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Michigan calls for tar sands ban

A worker tends to an oil boom on the Kalamazoo River near Battle Creek, Mich., in 2010. Pipeline operator Enbridge has been called on to stop sending heavier crude oil grades through a Michigan pipeline network. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI LANSING, Mich., July 15 (UPI) — A pipeline report from Michigan calls for a ban on the transportation of heavier crude oil grades through pipelines running through the Straits of Mackinac. "While we recognize the importance of transporting energy to power Michigan communities, it cannot be at the expense of our environment," Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Director Dan Wyant said in a statement. Wyant and Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette released a report from a pipeline task force, which calls for "an immediate" ban on sending tar sands and heavy crude through Enbridge pipeline Line 5b running through the straits. Wyant and Schuette announced last year they’d […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Fund manager Taylor sees $30 U.S. oil from torrent of supply

A worker climbs onto a crude oil train to set the hand brake at the Eighty-Eight Oil LLC’s transloading facility in Ft. Laramie, Wyoming July 15, 2014. U.S. oil, which has already halved in value over the past year to around $50 a barrel, could sink to $30 as a torrent of supply makes it hard to sustain any rally, hedge fund manager Beau Taylor said on Wednesday. The manager of the Taylor Woods Capital Management fund told an investor conference that the next six to 18 months would frustrate anyone betting on an oil price recovery, adding that he had a "short", or bearish, position on futures of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI). "It just seems like it’s going to be a market that’s going to be very, very difficult to rally in the near term," Taylor, who manages some $800 million at the Connecticut-based fund, told […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greece licks wounds after bailout vote, ECB move expected

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reacts during a parliamentary session in Athens, Greece July 16, 2015. Greece awoke with a political hangover on Thursday after parliament approved a stringent bailout program, thanks to the votes of the pro-European opposition, amid the worst protest violence this year. The vote, vital to unlocking emergency financing from European partners as early as Thursday, left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras weakened by a revolt in his leftist Syriza party but clinging to power for now. The European Central Bank’s governing council, meeting in Frankfurt, was expected to ease its funding squeeze on shuttered Greek banks, the first step toward permitting them to reopen after nearly three weeks’ closure while cash rationing and other capital restrictions will remain in place. European finance ministers were to hold a conference call on Thursday morning to agree on a plan for 7 billion euros in bridging funds to […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Diesel cars: Is it time to switch to a cleaner fuel?

Car exhaust In the 1920s, pregnant women were encouraged to drink Guinness to increase their iron intake. For decades we were all told to avoid fatty butter and eat synthetic margarine. Both pieces of so-called health advice have since been totally debunked. We are now learning that millions of motorists who’ve bought diesel cars believing they were less harmful to the environment have been equally misguided. Diesel cars emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) than their petrol equivalent, we were told. In fact, not only are CO2 emissions almost indentical on average, but they also produce large quantities of other pollutants linked with thousands of premature deaths . Carmakers say they have already taken action to reduce emissions greatly in the past decade and regulators are beginning to acknowledge the problem, but the challenge remains enormous. The reason is simple: about half of all cars currently sold in Europe are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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LNG deliveries mulled for Ukrainian market

Texas company reviews prospects of sending liquefied natural gas to a Ukrainian market under the thumb of Russian energy company Gazprom. File Photo by UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov HOUSTON, July 15 (UPI) — A Texas-based company, led in part by a former Conoco Phillips veteran, said it was reviewing the prospects of shipping liquefied natural gas to Ukraine. Frontera Resources Corp. said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s state-run energy company Naftogaz to work in the upstream, or exploration and production, sector in Ukraine as well as study the potential to deliver liquefied natural gas from its work in Caucasus country Georgia. "I strongly believe that our closer work with Naftogaz will open avenues to strategically supply Ukraine with LNG from across the Black Sea," Steve Nicandros, former Conoco brass and Frontera’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "This will serve to diversify the country’s supply […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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I.M.F. Report Shines Uncomfortable Light on Greece’s Financing Gap

FRANKFURT — The International Monetary Fund said what everyone knew but would not admit when it laid out in gory detail late Tuesday how Greece could be crushed by its staggering debt unless creditors agreed to lighten the load. The I.M.F. was not saying anything different from what it and its chief, Christine Lagarde, had quietly told eurozone leaders last weekend. But by going public with its warnings, the fund was putting the world on notice: Without some relief that might enable Greece to grow its way out of debt, the I.M.F. is unwilling to continue throwing good money after bad. The question in the next couple of days will be whether that frank appraisal helps or hinders attempts to keep Greece in the eurozone. The I.M.F. report on Greece’s debt said the country had a financial shortfall of 85 billion euros, or $93 billion, and predicted that within […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Greece, Its Back to the Wall, Adopts Austerity Steps

ATHENS — Under threat from the nation’s creditors to move quickly or lose any chance of obtaining a desperately needed new bailout package, Greece ’s Parliament approved painful new austerity measures early Thursday, virtually guaranteeing that life would get harder for millions of Greeks. With banks closed and the economy on the verge of collapse, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had urged the adoption of the measures, saying that while it was a difficult deal the creditors were offering, it was the only one available and would avert a humanitarian and fiscal disaster. The measures passed easily, with a vote of 229 to 64, with six abstentions. Yet much of the support came from opposition parties. Thirty-two members of Mr. Tsipras’s own Syriza party voted no, including three of his ministers, throwing the stability of his left-wing coalition government into question. Mr. Tsipras, who unexpectedly took the floor before the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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BofA Sees Weaker Ruble Mitigating Iran-Spurred Oil Swings

Russia current account Potential economic risks to Russia triggered by oil-price volatility in the aftermath of Iran’s nuclear accord will be mitigated by the ruble, according to Bank of America Corp. Though the country will ultimately be a “net-loser” of the deal, “further ruble weakness should continue to re-balance Russia’s current account and fiscal balances, which should help limit the negative impact on the broader economy,” Vladimir Osakovskiy, the chief Russia economist at Bank of America in Moscow, said in an e-mailed note. Iran and six world powers on Tuesday sealed a historic deal to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for ending sanctions. While Russia is set to suffer from Iran’s future supplies of energy resources to Europe, Moscow’s key export market, “ruble flexibility will continue to help absorb external shocks” and energy cooperation between the two countries could offset some of the negative impact, Bank […]

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Russia ETF Extends Decline as Industrial Production Contracts

Russian Industrial Production Shrank More Than Forecast in June The biggest exchange-traded fund tracking Russian stocks ended a four-day gain as data showed industrial production fell more than forecast and oil slumped, dimming the economic outlook for the world’s biggest energy exporter. The Market Vectors Russia ETF slid 1.6 percent to $17.82 in New York. Energy companies, which account for 43 percent of the fund’s weighting, tumbled as Brent crude slid to a one-week low. A Bloomberg gauge of U.S.-traded Russian stocks fell for a second day. Russian equity assets tumbled after government data on Wednesday showed output at factories, utilities and mines dropped 4.8 percent in June from a year earlier, exceeding the median forecast for a 4 percent decline among 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It was the fifth consecutive month that industrial production fell, the longest slump since 2009. The report further damped speculation that a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The ‘Oil Supply Glut’ Appears To Be A Myth

Summary The media continues to report that the world is greatly oversupplied with oil and this continues to have a negative effect on oil prices. The EIA and IEA both appear to be underestimating worldwide demand for oil by nearly 2 million barrels per day. The EIA lacks reliable production figures for any state except for Alaska. The figure that the EIA adds to actual crude oil stocks before reporting has increased greatly in recent weeks. The oil price decline has led to cutbacks in capital spending, which is likely to exacerbate an oil supply shortage going forward. For quite some time now, the media has been discussing the oil supply glut that has been blamed for pushing down the price of oil from its previous peak in the middle of last year. However, there is now an increasing amount of evidence that the extent of the supply glut […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple