This week’s biggest deal happened in Washington, DC, where the House and Senate finally reached an agreement to reopen the US government and raise the debt ceiling. But there were also several energy-specific transactions and pending transactions that merited notice: Mexico’s state-controlled oil and gas company Pemex has voided a tender for the second phase… Keep reading →
Daniel Yergin, vice-chairman of IHS Cera, has published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973. The piece drives home a central point: oil production and pricing can adapt relatively quickly to changing circumstances, provided that governments refrain from stepping in to influence them. “A… Keep reading →
The United States is expected to produce more hydrocarbons – oil, natural gas, and liquids (such as condensates) – than any other country in the world this year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The EIA published an article last Friday on US hydrocarbon production growth, comparing it to that of global oil and… Keep reading →
Jellyfish in the cooling water intake have forced the shutdown of Sweden’s largest nuclear reactor, which generates about 10% of the country’s electricity. As bizarre as this sounds, jellyfish have caused problems at power plants in several countries, including the US. [CNN] Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that state-controlled energy company Petronas is going… Keep reading →
Billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and his political action committee have taken to the airwaves attempting to urge president Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline. The situation was detailed in a recent New Yorker article and you can read Breaking Energy’s view of the issue here. And here is US Senator Jon Tester’s… Keep reading →
TransCanada’s proposed Energy East pipeline could provide Canada with an outlet for Alberta’s oil sands that sidesteps political opposition obstructing competing projects heading south and west. But with the shift in oil demand growth from the Atlantic Basin to the Pacific, moving oil east may be a second-best solution. TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Enbridge’s Northern… Keep reading →
BP and the US federal government are at odds over how much oil was actually spilled into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010: BP says 2.45 million barrels, the US government says 4.2 MM bbl. “Clean Water Act fines…range from a maximum of $1,100 for every barrel… Keep reading →
The ongoing controversy over the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline linking Alberta’s oil sands to US markets covers a vast amount of factual territory, from refinery configuration to logistics to international crude oil trading to carbon dioxide emissions. But at times, all of these issues take a back seat to the emotional, or symbolic, component of… Keep reading →
The first visible chink in the oil and gas sector’s stance on the Keystone XL pipeline project’s inevitability turned up this week in that house journal of capitalism, the Wall Street Journal. In his provocatively titled article, “U.S. Refiners Don’t Care if Keystone Gets Built,” Ben Lefebvre lists the host of ways that the sector… Keep reading →
Keystone XL and US Politics: A Sad State of Affairs
By Jared AndersonRyan Lizza’s New Yorker article about the Keystone XL Pipeline project is both insightful and depressing. The piece dissects the issue’s genesis and history, finding the proposed pipeline to be a climate change symbol seized by wealthy activists seeking to influence national politics, while advancing their own political ambitions. Unfortunately, in selecting Keystone XL opposition… Keep reading →