Keyword: oil
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When Canada’s federal government issued a five-year moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic at the end of last year, the environmentalist community rejoiced, just as it did in the United States, when the Obama administration did the same. Everyone seemed sure the move would bring benefits to everyone. Or perhaps they just didn’t really care that there are communities heavily dependent on the oil and gas industry for their livelihood. Now, the Prime Minister of Canada’s Northwester Territories has slammed Ottawa for its decision, along with others concerning the northern province, saying what we are witnessing today...
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President Donald Trump has vowed to make the U.S. more energy dominant than ever, and the Interior Department took an important step toward that goal this week. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Tuesday that his department is proposing the largest oil and gas lease sale ever held in the United States. In March 2018, the Interior Department will make nearly 77 million acres in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico available for the lease sale. “In today’s low-price energy environment, providing the offshore industry access to the maximum amount of opportunities possible is part of our strategy to...
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Fighting had been on-going over the Fishkhabur border post which is a crucial economic lifeline for the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters reached an agreement on Friday to stop fighting in northern Iraq, the media office of the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition said. A spokesman for the coalition in Baghdad told Reuters the ceasefire agreement covered all fronts. The announcement comes after Iraqi forces set a tight deadline on Friday for Kurdish fighters to withdraw from an area on the Turkish border that is critical for oil exports. A senior government security source, asking...
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Rising US energy exports could prompt seismic shift in Asian market Middle East, Russia on defensive as cheaper fuel floods in TAKESHI KUMON, Nikkei staff writer TOKYO -- Energy markets across Asia could be about to undergo a huge overhaul. Driven by the shale drilling revolution, U.S. exports of crude oil and liquefied natural gas are growing rapidly and likely to make significant inroads into the market share held by Middle Eastern producers. U.S. crude oil prices have been so low that new customers have even been found in India, while American LNG comes relatively free of restrictions -- a...
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The Trump administration is putting more than 76 million acres of federal water up for lease in the largest offshore drilling initiative in American history. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the massive lease sale, slated for March 2018, on Tuesday morning, and said the move is a key component of the administration’s effort to tap U.S. energy reserves and reap the economic benefits that come along with them.
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Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said it is “no surprise” that Republicans are trying to permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, calling the President Trump’s cabinet “the Big Oil all-star team.” Markey led an effort to oppose any attempts to allow oil drilling in the as part of the fiscal year 2018 federal budget. The Senate passed a budget on Thursday that could pave the way for drilling in the refuge since it requests that the Energy and Natural Resources Committee craft a bill intended to raise $1 billion in revenue over the next decade from oil drilling....
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House Republicans are growing increasingly alarmed that some of their most vulnerable members aren’t doing the necessary legwork to protect themselves from an emerging Democratic tidal wave. In some of the biggest media markets, where blockbuster fundraising is a prerequisite for political survival—most notably in New York City, Los Angeles, and Houston—Republican lawmakers aren’t raising enough money to run aggressive campaigns against up-and-coming Democrats. Of the 53 House Republicans facing competitive races, according to Cook Political Report ratings, a whopping 21 have been outraised by at least one Democratic opponent in the just-completed fundraising quarter. That’s a stunningly high number...
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In a 1,500-word article about the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, The Washington Post waited until the 25th paragraph to note that the self-declared socialist faces an “obstacle” to winning the presidency. The paper said that “…Sanders has not faced the kind of media scrutiny, let alone attacks from opponents, that leading candidates eventually experience.” The authors, Philip Rucker and James Wagner, added, “Sure to follow his summer surge is an autumn of investigations that could reveal new details about his personal background and record.” One of the more interesting members of the DSA is Kurt Stand, a communist spy for...
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WASHINGTON – The Senate rejected an amendment Thursday that sought to block a key panel from raising revenue through drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move that could make it easier for future oil and gas drilling to take place there. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Wash., the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, offered an budget amendment that would have removed instructions to the panel to raise an additional $1 billion through federal leasing. It failed 48 to 52 on a largely party-line vote, with only Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, W.Va., breaking ranks....
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Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Nate highlighted the exposure to life and property all along the Gulf Coast. Of the critical national assets that took a hit, the crux of the U.S. refining industry suffered dramatically. As a result of Harvey alone, twenty refineries in the 300 miles between Corpus Christi and Beaumont were forced to shut down or dramatically reduce rates. The spot price of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) promptly increased by 10%, while that for gasoline and jet fuel increased by 25%. All three prices remain about 10% higher than before the hurricanes, in part due to regulatory constraints...
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India is set to emerge as a key market for American crude exports in coming months, as refineries are ramping up "test" purchases of US grades to diversify their imports. US exports recently set a weekly record with nearly 2 million barrels of crude a day sent overseas. But shipments to India+ have been rare, with just a few deliveries since the US lifted its ban on crude exports in late 2015. Indian refineries are starting to increase purchases as the country seeks to secure more supply from outside the Middle East. Refiners are testing both US sweet and sour...
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Iraqi forces took control of the two largest oil fields in the disputed northern province of Kirkuk on Tuesday demolishing Kurdish hopes of creating a viable independent state. The Kurds withdrew without a fight after federal government troops and militia entered the city of Kirkuk and seized the provincial governor's office and key military bases in response to a Kurdish vote for independence last month. The fields accounted for around 250,000 barrels per day of the 650,000 bpd that the autonomous Kurdish region exported under its own auspices and their loss deals a huge blow to its already parlous finances...
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The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) could lead to global peak oil demand as soon as 2023, which will result in oil prices crashing to $10, Chris Watling, CEO & chief market strategist at Longview Economics, told CNBC on Friday. Watling said he didn’t see oil crashing “in the next few weeks or months, or maybe even quarters, but I think the long-term outlook for oil—because of what’s happening in terms of electric vehicles” with 70 percent of oil used for transportation, is oil plummeting to $10 somewhere around 2023-2025. “We used to talk about peak oil in terms of...
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The best is yet to come for US oil production—but it will be a short-lived hurrah, according to Ian Taylor, head of oil trading giant Vitol. US oil production has steadily increased throughout 2017 as US drillers regained their footing after the oil price crash. What started out at 8.946 million bpd of crude oil production in the first week of January has now reached an average of 9.561 million bpd as of September 29, according to the EIA.
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President Donald Trump is moving toward allowing energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for the first time in several decades, according to a report Friday from The Washington Post. Interior Department officials are modifying decades-old regulations that have traditionally prevented the agency from conducting seismic studies seen as the first step towards drilling, the report notes. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director James W. Kurth told the agency’s Alaska regional director to strike constraints on a rule that allowed exploratory drilling between 1984 and 1986, the last time drilling was allowed in the ANWR, according to a...
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Petroleum tankers pictured at the Port of Tampa Bay, September 13, 2017. Photo: Port Tampa Bay Phillips 66 has taken advantage of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securities’ temporary Jones Act waiver applying to tankers in response to fuel shortages in the southeast United States in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Argus Media reported Thursday. The foreign charter comes as an “armada” of at least 26 U.S.-flagged vessels carrying millions of gallons of fuel and other refined products head for Florida, the American Maritime Partnership said. According to Argus, Phillips 66 used the waiver to charter the Marshall...
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In retrospect, this could be the most important economic event of 2017. The oil-rich country of Venezuela has stopped accepting the U.S. Dollar as payment for oil. Last week President Maduro warned that the country would this week ‘free’ itself from the US dollar. “Venezuela is going to implement a new system of international payments and will create a basket of currencies to free us from the dollar.” Yesterday Venezuela temporarily suspended the sale of U.S. dollars through its Dicom auction system. This (and other moves) was in response to U.S. sanctions put in place by the Trump administration.
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