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North Dakota county feels Bakken boom ebb away as oil falls

CROSBY, N.D. (Reuters) – Just over a decade ago, this sleepy farming community on the fringe of North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation hosted the state’s first horizontal oil well to be hydraulically fractured, or fracked, helping set in motion an economic revolution that shook the world. Today, Divide County may be another vanguard for the state, this time ominous, as the first to feel the full effect of a collapse in prices that has lopped more than 50 percent off the price of oil since the summer. Only five oil rigs were drilling in Divide County this week, down from 12 last August, according to state data. While those only account for a handful of the more than 162 rigs still drilling in North Dakota, the drop has been much steeper than elsewhere in the state and could signal trouble across the No. 2 U.S. oil producer behind Texas […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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$50 Oil Kills Bonanza Dream That Made Greenlanders Millionaires

Greenland, an island that may be sitting on trillions of dollars of oil, has had to acknowledge that its dream of tapping into that wealth looks increasingly far-fetched. Back when oil was headed for $150 a barrel, Greenlanders girded for a production boom after inviting in some of the world’s biggest explorers, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Now, with Brent crude dipping below $50 last week, Deputy Prime Minister Andreas Uldum says Greenland’s hope of growing rich quickly on fossil fuels was “naïve.” “I myself believed back when I was first elected” to parliament in 2009 “that billions from oil and minerals would start flowing to us the next year or the year after that,” he said in an interview in Copenhagen. “However, that’s just not the reality. I don’t know any politician in Greenland today who won’t admit to having fueled the hysteria.” The nation […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Drivers Start 2015 With Cheapest Gas in Six Years

Retail gasoline fell after crude oil prices dropped below $50 for the first time since… Read More Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg Drivers paid an average of $2.2021 a gallon for regular gasoline at U.S. pumps last week, the lowest level for this time of year since 2009, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. Prices dropped 26.92 cents in the three-week period to Jan. 9 and are $1.14 a gallon below year-ago levels, according to the survey, which is based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. Retail gasoline fell after crude oil prices dropped below $50 for the first time since 2009 as OPEC members said they wouldn’t reduce output to bolster prices that have dropped by more than half since June. U.S. stockpiles of gasoline at 237 million barrels were the highest since 2011 in the week ended Jan. 2, according to government data. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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GM’s Plan to Gain on Tesla Rides on Two Electric Cars

ENLARGE GM promises that its redesigned 2016 Chevrolet Volt will go 30% farther on an single electrical charge than the current model. Bloomberg News General Motors Co. is readying a one-two punch in the electric-car market, hoping to emerge from the shadow of Tesla Motors Inc. Later this year, GM plans to introduce a next-generation Chevrolet Volt that sports a new exterior design and room for five passengers. More important, it promises that the redesigned 2016 Volt will go 50 miles on a full charge, 30% farther than the current model. Like its predecessor, the new Volt automatically switches to gasoline when its charge is depleted. The total range of the new model, using gas and electricity, will be 420 miles. The auto maker also intends to launch a $30,000 all-electric vehicle in 2017 called the Chevrolet Bolt, which would be capable of driving 200 miles on a single […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Electric-Car Pioneer Elon Musk Charges Head-On at Detroit

ENLARGE Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, shown last year, is pushing hard to sell 500,000 vehicles a year by 2020. Getty Images When Elon Musk , who loudly disdains the traditional auto industry, makes his first public appearance in Detroit in two years on Tuesday, it will be easy to see how much has changed since then. Mr. Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc. is worth six times more in stock-market value. He is pushing hard to sell 500,000 vehicles a year by 2020, up from 90 a day in the third quarter. And giant auto makers are on a collision course with Tesla like never before, with General Motors Co. showing off a new electric car at the Detroit auto show on Monday. Mr. Musk’s response? He says he doesn’t plan to change a thing, from his proclivity for F-bombs to double duty as chief executive of rocket maker Space […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Next-gen Chevy Volt EREV is more efficient, with 50-mile electric range

« BNL/Stony Brook study provides insight into optimized electrode architectures | Main | VW unveils Cross Coupe GTE plug-in hybrid concept SUV at Detroit show; 70 mpge; previewing 7-seater SUV in 2016 » The new Chevy Volt has a decidedly more sculpted look than its predecessor. Click to enlarge. Chevrolet unveiled the second-generation Volt extended range EV at the North American International Auto Show. With a sportier design and an entirely new drive system ( earlier post ), the 2016 Volt electric car features a higher capacity battery pack and 50 miles of all-electric range (MY 2015 = 38 miles); greater efficiency; and stronger acceleration. GM estimates fuel economy to be 41 mpg combined (MY 2015 = 37 mpg) with 102 mpge (MY 2015 = 98 mpge). The 2016 Volt goes on sale in the second half of 2015. The new propulsion system will offer a General Motors’-estimated total […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Keystone XL and the faulty concept of peak oil

Posted:   01/10/2015 05:01:00 PM MST Gas prices are displayed at a gas station in Boston last week. (Steven Senne, The Associated Press) In Denver, gasoline dipped below $2 per gallon after Christmas, and I’ve heard rumors of $1.75. Most of us like this immensely. Not so the stock market, which has stumbled as oil prices have dipped below $50 per barrel. Cheap oil has also gummed up a variety of political arguments. Keystone XL is at the top of the news today, as it was last fall when many political candidates, from statehouse to Congress, ran on platforms seeking "energy security." This sounds suspiciously like code for giving drilling companies and pipeline transport companies just about everything they want. The argument on behalf of Keystone XL is that it will, with the help of the Canadians, deliver us from the capriciousness of "people who don’t like us," as […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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What Will 2015 do for Peak Oil?

The Cornucopians are exuberant, they believe that collapsing of oil prices dealt the death knell for peak oil. An oil glut, they say, is what we have, not peak oil. But an oil glut is exactly what we would expect at the very peak. After all, that is what peak oil is, that is the the point in time when the world produces more oil than ever in history… and the most it ever will produce. I am of the firm conviction that the world is at the peak of world oil production right now, or was at that point three or four months ago. I think history will show that the 12 months of September 2014 through August 2015 will be the one year peak. Whether the calendar year peak is 2014 or 2015 is the only thing still in question, or that is my opinion anyway. The […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Top Russian Ruble Forecaster Sees Fresh Run at Record Low

The world’s top ruble forecaster is unimpressed by the currency’s 30 percent rebound from a record low. The analyst — Danske Bank A/S’s Vladimir Miklashevsky — says the ruble could be testing new lows again this quarter as the plunge in oil, Russia ’s top export, threatens to cost the country its investment-grade credit ratings and turns Russians away from their currency. The ruble traded at 62.7805 per dollar at 10:36 a.m. in Moscow, after reaching 80.1 on Dec. 16, the weakest on record. “We can easily see new records as the oil price is much lower,” Miklashevsky said by phone from Helsinki, last week. Concern over a rating cut and the loss of confidence among Russians “are the ingredients for a further bout of weakness,” he said. Depreciation would exacerbate the challenges facing President Vladimir Putin as the economy teeters on the edge of a recession and investors […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Scotland draws low-carbon fire

Friends of the Earth says Scottish air pollution levels creating a regional health crisis. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 12 (UPI) — Though Scotland has one of the most ambitious renewable energy programs in the world, Friends of the Earth said the country’s pollution is a health concern. Friends of the Earth said its review of 2014 government data show air pollution is responsible for as much as $2.5 billion in annual healthcare costs for the Scottish people. "Scotland’s streets are shown to have dangerous levels of toxic pollution which are breaking legal limits that were due to be met in 2010," campaigner Emilia Hanna said in Saturday statement. Scotland aims to draw more on renewable energy to power its economy, while looking toward oil and gas reserves in the North Sea as a source of revenue . Renewable electricity capacity has grown at an average rate of 660 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple