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China War on Pollution Benefits From Economic Slowdown

SHAHE, China—A “war against pollution” declared by China’s leaders is getting a boost from the slowing economy as the government forces bloated industries like steel, cement and glassmaking to slim down. The results of cuts in overcapacity are already visible in notoriously smoggy Beijing. Official air-pollution data released by China’s government and monitoring by the U.S. embassy show levels of fine-particulate matter damaging to human health—known as PM2.5—fell more than 15% in the capital in the first half of 2015, compared with a year earlier. The city’s 21 million residents have been greeted with unusual stretches of blue skies. While measures taken by Beijing are partly behind the change, just as important is what’s happening in the sprawling industrial areas that encircle it. The bleak industrial city of Shahe, 200 miles south of the capital, boomed for much of this century. These days, small glass producers there that haven’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Crude supertanker operators cash in on oil market rout

Newspaper + Premium online Premium online Full FT.com subscription Standard online Full news & archive Registration 3 articles per month Price Monthly Annual £76.00 £13.50 per week (52 weeks in total) £42.00 £7.35 per week (52 weeks in total) £30.00 £5.35 per week (52 weeks in total) Free FT Alphaville plus selected FT blogs FT Alphaville and more Unlimited access to Alphaville, the FT’s popular finance blog, plus many other FT blogs featuring comment and analysis from top columnists Gavyn Davies on macroeconomics, economic policy making & financial markets The Westminster blog covering the UK’s political scene Dispatches from FT experts in San Francisco, London & Taipei on Tech blog The World blog on international affairs yes yes yes yes Unlimited FT.com article access Unlimited FT.com article access Enjoy full access to FT.com’s award-winning news, comment and analysis. With over 500 journalists reporting from over 50 countries, read our […]

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China will soon surpass South Korea, Russia, and Japan in nuclear generating capacity

graph of nuclear generating capacity for top 6 countries, as explained in the article text Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Atomic Energy Agency, World Nuclear Association Nuclear power currently makes up slightly more than 2% of China’s total power generation. However, the Chinese government has a stated goal to provide at least 15% of overall energy consumption by 2020 (increasing to 20% by 2030) from non-fossil fuel sources, including nuclear, hydroelectricity and other renewable sources. To help achieve this target, China plans to increase nuclear capacity to 58 gigawatts (GW) and to have 30 GW of capacity under construction by 2020. China has rapidly expanded its nuclear capacity in the past several years, which likely will increase nuclear generation in the next few years. China’s net installed nuclear capacity is 23 GW, after the country added 10 reactors totaling more than 10 GW since the beginning of 2013. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Wall Street Lenders Growing Impatient With U.S. Shale Revolution

Raising Cash Halcon Resources Corp. almost ran into trouble with its banks in June 2013. And again in March 2014. And in February 2015. Each time, the shale driller came close to violating debt limits set by its lenders, endangering a credit line that provided as much as $1.05 billion in much-needed cash. Each time, Halcon’s banks, led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., loosened their restrictions, allowing Halcon to keep borrowing. That kind of patience may be coming to an end. Bank regulators have issued warnings on the risks involved in lending to U.S. drillers, threatening a cash crunch in an industry that’s more dependent than ever on other people’s money. Wall Street has been one of the biggest allies of the shale revolution, bankrolling thousands of wells from Texas to North Dakota. The question is how that will change with oil prices down […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Study shows more hospital stays in three fracking counties

A fracking operation is set up on this farm near Dimock in Susquehanna County. A new study shows that in Susquehanna, Bradford and Wayne counties, people who live near fracking wells were more likely to have hospital visits. (CAROLYN COLE / LOS ANGELES TIMES) Researchers comparing hospital visits in three rural Northeast Pennsylvania counties found a higher rate of hospital visits in counties with a heavy gas industry presence. Residents of heavily drilled Bradford and Susquehanna counties were admitted to hospitals at higher rates than in neighboring Wayne County where drilling is banned, University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University researchers stated in a paper published in the peer-reviewed PLOS One scientific journal last week. The researchers used hospital-reported inpatient data from 2007, when drilling began, to 2011, the latest year available, said Penn Medicine researcher Dr. Reynold Panettieri Jr., one of the study’s authors. Relying on 95,000 inpatient records, […]

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TransCanada boasts of benefits of North American pipelines

Pipeline company TransCanada says it’s shipped 1 billion barrels of oil through the existing Keystone network through North America. (courtesy TransCanada) CALGARY, Alberta, July 20 (UPI) — The shipment of the 1 billionth barrel of oil through the Keystone oil pipeline system shows commitment to U.S. energy security, TransCanada said. The Canadian pipeline company said the pipeline system has brought in close to $200 million in taxes and generated more than 14,000 construction jobs since it was commissioned in 2010. "These one billion barrels of oil have helped to fuel North American energy independence and the U.S. economic recovery, which has seen a dramatic rise in the number of oil and gas jobs as well as an increase in supply through a mix of Canadian imported and domestic production," TransCanada President and Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said in a statement. The Keystone pipeline system stretches from Alberta to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Officials: Oil train didn’t speed before Montana derailment

AP Photo/Richard Peterson Train Derailment BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A train that derailed and spilled 35,000 gallons of oil in northeastern Montana was traveling within authorized speed limits, federal officials said Monday as they continued to probe the accident’s cause. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train loaded with crude from North Dakota was traveling 44 miles per hour before Thursday’s wreck, U.S. Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Matthew Lehner said. Officials have said the maximum authorized speed in the area is 45 mph. Twenty-two cars on the BNSF train derailed near the small town of Culbertson. Lehner said the tank cars were a model known as the "1232,"which is built under a 2011 industry standard intended to be more crash-resistant than earlier designs. But several recent oil train crashes, including some that caught fire, also involved 1232s and federal officials are seeking to phase out the cars. The oil […]

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Oil Explorers Retreat From Shallow U.S. Gulf in Shift to Shale

Explorers Mostly Quit Shallow U.S. Gulf in Shift to Inland Shale Energy producers are abandoning the search for oil and natural gas close to shore in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico as drilling budgets shrink and exploration migrates to land-based shale fields. The number of permits for new wells in seas less than 500 feet (152 meters) deep plunged 74 percent to nine during the first six months of this year from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Shallow-water drilling has largely targeted gas in recent decades because most of the crude in fields close to shore had already been discovered and harvested. The glut of gas from shale fields in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania that crushed prices for the fuel made offshore gas production less attractive. “A lot of the players operating on the continental shelf are financially distressed or […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Halliburton secures $500 million to fund drilling in old wells

A Halliburton facility sits behind a barbed wire fence on the outskirts of Williston, North Dakota January 23, 2015. Halliburton Co ( HAL.N ) said it had tapped BlackRock Inc ( BLK.N ) for $500 million to help fund drilling in existing shale wells, the first such move by a major oilfield services provider at a time when oil producers are shying away from drilling new wells. The world’s No.2 oilfield services provider, which is buying No.3 Baker Hughes Inc ( BHI.N ) to cope with a fall in demand, also reported a better-than-expected profit, helped by cost cuts. Market leader Schlumberger NV ( SLB.N ) and Baker Hughes have touted refracking, the practice of fracking existing wells, as means for oil producers to save money. Drilling normally accounts for about 40 percent of the cost of a new well. "Though a relatively small market today, we see significant […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oh frack, now there’s radiation in Pennsylvania’s water

Drilling a horizontal shale gas well in Appalachia In Fredericktown, Pennsylvania, water that feeds into a Pittsburgh treatment plant has been found to contain more than 60 times what is considered the safe level of radiation. The water Dufalla tested? It’s from Ten Mile Creek, which eventually feeds into a nearby water treatment plant. Not surprisingly, it’s not good to have 60 times the maximum allowed radium in drinking water, and it’s not something that’s easy to filter out. Drinking water is just one concern. There’s also the fish swimming in radium-tainted water to worry about. Oh, well, if the gas industry officials said it, it has to be true, right? This is nothing new, though. Tests proved even higher levels of radiation were present in Pennsylvania’s streams two years ago . Just last week, fracking in Pennsylvania was linked to higher rates of cancer, skin conditions, heart disease […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple