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U.S. drivers are projected to pay an average of $2.45/gallon (gal) for regular grade gasoline this summer (April through September), according to EIA's Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook released yesterday. This year's projected average summer price is down from a $3.59/gal average during summer 2014. The lower retail price this summer reflects a significant drop in world crude oil prices from last summer. As the main input cost in the refining process, crude oil is the major driver of retail gasoline prices, and U.S. gasoline prices tend to follow prices of the international benchmark Brent crude. For summer 2015,...

The latest example is Royal Dutch Shell's bid for BG Group, a British firm with a stockpile of prized oil fields off the coast of Brazil, and lucrative natural gas holdings in Australia. The companies announced the £47 billion ($70 billion) deal early Wednesday. It's the biggest in the sector since Exxon bought Mobil in 1998, according to Dealogic. Shell will pay a 50% premium to BG's closing share price of £9.10 ($13.56) on Tuesday. If completed, the purchase will add 25% to Shell's oil and gas reserves and 20% to production. Shell also expects "synergies" of around $2.5 billion,...

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said on Tuesday that the kingdom stood ready to "improve" prices but only if other producers outside of OPEC joined the effort. Naimi said Saudi Arabia had pumped around 10.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, marking an increase from previous months. He did not say why output had risen. Naimi also said he expected oil prices that have languished near six-year lows to improve in the near future. Oil prices extended gains late on Tuesday as traders took Naimi's comments as sign he may be open to renewed talks with producers like...

The growth in oil-train shipments fueled by the U.S. energy boom has stalled in recent months, dampened by safety problems and low crude prices. The number of train cars carrying crude and other petroleum products peaked last fall, according to data from the Association of American Railroads, and began edging down. In March, oil-train traffic was down 7% on a year-over-year basis. Railroads have been a major beneficiary of the U.S. energy boom, as oil companies turned to trains to move crude to refineries from remote oil fields in North Dakota and other areas not served by pipelines. Rail shipments...

Enterprise Products Partners has expanded its liquefied petroleum gas export terminal at the Houston Ship Channel, bolstering its ability to ship more supercooled propane to buyers overseas. The Houston-based midstream company announced the project two years ago to capitalize on the vast supplies of cheap natural gas unlocked by the U.S. shale boom. Enterprise said it wanted to give producers better access to international markets, in turn, giving U.S. oil companies more of an incentive to continue pumping gas from the ground. “We have such a strong production in the U.S. that it’s actually outpacing domestic demand,” Enterprise spokesman Rick...

American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) is preparing to close six coal-fired power plants in four states on May 31 to comply with stricter federal emissions standards. Columbus, Ohio-based AEP recently gave notices of the closures to the states and to workers at the Philip Sporn, Kammer and Kanawha Valley plants in West Virginia, the Muskingum River Plant in Ohio, the Tanners Creek Plant in Indiana and the Glen Lyn Plant in Virginia. The notices are required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. More than 250 workers will be affected by the plant shutdowns, which were announced by...

Oil futures rebounded sharply Monday, with the U.S. benchmark closing at its highest level in seven weeks on signs of strengthening Asian demand and expectations a preliminary agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program won’t see the market immediately swamped with more crude. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in May jumped $3, or 6.1%, to close at $52.14 a barrel. That marked the highest close for a most-active futures contract since Feb. 17. May Brent crude LCOK5, on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $3.17, or 5.8%, to $58.12 a barrel. Both benchmarks saw their...

Spearheaded by the Senators from Washington_State, legislation just introduced in the United States Senate will finally address the rash of crude oil train wrecks and explosions that have skyrocketed over the last two years in parallel with the steep rise in the amount of crude oil transported by rail. Oil production is at an all-time high in America, great for our economy and energy independence, but bad for the people and places that lie along the shipping routes. Just since February, there have been four fiery derailments of crude oil trains in North America and many more simple spills. More...

A power outage last week that affected more than 70 million people in Turkey was likely caused by mismanagement, and the head of the electricity distribution company (TEIAS) has resigned, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Monday. The shutdown of two plants in Izmir and Adana Cukurova led to an outage...

Much of the Permian Basin’s oil boom eluded the world’s supermajor oil companies like Chevron, who took their corporate offices and large management teams from the area in the 1990s as common perception held the region was slowly dying. But during this downturn, the supermajors see opportunity again in the Permian Basin. Chevron, and to a lesser extent Exxon Mobil, plan to pursue aggressive drilling and completion programs this year. In the short-term, that offers some relief for the oil service companies and rig crews hammered by oil prices hovering below $50 per barrel. But it also reflects a long-term...

U.S. oil production is on track to reach an annual all-time high by September of this year, according to Rystad Energy. If production does indeed top out, then supply levels may soon hit a peak as well. That, in turn, could lead to shrinking supplies. The oil-and-gas consulting-services firm estimates an average 2015 output of 9.65 million barrels a day will be reached in five months — topping the previous peak annual reading of 9.64 million barrels a day in 1970. Coincidentally, the nation’s crude inventories stand at a record 471.4 million barrels, based on data from U.S. Energy Information...

he State Oil and Gas Division has taken action against five oil companies that are flaring more gas than is allowed under the state’s new gas flaring order and policies. Starting this month, the companies were ordered to choke down production to 100 barrels per day on certain wells or face potential daily penalties. Division spokeswoman Alison Ritter said this is the highest number of companies and the most wells to be placed under restriction since a flaring order went into effect, calling for companies to capture 77 percent of produced gas by start of January this year. The companies...

The petrochemical industry’s struggle to find enough welders, pipefitters and skilled laborers to build the billions in new projects slated for the Gulf Coast is a problem of its own making, the head of a construction education foundation said this week. Craft laborers require years of training to become minimally qualified and up to a decade or more to acquire the skills that make them top performers, but the industry has failed to consistently invest in developing that workforce, said Don Whyte, president of NCEER, which develops curriculum and assessments for construction and maintenance workers. “I’ve seen five or six...

A new power plant in West Texas that could transform coal into cleaner-burning natural gas is poised to break ground later this year, an executive in charge of the project said at a conference in Houston Wednesday. The project, located on a 600-acre site in Odessa, uses coal as a feedstock for a 400 megawatt power plant. But instead of burning it, the plant uses a chemical process to first strip it of carbon, sulfur and mercury. The result, project leaders say, is a hydrocarbon that can fuel the power plan but burns even cleaner than natural gas — even...

TransCanada on Thursday announced a two-year delay to its plans to move the Canadian tar sands. The company is cancelling its plans to build a controversial export terminal in Quebec, citing environmental concern over the endangered beluga whale. This means a delay to plans for finishing the Energy East pipeline, now set for 2020. In the meantime, TransCanada will search for a new location for its port. For once, then, Canadian oil news isn't about the TransCanada-owned Keystone XL, which has faced a six-year delay as the Obama administration sits on a decision to issue a permit. At least not...

Wednesday morning, social network users reported a fire on the dwelling platform Abkatun Alfa located in Mexico's oil-rich Bay of Campeche. According to local media reports, the Abkatun Alpha is a dwelling platform purposed for housing personnel working offshore in the Bay of Campeche. Early reports also indicate it is owned by a private firm subcontracted by Pemex. Preliminary information indicates a failure in operation processes caused the fire. The incident prompted the evacuation of the platform. Some injuries were also reported. The injured were transported via helicopter from the rig to hospitals in Ciudad del Carmen. One death, 48...

1) What happened in Turkey on March 31? At 10:36 a.m., a massive blackout hit Turkey. Out of the 81 Turkish provinces, electricity was not totally cut only in the eastern province of Van, which receives some of its energy from Iran. In total, more than 76 million citizens were affected in one way or another. Described by the Energy Ministry as the worst national blackout since the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the outage wreaked havoc in daily life throughout the country with mass transit and traffic lights ceasing to work, hospitals sounding the alarm, factories halting production, mobile phone connections...

...destroyed three_buildings and killed two men in the East Village last week resulted from an attempt to hide the unauthorized siphoning of natural gas for tenants in one of the buildings. Their working theory is that one or more gas lines were surreptitiously tapped over several months; then the siphoning apparatus was dismantled or hidden on Thursday before Consolidated Edison conducted an inspection. As soon as the utility inspectors left, an attempt to resume the diversion of gas went awry, setting off the explosion, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of this working theory. That version of events...

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday it had begun producing from its Hadrian South Gulf of Mexico project. Total production of the project is expected to reach about 300 million cubic feet of gas and 3,000 barrels of liquids per day from two wells. The well is located about 230 miles offshore and in about 7,650 feet of water. First production comes after a discovery well was drilled in 2008 and an appraisal well was completed in 2009. Exxon operates the Hadrian South project with a 46.7 percent interest while Brazil’s Petrobras and Italy’s Eni hold a 23.3 percent and 30...

For the first time, EIA is providing monthly data on rail movements of crude oil, which have significantly increased over the past five years. The new data on crude-by-rail (CBR) movements are integrated with EIA's existing monthly petroleum supply statistics, which already include movements by pipeline, tanker, and barge. The new monthly time series of crude oil rail movements includes shipments to and from Canada and dramatically reduces the absolute level of unaccounted for volumes in EIA's monthly balances for each region. EIA is initiating the new series with monthly data from January 2010 through the current reporting month, January...