Free Republic

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Barely two weeks after President Vladimir V. Putin annexed Crimea on one side of the Black Sea, he won a different prize on the other side. In Bulgaria’s Parliament, lawmakers gave initial passage to a bill clearing the way for a mammoth gas pipeline from Russia. The pipeline, known as South Stream, was Mr. Putin’s most important European project, a tool of economic and geopolitical power critical to twin goals: keeping Europe hooked on Russian gas, and further entrenching Russian influence in fragile former Soviet satellite states as part of a broader effort to undermine European unity....

Lithuania’s LNG terminal at the port of Klaipeda has reached another milestone since the official start of operations earlier this month. According to Klaipeda port data, the 155,000 cbm Arctic Aurora LNG carrier delivered the first commercial cargo of liquefied natural gas from Statoil’s Hammerfest facility, on Tuesday. Earlier in October, Höegh LNG’s FSRU Independence received the first cargo that was delivered to Klaipeda for testing purposes. It was also delivered from Norway onboard the 160,000 cbm Golar Seal. The first commercial cargo signs the beginning of Lithuania’s independence from Russian gas. Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaitė was recently quoted saying...

Just five years ago, almost no one outside the natural gas industry had heard of fracking, even though the basic technologies were not new; today, the shale gas revolution has transformed America’s energy markets, with profound effects for economic growth, competitiveness, security, and environmental quality. In a nation still deeply concerned about its energy future, this extraordinary success story should prompt the question: Can we do it again? The answer is yes​—​if we correctly understand both the model for innovation that shale gas exemplifies and an opportunity that now exists to emulate the shale model. That opportunity involves exploiting a...

Southwestern Energy Co. said Tuesday it is planning to snap up Statoil’s 20-percent stake in oil and gas assets in West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania for $394 million, just a day after closing its biggest-ever deal with Chesapeake Energy in the region. The transaction, which encompasses 30,000 net acres, boosts Southwestern Energy’s working interests in that area of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays by 5.8 percent to 73 percent. The wells on the land produce about 29 million cubic feet of gas a day, as of October. The deal is expected to close early next year. It’s the Houston...

The comedian Chico Marx famously asked, “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” That’s the question I feel like Governor Andrew Cuomo is posing to New Yorkers with his decision to ban hydraulic fracturing in the Empire State’s portion of the Marcellus Shale. The governor and his allies – most notably the acting state health commissioner, whose report served as justification for Mr. Cuomo’s decision – say the move will protect New York’s air, land, and water. For years now, New Yorkers have been besieged by apocalyptic claims made by anti-oil and gas activists – many of them...

To get a sense of the deep disappointment felt by many here at the twin killings of two potentially lucrative dreams, hydraulic fracturing and a new luxury casino, one needed to look no further than the front-page headline of Thursday’s edition of The Press & Sun-Bulletin. It was two letters, in red type: “NO!” That cry could seemingly be heard all along New York State’s Southern Tier, which borders Pennsylvania and has long been one of the state’s most stubborn economic laggards. In recent years, both hydraulic fracturing — known as fracking — and casinos had been posited as potential...

YERUSHALAYIM (Hamodia Staff) - Russia wants in on the Israeli natural gas boom, but the U.S. wants them to stay out, and that’s why they haven’t made progress negotiating with the Israelis, ambassador to Israel Sergey Yakovlev hinted in an interview with Globes. Russia has been seeking entry into the Mediterranean gas fields for some time, but so far to no avail. Gazprom, for one, showed interest in becoming a partner in the Leviathan reserve, one of the most important in the Mediterranean Sea, but nothing substantive came of it...

I have a theory as to why Americans don't worry all that much about global warming: High-profile purveyors of climate change don't push for reductions in greenhouse gases so much as focus on berating people who do not agree with their opinions. They call themselves champions of "the science" yet focus on ideology more than tangible results. Their language is downright evangelical. Recently, science guy Bill Nye joined other experts who objected to the media's use of the term "climate skeptic." They released a statement that concluded, "Please stop using the word 'skeptic' to describe deniers." Deniers? Like Judas? Why,...

Israel made another discovery off its coast. The newly discovered field, Royee, may hold up to 3.2 Tcf of natural gas according to a statement made by the Israeli partners in the field Ratio and Israel Opportunity who hold respectively 70%, and 10% stakes. The remaining 20% of the field are held by Edison. Royee is located about 150 kilometers offshore Israel close to its maritime borders with Cyprus and Egypt. The field’s size is yet to be confirmed, but current estimates suggest it is the third largest field discovered to date in Israeli waters after the Leviathan discovered by...

Handing environmentalists a breakthrough victory, New York plans to prohibit fracking for natural gas because of what regulators say are its unexplored health risks and dubious economic benefits. New York, which overlies part of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation that has led to a drilling boom in Pennsylvania and other nearby states, has banned shale gas development since 2008, when the state began an environmental review of the drilling technique also known as hydraulic fracturing. Wednesday's announcement, though not final, means a ban is all but etched in stone. "Never before has a state with proven gas reserves banned fracking,"...

ALBANY — The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks... That conclusion was delivered publicly during a year-end cabinet meeting called by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany. It came amid increased calls by environmentalists to ban fracking, which uses water and chemicals to release natural gas trapped in deeply buried shale deposits.

Three days after the newly elected Senate majority leader opened the door to negotiations on a natural gas drilling tax, industry leaders reiterated their stand that such a tax would harm the state's economy. Additional taxes would have a "crippling effect on jobs" said Stephanie Wissman, executive director of the Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania. "It threatens to stifle energy production and the jobs that go with it," Wissman said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. The prospect of a severance tax on gas production in the lucrative Marcellus Shale - an issue dormant since Gov. Ed Rendell left...

When it comes to crude oil and other hydrocarbons, the United States is bursting at the seams. The United States has very rapidly become a powerhouse as an exporter of finished petroleum products, natural gas liquids, other oils including ethanol, and even crude oil — with total gross exports of all of these combined expected to reach 5 million barrels per day (mb/d) or more by the end of this year, up a stunning 4 mb/d since 2005. Total oil exports in 2014 pushed the commodity to the top of the list of U.S. exports by category, far surpassing all...

U.S. energy major Chevron plans to withdraw from a $10 billion shale gas deal with Kiev, a senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Monday. Ukraine signed a shale gas production-sharing agreement with Chevron amid great fanfare in November 2013, just months before mass protests in Kiev ousted former president Viktor Yanukovich, plunging the country into a major crisis with Russia. "There is information that they (Chevron) are planning this decision," Valeriy Chaliy told journalists, referring to a report by local media that Chevron had told the government it was pulling out of the deal. Chaliy declined to give further details....

Germany’s plan to phase out nuclear energy and switch to renewables by 2022 is unrealistic as the country is doomed to remain dependent on fossil fuels like oil and gas for the next 70 years, energy expert Matthias Dornfeldt told RT. Renewables can’t replace fossil fuels overnight because there’s not enough infrastructure, said Dornfeldt in an interview with RT. He believes the 21st century will be the century of gas, as the 20th century was the century of oil. “We are going to be dependent on oil as well as on gas, as I see, for the next 50, 60,...

The downturn in crude oil prices in recent months will not last forever, and what the market is experiencing now is not the old boom and bust period, an energy industry analyst told Rigzone. “I’m still incredibly bullish on the industry, and I do think it’s far more stable and resilient than it was in decades past,” KPMG’s Regina Mayor, an advisor for the consulting practice, said. “That’s not to say that it won’t experience a contraction or two, but it’s not the boom and bust cycle we’ve seen.” Already, there are signs that the future remains bright for the...

The U.S. chemical industry is expanding at a healthy clip thanks to a domestic drilling renaissance that has flooded the world with cheap oil and gas. The industry grew by 2 percent this year and is expected to swell further next year as advances in drilling and completion technologies unlock vast new supplies of hydrocarbons that chemical companies rely on to make products and fuel their plants, according to the American Chemistry Council’s annual year-end review of the industry. “The wind is back in our sails,” Kevin Swift, chief economist for the trade group, said in a statement. “During the...

“Lack of transparency was really critical to getting it passed,” former Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber explained. The Democrats cleverly exploited the American voters’ “lack of economic understanding.” Now President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is using secretive, duplicitous science, and exploiting people’s lack of scientific understanding, to impose punitive regulations cleverly labeled the “clean power plan.” The agency claims the clean power plan will prevent “dangerous manmade climate change” by reducing carbon dioxide and “encouraging” greater use of renewable energy. Its real goal is forcing coal-fired power plants to reduce operations significantly or shut down entirely. The EPA also claims that...

Stand on the sea wall next to the port in Varna and you can see the bits and pieces of South Stream piled up in front of you. Hundreds of long black sections of piping - some on the dockside, and others still stacked on cargo ships. They were supposed to have been laid beneath the gloomy waters of the Black Sea, bypassing Ukraine and bringing Russian gas directly to south-eastern Europe. But - suddenly and unilaterally - Vladimir Putin has declared the project dead. Gas, he said, will be sent to Turkey instead. "It's really not clear what's going...

The world’s energy markets will change dramatically in around 2020, when North America shifts from a major energy importer to an important fuel source for the world’s middle class, according to Exxon Mobil Corp.’s annual energy forecast. The Irving, Texas-based company’s report predicted that global energy demand would by grow 35 percent through 2040, driven by 2 billion new people and the rise of an energy-hungry middle class in developing countries. The report also outlined how supply growth in North America and global efficiency gains, would be critical to meeting the future’s energy needs. Exxon’s vision of the future was...