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Iraq’s oil exports hit record high so far in June

LONDON Iraq’s oil exports have averaged 3.20 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in June, according to loading data and an industry source, setting shipments from OPEC’s second-largest producer on course for a record high. Another boost from Iraq underlines the focus of major members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in keeping market share, not restraining supply to support prices. OPEC met on June 5 and kept its policy unchanged. Exports from Iraq’s southern terminals have averaged 3.00 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first 15 days of June, according to shipping data seen by Reuters and an industry source, up from 2.69 million bpd in all of May. Shipments have jumped after Iraq’s decision to split the crude stream into two grades, Basra Heavy and Basra Light, to resolve quality issues. Some companies working at Iraqi oilfields have increased production following the move. […]

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New Basra Heavy crude raises exports – and complications

A tug boat maneuvers near an oil tanker at the Al-Basra Oil Terminal. (BEN LANDO/Iraq Oil Report) Halfway through Basra Heavy’s first month on the market, Iraq’s new crude grade is averaging nearly 629,000 barrels per day (bpd), and is on track to propel the country to another record month of exports.So far in June, Iraq’s southern exports are averaging almost 3.07 million bpd, according to tanker loading data obtained and compiled by Iraq Oil Report.* If that rate continues for the second half of the month, it would be an increase of 376,000 bpd – nearly 14 percent – over May’s 2.69… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue. If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Deadly Bombings in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — A branch of the Islamic State in Yemen claimed responsibility for a series of car bombings here in the capital that killed at least 30 people on Wednesday, adding a new layer of peril to a city terrorized for months by airstrikes as well as by antiaircraft fire that has fallen on civilian homes. The bombings, outside mosques where many Shiite Muslims worship and a headquarters of the Houthi rebels, were the deadliest attacks claimed by the Sunni extremist group since March, when suicide bombers killed more than 130 people at two Shiite mosques here. The March attacks helped accelerate the country’s slide toward civil war, sharpening sectarian tensions and aggravating the confrontation between the Shiite Houthi rebels, who are from the country’s north, and supporters of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was ousted by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia entered the war days later, beginning […]

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U.S. Shifts View Over Iran’s Past Nuclear Work

WASHINGTON—Secretary of State John Kerry said that confronting Iran about its alleged past atomic weapons work isn’t crucial to reaching a nuclear deal, a shift of the U.S. position that fueled fresh fears on Capitol Hill over the terms of an accord two weeks before a diplomatic deadline. U.S. and European negotiators have for months said a full accounting of Iran’s past nuclear activities would be critical to sealing a final deal by June 30 and guarding against Iran cheating in the future. But Mr. Kerry, in a news conference on Tuesday, said a complete understanding of Iran’s past nuclear-weapons research wasn’t essential to sealing a final accord in advance of the deadline. “We’re not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another,” Mr. Kerry said. “We know what they did….We have absolute knowledge with respect to certain military activities they […]

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Rouhani: Iran isolated from weak oil market

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the nation’s economy is less dependent on oil revenue than ever before. Even with sanctions in place, Iran’s Central Bank expects some economic growth this year. File Photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI TEHRAN, June 17 (UPI) — Iran is less squeezed by the low price of oil than other export-dependent nations because of budgetary moves away from energy, the country’s president said. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the budget for the current Iranian year, which started March 21, is the least dependent on oil revenue ever for the country. Crude oil prices are robbing major exporters like Russia of revenue, though Iran’s president said his country was largely shielded from those constraints. "All oil exporting countries, even those who plotted for an oil price decline, are facing problems due to this issue and our problems might be even less than this group," he said. Valiollah […]

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Colombia’s No. 2 oil pipeline shut after rebel bombings

BOGOTA Colombia’s Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, the country’s second biggest by volume, has been shut due to damage from bomb attacks by leftist FARC rebels which caused a significant spill that has contaminated two rivers, the army said on Wednesday. Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebels, known as FARC, have intensified attacks on infrastructure in the past few weeks after calling off a unilateral ceasefire. They have attacked pipelines and trucks carrying crude oil, as well as damaging transmission lines, cutting power to large towns. The army confirmed that four troops were also killed on Wednesday after being ambushed by the FARC who set off remote-controlled explosives and fired on them with machine guns while on patrol in the southern province of Caqueta. State-run Ecopetrol which operates the Cano Limon pipeline through its Cenit subsidiary, said in a statement it is taking measures to contain the spill as local […]

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North Korea Says It’s Facing Its Worst Drought in a Century

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea is in the midst of a severe drought, its state news agency reported, raising fears of worsening food shortages in the impoverished country, where child malnutrition is a persistent problem. “The worst drought in 100 years continues in the D.P.R.K., causing great damage to its agricultural field,” the Korean Central News Agency said in a report late Tuesday, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. There was no evidence that the drought was the worst in a century. But United Nations officials recently expressed growing concern about the lack of rain. In April , the United Nations called for $111 million to fund its humanitarian operations in North Korea, saying that 70 percent of the country’s 25 million people were “food insecure.” Much of the Korean Peninsula has had unusually dry weather in recent weeks, at […]

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Refiner margins unable to fully offset low upstream earnings for integrated oil companies

U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Evaluate Energy Source: Note: Upstream refers to crude oil exploration, production, and other operations prior to refining. Downstream refers to refinery operations, product sales, and marketing. First-quarter 2015 financial results for globally integrated oil companies—ones that focus on both the exploration and production of crude oil (upstream) and the refining of crude oil into petroleum products (downstream)—show that total earnings were $22 billion (54%) lower than in first-quarter 2014. Lower crude oil prices contributed to a decline in profits in the upstream sector of $28 billion (80%) compared to first-quarter 2014. Profits in the downstream sector, however, were the largest for any quarter since third-quarter 2012, almost $6 billion (95%) higher than in first-quarter 2014, which offset some of the decline from the upstream segment. Crack spreads refer to the differences between wholesale petroleum product prices and crude oil prices, and they can […]

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Cheaper prices spur U.S. gasoline demand: Kemp

LONDON Strong growth in demand for refined fuels such as gasoline and diesel is helping to rebalance the global oil market, according to most observers. “Recent oil market strength … stems partly from unexpectedly strong oil demand growth,” the International Energy Agency explained in its June monthly oil market report. In the first quarter of 2015, global oil consumption was 1.7 million barrels per day higher than in the prior-year period. “In particular, gasoline prices have found support from robust U.S. demand, leading to a surge in crack spreads,” according to the IEA. But if there is a consensus that demand is rising more quickly than predicted at the start of the year, there is fierce debate about whether growth is being driven by economic recovery, cheaper fuel prices or a combination of the two. And there is a mystery about why the consumption of gasoline is growing more […]

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Alaska’s glaciers are now losing 75 billion tons of ice every year

In a new study , scientists with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and several other institutions report a staggering finding: Glaciers of the United States’ largest — and only Arctic — state, Alaska, have lost 75 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons) of ice per year from 1994 through 2013. For comparison, that’s roughly half of a recent estimate for ice loss for all of Antarctica (159 billion metric tons). It takes 360 gigatons of ice to lead to one millimeter of sea level rise, which implies that the Alaska region alone may have contributed several millimeters in the past few decades. “Despite Greenland’s ice covered area being 20 times greater than that of Alaska, losses in Alaska were fully one third of the total loss from the ice sheet during 2005-2010,” wrote the authors, led by Chris Larsen of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks’s […]

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Dollar falls, Wall St up in volatile post-Fed trading

NEW YORK The U.S. dollar slid on Wednesday while Wall Street stocks rose in volatile afternoon trading after the Federal Reserve signalled it may wait until late this year to raise interest rates. The Fed has said it would first raise rates when it deems the economy strong enough to handle it, and on Wednesday said the economy was likely strong enough to support a rate hike by the end of the year. The U.S. central bank also lowered expectations for 2015 economic growth. Analysts are torn on whether the first rate hike in about 10 years will occur in September or December, but some took Yellen’s comments to imply it could be December. "It’s a very cozy statement, and so far as when we do this it’s going to be gentle, we might need to keep rates low for a long time. It’s reiterating everything Janet Yellen has […]

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U.S. House mulls arctic drilling

House committee hears testimony on the wisdom of exploiting the potential reserves held in the arctic waters off the coast of Alaska. Photo by ziggysofi/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, June 17 (UPI) — Drilling offshore, particularly in arctic regions offshore Alaska, won’t do much to wean the United States off foreign oil, a U.S. House committee heard. A House subcommittee on energy resources held an oversight hearing on reserves thought to be in arctic waters and how they could potentially impact U.S. leverage overseas. Sen. John Cornyn , R-Texas, said in early June that moving more domestic oil to the global market could "strengthen the strategic hand of the United States." Michael LeVine, a senior counsel on the Pacific region for advocacy group Oceana, told the House committee that arctic waters alone weren’t enough to protect the U.S. economy from overseas shocks. "Offshore drilling in the United States, particularly in the Arctic […]

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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. crude oil stockpile falls, gasoline builds unexpectedly: EIA

NEW YORK U.S. crude stocks fell last week, while gasoline stocks and distillate inventories rose, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels to 467.93 million last week, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 1.7 million barrels. But the drop recorded by the EIA was less than the 2.9 million-barrel slide reported on Tuesday by industry group American Petroleum Institute (API). Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 112,000 barrels, the first increase since mid-April, EIA said. U.S. crude futures erased gains and briefly turned lower after the EIA data. U.S. July crude was up 8 cents at $60.05 a barrel, having swung from $59.81 to $61.38. Brent August crude was up 40 cents at $64.10, well off its $65.47 intraday peak. "The drawdown in crude oil inventories was expected so its effect is muted, […]

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Tesla Partners With Battery Researcher to Lower Costs

Tesla Motors Inc. has locked a leading advanced battery researcher into an exclusive partnership designed to help the Palo Alto, Calif., electric-car maker sharply lower the cost of its batteries. Jeff Dahn, a professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia known for his work innovating lithium-ion batteries like those Tesla uses to power its Model S sedan, will cooperate with Tesla researchers. Now working on a project with 3M Co. MMM 0.29 % , he will enter a research partnership with Tesla when his current work is completed. Financial terms weren’t available, but Tesla said it would sponsor Mr. Dahn’s research efforts roughly 6,400 kilometers from Northern California in return for his help solving Tesla’s cost problem. JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technologist, said this week that lithium-ion battery costs need to come down significantly in coming years so the auto maker can offer lower-priced vehicles. Tesla is the largest […]

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E.U. Agrees to Extend Economic Sanctions Against Russia

BRUSSELS — The European Union is set to extend by six months economic sanctions against Russia , calming fears that Greece ’s acrimonious negotiations over its debt crisis might allow Russia to break the unity of the 28-nation bloc in its response to the conflict in Ukraine. A decision to prolong the sanctions, which expire at the end of July, was made by European ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday and is expected to be ratified at a meeting of foreign ministers early next week in Luxembourg, diplomats in Brussels said. Moscow lobbied hard against a renewal of the sanctions, imposed last year in tandem with similar measures by the United States after Russia annexed Crimea in March and then provided support to separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. Decisions on sanctions require unanimity, so Russia needed to win over only one European Union country to block an extension. But it […]

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Peak Oil? Yes, Absolutely – Peak Oil Demand

You should never bet against the capability of oil investors to turn the world completely upside down. A great example occurred on Wednesday of last week, as Arthur Berman argues in this excellent article. He points out that Brent crude surged from $62 a barrel to $65 a barrel on 10 June, despite the US Energy Information Administration announcing on that very same day that the global oil production surplus in May rose to almost 3 million barrels. ‘Not to worry, ‘demand growth is robust,’ the oil markets seemed to be saying. But if you look at the same EIA report, you will find that whilst worldwide oil production declined by 106,000 barrels per day, consumption fell more by 156,000 barrels per day. It is supposed the job of oil futures markets to anticipate the future – that’s why they are, of course, called futures markets. Perhaps, therefore, they […]

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60 Million People Fleeing Chaotic Lands, U.N. Says

Photo Syrian children crossing into Turkey this week. The U.N. says the war in Syria is the world’s biggest source of displacement. Credit Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images UNITED NATIONS — Nearly 60 million people have been driven from their homes by war and persecution, an unprecedented global exodus that has burdened fragile countries with waves of newcomers and littered deserts and seas with the bodies of those who died trying to reach safety. The new figures, released Thursday by the United Nations refugee agency, paint a staggering picture of a world where new conflicts are erupting and old ones are refusing to subside, driving up the total number of displaced people to a record 59.5 million by the end of 2014, the most recent year tallied. Half of the displaced are children. Nearly 14 million people were newly displaced in 2014, according to the annual report by […]

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Beyond the Perfect Drought: California’s Real Water Crisis

The record-breaking drought in California is not chiefly the result of low precipitation. Three factors – rising temperatures, groundwater depletion, and a shrinking Colorado River – mean the most populous U.S. state will face decades of water shortages and must adapt. The Lake Oroville reservoir in Northern California was at less than 25 percent capacity last month. Image via raybouk/flickr. Creative Commons 2.0. The current drought afflicting California is indeed historic, but not because of the low precipitation totals. In fact, in terms of overall precipitation and spring snowpack, the past three years are not record-breakers, according to weather data for the past century. Similarly, paleoclimate studies show that the current drought is not exceptional given the natural variations in precipitation of the past seven centuries. Nor can it be confidently said that the current drought bears the unequivocal imprint of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gases, since […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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The China Bubble Is Going to Burst

People take escalators in Hong Kong. Photographer: Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images It’s no longer a question of whether China’s stock-market rally is a bubble, but when the bubble will burst. That’s the refrain from a growing number of analysts as valuations climb to levels that by some measures already exceed the peak of China’s last equity mania in 2007. A market crash may come within six months, Bocom International Holdings Co. said Tuesday, citing an analysis of global bubbles over 800 years that shows the speed of gains in China mirroring past market peaks. Macquarie Investment Management, whose Asian stock fund is outperforming 97 percent of peers in 2015, has already eliminated exposure to mainland shares after turning bearish for the first time in seven years. The government may engineer a correction if valuations rise much further, according to CLSA Ltd. “We are probably going to be in […]

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U.S. gasoline prices take unexpected rise

Gasoline prices rise in the United States as ongoing refinery issues and slumping stocks drag on supplies. UPI/John Angelillo WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) — Retail gasoline prices in the United States are making a surprise surge as high demand and ongoing refinery issues crimp supplies, motor club AAA said. AAA reports a national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at $2.80 for Tuesday, about six cents higher than last week and 10 cents higher than one month ago. The motor club in its weekly fuel gauge report said the new high-water mark for 2015 is attributed to a decline in gasoline stocks caused in part by higher fuel demand and "persistent refinery problems, which has limited gasoline production." Separate analysis from price-watchers at GasBuddy.com found retail gasoline markets in the Midwest were among the hardest hit by refinery issues, with Indiana and Michigan posting the […]

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Activists arrested in Shell protest

Greenpeace activists arrested by U.S. Coast Guard officials during protest against Shell drilling plans offshore Alaska. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace. SEATTLE, June 16 (UPI) — Fourteen activists from Greenpeace were arrested by federal authorities during a protest against Shell’s arctic Alaska program off the coast of Seattle. Activists took to kayaks to protest against Shell’s use of the Port of Seattle as a staging ground for summer plans to drill off the coast of Alaska. Shell is proposing as many as six wells in a region known as the Burger prospect, located in shallow waters, using the Noble Discoverer and Polar Pioneer rigs. The Greenpeace activists were part of a larger group of around 50 protestors. Each of the Greenpeace activists were released and issued citations of $250. "Every minute that brave protesters can delay Shell’s Arctic drilling plans is another chance for President Obama to reconsider his disastrous […]

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North Dakota touts diversity as rig count declines

Rig activity in North Dakota slowing down, though state’s government said diversity if key component of economic momentum. File Photo by UPI/Shutterstock/Lilac Mountain. BISMARCK, N.D., June 16 (UPI) — As the state’s governor boasts of strong economic growth in 2014, North Dakota data show activity in the exploration and production sector is in decline. State data for Tuesday show the number of rigs actively exploring for or producing oil and natural gas in North Dakota is 76, an increase of a single rig above the lowest count recorded since 2009. The number of rigs deployed in North Dakota is down nearly 60 percent from last year and 64 percent, or 138 rigs, below the historic peak reached in 2012. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis last week reported gross domestic product in North Dakota increased 6.3 percent last year, beating out all other U.S. states. Gov. Jack Dalrymple said […]

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Energy job losses mount for Canada

Canadian drilling association said it expects job losses to mount in a weakened energy sector. UPI/Shutterstock/Kodda CALGARY, Alberta, June 16 (UPI) — More than 25,000 total jobs are expected to be lost in the Canadian exploration and production sector, a well drilling association said. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said it was revising downward its drilling forecast because of lower crude oil prices and changing market conditions in the resource-rich province of Alberta. "Since its last revision in January 2015, the number of operating days is expected to decline by an additional 10,320 days or 13 percent," the association said in its latest forecast. "A sharp drop in the number of overall operating days means an estimated reduction of 25,110 total jobs in 2015, down almost 50 percent from the 2014 total of 49,950." The Canadian National Energy Board said it was monitoring crude oil prices as […]

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Canadian oil producers eye hedging catch-up at $65/barrel

CALGARY, Alberta Canadian energy producers are giving up hoping for a big rebound in oil prices, preparing instead to embark on a course of belated hedging if crude prices edge just a few dollars higher. As crude markets collapsed during the first half of this year, Canada’s oil producers held back on hedging on concern they would lock in prices at barely break-even rates. That may be about to change. A rally in U.S. crude CLc1 from $60 a barrel today to about $65 could trigger a wave of selling from Canadian companies eager to build up protection against a second price slump, according to market sources in Calgary. Many allowed their hedging activity to lapse since last year, when oil tumbled to a six-year low near $42 a barrel. Canadian producers are between 10 percent and 20 percent underhedged compared with the same time last year, banking sources […]

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Kemp: North Dakota’s Oil Production Has Peaked

John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) – North Dakota’s crude oil output has peaked, according to the latest production data published by the state government, as the slump in prices takes its toll. The state produced 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, down from a peak of 1.23 million in December, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) reported on Friday. The former rapid growth in production has stalled and current output is no higher than it was in September 2014 ( http://link.reuters.com/zeb94w ). In the seven months between February and September 2014, output increased by 233,000 bpd, while in the seven months from September 2014 to April 2015, output actually edged down 18,000 bpd. Prices are by far the most important cause of the downturn, according to state regulators, followed by tax changes, tougher flaring rules […]

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EIA’s mapping system highlights energy infrastructure across the United States

image of U.S. energy mapping system, as explained in the article text EIA’s energy mapping system is a data-intensive visual reference tool that includes several map layers defining energy infrastructure components across the United States. Using this series of maps, viewers can see crude oil, petroleum, natural gas, or hydrocarbon gas liquid pipelines, terminals, and ports in their area, as well as high voltage electric transmission lines. The mapping system combines information from many government agencies as well as public and private sources. Understanding infrastructure components is helpful as energy supply and consumption patterns change. Crude oil pipelines and rail terminal locations are based on publicly available data. These map layers can be presented over several base layers with geographic, topographic, street, or satellite image detail, as well as with state, county, and congressional district borders. Each state’s map is also included as part of EIA’s State Energy Data […]

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Houston Ship Channel could be closed until Thursday due to tropical storm

The Houston Ship Channel could remain closed until Thursday as high seas related to Tropical Storm Bill batter the region. The channel closed at 5:05 pm CDT (2205 GMT) Monday. The Greater Houston Port Bureau said in a statement that the Houston Pilots have 15 inbound and 17 outbound ships waiting in the queue and do not anticipate ships transiting the channel until Thursday morning. Galveston-Texas City and Brazos pilots are also not moving vessels, the statement said. Article continues below… Real-time news service tailored for ship owners, tanker charterers, brokers and traders plus the only independent source of daily clean and dirty tanker rate assessments daily. Tropical Storm Bill is expected to make landfall near Matagorda Bay and will bring heavy rain, high winds and elevated tide levels to the Houston area. Tuesday morning, sea swells were running at 11-12 feet. The suspension of ship movements in the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Opinion: The Dark Side Of The Shale Bust

« ExxonMobil brings Kearl oil sands expansion online ahead of schedule; overall capacity doubling to 220K barrels per day | Main | AeroVironment and Recargo introduce Pay With PlugShare for West Coast Electric Highway’s fast charging network » By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com The fallout of the collapse in oil prices has a lot of side effects apart from the decline of rig counts and oil flows. Oil production in North Dakota has exploded over the last five years, from negligible levels before 2010 to well over a million barrels per day, making North Dakota the second largest oil producing state in the country. But the bust is leaving towns like Williston, North Dakota stretched extremely thin as it tries to deal with the aftermath. Williston is coping with $300 million in debt after having leveraged itself to buildup infrastructure to deal with the swelling of people and equipment […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Report: Canada Could Lose 185,000 Oil, Gas Jobs in 2015

Since late last year, oil and gas companies globally have fought to sustain the drop in oil prices … layoffs ensued and companies large and small were affected. And according to a new study released by the Petroleum Labour Market Information (PetroLMI) Division of Enform, a safety association for upstream oil and gas in Canada, there’s a prediction that 185,000 jobs will be lost in Canada this year due to the drop in oil prices. According to the study, in 2014, the oil and gas industry spent nearly $125 billion on exploration, development and production – which supported more than 720,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada. About two-thirds of these jobs were concentrated in Alberta. The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) recently forecasted that more than 25,000 Canadian drilling jobs would be lost due to weak oil prices, Reuters reported. CAODC president Mark Scholz said “potential […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greek central bank warns of ‘painful course’ to euro exit

Greece, EU flags Greece’s central bank has warned for the first time that the country could be on a "painful course" towards default and exit from the eurozone. It comes as the Greek government and its international creditors blamed each other for failing to reach a deal over economic reforms. That failure is holding up the release €7.2bn in bailout funds. About €30bn was withdrawn from Greek bank deposits between October and April, the central bank added. The central bank also warned the country’s economic slowdown would accelerate without a deal. "Failure to reach an agreement would… mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country’s exit from the euro area and, most likely, from the European Union," the Bank of Greece said in a report. "Striking an agreement with our partners is a historical imperative that we […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greek Central Bank Warns of ‘Uncontrollable Crisis’ if Bailout Talks Fail

ATHENS—Greece’s central bank warned Wednesday that failure to clinch a deal with international creditors on its future funding needs could lead the country into an “uncontrollable crisis,” describing the issue as being of historical significance for the nation. In its annual monetary report, the Bank of Greece , TELL -1.33 % the country’s central bank, said that based on evidence so far, it seems that a compromise has been reached on the main conditions attached to the lending agreement and that little ground remains to be covered. “Failure to reach an agreement would… mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country’s exit from the euro area and—most likely—from the European Union,” the report said. “A manageable debt crisis, as the one that we are currently addressing with the help of our partners, would snowball into an uncontrollable […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Wintershall gets gas from mini-rig

Wintershall starts production in North Sea using small-scale rig it says can extract reserves economically even from smaller fields. Photo courtesy of Wintershall. KASSEL, Germany, June 16 (UPI) — German energy company Wintershall said it started gas production in the Dutch waters of the North Sea using a platform designed for economic returns. The company said it was producing gas from an unmanned platform designated as L6-B, a small-scale facility built in nine months and towed to the location in June 2014. "The advantage of this new generation of platforms is that they can be deployed in particularly shallow waters and can economically produce even from very small natural gas fields," the company said in a statement. L6-B is positioned in a restricted military zone and Wintershall said it’s the first company permitted to work in the area. No reserve potential are expected production rates were offered. The start […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Peak Oil: Myth Or Coming Reality?

In 1956, a geoscientist named M. King Hubbert formulated a theory which suggested that U.S. oil production would eventually reach a point at which the rate of oil production would stop growing. After production hit that peak, it would enter terminal decline. The resulting production profile would resemble a bell curve and the point of maximum production would be identified as Peak Oil, a point of no return. The original peak oil curve Image Source: Cornell University Hubbert first predicted that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970 and then start declining rapidly. His prediction turned out to be partly true, as U.S. crude oil production peaked that same year, not to be eclipsed again until the shale boom began. Annual crude oil production (in thousands of barrels per year) for entire United States, with contributions from individual regions as indicated. “The end of the oil age is in […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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How the Pope Got Religion on Climate Change

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is the modern descendent of the Vatican’s first scientific advisory, which began in 1603 and included Galileo among its members. Since 1923, academy scientists have met in Casina Pio IV, a palace built in 1561 for Pope Pius IV. Photographer: Gabriella C. Marino/Creative Commons Several dozen of the world’s most prominent scientists sprang from their seats and left the Vatican hall where they were holding a conference on the environment in May 2014. They were bound for a meet-and-greet with Pope Francis at the modest Vatican hotel where he lives, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. Among the horde was Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Since 2004, he has also been a member of a 400-year-old collective, one that operates as the pope’s eyes and ears on the natural world: the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He had a message for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Leak of Pope’s Encyclical on Climate Change Hints at Tensions in Vatican

Photo Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday. The leak of his environmental encyclical has raised questions about whether those behind its publication had set out to embarrass him. Credit Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press ROME — The unexpected leak of Pope Francis ’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue. Who leaked it and why? Was this the work of frustrated conservatives in the Vatican , as some experts have speculated? Does it portend big fights at a pivotal October meeting in which church officials are expected to grapple with homosexuality and divorce? Or is it just a tempest in a teapot? “Somebody inside the Vatican leaked the document with the obvious intention of embarrassing the pope,” said Robert Mickens, a longtime […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Americans Are Again Getting More Worried About the Climate

The financial crisis made Americans less worried about climate change . The Democrats’ attempt to pass sweeping climate legislation in 2009 and 2010 probably reduced Americans’ anxiety level as well, as paradoxical as that may sound. But now Americans are getting more worried again. About 69 percent of adults say that global warming is either a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem, according to a new Pew Research Center poll , up from 63 percent in 2010. The level of concern has still not returned to that of a decade ago; in 2006, 79 percent of adults called global warming serious. It’s impossible to know exactly why concern about the climate fell — and why skepticism that global warming was real increased — starting around 2008. Both economics and politics probably play a role. The financial crisis and recession made Americans more worried about the immediate condition of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Pope’s Views on Climate Change Add Pressure to Catholic Candidates

Photo A coal-fired power plant near Bergheim, Germany. Pope Francis is expected to release a highly anticipated encyclical on the environment on Thursday. Credit Oliver Berg/European Pressphoto Agency WASHINGTON — As the steamy hurricane season descends on Miami, the city’s Roman Catholic archbishop, Thomas G. Wenski, is planning a summer of sermons, homilies and press events designed to highlight the threat that a warming planet, rising sea levels and more extreme storms pose to his community’s poorest and most vulnerable. His sermons and speeches are meant to amplify the message of Pope Francis ’ highly anticipated, highly controversial encyclical on the environment, which the Vatican is expected to unveil on Thursday. A papal encyclical, or teaching document, is among the strongest and most authoritative statements made by the Catholic Church. In a draft of the document leaked on Monday, Francis reiterated the established science that burning fossil fuels are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple