Free Republic

An oil strike has forced around a fourth of the country’s stations to close because of lack of gasoline. ___ Some 3,000 gasoline stations in France—around a fourth of the country’s stations—have had to close because an oil strike has shut off their fuel supply, Telesur reports. For the first time in more than five years, France is dipping into its strategic oil reserves, while unions block refineries. Those stations lucky enough to have fuel are under government orders to restrict the sale of diesel or gasoline to around $30 per customer. Unions are picketing French refineries in protest against...

The OPEC meeting is only a week away, but the chances of a positive result are as remote as ever. Rising oil prices, the heightened rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Saudi Arabia’s willingness to go it alone will make a deal all but impossible. First of all, Iran is not in a cooperative mood. According to the IEA, Iran has managed to boost oil production to 3.56 million barrels per day in April, its highest level since November 2011. Oil exports also jumped 600,000 barrels per day to 2 million barrels per day. Importantly, Iran’s output now stands...

Situation in Nigeria For a country that produced nearly 2.4 million barrels of oil (NYSEARCA:USO) per day just a few months ago, Nigeria is facing some really serious issues. A militant group called the Niger Delta has disrupted the country's 2.4 million b/d of production by blowing up pipelines, hassling producers, and threatening to destroy additional oil producing facilities. As a result, Nigeria's oil production has fallen from 2.4 million b/d to 1.4 million b/d and further pressuring a growing nation more and more reliant on its oil as revenue. Nigeria is a fast growing country. Its economy is the...

The host of a local North Dakota news show told viewers Friday that the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency “should freak people out” because she will badly damage the state’s economy by going after fracking, which will hurt the oil and gas industry and cost jobs. Chris Berg, the anchor of 6:30 Point of View, a show on CBS affiliate KXJB Valley News Live, discussed North Dakota’s economic struggles as Clinton’s husband, Bill, was in Fargo, North Dakota for a campaign rally. Berg explained that the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget released a revenue report on Friday...

Some Panhandle producers are announcing a proposal to try to limit oil imports to attempt to boost the American oil industry. So, how much are we importing now and why, if we can produce all we need domestically? Dr. Daniel Fine, associate director for New Mexico Energy Policy, is helping lead the effort and recently spoke with KXDJ’s Chris Samples. “How much? It is increasing,” said Dr. Fine.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to increase the amount of ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply. But the volumes proposed Wednesday under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) still fall under targets written into the 2007 law that created the program. That ended up angering both the ethanol industry, which wants more of its product to be mandated, and the oil industry, which wants the program rolled back. The agency plans to mandate that 18.8 billion gallons of biofuels be blended into the country’s gasoline and diesel supply next year. Of that amount, 14.8 billion gallons can...

A new super PAC partnership between billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, the AFL-CIO and major public sector employee unions has triggered an angry backlash among the building trade unions -- dividing organized labor just as it ramps up its 2016 political programs. In letters delivered Monday to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, the presidents of eight building trade organizations called on the AFL-CIO to cut ties with Steyer, whose opposition to an extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline infuriated unions that had championed the jobs that the oil pipeline would have created.

Saudi Arabia's credit rating has been downgraded by Moody's because of the long and deep slump in oil prices. Moody's Investors Service said Saturday that it also downgraded Gulf oil producers Bahrain and Oman. It left ratings unchanged for other Gulf states including Kuwait and Qatar. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter. Moody's cut the country's long-term issuer rating one notch to A1 from Aa3 after a review that began in March.

Fire feeds on oil: In the world of eco-terrorism, Islamic terrorism, it doesn't make much difference: Pitch western civilization backward a thousand years into another dark age A number of seemingly disparate variables are influencing the world’s volatile equation of oil and fire, needing just a spark to ignite a conflagration. And one of huge proportions has been blazing well to the north of us in Alberta, consuming the tinder dry landscape surrounding Ft. McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil sands development. Initial cause of the fire is yet undetermined, investigators employing drones to examine the hundreds of square miles...

Nicholas Maduro, the Venezuelan president declared a 60-day state of emergency on Friday due to what he called plots from within the OPEC country and the United States to topple his leftist government. Mr. Maduro did not provide details of the measure. A previous state of emergency, implemented in states near the Colombian border last year, suspended constitutional rights guarantees in those areas....... Earlier on Friday, U.S. intelligence officials told reporters they were increasingly worried about the potential for an economic and political meltdown in Venezuela and predicted Mr. Maduro was not likely to complete his term.....

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared a 60-day state of emergency on Friday due to what he called plots from within the OPEC country and the United States to topple his leftist government. Maduro did not provide details of the measure. A previous state of emergency, implemented in states near the Colombian border last year, suspended constitutional guarantees in those areas, except for guarantees relating to human rights.

Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has asked one of America's most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics to help him draft his energy policy. U.S. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota - a major oil drilling state - is writing a white paper on energy policy for the New York billionaire, Cramer and sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Cramer was also among a group of Trump advisers who recently met with lawmakers from western energy states, who hope Trump will open more federal land for drilling, a lawmaker who took part in the meeting said. Cramer...

Crude oil futures rose 3.5 percent in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday, following official data earlier in the day showing a 3.4-million drop in crude inventories and a fall in crude output to 8.8 million barrels per day, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2014. June deliveries of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) were up US$1.57, or 3.5 percent, settling at US$46.23 per barrel on the New York exchange. This jump is higher than any closing price the commodity has seen since November of last year.

It might not be a great time to start offshore drilling, with oil prices as depressed as they are, but it might just be a great time to buy an offshore drilling rig for a cut-rate price—in fact, you might be able to get one for only one tenth of what they cost in 2011. This is the cost coup recently pulled off by Ocean Rig, a company controlled by shipping billionaire George Economou, who has landed a drillship—the Cerrado—for only US$65 million at auction, which represents less than 10 percent of the estimated price when it was built over...

Shell has evacuated nearly 100 essential oil personnel from a major production facility in the Niger Delta, following a series of attacks from a newly formed militant group that has vowed to renew the fight abandoned after a 2009 amnesty deal. Some 98 Shell personnel were airlifted from the Shell-operated Eja Oml 79 oil production facility in the Niger Delta over the weekend, bringing into question the facility’s 90,000 barrel-per-day production capacity. The facility is run by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC (Shell Petroleum Development Corporation). The evacuations come after militants of the Niger Delta Avengers attacked an offline oil platform...

see link below

In a surprise move, Saudi Arabia sacked its long-time oil minister over the weekend, an event that illustrates the near-total control that the new young Saudi prince has obtained over the country’s energy industry. For many years, Ali al-Naimi, the outgoing Saudi oil minister, was the voice of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and policy. Even seemingly insignificant remarks from al-Naimi could move oil prices up or down. But the 80-year old oil minister has seen his power eclipsed by the 30-year old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In April, when al-Naimi was forced to backtrack on the Doha oil...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Oil drilling companies and royalty owners from the Texas Panhandle to New Mexico's stretch of the Permian Basin are embarking on a grass-roots campaign to limit foreign oil imports, salvaging what they say is a major sector of the U.S. economy. "American oil is competing against a cartel of government operators which has a stated initiative of driving an American industry out of business," said Tom Cambridge, one of the Panhandle producers leading the campaign. The grass-roots movement is pushing for the next president of the United States to issue a proclamation setting quotas for imports...

When the price of oil drops, so does the cost of gasoline. But while people are enjoying paying lower prices at gasoline pumps, plunges in oil prices can cause economic damage in Texas. And it can put American oil producers out of business when the price of foreign oil imports gets cheaper than the costs of extracting oil from the ground in the U.S.

RIYADH—Saudi Arabia, crimped by low crude prices, approved Monday a long-term blueprint for the kingdom’s economic transformation aimed at reducing its dependence on oil. The multiyear plan, dubbed “Saudi Vision 2030,” was approved by the cabinet, according to Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman. The Saudi cabinet, in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency, said the government’s economic council would be in charge of overseeing the vision’s implementation. Saudi officials later Monday were to present a broad overview of the country’s most extensive economic shake-up in decades. The steep drop in oil prices has given new urgency to...