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Falkland Oil & Gas Says Rig Moved to Drill 1st Well on Zebedee Prospect

By Alex MacDonald LONDON–Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd.(FOGL.LN) said Tuesday that the drilling unit Eirik Raude has arrived in the North Falkland Basin and will shortly start drilling the first well on the Zebedee prospect. This is part of a six-well program that will see two wells drilled in the NFB then one to the south of the islands, followed by two more in the north and a final slot in the south. The project is being developed with Rockhopper Exploration PLC (RKH.LN). Write to Alex MacDonald at [email protected]

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Beijing Quietly Curbs Discussion of Documentary on Air Pollution

ENLARGE Chai Jing released an online documentary Saturday about air pollution. After the film was viewed some 100 million times, government censors stepped in to tamp down discussion about the film. Above, Ms. Chai is seen in a file photo from 2012 at her book release in Beijing Photo: Zuma Press BEIJING—A deeply emotive documentary on air pollution by a well-known journalist was quickly praised by a top government official, but after it drew some 100 million views online over the weekend, censors stepped in to tamp down the buzz, according to several accounts. Produced by former state television broadcaster Chai Jing, “Under the Dome” is a bleak look at the state of the Middle Kingdom’s skies and an unhappy commentary on how government efforts to target the problem have failed. Ms. Chai decided to investigate pollution after the birth of her daughter, who was diagnosed with a benign […]

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Billionaire Lawmakers Ensure the Rich Are Represented in China’s Legislature

HONG KONG — Lawmakers in much of the world are often accused of being in the pockets of billionaires. But there’s a difference in China . Here, the lawmakers are the billionaires. Among the 1,271 richest Chinese people tracked by the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, a record 203, or more than one in seven, are delegates to the nation’s Parliament or its advisory body, which will convene for their yearly joint session this week in Beijing. According to figures released by the Hurun Report on Monday, the delegates’ combined net worth is $463.8 billion, more than the annual economic output of Austria. American lawmakers are poor by comparison. According to figures provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks money in American politics, the richest person in any of the United States government’s three branches, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, would rank as only the […]

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Bakken Rigs Count Down to 109

Bakken Oil Well | Click to Enlarge The Bakken-Three Forks rig count decreased by 12 t0 109 rigs running across our coverage area by the end of last week. In recent Bakken news, Governor Dalrymple of North Dakota signed legislation that grants massive emergency funding to counties and cities statewide in order to bolster the lagging infrastructure. The bulk of the money is targeted to fix roadways and bridges that have not been able to keep up with the increased traffic of heavy oil field equipment that the shale boom has brought to the Bakken area. Read more: Governor Dalrymple Commits to Infrastructure The U.S. rig count fell another 43 to 1267 rigs running by the end of last week. A total of 280 rigs were targeting natural gas (down nine from the previous week) and 986 were targeting oil in the U.S. (33 less than the previous week). […]

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Reality hits North Dakota’s pricey apartment market; rents drop

WILLISTON, N.D. (Reuters) – It is getting cheaper to rent an apartment in North Dakota’s oil patch. Prices, which only last year rivaled levels in New York City and Geneva, have slipped about 15 to 20 percent in the past two months as dozens of new apartment buildings opened in Williston, Watford City and other oil hub cities. Growth in demand has slipped because the plunge in crude oil prices has led to cuts in capital spending by energy producers.     There are still about 1,800 energy-related jobs unfilled in the No. 2 U.S. oil-producing state, and there is still demand for apartments. But the accommodation shortage is nothing like it was when the state’s oil boom began six years ago. As new developments start leasing, tenants are able to negotiate lower rents. "You’re starting to see prices fall this year as more units come online," said Terry Metzler […]

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CP Rail CEO Says Biggest Crude-by-Rail Fear Is Terrorism

(Bloomberg) — Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s chief executive officer, said his greatest fear in moving crude by rail is the prospect of a terrorist attack on the company’s trains. “That’s what concerns me more because it can be planned to do the worst possible damage,” Harrison told reporters after a speech in Toronto. Canadian and U.S. transportation regulators are drafting tougher standards for oil tank cars as record volumes of the commodity are moving across the continent from oil fields in Western Canada and the U.S. New regulation was prompted by the explosion in Lac Megantic, Quebec, in 2013 that killed 47 people. There have been recent incidents too. Last month, a CSX Corp. train carrying crude derailed and exploded in West Virginia shortly after a derailed Canadian National Railway Co. train caught fire near Gogama, Ontario. CP has taken “quantum leaps” to reduce spills by improving […]

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California Beach Community Prepares for High-Stakes Vote on Oil Drilling

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — This quaint and quirky seaside community south of Los Angeles has had a conflicted relationship with the oil industry for close to a century. It has variously approved oil drilling, banned it, approved it and prohibited it again. During one yes-on-oil stretch, it contracted with an energy company to put 34 wells on a 1.3-acre city maintenance yard a few blocks from a stretch of beach that normally bustles with surfers and swimmers. On Tuesday, the residents of Hermosa Beach are going to vote yet again on an oil and gas drilling initiative — whether to allow a contract with the energy company E&B Natural Resources Management to proceed despite a current drilling ban. The contract, which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars for the local government, received final approval from the City Council in 1992, but it has been in limbo ever since. […]

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Pennsylvania governor asks Obama for stronger crude-by-rail rules

WASHINGTON, DC, Mar. 2 03/02/2015 Noting that 60-70 trains/week carry Bakken crude oil across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area or other East Coast refineries, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) asked US President Barack Obama for stronger federal regulations to prevent derailments and improve safety. “I have already taken actions to address this issue including holding emergency trainings, participating in meetings with executives, and tasking my administration to put plans in place to both prevent accidents and mitigate impacts,” Wolf separately said on Feb. 27. “We also need expedited federal regulatory action in several areas along with a greater commitment to funding inspection and enforcement,” Wolf said. “We cannot afford to wait for a major incident before taking action.” In his Feb. 26 letter to Obama, Wolf called for consistent national standards to reduce Bakken crude’s volatility prior to transport, further reduction of trains’ speed limits through urban areas, more federal […]

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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 […]

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Oil Shock Worsens Political Fight Hampering Norway’s Premier

Erna Solberg, Norway’s Prime Minister. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg risks being left in the lurch by her coalition partners as she seeks to steer western Europe’s biggest oil producer through a slump in crude prices. The 54-year-old called a meeting with her support parties for Tuesday to discuss a mounting discord in her coalition and “the challenges that Norway faces.” Tensions inside the coalition are growing as Finance Minister Siv Jensen’s Progress Party is increasingly at odds with the government’s two support parties over everything from economic and tax policies, to welfare spending and immigration. Solberg’s dilemma is that she needs “support from two centrist parties in parliament that basically disagree with the government on a lot of issues,” said Johannes Bergh, a researcher at the Institute for Social Research in Oslo. “That’s caused a lot of friction.” Support for the minority government, […]

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