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The IEA (International Energy Agency) made the following statement in its Oil Monthly Report on Friday that supposedly sent oil prices lower by $2.41 per barrel for Brent and $2.21 per barrel for WTI: “Steep drops in the US rig count have been a key driver of the price rebound. Yet US supply so far shows precious little sign of slowing down. Quite to the contrary, it continues to defy expectations. Output estimates for 4Q14 North American supply have been revised upwards by a steep 300 kb/d.” IEA’s comments on U.S. oil production trends are misleading. When IEA says “oil”...

The Department of Energy is planning to buy up to 5 million barrels of oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after a test sale last year. The planned purchase of sweet crude between June 1 and July 31 is required by federal laws forcing the Department of Energy to buy back petroleum products within one year, using the proceeds from a test sale. In this case, the recent collapse in crude prices means the government is set to make money on the two transactions — effectively buying low now after selling high last year. During the March 2014 test...

In a far corner of North Dakota, just a few hundred miles from the proposed path of the Keystone XL pipeline, 84,000 barrels of crude oil per day recently began flowing through a new line that connects the state’s sprawling oilfields to an oil hub in Wyoming. In West Texas, engineers activated a new pipeline that cuts diagonally across the state to deliver crude from the oil-rich Permian Basin to refineries near Houston. And in a string of towns in Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota, local government officials are scrutinizing the path of pipeline extensions that would pass nearby. While...

Fiery explosions from North DakotaÂ’s Bakken oil in recent weeks are raising questions about the safety of the light, sweet crude, even with new oil conditioning standards to take effect April 1, at the same time that a major North American railroad is questioning whether it even wants to be in the crude transport business (see story below). But North DakotaÂ’s top industry regulator says the new standards are only one part of the solution to eliminate rail car explosions, so heÂ’s urging the federal government to hurry with its new rail safety rules. In December, the North Dakota Industrial...

Canadian Pacific’s board expresses reluctance to stay in crude-by-rail business Canadian Pacific Railway has disclosed that its directors are reluctant to continue transporting crude oil - an idea that was swiftly quashed by the Canadian government, but was reignited by two more derailments of crude trains. CP Rail Chief Executive Officer Hunter Harrison divulged for the first time on March 2 that his board is giving “careful consideration” to whether it can “get out of (the crude-by-rail) business.” That element of its business has increasingly burdened the company with risks and regulations that have offset a rapid growth in related...

Prentice suggests Albertans must accept some responsibility for financial plight Alberta Premier Jim Prentice has found indirect support at the highest level from ExxonMobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson for his doom-and-gloom message that those who rely on oil prices for a living are in for a rough ride. Tillerson spent, for him, an unusual amount of time in the first week of March behind microphones, on the airwaves and in front of TV cameras spreading the word that the world and investors should “settle in” for a long period of relatively weak and volatile crude prices. He said there...

We keep waiting for the bust, the gigantic rollover of oil companies that just plain collapse under their own weight and the $50 price that you get for West Texas Intermediate. It hasn't happened. We keep waiting for the junk bond market that is riddled with $200 billion in oil and gas paper to be crushed by defaults and restructurings. It hasn't been. In fact, the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bd, the high-yield exchange-traded fund that includes a lot of this suspect paper, is pretty much unchanged for the last three years and has enjoyed a sustained rally...

Four-year deal includes modest pay raises but addresses union concerns over contracted labor and worker fatigue. The United Steelworkers union and oil companies have reached a tentative deal to end the largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years, the labor group and people familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday. The new agreement for about 30,000 workers would last four years, a year longer than previous agreements. The deal, which still needs to be ratified, may not end strikes right away at all refineries that have suffered walkouts as local union chapters could still need to work out pending issues....

Oil producers and their allies are looking beyond the nation’s capital in their quest to end the decades-old ban on exporting U.S. crude. While Congress and the Obama administration deliberate the issue, state lawmakers in oil-flush North Dakota and Texas aren’t waiting to act and instead have advanced resolutions that take aim at the trade restrictions. The North Dakota Senate on Tuesday approved its resolution urging Congress to lift the ban on crude exports and outlining its case for those foreign sales. The 1970s-era trade restrictions, inspired by the OPEC oil embargo, were designed to preserve domestic price ceilings and...

There have been a lot of old-car fires lately. I went through the ’70s, the ’80s and most of the ’90s without ever having read much about car fires. Suddenly, they are happening all over the place. Here’s one reason: The ethanol in modern gasoline—about 10 percent in many states—is so corrosive, it eats through either the fuel-pump diaphragm, old rubber fuel lines or a pot metal part, then leaks out on a hot engine … and ka-bloooooie!!! As someone who collects old cars, and keeps them up religiously, I am now replacing fuel-pressure regulators every 12 to 18 months....

Community leaders and activists gathered Monday to voice their opposition to the proposed Philips 66 oil train project. A panel of speakers — including Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, and environmentalists with ForestEthics and 350 Santa Barbara — addressed the potentially catastrophic derailment dangers facing area communities should the energy company receive approval to add a 1.3-mile rail expansion to its Santa Maria Refinery for crude-carrying trains. The Philips 66 facility west of Nipomo removes petroleum coke and sulfur from crude oil before piping it north to Contra Costa County for further refinement. If San...

With a glut of crude oil filling up pipelines and storage tanks and pushing down U.S. oil prices, Texas lawmakers are calling on Washington to lift its 40-year-old ban on crude exports. “Congress should update our national trade policy to benefit Texas producers and consumers,” state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said Monday at a joint hearing of the House Energy Resources Committee, which he chairs, and the chamber’s International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. More than 100 Texas House members have signed on to a proposed resolution that calls the ban a “relic from an era of scarcity and...

The world's two biggest oil firms, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, may withstand the oil price collapse better than their rivals because they are closer to finishing expensive investment projects while others must keep spending. The near halving of oil prices since June is likely to send all the biggest listed oil companies into negative cash flow this year, and has sparked a rush to cut costs across the sector as a result. But depending on where they are in their spending cycles, some companies are finding those cuts easier to make than others. "Both (Exxon and Shell)...

The ongoing United Steelworkers strike hasn’t impacted the market for refined products much yet, but it could if the strike continues for much longer, according to a new report by Fitch Ratings. The credit ratings agency says the strike could have an especially pronounced effect on the U.S. gasoline market. So far, the implications of the strike — now in its second month and affecting 15 refineries and chemical plants — has been relatively limited, Fitch experts said. But that could be changing. The first quarter of the year typically has lower demand for refined products, Fitch said; meanwhile, adequate...

Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it would sell off more assets and cut back on capital spending, as the integrated oil and gas giant looks to protect its finances from lower crude prices. Chevron said it would put about $15 billion of assets up for sale through 2017 — up from a previous $10 billion target — and cut capital spending incrementally to roughly $30 billion in 2017. In January, Chevron had said it would trim capital spending to $35 billion in 2015, down about $5 billion from its 2014 budget. Despite the cuts, the San Ramon, California-based company said it...

The U.S. shale boom may finally be slowing down, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Oil production from the six largest shale plays in the U.S. will hit 5.6 million barrels per day in April, an increase of less than 300 barrels per day over March, the EIA said in its monthly drilling productivity report on Monday. The increase would be the smallest since February 2011. If the EIA’s projection holds, April’s production would be a drastic decrease from a record-breaking surge in 2014; in 10 of the last 16 months, U.S. oil production gained at least...

Natural gas still hasn't really caught on as a fuel for private passenger vehicles, but it's slowly finding more success in commercial applications. The selection of natural-gas commercial vehicles is much larger, and using the fuel in fleets makes more sense from an environmental-impact standpoint than it does for individual cars. One company catering to this market is Mack Trucks, which announced that the natural-gas versions of its Pinnacle series trucks will get a handful of updates this year. These include a new Eaton UltraShift Plus automated transmission and Wingman Advanced safety system. The latter is essentially an adaptive cruise...

After several weeks of stability, the crude-oil market may once again be on the move. Prices fell Tuesday morning in London as some market participants worried about the start of another downward shift. “Most of the supportive factors for Brent are starting to fade,” said analysts at Energy Aspects. After the steep selloff between June and January, the oil market had recovered in February, and appeared to reach some sort of a plateau toward the end of the month. In part, that was because of a rush to buy up oil stocks to be able to sell them at higher...

The European Union has imposed sanctions on a Syrian businessman who it says has bought oil for Syria from ISIS that the government in Damascus has declared to be its enemy.

As expected, President Barack Obama vetoed legislation from Congress that would have approved the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, rejecting the creation of thousands of jobs in the process. However, it did not end the six-year saga for building the 1,179-mile pipeline that would deliver 830,000 barrels of oil per day of Canadian and American crude oil to U.S. refineries. The fight will go on, even though Congress was unable to override the president’s veto. Fortunately, President Obama never closed the door. As noted in his message to the Senate, there remains an ongoing National Interest Determination (NID) process...