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Foreign Groups Fear China Oversight Plan

Photo A Greenpeace investigator taking a wastewater sample in China’s Inner Mongolia region in 2013. Legislation would require foreign groups to be supervised. Credit Qiu Bo/Greenpeace, via Reuters BEIJING — A remarkable assortment of foreign organizations set up shop in China in the decades after its emergence from isolation under Mao Zedong, offering good will, money and expertise that helped link the nation more closely to the rest of the world and turn it into the global powerhouse it is today. But sweeping new legislation introduced by the government of President Xi Jinping is forcing many of these groups — including international trade associations and philanthropic foundations — to consider scaling back their activities in China or pulling out of the country entirely. The proposed law, which began circulating in draft form last month and is expected to be enacted later this year, would put foreign nonprofit and nongovernmental […]

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China’s natural gas demand sputters

For global natural gas producers, no country is as important to their future as China. An expected surge in demand over the coming two decades from China is underpinning billions of dollars of investment in new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants around the world, pipeline projects from its neighbours and unconventional gasfields at home. But demand has slowed markedly over the past 18 months casting doubt over the pace of future growth. After years of double-digit expansion, the pace of China’s gas demand growth slowed to 8.6% in 2014. And that slow growth has continued into this year. Year-on-year growth was just 7% over the first three months of this year and demand actually fell by 6% in April. The sharp slowdown has defied expectations of robust natural gas demand growth. 4 Comments on "China’s natural gas demand sputters" GregT on Thu, 18th Jun 2015 8:23 pm Why even […]

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EPA defends controversial biofuels program at Senate hearing

WASHINGTON The U.S. environmental regulator on Thursday defended its handling of the nation’s controversial renewable fuels program at a congressional hearing, the first since its new biofuels targets last month provoked a furor among corn farmers and oil refiners. At the hearing by the Senate subcommittee on regulatory affairs and federal management, U.S. lawmakers criticized the agency for years-long delays to quotas and for last month setting unattainable targets for the amount of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels that must be used in the nation’s motor fuel supply over the next two years. They also questioned the future of the decade-old Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS), which critics say has inflated prices of food and fuel at the pump. The panel will likely increase congressional attention to the pitfalls of the decade-old biofuels policy as it faces a fresh wave of criticism from policymakers, the oil industry and environmentalists. But […]

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Small U.S. frackers face extinction amid drilling drought

WEATHERFORD, Texas Oil field work was coming in fast when GoFrac doubled its workforce and equipment fleet at the beginning of last year, just one of hundreds of small oil service companies thriving on the revival of U.S. drilling. Founded in November 2011 with a loan of around $35 million, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company was by 2014 making nearly that much in monthly revenues, providing the crews and machinery needed by companies including ExxonMobil ( XOM.N ) to frack oil and gas wells from North Dakota to Texas. Executives flew to meetings across the country in a Falcon 50 private jet, and entertained customers at their suite at the Texas Rangers baseball stadium in Arlington. The firm would soon move into a 22,000-square-foot office on the 12th floor of Burnett Plaza, one of Fort Worth’s most prestigious office buildings. Eighteen months on, however, without work and unable to […]

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U.S. shale oil in slow decline

Oil production from shale formations in the United States slowing, but not as much as would be expected given low rig numbers, Bentek data show. Photo by photostock77/Shutterstock DENVER, June 18 (UPI) — While oil production from key shale formations in the United States is in decline, the drop isn’t as severe as expected given low rig counts, analysis finds. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a drilling productivity report oil production from some of the more lucrative shale basins in the United States is expected to drop by a combined 92,000 barrels per day by July. While the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas is expected to show the largest drop in terms of volume, the Niobrara shale in Colorado declines the most in terms of percent by July, federal data show . Bentek Energy, the forecasting unit of energy news site Platts, said production from Eagle […]

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Turning Drilling Waste into Roads

ND Tests New Technologies to Recycle Waste The North Dakota Department of Health has approved a pilot project to test new technologies to recycle solid drilling waste. One of the companies involved in the project is promising to revolutionize the industry by recycling Bakken drilling waste into material for roads or other uses. Nuverra has invested more than three years and $30 million into this initiative. Its process called Terrafficient can recycle 100 percent of that waste, according to company spokesperson. Recycling drilling waste is a common practice in other states, but the Bakken’s high salt content has made it more challenging to develop a process that protects the environment. Related: Recycling Waste Water is Big Business Scott Radig with the North Dakota Department of Health said “Nuverra proposes to reuse the drilling waste in three ways: mix it with gravel so the gravel will compact better and not […]

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Oilfield costs fall following decline in oil prices

U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Source: Industry Producer Price Indexes As oil prices declined—falling more than 50% from June 2014 to January 2015, before increasing slightly in spring 2015—energy production companies focused efforts on increasing operating efficiencies. While production, rig counts , and employment statistics are good indicators of the expansion or contraction of the oil and natural gas industry, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index (PPI) tracks the rates oil and natural gas service firms are receiving for goods and services used in producing oil and natural gas. Changes in the PPI can be used to examine how prices charged by firms throughout the oil and natural gas industry respond to fluctuations in commodity prices. The magnitude of PPI declines by industrial classification compared with the downturn in oil prices reflects the idea that firms most directly exposed to […]

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Oil-Sands Megaproject Era Wanes as Suncor to Imperial Scale Down

(Bloomberg) — The era of the megaproject in Canada’s oil sands is fading. Crude’s price slump, pressure to get off fossil fuels and tax increases in Alberta are adding to high costs and a lack of pipelines, prompting producers from Suncor Energy Inc. to Imperial Oil Ltd. to accelerate a shift to smaller projects. Companies are deferring new mines in favor of cheaper, bite-sized drilling programs that deliver quicker returns and require less labor. The moves will help reduce cost overruns and make Canadian companies more competitive with U.S. shale producers. The trade off will be reduced production growth and a smaller economic boost for the country’s oil patch. “Capital likes certainty and it’s a bit of an uncertain world at the moment,” Steve Williams, Suncor’s chief executive officer, said June 10 in an interview at Bloomberg’s Calgary office. With crude about 46 percent below last year’s level, companies […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple