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Two Billion People Are Running out of Water

Forget about peak oil—we should be worrying about peak water: Groundwater basins that supply 2 billion people are being rapidly depleted , according to a new study. Worse: No one knows how long those reserves will last. A research team led by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, examined the world’s 37 largest aquifers between 2003 and 2013 and found that one-third of them were “stressed,” meaning more water was being removed than replenished, according to one of two studies published Tuesday in the journal Water Resources Research . The eight worst-off aquifers, labeled “overstressed,” had virtually no natural replenishment to offset human consumption. The scientists determined the Northwest Sahara Aquifer System, which supplies water to 60 million people, to be the most overstressed. The Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan is the second-most overstressed, followed by the Murzuk-Djado Basin in northern Africa. California’s Central Valley […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices rise on strong U.S. demand

LONDON Brent crude oil rose on Wednesday as strong demand and falling stockpiles in the United States pushed prices higher. Brent futures were up 99 cents at $64.69 a barrel at 0514 ET. Front month U.S. crude futures were up 83 cents at $60.80 per barrel. U.S. crude stocks fell last week even as refineries cut output, while gasoline inventories dropped and distillate stocks built, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday. [API/S] U.S. crude stocks are forecast to have fallen 1.7 million barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts. Gasoline stocks are expected to be down 300,000 barrels. [EIA/S] "The API (data) was bullish and (U.S. gasoline) is tight," a broker in London said. J.P. Morgan said in its weekly oil research note that U.S. production had reached a new high this week, but that it would start to drop. An […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crude oil mixed on U.S. storm and supply data

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami tracking Tropical Storm Bill as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico, home to more than 10 percent of total U.S. oil production. Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI NEW YORK, June 16 (UPI) — Crude oil prices were mixed Tuesday, with the U.S. index rising in response to a storm in the Gulf of Mexico and Brent moving down on supply issues. British energy company BP said operations are normal in the Gulf of Mexico, though others in the region have pulled some staff from the area amid threats from Tropical Storm Bill. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., said Bill was moving northwest at about 13 miles per hour and was on track to hit the Texas coast by Tuesday morning. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 17 percent of total U.S. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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A year after the crash, oil markets risk more trouble ahead

SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK/TOKYO A year on from the start of one of the biggest oil price crashes in history, the driving force behind the slide remains intact: there is still too much crude. While output continues to grow, the economic outlook has darkened in top energy consumer China, where oil demand has been one of the few bright spots in the market. Add to the mix record output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the possibility of a return of Iranian crude exports, and further price turbulence looks almost certain. Oil prices began a seven-month rout this time last year that took Brent crude futures LCOc1 from $116 per barrel to around $45 by January. While prices have crawled up since, there are few signs yet that OPEC’s strategy of keeping output high in a bid to drive out competitors, such as U.S. shale oil, is […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Supply glut pushes North Sea Brent crude price differential to 10-year low

LONDON The price differential of North Sea Brent crude fell to its lowest in a decade on Tuesday, a further sign that a supply glut is weighing on the physical crude market. Royal Dutch Shell offered a Brent cargo loading on June 26-28 at dated Brent minus $1.40 a barrel, down 40 cents from Monday. That is the lowest Brent differential recorded in Reuters pricing data going back to 2005. A surplus of unsold North Sea cargoes, and of West African crude, has been putting physical differentials under pressure, even as the price of Brent crude futures has rallied to almost $64 a barrel from almost $45 in January. "The amount of crude oil afloat on the water off the coast of the UK is increasing and that is putting considerable pressure on the North Sea price structure," said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. Analysts at Energy Aspects […]

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New NASA data show how the world is running out of water

The world’s largest underground aquifers – a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people — are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth’s surface. Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows. Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world’s underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Allies in Syria Cut Islamic State Supply Line

A quick and successful offensive by Kurdish fighters and allied rebels in a northern Syrian town has boosted a U.S.-backed effort to choke off Islamic State’s supply routes and offered a template for regaining territory from the extremist group. Emboldened by the recapture of Tal Abyad, the Syrian Kurdish alliance said Tuesday that its next target is Raqqa, Islamic State’s main stronghold in Syria about 50 miles south of Tal Abyad. The fighters said they had already begun advancing southward toward Raqqa on Monday, reaching the town of Ain Issa, only about 30 miles away. “We will move to liberate Raqqa in the near future,” said Shervan Darweesh, a spokesman for a coalition of rebel factions led by the Syrian Kurdish militia known as YPG. Despite those proclamations, there is no broader military planning under way by the U.S.-led coalition for an imminent Raqqa offensive, which would be a […]

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OPEC 2014 Exports Below $1 Trillion; First Time Since 2010

The value of OPEC members’ petroleum exports fell below $1 trillion in 2014 for the first time since 2010, according to its annual report, demonstrating the toll last year’s oil-price collapse took on the group. Exports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell in value to $993.3 billion last year, from $1.112 trillion in 2013, the report said, as oil prices fell below $60 a barrel at the end of 2014 from highs above $114 last summer. The report illustrated the shifts rocking the oil industry and OPEC’s 12 member nations before the producer group made its historic decision last November and abandoned its role of regulating the market through production cuts. Now, the group’s members are pumping flat out and fighting for markets against private oil companies, other nations and among themselves. Before ramping up to about 31 million barrels a day of production this year, […]

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Libya in talks to reopen El Feel, El Sharara oilfields

TRIPOLI Libyan authorities will try during the month of Ramadan to reopen pipelines for El Feel and El Sharara oilfields and Zueitina port that have been blocked for weeks by protests and disputes, the state oil company said on Tuesday. The two major oilfields and oil terminal have been shuttered by protesters demanding jobs, disputes among security guards and the country’s conflict between two rival governments battling for control of the north African OPEC state. "The efforts are being carried out by elders, local municipalities, and mediators," National Oil Corporation spokesman Mohamed Harari said, adding talks would take place during Ramadan. "If the three pipelines are reopened, the oil production might reach 800,000 barrels per day." Ramadan is due to start this week. Negotiations to reopen oilfields and ports in Libya often drag on as the oil industry is constantly under siege from protesters seeking jobs or armed factions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple