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Refiners Sue BNSF Railway Over $1,000 Oil Tank Car Surcharges

(Bloomberg) — BNSF Railway Co. was sued by a trade group representing 400 U.S. refiners and petrochemical makers objecting to a $1,000 surcharge the nation’s biggest rail transporter of crude oil tacked onto older, unjacketed tank cars. Link to Company News:{BRK/A US <Equity> CN <GO>} To contact the reporter on this story: David E. Rovella in New York at [email protected] To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at [email protected]

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ND Bakken Tax Trigger: Per Barrel Impact

North Dakota calculates oil taxes using a formula based on the benchmark WTI market price to determine the trigger for the oil extraction tax. The trigger can impact new wells, existing wells and producers. North Dakota calculates oil taxes using a formula based on the benchmark WTI market price to determine the trigger for the oil extraction tax. In 2014, the trigger was set at $52.06 and increased to $52.59 for 2015. If the price for WTI minus $2.50 is below the trigger for one month, then all new wells completed in that month qualify for a reduced tax of 2 percent. If WTI minus $2.50 is below the trigger for five consecutive months, then all wells have the 6.5 percent extraction tax reduced to zero percent for 18 months. Based on the current and futures market pricing for WTI, the tax trigger should be enacted in May 2015. […]

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Population Grows 20% in Williston

City Services Stay Barely Ahead of Demand Williston Service Population Grew 20% Williston, N.D., a city at the heart of the Bakken oil region, is experiencing population growth that is ten times the normal rate, according to a recent study commissioned by the city. In order to determine how many people use its infrastructure and to project future needs, the city turned to Nancy Hodur, a researcher from North Dakota State University. Hodur began the study in 2012 with the goal to project numbers through 2014. To accomplish this, she began with census data and then added the numbers from people living in hotels, crew camps, RV parks and other conditional use permitted housing. Hodur’s 2012 projections have held up well, with recent estimates indicating they are all within a 5 percent margin of error. “We did pretty well,” Hodur said. “That bodes very well and reinforces that if we […]

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Sadly, fossil fuels are about as sustainable as my chocolate supply

Sadly, fossil fuels are about as sustainable as my chocolate supply thumbnail WHAT exactly is Transition about? asks Sally Elias. “No, I still don’t get it,” said a good friend, exasperated. “What exactly is Transition all about?” We Dorking Transitioners have always struggled with the challenge of a succinct explanation – a lift-pitch. If you say “We are trying to save the planet”, you sound “boring and worthy” (not my words). If you mention post peak oil, people glaze over or say, “Well now they have discovered fracking we don’t need to worry”. Or if you mention global climate change… well, we all know how that goes down with some people – apparently it’s NOT HAPPENING.  I am not terribly bright, but I do hang out with intelligent people who have read a lot more, studied a lot more and understand a lot more than I do about all […]

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OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report

The katest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report is out with OPEC crude only production numbers for February. All data in the OPEC charts below is in thousand barrels per day and the last data point is February 2015 . Total OPEC crude only production was down 137,600 barrels per day in February. Algeria seems to have stabilized their decline. Angola is holding steady. Ecuador has been slowly increasing production at a rate of about 25,000 barrels per day per year. I don’t think they can hold that for another year however. Iran production has been remarkably flat for about two and one half years. It is a question as to how much their production could increase if sanctions were removed. It is remarkable that Iraq has been able to keep production as high as it is with all the ISIS problems they are having. Kuwait was producing flat out in […]

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How Fast Can We Cut Energy Use?

Energy intensity improvements, or declines in the amount of energy consumption per unit of economic output, must play a critical role in efforts to decarbonize the global economy. Global decarbonization scenarios depend on a wide range of energy intensity improvement rates. Several scenarios which rely heavily on renewable energy and exclude other technologies from consideration (i.e. nuclear or carbon capture and storage), depend on a dramatic acceleration in energy intensity improvement compared to historical rates. Policy making has only limited influence over the mechanisms behind changes in energy intensity. Further research is needed to carefully unpack the mechanisms behind historical rates of change in energy intensity in order to benchmark global decarbonization strategies. Until then, scenarios calling for a step-change acceleration in energy intensity rates should be treated with caution.  Avoiding extreme or dangerous climate change will likely require the nearly complete decarbonization of the global energy system during this century, […]

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Oil prices drop on hopes of Iran nuclear deal, low spare storage capacity

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Monday as spare oil storage capacity runs low and a potential agreement in nuclear talks with Tehran opened the prospect of more Iranian exports, should sanctions be eased. U.S. crude fell to $43.57 in early trading, its lowest since March 2009, before rebounding to $44.19 by 0658 GMT, still down 65 cents. Brent was trading at $54.26 a barrel, down 41 cents. Western powers are hoping for concessions from Tehran that could help clinch a political agreement in nuclear talks this week after the United States and European powers voiced a willingness to compromise on suspending U.N. sanctions, which also affect oil exports. "The prospect of an increase in Iranian oil sales as part of a new agreement in the next couple of months will only exacerbate OPEC oversupply, supporting our bearish outlook," Barclays said. The World Petroleum Council said that the […]

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Most Emerging Stocks Fall on Oil Decline; Chinese Shares Rally

(Bloomberg) –Most emerging-market stocks dropped as a slump in commodity producers offset a rally in Chinese shares after Premier Li Keqiang pledged to take action if economic growth slows too much. Turkey’s lira climbed from a record low. Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production Pcl and South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. sank at least 2.8 percent as energy and raw-material shares slid. Dubai equities led Persian Gulf markets lower as oil decreased for a fifth day. Malaysia’s ringgit lost 0.4 percent versus the dollar, while the lira and South Africa’s rand strengthened more than 0.5 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index surged to a five-year high. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index added 0.1 percent to 940.45 at 8:31 a.m. in London, with 373 shares falling and 275 rising. Li said Sunday the government will take more steps if China’s growth, targeted at about 7 percent this year, drifts toward the lower […]

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« Misleading IEA Statement Sends Oil Prices Lower and The U.S. Rig Count

Posted in The Petroleum Truth Report The IEA (International Energy Agency) made the following statement in its Oil Monthly Report  yesterday that supposedly sent oil prices lower by $2.41 per barrel for Brent and $2.21 per barrel for WTI: “Steep drops in the US rig count have been a key driver of the price rebound. Yet US supply so far shows precious little sign of slowing down. Quite to the contrary, it continues to defy expectations. Output estimates for 4Q14 North American supply have been revised upwards by a steep 300 kb/d.” IEA’s comments on U.S. oil production trends are misleading.  When IEA says “oil” they mean “liquids” so their number includes natural gas liquids which add more than 3 million barrels per day on top of U.S. crude oil supply that largely come from natural gas production and not from oil production. Also, IEA is talking about the 4th quarter of 2014 which is […]

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Warmer Weather Cools Natural Gas

A Connecticut man digs out from a blizzard in early February. ENLARGE Photo: TNS/Zuma Press Natural-gas prices are sliding, a harbinger of spring. Heavy snowfall and deep cold in the Northeast states, a major gas-consuming region, briefly boosted prices above $3 a million British thermal units last month. Now, as temperatures turn mild, natural-gas demand is expected to ease as U.S. consumers no longer need to heat their homes. The front-month April contract is headed toward a three-year low, falling 3.9% last week to $2.7270 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. “Even if it gets cold in the next couple of weeks, the demand is going to go away” as soon as the spring comes, said Marc Kerrest, who manages $1 million in his own gas-focused fund, Cornice Trading, in San Francisco. “We’re going to be left with a whole lot of gas.” Mr. […]

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Iran, United States resume nuclear talks in Lausanne

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif resumed nuclear talks on Monday in the Swiss city of Lausanne to try to narrow gaps before a March 31 deadline for a political agreement. The meeting included U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who also met on Sunday to negotiate technical details on how to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry has urged Iran to make concessions that would allow six world powers to reach a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program. The parties have set a June 30 deadline to finalize an accord. Iran and major powers will meet this week in Lausanne but the date has not been announced yet. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton ; Writing by Parisa […]

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West hopes for Iran concessions in nuclear talks

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Western powers are hoping for concessions from Tehran that could help clinch a political agreement in nuclear talks this week after the United States and European powers voiced a willingness to compromise on suspending U.N. sanctions, officials said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had been due to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, later on Sunday to try to break the logjam ahead of a crucial round of talks between Iran and six major powers. But a senior U.S. State Department official later said that meeting would be delayed until Monday due to extensive U.S.-Iranian consultations earlier on Sunday between nuclear and Foreign Ministry officials. Kerry has urged Iran to take decisions now to enable them to clinch a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear […]

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Diplomats Take Aim at a Tentative Iran Deal

ENLARGE U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, at an economic development meeting in Egypt on Sunday. Photo: Reuters BRUSSELS—U.S. and Iranian negotiators set to resume talks Monday are hoping to seal a tentative political agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, though Western diplomats said serious negotiations over substance would still be needed in the months ahead. An announcement of a political agreement before an end-of-March deadline, could spur expectations that Iran and the six-nation group is on track for a deal—an advance they hope would buy them fresh time to reach a final, detailed nuclear accord by June 30. Any such political understanding that emerges in the coming days would fall short of the goal the two sides set when the diplomacy was extended in November to complete the negotiations by the end of March. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Switzerland on Sunday ahead of meetings with […]

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Kerry Suggests There Is a Place for Assad in Syria Talks

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he still believed it was important to achieve a diplomatic solution for the conflict in Syria and that the negotiations should involve President Bashar al-Assad. “We are working very hard with other interested parties to see if we can reignite a diplomatic outcome,” Mr. Kerry said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” “We have to negotiate in the end,” Mr. Kerry added. But Mr. Kerry’s comments seemed to be more a reflection of his determination to try to bring about an end to the bloody war than a change of American strategy. State Department officials later said that the United States was not open to direct talks with Mr. Assad, despite what Mr. Kerry appeared to suggest in his television appearance. And it remained unclear how the Obama administration planned to put enough […]

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Saudi Oil Adviser Says Strengthening Demand Will Lift Prices

Ibrahim Al Muhanna, advisor to the Saudi Arabia Minister of Petroleum. Photographer: Antoine Antoniol/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Global crude consumption is strengthening, and prices will stiffen as demand matches supply, a senior adviser to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said. Prices have stopped falling at about $60 a barrel as expanding demand helps contain the global glut, Ibrahim Al-Muhanna said at a conference in Doha, Qatar. It’s too early to say if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which kept output unchanged in November, will alter policy when it gathers again on June 5, he said. “I am confident that demand is and will be stronger,” said Al-Muhanna, adviser to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi. “Supply will remain healthy, and the price will firm up.” OPEC’s refusal to cut production amid the surge in U.S. shale output fed a surplus that contributed to a drop of almost half in prices last […]

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Arab Alliance Rises as Force in Israeli Elections

IBILLIN, Israel — Avigdor Lieberman , Israel ’s nationalist foreign minister, stared coolly at the Arab politician sitting at the opposite end of a glass table during a televised election debate. “Why did you come to this studio, why not to Gaza, or Ramallah? Why are you even here?” asked Mr. Lieberman, who frequently calls Israel’s Arab citizens traitors and suggests that their towns be transferred to Palestinian control. “You are not wanted here; you are a Palestinian citizen.” The politician, Ayman Odeh, the leader of an alliance of Arab parties formed to contest Israeli elections on Tuesday, appeared unruffled. “I am very welcome in my homeland,” he said, a subtle dig at Mr. Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet republic of Moldova. “I am part of the nature, the surroundings, the landscape,” he said in Arabic-accented Hebrew. The clash in late February on Israel’s popular Channel 2, […]

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Egypt Signs U.S.$12 Billion Deal With British Energy Giant BP

Cairo — Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail signed an energy deal worth $12 billion (91.5 billion Egyptian pounds) with energy firm British Petroleum (BP) on Saturday. Ismail was cited by Egyptian state news agency MENA as saying that the deal is set to provide Egypt with a quarter of local energy production and will contribute to filling the gap in demand of petroleum products by 2020. The deal will see the British energy giant develop 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 55 million barrels of condensates in the West Nile Delta area. BP announced earlier this month the discovery of a deepwater exploration well, called Atoll-1. "The estimated potential in the concession exceeds 5 trillion cubic feet," the company said in a press release on March 9. Egypt has been facing an energy crisis for years, with power outages surging in the summer. Egyptian authorities have often […]

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On the River Nile, a Move to Avert a Conflict Over Water

Ethiopia’s plans to build Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Nile have sparked tensions with Egypt, which depends on the river to irrigate its arid land. But after years of tensions, an international agreement to share the Nile’s waters may be in sight. For thousands of years, Egyptians have depended on the waters of the Nile flowing out of the Ethiopian highlands and central Africa. It is the world’s longest river, passing through 11 countries, but without its waters the most downstream of those nations, Egypt, is a barren desert. So when, in 2011, Ethiopia began to build a giant hydroelectric dam across the river’s largest tributary, the Blue Nile, it looked like Egypt might carry out its long-standing threat to go to war to protect its lifeline. But last weekend, all appeared to change. Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan agreed on the basis for a deal for […]

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Venezuela gives Maduro decree powers for rest of 2015

Venezuela’s parliament granted President  Nicolas Maduro  decree powers on Sunday for the rest of 2015 in a move he says is to defend the country from U.S. meddling but opponents decry as evidence of autocracy. In a noisy National Assembly session, ruling Socialist Party legislators, who have a majority, applauded the "Enabling Law" as a legitimate response to a U.S. declaration that Venezuela is a security threat and sanctions on seven officials. "They (the United States) want to stick their hands into Venezuela’s wealth, just as they have done in other countries," ruling party legislator Tania Diaz said, presenting the "anti-imperialist" Enabling Law to parliament. Outside, red-clad Maduro supporters chanted and held placards proclaiming, "Yankees go home." Opposition lawmakers said Maduro was cynically exploiting the diplomatic flare-up with Washington to amass powers, justify repression and distract Venezuelans from economic problems including acute shortages. On March 9, President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, sanctioning the […]

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Chinese Premier Vows Tougher Regulation on Air Pollution

BEIJING — Premier Li Keqiang of China said on Sunday that the government was failing to satisfy public demands to stanch pollution and would impose heavier punishments to cut the toxic smog that was the subject of a popular documentary belatedly banned by censors. The premier’s news conference at the end of the annual full meeting of the National People’s Congress has become a fixture of the Chinese political calendar, cast as a show of political candor and accountability. But the briefings have mostly become a stilted ritual, with questions generally preselected and massaged to avoid the airing of controversies about legal rights, corruption scandals and other themes unwelcome by Communist Party leaders. This year’s conference was no different. But Mr. Li took one reporter’s question about air pollution, which mentioned the banned documentary, “Under the Dome,” and he acknowledged that there was a gap between the government’s efforts […]

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China’s Jan-Feb apparent oil demand rises 3% on year to 10.43 mil b/d: Platts estimates

Singapore (Platts)–16Mar2015/159 am EDT/559 GMT China’s apparent oil demand rose 2.6% over the first two months of this year to 83.92 million mt or an average 10.43 million b/d, Platts estimates showed Monday, March 16, based on recently released government data. This is the highest rate of growth over the period since the 5.7% recorded in 2012. Last year, there was a 0.6% year-on-year contraction in China’s apparent oil demand over January to February. China does not release official data on oil demand, or commercial and strategic oil inventories. Article continues below… In every economic cycle, overexpansion is followed by unprofitability, then consolidation. Will this be true for the refining sector? The Asian Refining Summit sets a global agenda, inviting industry leaders to share views on the critical developments affecting the downstream and trading communities. Platts calculates apparent oil demand based on data on refiners’ crude throughput and net […]

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Has the Fed’s ‘patience’ been exhausted?

LONDON (Reuters) – For a world economy coming to terms with a soaring dollar and a plunge in oil prices, this week will be all about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and its intentions on interest rates. A combination of the European Central Bank printing lots of euros and expectations of a first U.S. rate rise has caused turmoil on the foreign exchanges and in emerging markets. The euro, which peaked at nearly $1.40 in the middle of last year, is now languishing around $1.05 and apparently headed for parity. After successive months of strong jobs data, expectations have been growing that the Fed will point towards a June rate rise by dropping a pledge to be "patient" in considering such a move. But the dollar’s surge, crimping U.S. exports and cutting imported inflation, could cause its policymakers to pause for thought. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, […]

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Five questions ahead of US Federal Reserve meeting

Next image The stakes were already high going into this week’s US Federal Reserve policy meeting. But the vertiginous surge in the dollar, alongside disappointing economic data, has heightened uncertainty about Wednesday’s announcement. A few things seem clear: rates are not yet moving from their near-zero levels, but Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen wants to free the Federal Open Market Committee to raise them when it sees fit. As a result, low-rates guidance is likely to be junked. And the strength of America’s labour market — where payrolls have been rising by more than 200,000 a month for a year — means June or September still seem the most likely moments for a first increase. But beyond these presumptions lie a host of questions: will the Fed be forced by low inflation to delay its first rise, how rapidly will it lift rates following the initial move, and where will […]

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Norway’s $18 Billion Student Plan Ready to Cushion Oil Shift

(Bloomberg) — Norway has many sources to tap as policy makers seek to wean the nation off its oil reliance. Besides its $850 billion sovereign wealth fund, Norway’s State Educational Loan Fund, which provides loans to students domestically and abroad and some international students in Norway, is prepared to serve as a buffer amid deepening economic strains, according to Chief Executive Officer Marianne Andreassen. “With a damping of the oil sector engine and the huge investments there, many who worked in those areas will need to work elsewhere,” Andreassen said in an interview. Western Europe’s biggest crude producer is facing what central bank Governor Oeystein Olsen calls a “period of restructuring” amid plunging oil prices. A 53 percent drop in Brent since a June high is endangering an economy that relies on oil and gas for more than one-fifth of its output. Oil and gas companies operating in Norway […]

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Lipstick on a pig: America as the world’s swing producer of oil

Most people have heard the old saying: "You can put lipstick on a pig. But it’s still a pig." That’s sort of what is happening in the American oil patch as producers try to put a positive gloss on the devastation that low oil prices are visiting on the industry. Perhaps the most inventive redefinition is as follows: The part of the U.S. oil industry devoted to extracting tight oil from deep shale reservoirs in places such as North Dakota and Texas has made the United States  the world’s "swing producer."  A swing producer is a country or territory that has large production in relation to the total market, substantial excess capacity and the ability to turn its capacity on and off quickly in response to market conditions. The term makes the U.S. oil industry sound powerful and important. And, while the U.S. industry remains an important player in […]

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The U.S. Oil Bust Just Got Worse

The price of oil did today what it has been doing for a while: it waits for a trigger and plunges. As I’m writing this, West Texas Intermediate is down 4.4%, trading at $44.99 a barrel, less than a measly buck away from this oil bust’s January low. It’s down over 20% from the peak of the most recent sucker rally. US oil drillers have been responding by slashing capital expenditures, including drilling, in a deceptively brutal manner. In the latest week, drillers idled 56 rigs that were classified as drilling for oil, according to Baker Hughes. Only 866 rigs were still active, down 46.2% from October, when they’d peaked at 1,609. In the 22 weeks since, drillers have taken out 743 rigs, the most dizzying cliff dive in the data series, and probably in history: You’d think this sort of plunge in drilling activity would curtail production. Eventually […]

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Peak Oil Pulled a Fast One on Me

Peak Oil Pulled a Fast One on Me thumbnail I’ll admit that I was completely caught off guard by the recent (and ongoing?) crash in oil prices. It’d be a stretch to say I’m embarrassed by my lack of foresight, although perhaps “dumb-ass” would be a bit deserving. I would say I’m well enough versed with the reality of peak oil : I’ve read perhaps a couple dozen books on the topic, poured through several of the peak oil blogs (upon deciding to end my 5-year Internet hiatus a year ago), have seen several talks given by authors and writers on the topic, and I’ve attended two Age of Limits conferences. Nevertheless, even though there were bloggers out there discussing the possible ramifications of low oil prices, its possibility still didn’t register with me. I’ll explain what I mean by that shortly, but to do that it’d be best […]

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Brent falls below $57 on dollar rally

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude fell below $57 a barrel on Friday as a strengthening dollar weighed on commodity markets after profit-taking by Asian investors earlier in the session. Asian investors were also mulling the impact from a tentative deal that would end a strike by U.S. refinery workers. Oil prices on Friday were initially supported by the U.S. dollar .DXY, which posted its biggest one-day fall in a month on Thursday, as it retreated from a 12-year high against a basket of major currencies on an unexpected fall in U.S. retail sales. But the greenback rallied to send Brent falling below $57 a barrel towards the end of the Asian trading day. A stronger greenback makes commodities denominated in the dollar more expensive for holders of other currencies and limits their purchases of commodities and other assets. Brent for April delivery LCOc1 was trading down 25 cents at […]

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IEA forecast pulls WTI down 2 percent

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Report on resiliency in U.S. oil market drags the price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil down nearly 2 percent early in the Friday session. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI NEW YORK, March 13 (UPI) — An increase in estimated U.S. crude oil production from the International Energy Agency pushed West Texas Intermediate prices down nearly 2 percent Friday. The IEA, which has headquarters in Paris, said in its monthly market report global oil supplies rose by 1.3 million barrels per day year-on-year to an estimated 94 million bpd in February. The increase was led mostly by producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. "Final December and preliminary current-quarter data show higher‐than‐expected US crude supply, raising the 2015 North American outlook," the IEA report read. Oil prices are down about half from the June 2014 highs above the $100 per barrel mark […]

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Oil Prices Tumble After IEA Warning

The benchmark U.S. oil price tumbled to a six-week low Friday, thwarting hopes for a sustained recovery after an influential energy watchdog said U.S. production growth is defying expectations and setting the stage for another bout of price weakness. Investors and oil producers should brace for further declines in oil prices , the International Energy Agency said in a monthly report. Prices haven’t fallen far enough yet to cut supply, and some signs of rising demand are just temporary—bargain buyers using cheap oil to fill up stockpiles, the agency said. That outlook weighed on sentiment in the oil-futures market, which has stabilized in recent weeks following a seven-month selloff that saw the benchmark price on the New York Mercantile Exchange plunge 59%. Behind the selloff, which by some measures was the steepest in decades, was a global glut of crude spurred by rising production in the U.S. and Libya. […]

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Hedge funds slash bullish oil bets to November lows on supply worries

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge funds and other big speculators cut their bullish wagers on U.S. crude for a second straight week, to the lowest since November, as worries about oil oversupplies grew, data showed on Friday. Global crude prices, including that of the U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), have struggled to find a bottom over the past six weeks as initial fears that a 60 percent price drop since June was excessive were later offset by burgeoning oil production. Prices of WTI, and Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, fell 9 percent this week as a rallying dollar brought further pressure on dollar-denominated commodities, making them more expensive to holders of the euro and other currencies. Separately, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed the net long position in WTI held by money managers, including hedge funds and speculators, dropping by 5,613 contracts to 181,474 in […]

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Oil Price Hasn’t Hit Bottom as Surplus Expands, Greenspan Says

(Bloomberg) — The price of crude oil hasn’t reached a bottom yet as production keeps increasing, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said. The slump in oil prices hasn’t curtailed output, and there is a huge amount bottled up in the U.S., Greenspan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday. Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for U.S. benchmark futures, will keep rising, he said. “We are probably at the point now, where at the current rate of fill, we are going to run out of room in Cushing by next month,” he said. “Until we find a way to get out of this dilemma, prices will continue to ease because there’s no place for that oil to go except into the markets.” West Texas Intermediate futures dropped 1.9 percent to $46.17 a barrel as of 9:31 a.m. Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices […]

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Natural Gas Falls on Oversupply Concerns

By Timothy Puko Natural-gas prices inched lower Friday with oversupply concerns outweighing weather updates that showed a chance of lingering demand for heating. The front-month April contract settled down 0.7 cent, or 0.3%, at $2.727 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A late rally failed to give the market a gain for the day, and gas finished with a 3.9% loss for the week. WeatherBELL Analytics LLC in New York had a noon weather update predicting "a major cold shot" for the Plains starting in a week. Prices rallied from a late-morning low spot of $2.685/mmBtu. The fact it didn’t rally more shows how bearish the market is, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy-advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates. "Our market stance remains unequivocally bearish as we still see strong likelihood of a price drop to the $2.50 area," he said in a note. It […]

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World Oil Demand

mb/dWorld Oil Demand1Q20122Q20123Q20124Q20121Q20132Q20133Q20134Q20131Q20142Q20143Q20144Q20141Q20152Q20153Q20154Q2015868890929496© 2015 OECD/IEA World Oil Demand *Please note that these Highlights are from the latest Oil Market Report, which is released in full to subscribers only – according to this schedule each month . Non subscribers get free access to the latest Highlights on this schedule, however the full Oil Market Report is released to the public two weeks after the report is released to subscribers. If you would like to receive the full report with accompanying charts and graphs on the day of publication please subscribe or contact the subscription manager . Crude oil prices stabilised following early-February gains , with ICE Brent rising more than NYMEX WTI which was weighed down by swelling US stockpiles. At the time of writing, Brent was trading at around $58/bbl – up nearly 30% from a six-year low in January. WTI was at around $48/bbl. Having bottomed-out in 2Q14, […]

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IEA: Strong U.S. Production Could Set Stage for Oil Price Fall

ENLARGE Manifolds that regulate the input and output of oil to the White Cliffs pipeline at the SemCrude tank farm north of Cushing, Okla, pictured in 2012. The U.S. has been producing and importing more oil than it is consuming and that extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country’s main trading hub in Cushing. Photo: Associated Press The oil market’s recent rebound may not last, an influential energy watchdog warned on Friday, as the U.S.’s ability to keep pumping more crude has defied expectations and could set the stage for prices to fall again. In its closely watched monthly report, the International Energy Agency said U.S. oil production was up 115,000 barrels a day in February, some of it going into bulging storage inventories whose capacity may soon be tested. “That would inevitably lead to renewed price weakness,” the report said. Financial markets have been […]

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IEA sees renewed pressure on oil prices as glut worsens

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices might have stabilized only temporarily because the global oil glut is worsening and U.S. production shows no sign of slowing, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. The West’s energy watchdog said the United States may soon run out of spare capacity to store crude, which would put additional downward pressure on prices. That process would last at least until the second half of 2015, when growth in U.S. oil production is expected to start abating. Combined with an increase in global demand, the expected U.S. production slowdown would give some support to oil prices and respite to oil producers’ group OPEC, the IEA said. "On the face of it, the oil price appears to be stabilizing. What a precarious balance it is, however," the Paris-based IEA said in its monthly report. "Behind the façade of stability, the rebalancing triggered by the price collapse […]

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For Now, Sectarian Calm in Liberated Iraq Town

ENLARGE A Shiite soldier fighting against Islamic State militants tried to plant a flag near Tikrit this week. Photo: Reuters BAGHDAD—Ezaz Al Jobouri returned this week to his Sunni hometown near the battleground of Tikrit to find a house with neither electricity nor water, and a swarm of Shiite militiamen, long violent adversaries of his sect, patrolling the streets. After two months away, Mr. Jobouri didn’t mind. “I don’t care who liberated my town as long as it is safe and the families are back home,” Mr. Jobouri said Friday, speaking by phone from the farming community of Al Alam northeast of Tikrit. “We can live with the current situation as long as there is no Daesh anymore,” he added, using the Arabic acronym of Islamic State, the Sunni militant group that controlled the town until this week. Shiite militiamen and Iraqi government forces freed the town in some […]

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Obama’s Newly Harsh Tone on Keystone Seen Signaling Rejection

U.S. President Barack Obama. Photographer: Kristoffer Tripplaar/Pool via Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Facing re-election and $4 a gallon gasoline, President Barack Obama sounded like an enthusiastic supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline at a March 2012 campaign rally. “I’m directing my administration to cut through the red tape, break through the bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority,” he said in a speech in Cushing, Oklahoma, referring to a southern leg of the long-delayed project. Those days are gone. Now when Obama describes the next proposed Keystone segment he says it will only create about 300 jobs. He calls the Calgary-based pipeline builder TransCanada Corp. a “foreign company” and says the oil won’t benefit American motorists. And last week, he even said the process of extracting crude from the Alberta oil sands is “extraordinarily dirty.” After years of review, Obama may be finally nearing a decision on the $8 […]

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Kerry says unclear whether deal with Iran can be reached by end March

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday on the eve of fresh talks with Iran over its nuclear-power program that it was unclear whether an interim could be deal reached by the end of the month. "I can’t tell you whether or not we can get a deal," Kerry told a news conference. The United States and five other major powers will resume negotiations with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland on Sunday ahead of a deadline at the end of March for a framework deal, with a final agreement in June. On next week’s Israeli election, Kerry said the United States hoped that whatever the outcome it would help push the peace process with Palestinians forward. Opinion polls show Israel’s center-left opposition is poised for an upset victory in the parliamentary elections over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party. The United States "remains hopeful […]

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US oil rig count falls while production climbs

New York (Platts)–13Mar2015/544 pm EDT/2144 GMT The US land oil fields continued to shed rigs this week while production kept climbing. The land oil rig count fell by 56 to 866, Baker Hughes said in its weekly report. Analysts expect the rig count to keep falling until at least the second quarter unless oil prices recover sufficiently enough to encourage more drilling before then. In the big three onshore basins — the Permian, Eagle Ford and Williston — rig counts fell 23 to 305 for the week ending Friday, two to 127 and four to 104, the Baker Hughes data showed. Article continues below… Every Monday, Capitol Hill newshounds Herman Wang and Brian Scheid analyze, dissect and debate the key US oil policy issues affecting the industry. We’re going to need a bigger boat: climbing crude production, stagnant demand, politics and more prove that trouble can come from anywhere […]

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NASA Scientist Warns “California Has One Year Of Water Left”

Given the historic low temperatures and snowfalls that pummeled the eastern U.S. this winter, it might be easy to overlook how devastating California’s winter was as well. As our “wet” season draws to a close, it is clear that the paltry rain and snowfall have done almost nothing to alleviate epic drought conditions. January was the driest in California since record-keeping began in 1895. Groundwater and snowpack levels are at all-time lows. We’re not just up a creek without a paddle in California, we’re losing the creek too. Snow Drought Bad News For California  Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of […]

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Tax Per Mile Cometh!

Oregon – home of things uber trendy – has become the first state to begin dunning motorists by the mile rather than by the gallon. The “pilot” program begins July 1 — and will be implemented by the Oregon DOT in partnership with something called Sanef ITS Technologies America and Intelligent Mechatronic Systems. Sounds a lot like Cyberdyne Systems from the Terminator movies, doesn’t it? And the similarities run a lot deeper than that. To make this work (for Uncle) your car must be fitted with some type of real-time monitoring device that keeps track of your mileage and reports it to Uncle (well, his helpers) who will then either send you a bill or perhaps automatically debit your account. Kind of like federal tax withholding on wheels. In Oregon, this means a little widget like the one you may have seen the white-coated Progressive Insurance Lady hawking. It […]

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North Dakota’s Job Landscape Shifting (For Now) Away From Big Oil

Instead of roustabouts, North Dakotas’s oil industry wants pump technicians, gas-processing plant operators and truck drivers to help sustain existing production. WILLISTON, N.D., March 12 (Reuters) – Halliburton Co , Schlumberger NV and other large energy companies were conspicuously absent from a major North Dakota job fair this week, a telling sign as employers in the No. 2 U.S. oil-producing state grapple with sliding crude prices . Instead of roustabouts, the state’s oil industry wants pump technicians, gas-processing plant operators and truck drivers to help sustain existing production of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day – not to necessarily grow production. "When a well is out, you still have to service it," said Cindy Sanford of Job Service North Dakota, which helped organize the two-day job fair in Williston, capital of the state’s oil boom. (There are almost 13,000 active wells in the state.) The change in job […]

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Hazard seen behind North American rig upturn

HOUSTON, Mar. 13 03/13/2015 Wells not completed while oil prices are low might foreshorten recovery of North American drilling, even if the upturn arrives sooner than expected, analysts warn. A drilling slump outrunning most forecasts has evoked predictions of a prompt production decline able to help correct an oversupplied oil market ( OGJ Online, Mar. 12, 2015 ). But James Crandall and Mar Bianchi of Cowen & Co. , acknowledging in a research note that the first-quarter US rig count is “falling even more quickly than our forecast had assumed,” think recovery might be short-lived. They expect the rig count by the quarter’s end to fall below 1,100, of which about 1,050 will be land units. Predicting that drilling will reach bottom at 950-1,000 for all rigs by early in the third quarter, they say recovery could begin by the fourth quarter, lifting the rig count by perhaps 150. […]

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U.S. Producers Ready New Oil Wave

Pumpjacks outside Williston, N.D. ENLARGE Photo: Bloomberg News The ocean of oil from U.S. shale drove crude prices back toward six-year lows Friday, and American energy companies say they are poised to unleash a further flood that would keep prices from returning to lofty levels for a long time. The International Energy Agency reinforced the prospect of a prolonged slump in energy prices Friday, saying U.S. oil output was surprisingly strong in February and rapidly filling all available storage tanks. The Paris-based energy watchdog said this could lead to another sharp drop in crude prices, which fell by about 50% late last year. The report sent oil prices tumbling around the world, with the global benchmark Brent crude falling $2.41 to $54.67 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate lost $2.21 to settle at $44.84, less than 40 cents above a six-year low it reached in late January. […]

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North Dakota rig count near five-year low

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Rig activity in North Dakota is near a five-year low as oil prices reign in operations in the shale-rich state. Photo by David Gaylor/Shutterstock BISMARCK, N.D., March 13 (UPI) — The number of rigs actively exploring for or producing oil or natural gas in North Dakota is down to its lowest level in nearly five years, data show Friday. State data show 111 active rigs in the state as of Friday, down from the 191 reported on this date in 2014 and a historic low. Rig counts, a barometer for the upstream sector in the state, have been on a steady decline for much of the year, down 7.5 percent from the end of February. The North Dakota Industrial Commission in its latest monthly report said oil production in January, the last full month for which data are available, was 1.19 million […]

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Exxon: Exploit U.S. energy abundance

Exxon Mobil CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson leads drive to persuade Washington to take advantage of era of energy abundance. UPI/Kevin Dietsch U.S. policymakers are called on to adopt the energy policies necessary to take advantage of the new era of abundance, the chairman of Exxon Mobil said. Some energy companies with a focus on exploration and production are advocating for a repeal of a ban on the export of some domestically-produced crude oil. The ban was enacted in the 1970s in response to an export embargo from Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson led the drive , telling an audience at The Economic Club in Washington D.C. current policies are out of step with the energy landscape in the shale era. "It is time to build policies that reflect our newfound abundance, that view the future with optimism, that […]

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Shell lays out welcome mat to USW

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Tentative agreement reached between Shell and United Steelworkers union, bringing a possible end to a work stoppage that began Feb. 1. Photo by Oskari Porkka/Shutterstock PITTSBURGH, March 13 (UPI) — Shell said it’s time to welcome striking workers back into the fray after finding "common ground" with negotiators from the United Steelworkers union. USW initiated labor strikes at U.S. refineries Feb. 1, a walkout that eventually spread to impact about 20 percent of the nation’s refining capacity. Several refineries continued normal operations under emergency stop-gap measures, though the union said the work stoppage would be in place until the agreement with Shell is ratified. Aamir Farid, vice president for manufacturing at Shell, said union members are expected to vote on the agreement in a matter of days. "We are glad to have found common ground and get an agreement in place," he […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple