Archive for July, 2009

By Erin Ailworth / Boston.com

A state board yesterday approved plans to build a natural gas plant in Brockton, but left local officials with the power to veto the plant’s construction by choosing whether to grant the zoning exemptions needed to build the 350-megawatt facility.

The state Energy Facilities Siting Board, a division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, did not grant the exemptions because it “concluded that the proposed project’s environmental and energy supply benefits do not outweigh expected local impacts,’’ according to a statement.

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By Madalina Iacob Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES / Wall Street Journal
July 31, 2009

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Crude-oil futures settled at a one-month high Friday as the dollar plunged against major currencies, signaling a renewed appetite among investors for assets that stand to benefit from an economic recovery.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled $2.51, or 3.8%, higher at $69.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled $1.59, or 2.3%, higher at $71.70 a barrel.

The move from the safe haven of the dollar and into crude began soon after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the U.S. gross domestic product had dropped by 1% in the second quarter, less than economists had expected and a far milder contraction than the 6.4% decline seen in the previous quarter. Expectations that the economy is turning the corner received a second boost when a survey of Chicago-area economic activity offered its best results since September 2008. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago, which conducted the survey, predicts the recession will end by December 2009.

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Boston.com
July 17, 2009

HOUSTON—The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States rose by 4 this week to 920.

Of the rigs running nationwide, 665 were exploring for natural gas and 244 for oil, Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. Eleven were listed as miscellaneous.

A year ago, the rig count stood at 1,928. The U.S. count is down about 55 percent since the end of August as weak energy demand has hampered oilfield activity.

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By Steven Mufson / The Washington Post

The run-up in oil prices that began earlier this year was not as steep as last summer’s record climb, but it was almost as mystifying.

Demand was low, the global economy was sagging, and the world’s oil consumers and producers were brimming with excess supply. Those factors ought to keep prices down, but the monthly average price of crude oil jumped $10 a barrel from February to April, another $10 in May and again in June. Gasoline prices in the United States rose 54 days in a row, and AAA called the increases through May “the largest five-month retail advance this century.”

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By Madalina Iacob / The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK — Crude futures rose Tuesday, bouncing after days of decline and buoyed by renewed optimism about the pace of the economic recovery.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery traded 42 cents, or 0.7%, higher at $60.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at noon. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange recently rose 39 cents to $60.08 a barrel.

Crude’s strength followed a day in which the Dow Jones Industrial rose 185 points on hopes of strong quarterly results from banks this week. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday beat expectations and said commodities net revenues in the second quarter topped performance in last year’s second quarter. A top commodities dealer, Goldman said its broader fixed-income, currency and commodities trading segment raked in record revenue of $6.8 billion.

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By Matthew L. Wald / The New York Times
July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — While most lawmakers accept that more renewable energy is needed on the nation’s grid, the debate over the giant climate-change and energy bill now before Congress is exposing a fundamental rift. For many players, the energy not only has to be clean and free of carbon-dioxide emissions, it also has to be generated nearby.

The division has set off a fight between Eastern and Midwestern politicians and grid officials over parts of the bill dealing with transmission lines and solar and wind energy. Many officials, including President Obama, say that the grid is antiquated and that thousands of miles of new power lines are needed to allow construction of wind farms and solar fields in the most promising spots. Many of the best wind sites are in the Midwest, far from the electric load in populous East Coast cities.

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By Michael Bradwell / Observer-Reporter.com

ARDEN - More than 2,000 people turned out for an oil, gas and coal jobs expo Saturday at the Washington County Fairgrounds, with some coming from as far away as Texas and Colorado.

By noon Saturday, lines of as many as 20 to 25 applicants could be seen at several of the 40 exhibitors at the Oil & Gas Expo inside Exhibit Hall No. 1, waiting to talk with representatives of natural gas exploration companies, coal companies and related support services. Some major corporate participants included Consol Energy Inc., Range Resources, Halliburton and Atlas Energy Resources.

“There were 1,500 waiting to get in; there were people everywhere,” said Pat McCune, president of Community Bank and one of the sponsors of the Oil & Gas Expo, which has held several informational sessions since October in Greene County. The event ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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By Anne C. Mulkern / The New York Times
July 13, 2009

The battle over climate legislation will now pit the country’s top power sources against each other.

Saying they failed to protect their interests as a landmark bill came together and passed the House last month, natural gas executives are forming a strategy to influence rewrites in the Senate.

“There are a lot of people in the industry who are scrambling their forces right now,” said Fred Julander, founder and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference, an annual event that drew 1,800 industry people to Denver last week. “Whether we can learn and get up to speed — and it’s a steep learning curve — is the question.”

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By Ann Koh / Bloomberg.com

July 14 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose for the first time in three days on signs of recovery from the global recession, prompting optimism fuel demand will increase.

Oil climbed from an eight-week low as U.S. and Asian stocks gained. China’s economy may have expanded 7.8 percent in the second quarter as record lending and surging investment drove a rebound, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Singapore today raised its economic growth forecast.

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By Ernest Scheyder of The Associated Press / Yahoo! News

NEW YORK – Oil prices stayed around $60 a barrel in Monday afternoon trading, continuing last week’s trend as investors await a busy second-quarter earnings week.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was unchanged at $59.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were as low as $59.30 earlier in the session.

Oil prices have fallen about $14 a barrel, or 19 percent, since June 30 after poor unemployment data from the U.S. and Europe raised doubts that the global economy was poised for a strong recovery this year.

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