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Keyword: energy

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  • Kemp: The Saudi Oil Enigma

    10/14/2014 5:22:07 AM PDT · by thackney · 9 replies
    Reuters via Rig Zone ^ | October 14, 2014 | John Kemp
    ...In almost 20 years of writing about oil markets and the Middle East I have not come across anyone who could consistently offer a deep insight into the government's policymaking.... Diplomats and even some economists often assert Saudi Arabia upholds its part of the bargain, in part, by holding spare production capacity with which to meet disruptions in oil supplies from other producers. Only Saudi Arabia has the financial capability and the foresight to invest in spare capacity to help stabilise global oil prices. The problem is that there is almost no evidence to support this claim. Since the kingdom's...
  • Next-gen lithium-ion battery charges 20x faster, lasts 20x longer

    10/13/2014 9:17:01 PM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 88 replies
    tweaktown.com ^ | 1 hour, 33 mins ago Oct 13, 2014 | Anthony Garreffa
    Improved lithium-ion battery technology is coming, charging up your battery to 70% in two minutes, or an entire electric car in 15 minutes ***************************************************** Tweet3 Share0 The next-generation of lithium-ion batteries is really going to ensure that users get all-day, and even more battery life out of their devices. A team of researchers in Singapore have developed this improved lithium-ion battery tech, which is capable of recharging a battery to 70% in just two minutes, yes: 120 seconds.    The clinch, is that this isn't a new battery technology, but it improves on the existing technology that is used. The...
  • Report: In EU, renewable energy is the first recipient of state aid

    10/13/2014 10:46:44 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 3 replies
    EurActiv ^ | 13/10/2014 - 17:01
    The European Commission published a study on Monday (13 October) providing the first full dataset on energy costs and subsidies for the 28 member countries across the different power generation technologies, revealing that the largest share of public intervention in the energy sector has been in favor of solar and on-shore wind energy. The results show that in 2012, the total value of public intervention in energy in the member countries has been between €120-140 billion. The report finds that the largest amounts of current public support in 2012 went to renewables, in particular to solar (€14.7 billion) and onshore...
  • IEA Chief: Oil Price Slump Yet To Hit US Shale Oil Production

    10/13/2014 10:00:07 PM PDT · by Rabin · 22 replies
    Rigzone ^ | Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:01am EDT | SIMON FALUSH
    LONDON, Oct 13 Crude oil and condensates from the United States have a break even price of below $60. OPEC members clamoring for urgent output cuts, to push prices back above $100 a barrel, suck "heavily" on oil exports. Big Dog, Wahabi Arabia is telling the Oil Cartel, they (can't find any way to empower their PotUS) are comfortable with markedly lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy aimed at slowing the expansion in the U.S. shale patch.
  • Facing Glut, Price of Oil Falls Sharply

    10/13/2014 5:41:15 PM PDT · by Oliviaforever · 43 replies
    NYT ^ | 10/13/14 | By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
    Oil prices sank again on Monday, giving consumers more of a break and causing a split among OPEC leaders about what action should be taken, if any, to halt the slide. The price drop has led to a near free fall in gasoline prices in the United States. On Monday, the national average price for regular gasoline was $3.20, 9 cents lower than it was a week ago and 14 cents below the price a year ago, according to the AAA motor club.
  • Green demonstrators accidentally prove why they should never be trusted with energy policy

    10/11/2014 1:39:32 PM PDT · by afraidfortherepublic · 27 replies
    The American Thinker ^ | 10-11-14 | Thomas Lifson
    “Renewable” energy is unreliable, and can never replace secure base load sources like coal, natural gas, and hydro. And now a bunch of greenies have embarrassed themselves and proved the point. Attempting to show how wonderful solar power is, a band of self-righteous greenie demonstrators in Madison, WI, the Berkeley of the Midwest, instead demonstrated that reliance on renewables means brownouts and blackouts. Protesting a proposed rate increase by the local utility, Madison Gas & Electric, they made utter fools of themselves, and showed by reliable power from hydrocarbons is the only way to have secure energy supplies. The MacIver...
  • Raleigh investor Darden still bullish on controversial nuclear technology

    10/11/2014 8:06:57 AM PDT · by Wonder Warthog · 5 replies
    Triangle Business Journal ^ | Lauren K. Ohnesorge
    Triangle Business Journal Cherokee Investment Partners' Tom Darden Lauren K. Ohnesorge Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal Email | Twitter Cherokee Investment Partners CEO Tom Darden could save the world. Or at least have a hand in paying for a rescue, if a controversial nuclear technology device lives up to its inventor’s hype. The startup he helped create – Industrial Heat – acquired the rights to Andrea Rossi’s controversial Italian low energy nuclear reaction technology in January. His partner in the venture, Cherokee’s J.T. Vaughn, said at the time that it was about creating a new, cleaner energy source, a technology...
  • An Industrial-Size Generator That Runs on Waste Heat, Using No Fuel

    10/10/2014 12:47:46 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 22 replies
    MIT Technology Review ^ | October 9, 2014 | By Kevin Bullis
    Startup Alphabet Energy has its first product: what it says is the world’s largest thermoelectric generator. Power plants waste huge amounts of energy as heat—about 40 to 80 percent of the total in the fuel they burn. A new device could reduce that waste, cutting fuel consumption and carbon emissions by as much as 3 percent and saving companies millions of dollars. (Three percent might not seem like much, but for context, air travel accounts for 2 percent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.) The generator makes use of a novel, highly efficient thermoelectric material discovered recently at the University of...
  • UW fusion reactor concept could be cheaper than coal

    10/10/2014 12:23:24 PM PDT · by Red Badger · 72 replies
    Phys.Org ^ | 10/10/2014 | by Michelle Ma & Provided by University of Washington
    Fusion energy almost sounds too good to be true – zero greenhouse gas emissions, no long-lived radioactive waste, a nearly unlimited fuel supply. Perhaps the biggest roadblock to adopting fusion energy is that the economics haven't penciled out. Fusion power designs aren't cheap enough to outperform systems that use fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. University of Washington engineers hope to change that. They have designed a concept for a fusion reactor that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output. The...
  • Lost Electricity Generation Capacity 7X Higher Than EPA Estimates

    10/10/2014 9:19:31 AM PDT · by jazusamo · 48 replies
    CNSNews ^ | October 9, 2014 | Barbara Hollingsworth
    (CNSNews.com) – Power plants generating 72 gigawatts (GW) of electricity in 37 states have either closed or are scheduled to shut their doors to comply with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, according to the Institute for Energy Research (IER). The loss of generating capacity is “over seven times the amount originally predicted by EPA modeling,” IER’s updated report, released October 7, noted. “Originally, EPA calculated that only 9.5 GW of electrical generating capacity would close as a result of its MATS (Mercury and Air Toxics Standard) and CSAPR (Cross State Air Pollution Rule) rules,” the report stated. “Before President Obama’s...
  • Former Shell Exec: American Energy Could Save the Economy

    10/10/2014 8:41:17 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 21 replies
    Townhall.com ^ | October 10, 2014 | Thomas Miller
    From 2005 to 2008, John Hofmeister ran the U.S. operations for Royal Dutch Shell. Then he turned 60. The Dutch have a cultural thing about 60. John said it roots back to post-WWII, when too many “older” folk were clinging to their jobs, so the unemployment rate among the youth was unacceptably high. So, many companies mandate retirement at 60. Fortunately, John didn’t drift off-stage. In fact, he’s more visible and viable now than ever. Frequently on CNBC, CNN, Fox and many others, he stopped by our Dallas studios to join Chris Faulkner of Breitling Energy and me for Powering...
  • Iran Slashes Oil Prices to Asia Following Saudi Cut, Lowest Level Since December 2008

    10/10/2014 5:58:40 AM PDT · by thackney · 21 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 10, 2014 | BENOÎT FAUCON
    Iran has reduced its oil prices to Asia to its lowest level since December 2008, hard on the heels of a similar Saudi cut last week, people familiar with the pricing said Friday... The National Iranian Oil Co. has cut its light crude oil price for Asian deliveries in November to a discount of 82 cents a barrel below the Oman/Dubai benchmark, the people said. The cut, which compares to a premium of 18 cents in October, is identical to a Saudi reduction of $1 a barrel last week for the Arab Light grade to Asia....
  • Price Fall Hastens Decline Of 'Big Oil' As Western Majors Retreat

    10/10/2014 5:29:11 AM PDT · by thackney · 22 replies
    Reuters via Rig Zone ^ | October 09, 2014 | Ron Bousso & Dmitry Zhdannikov
    This year's fall in energy prices is hastening the decline of big oil, as the seven Western majors sell-off assets, cut investment, return money to shareholders and shrink in size, leaving ever more output to small producers and state firms. Companies that were already deep in the red when the price of Brent was at $109 a barrel last year are having to redraw business plans for prices as low as $90. With promised shareholder dividends probably untouchable for now, they will have to divest, cut costs and borrow more against a smaller business just to make ends meet. And...
  • Venezuela Ordered To Pay Exxon $1.6B For Nationalization

    10/10/2014 5:18:06 AM PDT · by thackney · 13 replies
    Reuters via Rig Zone ^ | October 09, 2014 | Corina Pons & Alexandra Ulmer
    A World Bank arbitration tribunal on Thursday ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil Corp around $1.6 billion to compensate for the 2007 nationalization of its oil projects in the country. The amount is far below the up to $10 billion that Exxon had originally sought and the $6 billion at which the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) capped the case, excluding a tax claim. "The Tribunal has found that the expropriation was conducted in accordance with due process, that it was not carried out contrary to undertakings given to the claimants in this respect and...
  • If You Don’t Build It, They Will Leave

    10/09/2014 1:55:30 PM PDT · by afraidfortherepublic · 7 replies
    The Weekly Standard ^ | 10-8-14 | Geoffrey Norman
    Seems Canada is tired of waiting – and waiting – for a decision on the Keystone pipeline and has come up with an alternate plan for moving the oil to market. As Bloomberg reports: It would be Keystone on steroids, more than twice as long and carrying a third more crude. Its end point, a refinery in the blue-collar city of Saint John, New Brunswick, operated by a reclusive Canadian billionaire family, would give Canada’s oil-sands crude supertanker access to the same Louisiana and Texas refineries Keystone was meant to supply. And: … if you’re a fed-up Canadian, like Prime...
  • Obama “Clean Power” plan seen to hit seniors, minorities hardest

    10/09/2014 9:39:40 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 5 replies
    Hotair ^ | 10/09/2014 | Jazz Shaw
    In June, as you may recall, the EPA announced their new “Clean Power Plan” which was, for all intents and purposes, another shot across the bow in the war on coal. In their mission statement, while paying lip service to the fact that the needs and resources of each of the states are different, they also cite “the important role of states as full partners with the federal government in cutting pollution.” This is matched with the built in assumption of the need to “address the risks of climate change.” (Apparently nobody bothered to ask the states exactly how...
  • The Archie Bunkers of Settled Science

    10/09/2014 6:25:41 AM PDT · by Aspenhuskerette · 11 replies
    The Aspen Times (CO) ^ | October 9, 2014 | Melanie Sturm
    As if on cue, settled-science believer Auden Schendler delivered a punishing retort in The Aspen Times to my recent column “Inconvenient Truths Denied By Climate Faithful.” Archie Bunker-like in frustration, Schendler wants me to stifle myself. If I don’t “dummy up” like Archie’s wife, Edith, he suggests Aspen Times editors Think Again before publishing my commentary without peer reviews or risk “being complicit in promoting falsehoods.” Schendler calls this “ground-truthing of scientific claims,” noting that the Los Angeles Times doesn’t publish pieces that “deny established climate science.” Like Robert Kennedy Jr., who recently called for the jailing of treasonous nonconformists...
  • Heating oil and propane expenditures projected to be lower than last winter

    10/09/2014 5:44:19 AM PDT · by thackney · 11 replies
    Energy Information Administration ^ | Oct. 8, 2014 | Energy Information Administration
    Heating oil and propane expenditures projected to be lower than last winter Autumn arrived in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic states last week as temperatures turned noticeably colder and snow fell across Wisconsin and Minnesota. Notwithstanding triple-digit temperatures in parts of California, the winter heating season has begun for much of the country, including the Midwest and the Northeast, where heating oil and propane are important heating fuels. Each October, EIA publishes an outlook for winter energy supply, demand, and prices as part of its October Short-Term Energy and Winter Outlook (STEO). EIA projects the retail price of heating oil...
  • Lower petrochemical use of propane driven by wider price spread between propane and ethane

    10/09/2014 5:37:47 AM PDT · by thackney · 14 replies
    Energy Information Administration ^ | OCTOBER 9, 2014 | Energy Information Administration
    Propane demand (measured as product supplied) is expected to be 100,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) lower on average in 2014 compared to 2013 because of reduced demand from petrochemical plants, according to EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook. In contrast to propane used as a heating fuel in buildings during colder months and as a crop-drying fuel during the harvest season, both of which are highly seasonal and weather dependent, petrochemical consumption of propane has relatively little seasonality. Beginning in mid-2013, higher propane prices reduced demand from petrochemical users. This decline is evident after accounting for the seasonal variation in annual consumption:...
  • More efficient fracking means more oil and natural gas

    10/09/2014 5:22:18 AM PDT · by thackney · 4 replies
    Star Telegram ^ | Oct. 06, 2014 | SEAN COCKERHAM
    ...U.S. fracking boom is getting even bigger with advances in drilling... Each drilling rig in the Eagle Ford shale of south Texas is pumping an average of more than 400 barrels a day than in the dawn of the fracking boom seven years ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. The more efficient drilling has helped Texas to more than double its oil production in the past three years, topping three million barrels a day for the first time since the late 1970s. “The productivity of oil and natural gas wells is steadily increasing in many basins across the...