Free Republic

The "one-off" adjustment has now reached its 3rd day as The PBOC has now devalued the Yuan fix by 4.65% back to July 2011 lows. The PBOC seeks to reassure... -CHINA PBOC SAYS YUAN REMAINS STRONG CURRENCY IN LONG-TERM -PBOC SAYS THERE IS DEMAND FOR DEVALUATION OF YUAN VS USD -PBOC CHANGE OF YUAN MECHANISM RELATED TO JULY CREDIT: ZHANG -PBOC SAYS YUAN CHANGE IS BENEFICIAL TO LONG TERM STABILITY -PBOC SAYS YUAN EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENT ALMOST COMPLETED *YUAN RATE ADJUSTMENT POSITIVE TO CONFIDENCE IN YUAN: PBOC'S YI *NEW YUAN MECHANISM `POSITIVE' TO INTERNATIONALIZATION: PBOC YI *PBOC SAYS NO BASIS...

Hackers from Syria and Iran are on the prowl to hold a neighborhood or city's gasoline supply up for ransom, or, worse, cause it to spill and explode, with Washington being high on the target list, according to a new report. The report, issued over the weekend by a group of digital security sleuths, found that a number of groups, including the notorious Syrian Electronic Army — known for hacking news groups — are looking for soft targets they can take control of easily through the Internet, and use to cause a variety of mayhem. The report shows that retail...

Crude oil production in September from seven major US shale plays is expected to decline 93,000 b/d to 5.27 million b/d, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s latest Drilling Productivity Report (DPR). EIA previously projected 91,000-b/d declines for both July and August (OGJ Online, June 9, 2015; July 13, 2015). The DPR focuses on the Bakken, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Marcellus, Niobrara, Permian, and Utica, which altogether accounted for 95% of US oil production increases and all US natural gas production increases during 2011-13. The Eagle Ford continues to represent a bulk of the overall oil output declines, projected to...

Anti-fracking activists are at work in Michigan, organizing a ballot campaign to ban the practice in this state. Since May they have been working to collect the 252,523 valid signatures required to place the measure on the November 2016 ballot. Fracking, or more precisely hydraulic fracturing, is a process for extracting oil and natural gas by injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into shale rock below the earth’s surface. Michigan Capitol Confidential recently communicated about the industry and the proposed ban with Erin McDonough, president and CEO of the Michigan Oil and Gas Association. Before accepting her current...

There goes crude oil again. On Tuesday morning, West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York fell 4% to as low as $43.03 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was also lower, near $50 per barrel, after on Monday having its biggest one-day jump in a month. We got OPEC's latest monthly production numbers Tuesday morning, and they showed that production surged to a three-year high in July. The 12-member oil cartel has overshot its production target for at least a year in a bid to maintain its market share. After what seemed like a recovery in prices around...

If the oil futures market is correct, Saudi Arabia will start running into trouble within two years. It will be in existential crisis by the end of the decade. The contract price of US crude oil for delivery in December 2020 is currently $62.05, implying a drastic change in the economic landscape for the Middle East and the petro-rentier states.

It is too late for OPEC to stop the shale revolution. The cartel faces the prospect of surging US output whenever oil prices rise. If the oil futures market is correct, Saudi Arabia will start running into trouble within two years. It will be in existential crisis by the end of the decade. The contract price of US crude oil for delivery in December 2020 is currently $62.05, implying a drastic change in the economic landscape for the Middle East and the petro-rentier states. The Saudis took a huge gamble last November when they stopped supporting prices and opted instead...

Two Christian conservatives who became billionaires from fracking have given a record political contribution to Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz. Farris and Dan Wilks, who made their fortunes in the West Texas fracking boom, have reportedly contributed $15 million to Keep the Promise, a super PAC supporting Cruz. The $15 million is the largest contribution so far in the 2016 race, and represents nearly half of the $38 million raised by Keep the Promise. The Wilks brothers have largely maintained a low profile until now. But their public remarks have caught the attention of liberals. Farris Wilks, 63, told CNN...

Make no mistake about it: Religion and politics are closely intertwined. And in the Republican party, they’re practically synonyms. Yesterday, we learned that billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks were donating $15 million to Ted Cruz‘s Presidential campaign (via a super PAC), making it the largest political contribution for any candidate this cycle and among the largest ever. And they’re doing it, in large part, because it’s the best way to further their religious agenda: “Our country was founded on the idea that our rights come from the Creator, not the government. I’m afraid we’re losing that,” Farris Wilks, a...

While Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are bringing in a sizeable number of donations of under $100, Republicans have been going for the big money, like the huge score Ted Cruz just made from a pair of Texas frackers. Even so, on July 16, Newsmax made a big deal of Hillary receiving donations from wealthy individuals, with the headline, “Hillary Clinton’s Donations From Hedge Fund Titans Exceed Republicans.” Those Democrats are such elitists! You don’t want to be drinking milk when you read these things, at least not without a bib. And here the Texas Messiah, Ted Cruz, just hauled...

Oil and gas producers in one of the most active drilling areas in the country have had to make concessions to not disturb species such as the lesser prairie chicken and the dunes sagebrush lizard. Now industry officials in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico may have four other species to contend with: make way for the Cascade Caverns salamander, the Arizona toad, the alligator snapping turtle and the Rio Grande cooter. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday it is giving what it calls “status reviews” to the four amphibians and reptiles found in the Southwest as...

What OPEC countries fear most is a follow-up technological revolution that will lead to a second oil boom in the U.S., and that fear is now being realized. A technological revolution spurred the U.S. oil boom that resulted in the greatest increase in domestic oil production in a century, and while that has stuttered in the face of a major oil price slump and an OPEC campaign to maintain a grip on market share, the American response could be another technological revolution that demonstrates that the first one was merely an impressive embryonic experiment. It’s not only about shale now—it’s...

What OPEC countries fear most is a follow-up technological revolution that will lead to a second oil boom in the U.S., and that fear is now being realized. A technological revolution spurred the U.S. oil boom that resulted in the greatest increase in domestic oil production in a century, and while that has stuttered in the face of a major oil price slump and an OPEC campaign to maintain a grip on market share, the American response could be another technological revolution that demonstrates that the first one was merely an impressive embryonic experiment.

GasBuddy started an emergencypetition on Friday calling on Governor Brown to obtain an EPA waiver to prevent gasoline price increases of at least 50-cents a gallon in Southern California and 30-cents in Northern California. As Breitbart News warned in December in “Brown Needs Oil Trains to Prevent Skyrocketing Energy Prices,: decades of anti-oil-production-policies in the Democrat-controlled state had made residents highly reliant on inconsistent supplies of oil from Iraq and oil trains from North Dakota. With supplies now breaking down, Californians are sure to be angry paying $5 a gallon for gasoline. GasBuddy noted that an “extraordinary convergence of fuel supply problems...

Natural gas overtook coal as the top source of U.S. electric power generation for the first time ever earlier this spring, a milestone that has been in the making for years as the price of gas slides and new regulations make coal more risky for power generators. About 31 percent of electric power generation in April came from natural gas, and 30 percent from coal, according to a recently released report from the research company SNL Energy, which used data from the U.S. Energy Department. Nuclear power came in third at 20 percent. A drilling boom that started in 2008...

Brittany Bloodhart- PhD in Social Psychology and Women’s Studies, currently a post-doctoral fellow and adjunct faculty at Colorado State University. Brittany will talk about ways to encourage pro-environmental behavior and policy support by psychologically connecting individuals with the impacts of climate change.

Much of the reporting on fracking is a confused mess, which must leave many people wondering exactly what's going on. One day there's a news story or newly released study implying that fracking is causing earthquakes or groundwater contamination; the next day there's a different study or story asserting there is no clear connection. No wonder last March the Gallup Polling Co. found that an equal number, 40%, supported and opposed fracking. One problem is that people, and especially reporters, frequently confuse fracking with wastewater injection. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," has been around for decades. It's a process whereby water,...

CNN International host Richard Quest strides across the studio and extends his hand to his round-faced, goateed guest. “Breitling Energy is a U.S. company that goes into fracking in a big way,” Quest says. “We have the man who’s called the ‘fracking master’ because you do so much of it.” And so continues Chris Faulkner’s seemingly endless series of TV interviews. Faulkner is CEO of Breitling Energy Corp., and during the last three years he has become the media’s go-to voice from Texas in favor of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. His 45-minute Powering America show and one-minute “Oil...

“Made in the U.S.A” is becoming more affordable. The reason? Fracking. You don’t need to a Nobel Prize in economics to know that the fracking revolution has been good for the U.S. What’s not so well known is just how competitive cheap oil and gas has made American manufacturing. BCG, the Boston consultancy, estimates the average cost to manufacture goods in the U.S. is now only 5% higher than in China and is actually 10% to 20% lower than in major European economies. Even more striking: BCG projects that by 2018 it will be 2% to 3% cheaper to make...

If you read the title there’s not much more of an intro to do, really. Let’s just get to the case. Oklahoma’s Supreme Court said New Dominion LLC can be sued for damage caused by an earthquake that a woman blames on disposal wells tied to fracking, in what may be the first such case to head to a jury trial.Sandra Ladra sued New Dominion and Spess Oil Co. for injuries suffered to her knees and legs in November 2011, when a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck near her home in central Oklahoma. She said the tremor caused the rock...