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Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: “Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent”

Emergency Shut Down Of West Coast Fisheries: “Populations Have Crashed 91 Percent” thumbnail Earlier this week Michael Snyder warned that the bottom of our food chain is going through a catastrophic collapse with sea creatures dying in absolutely massive numbers . The cause of the problem is a mystery to scientists who claim that they can’t pinpoint how or why it’s happening. What’s worse, the collapse of sea life in the Pacific Ocean isn’t something that will affect us several decades into the future. The implications are being seen right now, as evidenced by an emergency closure of fisheries along the West coast this week. On Wednesday federal regulators announced the early closure of sardine fisheries in California, Oregon and Washington. According to the most recent data, the sardine populations has been wiped out with populations seeing a decline of 91% in just the last eight years. Meeting outside Santa […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BG Group comes up empty in North Sea

BG Group comes up empty handed in latest exploration effort in Norwegian waters of the North Sea. Photo by James Jones Jr./Shutterstock OSLO, Norway, April 17 (UPI) — A Norwegian energy regulator said Friday a subsidiary of British energy company BG Group came up dry while drilling in the northern waters of the North Sea. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said operator BG Norge was targeting reserves about three miles away from the Knarr prospect in the North Sea. "Extensive data acquisition and sampling has been carried out," the regulator said in a statement. "The well is classified as dry." BG Group started production from the Knarr field in March using a floating production, storage and offloading vessel that has a production capacity of 63,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a storage capacity of 800,000 barrels. The Knarr field is expected to remain in production for at least […]

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Energy sanctions economic war, Kremlin says

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says energy sanctions a result of political brinkmanship over Ukraine. File photo by UPI MOSCOW, April 17 (UPI) — Targeting the Russian oil and gas sector with sanctions is a tacit act of economic warfare, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday. "We are in a fundamentally different situation at present: equipment for hydrocarbons production has essentially become a token of political struggle and political bargaining," the prime minister said. Members of the European Union are considering tightening the sanctions noose on Russia as conflict in eastern Ukraine continues. Political upheaval began in former Soviet republic Ukraine in late 2013 as the government in Kiev moved closer to the EU. Sanctions met a Russian move last year to annex the Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine. Medvedev said energy, a prime source of government revenue, was the main target of sanctions . The International Monetary Fund […]

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Russia’s economy shrinks 2-4% despite Putin’s positive spin

The Russian president focused on domestic issues during Thursday’s phone-in Russia’s economy contracted further in the first quarter triggering a 5 per cent slide in the rouble, a day after president Vladimir Putin sought to reassure the nation that the worst of the crisis was over. Monthly statistics published on Friday showed that consumers turned even more bearish in March despite the currency’s recent stabilisation, and economists estimated that gross domestic product was likely to have shrunk by between 2 and 4 per cent in the first quarter. The figures came a day after Mr Putin spent the first hour of a marathon televised call-in show to reassure citizens over the state of the economy. “Nothing has failed and everything is working,” he said. “We have passed the peak of our problems”. Members of Mr Putin’s economic policy team have been talking up the economy for several weeks as […]

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Brent crude oil prices fall as OPEC production soars

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude oil prices fell on Friday, ending a run of rallies earlier in the week, after OPEC said that its output surged in March, adding to a global glut. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that its March production jumped 810,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 30.79 million bpd, which is equivalent to a third of global supply. "It seems Saudi Arabia has not had enough of low oil prices," Singapore-based Phillip Futures said. Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 37 cents at $63.61 a barrel at 2.59 a.m. EDT, recovering from a fall of more than $1 in earlier trading. U.S. crude CLc1 was down 43 cents at $56.28 a barrel. Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said that Brent could fall further to slightly above $61.20 a barrel before finding market support. Dipping output from the United States and other […]

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Oil Prices Hit a 2015 High on Hopes U.S. Production Will Ease

NEW YORK—Oil prices hit a high for the year Thursday on continued expectations that U.S. oil production will peak soon and then begin to ease the global glut of crude. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast in a monthly report Thursday that U.S. output of crude oil and natural-gas liquids would start to decline in the third quarter. The report came after U.S. government data released Wednesday showed the second drop in weekly oil production in three weeks. Light, sweet crude for May delivery settled up 32 cents, or 0.6%, to $56.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement since Dec. 23. Brent, the global benchmark, rose 66 cents, or 1%, to $63.98 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, the highest level since Dec. 10. Both contracts rose for a sixth straight session. Traders have been waiting for signs of a decline in […]

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Brent crude hits 2015 highs as U.S. production slows

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude oil hit 2015 highs above $63 per barrel on Thursday after a rally of more than 5 percent the previous session, and analysts said more price rises were likely despite market oversupply. Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose above $63 a barrel for the first time this year on Thursday, although they had dipped back to $62.70 by 0654 GMT (2.54 a.m. ET). U.S. crude CLc1 was at $56.06 after hitting a 2015 high of $56.69 on Wednesday. The price rise means the U.S. oil market has firmed up into its best shape this year, as ebbing fears of an inventory overflow and renewed hedging in far-distance futures flattens the forward curve, a possible sign that a months-long rout might be over. "We turn extremely bullish on oil after yesterday’s 5 percent rally in crude prices," Singapore-based energy brokerage Phillips Futures said. "This whole […]

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NYMEX May gas futures settle 7.4 cents higher at $2.684/MMBtu

NYMEX May natural gas futures settled 7.4 cents higher at $2.684/MMBtu Thursday on apparent short covering, sources said, despite a bearish government storage report that showed an inventory build above expectations. US natural gas in storage rose 63 Bcf to 1.539 Tcf for the week ended April 10, the Energy Information Administration said Thursday. This was above Platts consensus expectations of an injection of between 48 Bcf and 52 Bcf. Though May futures were down 4.6 cents as of 10:55 am EDT (1455 GMT) Thursday in response to the bearish storage report, prices rocketed higher during the course of the trading day in a surprising reversal. Some traders and analysts chalked up the move to short sellers exiting the market. "I think what’s happened here is that we triggered another round of short covering," said Gene McGillian, senior analyst at Tradition Energy. "It’s probably a combination of [forecasts callings […]

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OPEC Joins Downbeat Forecasts for U.S. Oil Output

Oil-pumping units in western North Dakota in January. ENLARGE Photo: Associated Press The boom in U.S. oil supplies will end in 2015, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday, joining other major energy forecasters this week in pointing to an imminent fall in American production. In its closely watched monthly market report, OPEC said U.S. oil supplies would grow to about 13.65 million barrels a day in the second quarter of 2015 and then level off, beginning to decline in the second half of the year. The number includes crude oil and other petroleum liquids such as condensates. OPEC’s report comes after the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast this week that total crude-oil production from seven key U.S. production regions would decline by 57,000 barrels a day in May from April. The International Energy Agency, which tracks oil data for Western countries, said Wednesday that American output […]

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OPEC increases oil production in March; U.S. shale dropping

The majority of oil demand growth is coming from Asia and the Middle East. Photo by Christian Lagerek/Shutterstock VIENNA, April 16 (UPI) — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will continue increasing output of oil, despite an oversupply, projecting an increased demand 80,000 barrels per day higher for this year than anticipated. For the month of March, OPEC produced an average of about 30.79 million barrels per day — an increase of 810,000 thousand bpd. "Crude oil output increased mostly from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, while Libya saw a return of about 165 [thousand barrels per day] from shut-in wells in active oil fields," OPEC states in its monthly oil market report . Non-OPEC oil supply is expected to grow by 680,000 barrels per day, up from the previous month. The organization projects U.S. shale oil and Canadian oil sands output is expected to see lower growth due to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple