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China’s Antigraft Authority Takes Aim at Sinopec

ENLARGE Wang Tianpu, president of China’s state-owned oil-and-gas company Sinopec Group, is being investigated for alleged discipline violations. Photo: Bloomberg BEIJING—China’s leaders are deepening their probes into China’s distressed oil sector as the nation’s top refiner faced new scrutiny on Monday, illustrating the staying power of an antigraft drive that has shaken China’s powerful state-owned enterprises. China’s antigraft authority is taking aim at Sinopec Group, a lynchpin of China’s economy that in recent years stood as a symbol of its global oil ambitions. Accusations against a top company executive are likely to add to what have been several years of uncertainty in China’s oil sector, which has already curtailed spending at home and slowed investment abroad partly as a result of unprecedented government scrutiny. The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a notice late Monday that Wang Tianpu , president of state-owned oil-and-gas company Sinopec Group, […]

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China Readies Fresh Easing to Tackle Specter of Debt

ENLARGE A pedestrian walks past the People’s Bank of China headquarters in Beijing. The central bank is planning fresh easing measures to tackle a worrying buildup of local-government debt. Photo: Bloomberg News BEIJING—China’s central bank is planning to launch its own version of innovative credit-easing programs adopted by its counterparts in developed countries, according to officials with knowledge of the matter, as Beijing’s flagship plan to restructure trillions of dollars of local-government debts is hitting snags. Under the plan, which could be put in place in the next couple of months, the People’s Bank of China will allow Chinese banks to swap local-government bailout bonds for loans as a way to bolster liquidity and boost lending, the officials said. The strategy—dubbed Pledged Supplementary Lending—is similar to the long-term refinancing operations, or LTROs, used by the European Central Bank. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the central bank […]

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Bakken Rig Count Falls Below 80

Bakken Oil Workers The Bakken-Three Forks rig count dropped by five to 79 rigs running across our coverage area by midday Friday. In recent Bakken news, the Department of Transportation  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. Read more: DOT Tells Oil Tankers to Slow Down The U.S. rig count fell again this week by another 22 ending at 932 rigs running by midday Friday.  A total of 225 rigs were targeting natural gas (and increase of eight  from the previous week) and 703 were targeting oil in the U.S. (31 less than the previous week). The remainder were drilling service wells (e.g. disposal wells, injection wells, etc.)   79 rigs are running in the Williston Basin across MT, ND, and SD. 78 are in ND alone. Bakken Oil & Gas […]

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Hess: Exports will keep U.S. shale alive

U.S. energy company Hess Corp. argues for a repeal of a 1970s ban on crude oil exports to breath life into a waning shale industry. Photo by Oskari Porkka/Shutterstock NEW YORK, April 27 (UPI) — Keeping U.S. crude oil "trapped" in the domestic market may be undermining the health of the shale industry, the top executive at Hess Corp. said. Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stopped exporting oil to the United States in response to U.S. support for Israel in the 1970s. The U.S. Congress responded in kind by passing legislation restricting crude oil exports in part to protect the domestic market from overseas influence. Nearly four decades later, those in the exploration and production side of the U.S. energy sector argue that policy is outdated in an era when domestic shale is leaving storage facilities overflowing with domestic crude oil. "Part of the reason […]

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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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Slowdown and out in Williston, ND

Andy Richter for Al Jazeera America A free meal is served Sunday nights at Banquet West, a weekly community event at First Lutheran Church in Williston, N.D., March 1, 2015. Andy Richter for Al Jazeera America Oil tankers fill up outside of Williston. Since fracking began in the Bakken Shale in the late 2000s, the city’s population has more than doubled. WILLISTON, N.D. — From an airplane at night, Williston appears an oasis of thousands of points of light on the Great Plains. Most are white or yellow, but some flicker bright orange. They are the oil drilling rig flares of the Bakken Shale formation — fires that burn night and day. But dozens of these fires have gone dark in the last eight months. Williston has been pummeled by plunging oil prices worldwide, which dropped from a $105 a barrel in February 2014 to $54 in February 2015. […]

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Eagle Ford, Permian Basin, and Bakken and Eagle Ford Scenarios

This is a guest post by Dennis Coyne Increased oil output in the US has kept World oil output from declining over the past few years and a major question is how long this can continue. Poor estimates by both the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) for Texas state wide crude plus condensate (C+C) output make it difficult to predict when a sustained decline in US output will begin.  About 80 to 85% of Texas (TX) C+C output is from the Permian basin and the Eagle Ford play, so estimating output from these two formations is crucial. I have used data from the production data query (PDQ) at the RRC to find the percentage of TX C+C output from the Permian (about 44% in Feb 2015) and Eagle Ford plays (40% in Feb 2015). Dean’s estimates of Texas C+C output are excellent […]

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North Dakota OKs New Oil Tax Framework, Ends Price Triggers

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — With oil prices sinking enough that drillers may soon see a more favorable tax rate, North Dakota lawmakers approved a new framework Friday that cuts the price-triggered exemption in exchange for a lower tax rate. North Dakota’s House voted 66-26 after a contentious debate to shave the state’s oil tax rate from 11.5 percent to 10 percent. Republicans believe the move offers better certainty for the state and industry, while Democrats say it could cost the state billions in future oil tax revenue. "We’re taking a real risk and probably something we can never get back," said Rep. Jerry Kelsh, D-Fullerton. Fargo Rep. Al Carlson, North Dakota’s House majority leader, and other GOP representatives said the new system will provide a stable and predictable tax policy that will help increase production, spur investment and boost the state’s economy. "We need to have what’s fair, what’s […]

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US to launch blitz of gas exports

US to launch blitz of gas exports thumbnail The United States is poised to flood world markets with once-unthinkable quantities of liquefied natural gas as soon as this year, profoundly changing the geo-politics of global energy and posing a major threat to Russian gas dominance in Europe. “We anticipate becoming big players, and I think we’ll have a big impact,” said the Ernest Moniz, the US Energy Secretary. “We’re going to influence the whole global LNG market.” Mr Moniz said four LNG export terminals are under construction and the first wave of shipments may begin before the end of this year or in early 2016 at the latest. “Certainly in this decade, there’s a good chance that we will be LNG exporters on the scale of Qatar, which is today’s largest LNG exporter,” he said, speaking on the margins of the IHS CERAWeek energy summit in Texas. Qatar exports […]

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BP Reports Fall in First-Quarter Profit Amid Weaker Oil Prices

ENLARGE A section of the BP Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) oil platform is seen in the North Sea, around 100 miles east of Aberdeen, Scotland. BP reported a fall in first-quarter profit on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters LONDON— BP PLC on Tuesday reported a fall in first-quarter profit from a year earlier, giving the first glimpse of how low oil prices through the beginning of 2015 affected the world’s biggest oil companies. BP’s replacement-cost profit—a number similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report—was $2.1 billion, down from $3.48 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell to $54.9 billion from $75.1 billion from a year earlier. Production for the quarter was 8.3% higher than the first quarter of 2014 at 2.31 billion barrels of oil equivalent a day. “Looking ahead, we expect second-quarter 2015 reported production to be lower than the first quarter, reflecting significant seasonal turnaround and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple