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Pope Summons Scientists to Shape Climate Change Debate

Pope Francis blesses the faitfhul during his weekly general audience at the Vatican on April 15. Photographer: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images Pope Francis summoned scientists, government officials and religious leaders to a villa in the manicured Vatican Gardens on Tuesday as he stepped into the heated climate-change debate. “Climate change is a defining issue of our time,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told attendees at the Vatican conference. “It is a moral issue, it is an issue of social justice, human rights and fundamental ethics.” The conference, which is being held under the auspices of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, precedes a papal encyclical scheduled for publication in June. The encyclical, a letter to the world’s bishops but with broader resonance because of the pope’s moral and political authority, will aim to influence a UN summit in Paris at the end of the year, at which nations may pledge to […]

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UK warns off BP suitors now Shell unavailable as ‘white knight’

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s warning to potential suitors of BP is a sign of the oil major’s vulnerability to a takeover bid and that a more politically palatable tie-up with Royal Dutch Shell no longer seems to be an option, banking and industry sources said. Despite championing a laissez-faire policy towards takeover deals, Britain has always had a special interest in BP, dating back to the creation of the company via an unusual government investment master-minded by Winston Churchill. But in the past when the company has looked vulnerable, there was always the prospect that Anglo-British peer Shell could act as a "white knight" and agree to a merger deal that would preserve British interests. With Shell now tied up with a $70 billion takeover of BG, that seems much less likely, prompting the outgoing British government to break cover and say it would oppose any bid for BP. […]

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75% of Heat Waves Are Attributable to Climate Change

Blame global warming for about 75 percent of the world’s unusually hot days and 18 percent of its extreme snow or rain, according to a new paper in the journal Nature Climate Change. Heat waves and heavy storms are occurring at least four times more often than they did before carbon pollution started driving up thermometers. Global average temperatures are now about 0.85 degrees Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit) higher than before industrialization. Additional heat and precipitation are expensive. Severe weather costs the U.S. economy as much as $33 billion a year, according to a U.S. Energy Department report released April 21. And those figures will increase as the planet continues to warm, as climate change may not be smooth or gradual, according to the new paper. At 2 degrees Celsius — United Nations climate negotiators’ avowed upper limit — extremely hot days may be twice as likely as at 1.5 […]

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Oil falls more than 1 pct, U.S. crude stockpiles set for another high

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil fell more than 1 percent on Tuesday ahead of weekly U.S. crude inventory data that is expected to hit another high and as Saudi Arabia pledged to supply more oil to China if needed. U.S. commercial crude stockpiles were expected to have risen last week for the 16th straight week, up from a record 489 million barrels, even though drilling activity fell, a preliminary survey by Reuters showed on Monday. Comments from top Saudi oil officials on Monday reiterated the country’s position of keeping production high to meet demand as it maintains its market share. Brent June crude futures had dropped 84 cents to $63.99 a barrel by 0702 GMT. U.S. June crude fell 84 cents to $56.14 a barrel. The fall in prices "reflects the major gains that have been made in the last few weeks and a little bit of concern over what […]

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Oil Slides but Likely to Remain Volatile

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures fell in Asian trade Tuesday with Brent dropping below the $65 mark, but prices are likely to stay volatile on uncertainty over the latest rally. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $56.21 a barrel at 0506 GMT, down $0.78 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.78 to $64.05 a barrel. Oil prices fell for the second straight day this week after a rally earlier this month, with Nymex crude up by nearly 19% month-to-date and Brent crude prices up by more than 17%. Some of the recent price support came from expectations that U.S. oil production will start declining soon. "The oil market has likely passed through the worst period, but it is not out of the woods yet," analyst Michael Cohen at Barclays Research said. […]

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Oil-Industry Debt Mounts Up

ENLARGE Sinopec sold $6.4 billion of bonds last week. Above, employees refuel a car at a Sinopec gas station in Hong Kong in March. Photo: Bloomberg News SINGAPORE—Oil and gas companies are continuing to pile up debt, a trend some warn could extend the slump in energy prices and hit economies reliant on the sector for growth and tax revenue. Both independent and state-owned companies are involved in the borrowing bonanza, issuing $86.8 billion worth of bonds in dollars, euros and yen globally this year, up 10% from the same period in 2014, according to Dealogic, a data-tracking company. The rise is largely due to a high number of bond sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and in the U.S., where both Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. have recently tapped investors. The debt surge has been less dramatic in Asia. Still, China Petrochemical Corp., known as […]

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Brent crude holds near 4-1/2 month high on U.S. rig count, Yemen

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude prices held near a 4-1/2 month high above $65 a barrel on Monday, supported by concerns over fighting in Yemen disrupting Middle East supplies and signs that U.S. shale output may have started to decline. The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil has fallen for a record 20 weeks in a row to the lowest since 2010, according to Baker Hughes data, fuelling expectations of a drop in U.S. production. Brent had edged down 5 cents to $65.23 a barrel by 0623 GMT, after posting its third weekly gain last week and touching a Dec. 10 high of $65.80. U.S. crude fell 14 cents to $57.01 a barrel, after rising for the sixth consecutive week in its longest stretch of gains since the first quarter of 2014. "Sustaining the recent oil price rally requires firmer demand and a tangible supply response," Barclays […]

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Deflation? Oil’s 45 percent rebound could be markets’ next headache

LONDON (Reuters) – Whisper it, but the next challenge for financial markets and policymakers may not be deflation, but the remarkable surge in oil prices from the six-year low touched in January. Since then, Brent crude futures have risen 45 percent. If that is sustained or even increased throughout this year, inflation next year could rise significantly, posing questions for policymakers largely committed to ultra-loose policy. No fewer than 27 central banks around the world have eased monetary policy to some extent this year in a battle against deflation, slowing growth or both. These measures have ranged from interest rate cuts to bond-buying "quantitative easing" programs. All have been in response to the fall in inflation rates and inflation expectations driven by the 60 percent collapse in oil prices over the latter part of last year. Investors’ bets on the timing of the first interest rate increase from the […]

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Natural Gas Prices Plunge on Low Spring Demand

Natural gas prices plunged to their lowest point in nearly three years as weather updates suggest this spring could bring some of the weakest demand in more than a decade. Prices for the front-month May contract declined 4.1 cents, or 1.6%, to $2.49 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading on the June contract surpassed May. May options expired at close and futures expire Tuesday. The June contract declined 5.4 cents, or 2.1%, to $2.514/mmBtu. May’s settlement is lowest since June 15, 2012. Prices were down more than five cents as soon as electronic trading began Sunday evening, but did pare some of those losses in the afternoon. A Sunday-evening plunge is often a sign that weather updates are the dominant factor in trading. Traders, especially those using automated computer systems, will often have immediate, strong reactions to weather updates when they come after […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple