Category:

Pain at the pump to continue, AAA says

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Gas prices have increased for more than a month for one of the longest streaks in years. UPI/Bill Greenblatt WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) — While U.S. gasoline prices remain relatively low, the recent trend in increases is the longest in more than two years, motor club AAA reports. The national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded for Tuesday is $2.44, up two cents from the previous day. Prices have increased for 36 straight days, the longest streak since February 2013. AAA spokesman Avery Ash said gasoline prices are still historically low , but the price trend is a growing source of frustration for motorists. Prices are up because of refinery issues and AAA expects increases to continue. "Gas prices likely will rise higher in March as refineries conduct seasonal maintenance," he said in a Monday briefing. "The good news […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

California survey finds Sierra snowpack far below normal

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s latest snow survey found on Tuesday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack is far below normal and could end up being the lowest on record in nearly 25 years. Snow supplies about a third of the water needed by state residents, agriculture and industry, and a higher winter snowpack translates to more water for California reservoirs to meet demand in summer and fall. Last weekend’s Sierra Nevada snowfall pleased skiers and snowboarders, but wasn’t enough to offset previous weeks in which no snow fell. The latest survey makes it likely that California’s drought will run through a fourth consecutive year. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Jan. 17, 2014, and his office continues to underline the need for sustained water conservation. Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, said there were 6.7 inches of snow on the ground at the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. shale producers get no relief from rising Brent: Kemp

LONDON (Reuters) – More than ever before, U.S. shale producers are becoming the victims of outdated restrictions on the export of crude oil from the United States. Export controls have ensured the most oversupplied part of the global oil market is at home in the United States. The main beneficiaries are rival producers in the Middle East and elsewhere able to obtain higher international prices thanks to the export ban. U.S. shale producers have received almost no benefit from the improvement in international oil prices since the middle of January. Benchmark Brent prices have risen around $16 per barrel since hitting their recent low on Jan 13. But prices for shale producers are tied to the domestic marker WTI which has risen by only $4 per barrel over the same period ( link.reuters.com/buv24w ). In the middle of January, posted prices for shale producers in Texas and North Dakota […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Clock ticks toward North Dakota producers reaping up to $5.3 billion oil tax break

WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) – The clock is still ticking on a potential $5.3 billion, two-year tax break for North Dakota’s oil industry after a state-calculated average of February’s crude price fell below $52.59 per barrel last month. The state waives its 6.5 percent oil extraction tax if the monthly price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude at the Cushing, Oklahoma, transport hub falls below an inflation-adjusted limit, set at $52.59 per barrel for 2015, for five consecutive months. For February, the average calculated price was $50.86 per barrel, according to North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger. The average was an increase from the January average of $47.98 per barrel. The tax break kicks in if the average monthly price is below that $52.59 level for each of the next three months. If it is off even one month, the clock resets. The tax returns if the average price […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Whiting to Reduce Bakken Rig Count

Whiting Bakken Acreage Map | Click to Enlarge In its fourth quarter earning report, Whiting Petroleum announced a record 2014 and revealed a 2015 spending plan that includes reducing Bakken rig count. In spite of low crude prices, Whiting ended the year with a Q4 profit of $58 million with cash flows totalling $419 million. Oil production was at record numbers for both the quarter (up 13%) and the entire year, which averaged 41.8 MMBOE and was up 22% over 2013. Related: Whiting Bakken Production Hits Record Levels in Second Quarter In July of 2014, Whiting Petroleum announced plans to acquire Kodiak Oil & Gas for $3.8 billion. The deal made the combined company the largest Bakken/Three Forks producer, unseating Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources from the top spot. Read more: Whiting Petroleum Acquires Kodiak Oil & Gas – $3.8 Billion James J. Volker, Whiting’s Chairman, President and CEO, commented, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

The Best Way to Prevent Exploding Trains? Higher Oil Prices

Wreckage from the latest oil train explosion hadn’t yet been cleared from the crash site in West Virginia last week when President Obama vetoed legislation that would have  approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline . The timing of the two events crystallizes one of the puzzles at the heart of the U.S. oil boom: How do we move all this new crude around the country? As production in the U.S. has soared to more than 9 million barrels a day—up from just 5 million back in 2008—the pipeline industry has scrambled to reorient itself around new oilfields in North Dakota and Texas. But railroads have proven more nimble and in many cases beat pipelines to the punch . The amount of crude being moved by trains jumped by almost 5,000 percent since 2009, even though trains are less efficient and typically more expensive than pipelines. Trains offer traders and energy companies something that pipelines don’t: flexibility.  With about 80 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Modern Life Is Probably Screwed by Peak Oil, But It’s Not Too Late to Avoid Mass Starvation

Modern Life Is Probably Screwed by Peak Oil, But It’s Not Too Late to Avoid Mass Starvation thumbnail The challenge of feeding 7 or 8 billion people while oil supplies are falling is stupefying. It’ll be even greater if governments keep pretending that it isn’t going to happen. I don’t know when global oil supplies will start to decline. I do know that another resource has already peaked and gone into freefall: the credibility of the body that’s meant to assess them. Last week two whistleblowers from the International Energy Agency alleged that it has deliberately upgraded its estimate of the world’s oil supplies in order not to frighten the markets. Three days later, a paper published by researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden showed that the IEA’s forecasts must be wrong, because it assumes a rate of extraction that appears to be impossible. The agency’s assessment of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Brent crude up $1 to over $60.50 as global markets firm

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude oil prices rose more than a dollar to above $60.50 a barrel on Tuesday, tracking firmer Asian markets, but analysts warned the market remained oversupplied. Most Asian stock markets edged up on Tuesday, bolstered by a record day on Wall Street, while a resurgent yen helped knock the U.S. dollar index off an 11-year high, making commodities priced in the greenback slightly cheaper for holders of other currencies. [MKTS/GLOB] Data showing China’s January crude oil throughput climbed 0.6 percent on year to 39.35 million tonnes, or 9.27 million barrels per day, also supported the oil market. Front-month Brent futures LCOc1 were trading up $1 at $60.54 a barrel by 0632 GMT, just off the day’s high of $60.74. U.S. WTI futures CLc1 were up 42 cents to at $50.01 a barrel. A drop in U.S. rig counts is also boosting oil prices, analysts said. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

U.S. Oil Prices Fall

U.S. oil prices fell Monday on concerns about a continued oversupply of crude, paring earlier gains. Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled down 17 cents, or 0.3%, to $49.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures rose above $51 a barrel earlier in the session after a widely watched forecaster said crude supplies in a key storage hub grew by a smaller-than-expected amount last week. Data service Genscape Inc. reported that oil inventories in Cushing, Okla., grew by 1.39 million barrels in the week. Oil equipment stands in Texas. U.S. oil futures prices on Monday gained. Supplies in Cushing have grown for 12 straight weeks, often by more than two million barrels in a week, according to the Energy Information Administration. Cushing is the delivery point for the benchmark U.S. oil-futures contract, so U.S. oil prices are sensitive to supply levels at the storage hub. In […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil falls more than 1 percent on dollar, supply concerns

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than 1 percent on Monday, with Brent slipping to around $62 a barrel, depressed by a stronger dollar and a rise in Libyan crude output. The U.S. dollar hit an 11-year high against a basket of currencies after a rate cut in China dented the Chinese yuan and also hit emerging Asian currencies. [FRX/] Brent crude hit a low of $61.78 a barrel and was at $62.08 by 0910 GMT (4.10 a.m. EST), down 50 cents. Front-month Brent jumped 18 percent in February, the largest monthly rise since May 2009. U.S. crude was down 55 cents to $49.21 a barrel. Disruption to oil supplies from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has helped support crude with lower output from Libya and Iraq in the first couple of months of this year. But output from several OPEC countries may be […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple