Zhongtang, chief engineer of China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp., said on the sidelines of an industry conference. Mr. Wang didn’t specify the nature of the latest problems found at ongoing trials for the reactor, nor did he provide a more precise time frame for its launch. The delay is the second for the project, which had been slated to start by the end of 2013. […]

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China to set gas-fired power tariffs against natural gas prices

Singapore (Platts)–15Jan2015/357 am EST/857 GMT China has announced a plan to link electricity tariffs for natural-gas-fired power plants with gas prices, in a bid to help operators cope with fuel costs. The National Development and Reform Commission announced on Wednesday that it will introduce benchmark electricity tariffs for new gas-fired power plants as well as gas-fired plants used for peak shaving, with the tariffs to be set by each province. Local governments will take into account the cost of gas-fired power generation as well as affordability of customers in making their pricing decisions. Existing gas-fired power plants will gradually adopt the new pricing structure, the commission said. Article continues below… International Gas Report is a biweekly report that intelligently analyzes what is happening in the natural gas industry, improving your vision and sharpening your competitive edge. Through its unrivalled network of global correspondents, it covers the whole gas chain, […]

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Bakken LTO Production, November Data

The North Dakota Industrial Commission is out with the Bakken November Production Data and the North Dakota Production Data . Bakken bpd Bakken production was up 5,293 BP/D while total North Dakota was up 3,691 BP/D. Total North Dakota oil production is up 901 barrels per day from two months ago, October production. Bakken Wells Total wells producing was up by 110 in the Bakken but only up by 63 in North Dakota. That means a lot of conventional wells were shut down. From the Director’s Cut : Oct Sweet Crude Price = $68.94/barrel Nov Sweet Crude Price = $60.61/barrel Dec Sweet Crude Price = $40.74/barrel Today Sweet Crude Price = $29.25/barrel (lowest since December 2008) (all-time high was $136.29 7/3/2008) Oct rig count 191 Nov rig count 188 Dec rig count 181 Today’s rig count is 156 (lowest since Oct 2010)(all-time high was 218 on 5/29/2012) The statewide […]

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U.S. Crude Production Advances Even as Prices Decline

Drillers that unlocked the shale oil boom in the U.S. are finding it hard to shut off the nozzle. U.S. crude production rose even as prices slumped to the lowest in more than five years and the number of rigs targeting oil decreased. In North Dakota’s prolific Bakken shale formation, output rose in November as the number of new wells coming online fell by 73 percent. The increases illustrate how improvements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology may prop up U.S. crude production even as companies cut spending, idle rigs and lay off thousands of workers with oil prices down more than 50 percent since June. “We have an oversupply of crude,” Michael Hiley, head of energy OTC at LPS Partners Inc. in New York , said yesterday. “Production keeps going up. There is not a great correlation between the rig count and production because drilling has gotten […]

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Oceana: Wind better than drilling in Atlantic

Advocacy group Oceana says wind energy developments in the Atlantic would bring more benefits than offshore drilling. Photo by Teun van den Dries/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) — A U.S. ocean advocacy group said an offshore wind sector in the Atlantic Ocean could produce twice as many jobs and twice as much energy as offshore drilling. "The American public deserves to know the facts when it comes to expanding this dirty and dangerous practice to the East Coast, and what alternatives there are for clean energy generation," Andrew Menaquale, an energy analyst at advocacy group Oceana, said in a Wednesday statement. The National Ocean Industries Association, an industry group lobbying for more offshore work, said about 1.34 million barrels of oil equivalent per day could be produced from the Atlantic basin by 2035. Oceana instead found an offshore wind energy sector in the Atlantic could produce more energy than […]

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No change in oil export policy, White House says

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says there’s been no change in federal policies regarding the export of domestically produced crude oil. UPI/Kevin Dietsch WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) — There has been no change in U.S. policy regarding the export of domestically produced crude oil, the president’s spokesman said. U.S. Energy Information Administration Administrator Adam Sieminski said that, while low crude oil prices are slowing the rate at which domestic oil production is increasing, exploration and production activity is still accelerating at a record pace. "Drilling activity is expected to increase and U.S. production should rise in 2016 to its second highest daily output level since record production was set in 1970," he said in a statement tied to the release of a short-term market report . Most of the increase in U.S. oil production is coming from shale basins in the Lower 48 states and some of that […]

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Halliburton latest to pull back in weak market

Oil services company Halliburton latest to feel the squeeze of a weakening energy market. UPI/Shutterstock/Calin Tatu HOUSTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) — Oil services company Halliburton said it was making staff reductions at its Houston headquarters in an effort to adjust to rough market conditions. International energy companies during the fourth quarter started announcing cuts in capital expenditures as oil prices continued to shed value. More recently, secondary industries have started to show signs of a slowdown. Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir told Fuel Fix, the energy blog for the Houston Chronicle, the company was monitoring capital flow and cutting jobs in an effort to cope. "While these reductions are difficult, we believe they are necessary to work through this challenging market," she said in remarks published Tuesday. Layoffs from the Houston office follow a December announcement from the company it was cutting about 1,000 jobs from its operations in the […]

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North Dakota’s Oil Production Rises to New Record

North Dakota oil production rose to a record in November, even as energy companies drilled fewer wells and the rig count dropped to a near five-year low, state officials said. Energy companies in North Dakota’s prolific Bakken formation are dialing back how much they spend on exploring for new oil deposits because crude prices are languishing. But there is more oil flowing from fewer wells as companies tap only their most promising and profitable reserves. Oil output across the state hit a record 1.19 million barrels a day in November, the most recent month available, according to data released Wednesday by the state’s Department of Mineral Resources. North Dakota is the second-largest U.S. crude producer behind Texas, but the drop in oil prices over the last six months from more than $100 a barrel to less than $50 has spurred a rapid decline in the number of rigs drilling […]

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Fed’s Beige Book: Continued Growth, but Some Slowing in Oil-Producing Areas

ENLARGE The U.S. Federal Reserve, housed in Washington’s Federal Reserve Board building, Wednesday released its ‘beige book’ report on regional economic conditions. Gary Cameron/Reuters Energy-rich regions of the U.S. are seeing signs of slower growth due to the plunge in oil prices, though the national economy continued to expand in late 2014, the Federal Reserve said in its latest survey of regional economic conditions. The Fed found “modest” or “moderate” growth across most of its 12 districts in mid-November through late December, according to the “beige book” report released Wednesday. Payrolls “expanded moderately” across “a variety of sectors,” the report said, though pay remained stagnant for most workers. “Significant wage pressures were largely limited to workers with specialized technical skills,” it said. In areas where energy production has boomed in recent years, the sharp decline in oil prices since mid-2014 is generating worries about a slowdown. The Dallas district […]

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