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Myles Udland February 23, 2015 Oil prices have been volatile of late, but a number of banks and commenters have said that oil prices are going lower. In its half-year earnings release on Monday, Australian mining giant told the market exactly why: In response to weaker prices, [BHP] will reduce its Onshore US operated rig count from 26 at period end to 16 by the end of the 2015 financial year. The majority of the revised drilling program will be focused on our liquids rich Black Hawk acreage with activity in the Permian and Hawkville limited to the retention of...

Current government regulations imposed by the Bureau of Land Management are harming energy production and holding back the U.S. economy, a new study reveals. “While federally owned lands are also full of energy potential, a bureaucratic regulatory regime has mismanaged land use for decades,” write The Heritage Foundation’s Katie Tubb and Nicolas Loris. The report focuses on the Federal Lands Freedom Act, introduced by Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. It is designed to empower states to regain control of their lands from the federal government in order to pursue their own energy goals. That is a...

Like a king cobra on speed, the CSX oil train cut through the falling snow and rolled along the tracks at 33 m.p.h.—transporting 3 million gallons of highly-flammable crude. But the convoy was a poor match for its cargo. At 1:20 p.m. Eastern time on February 16—35 miles outside of Charleston, West Virginia—the 109-car train derailed. Fireballs sliced through the cold air; a house was leveled in flames; hundreds of home owners lost electricity and drinking water; and a Kanawha River tributary oozed with oil. One man told the Los Angeles Times that the spill emanated heat like an “atomic...

The pack is sized to provide a comfortable range buffer for trucks with predictable daily use, and Amp quotes a range of about 60 miles. But it also equips the E-Gen with a extender to eliminate range anxiety under unexpected circumstances. ... Fleet operators used to the costs of buying fuel for 6-mpg delivery trucks will see a clear financial benefit to an electric truck from Day One if they're leasing it, Burns said, when lease payments, fuel, and maintenance are added together. And that's even without the Federal tax credit for buying a plug-in electric truck, he claims. The...

In what may have been a mild foreshock to a coming shaker, the topic of a fracking ban was injected into a Santa Clara County committee meeting last week. A proposal to bring the subject to the board of supervisors was put forth by the county's Advisory Commission on Consumer Affairs and sent to the Public Safety Committee for action, which detoured it to the Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee, where officials said it belongs.

NN.COM › Earth Matters › Energy Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy Thousands of drilling rigs are idle. Why not put laid-off roustabouts to work drilling for renewable energy? By: Lloyd Alter Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM 13Facebook 52Twitter 0Pinterest 0Google+   Hey, if we can drill for oil, we can drill for heat. (Photo: Getty Images, Roustabouts at Spindletop) In a recent post on ground source heat pumps, I purposely used a photo of a geothermal installation in Iceland to make the point that geothermal energy was a very different thing. Many complained...

Libya’s largest oil field and a key oil port were brought back online Sunday, though attacks by Islamic extremists have continued elsewhere in the war-torn nation. The resumption of oil flows from the Sarir oil field, which pumps about two-thirds of the country’s remaining output, was a rare piece of good news following renewed fighting in Libya’s civil war and a string of attacks by Islamic State militants. A pipeline carrying 185,000 barrels a day from Sarir to the Hariga terminal in eastern Libya was blown up about a week ago by unknown militants. “The pipeline was repaired. Production restarted...

EOG Resources became the latest major shale producer to state that it would "delay a significant number of completions" when it announced fourth-quarter results. The company plans to end 2015 with 285 wells awaiting completion services, up from 200 at the end of 2014, it told investors during an earnings call on Thursday. Continental Resources has also announced plans to go slow on well completions in response to the slump in oil prices. Apache and Anadarko Petroleum are among other shale producers to announce a deliberate strategy of delaying completions. U.S. shale producers are postponing well completions to conserve cash...

A Korean research team has successfully developed a technology to make a sponge-like electrode material using graphene and a polymer, leading to a graphene battery. The newly-developed battery is ten times as small as existing ones, but can show the same product performance. A research team headed by Park Ho-seok, professor of the School of Chemical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, announced on Feb. 1 that it has succeeded in developing a very porous graphene aerogel electrode material by combining polyvinyl alcohol and graphene. Studies on developing high-capacity and rapidly-chargeable batteries are underway worldwide. It is necessary to compress devices in...

It’s really quite remarkable, how much more energy-efficient everything is these days. Our houses are built to higher standards; our fridges use a fraction of the power they used to, our cars get better mileage — yet we are using more energy per capita than we ever have. I am loath to bring up good old Stanley Jevons here. His theory, also known as the rebound effect, was that if things become more efficient, we use more of them. Even as our houses get more efficient, they get bigger and we fill them with more stuff, pretty much negating the...

The largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years entered its fourth week as workers at 12 refineries accounting for one-fifth of national production capacity were walking picket lines as of 12 a.m. CST on Sunday, according to union officials. A total of 6,550 members of the United Steelworkers union at 15 plants, including the 12 refineries, are involved in the work stoppage that began on Feb. 1 when talks for a new three-year contract between the USW and lead oil company negotiator Shell Oil Co stopped.... After the latest breakdown between the two sides, Steelworkers leaders targeted Shell, which is...

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery. This paper-like material is composed of sponge-like silicon nanofibers more than 100 times thinner than human hair. It could be used in batteries for electric vehicles and personal electronics. Scanning electron microscope images of (a) SiO2 nanofibers after drying, (b) SiO2 nanofibers under high magnification (c) silicon nanofibers after etching, and (d) silicon nanofibers...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S. The projection comes from a previously unreported analysis by the Department of Transportation that reviewed the risks of moving vast quantities of both fuels across the nation and through major cities. The study completed last July took on new relevance this week after a train loaded...

Conventional wisdom indicates slowing global economy and increased production are the root causes behind the precipitous drop in oil prices since mid-2014. ~~ snip ~~ Further signs of the impact of deflation, despite trillions of stimulus funds, include: 1.Negative interest rates on short-term securities and debt instruments. 2.The reduction of risk premiums in short and long-term debt financing for governments. 3.Increasing costs of healthcare for virtually every American, which adversely affects disposable income. 4.Declining real wages in the United States due to tax increases at the state and local levels. 5.Declines in labor force participation rates. 6.Lack of wage growth...

Modular Thorium Reactor - ThorCon MSR 12 January, 2015 Martingale reveals a bold approach to solving the global issues of poverty, pollution, energy security, and climate. Today Martingale is announcing its ThorCon liquid-fuel nuclear reactor design for cheap, reliable, CO2-free electricity. ThorCon is a complete system of power generation modules, interchange maintenance, and liquid fuel service that produces energy cheaper than coal. Principal engineer Jack Devanney led a four-year “skunkworks” project that has created a new kind of nuclear power plant, integrating proven technologies with breakthrough approaches to manufacturing and licensing. Production can start by 2020.Former MIT professor Devanney’s background...

The first nationwide oil refinery strike in more than 30 years was expected to grow by four more plants over the weekend, including the largest refinery in the U.S., the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. The United Steelworkers union said Saturday workers at the Motiva Enterprises refinery started their strike at midnight Friday. Employees at two other refineries and a chemical plant in Louisiana planned to strike at the end of Saturday. The union said in a statement that it expanded the strike that started Feb. 1 at refineries largely in Texas and California because the industry has...

Molten Salt Reactors enjoy 15 minutes of fame 11 June 2014   Print Email   A next-generation fast breeder reactor design is gaining popularity in research circles.On 6 June, UK researchers Jasper Tomlinson and Trevor Griffiths won £75,000 in Technology Strategy Board funding (including £20,000 of contributions-in-kind) to carry out an eight-month feasibility study.The project, which will be managed by mechanical engineer Rory O'Sullivan, aims to develop a ranking of alternatives and configurations of a liquid-fuelled molten-salt reactor, including costs, regulatory, public acceptance and site issues for building and licensing a pilot-scale demonstration reactor in the UK. It would...

As the litigation for the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill lurches through the legal system, the case has become a magnet for those seeking to take advantage of the deep-pockets oil industry defendant. In addition to those looking to prosper directly from the spill, the environmentalists and their mainstream media allies have exploited the situation to make their case against the use of oil in general -- and more specifically, against offshore drilling and oil production. If you restrict your reading on the topic to what appears in the mainstream media, you may be convinced that the science shows the...

Energy Department spent $21 MILLION sponsoring conferences over 16 months, including some with golf tournaments, a Super Bowl party, and a NASCAR dinner The U.S. Department of Energy paid more than $21 million sponsoring 329 conferences over just 16 months during 2013 and 2014, including some that featured golf tournaments, 'casino night' promotions, lavish dinners and a Super Bowl party. The agency's Inspector General issued a report Feb. 11 describing the 'social events that in our view could lead to negative public perceptions.' Other social events associated with Energy Department conferences included dinners on a cruise boat, at an aquarium,...

Since economies drive commodity prices, not the other way around, the collapse in oil is more of a demand issue than it appears, said Stephen Schork, founder and editor of The Schork Report newsletter. The influential oil analyst told CNBC on Friday that there's an "absolute glut" in crude, but the demand side of the equation can't be overlooked. "When you have such a sharp fall in commodity prices, that's because of economic demand. And I think that's a very worrisome telltale." "Oil prices are the canary in the coal mine," Schork said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "I don't...