Despite declining rig counts across the country, oil production remains at record levels and is currently exceeding demand. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US oil production hit a Continue Reading
The coldest outbreak of the season is pushing south into the eastern United States this week. Temperatures will be running as low as 30 to 40 degrees below normal across the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic on Friday morning. Thursday night’s departure from normal temperatures is shown above in Celsius. (tropicaltidbits.com) The coldest air of the season is surging south this week, leading up to what could be historic cold for parts of the eastern United States. Thursday and Friday’s polar outbreak could set all-time February low records from Tennessee to Virginia. With a fresh coat of snow, Washington has the potential to dip below zero for the first time since 1994 . All of this is courtesy of a plume of not just Arctic, but Siberian air that has been trudging across the North Pole and into North America over the past week. With the cold plume already washing over the […]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Drivers of Household Energy Consumption The growth in residential energy use has slowed to below the rate of household growth, meaning that per-household energy consumption has decreased. Analysis of EIA’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) conducted since 1980 shows how improvements in energy efficiency reduced energy intensity enough to offset more than 70% of the growth in both the number of households and the size of dwellings. Between 1980 and 2009 (the most recent survey year), delivered energy used by U.S. households increased from 9.3 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) to 10.2 quads, an average growth of 0.3% per year. The change in delivered energy during this period can be broken into component factors, including number of households, structural changes (the mix of housing types, the geographic distribution of households, and changes in average floor area), weather, and energy intensity (measured here as consumption […]
HOUSTON, Feb. 18 02/18/2015 Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. , Houston, plans a $100 million upstream capital expenditure budget for 2015, down from the $400 million the company planned for 2014. Allocation of $70 million was approved for its Utica and Marcellus shale exploration and development drilling program in Ohio and West Virginia, $10 million for its properties in the Williston basin in North Dakota, and $20 million for leasehold acreage acquisitions in the Utica and Marcellus. Magnum Hunter plans to further delineate its acreage positions in Monroe, Noble, and Washington counties in Ohio, and in Tyler and Ritchie counties in West Virginia. During the year, the company plans to bring on production three net horizontal wells in the Marcellus and eight net horizontal wells in the Utica. A number of these wells have already been drilled and are in various stages of completion, meaning capital for these projects was […]
Feb 18 (Reuters) – Marathon Oil Corp on Wednesday cut its 2015 budget by another 20 percent to $3.5 billion and said its fourth-quarter profit rose, boosted by a gain related to the sale of oil and gas properties in Angola and Norway. Profit in the quarter was $926 million, or $1.37 per share, compared with $375 million, or 54 cents in the year-ago period. Marathon, which previously said it was slashing 2015 spending about 20 percent in December, said it would make a second budget cut of another 20 percent. The company said its output, excluding Libya, would rise 5-7 percent this year. (Reporting by Anna Driver; Editing by Terry Wade) WHAT DO YOU THINK?
It seems like only yesterday that big winter storms or other extreme weather events could curtail or shut natural gas production in the US. A winter storm and freezing temperatures in the Northeast or in the Southeast would prompt freeze-offs or shut-ins along pipelines. But perhaps no longer. When I joined Platts as a gas markets reporter in February 2011 — another abnormally cold winter (at least in Houston) — I would see cash markets bounce around as freeze-offs and other shut-ins shook up prices. In a testament to fast-growing natural gas production and infrastructure, though, particularly in the Northeast, Hurricane Sandy had a minimal impact to Marcellus gas production in 2012. Gas pipelines also fared well in the aftermath of the hurricane. A year ago, in a winter that is widely regarded as being insanely cold, things appeared to fall more in line with historical expectations. Freeze-offs in the Northeast […]
(Bloomberg) — The ruble ended a four-day rally as signs that oil’s rebound won’t last cast a shadow over the biggest currency rally globally this month. The Russian currency weakened as much as 1.2 percent against the dollar as Brent crude, the grade used to price Russia’s main export blend, traded below $60 for a second day. The country’s stocks and bonds also retreated. As options traders bet oil’s rebound will reverse because of rising U.S. production, the prospects for Russian assets to hold on to gains are declining as the slide in oil and sanctions over Ukraine threaten to worsen a looming recession. Brent has tumbled 6.4 percent in the past two days, trimming its advance from last month’s six-year low to 30 percent. “Russian assets are closely following the oil price and the outlook for oil is negative,” Andrey Vashevnik, the chief investment officer at R&B Investment […]
Russian energy company Gazprom says it can weather the storm of low oil prices. (UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov) MOSCOW, Feb. 19 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom will be able to continue as normal even if oil prices drop to $30 per barrel, the company’s finance director said Thursday. The Russian economy is entering a period of prolonged weakness because of the dual strains of Western sanctions imposed in response to crises in Ukraine and a weak crude oil market. Though recovering, crude oil prices are about 40 percent less than they were in June 2014. With few signs of a cease-fire holding in eastern Ukraine, some Western powers have enacted additional sanctions on Russia . Gazprom Finance Director Andrei Kruglov told state-run television the company planned for oil prices in the range of $30-40 per barrel when drafting its 2015 budget . "The company will be ready to implement all […]
European Union authorities will move ahead soon with a long-running antimonopoly case against Russian energy giant Gazprom, European Union competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in an interview. Photo: EPA BRUSSELS—A sculpture of a raised middle finger greets visitors to the elegant offices of Margrethe Vestager, the most powerful woman in Brussels. It is a reminder, from a disgruntled lobby group in her native Denmark, that tough decisions come with the territory. One hundred days into her new job, Europe’s antitrust chief is preparing a series of politically explosive decisions involving some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. Perhaps her most incendiary case is a 2½-year-old probe into Russian energy company Gazprom OAO . In an interview, Ms. Vestager said she will move against the state-owned company shortly despite the Ukraine crisis, opening up the possibility of multibillion-dollar fines. “I think we can […]
Ukraine withdrew troops from Debaltseve early Wednesday after pro-Russia rebels overran much of the town despite last week’s European-brokered cease-fire deal. Mark Kelly reports. LUHANSKE, Ukraine—Nine hours after a cease-fire was supposed to take effect , rockets and mortars slammed into Ukrainian army Lt. Yuriy Brekharya ’s redoubt outside the besieged city of Debaltseve “like never before,” he said. Three days of relentless pounding later, he appealed to a neighboring commander for help after advancing Russia-backed separatists destroyed his unit’s final armored vehicle. “Buddy, I’ve got nothing to help you with,” came the reply. Lt. Yuriy Brekharya outside Luhanske village on Wednesday. So Lt. Brekharya, a 37-year-old financial analyst, gathered his 50 men and led them on a 14-mile overnight march across fields, streams and hills through separatist lines. As dawn broke Wednesday, he was among the first of hundreds of fleeing soldiers to arrive in trucks, tanks or […]
