Free Republic

Venezuela’s government, facing a cash crunch amid a slump in oil prices, signed a deal to receive a $5 billion loan from China, President Nicolás Maduro said Tuesday. The funds will go to increase oil production in Venezuela in the coming months, Mr. Maduro said without offering more details during an address from China that was broadcast on Venezuelan state television. Support from Beijing—which also renewed a separate $5 billion loan to Venezuela earlier this year—may offer some relief to bond markets, where Venezuela’s debt securities are rated among the world’s riskiest. Wall Street analysts say the country could default...

The Obama administration confirmed Tuesday that ending the nation’s 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports will not drive up domestic gasoline prices and could even save consumers money at the pump. Tuesday’s report from the Energy Information Administration puts even more pressure on Mr. Obama, who so far has been reluctant to reverse the export ban and allow oil and gas companies to sell fuel abroad. The White House last month did approve limited crude oil sales to Mexico, but critics say the president should go much further and allow the U.S. energy industry — which has revitalized economies across...

Market share continues to be Saudi Arabia’s main concern—and not even $40 oil prices will make it give into peer pressure to cut production. Major oil producers have been trying to convince Saudi Arabia, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ biggest producer, to take the lead and cut production to stem the price declines. But output from the nation instead climbed to about 10.45 million barrels a day in July from 10.1 million in April, according to an estimate from Platts, even though West Texas Intermediate and Brent oil prices are down roughly 15% year to date on the...

The potential ramp up of Exxon Mobil’s massive refinery in Torrance, California will be delayed after a state regulatory hearing on the matter was pushed back indefinitely. The South Coast Air Quality Management District said it delayed the hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning to further study the matter and ensure the health of residents living near the Torrance refinery is protected when the refinery increases production. No new date has been set. Partly because of the pinch on refining, California is coping with the highest gasoline prices in the nation at an average of $3.35 a gallon on Sunday, compared...

A 7% dive to $45 a barrel comes after prices soared higher to close Monday above $49 a barrel -- a nearly 30% rise in three days. Just a week ago, oil plummeted below $38 a barrel for the first time since 2009. The drop in prices Tuesday following the Chinese factory report seemed to make more sense than the rapid rebound. Concerns about a slowdown in Chinese economic growth has been one of the factors driving prices lower. Concerns in markets about a supply glut may have been eased a bit on Monday with a new government report that...

Comments by Hawaii Governor David Ige this week has left Hawaiian Electric in a quandary regarding its plan to burn regasified LNG shipped from Canada in its oil-fired power plants, a source at the utility said Friday. "We're in a bit of a stew at the moment," the source, who asked not to be identified, said. Ige previously supported using LNG as a transitional fuel as the state moved to 100% renewable generation by 2045. "When it was first proposed, I was willing to support it as a transitional fuel because it had some clear advantages for Hawaii," Ige said...

In November 2014, the leaders of Saudi Arabia made one of the biggest bets in history. Their strategy was flawed, and they’ve already lost. In an OPEC meeting that month, Saudi Arabia announced it would maintain high oil-production levels despite falling prices. The Saudis were betting that by keeping prices low they could protect their market share and kill America’s energy renaissance—a rebirth driven largely by Texas, which produces 37% of America’s oil and 28% of its marketed natural gas. The Saudi strategy seemed to make sense. The conventional wisdom was that energy producers working in “tight” shale formations would...

GE Oil & Gas is closing a plant in Lufkin and eliminating 262 positions at the plant and at one other facility. This is the third major job reduction by GE’s Lufkin Industries this year and the second at its Foundry plant, which is being closed through this mass layoff, the company said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission. Many oil field services companies have implemented major job cuts during the ongoing oil downturn. The reduction of 176 of the 187 jobs at the Foundry plant will begin Sept. 10 and conclude at the end of the month....

President Barack Obama will host King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia at the White House next week for his first trip to Washington since ascending the throne. The visit, scheduled for September 4, comes just before Congress is scheduled to vote on the Iran deal, which Saudi Arabia has endorsed but expressed concern over.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., the largest owner of the giant Syncrude oil-sands project, said on Sunday that it has halted production after a fire damaged equipment at its synthetic crude oil processing facility in northern Alberta. The company said the fire, which occurred early Saturday and was extinguished without any injuries, affected pipes connected to a water treatment unit at Syncrude’s heavy oil upgrader on the site of its Mildred Lake oil-sands surface mine. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, it said. While the upgrader’s core machinery wasn’t damaged and the strip mine continues to operate, Canadian Oil...

If the Iran deal goes through, the country’s oil exports will resume. Meanwhile, U.S. producers will still be banned from doing so. As Congress takes up the Iran nuclear deal next month, it ought to confront this paradox: The agreement allows the Iranians to do something Americans can’t—sell oil to the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong. I support the deal, under which Tehran would stop enriching weapons-grade uranium for the next 15 years in return for relief from economic sanctions. It’s not perfect, but President Obama is right that it’s better than what we’d have if his...

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSA) declared a force majeure on Nigerian Bonny Light oil exports yesterday, as it shut down two key pipelines to the coast. Shell did not give further details and did not provide a timeline for reopening the pipelines, but traders argued that the unexpected developments were unlikely to last long, Reuters reported. Nigeria’s oil industry is in dire need of greater investment in maintenance whilst also having to deal with numerous instances of oil theft. Shell sold its stake in the Nembe Creek pipeline earlier this year, alongside several other interests in the country, as part...

It’s not the economy, stupid. At least it isn’t where hearts are warmed by the fiercer flame of nationalism, rather than rising living standards. Oil prices as low as $40 a barrel are separating the oil haves from the oil have-nots. The oil producers happily rode a wave of high oil prices for years, buying popularity with increased state spending while excusing themselves from the hard pounding of legitimate economic reform. The oil-buyers — like India and Egypt — now enjoy prices as low as a third of those they paid as recently as two years ago and can cut...

Dive Brief: With a 100% renewable goal now on the table and oil prices falling, Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) has revealed he opposes plans to import liquefied natural gas as a bridge fuel to cleaner and less expensive power. At a business and policy conference this week in Honolulu, Ige, a keynote speaker, said the state does not need LNG and should be moving forward on its renewable goals instead. Both Hawaiian Electric (HECO) and Hawaii Gas have floated plans to construct import terminals, with gas deliveries beginning to reach the state in 2019. HECO has pledged to push...

A $27 billion energy project is rising rapidly on this icy peninsula jutting above the Arctic Circle, but the race to shore up its finances has emerged as a test of Moscow’s ability to weather Western sanctions. U.S. restrictions on OAO Novatek, the project’s Russian leader, are squeezing the massive Yamal LNG liquefied-natural-gas venture, a centerpiece of President Vladimir Putin’s plan for Russia to reduce its heavy dependence on natural-gas customers in Europe by increasing exports to Asia and, in turn, cementing Russian ties with China. Barred by the sanctions from raising long-term dollar loans, Novatek and its foreign partners,...

Chinese oil companies say they are bracing for a turbulent second half and no relent of the low oil prices that have sent their earnings plunging. Amid weak global economic growth that is constraining demand for everything from oil to natural gas and iron ore, first-half results on Wednesday underscored the magnitude of a spending pullback by China’s oil majors. In releasing interim results, Chinese oil companies Cnooc Ltd. and Sinopec Corp. said they had little expectation for a sharp rebound in oil and natural gas prices. “There is little optimism in the world’s macro-economic environment,” Cnooc Chairman Yang Hua...

A four-year investigation has concluded that officials of the solar company Solyndra misrepresented facts and omitted key information in their efforts to get a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. government. Solyndra was the first company to get federal loan guarantees under a program that was created in 2005 and expanded by President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package. The company’s failure soon after receiving the loan guarantee likely will cost taxpayers more than $500 million. Republicans and other critics cite it as an example of wasteful spending under the stimulus program. The report by the Energy Department’s inspector...

We recently looked at the restart of the first Japanese nuclear reactor in four years, and assessed its impact on Japanese oil demand. It was somewhat burying the lede, however, not to address the impact on LNG demand. So with Japan’s developments still fresh in our minds, here are ten challenges faced by the global LNG market: 1) Asia is the key market for LNG. Japan accounts for approximately 35% of the global LNG market. Combined with South Korea, it accounts for ~50% of it, while Asia as a whole accounts for 75%. The gradual return of nuclear reactors in...

Offshore engineering company McDermott International’s stock shot up by more than 30 percent Wednesday after the company said it had landed a $1.5 billion-plus contract with Saudi Aramco. McDermott CEO David Dickson called the contract an important step in a turnaround for the Houston-based company, which as recently as 2013 had been struggling to build offshore platforms and support structures profitably. Investors sent the company’s shares up $1.03 to $4.49 in midday trading Thursday. “We had a tough time through the end of 2013; 2014 was a real turnaround,” Dickson said in an interview with FuelFix. He joined McDermott in...

Recently announced crude oil swaps with Mexico likely to provide economic and environmental benefits Under licenses approved earlier this month by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an office within the Department of Commerce that administers export controls on crude oil, volumes of crude oil produced in the United States and Mexico up to the approved volume cap will be exchanged. These swaps will likely involve U.S light sweet crude, such as the growing output from shale formations in the United States, and Mexican heavy sour crude. The approved swaps are expected to be both economically and environmentally beneficial...