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AAA: Refinery issues throttling gas price slide

Refinery issues slowing decline in U.S. retail gasoline prices, motor club AAA said in a weekly report. Photo by Oskari Porkka/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Though U.S. refineries are making a blend of gasoline that’s cheaper to produce, maintenance issues are keeping consumer prices elevated, AAA said. The motor club lists a national average of $2.29 per gallon for Tuesday, relatively unchanged from one week ago. The retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is down 20 cents, or 8 percent, from one month ago. U.S. refineries on Sept. 16 started producing a winter blend of gasoline, which is cheaper to produce because fewer environmental safety measures are necessary during cooler months. This should push retail prices lower. "Unlike previous years, refinery maintenance season this autumn is expected to be heavier than usual due to refineries operating at higher than normal rates for longer periods over […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. studying offshore wind farm impacts

U.S. government reviewing potential impacts off offshore wind farm construction starting with Rhode Island program. File photo by Teun van den Dries/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Starting with a development off the Rhode Island coast, the federal government said it was studying the real-time impacts of offshore wind farm construction. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it started its Real-Time Opportunity for Development Environmental Observations — or RODEO — program with Rhode Island. BOEM Chief Environmental Officer William Brown explained the program will provide real-time data on potential environmental impacts and seafloor disturbances related to wind farm installation offshore. "The first opportunity to conduct this research is through the historic Deepwater Wind project," he said. The Rhode Island government in May 2014 signed off on environmental permits for what will become the nation’s first offshore wind farm, Deepwater Wind’s Block Island project. The wind farm will generate […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Chesapeake Energy Cuts 15% of Jobs

In a regulatory filing Tuesday , the U.S. shale driller said it expects to post third-quarter charges of roughly $55.5 million related to the move. Because of the swoon in oil prices, Chesapeake has reduced rig operations and cut capital expenditures after failing to offset the plunge with higher production. Chesapeake, based in Oklahoma City, had about 5,000 employees. On Tuesday, 740 of them were laid off, with about 560 of those positions coming from the home office in Oklahoma, the company said. “As you are fully aware, the current commodity price environment continues to be a challenge for our industry and for Chesapeake,” Chief Executive Doug Lawler wrote in an email to employees. “While this was extremely difficult, we are acting decisively and prudently to enhance the long-term competitiveness and strength of Chesapeake.” Shares of Chesapeake Energy, down 71% over the past year, fell 0.3% to $6.77 in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Liquidity Squeeze Is on for Norway Bonds as Oil Drop Drains Cash

Norway’s bond market is feeling the squeeze and the country’s regional banks are the main victims. Companies and banks seeking to raise debt are finding few willing investors out there, after life insurance companies filled up on bonds and real estate before the summer this year and as the plunging krone is keeping away foreign investors, according to DNB ASA, Norway’s largest lender. “Many investors have been rather fully invested,” said Jan Krogh-Vennemo, global head fixed income sales at DNB. “When spreads first start widening buyers become cautious and there were some issuers, especially within finance, that were ready after the summer and needed money.” The squeeze is mainly being felt for Norwegian savings banks. Spreads on five-year senior unsecured bank funding widened by 17 basis points last week to 105 basis points, the highest since February 2013, according to DNB. Sparebank 1 SMN, for example, paid 105 basis […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Final leg of new European gas line completed

Norwegian energy company Statoil completes last stretch of Polarled pipeline for European gas needs. Map courtesy of Statoil STAVANGER, Norway, Sept. 29 (UPI) — Norwegian energy company Statoil said the last stretch of a 300-mile natural gas pipeline crossing the Arctic Circle has been completed. The final piece of the 36-inch diameter Polarled gas pipeline was placed more than 4,000 feet below the surface of the Norwegian Sea in the Aasta Hansteen field. "With this pipeline, we open up for the export of gas to Europe from a completely new area, and with the infrastructure in place it will also be more attractive to explore the area," Statoil project planner Torger Rod said in a statement. Aasta Hansteen is estimated to hold between 175 billion and 300 billion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, making it one of the largest fields in the region. Once it starts, an onshore […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Low Oil Prices – Why Worry?

Most people believe that low oil prices are good for the United States, since the discretionary income of consumers will rise. There is the added benefit that Peak Oil must be far off in the distance, since “Peak Oilers” talked about high oil prices. Thus, low oil prices are viewed as an all around benefit. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The Peak Oil story we have been told is wrong . The collapse in oil production comes from oil prices that are too low, not too high. If oil prices or prices of other commodities are too low, production will slow and eventually stop. Growth in the world economy will slow, lowering inflation rates as well as economic growth rates. We encountered this kind of the problem in the 1930s. We seem to be headed in the same direction today. Figure 1, used by Janet […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Why Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, and others are betting on fusion

The energy source has been long on promise and short on reality. Now private companies think they can succeed where the government has failed. For more than half a century governments around the world have been trying to solve the challenge of nuclear fusion. In theory it could provide a cheap, clean, and almost boundless source of energy. Consider this: One tablespoon of liquid hydrogen fuel—a mix of deuterium and tritium—would produce the same energy as 28 tons of coal. But smashing two hydrogen atoms together at 100 million degrees centigrade to create a fusion reaction has proved to be a costly and elusive endeavor. The ITER international project in France has been plagued by cost overruns—the original 5-billion-euro project is now budgeted at 13 billion euros (about $15 billion)—and its 23,000-ton Tokamak experimental reactor, three times heavier than the Eiffel Tower, is still many years from completion. In […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices remain weak on Asia economy woes; shares in commodity firms tumble

A pump jack is seen at sunrise near Bakersfield, California October 14, 2014. Oil prices remained low in early Asian trading on Tuesday following a slide of almost 3 percent the previous session, dragged down as concerns over Asia’s economic health mounted and as production remained high. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $47.31 per barrel at 0138 GMT, down 3 cents from their last close and following a more than 2.5-percent drop on Monday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were at $44.44 a barrel, virtually unchanged from their last settlement. Oil prices, along with most other commodities, have fallen sharply recently, with crude futures losing almost 60 percent of their value since June 2014. Japanese stock markets, among the earliest to open in Asia, slid to eight-month lows on Tuesday as global stocks came under pressure from worries about economies in China and other emerging markets. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Slide on Growth, Oversupply Concerns

Oil prices slid on Monday, pressured by concerns about weaker global economic growth and the oversupply of crude. Light, sweet crude for November delivery, the front-month contract, fell $1.27, or 2.8%, to $44.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a two-week low. The global Brent contract lost $1.26, or 2.6%, to settle at $47.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. An employee uses a wrench to adjust a valve on oil pumping gear. New data raised fresh worries about slowing economic growth in China. Chinese officials reported that industrial profits in the country fell 8.8% from year-ago levels, the largest decline since 2011. Meanwhile, a French newspaper quoted International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde as saying that its prior global growth estimates were “not realistic anymore” and that forecasts for this year and next would be revised lower. The IMF will publish its new […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil prices fall on slowing global economic growth outlook

A gas station worker fuels a vehicle in Tokyo August 26, 2015. Oil prices dropped in early trading in Asia on Monday despite a fourth weekly fall in U.S. drilling activity, with analysts pointing to the weak economic outlook as the main reason for low crude prices. The International Monetary Fund is likely to revise downwards its estimates for global economic growth due to slower growth in emerging economies, IMF head Christine Lagarde said in a newspaper interview. In line with bearish sentiment, Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $48.27 per barrel at 0024 GMT, down 33 cents from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were at $45.34 a barrel, down 36 cents. Crude futures are now down over 10 percent since the beginning of the month, and rating agency S&P cut its Brent and WTI forecasts late last week by $5 to $50 per […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple