Oil market observers will take a break from their Turkey preparations this Thursday to see whether Opec producers decide to cut oil output in a bid to stabilize prices. The meeting being held in Vienna will be long over by the time folks in the US sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. But there is no… Keep reading →
The claims and counterclaims about EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards have filled the air: It will boost nuclear. It will expand renewables. It promotes energy efficiency. It will kill coal. It changes everything. It accomplishes almost nothing. Evaluating the impact of the so-called Clean Power Plan requires a clear view of how the new rule will work.… Keep reading →
The big story in crude oil markets over the past few years was the historic price divergence between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent, the world’s 2 most-widely traded crude oil contracts. However, after blowing out to an unprecedented $27 per barrel Brent premium in summer 2011, the story is now about Brent-WTI contraction and… Keep reading →
The world’s swelling population and continued economic growth will require increasing volumes of oil to power the cars, trucks, trains and planes that transport people and goods around the planet. But the Citi commodities research team has questioned the extent of that assumption in a new research report titled “Global Oil Demand Growth – the End is Nigh.”
This rethinking of global oil demand trajectory is driven by the analyst’s view that natural gas will increasingly be substituted for oil in the transportation, power generation and industrial sectors, while considerable gains in fuel economy “raise the possibility that the tipping point for oil demand may come much sooner than the markets are expecting.” Keep reading →
China recently surpassed the US as the world’s largest net oil importer, as the US produces more and consumes less while Chinese demand steadily increases. US net oil imports have fallen from a peak of 13 million barrels per day in October 2006 to under 6 mmb/d in December 2012, according to a Citi research note issued February 28, titled “Milestones Toward US Energy Independence – Alert: US net Oil Imports Plummet to Second Place Behind China.”
“Meanwhile, since China flipped from a net exporter to a net importer of oil in 1993, its net oil imports have risen steadily to 6.3 mmb/d in January 2013, just under last May’s peak,” the Citi analysts said in the note. Keep reading →
Japan’s recent deal to import US LNG at Henry Hub benchmark prices appears largely symbolic, but is important for the sector as it could represent the beginning of a larger trend away from oil-linked LNG prices for the world’s largest LNG importer.
“They [the deal’s negotiators] were very surprised they were able to pull it off,” a source familiar with the negotiations recently told Breaking Energy. Keep reading →
For the US, aspiring to be merely energy independent is “too modest,” says Manhattan Institute Adjunct Fellow Mark Mills.
Instead, the US should collaborate with Canada and Mexico to not only fulfill domestic needs but make North America the world’s largest energy supplier, Mills says in a new report, “Unleashing the North American Energy Colossus.” Keep reading →
The greatest roadblock to developing smart grids in the US is not high up-front investment, good news when 65 million electric vehicles could be on the road by 2025, according to the results of a recent annual electric utility industry survey. Infrastructure firm Black & Veatch queried over 500 qualified industry participants about some of the most prescient issues of the day and the results may surprise you.
The top issues the industry is concerned about in 2012 are aging infrastructure, reliability and the environment. Aging infrastructure steadily crept to the top of the list over the past three years – in the 2009/2010 survey the issue ranked sixth in a list of the top ten. The importance of security has also gained importance according to the survey participants. Keep reading →
