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A pipeline pumping natural gas from Myanmar to energy-hungry China has gone fully operational, state-run Chinese media said on Monday. BEIJING: A pipeline pumping natural gas from Myanmar to energy-hungry China has gone fully operational, state-run Chinese media said on Monday. The project, stretching more than 2,500 kilometres from western Myanmar to southwest China, will help the world's second-largest economy feed its growing energy needs. It comes as close political ties between the two nations have weakened, after Myanmar's quasi-civilian regime took office in 2011 and brought in sweeping reforms that have led to the scrapping of most Western sanctions....

The $1 trillion farm bill will serve as the first test of how deeply the shutdown fight has damaged relations in Washington. Congress has made the legislation its first order of business as it pivots away from the battles over government funding and the debt ceiling. The leaders of the agriculture committees in Congress and K Street lobbyists are eager to put the finishing touches on the bill, which could get wrapped into a year-end budget deal that replaces automatic sequestration cuts. But some fear Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has vowed to complete the legislation, might be too wounded...

Could global warming be a boon to farmers? A recent study found that rising carbon dioxide concentrations bestow an additional $11.6 trillion in benefits from crop production between now and 2050. The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change found that while many studies focus on the costs of rising carbon emissions, few studies focused on whether or not more carbon in the atmosphere could be beneficial to society. In fact, the Obama administration recently raised its social-cost-of-carbon estimate from $21 per metric ton to $35 per metric ton to the ire of global warming skeptics and...

The president is committed to the idea of anthropogenic global warming. Man-made carbon emissions, he believes (or pretends to believe), cause global temperatures to rise, and this temperature increase is destructive. By reducing man-made carbon emissions, temperatures can be made to fall. Every part of this logic is flawed, if not utterly false. Do carbon emissions cause global warming? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is largely composed of climate researchers with what would seem a strong vested interest in promoting the global warming agenda. Yet even the IPCC has a 5% doubt that human activities affect the climate.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says global warming poses "a far more serious problem than al Qaeda" and accuses energy companies of being willing to "destroy the planet" for profits. In an interview with Playboy magazine, Sanders targets coal and oil companies who he says have outsized influence over lawmakers on Capitol Hill. “Big business is willing to destroy the planet for short-term profits,” Sanders said. “And because of their power over the political process, you hear a deafening silence in the U.S. Congress and in other bodies around the world about the severity of the problem. Global warming is a...

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented show of anger at the failure of the international community to end the war in Syria and act on other Middle East issues, said on Friday it would not take up its seat on the United Nations Security Council. The kingdom condemned what it called international double standards on the Middle East and demanded reforms in the Security Council. Riyadh's frustration is mostly directed at Washington, its oldest international ally, which has pursued policies since the Arab Spring that Saudi rulers have bitterly opposed and which have severely damaged relations with the United States, Saudi...

Four decades ago this month, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) launched an oil embargo against the United States in retaliation for our steadfast support of Israel in her hour of need. As the Jewish State fought off the Soviet-backed Egyptian and Syrian armies in what would become known as the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC cartel’s actions sent the price of oil soaring and our economy into a recession. Sadly, 40 years later, we have not learned the appropriate lesson from that experience: We must disconnect our oil-dependent transportation sector from OPEC and the...

DAEGU, South Korea — Asia’s large-scale gas importers, long saddled with premium prices, say a cheaper alternative lies several thousand feet below North American soil, where companies are unlocking enormous gas reserves from shale rock. The shale boom has already revolutionized the gas market in the United States and Canada, giving both countries not only a reliable domestic supply but also the ability to sell overseas. Asian utility and gas company executives, speaking this week at a global energy forum here, have said that North America’s gas wealth could prove nearly as transformative across the world, leading to the first...

Coal, propelled by rising use in China and India, will surpass oil as the key fuel for the global economy by 2020 despite government efforts to reduce carbon emissions, energy consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said on Monday. Global coal consumption is expected to rise by 25 percent by the end of the decade to 4,500 million tons of oil equivalent, overtaking oil at 4,400 million tons, according to Woodmac in a presentation at the World Energy Congress. The two Asian powerhouses will need the comparatively cheaper fuel to power their economies, while demand in the United States, Europe and the...

The United States has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become the world's biggest oil producer as the jump in output from shale plays has led to the second biggest oil boom in history, according to leading U.S. energy consultancy PIRA. U.S. output, which includes natural gas liquids and biofuels, has swelled 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) since 2009, the fastest expansion in production over a four-year period since a surge in Saudi Arabia's output from 1970-1974, PIRA said in a release on Tuesday. It was the latest milestone for the U.S. oil sector caused by the shale revolution, which has...

NOBLE Energy, operators of the Block 12 offshore licence, has reportedly renewed a proposal for piping gas from the Aphrodite well for the purpose of domestic electricity generation. Daily Politis writes that the Houston-based energy company has quoted a delivery price of $9 or $10 per million btus (mmbtu). That’s significantly lower than the price offered by Itera during the ‘interim gas’ tender procedure. Itera’s offer is understood to have been around $15.5 per mmbtu. Politis said the cost of electricity generation – and thus the price of electricity to end-consumers – could on paper drop by 15 to 20...

In what may be California's last chance to build a "hydrogen highway," lined with thousands of high-tech vehicles emitting nothing but water vapor from their tailpipes, Gov. Jerry Brown has approved a plan to construct 100 hydrogen fueling stations across the state by 2024. Only a year ago, the California Air Resources Board required Big Oil to pay for the new stations. But after oil companies threatened to sue, Brown agreed to a compromise in which the costs of building hydrogen stations will be shifted to car owners through existing vehicle registration fees.

A United States Commercial vessel was seized by Venezuela as it was doing seismic testing in Guyanan waters for Anadarko Petroleum Corp, when a Venezuelan ship detained it and is now escorting it to Margarita Island in Venezuela. For decades Gyana and Venezuela have disputed the borders, but this is the first incident to come out of it. "It was then clear that the vessel and its crew were not only being escorted out of Guyana's waters, but were under arrest," the ministry said. "These actions by the Venezuelan naval vessel are unprecedented in Guyana Venezuela relations."

The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. would make "OPEC obsolete," billionaire energy entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens told CNBC on Wednesday. "Canadians say they have 250 billion barrels [of oil]. That's exactly what the Saudis claim they have," he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "You're sitting there with the same amount of oil available to the United States from Canada … as Saudi Arabia." "But when you move the oil through the Strait of Hormuz everyday, it's 17 million barrels," Pickens said. "The Navy is shepherding a cartel daily through the Strait of Hormuz. And...

Free Republic:October 6, 2013-U.S. Expected To Be Largest Producer of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hydrocarbons in 2013What are the ramifications of America's newly emergent status as the world's largest producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2013?The conventional wisdom of America's preeminent status as global superpower being on the wane is a consensus difficult to deny even if one were to take the current wholly corrupt, dysfunctional, inept leadership out of the equation. It may very well be that the US economy has been irrevocably diminished, the reality of which would certainly take a toll on America's influence and...

Energy Revolution: America's natural gas boom threatens Russia's economic strategy, an expert says, leaving it with few alternatives to rescue its economy while threatening to shatter its energy stranglehold on Europe. Russia's abundance of energy resources has long allowed it to use energy both as a foreign policy weapon and as the bedrock of the Russian economy. Whenever energy prices rose, Russia benefited and its neighbors often felt the restraining leash of dependence on Russian energy, particularly natural gas. Government-controlled energy giant Gazprom was in such a strong position it could demand decade-long contracts and link the price of gas...

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Note: Petroleum production includes crude oil, natural gas liquids, condensates, refinery processing gain, and other liquids, including biofuels. Barrels per day oil equivalent were calculated using a conversion factor of 1 barrel oil equivalent = 5.55 million British thermal units (Btu). The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States will be the world's top producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2013, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. For the United States and Russia, total petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbon production, in energy content terms, is almost evenly split between petroleum and natural...

The EU has started legal action against Russian energy giant Gazprom, the bloc’s competition chief said on Thursday (3 October). … The anti-Gazprom claims say it is abusing its dominant market position to demand extortionate prices for gas and preventing countries from diversifying their energy supply. Lithuania says it pays 35 percent more than Germany for gas under its contract with Gazprom. …

The question of whether natural gas is a ‘clean’ fuel is hotly debated amongst food columnists and the current U.S. Secretary of Energy alike. The debate has been fueled by scientific uncertainty; measuring methane emissions has been difficult because data is hard to obtain. But a new study released last week by the University of Texas (UT) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), addresses this challenge head-on. In the most comprehensive shale gas emission study ever undertaken, the researchers found that extracting gas from shale is being done in a sustainable, environmentally friendly fashion. The study found that 99 percent...

U.S. Is Poised to Overtake Russia as Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer By RUSSELL GOLD and DANIEL GILBERT CONNECT The U.S. is poised to overtake Russia as the world's single largest producer of oil and natural gas combined this year, a startling shift that is reshaping energy markets and eroding the clout of traditional petroleum-rich nations. Shale-rock formations of oil and natural gas have fueled a comeback for the U.S. that was unimaginable a decade ago. Russia meanwhile has struggled to maintain its energy output and has yet to embrace the technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that have boosted U.S. reserves. The...