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Texas oil production holds steady

Texas oil production holding steady, though rig activity is on a clear decline, state data show. File photo by Lilac Mountain/Shutterstock AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 28 (UPI) — Though drilling permits are on the decline, Texas crude oil production held more or less steady month-to-month, state data for July show. The Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s energy regulator, reports 2.45 million barrels of oil produced per day in July, the last full month for which the state has data. Year-on-year, total crude oil production is up 9.3 percent . Month-to-month, production is up about eight tenths of a percent. The commission said Texas oil production came from 176,810 oil wells in the state. In its latest report on rig activity, the state regulator said the number of drilling permits issued in Texas was down more than half from the same month last year to 864, of which 730 were […]

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Shell Exits Arctic as Oil Slump Forces Industry to Retrench

Photo Shell had some mishaps in Alaska, such as when its floating drill rig Kulluk, center, ran aground in 2012. Credit James Brooks/Kodiak Daily Mirror, via Associated Press Royal Dutch Shell ended its expensive and fruitless nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic on Monday in another sign that the entire industry is trimming its ambitions in the wake of collapsing oil prices. The decision came after one well drilled by Shell this summer came up mostly dry, and environmental groups declared a major victory. But at a time when global markets are glutted with oil, it also confirmed the major oil companies’ increasing willingness to turn their backs on the most expensive new drilling prospects in the Gulf of Mexico and suspended plans for new projects in Canada’s oil sands . Shell spent more than $7 billion on its Alaska venture. The industry has cut […]

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Survey of Republican Voters Shows a Majority Believe in Climate Change

Photo A Republican supporter wore a tie decorated with elephant mascots at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in 2012. Credit Daniel Acker/Bloomberg, via Getty Images WASHINGTON — A majority of Republicans — including 54 percent of self-described conservative Republicans — believe the world’s climate is changing and that mankind plays some role in the change, according to a new survey conducted by a trio of prominent Republican pollsters. The results echo a number of other recent surveys concluding that, despite the talk of many of the party’s candidates, a significant number of Republicans and independent voters are inclined to support candidates who would back some form of climate action. It may also point to a problem facing Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination: The activists who crowd town hall meetings and Republican presidential caucuses and primaries might not reflect the broader attitude of even the Republican electorate. […]

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A risky proposition: The ‘regulatory hole you could drive a train through’

Shiho Fukada for Al Jazeera America Propane tanks sit on the rail depot of Grafton & Upton Railroad in Grafton, Massachusetts, Sept. 24, 2015. This article was produced in collaboration with the New England Center for Investigative Reporting , a nonprofit news outlet in Boston that holds the powerful accountable and trains a new generation of investigative reporters. GRAFTON, Mass. — In early 2012, residents of this sleepy town began to notice an unusual amount of activity around the Grafton & Upton rail yard at the north end of town. An old barn that had stood for over a century was knocked down. Bulldozers came out, clearing the land. The tiny 16.5-mile railroad had been nearly defunct, but was purchased in 2008 by Jon Delli Priscoli, a major local developer with a penchant for railroads; he also owns a Thomas the Tank Engine theme park 70 miles away. At […]

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So far, less pain than feared as U.S. shale firms renew loans

Unused oil tank cars are pictured on Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad tracks outside Hinsdale, New York August 24, 2015. A number of U.S. shale oil and gas companies are securing unchanged or even increased credit allotments during their semi-annual loan reviews, defying expectations that banks would slash small firms’ credit lines in response to low crude prices. According to a Reuters review of disclosures made by 19 independent U.S. shale oil and gas companies since Aug. 1, at least 11 have said their borrowing bases have been or will be maintained or increased. In contrast, just five talked about cuts. It is too early to tell if the whole sector will emerge equally largely unscathed from the reviews. Many more companies from a batch of about 60 U.S. independents typically tracked by investment banks will probably make disclosures after the usual loan reset deadline of Oct. 1. […]

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U.S. jet fuel demand is rising strongly: Kemp

An airport worker fuels a JetBlue plane on the tarmac of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York December 11, 2013. Fuel consumption by U.S. airlines is growing at some of the fastest rates for a decade, according to data published by the federal government. U.S. carriers consumed 1.6 billion gallons of fuel in July, up 3.4 percent from the same month a year earlier ( link.reuters.com/qad75w ). Fuel consumption for the first seven months of the year rose nearly 2.9 percent, the biggest increase since 2011 and before that 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Separately, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has reported jet fuel consumption rose 4.7 percent year-on-year in January-June (according to product-supplied statistics) or by 6.6 percent in January-July (using prime supplier data). Unlike the U.S. Department of Transportation fuel consumption data, which covers only U.S. airlines, the EIA numbers […]

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Shell’s Arctic Withdrawal Adds to Cold Spell for Alaskan Crude

Alaska, once the workhorse of the U.S. oil industry, is being put out to pasture. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s decision to end its $7 billion search for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska is the latest bit of bad news for a state that went from producing one in every four barrels in the U.S. to an afterthought during the shale boom. “Alaska used to be the No. 1 oil producer in the U.S.,” said Carl Larry, head of oil and gas for Frost & Sullivan LP in Houston. “Now there are a lot easier places and better ways to find and produce oil.” Alaskan oil production topped out in 1988 at more than 2 million barrels a day. It’s declined steadily since then, falling below 500,000 last year for the first time since the late 1970s, according to the Energy Information Administration. Aging reservoirs […]

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Shell’s Alaska Exit Means Arctic Oil Reserves Remain Locked Away

The inglorious end to Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $7 billion search for oil in Alaska means billions of barrels of crude will probably remain locked away in Arctic waters from the U.S. to Russia — at least as long as prices remain near $50 a barrel. Shell abandoned exploration off Alaska for the “foreseeable future” on Monday after it failed to find meaningful quantities of oil or natural gas. In Russia, sanctions over Ukraine have halted partnerships aimed at exploring offshore in the Arctic, while exploration in Greenland has been on hold since 2012 and activity in Norway is slowing. “This effectively ends exploration for new Arctic oil until prices recover,” Ahmed Ben Salem, a Paris-based analyst with Oddo & Cie, said by phone. “Shell was the only company with a strong enough balance sheet that was currently exploring in the Arctic.” In a world where OPEC members control […]

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Tesla Prepares to Launch Electric SUV

Kenneth Adelman has had to learn to be patient. An electric-car enthusiast and retired “computer geek,” in February 2012 he was the first person to plunk down a $40,000 deposit for Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA -3.30 % ’s Model X sport-utility vehicle. At the time, Mr. Adelman didn’t know the Model X’s total price, but Chief Executive Elon Musk said the vehicle would be in his hands by the end of 2013. He is still waiting. After nearly two years’ worth of delays, Tesla kicks off Model X deliveries Tuesday. Although first on the order list, Mr. Adelman, 52 years old, doesn’t know when he will get his vehicle and he is showing little concern. “I’m happy to have waited for the X to be all that it could be,” Mr. Adelman, who also owns a Tesla Roadster and Model S sedan, said in a recent interview. He is […]

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Jeb Bush’s Energy Plan Includes Dropping Oil-Export Ban

By Amy Harder And Beth Reinhard In his third policy announcement this month aimed at accelerating economic growth, Jeb Bush is calling to remove the nation’s 40-year-old ban on oil exports, approve the Keystone XL pipeline and eliminate a raft of environmental regulations. Mr. Bush is expected to outline his energy platform Tuesday afternoon at Rice Energy, a Pennsylvania oil and gas company. Mr. Bush is promising that this agenda, along with his plans unveiled earlier this month to lower tax rates and roll back regulations on business, would generate 4% annual economic growth–a target the U.S. hasn’t hit in a sustained way since the late 1990s. Mr. Bush’s energy ideas are mainstays among Republican presidential hopefuls on the campaign trail. All of the GOP candidates for president support the Keystone pipeline and many, including retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, businessman Donald Trump and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, support […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple