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Majority of U.S. shale firms pass up second quarter chance to hedge $60 crude

With the benefit of hindsight, last quarter may have been the best chance for cash-strapped U.S. shale oil producers to ensure they would get at least $60 a barrel for the next year or two. Barely a third did so. According to a Reuters analysis of hedging disclosures by the 30 largest such firms, more than half of them did not expand their hedges during the three months ended June or had no hedges at all, exposing them to a plunge that wiped more than $20 off the price of oil in the following months. In total, 12 companies increased their outstanding oil options, swaps or other derivative hedging positions by 36 million barrels at the end of the second quarter compared with the end of the first quarter, according to the data. Another 14 companies ended the quarter with hedging positions reduced by a total 37 million barrels, […]

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Oil Export Bill Said to Be Set to Move as Price Fears Ease

Congress is set to begin consideration of a measure to lift the decades-old ban on U.S. crude exports after a government study concluded the move wouldn’t raise gasoline prices for consumers, people familiar with the plan said. A panel in the House of Representatives is planning to vote on a measure to lift the ban, which dates back to the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, as early as next week, according to three lobbyists working on the matter, who asked not to be named because the markup hasn’t been announced yet. The full House may vote on it later in September, leaving ahead the more difficult task of gaining enough support for repeal in the Senate, they said. Repealing the ban has gained new political potency as hydraulic fracturing has triggered a boom in domestic oil and natural gas output. Oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. have […]

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Cnooc Canadian Oil-Sands Plant to Shutdown Amid Pipeline Probe

CALGARY, Alberta—The Canadian unit of Chinese state-controlled energy giant Cnooc Ltd. CEO 0.69 % said Wednesday it will halt production at a 50,000 barrel-a-day oil-sands plant indefinitely as part of its effort to comply with an order from regulators forcing it to shut down pipelines at the site. The move comes after the chief energy regulator in the Western Canadian province last week suspended operating licenses affecting 95 pipelines at Cnooc subsidiary Nexen Energy ULC’s Long Lake heavy oil extraction facility in northern Alberta for suspected failure to comply with certain rules . Shutting down Long Lake is the latest in a string of setbacks at the plant , which started up in 2008 but has never reached its capacity of 72,000 barrels a day. The loss of output is a blow to parent company Cnooc, which bought Nexen for $15 billion in 2013 and installed its own management […]

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Production Woes at Oil-Sands Giant Syncrude to Impact Full-Year Output

By Chester Dawson CALGARY, Alberta– Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., the largest owner of the giant Syncrude oil-sands project, said Wednesday that production of synthetic crude would be "minimal" for two weeks after a weekend fire at Syncrude’s main plant, and that the lost production would impact its annual output. The company halted production after a blaze on Saturday damaged equipment at its Mildred Lake strip mine’s crude processing facility in northern Alberta. The loss of some 200,000 barrels per day of output has contributed to a sharp spike in prices of Canadian synthetic oil this week. "Syncrude plans to implement a phased recovery strategy with minimal synthetic crude oil shipments and operating rates for the next two weeks, " Canadian Oil Sands said in a statement late Wednesday. Production is expected to return to more normal levels at the end of the month, it said. The company said that […]

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Shell president: ‘Oil will be required for a long time’

The president of Shell Oil Co. said exploratory drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operations for a few days. And in an interview this week with The Associated Press Marvin Odum said he expects further protests against the company’s plans for Arctic drilling like the ones in Seattle and Portland where activists in kayaks tried to block Shell vessels. Arctic offshore drilling is bitterly opposed by environmental groups that say a spill cannot be cleaned in ice-choked waters and that industrial activity will harm polar bears, walrus and ice seals already harmed by diminished sea ice. In Seattle, Shell faced protests on the water by “kayaktivists” upset over the company staging equipment in the city. In Portland, Oregon, Greenpeace USA protesters hung from the St. Johns Bridge to delay a Shell support vessel, from heading to […]

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The World’s First Clean Oil Sands Project: An Interview With Dr. Gerald Bailey

After decades of exhaustive attempts to overcome the dirty reputation of oil sands, we finally have an environmentally-friendly and low cost method to tap into these vast resources in the state of Utah—good news both for Mother Nature and all oil and gas investors. MCW Energy Group’s CEO, former Exxon President of the Arabian Gulf region, Dr. R. Gerald Bailey, tells Oilprice.com in an exclusive interview that his hunt for an innovative technology that simultaneously makes money and cleans up the environment is over. The race to capitalize on Utah’s vast oil sands resources is on, and only the ‘clean’—both financially and environmentally—will survive. Coming hot off of the successful launch of clean oil sands operations in Utah, while other oil sands projects are under fire from protesters, Dr. Bailey discusses: • The difference between Utah and Alberta when it comes to oil sands resources. • How new technology […]

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For Russia, Oil Collapse Has Soviet Echoes

For most countries, the economic slowdown in China and the accompanying slump in commodity prices represent something between nuisance and pothole. For Russia, they are a catastrophe. Russia’s currency and economy, already squeezed by Western sanctions, have been sent into virtual free fall by slumping oil prices. The International Monetary Fund predicted in July that Russia’s economy would shrink 3.4% this year, the most of any…

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Ruble Falls Second Day as Citigroup Sees Further Weakness on Oil

The ruble weakened, following the biggest drop in more than four months, after Citigroup Inc. said the currency will remain under pressure until oil ends its declines. Russia’s currency fell 0.8 percent to 67.4010 against the dollar by 3:16 p.m. in Moscow after strengthening as much as 0.9 percent. The ruble tumbled 3.9 percent on Tuesday as Brent crude slid the most since May 2011. The currency led the declines among emerging markets on Wednesday. Brent in Rubles Drops “The currency, and more broadly Russian assets, will find a bottom only when the market somehow reaches the conclusion that the oil prices have no further room to fall,” Ivan Tchakarov, a Moscow-based economist at Citigroup, said by e-mail. “I doubt the market has come even close to thinking that.” The ruble price of Brent dropped to 3,305, below the average of the past 12 months, as oil extended its […]

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Shell acquisition of BG cleared by Europe

European Commission clears Shell acquisition of British counterpart BG Group. Photo by Christian Lagerek BRUSSELS, Sept. 2 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group announced their planned merger received unconditional approval Wednesday from the European Commission. The board of directors at Shell and BG Group issued a joint statement in April saying they’ve reached an agreement for the Dutch acquisition of its rival. The deal, valued at around $70 billion, is among the largest acquisitions since the Exxon Mobil merger was completed in 1999. It also comes at a time when most energy companies are streamlining capital expenses in a weak oil market. Both companies issued statements Wednesday saying the merger was approved by the European Commission, which found the combined corporate market share would be limited in terms of exploration and production despite the acquisition. When the deal was announced Helge Lund , chairman of BG Group, […]

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Earth’s trees number ‘three trillion’

Image copyright David Zeleny The new estimate includes "ground truth" density data from 400,000 forest plots There are just over three trillion trees on Earth, according to a new assessment. The figure is eight times as big as the previous best estimate, which counted perhaps 400 billion at most. It has been produced by Thomas Crowther from Yale University, and colleagues, who combined a mass of ground survey data with satellite pictures. The team tells the journal Nature that the new total represents upwards of 420 trees for every person on the planet. The more refined number will now form a baseline for a wide range of research applications – everything from studies that consider animal and plant habitats for biodiversity reasons, to new models of the climate, because it is trees of course that play an important role in removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple