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Senate Passes Bill Giving Congress Review of Iran Nuclear Deal

ENLARGE Sen. John Cornyn leaves a Republican meeting after an agreement was reached to vote on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act in Washington on Thursday. Photo: JIM LO SCALZO/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY WASHINGTON—The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill establishing Congress’s right to weigh in on global negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear program. The 98-1 vote capped weeks of bipartisan efforts to strike a delicate deal on the legislation and then protect it from unraveling on the Senate floor in what is likely the high-water mark for congressional consensus on the nuclear negotiations. The bill from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) would prevent Mr. Obama from waiving sanctions on Iran for 30 days while Congress initially reviews a final agreement to diminish Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Lawmakers would then be able to vote on whether to disapprove of the deal, or take no action. “I […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Why Cheap Oil Is Bad News for U.S. Natural Gas

MATTHEW BROWN/ASSOCIATED PRESS IVAN MARTEN : Today’s low oil prices have already had a significant impact on much of the global energy landscape—including the U.S. natural-gas market. How will the U.S. market react if oil prices remain low for an extended period? Let’s start with demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected that domestic demand for natural gas would reach 770 billion cubic meters in 2020, up significantly from 690 billion cubic meters in 2014. This projection, however, was issued in early 2014— before oil prices began their descent—and assumed demand growth across all major segments. Given that oil prices have been roughly halved since mid-2014, however, some of those assumptions—specifically for exports and transportation—must be revisited. Look first at exports. The EIA projected that U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas would exceed 70 billion cubic meters in 2020, propelled by the price competitiveness of U.S. supplies in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Implications of higher domestic crude production for U.S. refining

graph of U.S. crude oil supply and disposition changes, as explained in the article text Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Turner, Mason & Company In response to multiple requests over the past years, EIA is developing a series of analyses that address the implications of current limitations on crude oil exports for prices, including both world and domestic crude oil and petroleum product prices, and for the level of domestic crude oil production and refining activity. The most recent report— Implications of Increasing Light Tight Oil Production for U.S. Refining —considers how refining activity in the United States might respond to low and high scenarios of increasing U.S. light tight oil production. EIA retained Turner, Mason & Company (TM) to conduct this analysis using their refinery expertise and modeling capabilities that represent the U.S. refining system in much greater detail than is possible using the modeling framework […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Senate Passes Bill Giving Congress Review of Iran Nuclear Deal

ENLARGE Sen. John Cornyn leaves a Republican meeting after an agreement was reached to vote on the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act in Washington on Thursday. Photo: JIM LO SCALZO/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY WASHINGTON—The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill establishing Congress’s right to weigh in on global negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear program. The 98-1 vote capped weeks of bipartisan efforts to strike a delicate deal on the legislation and then protect it from unraveling on the Senate floor in what is likely the high-water mark for congressional consensus on the nuclear negotiations. The bill from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) would prevent Mr. Obama from waiving sanctions on Iran for 30 days while Congress initially reviews a final agreement to diminish Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Lawmakers would then be able to vote on whether to disapprove of the deal, or take no action. “I […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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What the Senate’s Iran Legislation Means

What does the bill do? The legislation would require President Barack Obama to submit any deal with Iran to Congress within five days, and would prevent the president from waiving sanctions on Iran for 30 days while Congress initially reviewed a final agreement to diminish Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Lawmakers would then be able to vote on whether to disapprove of the deal, or they could take no action. If Congress passed a resolution rejecting any agreement, Mr. Obama would have 12 days to veto the measure. If he vetoed it, Congress would have 10 days to try to override his veto, which requires a two-thirds majority. Under the legislation, the administration would have to provide detailed reports to Congress on Iran’s terrorist activities and certify to lawmakers every 90 days that Iran is complying with the nuclear agreement. Congress is a whole branch of government. Why does it need […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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‘Beyond petroleum’ – fracking’s collapse heralds the arrival of peak oil

This is the cleft stick within today’s global energy supply: too little ‘cheap energy’ to enable economic growth, too low a return on capital to allow investment in higher production. A few weeks ago tremors rocked the world of ‘fracking’ in the USA – though few heard them. The US Energy Information Agency (USEIA) had issued its latest Monthly Drilling Report and the news was not good. It wasn’t simply the economic failure of fracking (covered in The Ecologist last December ) and the subsequent collapse in drilling ( covered in January ). The news from the USEIA was far more grim for those who understood its deeper meaning. Their press release was very matter-of-fact: “EIA’s most recent Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) indicates a change in the crude oil production growth patterns in three key oil producing regions… The DPR estimates include the first projected declines in crude oil […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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The Return Of Peak Oil – Worrying Signs From US And Russia

Since around 2005 many countries have increased their oil production but more have decreased. But the combined production of the United States and Russia have kept the world on a slight uptrend since that time. World oil production jumped in 2011, hardly moved at all in 2013 but it was up by more than 1.5 million barrels per day in 2014. And after such a huge gain everyone and their brother were singing “peak oil is dead’. But if you scroll down through the 37 major world oil producers it becomes obvious that a majority of nations have peaked and most of them are in steep decline. The above chart is EIA data; however, the next four charts below are JODI data with the last data point February 2015. The data on all charts is thousand barrels per day. In the last decade it has been two of the […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Why the World’s Appetite for Oil Will Peak Soon

The result, in my opinion, is as startling as it is world-changing: Global oil demand will peak within the next two decades. A less potent weapon The geopolitical and economic implications of peaking demand will be huge. The fall in the importance of Saudi Arabia is already palpable, with all the major powers from the U.S. to China more willing to accommodate Saudi archrival Iran. In addition, Russia’s ability to use oil as a weapon will wane, as will the economic leverage of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. As economic growth becomes increasingly disconnected from oil, world powers will likely shift their attention to other increasingly scarce resources that will be equally critical to economic well-being, such as food, water and minerals. A greater interest in Africa, for example, is already starting to emerge. For sure, peak demand is far from how the oil patch sees things. […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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BG still happy with Shell bid as oil price rise boosts LNG

LONDON Britain’s BG Group said on Friday it was happy with Shell’s $70 billion takeover bid despite a recent upturn in oil prices that led the company to increase the profit outlook for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business. A near 20 percent rise in crude prices since Shell made its bid for BG on April 8 has raised concerns investors may question the valuation. "There is no change to our view on the offer," said BG Chief Executive Helge Lund on his first results conference call since taking the reins in early February, only weeks before Shell made its takeover offer. BG’s first-quarter results, however, also showed how deeply the drop in oil prices early this year had hit its business as it reported a 41 percent drop in core earnings to $1.6 billion from $2.7 billion the same time last year. The company’s revenue and other income […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Why We Have an Oversupply of Almost Everything

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article called, Glut of Capital and Labor Challenge Policy Makers : Global oversupply extends beyond commodities, elevating deflation risk. To me, this is a very serious issue, quite likely signaling that we are reaching what has been called Limits to Growth , a situation modeled in 1972 in a book by that name. What happens is that economic growth eventually runs into limits. Many people have assumed that these limits would be marked by high prices and excessive demand for goods. In my view, the issue is precisely the opposite one: Limits to growth are instead marked by low prices and inadequate demand. Common workers can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that the economy produces, because of inadequate wage growth. The price of all commodities drops, because of lower demand by workers. Furthermore, investors can no longer find investments […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple