Archive for the 'Oil and Gas' Category

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 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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By Lananh Nguyen / The Wall Street Journal

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Nymex crude was broadly steady below $60 a barrel Monday in London, but high oil supplies and low demand continued to weigh on prices.

“Mounting stocks of oil around the world reflect the reality that oil demand remains on its knees,” said analysts at KBC Market Services, a consultancy based in the U.K. “Market fundamentals are weak, and if anything getting worse rather than better.”

At 1152 GMT, the front-month August Brent contract on London’s ICE futures exchange was up $0.25 at $60.77 a barrel, bouncing into positive territory after an earlier selloff.

The front-month August contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading $0.05 higher at $59.94 a barrel, also trimming earlier losses.

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By Anil Varma / Bloomberg.com

July 13 (Bloomberg) — India’s 10-year bonds gained after crude oil fell below $60 per barrel for the first time since May, tempering concern that local fuel prices will increase and lead to inflation.

Yields on most-traded debt due 2019 eased after oil prices dropped 10.3 percent last week, the biggest decline since January. India, which imports almost three-quarters of the oil it uses, raised fuel costs last month for the first time in more than a year. The notes also gained after the government said it will sell bonds worth 120 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) this week, 20 percent less than last week.

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By Steve Everly / The Kansas City Star
July 10, 2009

Oil and gasoline prices get the attention, but plummeting natural-gas costs are quietly freeing up billions of dollars and possibly setting up one of the cheapest heating seasons in nearly a decade.

Energy prices across the board have dropped over the last year, but the decline for natural gas has been especially dramatic. The commodity closed Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $3.37 per 1,000 cubic feet, a 73 percent drop from a year ago, when it was well over $12.

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UPI.com
July 9, 2009

NEW YORK, July 9 (UPI) — Crude oil prices held above $61 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday after U.S. inventories dropped in the week ending July 3.The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday stockpiles of crude fell by 2.9 million barrels, but remain high for this time of year.

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By Madalina Iacob / The Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2009

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–U.S. inventories of gasoline and distillates rose more than expected for the fourth week in a row, according to U.S. Department of Energy data released Wednesday.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 1.9 million to 213.1 million barrels in the week ended July 3, the department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. This compares with a 900,000-barrel increase forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

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By Jad Mouawad / The New York Times
July 5, 2009

The extreme volatility that has gripped oil markets for the last 18 months has shown no signs of slowing down, with oil prices more than doubling since the beginning of the year despite an exceptionally weak economy.

The instability of oil and gas prices is puzzling government officials and policy analysts, who fear it could jeopardize a global recovery. It is also hobbling businesses and consumers, who are already facing the effects of a stinging recession, as they try in vain to guess where prices will be a year from now — or even next month.

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