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Libya closes El Feel oilfield due to strike by security guards

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – A strike by Libyan security guards over salary payments has forced the closure of the western El Feel oilfield, a spokesman for state oil firm NOC said on Sunday. On Saturday, a field engineer told Reuters the OPEC producer had closed the field, without citing a reason. El Feel is operated by a joint venture owned by NOC and Italy’s Eni. "The field’s security guards are on strike because they complain about a delay of their salary payments," said Mohamed El Harari, a spokesman for NOC. "NOC paid the salaries to the security forces, but they haven’t paid the guards yet," he said. Libya this year had managed to restart El Feel, which analysts say produced about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Libya had to shut the field late last year when a group in the Zintan region, which opposes a self-declared government in Tripoli, […]

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Former U.N. envoy says Yemen political deal was close before Saudi airstrikes began

ENLARGE A Houthi militant walks past a house destroyed by an airstrike in the capital San’a on Sunday. Photo: khaled abdullah/Reuters UNITED NATIONS—Yemen’s warring political factions were on the verge of a power-sharing deal when Saudi-led airstrikes began a month ago, derailing negotiations for a national unity government, the United Nations mediator said. Jamal Benomar, the U.N. envoy who spearheaded those negotiations until he resigned last week, told The Wall Street Journal the bombing campaign against the Iran-linked Houthi rebels has hardened positions on a key point—the composition of an executive body to lead Yemen’s stalled transition from dictatorship to democracy. This will complicate new attempts to reach a solution, he said. “When this campaign started, one thing that was significant but went unnoticed is that the Yemenis were close to a deal that would institute power-sharing with all sides, including the Houthis,” said Mr. Benomar, a Moroccan diplomat. […]

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Nigeria: Buhari Vows to Probe ‘Missing’ NNPC $20 Billion

Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, has stated that his administration will probe the $20 billion alleged to be missing from the coffers of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. The immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido, had alleged that the $20 billion made from the sale of Nigeria’s crude oil by the NNPC could not be accounted for. President Goodluck Jonathan sacked Mr. Sanusi from the CBN after he made the allegation. The former bank chief was later crowned the Emir of Kano after the death of Ado Bayero, the former emir. Speaking Sunday when he played host to a delegation from Adamawa State led by the state’s governor-elect, Bindow Jibrilla, in his campaign secretariat, Mr. Buhari said although he received information that some persons already started returning money to government coffers, he would only believe it when he "sees it". "I heard that […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chinese energy figures suggest much slower growth than advertised

Last year China reported the slowest  economic growth in 24 years, about 7.4 percent . But the true figure may actually be much lower, and the evidence is buried in  electricity figures  which show just 3.8 percent growth in electricity consumption. David Fridley, a staff scientist in the  China Energy Group  at the  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , has been a longtime collaborator with the Chinese on energy management, efficiency and policy. Fridley, who has held Chinese energy-related jobs for 35 years, believes that electricity consumption in China is a better indicator of its economic growth. Historically, electricity consumption and economic growth in China have been very closely linked. "From 2005 to 2013, the average elasticity of electricity demand was 1.09, meaning electricity demand was up about 1.09 percent for every percent rise in GDP," Fridley wrote in an email. "In 2014, that number fell to 0.51, the lowest […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil firms face further cuts as low prices linger

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil majors may need deeper cuts to oil and gas exploration and production spending as they grapple with an extended period of low crude prices. The industry is expected to reveal another set of grim earnings for the first quarter when benchmark Brent prices averaged $55 a barrel, almost half the level of a year ago. Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, BP and France’s Total have already responded by cutting 2015 capital spending by 10 to 15 percent, delaying and scrapping projects and cutting operating costs. And despite a sense among some industry executives that oil prices may have hit their 2015 lows following a decline in U.S. shale production, more cuts may be needed. Exxon, the world’s biggest listed oil company, has reduced 2015 capital spending by 12 percent to $34 billion. "We’ll see throughout the year whether we stay there (capex) or not, […]

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Traders alarmed oil glut is a strain on West Texas storage tanks

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four-hundred miles from the near overflowing tanks at the U.S. oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, a second glut in the Permian Basin of West Texas is pressuring oil prices once again as pipeline disruptions strand millions of barrels in the region. The Permian, the fastest-growing shale play, accounts for about a fifth of the country’s total oil production, and is expected to produce about 2 million barrels of crude a day in May. The region houses over 20 million barrels of crude storage. Stockpiles in the Permian have hit several records in the last four weeks, according to data from industry information provider Genscape. Investors have zeroed in on storage, waiting for declines in weekly inventory data to signal demand is rising or production is beginning to taper off. Stockpiles in Cushing, the delivery point for the U.S. futures contract, hit a record in the […]

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Florida’s Hurricane-Free Stretch Has Insurer Bracing for Storms

The last hurricane to make landfall in Florida was Wilma in October 2005. Source: NOAA via Getty Images Florida hasn’t been hit by a hurricane since 2005, the longest stretch in more than a century. Its state-run property insurer isn’t taking any chances. Even though forecasters predict this year will produce the fewest named Atlantic storms since 1997, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which provides coverage when other insurers won’t take the risk, is selling as much as $1 billion of municipal debt to raise cash just in case. It would be the insurer’s first bond sale in three years. With hurricane season set to start June 1, Citizens is taking advantage of interest rates close to generational lows to bolster its claim-paying ability. Investors in the insurer’s tax-exempt bonds welcome the steps toward a sturdier balance sheet: One storm is all it takes to rack up billions of dollars […]

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Demand For Key Types of Railway Cars Falls Amid Declining Output

Declining output from shale-oil fields cut demand for key types of railroad cars, new data shows, the latest sign of the fallout from lower oil prices. Buyers ordered 4,470 new railway tank cars during the quarter ended March 31, down 6% from a year earlier and about 70% from the 14,964 tank cars ordered during the fourth quarter, according to the Railway Supply Institute, a Washington-based trade group. Tank car orders had surged along with output from shale-oil fields, whose crude oil drillers generally transport to refineries by rail. But with a global oil glut that has driven down oil prices by nearly 50% in the past year, output from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale field dropped in both January and February. And the U.S. Energy Department has predicted the Bakken field as well as Eagle Ford, a shale-oil field in South Texas, would report production decreases for April and […]

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Chesapeake to Pay $25 Million to Settle Michigan Charges

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to pay $25 million to settle antitrust allegations made by Michigan’s attorney general, as well as complaints that it misled hundreds of landowners to obtain leases in the state. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed criminal charges against the company last year . He accused Chesapeake of colluding with Encana Corp., another oil and gas producer, to keep the price of natural gas leases in the state artificially low. In a separate case, Mr. Schuette’s office also filed racketeering and false pretenses charges against Chesapeake, saying the company had defrauded lease owners. Chesapeake has previously called the cases meritless. On Friday a spokesman said the Oklahoma City-based company was happy to have settled the matter. “We are pleased to have reached a mutually acceptable agreement with the Michigan Attorney General and to move past these legacy issues inherited from past management,” said Gordon Pennoyer, […]

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Western drought steals clean energy along with fresh water at power plants

INSIDE HOOVER DAM — The floor rumbled under Mark Cook. His legs vibrated as he stood in a tunnel tucked into the thick base of Hoover Dam, 430 feet below the tourists looking out over Lake Mead. Beneath him, water roared through steel pipes 13 feet tall. Nearby, heavy turbines hummed with mechanical intensity. “We’re moving some good water today,” Cook, the dam manager, said proudly. Moving water means making electricity. But the drought is making that harder to do. The lack of water has put a serious crimp in the hydroelectric line at Hoover Dam and other power plants across the West, limiting an inexpensive and pollution-free energy source that once was considered endless. Power capacity at Hoover Dam, on the Arizona-Nevada border, has dropped nearly 25 percent since 2000. In California, home to 287 hydroelectric plants and where almost half the state today is classified as being in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple