Free Republic

When the Green Mountain power company, Vermont’s largest utility, announced earlier this year it will be buying nuclear power from New Hampshire’s Seabrook reactor, many environmentalists felt betrayed. “This is exactly why we closed Vermont Yankee, because we didn’t want any nuclear power,” they complained. But consumer demands left Green Mountain with no other choice. Nuclear is the ultimate reliable source of power – reactors operate more than 90 percent of the time – and Green Mountain needs back-up in case other sources stop working or if demand exceeds supply on a hot summer day. Vermont is struggling with its...

The midstream company planning to build one of the largest crude oil storage facilities on the Gulf Coast said Thursday that it had reached a deal to fund the first phase of construction on the project in southwest Houston. Fairway Energy Partners LLC said in a release that Houston private equity firm FBR & Co. agreed to fund the first leg of the Pierce Junction storage facility, which will convert three underground salt caverns near the intersection of the 610 and 288 Freeways into crude oil storage. Fairway is backed by Haddington Ventures LLC, a Houston investment firm that manages...

The North American ocean carrier TOTE is deploying the world’s first container ships fueled by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The move anticipates imminent environmental regulations that are likely to trigger large shifts in the maritime shipping industry. TOTE is making the move to comply with the international Marpol Annex VI maritime emissions standards, first implemented in 2005. Restrictions on emissions like sulfur and nitrogen oxide will tighten in 2016 within designated emission control areas (ECAs), including the waters surrounding North America. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are generated in large volumes by conventional maritime ships, which have long relied on so-called...

Lawmakers are eyeing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a piggy bank, but not without controversy. The Senate is considering legislation that would partly replenish the u.S. highway trust fund with $9 billion worth of sales from the reserve, which at 69S.1 million barrels of oil is close to its 713.S-million-barrel capacity. This month, the House passed a bill to sell 80 million barrels from the reserve to raise $7 billion to help pay for legislation to boost government drug approvals and research funding. But proposals to tap the nation's oil stockpile as a way to pay for unrelated government programs...

On Thursday, Iran detailed plans to rebuild its main industries and trade relationships after last week's final nuclear deal with the P5+1. The country says it is targeting oil and gas projects worth $185 billion by 2020. Iran Wants 2-Way Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Iran's Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade, said Iran would focus on its oil and gas, metals and car industries with the goal of exporting to Europe following the easing of sanctions, rather than merely importing Western technology, Reuters reported Thursday morning. "We are looking for a two-way trade as well as cooperation in development, design...

Key US senators have reached a deal on a broad package of energy sector reforms that if enacted would speed decision-making on liquefied natural gas exports, focus the intent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and require reviews of how federal rules impact electric system reliability. The agreement on the bipartisan legislative package follows a number of Senate hearings in recent months and lawmakers' consideration of more than 100 bills offered for inclusion in the wider package. The bill unveiled Wednesday is also the result of negotiations between the two leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee -- Chairman...

Weatherford International says it plans to bump its job cuts from 10,000 to 11,000, about 20 percent of its workforce, with the increase coming mostly from its U.S. support staff. The oil field services firm, based in Switzerland with main offices in Houston, said the layoffs come as the North American market continues to weaken. It had completed all but 3 percent of its previously announced cut of 10,000 jobs, it said in its second-quarter earnings release late Wednesday. “The aggregate results of these measures will help mitigate the effects of the downturn, while at the same time, take advantage...

The US Senate showed a disturbing lack of respect for US energy security on Tuesday. The upper chamber introduced a highway bill that proposes selling oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to partially pay for a three-year extension of the highway trust fund. The bill is the result of a deal between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer. Legislators project that selling 101 billion barrels from the 693 billion barrel stockpile would raise $9 billion if the government sells the oil between 2018 and 2025. The bill assumes an average oil price of...

...“The EIA has global oil demand in 2020 and beyond being met with increased supplies from a region of the world stuck in a multi-decade crisis that is likely to get much worse before it ever gets better. Supply from the short-cycle U.S. oil market is required to balance the global crude market at a rate where U.S. shale should remain a growth industry.”... There have been several key developments that set the stage for the evolutionary phase that the world has now entered: 1) development of mature fracking technologies for oil and gas shale that have made previously uneconomic...

The clock is ticking on the Obama Administration. With only 18 months remaining in his final term, federal energy planners and agency regulators are working as quickly as possible to impose new rules on the oil and natural gas industry. As one industry lobbyist told the Houston Chronicle, “The agencies are all in hyperdrive to get the rules across the finish line or have them well-positioned in the regulatory queue so that their path forward past Jan. 20, 2017, is clearly established.” The rush to increase regulations on oil and natural gas is nothing but bad news for an industry...

Ridgewood Energy is not letting $50 oil shift its aim. The energy company focused on the deep-water Gulf of Mexico closed a nearly $2 billion private equity fund that it contends will still prove profitable. Houston- and New Jersey-based Ridgewood said its new $1.94 billion, Ridgewood Energy Oil & Gas Fund III is its biggest yet and exceeded its initial $1.5 billion target. As other companies slow down their expensive deep-water Gulf investments, Ridgewood says it can find and develop oil there for $20 a barrel or less, although the break even is closer to $35 a barrel with other...

Manufacturer TimkenSteel Material Services LLC told state officials Monday it would lay of 39 workers at a Houston plant. The Canton, Ohio-based company, which manufactures steel bars and pipes, cited a “significant downturn in business” as the reason for the layoffs. Manufacturers and oil patch suppliers have suffered alongside drillers as lower crude oil prices have led producers to idle rigs and trim orders for the manufactured goods that support drilling. Timken has operations in the U.S., Mexico, Europe and China. In its 2014 annual report, the company indicated that its energy and distribution business segment accounted for about 43...

Another test of methane hydrates on the North Slope, a potential huge new gas resource, is being planned. State officials are in discussions with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., or JOGMC on possible joint-sponsorship, and talks are planned with North Slope producers about potential sites for a test within one of the operating units on the Slope, Commissioner of Natural Resources Mark Myers said. A technical evaluation of different sites is now underway, Myers said. Drilling within an existing industry unit is preferable for cost reasons but sites on nearby unleased...

The size of the Utica shale play’s technically recoverable resources is larger than previously thought, a recent study by West Virginia University (WVU) has found. WVU found that the Utica play contains technically recoverable resources of 782 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas and around 1.9 billion barrels of oil. That’s higher than the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) 2012 estimate of technically recoverable resources at 38 Tcf of gas and 940 million barrels of oil. The study results indicate that the Utica – which spans West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York – is comparable to the Marcellus...

Now that the international community plans to lift the embargo on Iranian oil, it's time for Congress to lift the one on U.S. oil. For 40 years, the United States has banned almost all exports of U.S. crude in the mistaken belief that energy independence is the same thing as energy security. The result is that U.S. oil companies are forced to sell their product at a substantial discount to prevailing international prices to U.S. refiners who then export gasoline, diesel and jet fuel at a significant profit. Congress needs to repeal this misguided federal ban so that U.S. crude...

West Coast spot prices for conventional gasoline increased sharply last week, while falling slightly on the Gulf Coast and remaining flat on the East Coast. The Los Angeles, California, spot price for conventional gasoline increased nearly 90 cents per gallon (cents/gal) between July 6 and July 13, while San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon prices increased 24 cents/gal and 5 cents/gal, respectively (Figure 1). This most recent price rise results from a delay in receipts of waterborne imports of gasoline blending components and a decrease in total motor gasoline inventories within an already constrained supply chain. West Coast spot gasoline...

U.S. chemical plants are expected to grow in the coming months as they take advantage of cheap natural gas prices and a strengthening economy that has boosted domestic demand for raw materials used in housing and automobiles, a new credit rating analysis finds. But falling oil prices and a strong U.S. dollar threaten earnings for several domestic chemical companies, according to an economic and ratings outlook compiled by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. Domestic chemical companies have been able to crank out chemicals at a lower cost because they rely primarily on natural gas to feed their operations while their...

Over 37.3 trillion gallons of water fell in Texas this past spring after heavy precipitation resulted in substantial flooding. While years of drought were literally washed away, the state experienced significant consequences of the flooding, including 21 deaths according to a report by NPR. The recent weather patterns exposed vital shortcomings in the state’s flood control infrastructure, which brings into question the appropriateness and level of investment in the state’s flood prevention infrastructure, the network of systems needed to protect the lives and property of citizens of the state. The rain Texas received during the single month of May broke...

Cheap crude has hammered oil producing states to the point that they’re dragging down overall growth and erasing any positive effects from falling commodity prices on the economy, Goldman Sachs said in a report this week. While the dive in crude oil prices from more than $100 in June 2014 to a little over $50 this month has meant the cheapest gasoline prices since 2009, consumer spending from that windfall hasn’t outpaced deep cuts to the oil and gas sector. The research note said that slumping oil prices have meant dramatic declines in oilfield investments — fewer new wells are...

Market analysts have a keen interest in understanding how crude oil production in key states has been affected by recent changes in crude oil prices and drilling activity. EIA develops state-level production estimates for selected states that are based in part on state-level data. However, data published by state agencies are often incomplete when first published because of a combination of late reporting and processing delays, mainly due to the filing of production reports that do not contain all required information. Because EIA's methodology for state-level production estimates aims to anticipate and account for expected revisions to data collected by...