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Brent Crude Traders Claim Proof BFOE Boys Rigged Market

Four longtime traders in the global oil market claim in a lawsuit that the prices for buying and selling crude are fixed — and that they can prove it. Some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc , Statoil ASA , and Royal Dutch Shell Plc conspired with Morgan Stanley and energy traders including Vitol Group to manipulate the closely watched spot prices for Brent crude oil for more than a decade, they allege. The North Sea Brent benchmark is used to price the majority of the world’s crude and helps determine where costs are headed for fuels including gasoline and heating oil. The case, which follows at least six other U.S. lawsuits alleging price-fixing in the Brent market, provides what appears to be the most detailed description yet of the alleged manipulations and lays out a possible road map for investigators. The traders who brought it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Storm batters southern Britain, hitting flights, trains and power

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s strongest storm in a decade battered southern regions on Monday, forcing hundreds of flight cancellations, cutting power lines and disrupting the travel plans of millions of commuters. Winds of up to 99 miles per hour (160 km per hour) lashed southern England and Wales in the early hours of Monday, shutting down rail services in some areas during rush hour. Toppled trees crushed cars, damaged properties and flooding made some roads impassable in southern England. Storms were are also expected to hit parts of the Netherlands later on Monday, the Dutch Meteorological Institute said, and Schiphol airport told passengers to expect cancellations. About 40,000 customers were left without power in one of the worst storms to hit England since the 1987 "Great Storm" which killed 18 people in Britain and felled around 15 million trees. A 14-year old boy was missing after being swept out […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Dart's John McGoldrick says British energy sector needs shale gas

LONDON, Oct. 28 (UPI) — The British energy sector would suffer without the complementary benefits of shale natural gas, Dart Energy Chief Executive John McGoldrick said. McGoldrick said renewable energy resources like wind power don’t provide the same type of feedstock or raw materials needed to fuel power plants as natural gas does, London’s Daily Telegraph reported. “The logic is very simple. Unless you have got a competitive energy market, a competitive feedstock market, then by definition you are going to be uncompetitive and you lose jobs,” he said. French energy company GDF Suez announced last week it would pay $12 million to Dart, an Australian company, to acquire a 25 percent stake in 13 onshore licenses in the Bowland shale gas reserve area. In June, the British Geological Survey estimated the Bowland formation, located near Lancashire in northwest England, contains 1.3 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Dart’s John McGoldrick says British energy sector needs shale gas

LONDON, Oct. 28 (UPI) — The British energy sector would suffer without the complementary benefits of shale natural gas, Dart Energy Chief Executive John McGoldrick said. McGoldrick said renewable energy resources like wind power don’t provide the same type of feedstock or raw materials needed to fuel power plants as natural gas does, London’s Daily Telegraph reported. “The logic is very simple. Unless you have got a competitive energy market, a competitive feedstock market, then by definition you are going to be uncompetitive and you lose jobs,” he said. French energy company GDF Suez announced last week it would pay $12 million to Dart, an Australian company, to acquire a 25 percent stake in 13 onshore licenses in the Bowland shale gas reserve area. In June, the British Geological Survey estimated the Bowland formation, located near Lancashire in northwest England, contains 1.3 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas. The […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Deadly Storms Batter Britain, Mainland Europe

Authorities across Western Europe began a giant cleanup operation Monday after one of the biggest storms in a decade pummeled first England and Wales and later parts of the Continent, killing at least 10 people and causing widespread travel chaos and power outages. Hurricane-force winds swept southe+rn England and uprooted trees across the region. British police officials said a 17-year-old girl was killed after a tree fell on her house in Edenbridge in the southeast of the country. A man was killed when a tree fell on his car in Watford, north of London, and another man and a woman were found dead in one of three collapsed houses in west London after a falling tree caused a gas explosion. French state-owned television reported that a woman was swept into the sea by waves and later washed up on the beach. Three people were killed by falling trees in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tech Talk – ten years is a long time to wait for power

Today the British Government are announcing the construction of the first new nuclear-powered electricity generating station in 20-years. The new plant, which will replace plants that will close will go up at Hinkley Point, and will be constructed by a French firm, with significant Chinese investment, and with a promised subsidy from the Government. It won’t, however, start producing electricity until 2023, and even then only if everything goes well. Euan Mearns has been pointing out some of the problems that the country faces as it closes existing power stations in order to meet environmental directives from the EU. The long-term supply of power at an affordable price is being increasingly challenged as the margin between demand and available supply shrinks. The leader of the Labor Party is promising that prices will be fixed by edict, an action that is unlikely to encourage investment at a time when it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Tech Talk – ten years is a long time to wait for power

Today the British Government are announcing the construction of the first new nuclear-powered electricity generating station in 20-years. The new plant, which will replace plants that will close will go up at Hinkley Point, and will be constructed by a French firm, with significant Chinese investment, and with a promised subsidy from the Government. It won’t, however, start producing electricity until 2023, and even then only if everything goes well. Euan Mearns has been pointing out some of the problems that the country faces as it closes existing power stations in order to meet environmental directives from the EU. The long-term supply of power at an affordable price is being increasingly challenged as the margin between demand and available supply shrinks. The leader of the Labor Party is promising that prices will be fixed by edict, an action that is unlikely to encourage investment at a time when it […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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UK North Sea Oil Production Decline

The streets of Aberdeen are lined with Range Rovers, Porsches and Audis. New commercial property and residential developments are popping up all over and around the city. It is boom time in Europe’s oil capital. And yet UK North Sea oil production is in free fall, despite record high expenditure. Figure 1 In the period 1999 to 2008, sharply rising oil price more than outweighed plummeting production and the total value of that production kept rising. But with oil price now stabilised and range bound $100-$120 / barrel, a continued fall in production will begin to drag the value of that production downwards as capital and operating costs go up. Data from the BP statistical review of World Energy 2013 . Click on all charts to get a larger copy. Oil Field Decline and Decline Rates Production from most oil fields begins to decline within a few years of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Burning up cash: are UK energy suppliers ripping us off?

Forget wicked stepmothers, ugly sisters, and even bank bosses. The heads of Britain’s energy companies are rapidly becoming the new villains for today’s hard-pressed consumers. Ed Miliband’s promise in September to freeze energy prices for 20 months if Labour comes to power in the next election resonated across the country – and put the Conservatives on the back foot. Where your money goes Former prime minister Sir John Major’s suggestion this week of a windfall tax on energy companies kept the pressure on the coalition government. The rising cost of electricity and gas has now become a key battleground ahead of the next election, expected in 2015. Mr Miliband’s promise struck a chord with the public precisely because its trust in whether energy companies provide a fair deal has fallen with each increase in domestic tariffs. Too often, bills appear to jump quickly when wholesale prices rise, but only […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Scottish wind farm expansion to result in 102 megawatts of power

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Oct. 25 (UPI) — The Scottish government said Friday it has agreed to plans to expand a wind farm so it will generate more than 100 megawatts of power for consumers. “The proposed extension to the wind farm, which will be developed by Mid Hill Wind Limited, is to have nine turbines, bringing the total number of turbines to 34 and have a maximum generating capacity of 102 megawatts,” the government said. “The farm could power the equivalent of more than 48,000 homes in the area.” The government said 52 of the 56 applications under consideration for new energy projects are for onshore wind developments. Scotland has one of the most ambitious renewable energy targets in the world. It set a goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020. “Wind farms, like Mid Hill, provide considerable benefits to their local community and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple