Free Republic

The Internal Revenue Service has temporarily stopped issuing private letter rulings (PLRs) that energy companies sometimes request when setting up master limited partnerships for their tax benefits. Lawyers specializing in the oil and gas sector have said the IRS wants to review the scope of assets that can qualify as tax-free for master limited partnerships (MLPs), which have lured hundreds of billions of dollars from investors seeking high yields. "There has been a pause," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told reporters on Tuesday at a congressional hearing. He did not say how long the delay would last. "(The pause) is to...

The federal government is fining an Artesia oil man more than $700,000 for failing to submit reports on production on its federal leases in New Mexico. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue said Tuesday it has assessed Louis Fulton, doing business as C.F.M. Oil Company, a $717,136 civil penalty.

A natural gas pipeline stretching 435 miles across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is just one piece of General Electric’s multibillion-dollar bid to shore up energy infrastructure in North America, where an oil and gas boom has drawn a wave of investments to new pipelines. GE’s energy investing arm has more than $3 billion tied up in 43,500 miles of pipeline, the largest U.S. liquefied natural gas export facility and other energy transportation and storage ventures. But it has started to shift its attention to early-stage ventures as U.S. and Canadian pipeline operators collect billions for new projects that link remote shale...

Anadarko Petroleum, Chesapeake Energy and others will pay the state of Pennsylvania about $225 million in fees this year for drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale — too little, according to critics of the state law setting the fee say. The fees, enacted in 2012, flow to local governments to fund basic needs like bridges, roads, firefighting equipment and environmental programs. By the end of the year, the recurring charges on nearly 6,500 natural gas wells will have brought more than $630 million to state coffers. “We are building a stronger Pennsylvania by harnessing our abundant resources to create jobs...

SHAFTER, Calif. — A bustling city is sprouting on five acres here, carved out of a vast almond grove. Tanker trucks and heavy equipment come and go, a row of office trailers runs the length of the site and an imposing 150-foot drilling rig illuminated by football-field-like lights rises over the trees. It's all been hustled into service to solve a tantalizing riddle: how to tap into the largest oil shale reservoir in the United States. Across the southern San Joaquin Valley, oil exploration sites have popped up in agricultural fields and on government land, driven by the hope that...

Natural gas-fired power plants accounted for just over 50% of new utility-scale generating capacity added in 2013. Solar provided nearly 22%, a jump up from less than 6% in 2012. Coal provided 11% and wind nearly 8%. Almost half of all capacity added in 2013 was located in California. In total, a little over 13,500 megawatts (MW) of new capacity was added in 2013, less than half the capacity added in 2012. Natural gas. Natural gas capacity additions were less than in 2012, as 6,861 MW were added in 2013, compared to 9,210 MW in 2012. The capacity additions came...

FERNHURST, England — Europe’s newest weapon in the battle of wills with Russian President Vladimir Putin lies buried deep beneath the ancient oaks and rolling green pastures of this quintessentially English village. There, wedged in the bedrock, lie vast quantities of oil and natural gas — enough, when combined with the spoils of hundreds of other sites like it, to help kick Europe’s addiction to Russian energy. Or so says David Cameron. Ever since Russian forces took hold of Crimea last month, the British prime minister has been leading a chorus of conservative politicians and energy executives in a refrain...

Like a blockbuster movie that never quite arrives, President Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline has been “coming soon” for years. He has been weighing whether the project should be built since he first entered the Oval Office, and rationalizations for further delay are thin on the ground. After a February White House meeting between Obama and a number of governors, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) told reporters that Obama had said he expected to make a call “in a couple of months.” But the White House has not even acknowledged that such a suggestion was made, let...

Having spent decades trying to convince everyone that carbon dioxide (CO2) was a “greenhouse gas” that was going to cause the Earth to heat up, the same environmental charlatans are now embarking on a campaign to do the same with methane. In the U.S. the first move was announced by the White House in late March.

"Our confidence is justified both by our past experience and by the knowledge that society will forever need massive investments in both transportation and energy." -- Warren Buffett, 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders According to the company's most recent fact sheet, Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary BNSF Railways ships enough coal every year to power 10% of America's houses, and enough crude oil to fill the gas tanks of nearly 650,000 cars every day. Transporting energy is pretty important to BNSF, and BNSF is pretty important to Berkshire, having generated some $3.8 billion in net income in 2013. At the same...

Foreign companies are making big bets on the Gulf Coast petrochemical corridor, where capital investment is surging because of cheap U.S. natural gas, other lower costs and the existing industry infrastructure. Domestic natural gas and its byproducts including ethane — a building block petrochemical companies use to make plastics and other materials — are low-priced relative to most of the world because of the surge in oil and gas production from U.S. shale plays. The bargain-rate raw material has caused a stampede of recent international investment along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas, the center of the U.S. petrochemical...

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) did propose an amendment to eliminate all of the energy subsidies within the package, but it only garnered the support of five other Republicans–Senators Burr, Enzi, Hatch, Isakson, and Roberts. Democrats voted down the amendment, along with support from GOP Senators Grassley, Crapo, Cornyn, Thune, and Portman. Ultimately, the underlying bill was adopted unanimously by voice vote. Hence, both Republicans and Democrats profess a desire to clean up the tax code and close “loopholes,” yet they can’t even let a pair of subsidies that have already expired remain at rest. For all the talk about incorrigible...

In January, 40% of natural gas production in North Dakota went to waste. You read that right. 400 million cubic feet of natural gas was lit on fire and burnt. But that's peanuts compared to how much total natural gas goes to waste every year in the U.S. And it's why I see natural gas prices being low this year... Longtime Growth Stock Wire readers know about the U.S.'s booming oil production in shales like North Dakota's Bakken and Texas' Eagle Ford and Permian Basin. Natural gas is a byproduct of oil production... And the shale plays are producing more...

(AGI) Kiev, April 5 - Ukraine has declared that they will not pay the price of almost 500 dollars per cubic metre for Russian gas, announced recently by the Russian gas consortium Gazprom. Kiev has also accused Moscow of conducting 'economic' aggression'. "Political presure will prove useless, we are not accepting the price of 500 dollars", Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk said during a cabinet meeting. He added: "Russia has not succeeded in conquering Ukraine with military aggression, so now they are opting for an economic aggression."

Recently the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent out a “2014 Priority Issues Survey.” In addition to the obligatory Tea Party bashing: “help the Democrats protect the progreSS we have made from Tea Party radicals, deliver the positive changes America needs and help Democrats win a Majority in the U.S. House of Representatives!” and the fundraising requests to “help protect House Democrats against Republican attacks”—there is a section on energy.

More mission creep, more highhanded government causing problems for citizens (Fox News)"A federal proposal requiring more efficiency from wood-burning stoves has ignited a debate between the Obama administration and lawmakers who oppose the new regulations, arguing the rules impose an unfair burden on people in remote areas. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule changes in January that would dramatically tighten emissions requirements on new wood-powered heaters, though does not impact ones already in homes. The EPA estimates that as much as 13 percent of all soot pollution in the U.S. is a result of inefficient wood-fired stoves and boilers."Is...

Opinion: 4 reasons why exporting natural gas is the right thing for America Americans opposed to the export of U.S. natural gas give many reasons for their position. But almost all of them are wrong. The problem is that people underestimate the amount of this country’s natural gas and the potential effect exports could have on the world market. Russia has swallowed parts of Georgia and Ukraine. No one is proposing that America send soldiers to defend those countries, even though we guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty in 1994 under the Budapest Memorandum. Instead, we can help our allies by diminishing Russia’s...

BERLIN - After concluding that global warming almost certainly is man-made and poses a grave threat to humanity, the U.N.-sponsored expert panel on climate change is moving on to the next phase: what to do about it. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, will meet next week in Berlin to chart ways in which the world can curb the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are overheating the planet. It is also trying to give estimates on what it would cost. In the third report of a landmark climate assessment, the IPCC is expected to say that to...

(Reuters) - Iran and Russia have made progress towards an oil-for-goods deal sources said would be worth up to $20 billion, which would enable Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. In January Reuters reported Moscow and Tehran were discussing a BARTER DEAL that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods. The White House has said such a deal would raise "serious concerns" and would be inconsistent with the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran....

The White House objected to Russia's increase in natural gas prices for Ukraine on Thursday and said markets should determine prices. White House Spokesman Jay Carney spoke after Russian natural gas producer Gazprom announced it would virtually double the gas price for Ukraine to $485 per 1,000 cubic meters this month, which Ukraine said was politically motivated. “That kind of action taken coercively against Ukraine is something we oppose,” Carney told reporters. “We believe that markets should determine energy prices.”