On FT Energy Source:
- Shale gas, the EPA, and hydro-fracing concerns
- The frontrunners to lead Nigeria’s troubled oil industry
- EIA’s oil storage data flaws: What’s in it for markets?
- The recession: good for clean energy (or at least, for patents)
- The central oil bank of Saudi Arabia
- Tory carbon tax, CER update and Arrow bids in Energy headlines
Further reading:
- Opec ‘keeping the world on life-support‘ to keep the money coming in
- Carbon cap versus tax after Copenhagen
- Climate change action is justified because of the uncertainties around science
- The US no longer controls the price of oil
- More on the UK solar tariffs war of words
- China’s hunger for oil hard for US to digest
- Times have changed so Mexico should welcome foreigners to its oil industry
- The EPA and the critical ‘best available control technology’ decision for coal plants’ pollution
March 19th, 2010 12:03pm in The Source | Permalink |
Comment
On Wednesday evening, without fanfare or explanation, Nigeria’s acting president Goodluck Jonathan fired the entire cabinet. The reason is clear: feuding and dysfunctional, he regarded the cabinet as an impediment to his stated aim of wholesale reforms.
For ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and the other energy groups who rely on Nigeria for significant chunks of their revenues, the biggest question now is what changes are in store at the petroleum ministry and the national oil company. Continue reading "The frontrunners to lead Nigeria’s troubled oil industry"
March 19th, 2010 11:26am in Oil, Power | Permalink |
Comment
Australia’s natural gas plans are proving a boon to a country already brimming with confidence after escaping recession thanks to its commodities exports. Coal bed methane or, as it’s called in Australia, coal seam gas, is gaining momentum too with Arrow Energy, a medium-sized operator in Queensland’s burgeoning CBD industry, suspending its shares on Friday - a move thought to herald an improved offer from Shell and PetroChina, who launched a bid for Arrow earlier in March. Arrow is planning one of the four CBM liquefaction plants mooted for the state. Continue reading "Australia’s LNG export success and domestic demand"
March 19th, 2010 11:00am in Gas, Markets | Permalink |
Comment
From FT ALPHAVILLE March 19, 2010
By Izabella Kaminska
Opec’s March meeting came and went this week, with hardly a batter of an eyelid from the global marketplace.
The ministers, who met in Vienna this time round, opted to keep output targets unchanged on the presumption demand should pick up later in the year, according to Reuters.
A decision unsurprisingly seen as tantamount to snooze news.
Nevertheless, there was one interesting observation made during the gathering that we thought was worth highlighting (H/T Chris Cook). Continue reading "The central oil bank of Saudi Arabia"
March 19th, 2010 10:34am in Markets, Oil, Politics | Permalink
Source: CEPGI
As an industry still largely in its formative years, you would have expected clean energy to have had a rough time over the past 18 months.
Not only did the funding model for much of the US renewable energy industry put the sector within a whisker of being dragged down in Wall Street’s wake, but the general economic climate also threatened to put numerous projects on hold.
But clean tech patents - admittedly only a rough indicator of industry sentiment - suggests a more confident picture. US patent filings for clean energy rose to their highest-ever level in the last three months of 2009, according to a report from consultancy Cleantech Group and intellectual property lawyers Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti: Continue reading "Has the recession been good for clean energy?"
March 19th, 2010 10:00am in Corporate news, Emissions, Power, Renewables | Permalink |
Comment
Dow Jones says it has uncovered some serious shortcomings in the widely-watched weekly oil storage data published by the US Energy Information Agency.
It says the methodology is too dated for today’s complex futures markets. For example, the data is entered manually and difficult to check, and it is not adequately secured, according to the report. Dow Jones is citing a report commissioned by consultants SAIC, and internal EIA emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. How important is the flaw, and how are markets likely to react? Continue reading "What’s in an oil storage data flaw?"
March 19th, 2010 8:10am in Markets, Oil, Politics | Permalink |
Comment
March 19th, 2010 6:41am in Uncategorised | Permalink |
Comment
As lawmakers increasingly wake up to the benefits of the US’ onshore boom in natural gas - the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels - it is only natural environmentalists will find it easier to have their concerns on the subject heard, as well. Indeed, it seems they have made significant inroads.
The US Environmental Protection Agency said this week it was proceeding with a comprehensive examination of the safety of hydraulic fracturing - one of the key technologies that has enabled the boom. The study was requested by Congress last year. And the issue has been getting more attention since ExxonMobil announced it was buying XTO Energy to boost its presence in the onshore gas boom. Continue reading "Shale gas extraction comes under EPA scrutiny"
March 19th, 2010 3:12am in Corporate news, Emissions, Gas, Politics, Renewables | Permalink |
Comment
On FT Energy Source:
- PetroChina gets ready to mop up future LNG supplies
- Recycled carbon offsets: Spreading more uncertainty around the market
- Don’t expect a climate treaty out of Cancun
- An India-China energy arms race?
- ExxonMobil/XTO, Enel and Vestas in Energy headlines
Further reading:
- ‘It is reasonable to conclude… some speculators have amplified upward or downward movements’
- Scotland’s 10 marine energy projects
- The big chill of policy uncertainty on green investment
- Familiar hurdles for US with Iranian sanctions
- Gazprom rejects shale gas revolution
- ‘I can never decide which is sadder…’ on Obama administration’s rail policy
- Rare earths heat up
- The shifting sands of energy pricing
March 18th, 2010 1:06pm in The Source | Permalink |
Comment
As if additionality and verification weren’t difficult enough, the recycling of carbon offsets looks like it will further shake up the market for secondary carbon offsets.
When Hungary announced on Friday it had sold UN-approved carbon offsets that had already been counted in the EU emissions trading system, it insisted they had been sold to a party not covered by the EU ETS, and pointed out that it would be illegal for the offsets to be re-submitted under the EU’s system.
However some of those certified emissions reductions (CERs) did find their way onto secondary markets over the Bluenext exchange, which prompted Bluenext and other exchanges to suspend spot and futures trades of the credits.
It’s all likely to emphasise a preference for over-the-counter trades in CERs. Continue reading "Hungary’s used carbon offset sale accelerates market fragmentation"
March 18th, 2010 12:46pm in Copenhagen, Emissions, Markets | Permalink |
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