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Two major oil-ports in eastern Libya, Es Sidra and Ras Lanuf, were hit by an air-raid on Tuesday launched by the Islamist armed forces, according to security sources. A warplane fired rockets at oil facilities in Es Sidra and the airport in Ras Lanuf but caused no severe damage or casualties, an official from the Petroleum Facility Guard (PFG) said. The Islamist armed alliance Libya Dawn did not confirm the attack. Since mid-December, Libya Dawn militants have mounted assaults trying to seize the oil terminals, aiming to cut off any oil income to the internationally recognised government and parliament, now...

The administration released in late January its draft five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing, the game plan for what areas will be open for exploration and how they will be managed. By no small coincidence, opponents of offshore exploration are now beating the drum to close off areas to oil and gas and put the emphasis entirely on wind power. As a country, we cannot take an either/or approach to our energy needs by picking just one source, whether it is wind or hydrocarbons. That is why the Administration’s stated goals of an “all of the above” energy...

LyondellBasell announced Tuesday that it has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the United Steelworkers union, alleging that union representatives have made threats against employees who have returned to work and have used abusive language in social media. The company also contends it has witnessed threatening behavior at the gates of its Houston refinery as employees arrive to work, according to a letter to employees from Kevin Brown, executive vice president of global manufacturing, refining, global engineering services and global projects. The company filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board. “This action by the USW is extremely...

Magellan Midstream Partners and Plains All American Pipeline are teaming up on a new $850 million, 550-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from Colorado to Cushing, Oklahoma. The new pipeline, called the Saddlehorn, will be built and owned by the Saddlehorn Pipeline Co., a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. In an announcement Friday, Plains and Magellan said the new line has binding commitments from producers Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and that Anadarko has an option to obtain a 20 percent stake in the venture. The line could be in service by mid-2016 if permitting and construction...

Because of the long timelines associated with Gulf of Mexico (GOM) projects, the recent downturn in oil prices is expected to have minimal direct impact on GOM crude oil production through 2016. EIA projects GOM production to reach 1.52 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2015 and 1.61 million bbl/d in 2016, or about 16% and 17% of total U.S. crude oil production in those two years, respectively. The forecasted production growth is driven both by new projects and the redevelopment and expansion of older producing fields. Five deepwater projects began in the last three months of 2014: Stone Energy-operated...

The Keystone XL pipeline got an emphatic endorsement Monday from a powerful backer of President Barack Obama who questioned the handling of the file. To billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the delay is a thumbing of the nose at Canada. "I would have passed Keystone," Buffett said in an interview with CNBC. "I think that we have an enormous interest in working with Canada, as they have in working with us. That oil is going to get sold. If we make it more difficult for them, who knows how they'll feel about making things more difficult for us someday." Because Buffett...

Georgia lawmakers may eliminate a tax break for all airlines buying jet fuel at the world’s busiest airport. A bill filed in the House would cut the exemption at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Supportive lawmakers say it would help the state get federal money for aviation improvements throughout the state. They also argue the credit shouldn’t be kept in place forever....

The European edition of The Wall Street Journal has said in an editorial that Tesla Motors should stop accepting federal and state subsidies. “Last year Tesla made a roughly $150 million killing from selling ZEV credits. That’s up from $130 million in 2013, $32 million in 2012, and $3 million in 2011. All told in 2014 Tesla sold about $216 million in credits,” the newspaper said. It goes on to say, Capitalism needs visionaries, but its reputation suffers when companies worth billions soak middle-class taxpayers for profits. Turn off the taxpayer tap, Mr Musk. It would earn you more friends...

Airstrikes against Islamic State militants and falling oil prices have hurt the group’s ability to fund operations across Iraq and Syria, according to an international agency that fights terror financing. In a report issued Friday, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, said U.S.-led airstrikes targeting refineries and transport convoys have managed to disrupt Islamic State’s ability to deliver oil to the black market. Islamic State’s “ability to efficiently extract, refine and sell petroleum and petroleum products from the territory in which it operates has significantly diminished,” the report said. Bank looting, kidnapping and ransom have helped offset the...

Saudi Arabia and OPEC may have dropped oil prices to stifle production in the U.S. and other competing nations, but they didn’t drop it enough to stifle the U.S. oil and gas boom from fracking, a senior expert with McKinsey and Company said in Chicago. “If the Saudis think they’re going to put U.S. shale players out of business, they’re probably not, although there will be less drilling,” Joe Quoyeser told about 125 people, mostly graduate students, at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Energy Conference on Wednesday. ”But there are other elements of oil supply that are needed to balance the market...

On February 18, an explosion and fire occurred at ExxonMobil's refinery in Torrance, California. The Torrance refinery, the third-largest refinery in Southern California, has about 20% of the region's fluid catalytic cracking capacity and is an important source of gasoline and distillate fuel oil supply for Southern California. Unplanned refinery outages can have noticeable effects on liquid fuel markets, disrupting supplies of gasoline and distillate, particularly in regions that are tightly balanced, such as the West Coast (defined as Petroleum Administration for Defense District (PADD) 5). When refineries undergo planned maintenance, they make arrangements for alternative sources of supply to...

Diesel engine and gas turbine maker Dresser-Rand Group is cutting 8 percent of its 8,100-employee workforce around the world in coming weeks, the company said Friday, trimming operating costs as falling crude prices have crushed profits in the oil service sector. The Houston firm, which makes oil industry tools including compression equipment and steam turbines, said the plan will cost $50 million in severance and other charges as it divests assets this year. But its “flexible” manufacturing business will enable the company to start realizing savings from fixed costs this year, it said. “While current market conditions may generate discomfort...

More than one month ago, Shell Oil Company sat down at the bargaining table with a negotiating team representing national leaders of the United Steelworkers International Union (USW). Shell’s goals were – and still are – to reach an agreement that respects the needs and interests of our employees and ensures the ongoing safety as well as economic health of Shell refineries and chemical plants. To that end, to date Shell has put seven offers on the negotiating table. The USW International Union leaders have rejected all seven of them. In addition, they have ordered their members to strike at...

Fewer oil tankers are being used to store crude than traders and shipbrokers had expected at the start of the year, as a recent run-up in oil prices upended a popular trading strategy. “There were around 25 to 30 large tankers taken last month, but only around 10 of these are being used for oil storage now,” a Singapore-based shipbroker said, citing industry data. Many market watchers had expected big commodity-trading firms to capitalize on the price gap between different oil-futures contracts by buying physical barrels, storing them on ships and locking in profits by selling futures contracts for delivery...

Before the Texas Legislature got down to business a month ago, there was a strong feeling among insiders that the big issues would be water, transportation, and taxes. So far, the leadership has kept true to those projections. Already, Governor Abbott has called for a $2.2 billion reduction in property taxes and a $2 billion franchise tax decrease. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus also have stated their belief that a primary goal should be tax reduction, and funding for transportation. The House Energy and Natural Resources committees already have held a joint hearing on water and...

I have been supplied an Excel spreadsheet of all North Dakota wells back to 2006, thanks to Enno Peters and Dennis Coyne. I only used the data back to 2007 however. This is a wealth of information if we want to know how many wells came on line in a given month, we simply count them. We are given the monthly production data for each month. And since we have the monthly production data we can very easily figure the decline rate of each well, or any group of wells for any month or year. A note on the data....

The proposed Keystone XL pipeline has stirred considerable debate about the future of American energy policy. While the Senate’s recent vote to block its construction tables the discussion for the time being, it does not resolve major questions about how the U.S. transports oil today. With the ongoing shale gas boom, the U.S. is set to pass Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer. Looking beyond KXL, such a rapid rise in production means American transportation networks are straining under new pressures to safely and efficiently move all this energy between different markets. The following figures show how Keystone...

With natural gas storage at low levels in most of 2014 and production relatively high, minimal new natural gas storage capacity was built, except for salt facilities in the Producing region. Capacity in the East region of the United States fell slightly, resulting in relatively unchanged national total capacity. EIA measures natural gas storage capacity in November of each year, which is typically when storage withdrawals begin to exceed storage injections. From November 2013 to November 2014, EIA found that each of EIA's two measures of storage capacity within the Lower 48 states was virtually unchanged, as increases in salt...

The building trades unions have taken exception to disparaging comments the United Steelworkers union have made during contract talks that contractor labor is neither high quality or safe. Many contractors use union-represented skilled crafts workers including electricians, plumbers, welders, iron workers and pipefitters. To resolve the simmering, and growing dispute, the leaders of the United Steelworkers union and the North America’s Building Trades Unions issued a joint statement Wednesday to clarify the scope of contractor responsibilities at the nation’s refineries and chemical plants. “We are issuing this statement to make clear that the scope of work USW is seeking in...

On February 18, an explosion and fire occurred at the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California. The Torrance refinery, the third-largest refinery in southern California, has about 20% of the region's fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) capacity and is an important source of gasoline and distillate supply. Based on publicly available information, it can be estimated that Torrance produces about 117,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of gasoline (about 15-20% of southern California's supply) and about 50,000 bbl/d of distillate and jet fuel (about 10% of southern California supply). Unplanned refinery outages can have noticeable impacts on liquid fuel markets, disrupting supplies of...