Chevron is restarting a shale drilling campaign in Romania, which has met resistance from the local population. As many as 300 riot police are patrolling the site. [Natural Gas Europe] Platts’ Brian Scheid has written an interesting piece on the Department of Energy’s latest LNG export approval, for an additional 0.4 billion cubic feet per… Keep reading →
Four oil traders are claiming in a lawsuit that they can prove that BP, Statoil and Shell conspired with Morgan Stanley and trading firms such as Vitol to manipulate Brent crude prices. The traders say that the three oil companies placed orders to move markets, rather than buy crude. “Platts’ methodology ‘can be easily gamed… Keep reading →
Sakhalin Energy, the consortium that operates the Sakhalin II LNG project in Russia, is seeking higher prices for LNG sales from Korea’s Kogas, the world’s largest LNG buyer, sources have told Bloomberg. The contract is linked to Brent crude prices, which have risen substantially since it was signed eight years ago. The article indicates that Kogas… Keep reading →
Reports in a Lebanese newspaper detail a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in which bin Sultan suggested a joint Russian-Saudi strategy to manage oil production volumes and prices, according to Platts. “‘Let us examine how to put together a unified Russian-Saudi strategy on the subject of… Keep reading →
CNOOC’s proposed bid for Canadian oil-and-gas producer Nexen would increase Asia’s sway and influence over the pricing of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, market analysts said Tuesday. The proposed takeover, which would be China’s biggest foreign acquisition, would put the largest crude stream that feeds into the physical Brent benchmark into Chinese hands. This would mean exclusive insight into North Sea production issues and maintenance that will affect the price of Brent crude and other crudes priced off of it.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.
There is no point at which federal regulators will be able to throw up their hands and say “mission accomplished” when it comes to power capacity markets, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff believes. Keep reading →
Traffic on the Las Vegas strip, where lights were turned off this weekend for Earth Hour.
Tensions between two competing visions of power markets rose to the surface during early discussions among the industry’s elite gathered in Las Vegas today to consider the state of global energy. Keep reading →
Power companies are switching over from coal to natural gas at an accelerating rate, with potential consequences for both the US emissions profile and the industry’s economics.
In his presentation to the Platts Annual Financing US Power conference in New York on Friday, Federal Power Company President Steven Gilliland said the rate of coal to gas switching is increasing dramatically year over year. He said that while a surplus of coal stockpiles at thermal plants required utilities to burn coal even when gas was much cheaper, stockpiles are shrinking and plants are slowly burning more gas instead. Keep reading →
Challenges abound for renewable power companies, especially small and medium-sized firms.
Difficulty obtaining a power purchase agreement, tax incentive uncertainty, the European debt crisis, and the post Lehman financial crisis in the US all continue to pose serious challenges. Keep reading →
The energy sector has turned upbeat in recent weeks despite still-strong economic headwinds and widespread complaints about political and regulatory uncertainty.
Surviving the financial crisis largely intact has bred a sense of having passed through the worst among the power companies, fuel providers and service firms that keep the energy sector ticking. Although there was widespread acknowledgment this week–at energy industry events in Florida and New York–among bankers, analysts and operators that the business cycle remains stuck at a low, the stress was on fundamental support for new investment and new deals to support continued consolidation. Keep reading →
