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Texas shipping operations brace for storm

Shipping operations on the Texas coast began to batten down Monday as a major storm bears down on the region. Houston pilots stopped boarding outbound vessels on the ship channel at around 2 pm CDT (1900 GMT) Monday, the West Gulf Maritime Association said in a statement. Galveston-Texas City and Brazos pilots are expected to shut down operations near dusk. The release also said offshore lightering operations have ceased until the weather improves. Chevron has evacuated some non-essential personal from its US Gulf Coast production facilities, but production has not been impacted, spokeswoman Isabel Ordonez said. Article continues below… Sign up for Global Alert today. Platts Global Alert is a complete real-time information service for the global energy industry, providing breaking reports of deals done, price indicators for crude and products and more than 200 end-of-day assessments. ExxonMobil, Shell and BP haven’t cut any production because of the storm, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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US crude production boost could be near: EIA economist

Stabilizing crude oil prices and falling drilling costs could soon boost US production by hundreds of thousands of barrels per day, an upstream oil and gas economist with the US Energy Information Administration, said Monday. "We’re starting to see a turn in production," Grant Nulle said during a panel discussion at EIA’s annual conference. "Conditions are conducive for this to happen." While recent EIA data has shown production declines at existing wells have outpaced production from new wells, a rebound is likely as operators focus on the most efficient wells and look to increase well completions amid falling costs and continued availability of capital, Nulle said. In a recent survey of 85,000 wells drilled between 2012 and 2014, initial production rates have roughly doubled, he said. Article continues below… Every Monday, Capitol Hill newshounds Herman Wang and Brian Scheid analyze, dissect and debate the key US oil policy issues […]

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Oil prices rise as Texas braces for tropical storm

SINGAPORE Crude prices rose after a cautious start on Tuesday, boosted by warnings that a tropical storm was about to hit the coast of oil producing state Texas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a tropical storm warning on Tuesday for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to High Island. More than 45 percent of U.S. refining capacity is located along the U.S. Gulf Coast, which is also home to about half of the total U.S. natural gas processing capability. U.S. crude futures were up around half a dollar at $60.05 a barrel at 0700 GMT (0300 ET), staying within a trend channel of $57-$62 per barrel that has been in place since the beginning of May. Brent also rose, gaining 22 cents to $64.17 per barrel. Analysts said Brent’s gains were largely down to firm demand for refined products, such as gasoline, in Asia. "Over the first […]

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Shell Arctic drilling rig departs Seattle surrounded by protesters

SEATTLE A Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling rig that will search for oil in the Arctic left its temporary base in Seattle on Monday for the trip north to Alaska as dozens of activists in kayaks tried to stop it, authorities said. Live television showed the rig being towed out of its terminal at the Port of Seattle with kayakers fanning out in an arc as it moved into the Puget Sound. Twenty-five people were detained by the Coast Guard for violating a safety zone around the vessel and were fined $500 each, Coast Guard spokesman George Degener said. The rig paused at Bainbridge Island, west of Seattle, and several tweets indicated it had beached. Degener said the reports were incorrect and the rig was changing towing configuration. Seattle City Council member Mike O’Brien was among the activists who paddled out to oppose Shell’s plans to resume drilling for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Energy Industry Is Gassing Down

Natural gas is flared off at a plant outside of the town of Cuero, Texas. U.S. energy companies are taking their foot off the natural-gas pedal, slowing down their production growth after years of furious pumping. In the past eight years, a combination of improvements in drilling techniques and high energy prices stoked natural-gas production to all-time highs. The boom quickly sent natural-gas prices to historic lows, but output kept rising because high oil prices made it profitable for producers to keep tapping fields that yielded both oil and gas. Now, the global collapse in oil prices has producers and analysts rethinking the gas boom, too. Both gas and oil prices are down about 40% in the past year, cutting the incentive to keep drilling. A flurry of recent forecasts from government and private-sector experts suggest monthly gas production will flatten and possibly even begin to decline in 2015. […]

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Seattle Wades Into Fight Over Oil Drilling

SEATTLE—Law enforcement detained dozens of protesters Monday for trying to block a Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.03 % PLC oil rig from departing the Port of Seattle for drilling off Alaska—the latest development in a weekslong standoff in which environmental activists have been joined by an unusual ally: the city itself. Monday’s action took place after the Polar Pioneer and its support vessels attempted to leave the port about 6 a.m. to begin exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea and were intercepted by protesters in kayaks, Coast Guard officials said. About two dozen people were detained, including Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien, as more activists prepared to try to block the 400-by-292-foot drilling vessel from reaching the open sea, said Coast Guard Lt. Dana Warr. Lt. Warr said the agency is enforcing a 500-yard safety zone around the vessel, and that violators face misdemeanor citations. Shell officials said that […]

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Coal, Oil Must Decline to Curb Carbon Emissions by 2020, IEA Says

LONDON—Coal and oil use must begin declining after 2020, and natural gas, nuclear and renewable energy usage must rapidly increase, for the world to begin curbing emissions in the next decade, the International Energy Agency said in a report Monday. The IEA, a Paris-based energy monitor for industrialized countries, laid out a number policies that would lead to a peak in energy-related emissions by 2020, recommending profound changes in energy consumption ahead of a key U.N. climate change summit this year . According to the IEA, in order to cap emissions coal demand needs to gradually decline over the next 15 years, falling 13% between 2013 and 2030. Oil demand should also peak after 2020, gradually declining over the course of the next decade though it will still maintain the biggest share of the overall energy mix. Meanwhile, demand for nuclear energy should more than double from its 2013 […]

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North Dakota Fights Fracking Rule

North Dakota Seeks Injunction North Dakota officials are warning that a new federal fracking rule will likely cost the state $300 a year in income and 1,900 jobs. In March,the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finalized new rules to regulate hydraulic oil and gas fracturing on public lands. Several states have filed suit, arguing that the new rules supersede the state’s authority and “ invade ” the jurisdiction of the state regulatory bodies. Related: Federal Fracking Regulations Challenged The ruling is particularly significant to North Dakota because of it vast public lands. It is estimated that BLM has an interest in about a third of the drilling units in North Dakota that were acquired the mineral rights on defaulted farms during the the Great Depression. Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources believes that the ruling will cause companies to leave North Dakota, which could cost the […]

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U.S. industrial output hurt by weakness in manufacturing, mining

WASHINGTON U.S. industrial production unexpectedly fell in May as manufacturing and mining activity remained weak, a sign that a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector continued to constrain economic growth. The softness in the production side of the economy contrasts starkly with recent upbeat data on retail sales, employment, consumer and small business confidence, which have pointed to a growth pickup after a sluggish start to the second quarter. "Signs of spring remain largely absent in the industrial sector. The challenges of the stronger dollar and drop in energy prices linger," said Tim Quinlan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. Industrial output slipped 0.2 percent last month after declining 0.5 percent in April, the Federal Reserve said on Monday. Industrial production has been weak since December, and economists had expected output to rise 0.2 percent last month. The data was likely to […]

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British fracking campaign takes early step

British fracking campaign takes preliminary steps, though local county council rejects some work on traffic concerns. File Photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI PRESTON, England, June 15 (UPI) — A British county council at the center of the country’s fledgling hydraulic fracturing sector gave partial support Monday to shale pioneer Caudrilla Resources. Caudrilla Resources aims to target shale natural gas reserves in Lancashire County. The region’s council said Monday it recommended approval for a campaign with as many as four drilling sites and hydraulic fracturing. The recommendation was subject to restrictions ranging from hours of work to noise pollution. A second application was recommended for refusal because of the potential for an increase in traffic on the rural highway network. Caudrilla in a statement said it was pleased with the council’s decision, though expressed frustration that efforts to satisfy local concerns were not recognized. "We will await the councilors’ decisions […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple