Over the past few months, with oil prices at historical lows, China imported more oil than it needed, putting extra capacity into storage and boosting monthly imports to a high of 7.2 million barrels per day in December. According to price reporting agency Platts, around 300,000 barrels per day were likely earmarked for commercial storage… Keep reading →
Merry go round. Credit Shutterstock According to research by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft Koeln) energy imports should not be “understood as a threat to the security of energy supply and an economic disadvantage” per se. The study – “Does Dependency Equal Vulnerability? Energy Imports in Germany and Europe” commissioned… Keep reading →
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister is concerned about potentially disruptive trends that could undermine the oil industry in the coming decades. New technologies and efforts to cut carbon emissions offer potentially existential threats to the world’s most important commodity. Current projections from the IEA and other analysts all forecast demand for oil increasing, with medium-term forecasts… Keep reading →
British oil major BP issued its annual energy outlook and reported that rising energy demand in the coming decades will cause increasing carbon emissions despite efforts to draw them down. BP projects that the growing global economy will cause energy demand to rise 40% in the next twenty years and two-thirds of the demand will… Keep reading →
With all eyes focused on falling oil prices for the past several months, the US natural gas market has often been overlooked. Not that it has done much from a price movement perspective in the past couple of years. Another cold blast of Arctic weather is headed for the Midwest and Northeast over the next… Keep reading →
Cheaper oil has not been translating into economic growth over the last six months and falling oil prices have also stoked deflationary fears. Some countries have been using the drop in oil prices as an opportunity to raise gasoline taxes, slash fuel subsidies or both. China has raised fuel consumption taxes by 50% since November,… Keep reading →
General Electric (GE) and Norway’s Statoil have announced a strategic collaboration to advance more environmentally friendly and economically sustainable technologies for oil and gas production. GE and partially state-owned Statoil have a long history of working together and both share a commitment to improving their environmental footprints, which is a goal increasingly valued by investors… Keep reading →
Ed. note: This is a weekly column by Elie Mystal, Managing Editor of Above the Law Redline. This space will focus on the laws that exist, should exist, and should be put out of their misery. OVER-REGULATED Oil That Funds Terrorism: Evil crackpot Zacarias Moussaoui, a former Al-Qaeda operative in prison because we caught him,… Keep reading →
Who Will Rule the Oil Market? The New York Times (Daniel Yergin): A historic change of roles is at the heart of the clamor and turmoil over the collapse of oil prices, which have plummeted by 50 percent since September. For decades, Saudi Arabia, backed by the Persian Gulf emirates, was described as the “swing producer.” With… Keep reading →
Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge regained national attention over the weekend when the Obama administration announced plans to prevent oil and gas drilling along the coastal plain, which is expected to contain considerable hydrocarbon resources. Senator Lisa Murkowski and state officials vehemently oppose the action and are digging in for a fight. Murkowski, Gov. Bill… Keep reading →
