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As Oil Prices Slide, North Dakota Sees Manufacturing In Its Future

WILLISTON, N.D., March 23 (Reuters) – Business and community leaders in North Dakota’s western oil patch have launched an aggressive campaign to convince more manufacturers to set up shop locally, part of a push to expand the area’s economy beyond crude production and slash costs. The effort, which was launched on Wednesday at a conference in Williston, capital of the state’s oil industry, comes as crude prices have plunged more than 60 percent since last summer, threatening the economy of a region overly reliant on one industry – pumping of oil out the ground. Industry and community leaders say diversification is crucial for not only the state’s economy, but also for oil producers who have long complained of excessive costs for pump repairs, valve parts and myriad other components and services. "We’re just asking for a quality product at a reasonable price," Dave Ruffie, a production foreman with Continental […]

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US Senate Democrats Push White House On Oil Train Safety

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday urged the White House to implement national oil train safety standards and to do more to control the volatility of crude moving in those shipments. The Obama administration is expected to demand that future oil train tankers are toughened with added steel and have advanced braking systems to prevent derailments from becoming a disaster like the 2013 Lac-Megantic tragedy, when a runaway oil train killed 47 people in the Canadian town. But the proposal is expected to do nothing to control the dangers of that cargo even though federal officials have warned that crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken energy patch could be unduly volatile and explosion-prone. Senator Maria Cantwell introduced legislation that would force regulators to control oil train volatility. "This bill is showing our impatience with the fact that (the White House plan) doesn’t include volatility and […]

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Ending crude exports ban would help US security, Rice study finds

WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 25 Lifting the 40-year-old US crude oil export ban would benefit pricing, energy security, and petroleum investment, according to a new study issued by the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. Ending the ban would level the playing field for US producers who face deep discounts for light crude relative to globally traded grades, said Kenneth B. Medlock, the CES’s senior director who wrote the study. Most US light, tight crude is of higher quality than both West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, and Brent, the current global light crude reference, he told reporters during a Washington briefing where the study was released. If it was exported, it would fetch higher prices globally than either WTI or Brent, Medlock said. “Providing more global trading opportunities increases fungibility and enhances energy security,” he said. Global demand growth in the […]

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Supreme Court Appears Divided on EPA Rules to Limit Mercury Emissions

ENLARGE Justices are considering whether the EPA should first have weighed costs to generators of emission cuts. Photo: Bloomberg News WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court appeared split on Wednesday over whether the Environmental Protection Agency erred when it adopted first-ever regulations requiring power plants to cut emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants. The regulations would cost $9.6 billion in annual costs, according to EPA estimates. But the agency said it was appropriate to consider only public health risks—not industry costs—when it decided to regulate coal- and oil-fired generation plants. That decision was the crux of 90 minutes of oral argument. The court was considering a section of the Clean Air Act that said the EPA “shall” regulate utilities’ emissions of the hazardous air pollutants if it found that such regulation “is appropriate and necessary.” The agency said it took costs into account later when it determined exactly how to […]

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Schlumberger Unit to Plead Guilty to Violating Iran, Sudan Sanctions

ENLARGE Oil is pumped from a well near Tioga, N.D. Oil-services firm Schlumberger Ltd. on Wednesday has agreed to pay $232.7 million for violating U.S. sanctions. Photo: karen bleier/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oil-field services company, has agreed to pay $232.7 million for violating U.S. sanctions in Iran and Sudan, part of the government’s extended crackdown on companies doing business with countries the U.S. has declared off limits. As part of a plea agreement with the Justice Department, Schlumberger will pay a $155.1 million criminal fine—the biggest criminal fine ever imposed for a U.S. sanctions violation—and forfeit $77.6 million in illegally obtained profits. Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary, will also plead guilty to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, which enables the government to block transactions involving countries under sanctions. The agreement, which still needs court approval, caps a six-year […]

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Harold Hamm Gains More Bakken Acreage

Harold Hamm of Continental Resources Continental Resources strengthened its position in North Dakota by winning the right to drill on an additional 160 acres located near the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Continental’s Harold Hamm spent  2.3 million for the privilege at a state land auction last Friday, beating out the competition in the last 30 seconds of bidding. The funds from this sale are earmarked for educational uses around the state. Low oil prices have caused companies to reduce spending for 2015 and order to wait out the pricing situation including  EOG ,  Occidental Petroleum  and  ConocoPhillips . Even as Continental announced it would  slash its budget by 48% , CEO Harold Hamm remained publicly optimistic about his company’s ability to navigate the rough waters. Hamm commented that “We concluded 2014 with a strong fourth quarter performance, capping off another year of exceptional production and proved reserves growth (…) We believe that our […]

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Oil in Storage Rises More Than Expected Again

America’s oil in storage just hit another record after rising for the 11th consecutive week.  Stockpiles rose 8.2 million barrels, or 1.8 percent, to 466.7 million barrels last week, the EIA reported today. Analysts had expected an increase of 4.75 million barrels. The amount of oil the U.S. is cranking out also edged up slightly, for the seventh consecutive week, to a rate of 9.42 million barrels a day. Investors have been closely watching the oil gather in storage tanks, which has been rising steadily since the oil-price crash started last year. Stockpiles are more than 25 percent above their five-year average. Inventories aren’t likely to max out, but even the possibility of coming close is adding pressure to an oversupplied oil market.   The oil storage in tank farms may rise to about 73 percent, leaving plenty of excess room, according to an analysis distributed today by Morgan Stanley. The buildup of […]

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U.S. crude stocks rise as Cushing storage maintains record

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude inventories soared last week to extend their record build into the eleventh consecutive week as stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub also hit another peak, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose 8.2 million barrels to 466.7 million last week, another 80-year high record, compared with analysts’ expectations for an increase of 5.1 million barrels. [EIA/S] Crude stocks at Cushing rose 1.9 million barrels to 56.3 million barrels, the EIA said, a 16th straight build adding on last week’s record high level of storage. But the EIA noted in a report released earlier this week that capacity additions at Cushing meant that while the amount of crude was at a record high, it was still only at 77 percent of capacity at the end of the previous reporting period on March 13. U.S. May crude briefly […]

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Record traffic is boosting U.S. fuel demand: Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) – Traffic on U.S. highways has hit a new record as the economy recovers and the lower cost of gasoline and diesel encourages more travel. Cars and trucks drove a record 3.050 trillion miles on U.S. highways in the 12 months ending in January, passing the previous peak of 3.039 trillion set in the 12 months to November 2007, according to the Federal Highway Administration ( link.reuters.com/vyj44w ). In January, traffic was 4.9 percent higher than in the corresponding month in 2014, the agency said on Tuesday. Information on traffic volumes is collected from 4,000 roadside monitoring stations across the country and published with a two-month delay. Traffic fell more than 3 percent between November 2007 and November 2011, as the increased cost of fuel coupled with the recession and increased unemployment to produce the most sustained drop in motoring since World War Two. Traffic volumes have […]

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British oil and gas production declines

British government data show oil and gas production in slow decline, though growth in renewable energy is setting records. File Photo by UPI/A.J. Sisco. Preliminary data from the British Department of Energy and Climate Change show total domestic production of oil in the three months ending in January dropped off 3.6 percent while gas production declined by 1.1 percent compared with the same period last year. Total 2014 production of petroleum was down 2.3 percent "as a result of long-term decline and maintenance activity," though natural gas production was up slightly by 0.3 percent "The overall rate of decline in 2014 was the lowest for 12 years at 1.5 percent compared with the average decline of 7.9 per cent over the previous 10 years," the department said. A February report from industry body Oil & Gas U.K. found a bright spot in an otherwise "bleak" year for North Sea […]

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