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EU to File Antitrust Charges Against Gazprom

ENLARGE Margrethe Vestager said in February that she was ready to file formal charges against Gazprom in a “relatively short time span.” Photo: Olivier Hoslet/European Pressphoto Agency The European Union’s competition regulator plans to file formal antitrust charges against Russia’s state-owned gas company OAO Gazprom on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said Monday, a step set to escalate the standoff between Europe and Moscow. The European Commission started a formal investigation of Gazprom’s business practices in some eastern and southern European countries in September 2012, saying it suspected the company of abusing its dominant position in those countries’ natural-gas supply. The bloc’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said in February that she was ready to file formal charges against Gazprom in a “relatively short time span.” The person familiar with the commission’s case against Gazprom said that the charge sheet, known as a statement of objections, against the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Halliburton Warns Of Weakness In N. America, International Operations

Halliburton warns of headwinds in its international operations and pricing pressure for its oilfield services in North America. April 20 (Reuters) – Halliburton Co warned of pricing pressure for its oilfield services in North America, its largest market, and challenges in its international operations, as an extended slump in oil prices continues to force drillers to slash spending. The company posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, helped by higher revenue and operating income from Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. However, revenue and profit from all other regions fell due to the global slump in oil prices , which have nearly halved since peaking last June. North America, which accounted for more than half the company’s first-quarter revenue, "experienced an unprecedented decline in drilling activity," Chief Executive Dave Lesar said in a statement, adding that "Industry prospects will continue to be challenged in the coming quarters." The […]

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‘Ducks’ and Oil: No Need to Fear US Crude Supply Deluge

A tax break in North Dakota will not unleash a new wave of shale crude supply, producers say. HOUSTON, April 20 (Reuters) – Conventional wisdom holds that come June a pending $5.3 billion tax break in the No. 2 U.S. oil producing state, combined with a modest uptick in oil prices, will unleash a tsunami of new shale crude supply so big that prices may slump again. Just one problem with that scenario: oil producers say this is not going to happen. The fear of a worsening supply glut, a recurring theme of many industry research reports and conferences over the past two months, is based on a view that U.S. shale producers have built up a heavy backlog of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) that can be turned on quickly. The assumption is that oil firms will finish work on those wells, known as "ducks" in the industry […]

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Shale as World’s Swing Producer Signals ‘Jagged’ Future for Oil

(Bloomberg) — With OPEC ceding control for the first time since the 1980s, U.S. shale oil has been anointed the world’s new “swing producer” by everyone from ConocoPhillips and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. But can America’s oil really swing it? Producers cut billions in spending, idled half the country’s rigs and kept more than 3,000 wells off the market, and it still took five months for U.S. production to start dropping. Analysts and banks say a recovery in production will also prove slower and more difficult than it would be for a single producer like Saudi Arabia. “When you think of a swing producer, you think of OPEC and you think of spare capacity that can be turned on and off,” said Trisha Curtis, director of oil and gas research at Energy Policy Research Foundation Inc. “U.S. oil can respond, but the response […]

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CERA 2015: Drilled/uncompleted wells may affect oil price volatility: CEO

Drilling wells but deferring completions may be a factor in oil price volatility in the next several years and potentially even delay the industry’s recovery, the CEO of ConocoPhillips said Monday. Even as signs are at hand that prices may be on the verge of rising, with estimated official oil production levels showing signs of flattening or slight declines, the industry has the potential to quickly bring back online large volumes of crude production, which could tamp down prices. "We’re in a bit of a more volatile world [because of] the ability of North America to respond to price signals both ways," Ryan Lance said during a news conference the opening of IHS CERAWeek in Houston. "If you get a price signal, you’ll see more supply come on," Lance said. "That certainly has the opportunity to exacerbate the problem depending on where demand is." Article continues below… Oilgram News […]

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U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increase in past two years

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review For the second year in a row, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the United States have increased. However, unlike 2013, when emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) grew at similar rates (2.5% and 2.2%, respectively), 2014’s CO2 emissions growth rate of 0.7% was much smaller than the 2014 GDP growth rate of 2.4%. Energy-related CO2 emissions are the largest component of overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. On March 31, 2015, the United States officially submitted its emissions-cutting target to the United Nations, committing to reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 26%-28% from 2005 levels by 2025. This follows President Obama’s 2009 pledge to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. As discussed in a previous article , changes in CO2 emissions reflect changes in economic and energy-related indicators. The previous two years have largely followed the […]

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Canada’s Own Oil Pipeline Problem

ENLARGE The Tl’azt’en First Nation, whose Tache Reserve is on Stuart Lake in British Columbia, is fighting Enbridge’s plan to build the Northern Gateway oil pipeline alongside their territory. Photo: ALISTAIR MACDONALD/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL TACHE RESERVE, British Columbia—A proposed 730-mile pipeline to ship Canadian oil to a West Coast port brings with it the promise of 4,000 or more jobs along a route that would run through impoverished indigenous communities. But Chief Justa Monk, who runs a reserve with an unemployment rate that hits 70%, wants none of them—and pledges to block the pipeline alongside the reserve’s territory. It is another hurdle in Canada’s quest to become an energy superpower, even as political struggles in Washington continue to delay a different, better-known Canadian pipeline — TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL, which would carry Canadian oil south across the U.S. to the Gulf Coast. Chief Monk’s Tl’azt’en Nation, which claims […]

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DOT Tells Oil Tankers to Slow Down

Emergency Order Restricts Speed to 40 MPH Crude by Rail The DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration issued an emergency order on Friday that establishes a maximum speed of 40 miles an hour for certain trains going through high threat urban areas. Citing “gaps in the existing regulatory scheme”, the agency beefed up the 2014 voluntary agreement by making this speed limit a requirement for trains hauling crude oil and other flammable liquids. The emergency order defines affected trains as: 20 or more loaded tank cars in a continuous block or 35 loaded tank cars of class 3 flammable liquid AND at least one DOT-111 tank car loaded with class 3 flammable liquid The emergency order states that “Speed is a factor that may contribute to the severity of a derailment or the derailment itself. Speed can affect the probability of an accident. A lower speed may allow for a brake […]

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Halliburton says has cut 9,000 jobs in wake of oil’s drop

HOUSTON (AP) — Halliburton Co. has cut 9,000 jobs – more than 10 percent of its workforce – in about six months and is considering more cost-cutting moves as falling oil prices sap demand for its drilling help. Halliburton executives disclosed the job cuts Monday on a conference call with investors. The Houston oilfield-services company reported a loss of $643 million in the first quarter. Oil prices plunged starting last summer, leading to a decline in drilling activity. Spot prices for crude have risen slightly since early January but remain about half their level of last July. Halliburton President Jeff Miller said he wasn’t ready to say the worst has passed, but that such slumps usually last about three quarters. "Once we see activity stabilize, the healing process can begin, but it takes time," he told analysts. The oil-market decline caused Halliburton to take $1.2 billion in charges in […]

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Peak Oil, Ten or So Years On

This blog began seven years and almost a thousand posts ago, and I thought it a good time to take stock. Since the blog itself was inspired by the “peak oil” movement, and since it’s been ten years, by some measures, since the peak, I wanted to assess the state of that community as well. First the personal notes: Many of my posts are reprints of my columns for our local newspaper, or for Grit and Mother Earth News magazines, short and focused on gardening and crafts. I’d like to write longer articles about broader subjects as well, however, as I have for American Conservative or Low-Tech Magazine, so I’m cutting back to twice a week – one new article every weekend, and one reprint or photo mid-week. There’s a great deal to write about, you see, and too little time. We have three generations of family living in […]

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