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China’s manufacturing sector suffers biggest shrinkage since 2009

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Gas Golden Age Fades as Supply Boom Meets Japan Nuclear Rebirth

Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai Nuclear Power Plant stands in Satsumasendai, Japan. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg The golden age of natural gas lost some of its luster this month. Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of the fuel in liquid form, restarted a nuclear reactor on the island of Kyushu Aug. 11, re-embracing atomic power to shrink energy-import costs. A week later, a production milestone was marked at Santos Ltd.’s Curtis Island plant in Australia, a new liquefied natural gas project that’s part of a record annual capacity increase. Japan’s return to nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and China’s economic slowdown are undermining the demand that prompted the International Energy Agency to envision a golden age four years ago. Companies including Chevron Corp. and BG Group Plc were counting on Asia’s consumption as they sank hundreds of billions of dollars into new supply. A glut will cap LNG prices […]

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Chinese province’s debt crisis exposes economic fault line

A man attempts to catch fish at a partially frozen fish farm near an abandoned steel mill of Qingquan Steel Group in Qianying township, Hebei province in this February 18, 2014 file photo. A mini debt crisis in northern China is exposing cracks in a financial pillar of the country’s economic revival plan: the $430 billion loan-guarantee industry. China has a heavy corporate debt burden and its economy is slowing, putting borrowers under strain, but many lenders take comfort from the fact that their loans are insured against default through the nation’s almost 8,000 guarantee companies. A third of these are state-backed companies that stand behind more than 60 percent of China’s guaranteed loans. They exist to facilitate finance for smaller businesses – China’s job-creators – but a crisis unfolding in northern Hebei province shows that their ability to meet those guarantees is in doubt. In Hebei, a gritty […]

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Make Shell disclose offshore drilling risks, Senate members demand

Eleven US Senate Democrats and Independent Bernard Sanders (Vt.) asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to make Royal Dutch Shell PLC disclose to the public and investors inherent risks offshore oil drilling poses if there is a spill or other environmental accident. They said in an Aug. 18 letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White that Shell “provided investors with boilerplate generalities about the potential for an accident and insisted that the company has a sufficient plan for response and clean-up” following problems it encountered drilling off Alaska in 2012. Saying they are worried that other companies drilling for oil and gas on the US Outer Continental Shelf also haven’t disclosed potential risks of drilling off the US Gulf, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts as well as in the Arctic, the senators asked that the SEC fully review the companies’ plans. “America has never been more energy secure with […]

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10 Currencies That May Follow Tenge in Tumble Triggered by China

On most days, Kazakhstan finds itself in the backwaters of financial markets. Yet, it’s this central Asian nation that has delivered the latest shock to global currency trading. Thursday’s 23 percent plunge in the tenge after Kazakhstan abandoned control of its exchange rate revealed a sense of urgency among policy makers: they had tried a managed depreciation just a day earlier. The escalation signaled to investors that it has become too costly for developing nations to defend their currencies. Vietnam also devalued the dong, while freely traded currencies such the South African rand and Turkey’s lira extended losses. The trigger for the wave of depreciations was China’s decision to weaken the yuan on Aug. 11, leaving countries competing with the world’s second-largest economy in export markets and those selling goods to it at a disadvantage. That added to the woes of emerging markets already reeling from a looming increase […]

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Canada’s Largest Refinery Shifts from Bakken Shale Oil to Brent Crudes

The operator of Canada’s largest crude oil refinery, Irving Oil Ltd., said it has stopped importing Bakken Shale oil from the U.S. in favor of cheaper crudes from such producers as Saudi Arabia, reflecting a shift in crude costs affecting East Coast refiners during a global slump in oil prices. The closely held company’s 320,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, one of the biggest by volume in North America, has reduced purchases of Bakken crude shipped by rail to zero from a high of nearly 100,000 barrels a day two years ago, Irving President Ian Whitcomb said in an interview on Thursday. “We’re not importing any Bakken crude right now,” he said. The move reflects shifting economics in the energy industry even as the price of oil—including Bakken crude—has slumped to six-year lows . A once-yawning gap, between the cost of oil produced in North America and overseas […]

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Treasuries Roar as Disinflation Specter Haunts Global Economy

Treasuries headed for the biggest weekly gain in five months as slumping commodities prices sparked speculation a slowdown in global growth will revive deflation and delay the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates early. Benchmark U.S. government securities headed for the strongest rally since March as sliding oil prices pushed a gauge of inflation expectations toward a five-year low, enhancing the allure of fixed-income assets. The average yield on developed nation debt fell to the lowest in three months. “Risk-off sentiment has been strong over the past couple of weeks and supporting sovereign debt,” said Tomohisa Fujiki, head of interest-rate strategy for Japan at BNP Paribas SA in Tokyo. “Doubts about Chinese growth fueled concern about slackening global demand and emerging nations, which seems to have helped pave the way for a correction in Treasuries.” The U.S. 10-year note yield fell 14 basis points this week to 2.06 percent […]

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In downturn, frackers turn to toilet water in drought-prone Texas

Rigging equipment is pictured in a field outside of Sweetwater, Texas June 4, 2015. Top shale oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources Co ( PXD.N ) has found an unusual way to both save water and cut costs for its wells: tapping the treated runoff from toilets, sinks and showers in west Texas. Pioneer has signed an 11-year, $117 million deal with the city of Odessa, Texas that will guarantee it access to millions of gallons of treated municipal wastewater each day, for use in nearby oilfields. Deliveries of the so-called effluent, are expected to start at the end of the year. As crude oil has slid to its lowest level in six years – currently about $40 a barrel – oil and gas companies pumping from shale rock have tried to cut every unnecessary penny from their operations. Water acquisition and transportation can be up to 10 percent of […]

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Refineries Could Push Oil Over the Edge

As crude oil teeters on the edge of the $30s, it isn’t necessarily China or Saudi Arabia that will push prices over the edge. Rather, the final shove could come from the U.S. This isn’t about stubborn shale supply either. Rather, the big number to watch in coming weeks is refinery utilization, which measures how much of America’s refining capacity is running to turn crude oil into products like gasoline. This summer, those refineries have been running flat out . On a four-week-moving-average basis, utilization has been running above 95% since the week ending July 17, according to Energy Department data. That is the highest level since the summer of 2005. That should worry oil bulls on two fronts. First, despite U.S. refineries running at such a hot pace, sucking in crude oil, the price has still fallen by almost 30% since the start of July. Refiners have been […]

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Study Confirms Climate Change Turned California Drought Into Disaster, With Worst Yet to Come

Scientists have calculated how much less severe the drought would be without climate change. You’ve hit your limit of 5 free articles this month. Try our subscription options: Print & Digital 3 Months Transferring your credit card balance is proving to be a very smart move for most Two Banks That Pay 10 Times The Interest On Your Savings 4 in 5 Americans Are Ignoring Buffett’s Warning Is Donald Trump The Best Candidate for 2016? Vote Here. These 119 Rarely Seen Historical Photos Are Pretty Unnerving [Slideshow] Meet The Man Who Is Disrupting a $13 Billion Razor Industry

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple