Free Republic

Among certain elements there is much vilification of the oil and gas industry. Profits are too high, tax breaks are excessive and fossil fuels pollute too much. Such are the constant refrains from the cabals of environmental groups which echoes onto the doorstep of the White House. Let's focus on that cacophony of drivel that endlessly drones on over excessive earnings. For full year 2013 Exxon (XOM) reported net income of $33.45 billion. Their operating cash flow was an even more monstrous $44.9 billion. However, when you factor in that capital expenditures on exploration amounted to $34.7 billion, then free...

Oil companies will spend more money drilling wells in the Eagle Ford Shale this year than the revenue generated annually by the entire country of Bolivia or the North American yoga business. “I expect to see that in some article,” said Cody Rice, an analyst with Wood Mackenzie, who provided the statistic during the firm’s press briefing in West Houston on Wednesday. That figure – bumped up by $4 billion in recent months to $27 billion – is roughly what it costs to dig more than 3,000 oily holes in the ground every year in South Texas. Wood Mackenzie, a...

The Houston energy sector is booming and the need for talent is growing, but companies are only hurting themselves by getting into bidding wars for personnel, said Brett Haugh, Ascende principle and executive vice president. The so-called "crew change" of retiring oil and gas talent is "extremely real," Haugh said, with about 50 percent turnover expected within 10 years mostly because of retirements. Since 2010, though, energy sector hiring is up 25 percent nationally compared to 7 percent for the overall private sector. Wages are up higher in the energy sector, as well, he said. Ascende is a Houston-based human...

Industry interest and activity in shale reservoirs continues to escalate. The big headline-makers, such as the Barnett, Haynesville, Marcellus, comprise only some chapters of the big story. The less familiar names also are beginning to make their mark. Count the Cane Creek shale in the Pennsylvanian-age Paradox formation in the Paradox Basin in southeast Utah among those receiving considerable attention. "The Cane Creek is a transgressive-regressive sequence in the lower portion of the Paradox," said AAPG member Stephanie Carney, geologist at the Utah Geological Survey (UGS). "It's tens of feet to nearly 200 feet thick, over-and underlain by salt beds,"...

<p>The Vancouver City Council has voted to oppose what would be the Pacific Northwest’s largest crude oil train terminal.</p> <p>The vote came well after midnight on Tuesday in council chambers packed with hundreds of people, many of them opposed to the project.</p>

Natural gas is poised to be one of the biggest winners of the Obama administration’s new plan to slash carbon dioxide emissions, accelerating the electric sector’s move away from coal toward the cleaner-burning power source. Despite a modest climb in coal use for electric generation in 2013, it already has fallen out of favor in the power sector, as utilities increasingly turn to natural gas for its cheaper, lower-emission profile. The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed standards — requiring states to pare carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent over 2005 levels by 2030 — are likely to hasten that switch. But natural...

Total U.S. energy production reached 81.7 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2013, enough to satisfy 84% of total U.S. energy demand, which totaled 97.5 quads. Natural gas was the largest domestically produced energy resource for the third year in a row and, together with the other fossil fuels (coal, crude oil, and hydrocarbon gas liquids), accounted for more than three quarters of U.S. energy production. In total, the United States consumed 97.5 quads of energy, 82% of which was fossil fuels. Renewable and nuclear energy made up 10% and 8%, respectively, of U.S. energy consumption. The portion of U.S....

The market is betting big bet that Tesla Motors’ (NASDAQ: TSLA) battery technology is the fuel of the future for motor cars. And to its credit, Tesla’s Model S has proven that a battery-electric car can be practical and desirable. But everyone does not see a battery-operated automotive future. May see it as a fad. The biggest automotive manufacturers have turned away from EVs (electric vehicles), and Japanese giant car maker is one of them, and TM knows a lot about battery powered electric cars Toyota’s Prius is the world’s best-selling hybrid. Toyota has built over 6-M hybrids to date,...

Before President Obama took office in 2009, the amount of electricity being produced by coal-fired utilities was approximately fifty percent of the total. Today it is approximately forty percent and, when the Environmental Protection Agency regulations take effect as of June 2, more such utilities are likely to close their doors. The basis for the regulations is utterly devoid of any scientific facts. Environmentalism, as expressed by many of the organizations that advocate it is, in fact, an attack on America, its economic system of capitalism, and its need for energy to maintain and grow its business and industrial base....

Payday is arriving for clean energy's diehard investors, those optimistic carbon-hating Robespierres who have survived repeated hope and despair, beginning with Bill Clinton's administration. A proposal due from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday is expected to require huge cuts in power plants' carbon-dioxide emissions by 2025. Utilities heavily reliant on coal will be the losers, while those with lots of nuclear plants, like Exelon (ticker: EXC), or with solar or wind generation, will be in hog heaven. Small wonder that clean energy exchange-traded funds rose last week when details of the plan began to leak from the corridors...

Energy company investments in Alaska could reverse declining oil production in the state. Firms are planning the largest energy project in the state’s history along with a series of moves to rejuvenate Alaska’s biggest oil fields. That is unless, the companies are saying, voters in the state in August dismantle a new oil tax regime that Houston-based ConocoPhillips and others say makes Alaska far more attractive than it was under higher levies imposed in 2007. In a story at HoustonChronicle.com, FuelFix reporter Collin Eaton takes a look at the energy projects that area planned and issues surrounding the tax vote.

Three misconceptions make US officials reluctant to allow the export of crude oil. They are: · The US will become a net oil exporter · Oil is oil. · Exporting crude would raise the US price of gasoline. Expectations about the country’s becoming a net exporter trigger a strange hoarding reflex. Shouldn’t the US “keep” its oil? Well, no, not if the oil has greater value elsewhere. The US probably won’t become able to produce more oil than it needs, anyway. It remains a net importer of nearly 6 million b/d. Further production gains and consumption cuts probably won’t close...

The amount of natural gas imported into the U.S. market dropped 14 percent last year in part because of abundant domestic resources, the Energy Department said. The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said natural gas production in 2013 hit 24.2 trillion cubic feet, which would be a new record if preliminary data are correct. EIA said in its report net imports declined in part as a response to increases in domestic production. The level of natural gas imports have declined every year since 2007, the report said, and is at its lowest level since 1989....

The White House has a new report touting the recent boom in US fossil-fuel production. This is an old story — though one the Obama administration seems eager to emphasize before it announces sweeping new regulations on coal power plants on June 2. This chart, however, was quite striking. Ever since 2006, oil imports have been far, far lower than actual forecasts: So what happened? Back in 2006, the United States imported nearly 13 million barrels of oil per day. And official forecasters assumed that imports would keep going up indefinitely — that is, they assumed Americans would keep driving...

A decision to lift restrictions on US crude oil exports would boost US production, lower gasoline prices, and support as many as 1 million additional jobs, IHS said, adding that the elimination of crude export restrictions would benefit gross domestic product and government revenues. The study, US Crude Oil Export Decision: Assessing the Impact of the Export Ban and Free Trade on the US Economy, estimated a resulting boost in US oil production would cut the US oil import bill by an average $67 billion/year. Researchers forecast $746 billion total in additional energy investments during 2016-30 and a boost in...

A Japanese oil tanker located in the Himeji Port in western Hiroshima exploded on Thursday morning, causing the ship to catch fire. Seven of the ship’s eight crew members were rescued, with four suffering from severe burns, but the captain is still unaccounted for as of this writing. The 998-tonne Shoko Maru had just finished unloading its crude oil cargo and was near the Hyogo Prefecture coast when the explosion occurred at around 9:30 AM. Fortunately, the tanker was almost empty, or else the damage would have been worse. According to Akihiro Komura, an official from Syoho Shipping who owns...

The Permian Basin, known for its vast conventional resources, has experienced over the past years an activity renaissance targeting unconventional formations. More recently, unconventional activity in this basin has shifted from vertical to horizontal wells yielding more recoverable volumes and higher D&C costs per well. Hence, both tight oil production and spending are expected to grow in this area, possibly surpassing other mature shale plays such as Eagle Ford and Bakken. The accelerated drilling into the Wolfcamp and other horizons in the Permian Basin anticipate this area will produce more tight oil volumes than any other tight play in North...

The United States imported 850,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil from Mexico in 2013, the lowest volume since 1993. In the past decade, U.S. crude oil imports from Mexico fell 47%, primarily as a result of declining production of crude oil in Mexico. Despite the decline, Mexico was the third largest source of crude oil imports to the United States in 2013, behind Canada and Saudi Arabia. Conversely, U.S. exports of petroleum products to Mexico have increased 152% in the past decade. In 2013, the United States exported 527,000 bbl/d of petroleum products to Mexico, including motor gasoline...

Logistics operations drive by the shale energy boom employed 32,000 workers in 2012, a figure which is expected to grow by over 26,000 jobs, or 82 percent, to more than 58,000 jobs in 2025. America’s shale energy revolution is creating and sustaining hundreds of thousands of jobs in diverse sectors of the economy that supply construction, equipment, supplies and services to shale energy operations, and it is making the U.S. manufacturing sector more competitive by reducing energy costs, the president and CEO of Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), Toby Mack, told Congress May 20. Testifying at a House Energy...

Its population is growing. Its people are becoming more prosperous. It is creating both billionaires and employing more minimum-wage workers than any other state. Its energy sector has thrived—year-over-year drilling has doubled so far in 2014, with 10,000 new wells drilled just since January. Its technology corridor now extends for hundreds of miles along I-35. Texas is the hottest state economy this side of North Dakota. But some still refuse to acknowledge the Texas Miracle. The recovery benefits only the rich, they say. Pro-business means pro-big-business. Job growth has merely kept pace with population growth. But that’s just it. People...