Free Republic

The remnants of the peak oil community cling avidly to the belief that oil production has already peaked and that high prices prove this. “Look at the data” seems to have become a catechism amongst them, and it can be hard to dissuade them otherwise, especially by considering more than one variable as explaining oil supply and price. Most anyone can understand that high oil prices are no more an indicator of resource scarcity than the occasional spike in coffee, pork or orange juice prices. Things happen that can cause prices to rise for a period before supply and demand...

A business association whose members include some of the world’s biggest energy companies is urging the administration to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, arguing that the southern portion of the project already has shown the positive economic impact the project will have on the country. The group commissioned a study on the economic effect of the 485-mile portion of Keystone pipeline known as the Gulf Coast Extension, which opened earlier this year linking Oklahoma and Texas. The study highlights benefits the project had on local businesses like restaurants and hotels along the route. It notes that during construction, TransCanada...

Much hoopla has erupted since Kurdistan sold a $106 million load of crude oil to a buyer in Israel. Here was justice at last for the long-suffering Kurds, forgotten in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement that divided the Middle East and seemed to give every other major nation its own home, including some nations not previously considered nations. That is the 50,000-foot view, though, and wholly neglects the fate of the first tanker to set sail with Kurdish oil. (The Israeli sale was the second shipment.) The United Leadership left the Turkish port of Ceyhan on May 22. But a combination...

NEW YORK (AP) — Companies are taking advantage of new ways to export oil from the U.S. despite government restrictions, and in the process helping the U.S. become an ever bigger exporter of petroleum on the world stage. The Obama Administration has opened the door to more exports — without changing policy — by allowing some light oils to be defined as petroleum products like gasoline or diesel, which are not subject to export restrictions. Although U.S. production has boomed in recent years, the nation still consumes far more crude oil than it produces and remains heavily dependent on imports....

The decision to allow two Texas companies to export condensates looks like a win for Eagle Ford Shale crude producers at the expense of refiners and companies planning to build processing plants along the Gulf coast. Today's selloff in refiners reflected concern that the groups will lose some of their competitive edge if condensate exports become common: Valero Energy (VLO), the largest U.S. refiner, dropped 8.3%, PBF tumbled 10.72%, PSX fell 4.2%, and HFC slid 6.7%. Oppenheimer notes that Pioneer Natural Resources PXD, DVN, MRO, COP and MUR produce the most Eagle Ford condensate, and could benefit if U.S. condensate...

Must-know: Recent activity and growth in the Permian Basin By Avik Chowdhury - Disclosure • Jun 25, 2014 1:00 pm EDT The Permian Basin and U.S. energy independenceAs we’ve seen, the Permian Basin has been one of the primary drivers of domestic oil growth and has been heralded as one of the pillars to move the U.S. closer to energy independence. The following statistics convey a sense of the recent growth and activity in the region.Recent growthThe chart below shows the growth in oil produced from the Permian Basin over the past few years. Production in the region had bottomed...

Wildlife advocates want a federal judge to order faster action on a recovery plan for imperiled Canada lynx. ... Officials also say that lynx face a relatively low degree of threat compared to other protected species. The Fish and Wildlife Service was forced to come up with a timeline on the recovery document when Molloy last month expressed frustration with the government's progress. The judge said the "stutter-step" approach by federal officials necessitated court intervention. The lawsuit pending before Molloy was brought by Friends of the Wild Swan, Rocky Mountain Wild, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and the San Juan Citizens Alliance....

The Obama administration has cleared the way for two energy companies to sell an ultralight variety of oil overseas after minimally processing it, a decision that tests the limits of a long-standing ban on exporting U.S. crude. The move, which came in private classification orders issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, effectively confirms that hydrocarbon known as condensate qualifies as a petroleum product once it has been processed in a distillation tower, and therefore is not barred by the 39-year-old ban on crude exports. Unlike unprocessed crude, companies can freely sell gasoline, diesel and other petroleum...

ienna (AFP) - Coinciding with a visit to Vienna by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian energy giant Gazprom on Tuesday signed a deal with Austria's OMV approving the EU country's section of the controversial South Stream pipeline. The crisis in Ukraine has made the planned pipeline bringing Siberian gas to the European Union -- bypassing Ukraine -- a new focus of tensions between Moscow, Brussels and Washington. EU member Bulgaria earlier this month said it was suspending work on building its section of the multi-billion-euro (-dollar) project following pressure from the EU and the United States. The European Commission has...

Exxon Mobil officials are not commenting on reports that the company has evacuated from Iraq amid growing instability due to militants. The company has undertaken a “major evacuation” of its staff, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing comments from Dhiya Jaffar, head of Iraq’s state-run South Oil Co. A spokesman from Exxon Mobil told FuelFix that the company does not comment on security issues. Iraq instability: Insurgents capture largest Iraq oil refinery Jaffar also said BP had evacuated about 20 percent of its staff in Iraq. Officials from BP did not respond immediately to questions from FuelFix about the reported evacuation. “We...

More than 4,600 oil and natural gas wells were completed in Oklahoma last year as part of a domestic boom that is affecting many parts of the nation, according to reports filed with state regulators. Corporation Commission records indicate companies applied for more than 6,000 drilling permits for the second consecutive year. That figure is up from about 4,100 permits in 2009, The Oklahoman reported Sunday. Mike Terry, president of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, said horizontal drilling has opened vast new resources across the country and has renewed activity in Oklahoma’s historic oil fields. “The Mississippi Lime in northern...

Sunni rebels in Iraq say they have fully captured the country's main oil refinery at Baiji, north of Baghdad.The refinery had been under siege for 10 days with the militant offensive being repulsed several times. The complex supplies a third of Iraq's refined fuel and the battle has already led to petrol rationing. Insurgents, led by the group Isis, have overrun a swathe of territory north and west of Baghdad including Iraq's second-biggest city, Mosul. They are bearing down on a vital dam near Haditha and have captured all border crossings to Syria and Jordan. A rebel spokesman said the...

In a step that cements the impression of a de facto independent Kurdistan, a million barrels of Kurdish oil were delivered to a client in Israel today, despite threats by Baghdad to sue anyone buying it. The US government, fearing another blow to embattled Baghdad, had also worked to prevent anyone from buying the oil. 1 Reuters broke the story in a scoop, followed a few hours later by a statement on the Kurdish government website. “We are proud of this milestone achievement, which was accomplished despite almost three weeks of intimidation and baseless interferences from Baghdad against the tanker-ship...

Around the world, the giant oil companies of the United States and Europe are putting the brakes on a decade-long spending spree focused on finding and developing offshore oil fields in ever-tougher environments. The reason: Soaring costs are outpacing foreseeable rises in energy prices. Analysts at Bernstein say oil prices are likely to remain stable in the near term, but they also point to a long-term uptrend, with prices underpinned by rising costs. They predict that oil prices will rise to an average of $132 per barrel in 2018, from $110 per barrel now. “The era of easy to find,...

Shale Boom Will Spread Beyond North America Before 2020: IEA By Meagan Clark on June 17 2014 8:45 AM Here's the EIA's latest assessment of where the world's known technically recoverable shale oil and gas deposits are located. The number of countries on the list has nearly doubled since 2011. U.S. Energy Information Administration Share this article   The North American shale boom that has transformed the oil industry here will spread beyond the continent before the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Tuesday in its annual five-year oil market report.That’s sooner than IEA previously expected....

Anti-fracking forces across the country have tapped into local governments to get them to tap the brakes on fracking, a technological advance that allows energy companies to extract oil and gas from deep rock formations by pressure-pumping them with sand, water and chemicals. Some states allow communities to regulate the energy industry, but some do not, according to Deborah Goldberg, a New York attorney with Earthjustice, a national nonprofit known for using the court system to protect the environment and people’s health. “Local authority varies substantially depending on the state you are in,” Goldberg said in a press briefing Friday....

Apr 8, 2014, 6:20am MDT Updated: Apr 8, 2014, 7:52am MDT Crude oil potential from Colorado's DJ Basin gets bigger (a lot bigger)   Enlarge Photo Comstock Images via Thinkstock .     Cathy ProctorReporter- Denver Business JournalEmail  |  Facebook  |  Twitter The estimated amount of crude oil and other liquids that could be pumped from Colorado’s booming Denver-Julesburg Basin has grown to more than 4 billion barrels.And that’s just using estimates from the two biggest oil and gas companies — Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) — working in the DJ Basin, which...

The World Has 53.3 Years of Oil Left By Matt DiLallo |June 22, 2014 | Photo credit: BP. BP (NYSE: BP  )  has provided an intriguing update to its global oil reserves estimate in the company's latest yearly review of energy statistics. BP raised its reserve estimate by 1.1% to 1,687.9 billion barrels, which is enough oil to last the world 53.3 years at the current production rates. However, there's likely a lot more oil left in the tank beyond what BP sees today. America's energy boom surgesA good portion of the growth in global oil reserves in BP's report comes from the...

North Dakota has joined the big leagues of crude oil production, surpassing 1 million barrels per day — an output second only to Texas in the U.S. State officials said Tuesday that North Dakota yielded 1,001,149 barrels daily in April from a record 10,658 wells. Jubilant oil industry officials hailed the benchmark as another sign that the United States is freeing itself from the grip of foreign oil.

The federal government’s decision to ban energy development across a wide swath of Colorado and eastern Utah to protect the Gunnison sage grouse habitat has raised concerns the action would inflict economic damage. Although the Obama administration was not expected to make its decision as to whether the bird warrants the endangered listing until November, the Bureau of Land Management’s decision this week effectively puts an oil, gas and coal moratorium on 400,000 acres – roughly 90 acres per bird. The final decision was “pushed back until after the election, because when people understand the impact on jobs, people get...