We may finally get a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline in 2014, but in the meantime the battle over whether or not to construct the oil transportation infrastructure project rages on. This infographic argues in favor of constructing KXL because pipelines are a more efficient transportation method than either trucking or railing crude oil.… Keep reading →
The International Energy Agency’s December Oil Market Report considers the market reaction to last month’s interim agreement signed by Iran and the P5+1 nations. The OECD oil market watchdog says the oil market mostly took the deal in stride and numerous other factors are exerting greater pressure on oil price behavior than the six-month agreement… Keep reading →
EIA’s latest Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) projects a 56 percent increase in natural gas production by 2040, overtaking coal as the largest share of U.S. electric power generation. On December 16, 2013, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released the AEO 2014 Early Release Overview presenting updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2040. The AEO… Keep reading →
Wednesday, 21 leading scientists, engineers and technical experts submitted a letter* to Governor Jerry Brown endorsing the benefits of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in California. The AP reported: The letter…comes after California adopted regulations requiring oil companies to test groundwater and disclose chemicals used in fracking. The group said the strict new rules, which become permanent in… Keep reading →
PFC Energy put together a succinct list of key trends in oil markets in 2013, along with associated charts. These include US oil production growing faster than in any other year, cheaper crude inputs at refineries driving the US to become the world’s largest exporter of refined petroleum products, and the rising disconnect between international… Keep reading →
More problems with the Renewable Fuel Standard – an ethanol and biodiesel US transportation fuel supply blending requirement – have arisen with fraud allegations against an Indiana company that sold 33.5 million renewable-fuel credits for biofuel it never produced. This is not the first time fraudulent renewable-fuel credits have disrupted the RIN market and the EPA has been… Keep reading →
The EU Commission has intervened in construction of the South Stream gas pipeline on the grounds that deals signed between Russia’s Gazprom and seven European countries violate an EU law forbidding a company from acting as both pipeline operator and monopoly gas supplier. The EU energy commissioner will go to Moscow next month for talks… Keep reading →
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has weighed in on the question of whether the US should loosen export restrictions on domestically produced crude oil, suggesting that the export regime may be “outdated” at a Platts event on 12 December. So it was only a matter of time before someone in congress objected, loudly, to an Obama… Keep reading →
Although debunked for having nothing to do with natural gas development or hydraulic fracturing, anyone familiar with the internet has likely seen the now-famous clip of someone lighting tap water on fire in the activist documentary Gasland. In an effort to obtain baseline drinking water data in New York’s portion of the Marcellus Shale… Keep reading →
What Did the Oil Industry Learn From the Khodorkovsky Saga?
By Jared AndersonThe final chapter in one of early post-Soviet Russia’s most high-profile oil industry shakeups appears to be coming to a close with the largely symbolic pardon of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of Yukos. The company was one of Russia’s largest oil companies by reserves and production during the free-wheeling privatizations of the 1990’s when Soviet… Keep reading →