Free Republic

A heavier-than-usual season of refinery maintenance will begin after a busy summer driving season ends this Labor Day weekend. The summer saw high gasoline demand and falling prices at the pump, but the coming months could see up to 1.3 million fewer barrels of crude oil a day processed into gasoline as some refineries are temporarily shut down, said analyst Brad Heffern of RBC Capital Markets. “Gasoline demand has been phenomenal and better than I ever thought,” Heffern said. Many refineries ran at higher capacities and for longer periods of time than usual partly because of demand, but also because...

The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline was $2.51/gallon (g) on August 31, the lowest price for the Monday before Labor Day since 2004, and 95¢/g lower than the same time last year. Declines in crude oil prices are the main driver behind falling U.S. gasoline prices. Lower crude oil prices reflect concerns about economic growth in emerging markets, expectations of higher oil exports from Iran, and continuing actual and expected growth in global crude oil inventories. The U.S. average retail gasoline price increased 47¢/g since the last week of January, when it was $2.04/g, driven by rising crude...

‘Clack! cla-cla clack-clack clack-clack CLACK!!’ (today’s fanfare for Nonfarm Friday was played on football helmets to celebrate the start of college football season). It is the first Friday in September, which means we see official US employment data, aka nonfarm payrolls. Today’s report has showed 173,000 jobs were created in August, which was less than the expected 220,ooo, but has been offset by a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.1%. Given the market response, it believes this report is good enough to usher in an interest rate hike later in the month….and crude is heading lower. Elsewhere in the...

Ohio is standing on third base and ready to cross home plate in the development of a proposed $5.7 billion ethane cracker plant in eastern Ohio, Gov. John Kasich said Thursday. Kasich joined the CEO of the Thai company that wants to build the plant in outlining plans for a $100 million outlay over the next year for engineering and design work at the site to determine the project's future. Columbus Business First broke the story in April that the plant was being considered in Belmont County, near the heart of oil and natural gas exploration in the Utica shale...

Khobar: The expansion of Saudi Arabia's Khurais oilfield is expected to be delayed from the originally planned timeframe of 2017 and the start-up date is now unclear, industry sources said. The sources said authorities had not given reasons for the delay. However, since global oil prices started to fall sharply last year, national oil giant Saudi Aramco has slowed some projects, shelving less important ones and asking for discounts on some contracts which it had awarded. "The project is important because of the associated gas that comes with the expansion of the oilfield ... but Aramco has stretched the timeframe...

Electric carmaker Tesla has announced that it will obtain lithium for its batteries from two companies in northern Mexico, leaving Nevada lawmakers who approved major tax incentives for the company frustrated. In 2014 the Nevada Legislature approved $1.3 billion in tax incentives for Tesla’s Reno gigafactory. The Las Vegas Sun reports that during legislative debates over the incentive package, there was speculation that Tesla would boost the state’s lithium industry...

Opec oil output fell in August from the highest monthly level in recent history, a Reuters survey found on Wednesday, as disruptions to flows on Iraq's northern pipeline halted supply growth from the group's second-largest producer. Largely stable output from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries indicated they are not wavering in their focus on defending market share instead of prices. Opec supply fell in August to 31.71mn barrels per day (bpd) from a revised 31.88mn bpd in July, according to the survey, based on shipping data and information from sources at...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday he would talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about what could be done to stabilize world oil markets and prices. Maduro made the comments as the two men, both leaders of major oil producing countries, began talks in Beijing, after attending a military parade to mark 70 years since the end of World War Two in Asia. "We can talk about what we can do to stabilize oil market and stabilize prices, what would allow us to overcome the current conditions," Maduro told Putin at the start of the meeting.

Robust oil and gas activity helped several states grow their economies in 2014, with the fastest growing states all heavy energy industry players, according to Commerce Department data released Wednesday. The Texas economy grew the second most among the states last year after it saw its gross domestic product increase 5.2 percent, making it one of a handful of states to outpace the U.S. economy overall. Only North Dakota was ahead of Texas last year after its GDP grew 6.3 percent. Wyoming, West Virginia and Colorado rounded out the top five. The steep fall in the price of U.S. crude...

On August 14 the Obama Administration announced that the Commerce Department would approve applications to export up to 100,000 barrels of light crude per day to Mexico in a swap arrangement for an equivalent volume of heavy crude from Mexico. This type of export has previously been available between The US and Canada, and perhaps indicates willingness to eventually repeal the crude export ban. Here’s a quick little recap and analysis of the situation. WHY IS THIS A BIG DEAL? After the 1975 oil shock, The United States banned the export of crude oil in order to stabilize the price....

Engineering and construction companies must finally embrace technology in order to meet the demand of petrochemical and manufacturing projects along the Gulf Coast, industry experts said. There are $147 billion in petrochemical and manufacturing projects underway or planned in the U.S. through 2023, according to the American Chemistry Council, and most of the companies that will construct the projects are still failing to utilize technological advances that could speed things up, said John Fish, director of project support services for Louisiana-based Ford, Bacon & Davis engineering and construction firm. “Our industry — I hate to say it — we’re living...

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.