California regulators on Tuesday acknowledged lax oversight by the state had allowed oil and gas industry contamination of protected water aquifers and other threats to public safety, and they pledged Continue Reading
Houston (Platts)–10Mar2015/429 pm EDT/2029 GMT More than 60 ships have been delayed since a section of the Houston Ship Channel was closed Monday following a vessel collision that caused MTBE to spill into the waterway, a Houston Pilots dispatcher said Tuesday. The dispatcher said 35 inbound and 30 outbound vessels were in the queue late Tuesday afternoon. The ship channel is closed to all traffic from the Fred Hartman Bridge to ship channel light 86 while salvage operations continue. US Coast Guard Capt. Brian Penoyer said it was not yet possible to estimate when the section would reopen. Article continues below… Platts Global Alert is a complete real-time information service for the global energy industry, providing breaking reports of deals done, price indicators for crude and products and more than 200 end-of-day assessments. "I’d like to give an estimate that would be helpful, but we have to proceed step […]
Washington (Platts)–10Mar2015/432 pm EDT/2032 GMT The US Energy Information Administration on Tuesday nearly tripled its forecast for the 2015 Brent-WTI spread to $7.35/b, largely due to a glut of US crude production. The 2015 spread, which EIA in February forecast would be $2.54/b, was widened due to "continuing large builds in US crude oil inventories, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub," the agency said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook. US commercial crude oil inventories increased to a record 444 million barrels at the end of February, up 50 million barrels since the end of 2014, EIA said. US crude storage capacity is now 62% full, compared with 48% full at the same point a year ago, EIA said. "US commercial crude oil inventories, which are already at the highest level since 1930, are expected to continue growing over the next two months," EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said […]
Highlights North Sea Brent crude oil prices averaged $58/barrel (bbl) in February, an increase of $10/bbl from the January average, and the first monthly average price increase since June 2014. The price increase reflects news of falling U.S. crude oil rig counts and announced reductions in capital expenditures by major oil companies, along with lower-than-expected Iraqi crude oil exports. EIA forecasts that Brent crude oil prices will average $59/bbl in 2015, $2/bbl higher than projected in last month’s STEO, and $75/bbl in 2016. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in 2015 and 2016 are expected to average $7/bbl and $5/bbl, respectively, below Brent. The Brent-WTI spread for 2015 is more than twice the projection in last month’s STEO, reflecting continuing large builds in U.S. crude oil inventories, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub. The current values of futures and options contracts continue to suggest very high uncertainty in the […]
Streak of steady increases in prices at the pump tapering off, motor club AAA reports. UPI/Bill Greenblatt AAA reports a national average retail price of $2.45 per gallon. That’s down a fraction of a cent from Monday’s price, which marked a formal end to the 40-day streak in price increases. U.S. gasoline prices fell in parallel with oil prices last year. A record-breaking streak in falling prices at the pump ended in late January when prices started to move above the floor price of $2.04 per gallon nationally. Oil prices at the end of January also reached their historic bottom and started to move back above the $50 per barrel mark. U.S. refineries at the beginning of February start a regular maintenance period as they shift from producing a winter blend of gasoline to a summer blend, which is more expensive to produce because of steps needed to prevent […]
Fires tied to derailment of train carrying crude oil through Ontario extinguished and traffic to resume through region. Photo: Daniel J. Graeber The last of the fires tied to the derailment of a train carrying crude oil through Ontario have been extinguished, local officials said. A train carrying crude oil on a line operated by Canadian National Railway Co. derailed during the weekend in Gogama, Ontario. CN said a nearby bridge was damaged in the derailment, and five of the cars crashed into an area river. Some of the fires tied to the crash were allowed to burn out on their own. The village of Gogama said in a late Monday update rail cars were pulled from the river and rail traffic was expected to resume by Tuesday afternoon. "CN crews and external specialist firefighters extinguished the last of the fires at the Gogama derailment site," the village said. […]
(Bloomberg) — OAO Lukoil fell to a five-week low, leading a drop in U.S.-traded Russian energy stocks as oil prices declined and separatists in Ukraine traded blame with the government over cease-fire violations. Lukoil, the country’s second-largest oil producer, slid 3.7 percent to $43.60 as of 12:51 p.m. in New York after dropping 3.7 percent in London. A Bloomberg gauge of the U.S.-traded Russian stocks fell 2.2 percent, reducing this year’s gain to 14 percent. Stocks retreated as oil dropped for a fifth day, the longest streak of losses since mid-December, amid signs a global supply glut will persist. The Bloomberg Russia-US Equity Index had advanced 25 percent this year through March 5 as Brent crude stabilized at around $60 a barrel. It touched $56.81 today. A military spokesman said insurgents broke the terms of a peace accord in eastern Ukraine, while the rebels accused the government of firing […]
The world’s two biggest oil firms, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, may withstand the oil price collapse better than their rivals because they are closer to finishing expensive Continue Reading
(Reuters) – U.S. crude’s discount to benchmark Brent oil has narrowed by about a third from 13-month highs hit two weeks ago but the spread could widen again from a combination of chart-inspired trades and fundamentals pointing to U.S. oil oversupply. Since oil prices began tumbling in June, London-traded Brent has often held up better than U.S. crude, save on a few occasions, the most notable in January when the gap between the two hit a 4-1/2-year low of around $1 a barrel. By end-February, the Brent-U.S. crude spread, one of the highest volume trades in oil, had widened to a 13-month high of $13. Technical trading patterns now show it headed toward $15, a level it was last at in mid-January 2014. According to Elliott wave and Fibonacci ratio patterns, the spread should widen to an area between $14.24 and $16.81, after a renewed push past $13 last […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Information Administration revised upward its 2015 domestic oil production outlook, but lowered its 2016 forecast because it expects the slump in global prices to weigh on the country’s shale boom next year. Expected total oil production in 2015 will rise to 9.35 million barrels per day, slightly higher than the 9.3 million bpd forecast last month, the EIA said on Tuesday in its monthly short-term energy outlook. The revision comes a day after the EIA released data showing that oil production from U.S. shale fields will grow at its lowest pace in over four years starting in April, on the back of low prices and company spending cuts. An EIA spokesman said the revision is due to an increase in baseline expectations for the fourth quarter and to production in the Gulf of Mexico. Offshore production in the Gulf is more resistant […]
(Bloomberg) — Russian car sales fell 38 percent last month, more than estimated, as the economy contracts and inflation accelerates after last year’s ruble collapse. Sales of new cars and light commercial vehicles dropped to 128,298 units in February from 206,526 a year earlier, the Association of European Businesses in Russia said Tuesday in a statement. That’s the biggest decline since 2009 and follows a 24 percent slump in January. The median estimate of seven economists surveyed by Bloomberg was a decrease of 28 percent. Automakers in Russia are suffering after the ruble weakened 46 percent against the dollar last year, the world’s second-worst performance, and the economy slid to the brink of recession. Car manufacturers are offering discounts or slowing output to counter low demand, with consumers hurting from inflation at 16.7 percent in February, the fastest pace since 2002. The car market probably won’t rebound until 2019 […]
“Development of new offshore potential, an LNG terminal, and ensuring interconnected pipelines between countries and into Hungary and Serbia will create real diversity and competition,” Hochstein said. “That is the cornerstone of security. The U.S. will continue to work with all countries in the region to make this goal a reality.” To contact the reporter on this story: Jasmina Kuzmanovic in Zagreb at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at [email protected] Peter Laca
Signage is displayed at a Chevron Corp. fueling station in Richmond, California. The second-biggest U.S. energy company by market value said its capital spending budget would be $35 billion this year, 13 percent less than 2014. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg The shares fell 0.92 percent to $102.99 at 11:46 a.m. in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Chicago at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Susan Warren at [email protected] Jim Efstathiou Jr., Steven Frank
(Bloomberg) — French refiners may close more than one plant as fuel demand weakens, following losses of as much as 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) over the past six years, an industry lobby group said. Should Total SA, which operates five of France’s eight refineries, halt production at one of its sites, more closures would probably follow, Francis Duseux, president of the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, which represents oil companies in the country, told reporters on Tuesday in Paris. “Unfortunately I don’t think it will be finished,” said Duseux, the former head Exxon Mobil Corp.’s French unit. “It will not stop at one refinery except if the state intervenes.” French refineries lost hundreds of millions of euros last year as the 22 euros a metric ton average margin for processing crude was below the break-even level, UFIP said. While Total has yet to unveil details of a refinery […]
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian crude oil exports are expected to rise this year and beyond as volumes are diverted away from domestic refineries which are cutting capacity as part of a modernization drive, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. Novak told Reuters that Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, will maintain its crude oil output at over 10 million barrels per day (bpd), despite some expectations of a plunge in production due to lower prices. He said Russia will continue consultations with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Russia will meet OPEC officials in June in Vienna to discuss the impact of shale oil production on global oil markets. Up to now, Russia has been cutting crude oil exports and instead sending much of its crude production to domestic refineries, a move that offers better margins than selling crude to the market at current low […]
The Kremlin’s motivation in the Ukrainian conflict has split scholars. Is Russia a greedy state ideologically driven to expand or a declining insecure superpower defending itself against NATO? Realist scholars (for example, see these recent pieces by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt ) argue that the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict was provoked by NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine, which were a part of Russia’s strategic zones of influence. The opponents tend to blame Russia for the conflict. To a large extent the divide is methodological: following the publication of Mearsheimer’s piece, Foreign Affairs surveyed scholars on “who is to blame for the conflict?” and discovered that scholars of international relations predominantly mentioned NATO and regional specialists tended to blame Russia. Along with the multiple leaps in the realist argument outlined by Alexander Motyl in his recent Monkey Cage post , it also fails to explain the timing of Russia’s aggression […]
WASHINGTON — As American intelligence agencies have detected new Russian tanks and artillery crossing the border into Ukraine in recent days, President Obama is coming under increasing pressure from both parties and more officials inside his own government to send arms to the country. But he remains unconvinced that they would help. Democrats joined Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday in unanimously pressing the administration to send weapons to Kiev. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly urged Mr. Obama to consider such a move last week, joining Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence. But the president has signaled privately that despite all the pressure, he remains reluctant to send arms. In part, he has told aides and visitors that arming the Ukrainians would encourage the notion that they could actually defeat […]
For a long time, there has been a belief that the decline in oil supply will come by way of high oil prices. Demand will exceed supply. It seems to me that this view is backward–the decline in supply will come through low oil prices. The oil glut we are experiencing now reflects a worldwide affordability crisis. Because of a lack of affordability, demand is depressed. This lack of demand keeps prices low–below the cost of production for many producers. If the affordability issue cannot be fixed, it threatens to bring down the system by discouraging investment in oil production. This lack of affordability is affecting far more than oil products. A recent article in The Economist talks about LNG prices being depressed. LNG capacity ramped up quickly in response to high prices a few years ago. Now there is a glut of LNG capacity, and prices are far below […]
Predicting and diagnosing the trajectory of oil prices has become something of a cottage industry in the past year. But along with all of the excess crude flowing from the oil patch, there is also an abundance of market indicators that while important, tend to produce a lot of noise that makes any accurate estimate nearly impossible. First there is the oil price itself. The crash began last summer, and accelerated in November. Since then, predictions for oil prices for 2015 have been all over the map – from Citigroup’s $20 per barrel, to T. Boone Pickens’ prediction of a return to $100 per barrel. OPEC’s Secretary-General even said prices could shoot up to $200 in the coming years as a result of overly drastic cutbacks and a failure to invest in new production. With those estimates at the extremes, most analysts think prices will continue to seesaw within […]
The oil market has been very weak over the past seven months. The price of a WTI contract went down more than 50% from its 2014 peak of $107 per Continue Reading
Brent crude fell towards $58 a barrel on Tuesday as the dollar scaled multi-year highs, but data showing a recovery in China’s annual consumer inflation checked losses. The greenback hit Continue Reading
By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures were rangebound in Asian trade Tuesday as markets await this week’s energy agency reports for a fresh assessment of global oil supply and demand balances. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April traded at $50.13 a barrel at 0441 GMT, up $0.13 in the Globex electronic session. Brent crude for April delivery on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.04 to $58.57 a barrel. The oil benchmarks had diverged overnight, with Nymex West Texas Intermediate crude gaining 0.8% in the last trading session and Brent crude losing 2%. Nymex crude was supported by an industry report that indicated a slower increase in U.S. oil supply, while Brent crude has sagged toward the bottom of its recent trading range ahead of the expiry of the April futures contract next Monday, according to Citi Futures. The market is polarised regarding […]
OPEC Secretary-General of OPEC Abdalla al-Badri tells delegates in Bahrain supply and demand dynamics should balance during the second half of 2015. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was off more than 2 percent from Friday’s settle at around $60 barrel, and a bit more than 1 percent less than the previous close, to trade at $59.08 per barrel early Monday. Oil prices have recovered from a January floor below the $50 per barrel mark, though Brent prices have been unable to sustain levels much beyond $60. The steady decline in crude oil prices since June is a response to a market tilted toward the supply side, thanks in large part to increased production from the United States. Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in November opted to keep production levels static despite price swings in order to protect their market share. […]
The U.S. and global oil-price benchmarks diverged Monday, as the U.S. market rose on supply expectations at a key storage hub while concerns about a continued oversupply weighed on global prices. Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled up 39 cents, or 0.8%, at $50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, fell $1.20, or 2%, to $58.53 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Data service Genscape Inc. reported Monday that oil stockpiles in Cushing, Okla., rose by 1.7 million barrels between Feb. 27 and March 6, according to two industry sources, with most of the increase in the first part of that week. Genscape’s numbers were “a lot lower than everybody expected,” said Carl Larry, director of oil and gas at Frost & Sullivan. “It looks like we’re seeing a lot more crude being pushed down from Cushing to the Gulf Coast,” where […]
The IEA’s latest medium-term oil forecast is a useful update to the thinking behind its current long-term outlook, which predated much of the current price drop. They expect shale output to be relatively resilient and rely on Iraq’s capacity to expand output in spite of significant security risks. When the International Energy Agency issued its most recent long-term energy forecast last November 12th, Brent crude oil traded just above $80 per barrel. At that point it had fallen only half as far as it would by January 2015, compared to its June 2014 high of $115. As a result, the IEA’s assessment of the price drop in its 2015 World Energy Outlook was incomplete, to say the least. The agency’s Medium-Term Oil Market Report , issued in February, provides a necessary update and some interesting insights about how–and how far–they envision the oil market recovering. Anyone expecting the IEA […]
By Nicole Friedman NEW YORK–Natural-gas prices dropped to a one-month low Monday on expectations that warmer weather would reduce demand for the heating fuel. Futures gained 3.8% last week as frigid temperatures continued into the first week of March, following the coldest February in about 30 years. About half of U.S. households use natural gas to heat their homes, so freezing weather boosts natural-gas consumption. But temperatures warmed up over the weekend in the Northeast, which is a key natural-gas-consuming region. Front-month April futures settled down 16.1 cents, or 5.7%, at $2.678 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price since Feb. 10. Traders who had bet on higher prices closed out positions after weather forecasts released over the weekend called for moderate temperatures, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy-advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates. "After the mild updates that we saw over […]
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar scored multi-year highs against the euro and yen in Asia on Tuesday amid starkly diverging outlooks for interest rates globally, while currencies from emerging markets came under mounting pressure from risk aversion. The skittish mood spread to Asian stocks as MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS slipped 0.6 percent. Driving the dollar was speculation the Federal Reserve would start lifting interest rates from mid-year, while central banks in the European Union and Japan were busy easing policy by buying billions in government bonds. The European Central Bank began its trillion-euro bond buying campaign on Monday, nudging down yields in Germany and other core EU sovereigns. Selling in the euro gathered pace through the Asian session as a break of $1.0822 EUR= triggered stop-loss offers and took it as deep as $1.0785, the lowest since September 2003. Bears are now eyeing […]
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Traders who have been storing oil since the start of the year are selling some supplies back into the market, completing a trade-play that made oil storage profitable, and re-injecting fuel into an already oversupplied market. The selling signals a winding down of a strategy that has seen at least 50 million barrels of oil stored in tankers, equivalent to about one month’s consumption in Britain, although traders said it was not clear how much oil has been sold. A steep fall in the price of crude from last June to January enabled traders to potentially make money by storing oil for delivery at a later date, as the market moved into an unusually large contango, with prices in future months well above the spot price. Traders such as Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL], Vitol [VITOLV.UL] and Gunvor [GGL.UL], as well as energy majors like BP and Shell stored […]
MANAMA (Reuters) – The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Secretary-General said on Sunday that the group’s exporters should not cut output to "subsidize" higher-cost shale, an energy source whose recent growth is blamed by OPEC for weakening oil markets. Abdullah al-Badri added in remarks to a conference in Bahrain that tight oil, a term he has used for shale, was "not a challenge for us" but the market should now be left to decide which source of petroleum could survive at current prices. Oil prices have sunk to near six year lows in recent months as a result of a large supply glut, due mostly to a sharp rise in U.S. shale production as well as weaker global demand. The rapid decline has left several smaller oil producing countries reeling and has forced oil companies to slash budgets. "We welcome tight oil… but this source of energy costs […]
Members of Congress rise to applaud during a GOP-sponsored address by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Republican senators, like Netanyahu, hope to scuttle a pending nuclear deal with Iran. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call / Getty Images There’s a charming naiveté to the open letter [PDF] by 47 Republican senators that condescendingly seeks to explain features of the U.S. constitutional system to Iran’s leaders that they otherwise “may not fully understand.” The missive warns that, with respect to “your nuclear negotiations with our government … any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress” could be revoked by the next president “with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.” Beyond the amusing inaccuracies about U.S. parliamentary order , it seems there are some features of the nuclear negotiations that the signatory senators don’t fully understand […]
WASHINGTON — The fractious debate over a possible nuclear deal with Iran escalated on Monday as 47 Republican senators warned Iran against making an agreement with President Obama and the White House accused them of undercutting foreign policy. In an exceedingly rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the Republicans sent an open letter addressed to “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” declaring that any agreement could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.” The letter appeared aimed at unraveling an agreement even as negotiators grow close to reaching it. Mr. Obama, working with leaders of five other world powers, argues that the emerging agreement would be the best way to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, while critics from both parties contend that it would be a dangerous charade that would still leave Iran with the opportunity to eventually build weapons […]
ENLARGE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, poses for photographers with Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), to his right, last week when he spoke to a joint session of Congress. Photo: Getty Images A classic quandary facing any Congress is deciding just how deeply to get involved in the making of foreign policy. It’s an area where the president usually is given wide berth, and lawmakers traditionally are wary of getting too invested on the front end of tough international decisions, because that means they own the messy consequences of a bad decision on the back end. Yet at the moment, the Republicans running Congress are planting their flag firmly on the side of demanding not just a say in, but a right to veto, any coming nuclear deal with Iran. This raises a basic question: Could Congress blow up international negotiations led by […]
ENLARGE Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was among 47 Republicans who signed an open letter to Iran about nuclear talks with the Obama administration. Photo: Associated Press WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Monday sharply criticized an open letter by 47 Senate Republicans warning Iran’s leaders that any agreement between the White House and Tehran on nuclear weapons could be quickly nullified or changed once Mr. Obama leaves office. The lawmakers were effectively aligning themselves with Iranian hardliners who oppose an international nuclear deal, Mr. Obama said. The letter, which was signed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and a number of top committee chairmen, came as a major new complication in a debate over international nuclear talks that face a March 31 deadline. Senators said that, unless approved by Congress, any agreement between world powers and Iran would be seen by GOP lawmakers as an executive agreement between […]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. senators warned Iran’s leaders on Monday that any nuclear deal with President Barack Obama could last only as long as he remains in office, an unusual partisan intervention in foreign policy that could undermine delicate international talks with Tehran. The open letter was signed by 47 senators, all but seven of the Republicans in the Senate, and none of Obama’s fellow Democrats, who called it a "stunt." Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif dismissed it as a "propaganda ploy" from pressure groups he called afraid of diplomatic agreement. In the letter, the senators said Congress plays a role in ratifying international agreements. Noting Obama will leave office in January 2017, they said any deal not approved by Congress would be merely "an executive agreement" that could be revoked by Congress. The White House said the letter was a partisan effort to undermine Obama’s foreign policy […]
BLASTED: An aerial photograph showing what United States military officials describe as a Command and Control Facility in the town of Tikrit, Iraq, after air strikes appears in this recent undated military handout photograph. As the empire continues to collapse, imperialism and the blatant lies (that come with it) will no longer matter. The PTB will plow forward steamrolling anything in the unrelenting ways of “progress”. We all know what the perpetual war in the middle east is about. Most mindlessly go about filling the car and shopping, whispering to themselves, “We see it, we know it, we just are not allowed to say it”, for fear of losing the false sense of security that the deception of empire instill, through delusion of comfort and “security”. “Oh holy crude” sung to the tune of “Oh Canada.” Elijah and the Widow would be proud ( The Peak of The Oil […]
Warplanes from Libya’s internationally recognized government attacked the last functioning airport in Tripoli, the capital controlled by a rival administration, on Monday, officials said. Extending a series of tit-for-tat strikes, the attack coincided with the swearing-in of Khalifa Haftar, one of the most divisive figures in post-revolutionary Libya, as army commander for the recognized government. Rival governments and parliaments are battling for control of the large North African country and its oil resources four years after rebels ousted veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi. The recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the elected parliament have been confined to a rump state in the east since an armed faction seized Tripoli in the west over the summer, reinstating the previous assembly and setting up a rival administration. "Warplanes conducted airstrikes this morning on Mitiga airport but there was no damage," airport spokesman Abdulsalam Buamoud said. "Flights were suspended for only an hour … […]
LONDON–BP PLC said Monday it has made a significant gas discovery offshore Egypt days after announcing plans to help invest around $12 billion to develop gas and condensate from its West Nile Delta project in the country. The discovery and investment in Egypt’s energy sector is welcome news for the country, which is facing its worst energy crisis in decades amid rising demand and falling gas production. BP said Monday its Atoll-1 deepwater exploration well in the East Nile Delta had hit 50 meters of gas-bearing rock, the company’s second major discovery in the area since 2013 and a promising sign for the potential commercial development of the concession. The company estimates that the potential volume of gas in the area could exceed 5 trillion cubic feet. The discovery follows BP’s decision last week to go ahead with development of the West Nile Delta project, in which it holds […]
The government in Manila announced the repatriation of more than six dozen nationals from Libya one day before Islamic State abduction of four Filipinos. Photo courtesy of Filipino Foreign Ministry Seven foreign workers were abducted and 11 guards were killed when militants raided the Ghani oil field in Libya. Fighters loyal to the group calling itself the Islamic State took credit for the Friday attack, the latest to stifle oil operations in Libya. The Filipino government confirmed four of its nationals were among those seized, the Libya Herald reported Saturday. The confirmation came after the Filipino Foreign Ministry said 77 of its citizens were repatriated March 5 after they crossed the border into Tunisia. "The Department of Foreign Affairs estimates that there remain approximately 4,000 Filipinos in Libya despite the call by the Philippine government for their mandatory evacuation as a result of the deteriorating security situation in that […]
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Libya is set to export more than two million barrels of crude oil this week from two ports in the east where output has topped 245,000 barrels per day, oil officials said on Monday. Rising exports from the ports of Hariga and Zueitina offer some hope for the OPEC member state’s oil sector, which has been battered by Islamist militant attacks and fighting between rival factions. Output from four fields including Sarir, the country’s largest, has reached 243,000 to 245,000 bpd, said Omran al-Zwai, spokesman for state firm Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) which dominates production in eastern Libya. AGOCO restarted output at the Sarir and Messla oilfields after a pipeline blast cut off supplies to Hariga last month. The two fields pump around 180,000 bpd, while AGOCO also runs the Hamada and Nafoura fields. A fifth field, Bayda, has been closed to an outage, […]
ENLARGE South African petrochemicals company Sasol Ltd. has cut 1,500 jobs and said more will go, the latest layoffs in a global oil sector contending with the commodity’s price rout. Head count at the company will be “dramatically down” by June, with Sasol pressing ahead with steep cuts in capital spending and a reduction in its annual dividend, Chief Executive David Constable said. But Mr. Constable said the scale of the industry’s cutbacks are such that they might catapult oil prices higher again in 2017 after their roughly 50% slide since last summer. “The capital projects that we’re cutting back on—that the majors are cutting back on—these projects take years and years to start back up. You don’t flip the switch,” he said in an interview. “That’s what could give you a high-side well above 100 [dollars a barrel],” he said. Sasol itself has “put on the shelf…until further […]
CARACAS, Venezuela — He thunders about conspiracies and assassination plots. He says that he sleeps with both eyes open. Few Venezuelans even know where he lives. But no matter the dangers, President Nicolás Maduro says that no one will scare him, fool him or divert him from carrying out the mission that the “eternal Commander Chávez” has given him “until the end of the end of the roads, now and forever.” Mr. Maduro came into office seeking to imitate his charismatic predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chávez , in nearly every way : the way he talked, the way he dressed and in his fulminations against American imperialism. But now, two years after the death of Mr. Chávez, with his country sinking deeper into an economic crisis, what was once Mr. Maduro’s greatest advantage — his absolute loyalty to the late leader — may have become his greatest handicap. “The […]
Finally some promising environmental news out of China. Traditionally defiant on climate change issues, China in January enacted a new law aimed at curbing pollution. The measure, which accords more powers Continue Reading
Posted in The Petroleum Truth Report ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson is wrong about the resilience of U.S. tight oil production. “…Mr. Tillerson pointed out that the collapse in natural-gas prices similarly had led the number of rigs drilling for that fuel to drop to 280 from north of 1,600 in 2008. Gas output jumped 50% in that time, he said. That is what you call resilience…While he didn’t see a perfect parallel between shale gas and shale oil, he said there were “lessons” to be learned.” His point is that we should not expect a big drop in U.S. tight oil production just because the rig count is falling. He bases this prediction on what happened with gas production in 2008-2009 and afterward. That is wrong. The fact that gas production didn’t decrease much in 2008-2009 despite a huge drop in rig count is incorrectly attributed to the high productivity of shale gas wells. The […]
LONDON (Reuters) – Two more serious derailments and fires involving trains carrying crude oil in the past week confirm there is a serious problem with the safety culture on North American railroads. The latest fiery derailments occurred in northern Illinois involving a train operated by BNSF and northern Ontario involving a train operated by Canadian National Railway. They come just weeks after serious oil train fires in West Virginia involving a train operated by CSX and another Canadian National derailment in northern Ontario. Fortunately, these derailments occurred in sparsely populated areas, but it is only a matter of time before a train derails in a densely populated urban center and risks a mass casualty incident. The U.S. Department of Transportation predicts more than 200 crude and ethanol carrying trains will derail over the next 20 years, including ten in urban areas. Based on plausible assumptions, at least one of […]
(Bloomberg) — A series of rail accidents involving oil tank cars that exceed federal safety standards yet still burst into flames after derailing is shifting the focus from the container to the crude — and whether it’s too explosive to be carried by train. A wreck over the weekend in Canada brought the total to four in less than a month in the U.S. and Canada. All involved relatively modern tank cars known as the CPC-1232, which are designed to be sturdier than a model that regulators have said are prone to rupture. Safety advocates say the spills show that a proposed rule now under review at the White House to require even tougher tank cars is necessary, but that it may not go far enough. “The problem is in the product,” said Phil Steck, a New York state assemblyman whose district near Albany is bisected by oil trains. […]
The Canadian government faces similar pressure as its U.S. counterparts to do more to ensure oil is carried on railways safely, a lawmaker said. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada dispatched investigators to the site of a derailment of a train carrying crude oil through the village of Gogama in Ontario. The derailment is the second in the region in less than a month. The TSB’s last update was a Saturday announcement the derailment was from a train operated by Canadian National Railway Co. Glenn Thibeault, a member of the Canadian parliament and assistant to the Ontario environment minister, said more is expected from the federal government. The federal government, responsible for rail safety, must do more to protect our communities and the environment pic.twitter.com/XE2dgTn9go — Glenn Thibeault (@GlennThibeault) March 8, 2015 Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced new regulations in April aimed at increasing safety on the Canadian […]
London (Platts)–9Mar2015/420 pm EDT/2020 GMT US shale oil production is expected to see a net gain of just 1,000 b/d in April, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s latest Drilling Productivity Report published Monday. The data shows net production from the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Niobrara shale plays all falling in April — the first time they will have contracted since the EIA started publishing the DPR in November 2013. Only the Permian region will show a significant projected net gain in April, at 21,000 b/d, compared with the February report’s projection for March growth of 30,000 b/d. The DPR uses recent data on the total number of drilling rigs in operation, along with estimates of drilling productivity and estimated changes in production from existing oil and natural gas wells. The projection is based on seven key shale plays — the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus, Niobrara, Permian […]
Houston (Platts)–9Mar2015/422 pm EDT/2022 GMT Because of the structure of the US natural gas market, changes in gas spot prices are not immediately felt by consumers at the end of the pipeline, the Energy Information Administration said Monday. "While natural gas wholesale spot prices have dropped to relatively low levels since the end of 2014, these low prices have not translated directly into lower retail prices for consumers who use natural gas to heat their homes and businesses," the EIA said on its website. "This short-term lag is largely due to the nature of utility regulation," EIA said. "Over longer periods, changes in natural gas spot and residential prices are much more closely correlated." EIA economist Katie Teller said Monday that the regulated nature of the gas market distinguishes it from the oil market, where a correlation between commodity prices and end-user prices is more clearly evident. Article continues […]
This is a guest post by Dennis Coyne The Oil Shock Model was first developed by Webhubbletelescope and is explained in detail in The Oil Conundrum . (Note that this free book takes a while to download as it is over 700 pages long.) The Oil Shock Model with Dispersive Discovery is covered in the first half of the book. I have made a few simplifications to the original model in an attempt to make it easier to understand. Figure 1 In a previous post I explained convolution and its use in modelling oil output in the Bakken/Three Forks and Eagle Ford LTO (light tight oil) fields. Briefly, an average hyperbolic well profile (monthly oil output) is combined with the number of new wells completed each month by means of convolution to find a model of LTO output. In the Oil Shock model the maximum entropy probability distribution is […]
HOUSTON, Mar. 9 03/09/2015 Industrial demand for natural gas in the US will rise to 22.1 bcfd in 2020 from 19.8 bcfd in 2012, according to an updated analysis of projects in progress by the Center for Energy Economics (CEE), Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. CEE maintains a database of projects in gas-intensive industries. Its first projection, in June last year, estimated industrial gas demand in 2020 of 23.5 bcfd in the reference case ( OGJ Online, July 7, 2014 ). The reference case includes projects completed, in front-end engineering and design, obtaining permits, under construction, or otherwise in progress. In the update , CEE sees fewer projects completed or in progress during the study period: 83 vs. 103. The biggest change, CEE says, is suspension of Sasol Ltd.’s plans for a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant at Westlake, La. ( OGJ Online, Jan. 28, […]
