oil prices rose for a 5th straight week in continuing the rally that began after Christmas, and have now risen 37% since the beginning of the year...after rising 1.9% to $60.14 a barrel last week, largely on indications of tighter supplies globally, prices for US crude to be delivered in May continued to rally on Monday, rising $1.45, or 2.4%, to a new 2019 high of $61.59 a barrel, after better-than-expected manufacturing data from the US and China eased worries about slowing global growth and after a Reuters survey found that OPEC output fell to a four-year low in March... the Reuters report on the OPEC cuts pushed oil higher again on Tuesday, with prices rising 99 cents to $62.58 a barrel, as the shutdown of a key Venezuela export terminal and a report of a US shale output slowdown underpinned the ongoing rally...however, US crude prices broke below a key support level on Wednesday, after the EIA reported a surprisingly large build in US supplies, but still remained near their 5-month high in closing down 12 cents at $62.46 a barrel...US prices continued slumping on Thursday even as prices for Brent crude, the international benchmark briefly hit $70 a barrel on tight global supplies, with US crude settling 36 cents lower at $62.10 a barrel while Brent contracts for June delivery finished 9 cents higher at $69.40 a barrel...the rally in US crude resumed on Friday, after strong U.S. employment data tempered fears of weakening crude demand, as oil prices rose 98 cents to $63.08 a barrel amid fears that escalating conflict in Libya would further tighten global supplies, thus ending the week with a gain of almost 5%...
meanwhile, natural gas prices were little changed in subdued trading in a narrow range, as there is not much news to drive gas prices between the winter heating season and the summer, when demand again increases as natural gas peaking generators are fired up for air conditioning...after closing last week down 4% at $2.662 per mmBTU, natural gas for May delivery rose 4.6 cents on Monday, then fell 6.5 cents over the next three days, and then rose 2.1 cents on Friday to end the week priced at $2.664 per mmBTU, just two-tenths of a cent higher than its previous weekly close...
the natural gas storage report for the week ending March 29th from the EIA indicated that the quantity of natural gas held in storage in the US increased by 23 billion cubic feet to 1,130 billion cubic feet over the week, which still left our gas supplies 228 billion cubic feet, or 16.8% below the 1,358 billion cubic feet that were in storage on March 30th of last year, and 551 billion cubic feet, or 30.9% below the five-year average of 1,635 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have typically remained in storage at the end of March in recent years....this week's 23 billion cubic feet injection into US natural gas storage was more than the 16 billion cubic feet addition that analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had expected, while it was a complete reversal of the average of 23 billion cubic feet of natural gas that are normally withdrawn from gas storage during the last week of March, an early injection which has not happened to that degree since March of 2012....
the magnitude of the addition of gas to storage was a surprise to most because it wasn't particularly warm during the reference week, as you can see on the map below that we've copied from the EIA's natural gas storage dashboard; in fact, the most densely populated states in the east and California all saw temperatures slightly below normal, which would usually lead to an above normal withdrawal...but the 15 billion cubic feet withdrawal in the East was actually a bit less than the 16 billion cubic feet average withdrawal over the past 5 years for the last week in March, while it was apparently warm enough in the South Central region to have 35 billion cubic feet of natural gas left over to add to storage, in contrast to the 5 billion cubic feet of natural gas that the region typically has in surplus for the same week of the year...the only explicable circumstance we see in reviewing the data for the past week was that natural gas consumption for electrical generation over the 48 states was lower than last year's each day of the reference week, and on several days was as much as or more than 10% lower, thus saving a total of 13 billion cubic feet of gas over those 7 days, or burning about 5% less natural gas than a year earlier....why that would happen is open to speculation, but it's possible that enough intermittent power from wind and solar kicked in over that week to displace natural gas generation, thus leading to the unusual March surplus...
The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA
this week's US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration, reporting on the week ending March 29th, indicated a modest increase in our crude oil imports and a modest decrease in our oil exports, while refinery usage was little changed, and hence there was another surplus to add to our commercial supplies of crude, much of which was still unaccounted for nonetheless...our imports of crude oil rose by an average of 223,000 barrels per day to an average of 6,763,000 barrels per day, after falling by an average of 392,000 barrels per day the prior week, while our exports of crude oil fell by an average of 163,000 barrels per day to 2,723,000 barrels per day during the week, which meant that our effective trade in oil worked out to a net import average of 4,040,000 barrels of per day during the week ending March 29th, 386,000 more barrels per day than the net of our imports minus exports during the prior week...over the same period, field production of crude oil from US wells was reported to be 100,000 barrels per day higher than last week at a record 12,200,000 barrels per day, so our daily supply of oil from the net of our trade in oil and from well production totaled an average of 16,240,000 barrels per day during this reporting week...
meanwhile, US oil refineries were using 15,849,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending March 29th, 18,000 more barrels per day than the amount of oil they used during the prior week, while over the same period 1,034,000 barrels of oil per day were reportedly being added to the oil that's in storage in the US.....therefore, this week's crude oil figures from the EIA would seem to indicate that our total working supply of oil from net imports and from oilfield production was 643,000 fewer barrels per day than what was added to storage plus the oil refineries reported they used during the week...to account for that disparity between the supply of oil and the disposition of it, the EIA inserted a (+643,000) barrel per day figure onto line 13 of the weekly U.S. Petroleum Balance Sheet to make the reported data for the daily supply of oil and the consumption of it balance out, essentially a fudge factor that is labeled in their footnotes as "unaccounted for crude oil"....with that much oil unaccounted for, we have to figure that one or more of this week's oil metrics is in error by a statistically significant amount.. (for more on how this weekly oil data is gathered, and the possible reasons for that "unaccounted for" oil, see this EIA explainer)....
further details from the weekly Petroleum Status Report (pdf) indicated that the 4 week average of our oil imports fell to an average of 6,745,000 barrels per day last week, now 12.1% less than the 7,677,000 barrel per day average that we were importing over the same four-week period last year.... the 1,034,000 barrel per day increase in our total crude inventories was all added to our commercially available stocks of crude oil, as the oil stored in our Strategic Petroleum Reserve remained unchanged...this week's crude oil production was reported to be up by 100,000 barrels per day to a record 12,200,000 barrels per day because the rounded estimate for output from wells in the lower 48 states increased by 100,000 barrels per day to 11,700,000 barrels per day, while a 7,000 barrel per day decrease in Alaska's oil production to 482,000 barrels per day was not enough to make a difference in the rounded national total...last year's US crude oil production for the week ending March 30th was at 10,460,000 barrels per day, so this reporting week's rounded oil production figure was 16.6% above that of a year ago, and 44.8% more than the interim low of 8,428,000 barrels per day that US oil production fell to during the last week of June of 2016...
meanwhile, US oil refineries were operating at 86.8% of their capacity in using 15,849,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending March 29th, down from 86.6% of capacity the prior week, and quite a bit lower than before Venezuelan imports of heavy crude that Gulf Coast refineries are optimized to use were cut off....similarly, the 15,849,000 barrels per day of oil that were refined this week were down by 6.4% from the 16,936,000 barrels of crude per day that were being processed during the week ending March 30th, 2018, when US refineries were operating at 93.0% of capacity...
with little change in the amount of oil being refined, the gasoline output from our refineries was somewhat higher, rising by 156,000 barrels per day to 9,813,000 barrels per day during the week ending March 29th, after our refineries' gasoline output had decreased by 268,000 barrels per day the prior week....but even with that increase in the week's gasoline output, this week's gasoline production was still 3.0% less than the 10,115,000 barrels of gasoline that were being produced daily during the same week last year....at the same time, our refineries' production of distillate fuels (diesel fuel and heat oil) fell by 55,000 barrels per day to 4,870,000 barrels per day, after that output had increased by 2,000 barrels per day the prior week...and after this week's modest decrease, the week's distillates production was 2.9% less than the 5,016,000 barrels of distillates per day that were being produced during the week ending March 30th, 2018....
even with the increase in our gasoline production, the supply of gasoline left in storage at the end of the week fell by 1,781,000 barrels to 236,839,000 barrels over the week to March 29th, after supplies had fallen by 2,883,000 barrels over the prior week....the draw from our gasoline supplies was smaller this week than last because our imports of gasoline rose by 58,000 barrels per day to 746,000 barrels per day while our exports of gasoline fell by 78,000 barrels per day to 615,000 barrels per day, while the amount of gasoline supplied to US markets increased by 7,000 barrels per day to 9,131,000 barrels per day, after decreasing by 285,000 barrels per day the prior week...after having reached an all time record high ten weeks ago, our gasoline inventories are now fractionally lower than last March 30th's level of 238,477,000 barrels, even as they remain roughly 2% above the five year average of our gasoline supplies at this time of the year...
with the modest decrease in our distillates production, our supplies of distillate fuels fell for the 20th time in twenty-eight weeks, decreasing by 1,998,000 barrels to 128,169,000 barrels during the week ending March 29th, after our distillates supplies had decreased by 2,075,000 barrels over the prior week...the draw on our distillates supplies was a bit smaller this week because the amount of distillates supplied to US markets, a proxy for our domestic demand, fell by 60,000 barrels per day to 4,156,000 barrels per day, and because our exports of distillates fell by 57,000 barrels per day to 1,143,000 barrels per day, while our imports of distillates fell by 51,000 barrels per day to 144,000 barrels per day...with this week's inventory decrease, our distillate supplies ended the week 1.0% below the 129,491,000 barrels that we had stored on March 30th, 2018, while falling to roughly 6% below the five year average of distillates stocks for this time of the year...
finally, with higher oil production, higher oil imports and lower oil exports, our commercial supplies of crude oil in storage increased for the eighth time in 11 weeks, rising by 7,238,000 barrels over the week, from 442,283,000 barrels on March 22nd to 449,521,000 barrels on March 29th...that increase was enough to bring our crude oil inventories back in line with the recent five-year average of crude oil supplies for this time of year, while remaining around 30% above the prior 5 year (2009 - 2013) average of crude oil stocks after the last week of March, with the disparity between those comparisons arising because it wasn't until early 2015 that our oil inventories first rose above 400 million barrels...since our crude oil inventories had mostly been rising since this past Fall, after generally falling until then through most of the prior year and a half, our oil supplies as of March 29th were 5.7% above the 425,332,000 barrels of oil we had stored on March 30th of 2018, but at the same time still 16.1% below the 535,543,000 barrels of oil that we had in storage on March 31st of 2017, and 9.8% below the 498,598,000 barrels of oil we had in storage on April 1st of 2016...
This Week's Rig Count
US drilling rig activity increased for the first time in seven weeks, as US E&P companies appear to be returning to the field after the largest single quarter pullback in 3 years....Baker Hughes reported that the total count of rotary rigs running in the US rose by 19 rigs to 1025 rigs over the week ending April 5th, the largest jump in rig activity since February 9th, 2018, and 22 more rigs than the 1003 rigs that were in use as of the April 6th report of 2018, while still well down from the shale era high of 1929 drilling rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014, the week before OPEC announced their attempt to flood the global oil market...
the count of rigs drilling for oil rose by 15 rigs to 831 rigs this week, which was also 23 more oil rigs than were running a year ago, while it was well below the recent high of 1609 rigs that were drilling for oil on October 10th, 2014...at the same time, the number of drilling rigs targeting natural gas bearing formations increased by 4 rigs to 194 natural gas rigs, which was the same number of natural gas rigs that were drilling a year ago, but way down from the modern era high of 1,606 natural gas targeting rigs that were deployed on August 29th, 2008...
even with the overall increase, drilling activity offshore in the Gulf of Mexico decreased by 1 rig to 22 rigs this week, which was still 10 more than the 12 rigs active in the Gulf a year ago, which was near a record low at that time...at the same time, a drilling platform was set up to drill through an inland body of water in southern Louisiana, where there are now 3 of those so-called "inland water rigs" active, still less than the 4 "inland waters" rigs active in the state a year earlier...
the number of active horizontal drilling rigs increased by 10 rigs to 901 horizontal rigs this week, which was also 17 more horizontal rigs active than the 884 horizontal rigs that were in use in the US on April 6th of last year, but was down from the record of 1372 horizontal rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014.....at the same time, the vertical rig count increased by 3 rigs to 54 vertical rigs this week, which was still down by 2 rigs from the 56 vertical rigs that were in use during the same week of last year....in addition, the directional rig count increased by 6 rigs to 70 directional rigs this week, which was also up by 7 rigs from the 63 directional rigs that were operating on April 6th of 2018...
the details on this week's changes in drilling activity by state and by shale basin are included in our screenshot below of that part of the rig count summary pdf from Baker Hughes that shows those changes...the first table below shows weekly and year over year rig count changes for the major oil & gas producing states, and the second table shows the weekly and year over year rig count changes for the major US geological oil and gas basins...in both tables, the first column shows the active rig count as of April 5th, the second column shows the change in the number of working rigs between last week's count (March 29th) and this week's (April 5th) count, the third column shows last week's March 29th active rig count, the 4th column shows the change between the number of rigs running on Friday and the number running before the equivalent weekend of a year ago, and the 5th column shows the number of rigs that were drilling at the end of that reporting week a year ago, which in this week’s case was the 6th of April, 2018...
as you can see, the 8 rig increase in the Permian basin of western Texas and New Mexico accounted for the lion's share of the week's horizontal rig increase, coming right after that basin had seen 10 rigs shut down over the previous two weeks...this week's Permian increases include 3 rigs that were added in Texas Oil District 8, which would correspond to the core Permian Delaware, and three rigs added in Texas Oil District 8A, which would be in the northern Permian Midland...meanwhile, one rig was pulled out of Texas Oil District 7C, or the southern Midland, which would thus mean there was a net increase of 5 Permian rigs in Texas, while 3 Permian rigs were added in New Mexico's Permian Delaware, which would include the Bone Spring formation...two more rigs were also added in Texas Oil District 6, which would include the natural gas producing Haynesville shale that Texas shares with northern Louisiana, but since that province of Louisiana shows no change, it's not clear whether Texas added 2 Haynesville rigs while Louisiana shut one down, or whether Texas added one Haynesville rig and another one in Texas Oil District 6 that was not targeting the Haynesville...other than that Haynesville addition, the only other natural gas rig changes were in the Marcellus, where 4 natural gas rigs were added in West Virginia, while one Marcellus rig was shut down in Pennsylvania...also note that other than the major producing states shown above, Nebraska also saw a rig added this week in only the third week of drilling activity in that state since July 2016...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Enbridge begins full service on TEAL gas line - Midstream company Enbridge yesterday began full service on its Texas Eastern Appalachian Lease (TEAL) natural gas pipeline expansion in Ohio, which is designed to supply the new Nexus pipeline. TEAL has a full design capacity of 918mn cf/d (26mn m³/d), of which 638mn cf/d began flowing last year. Late last month the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the pipeline to begin service at the new Salineville compressor station in Columbiana County, Ohio, paving the way for Enbridge to begin full service on the project this week.TEAL includes 4.4 miles (7km) of 36-inch pipeline in Monroe County, Ohio, 1,790ft of connecting pipeline to the Nexus line in Columbiana County, the new compressor station in that county, and a new compressor unit in the Colerain compressor station. The $183mn project also modified an existing line to allow for bi-directional flows. Nexus has a design capacity of 1.5 Bcf/d and began partial service late in 2018. Both pipelines are operated by Enbridge.
DEP investigating gas well for water supply complaint in Pittsburgh suburb - The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating what could be the first case of water well contamination from natural gas drilling in Allegheny County since the fracking boom began in Pennsylvania. The case began shortly after a company drilled and fracked the Midas well in Plum Borough last year. It was the first unconventional shale gas well project ever in the borough. About a month after fracking at the “Midas 8M” well was completed, a neighboring landowner reported that their water well nearly dried up, its filtration system was clogged with sediment and debris, and a “foul” smell was emanating from drains inside a house, according to a complaint lodged with the DEP. Lauren Fraley, a DEP spokeswoman, said that the company is automatically assumed to be at fault under state law, if the water problems occur within 12 months of drilling and within 2,500 feet of the well. “If it’s within that timeframe and within that distance, then that that presumption automatically applies,” Fraley said. This case met those criteria, she said, so the agency ruled the gas well was “presumed to be the cause” of the pollution. DEP documents also show the agency conducted water tests at the property and found elevated levels of iron and other metals in the water, over and above “pre-drill, expected” levels. Huntley & Huntley Energy Exploration, the Monroeville-based company that owns the well, is refuting the DEP’s finding, and the agency is investigating materials the company has provided. “We’re still reviewing that and we consider it an ongoing investigation and have not made any final determinations on this water supply complaint,” Fraley said. If the agency finds against the company, it will have to provide a replacement source of water to the landowner. No timetable for the review has been set, Fraley said.
Gas liquids pipeline owner agrees to safety study, new fine (AP) — The heavily fined owner of natural gas liquids pipelines across southern Pennsylvania is agreeing to another $200,000 fine and a study on risks to the Mariner East 1 pipeline. Lawyers for a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer LP submitted the paperwork Wednesday to the state Public Utility Commission, whose members must approve a proposed agreement with agency enforcement lawyers before it becomes final. The case stems from a 2017 leak in Berks County on a section of corroded pipeline. The study must include an analysis of corrosion, structural issues and other threats to the 1930s-era pipeline. Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 1, 2 and 2X projects are blamed for polluting waterways in dozens of places and causing sinkholes near homes. Pennsylvania’s environmental regulators halted Energy Transfer’s construction permits and prosecutors are investigating the projects.
What Fracking Has Wrought - When the mining company Range Resources arrived in her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania, and told residents that the contemporary equivalent of gold lay beneath their properties, Stacey Haney believed that she’d found a solution to her quandary. Amity sits on the Marcellus Shale, a sedimentary-rock formation that stretches about 90,000 square miles and contains natural gas. Like her neighbors, Haney signed what was meant to be a lucrative lease with Range to allow the company to build a fracking-waste pond nearby. Not only could she buy better shelter for her farm animals, but Range agreed to provide her with potable water in case the site affected the quality of her well—a point of pride for Haney, who’d grown up hauling water back to the family home. Then her animals started to die, and her children became sick. A prize goat gave birth to a kid in three pieces and then died. A neighbor’s beloved boxer puppy died from what seemed to be poison, its insides “crystallized, as if it had drunk antifreeze.” One of Haney’s children, Harley, suffered from mouth ulcers, nosebleeds, and personality changes, and a cut on Haney’s foot refused to heal. Something was clearly wrong—the air stank, and strange liquids leaked from the waste pond—but it was hard to link either the human or animal sickness to environmental contamination. And the burden of proof fell on Haney. This grim story is at the center of Eliza Griswold’s Amity and Prosperity. There are other characters in Griswold’s book, and she expands the focus to include the neighboring town of Prosperity, but Haney’s fight against Range Resources forms the spine of her narrative. A single mother with deep roots in the area, Haney has been forced to become a detective. She tracks her veterinarian bills, her medical expenses, and the family’s lab-test results, and through her travails Griswold documents an ever-widening gap between old fantasies and new realities for many families in western Pennsylvania.
Coast Guard warns to stay away from tar balls, oil - -- The Coast Guard is warning people in the waters off the Rockaways to stay away from any tar balls or oil sheens they might see and is investigating to see if they're related to an oil leak from a vessel a few days ago. The agency says reports came in Saturday for the waters off Coney Island and Long Island, from Norton Point to Atlantic Beach. The Coast Guard says a vessel, the Dublin Express, had a 15-inch hole in one of its tanks on Thursday and was in the Arthur Kill waterway between Staten Island and New Jersey. An investigation is still ongoing to find the cause of that leak and determine how much oil spilled.
West Virginia Governor Vetoes Bills Pushed by Natural Gas Industry -- West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in an unexpected move has vetoed two bills aimed at helping smaller natural gas producers in the state. Justice, a Republican, said late Friday he was forced to veto 15 bills that passed during the legislature’s 2019 regular session for “purely technical reasons,” including House Bills (HB) 2673 and 2661. HB 2673 in particular had been a high priority for the industry. It was written by the West Virginia Independent Oil and Gas Association (WVIOGA). It would exempt wells that produce 5-60 Mcf/d of natural gas or 0.5-10 b/d of oil from paying a severance tax. Instead, the previously paid tax monies would go toward maintaining or plugging the marginal wells, helping provide an additional funding source for a widespread environmental issue in the state.“I am working with the legislature to fix the technical errors and get these bills added to the special session call,” Justice said. “If this happens, and the legislature passes the bills during special session, I will have an opportunity to sign them in time to take effect on July 1.”However, Justice’s statement differed from a veto message his administration issued last week, which indicated Justice’s dissatisfaction over the tax break for marginal wells included in HB 2673. While he agreed in the veto message that more funding should be made available for well plugging, he said those funds should come from general revenue generated by the current severance tax rate, among other sources. “I believe it would be to the detriment of the state and to the many causes to which general revenues are put to allow for such an increase in the amount of natural gas and oil produced with an effective tax rate of 0%,” Justice wrote in his veto message. He also noted that the bill failed to address a potential conflict in how the proceeds from a tax cut can be allocated because a portion of severance tax funds go towards communities where drilling has occurred.
Work continues on Mountain Valley Pipeline, despite repeated problems- Last September, torrential rains swept muddy water from a pipeline construction zone into the nearby United Methodist Church in Lindside, West Virginia, washing out the gravel parking lot and leaving a layer of muck in the basement. In other places along the 303-mile route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, large rocks rolled off the construction right of way, tumbling more than 100 feet downhill. “This has been an ongoing issue,” regulators wrote in a July 2018 report that also documented problems with erosion control measures and mudslides. And in February, a contractor working on a Pittsylvania County stretch of the pipeline submitted paperwork stating that erosion maintenance repairs had been made, when in fact they had not. Those cases — along with scores of instances in which sediment-laden water flowed unchecked from work zones into nearby streams or onto adjacent private property — are listed in weekly environmental compliance monitoring reports filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Yet more than a year after construction of the natural gas pipeline began, FERC has not issued a single “serious violation” notice against the project. Normally, the finding of a serious violation would initiate formal enforcement action by the agency, which could include a civil penalty or a stop-work order. FERC has imposed no fines against Mountain Valley. In fact, since 2005, the agency has fined just one natural gas pipeline company for violations during construction. Pipeline opponents, who for the past year have been asking state and federal agencies to address widespread environmental damage caused by construction, said FERC’s lack of action is part of a broken system in which the regulators are too cozy with the industries they regulate. Although it did not explain in detail its reasons, FERC said the agency defines a serious violation as a compliance failure or activities that cause “substantial harm or are a serious threat to a sensitive area or species.” Such determinations are made on a case-by-case basis.
Prices Slide As The Winter Comes To An End - Highlights of the Natural Gas Summary and Outlook for the week ending March 29, 2019 follow. The full report is available below.
- Price Action: The May contract fell 10.5 cents (3.8%) to $2.662 on a 13.2 cent range ($2.788/$2.656).
- Price Outlook: The market slid as temperatures moderated and the yearly storage deficit shrank. Although temperatures early this week will fall, the winter is coming to an end and the storage deficits will be contracting. Based on the storage withdrawals that occurred into April last year, the yearly storage deficit may be completely eliminated by the end of May. The storage deficit to the 5-year average is expected to persist through the summer at least. The current weather forecast is now warmer than 5 of the last 10 years. Pipeline data indicates total flows to Cheniere’s Sabine Pass export facility were at 2.5 bcf. Cove Point is net exporting 0.8 bcf. Corpus Christi is exporting 0.804 bcf. Cameron is exporting 0.000 bcf.
- Weekly Storage: US working gas storage for the week ending March 22 indicated a withdrawal of (36) bcf. Working gas inventories fell to 1,107 bcf. Current inventories fall (276)bcf (-20.0%) below last year and fall (553) bcf (-33.3%) below the 5-year average.
- Supply Trends: Total supply rose 0.7 bcf/d to 82.9 bcf/d. US production rose. Canadian imports rose. LNG imports rose. LNG exports rose. Mexican exports fell. The US Baker Hughes rig count fell (10). Oil activity decreased (8). Natural gas activity decreased (2). The total US rig count now stands at 1,006 .The Canadian rig count fell (17) to 88. Thus, the total North American rig count fell (27) to 1,094 and now trails last year by (33). The higher efficiency US horizontal rig count fell (9) to 891 and rises +21 above last year.
- Demand Trends: Total demand fell (2.2) bcf/d to +86.6 bcf/d. Power demand rose. Industrial demand fell. Res/Comm demand fell. Electricity demand fell (879) gigawatt-hrs to 69,913 which trails last year by (1,879) (-2.6%) and trails the 5- year average by (676)(-1.0%%).
- Nuclear Generation: Nuclear generation fell (439)MW in the reference week to 82,219 MW. This is (2,060) MW lower than last year and +266 MW higher than the 5-year average. Recent output was at 80,106 MW.
The heating season is basically over. With a forecast through April 12 the 2018/19 total cooling index is at (2,899) compared to (2,800) for 2017/18, (2,267) for 2016/17, (2,419) for 2015/16, (2,478) for 2014/15, (3,140) for 2013/14, (2,932) for 2012/13 and (2,516) for 2011/12.
U.S. natural gas prices unmoved by colder winter, low inventories (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas prices remain mired below $3 per million British thermal units despite a relatively cold winter that has left the volume of gas in storage well below normal for the time of year. Futures prices for natural gas delivered to Henry Hub in June 2019 are just over $2.70 per million BTUs, down from $2.90 in the middle of March, and have remained well below $3 throughout the last two years. Gas prices have remained relatively low even though a much colder winter in 2018/19 than in the previous three years pushed up consumption sharply and depleted inventories. Working stocks in underground storage fell to 1,107 billion cubic feet by March 22, 21 percent below the year-earlier level and 33 percent under the prior five-year seasonal average. Stocks are now at the lowest level for the time of year since 2014, despite a 13 percent increase in consumption in the last five years (“Monthly energy review”, U.S. Energy Information Administration, March 2019). Spot prices spiked briefly in October and November, reaching more than $4.80 at one point, and again in January to $3.60, but otherwise the market has not signalled any shortage. The combination of generally low prices with occasional spikes is the result of two trends: internationalisation of the U.S. gas market and the increasingly dominant role of gas as the marginal source of electric generation.
Natural Gas Prices Range-Bound Ahead Of Tomorrow's EIA Release --Today proved to be a very slow day in the world of natural gas, with the May contract finishing down just seven ticks on the day, with a daily trading range under 4 cents. The downward pressure we saw was in the front part of the natural gas curve, with the later dated winter contracts actually finishing up a few ticks on the day, but none of the contracts moved significantly. The weight on the front of the curve has largely been a result of robust supply, as natural gas production hit record high levels this past weekend. While this week's data shows a decline, the overall trend is back up over the last few weeks after some freeze-offs limited supply levels in early March. On the weather side, we saw little net day over day change, partially explaining the stagnant nature of prices today. Our morning GWDD forecast was very close to yesterday afternoon's forecast, with some modest mid month chill, nothing like the levels of cold seen one year ago, but enough to keep demand at levels preventing further downward price moves. Even the afternoon models today offered little reason to expect notable changes, showing highest risks for cold from the middle of the nation into the interior West, with just passing shots of cooler air through the Northeast.
U.S. storage of working natural gas rises last week: EIA - Xinhua | English -- Working natural gas storage in the contiguous United States was 1,130 billion cubic feet (about 31,998 million cubic meters) in the week ending March 29, a net increase of 23 billion cubic feet from the previous week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Thursday. At 1,130 billion cubic feet, total working gas storage decreased by 16.8 percent from this time last year, or 30.9 percent below the five-year average, but still within the five-year historical range, according to EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. The storage of working natural gas usually turns to increase in late April and will continue to grow into early November when heating season starts in the country, according to previous data. Working natural gas is defined as the amount of natural gas stored underground that can be withdrawn for use.
Weekly Gas Storage- First Build of 2019 - Oil & Gas 360 -- The EIA released its weekly Natural Gas Storage Report today, outlining how national natural gas stocks have changed in the last week. In total, the EIA reports natural gas stocks rose by 23 Bcf last week, increasing to 1,130 Bcf from 1,107 Bcf. This is 16.8% below the 1,358 Bcf that was in storage at this point last year and is 30.9% below the five-year average of 1,635 Bcf. This week’s storage build surpassed expectations, as analysts predicted a build of 8 Bcf. Most regions saw a build this week, with the largest in the South Central region, where stocks increased by 35 Bcf. The only draws were seen in the Midwest and East regions, where stocks fell by 7 Bcf and 15 Bcf.
Trump to sign order seeking to clear gas pipeline hurdles: Kudlow (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Wednesday said the Trump administration would soon issue an executive order that would open the door for more natural gas pipelines and exports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG. The administration, which is pushing a policy it calls energy dominance, has been considering an order that would push back against states, including New York, that have blocked interstate natural gas pipelines. Kudlow said the executive order would open the way for pipelines and LNG at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor news outlet. New York has blocked pipelines that would take natural gas from Pennsylvania to New England, which means the region sometimes needs imports of LNG. Early last year, a tanker carrying LNG from a project in Russia’s Arctic arrived in Boston Harbor to satisfy demand during a cold snap. It was unclear how the order would overrule the authority of states to rule on pipelines. Several politicians in New York, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, have said they want energy companies to focus more on renewable power sources and energy efficiency, instead of building more gas and other fossil fuel-fired power plants and infrastructure. New York State in recent years blocked the construction of several pipelines that would transport fracked natural gas from the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania to New England, including Williams Cos Inc’s Constitution and Northeast Supply Enhancement and National Fuel Gas Co’s (NFG) Northern Access. In those cases, New York regulators denied the pipelines on environmental grounds.
White House planning executive order that aims to boost pipeline construction, lower energy prices -The White House is planning to roll out an executive order next week that aims to cut regulations, spur interstate pipeline construction and lower energy costs, according to two senior administration officials.The effort was spurred by the blockage of the construction of the 125-mile Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York. A protracted legal battle over the project has been underway since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, gave a greenlight in 2014 and 2016, because the state of New York has refused to issue a water permit.According to four current and former administration officials, the order directs the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to clarify Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, the law that gives states authority over permits where water quality is concerned.Backlash from states and governors is expected, especially in New York, where regulators warned of further legal action if FERC throws out its water safety review in the Constitution case.And Wall Street likely won't see this as a big breakthrough."We don't think this manifestly changes the state of play," said ClearView energy analyst Christine Tezak. "An executive order can't change the statutory discretion of a state to approve, deny or waive, so a state could still say no."But officials vow the administration's broader goal is to lower energy prices by accelerating the transport of natural gas and to reaffirm U.S. energy "dominance," a word that appeared multiple times in an early draft of the order. Energy executives are optimistic about the prospects for more pipeline construction.
More than 24 hours after leak reported, repairs continue on pipeline in Clayton — Crews were working to repair a leak along the Colonial Pipeline in Clayton on Tuesday morning, more than 24 hours after residents reported the leak. Jennifer Drive is closed while crews work on the pipeline, which carries millions of gallons of gasoline, home heating oil and aviation fuel between Texas and New York. The affected part of the line is a mixed products stub line that goes to Selma, Colonial Pipeline said. Pipeline crews responded to reports of a leak around 8:20 p.m. Sunday. The pipeline was then shut down. Crews were working with Wilson’s Mills Fire & Rescue and Johnston County Emergency Services. Crews were monitoring the air quality in the area and said there were no issues. Residents were not required to leave.
Court Rules Feds Erred in Approving Spill Response Plan for Oil Pipeline under Great Lakes – The federal agency charged with overseeing oil pipeline safety should not have approved a spill response plan for an oil pipeline under the Great Lakes, according to a court decision issued Friday, in a case brought by the National Wildlife Federation. Judge Mark Goldsmith of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan affirmed the National Wildlife Federation’s position that the approval of Enbridge Energy’s oil spill response plans for its oil pipeline that runs through Michigan and Wisconsin and under the Straits of Mackinac—known as Line 5—was faulty and inadequate. “The court could not be more clear: The failure to account for potential impacts to wildlife and the environment violated the law,” said Oday Salim, staff attorney for the National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes Regional Center. “The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration erred by not conducting an environmental assessment, nor consulting with agencies about impacts to protected species. Without these steps, there is simply no way for the government or the public to know whether there are sufficient protections for the Great Lakes and the communities which rely on them. Given Enbridge Energy’s poor track record and the fact that this pipeline travels directly through the heart of the Great Lakes, this assessment is particularly important.” The decision requires the federal agency charged with overseeing oil pipelines – the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) – to prepare an environmental assessment, account for endangered species, and be more specific in considering whether Enbridge Energy has an adequate oil spill response plan for Line 5. The ruling exposes the weaknesses in federal regulations intended to protect rivers, lakes, and streams from oil spills. “This ruling confirms what we’ve known for years – Enbridge is not prepared for an oil spill, and the federal government is not doing enough to protect the Great Lakes,”
Halting Line 5 tunnel is ‘shameful.’ Prepare for a lawsuit, GOP leader says -— A political clash over Enbridge Energy’s plan to build a tunnel around its Line 5 oil pipeline could result in the state suing itself, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told Bridge Magazine. The Clarklake Republican said the GOP-controlled Senate will make sure the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority, the board that approved Enbridge Energy’s plan to build a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, has the resources to make the case for its existence in court if necessary. Shirkey’s comments Friday came one day after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered state agencies to halt action on the tunnel project. Whitmer’s order followed a legal opinion from Attorney General Dana Nesssel, a fellow Democrat, calling the 2018 law creating the Corridor Authority unconstitutional. Speaking to Bridge, Shirkey called Nessel’s move “shameful,” and he defended Republicans’ lightning-quick approval of the tunnel plan in December, which critics have called poorly vetted. Shirkey also lamented former Gov. Rick Snyder’s veto of legislation to allow lawmakers to intervene in some state lawsuits. Shirkey suggested such power would be useful if the Line 5 tunnel issue goes to court. Enbridge, backed by Republican leaders, wants to encase the 66-year-old pipeline in a $350 million to $500 million tunnel below 100 feet of bedrock. Proponents say that’s the best bet for protecting the Straits from an unlikely spill without disrupting the path of light crude oil from Superior, Wisc., to Sarnia, Ont. Environmentalists call the plan too risky, and the pipeline unnecessary. They want it shut down. The following is a condensed transcript of Shirkey’s conversation with Bridge, lightly edited for clarity.
Residents wary of Superior, Wis., oil refinery rebuild - A demolition crew started removing the charred metal and broken equipment at the Husky Energy oil refinery in Superior, Wis., a key first step to reopening the facility after an explosion and fire there nearly one year ago. But what many local residents want to know is whether work will include removing tanks of hydrofluoric acid, a highly toxic chemical that prompted a large-scale evacuation of the city as the plant burned. For now, Husky isn’t saying. A company spokesman last week said rebuilding plans are still coming together, and that the plant won’t fully reopen until next year.A recent phone survey of 1,595 Superior residents found 37 percent in favor of a hydrofluoric acid ban for the city, while 35 percent said they were unsure and 27 percent said a ban isn’t necessary. Hydrofluoric acid, which is hydrogen fluoride dissolved in water, is used in the refining process.A worst-case scenario report on file with the Environmental Protection Agency says some 180,000 people, essentially the entire Twin Ports population, could be at risk if a fully loaded tank of hydrofluoric acid at the refinery emptied in 10 minutes or less. The chemical causes burns and can kill. The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at some refineries, has urged companies nationwide to stop using the chemical.
Husky Energy to stick with hydrogen fluoride at rebuilt Superior plant - Chemical prompted fears that '18 blast could have been worse. -- Husky Energy will continue using hydrogen fluoride, a highly toxic chemical, at the Superior, Wis., refinery that exploded and burned a year ago. The Calgary-based company announced Tuesday it will spend more than $400 million to rebuild the refinery but said that ditching hydrogen fluoride would not be economically practical. Some Twin Ports residents and public officials have urged Husky to retool its refining process to eliminate the chemical. Tanks of hydrogen fluoride were never breached during the conflagration, which was caused by an eroded valve. But large parts of Superior, a city of about 27,000, were evacuated because of fears of its release. Hydrofluoric acid, which is hydrogen fluoride dissolved in water, is used as a catalyst to boost octane in gasoline at about half of the nation's refineries. Accidents involving the chemical are rare. But a hydrofluoric acid release can cause severe burns and — in a worse-case scenario — a deadly gas cloud. "The largest risk to the public at the Husky refinery is undoubtedly hydrogen fluoride," said Ginger Juel, co-founder of the Twin Ports Action Alliance, which has campaigned against the chemical's use. "Is public safety less important than the investors' bottom line?"
U.S. refinery runs hit fifth consecutive annual record high in 2018 - Gross inputs to U.S. petroleum refineries, also referred to as refinery runs, averaged 17.3 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2018, the highest annual average on record and the fifth consecutive year of record-high refinery runs. Refinery runs peaked in June at an average of 18.0 million b/d, with average weekly runs exceeding 18.0 million b/d during six weeks in 2018. High refinery diesel margins—the difference between the acquisition price of crude oil and the wholesale price of diesel fuel—have provided an incentive for refiners to maintain high runs despite low gasoline refinery margins. The record-high U.S. gross refinery input levels are driven in large part by refinery operations in the Gulf Coast and Midwest regions (Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts, or PADDs, 3 and 2, respectively). In the Gulf Coast, which is home to more than half of all U.S. refinery capacity, refinery runs averaged more than 9.2 million b/d in 2018, 8% higher than the previous five-year average for that region and the first time the annual average surpassed 9.0 million b/d. The Midwest has the second-highest refinery capacity, and refinery runs averaged 3.8 million b/d in 2018, or 6% higher than the previous five-year average. Refinery utilization as a percentage of operable capacity averaged 93.2% in 2018, an increase of about 2.1% from 2017. Despite record-high inputs, utilization rates have not surpassed the record of 95.6% set in 1998. Rather than running at higher utilization rates, refineries have increased their capacity: U.S. refinery capacity increased by 783,000 barrels per calendar day between December 2013 and December 2018. In the March update of its Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA expects U.S. refinery runs in 2019 to be relatively flat compared with the record-high 2018 levels, partially as a result of expected high levels of refinery maintenance in 2019. Refinery runs are then expected to increase and reach a new record of 17.8 million b/d in 2020.
Citing climate differences, Shell walks away from U.S. refining lobby (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc on Tuesday became the first major oil and gas company to announce plans to leave a leading U.S. refining lobby due to disagreement on climate policies, citing its support for the goals of the Paris climate agreement. In its first review of its association with 19 key industry groups, Shell said it had found “material misalignment” over climate policy with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and would quit the body in 2020. The review is part of Shell’s drive to increase transparency and show investors it is in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement’s goals to limit global warming by reducing carbon emissions to a net zero by the end of the century. It is the latest sign of how investor pressure on oil companies, particularly in Europe, is leading to changes in their behavior around climate. Last year, Shell caved in to investor pressure over climate change, setting out plans to introduce industry-leading carbon emissions targets linked to executive pay. Its chief executive, Ben van Beurden, has since repeatedly urged oil and gas producers to take action over climate and pollution, staking out a more radical position than the heads of other major oil companies. “AFPM has not stated support for the goal of the Paris Agreement. Shell supports the goal of the Paris Agreement,” the Anglo-Dutch company said in its decision. “The need for urgent action in response to climate change has become ever more obvious since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015. As a result, society’s expectations in this area have changed, and Shell’s views have also evolved,” van Beurden said in the report.
Court examines oil and gas wastewater dumping - Green groups yesterday asked a federal appellate court to review a permit for waste disposal from hydraulic fracturing operations in the Gulf of Mexico. EPA fell short of its duties under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act to study the impact of wastewater discharges on sea turtles, whales and other ocean species, Center for Biological Diversity attorney Kristen Monsell argued before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals."I think the judges were a bit skeptical of our position, but we think it's absolutely the right one under the law here," she said after oral arguments in Houston yesterday. "The agency is allowing oil companies to dump massive amounts of wastewater and fracking chemicals into the Gulf without studying impacts on marine life."Plaintiffs in the case, which also include the Gulf Restoration Network and the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, filed their lawsuit last year (Energywire, Feb. 14, 2018).Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee, led the questioning, Monsell said. The panel, which also comprised Trump picks James Ho and Andy Oldham, seemed curious about plaintiffs' arguments that EPA should not have relied on an environmental analysis that predated the widespread use of fracking about a decade ago, she said.The oil and gas extraction technique carries different risks than conventional approaches, Monsell said. "There's been a whole host of new information indicating that the impacts of fracking may be quite significant and cause harm to the marine environment," she said. "EPA just dismissed those entirely."
Chemical that EPA allows to help clean up oil spills sickens people and fish, lawsuit claims - Kindra Arnesen’s family was driven out of Venice, La. by the toxic odor from a chemical dispersant sprayed in the Gulf of Mexico to break up oil from the massive 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill. Before they fled, her husband experienced respiratory problems. Her daughter broke out in rashes. Arnesen, 41, had headaches and other skin problems. “We live in the middle of an oil field,” she said, referring to the thousands of oil platforms in the gulf. Oil continues to seep a few miles off Venice from a Taylor Energy operation destroyed during a hurricane nearly 15 years ago. “People don’t realize how many spills we have here.” Fearing the next spill, Arnesen joined a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the agency has allowed 25 years to go by without updating the National Contingency Plan to respond to oil spills. On Monday, the University of California at Berkeley Environmental Law Center issued the agency a 60-day intent to sue notice on behalf of several groups and individuals “for failure to perform a non-discretionary duty” under the Clean Water Act. In the absence of an update, the EPA has continued to allow emergency responders to use a chemical mixture called Corexit to disperse oil into droplets that allow microbes to further break it down, the groups say. About 20 percent of nearly 5,000 Coast Guard personnel who responded to the BP spill and were exposed to the toxin reported persistent coughing. Others experienced wheezing and trouble breathing, according to a 2018 study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health. “The combination of both oil and oil dispersants presented associations that were much greater in magnitude than oil alone for coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing,” the report said. A Louisiana State University study two years prior reported a similar finding: that symptoms from exposure resulted in “burning in nose, throat or lungs, sore throat, dizziness and wheezing." That was evident during the Deepwater Horizon cleanup efforts, when “dispersants and oil combined to form droplets of chemical enhanced oil that is more deadly than oil alone to people,” said Riki Ott, the marine toxicology director for Alert, a project of Earth Island Institute, one of five plaintiffs in the suit. The other plaintiffs come from Alaska, where the Trump administration is pushing to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing for the first time. They include an activist inletkeeper, a community group and an Inuit woman.
Massive clean-up operation continues in Houston ship channel -- The U.S. Coast Guard has deployed as many as 90 vessels to contain, clean and control an oil spill in the ship channel. The oil leaked after a fire damaged or destroyed several storage tanks at the ITC facility in Deer Park. The Coast Guard gave the media a tour of the area to show how clean-up operations are going. "Understand how challenging it is, but at the same time how complex and dynamic the waterway is, the deep draft shifts, the barge traffic, but at the same time, all the response operations that are happening, all at the same time, all on a very tight and confined waterway," said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Oditt. There are 33 skimmers and 20 vacuum vessels working in several areas around the ship channel, according to the Coast Guard. "You may see some areas where there's a light sheen but the bulk of the oil, right now the weather, it shifted to the north and east side of the Houston ship channel," said Oditt. The Coast Guard is also inspecting outgoing ship traffic to make sure no ship spreads the oil beyond the containment area. Ship channel traffic is also improving. The Coast Guard said vessel traffic is now at 50 percent up from 30 percent Thursday.
Houston Chemical Disaster Zone Remains No-Go Two Weeks After Blaze - Two weeks after a chemical storage complex near Houston erupted in flames and menaced tens of thousands of people with dangerous fumes, the site remains too hazardous for investigators to approach. Intercontinental Terminal Co. is still trying to drain millions of gallons of volatile oil byproducts from tanks damaged in the four-day blaze that began on March 17. The ground around the tanks is also saturated in dangerous fluids, severely restricting access to the facility 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of downtown Houston. On Friday, the company said they may be able to allow some access early this week. ITC and its top executive, Bernt Netland, have been chastised by elected officials for their handling of the unfolding disaster that cast a mile-high plume of black smoke over the fourth-largest American city for days, paralyzed its eastern suburbs and severed Houston’s waterborne access to the Gulf of Mexico. Harris County Fire Marshal Laurie Christensen’s probe of the event has so far been restricted to off-site interviews.“We haven’t been able to gain access to the site yet,” said Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the fire marshal. “They’re still doing emergency operations and we need to wait until it’s safe for the investigators to go in.” Christensen’s investigators won’t enter the site until the remaining tanks are emptied and other hazards have been mitigated, Moreno said. Clouds of cancer-causing benzene have continued to waft over the disaster site as well as nearby factories and suburbs, including one early Friday, according to ITC. Oil tankers and other ships headed for the manufacturing nexus along the Houston Ship Channel have been backing up in Galveston Bay and the Gulf because of runoff from ITC’s facility that polluted the waterway. The U.S. Coast Guard commander for the region said he doesn’t know when things may return to normal. Almost 20 miles of rubber barriers have been deployed to halt the spread of the oily sheen and protect oyster beds. Ferry service in the area remains shut down and the annual re-enactment of the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas independence from Mexico has been canceled.
At least 1 dead, 2 injured in Houston area chemical plant fire- At least one person is dead and two injured in a chemical plant fire on the outskirts of Houston, officials said. The blaze at the KMCO plant was caused by a fire in a tank of colorless flammable gas isobutylene and broke out around 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The Harris County Fire Marshals Office lifted a shelter in place order for those within a mile radius of the plant a little after 3 p.m. local time. The order included closing any windows or doors as well as turning off air-conditioning units. The county emergency management agency announced a 1-mile "no-fly" zone above the plant. And, students at all nearby Sheldon Independent School District campuses were initially not permitted to leave school buildings, according to the district. Later, during a midafternoon press conference, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said authorities were working with the school districts right now "to make sure that we can get those children into their parents’ arms and get them back home as quickly as possible." Gonzalez wrote on Twitter that a transfer line ignited in the area of the tank of isobutylene "and the tank caught on fire. An adjacent storage building with solid goods also caught fire." Among the victims, one died at the scene of the fire and the two injured were airlifted for treatment, the sheriff said. The KMCO plant has had several compliance violations with the EPA in recent years. An EPA report from last year listed some violations over the last several years of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which dictates the management of hazardous materials and non-hazardous solid waste.
One worker killed, two injured in chemical plant explosion in Houston, Texas --An explosion at a chemical plant in the Houston, Texas suburb of Crosby killed one worker and critically injured two others on Tuesday.Workers fled from the KMCO plant in a panicked scrum after a tank of isobutylene ignited at about 10:45 a.m.; about 30,000 students in nearby schools were forced to lock down, and residents were ordered to shelter in place. The fire was fully extinguished after 4:00 p.m. James “Bubba” Mangum, 27, was apparently trying to stop the explosion when he was killed. According to his family Mangum had just been promoted two weeks prior to the incident and had worked at KMCO for several years.“Bubba was definitely one of the good guys. If I called him at 10 o’clock at night and needed help with something, he would be there. He was just the biggest-hearted, most generous 27-year-old kid you could ever meet,” friend and neighbor Kelvin Burks told Bluebonnet News. “He would go out of his way for his family and friends.”Workers were given little warning before Tuesday’s explosion, and some have described the communications from operators as “panicked.” Justin Trahan, who had been working within 100 feet of the tank that exploded, recounted to KHOU reporters that an operator initially instructed him and his colleagues to leave the building because of a “chemical release.” Trahan stated that he heard “some panic on the radio” as he and his workers moved towards the doors. “We didn’t think anything of it — we didn’t think it was anything severe,” he told reporters. There were no alarms before the tank caught fire.
Magellan scraps plans for Permian Gulf Coast Pipeline amid talks to combine it with another project - Oklahoma-based Magellan Midstream Partners is scraping plans for its proposed Permian Gulf Coast Pipeline amid ongoing discussions to combine the project with another crude oil pipeline. The 600-mile Permian Basin to Gulf Coast pipeline project is unlikely to proceed as originally announced, Magellan Vice President Suzanne Costin reported in a Monday afternoon filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Magellan announced the pipeline project in September as a joint venture with Energy Transfer LP, Delek US and MPLX LP. The proposed 30-inch pipeline would have moved 1 million barrels of crude oil per day from the West Texas shale play to Magellan's terminal in Houston and Energy Transfer's terminal in Nederland."There were conditions that needed to be met in order to proceed with the project that weren't satisfied," Magellan Vice President Bruce Heine said in a statement. In her SEC filing, Costin reported that Magellan is decreasing its 2019 capital expenditure budget accordingly. The company now estimates that it will spend $1.1 billion on active expansion projects in 2019 and another $150 million in 2020."The partnership continues to actively develop a crude oil pipeline project in the Permian Basin, but the probability of success is unknown at this time," Costin said in her filing. However, the company remains in discussions to combine the project with another proposed Permian Basin to Gulf Coast crude oil pipeline, recent filings and earnings calls show. During a Jan. 31 investors call, Magellan CEO Mike Mears said the company was in the process of acquiring right of way for the Permian Gulf Coast Pipeline but was also interesting in combining the project with another crude oil pipeline proposed by Exxon Mobil, Plains All American Pipeline and Lotus Midstream. The three companies formed a joint venture named Wink to Webster Pipeline LLC in January to move 1 million barrels of crude oil per day from along a 650-mile pipeline to the Houston area. basically had similar capabilities and followed a similar route," Chief Financial Officer Aaron Milford said. "If we can find a way to put them together, we think that that's really a very efficient solution for everybody. But those conversations are occurring, as we speak. So, I really don't want to say much further."
Texas is on fire with polluting flares from fracking -– Euronews - In a time when much of the world is concerned by a changing climate, all the while making promises to cut global usage of fossil fuels, the US is doing the opposite. Instead, the US is rapidly developing its projects in the oil and gas industry. Almost half the active fracking rigs in the US are situated in the Permian Basin of West Texas, a former ocean-turned-oil-rich seabed. While this oil-booming location has shown positive drives on the population figures in surrounding communities, it hasn't come without its setbacks. Huge levels of wasted natural gas, which is burned or flared off on rigs, is causing major setbacks in industry, the climate, and for the health of residents in the local community. "This poison gas well to the east of us, it comes under our house, and basically we sleep in it," one resident told NBC Left Field. "It's nauseating smells all the time." You can find out more about the effects of the fracking business in West Texas by clicking the player above.
They can't give it away: Texas natural gas at all-time negative lows (Reuters) - Next-day natural gas prices for Wednesday at the Waha hub in West Texas plunged to record negative levels - meaning some drillers are paying those with spare pipeline capacity to take the unwanted gas and are getting nothing for it. The drop in prices has been caused by weak demand and recent equipment problems on a key pipeline in New Mexico, analysts said. But pipeline constraints in the Permian basin in West Texas have squeezed gas prices there for some time. The Permian is the nation’s largest oil field, but it also produces large volumes of gas, and the region lacks pipelines to move it. Spot prices at the Waha hub fell to minus $3.38 per million British thermal units for Wednesday from minus 2 cents for Tuesday, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) data. That beat the prior all-time next-day low of minus $1.99 for March 29. Prices have been negative in the real-time or next-day market since March 22. The fall in prices started after El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline declared force majeure on March 18 because of equipment problems at two compressor stations in New Mexico, which cut the amount of gas that could flow west from the Permian. Waha prices remained negative even after El Paso, a unit of Kinder Morgan Inc, returned one compressor to service by March 31; the other is expected to be back on April 5. In addition to the ongoing New Mexico pipeline constraint, Reza Haidari, director of natural gas research at Refinitiv, said the latest price drop was also due to declining heating demand and an increase in power from wind farms that is displacing gas-fired generation in the U.S. Southwest. Production of both oil and gas has more than doubled to record highs over the past five years, but Permian pipeline infrastructure has not kept up with output growth. That has forced some producers to burn or flare off some of the gas associated with oil production. Those constraints have depressed Waha prices, widening its discount to the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana to a record. That spread reached $6.14/mmBtu on Wednesday, topping the prior all-time high of $5.85 in February 1996, according to ICE and Refinitiv Eikon data. Several new pipelines are in the works, but those projects will not enter service until late 2019 and later.
US Adds 19 Oil, Gas Rigs - The U.S. added 15 oil rigs and four gas rigs for a net gain of 19 rigs this week, BHGE reports. After six consecutive weeks of declines, the U.S. finally saw a reprieve this week in its rig count. The U.S. added a total of 19 oil and gas rigs, according to weekly data from Baker Hughes, a GE Company.The nation added 15 oil rigs and four gas rigs. This brings the week’s total rig count to 1,025 – up 22 rigs from one year ago. Oklahoma and Pennsylvania were the only states to see a decline, losing one rig apiece. The following states added rigs:
- Texas (8)
- West Virginia (4)
- New Mexico (3)
- Alaska (2)
- Colorado (2)
- North Dakota (1)
Among the major basins, the Permian saw the most gains as it added eight rigs. The Marcellus added another three rigs, while the following basins added one rig apiece:
- Cana Woodford
- DJ-Niobrara
- Haynesville
- Williston
The Permian – which lost a total of 10 rigs during the past two weeks – currently has 462 active rigs. This accounts for almost half of the nation’s total rig count and more than half of its oil rigs.
News From the Oil Patch, April 1 - Kansas crude-oil production last year dipped to its lowest level since 2005. Kansas producers pumped 2.75 million barrels in December for a yearly total of just 34.7 million barrels, according to the latest numbers from the Kansas Geological Survey. That’s down 1.1 million barrels from last year’s total, marking the third consecutive annual decline. A stark price plunge two years ago led to production declines across the country. Kansas has been slower than some other states in resuming the large production totals reported during times of higher prices. Ellis County was the top crude oil producing county in Kansas last year with just over 2.6 million barrels. That’s the lowest total in the county in nearly twenty years. The 2018 total for Barton County was just shy of 1.7 million barrels. You have to go back to 2006 to find a lower annual total. We’ve seen steady production declines over the last several years in Russell and Stafford counties. Both counties dipped to the lowest annual total to be found in records published by the KGS dating back to 1970. Russell County operators produced just over 1.5 million barrels last year, while Stafford County added just over one million. Baker Hughes reports a big drop in its weekly rotary rig count. The total nationwide was 1,006, which is down eight oil rigs and two seeking natural gas. The count in Texas was down one, Colorado was down four, Alaska dropped by three and California was down two rigs. Canada reported 88 active rigs, which is down 17. Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a slight dip in the rig count in Kansas. The total east of Wichita was unchanged at four. There were 24 rigs in Western Kansas that were relocating, moving in, rigging up or drilling. That’s down two for the week. Independent reported 134 stacked rigs, up three from the week before. Operators filed 24 permits for drilling at new locations across Kansas last week, 195 so far this year. There were 12 in eastern Kansas and 12 west of Wichita. Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 19 newly-completed wells for the week across the state, including one in Russell County and one in Stafford County. Out of 15 completions west of Wichita last week, five were dry holes. There were six completions in eastern Kansas.
Trump issues new permit for stalled Keystone XL pipeline -- (AP) — Moving defiantly to kick-start the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new presidential permit for the project — two years after he first approved it and more than a decade after it was first proposed. Trump said the permit issued Friday replaces one granted in March 2017. The order is intended to speed up development of the controversial pipeline, which would ship crude oil from tar sands in western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. A federal judge blocked the project in November, saying the Trump administration had not fully considered potential oil spills and other impacts. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ordered a new environmental review. A White House spokesman said the new permit issued by Trump “dispels any uncertainty” about the project. “Specifically, this permit reinforces, as should have been clear all along, that the presidential permit is indeed an exercise of presidential authority that is not subject to judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act,” the spokesman said. But a lawyer for environmentalists who sued to stop the project called Trump’s action illegal. The lawyer, Stephan Volker, vowed to seek a court order blocking project developer TransCanada from moving forward with construction. “By his action today in purporting to authorize construction” of the pipeline despite court rulings blocking it, “President Trump has launched a direct assault on our system of governance,” Volker said Friday in an email. Trump’s attempt to “overturn our system of checks and balances is nothing less than an attack on our Constitution. It must be defeated,” Volker said.
Will Trump's pipeline permit hold up in court? -- President Trump last week attempted to take the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline into his own hands.His Friday executive order swapped out a key March 2017 State Department permit — currently under review in federal appellate court — with a fresh presidential approval (E&E News PM, March 29).It's unclear whether Trump's efforts to override the State Department's delegated authority will survive judicial scrutiny."It has been convention that agencies [with delegated presidential powers] have to follow the National Environmental Policy Act and all the federal laws that apply to agency action," said Alexandra Klass, an energy law professor at the University of Minnesota. "When the president acts, those rules don't apply." Following orders from newly inaugurated Trump, the State Department in 2017 issued a permit allowing the pipeline, which would connect Albertan oil fields to the Gulf of Mexico, to cross the border between the United States and Canada. The agency had considered the border crossing under the previous administration, but President Obama blocked the project in 2015.Keystone XL developer TransCanada Corp. sued in 2016, arguing that President Obama overstepped the limits of executive authority. The company dropped its challenge in April 2017.This time around, the company could be in the position of defending presidential power over cross-border projects.Trump's revocation of the 2017 permit appears to derail proceedings initiated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana disputing the State Department's authorization.As part of that lawsuit, Judge Brian Morris last year issued a preliminary injunction blocking TransCanada from working on the pipeline until the agency revisits its review of climate, market and other impacts (Energywire, Nov. 9, 2018).After a month of legal wrangling, Morris, an Obama appointee, said he would not accommodate TransCanada's request to conduct certain preconstruction field activities, such as preparing work camps and off-site storage. The case is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to thaw the construction freeze.
Landowners hit with $1 million in liens during Keystone XL road dispute - When Rod Ingalls opened his letter, he “just about fainted.” When Lyle Weiss opened his, he “couldn’t believe it.” JT Vig got “fuming mad.” “It’s a good thing they weren’t standing there,” Vig said of the letter’s senders, “because I might’ve clocked them.” The letters arrived earlier this month. They said mechanic’s liens had been filed against each rancher’s land by Brandenburg Drainage, of Maquoketa, Iowa. Additional landowners, all of them in rural Meade County, also got the letters. In all, Brandenburg Drainage filed 23 liens totaling $1.01 million against Meade County landowners in mid-March. The lien amounts ranged from $3,580.57 to $243,478.76. Seven of the liens were released Wednesday, without any public explanation, after a flurry of communications during preceding days among landowners, lawyers and the three companies involved in the situation. The three companies are Brandenburg Drainage; Diamond Willow Energy in New Town, North Dakota; and TransCanada in Alberta. TransCanada has an agreement with Meade County to improve and maintain county roads that would be subjected to truck and equipment traffic during the construction of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL crude-oil pipeline. The controversial pipeline, which has been in pre-construction limbo because of litigation brought by its opponents, would pass through western South Dakota en route from Canada to Nebraska. TransCanada hired Diamond Willow Energy to improve segments of gravel roads near the western South Dakota map dots of Opal and Marcus, both in Meade County about 30-40 miles southwest of Faith. The roads — Maurine Road, Opal Road and Avance Road — are in the vicinity of a planned Keystone XL pump station, workforce camp and pipe yards. Diamond Willow subcontracted the work to Brandenburg Drainage, which performed some of the work last fall before a dispute arose between the two companies. Brandenburg Drainage claimed it was owed money by Diamond Willow. To recover the money, Brandenburg Drainage filed mechanic’s liens against the owners of the land abutting the roads.
Democrats want to end policy where oil and gas regulators promote drilling - The Colorado Independent - On April 17, 2017, Erin Martinez’s home exploded. Her husband and brother, who were working on a hot water heater in the basement of the Firestone home, were killed. Martinez, who has since recovered and moved into a new home, came to the state Capitol on Thursday to support legislation that would dramatically change how Colorado regulates oil and gas development across the state. Her speech capped off an announcement that Democrats will soon introduce a bill overhauling the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s oversight of the $31-billion industry, among other reforms. Under the proposed legislation, which will be introduced as soon as Friday, lawmakers say the COGCC will no longer be allowed to promote the industry, a statutory mandate dating back to 1951 that drilling opponents say conflicts with the commission’s other regulatory obligations. When issuing drilling permits, the commission must make protecting public health, safety and the environment a top priority, lawmakers say. If enacted, it would mark a subtle but significant shift in the agency’s decision-making that for years has been contested in the state courts. Another key provision would allow local communities to regulate drilling themselves, which could effectively prohibit drilling in certain communities. Oil and gas companies have long feared such a patchwork of regulations across the state, especially as Boulder, Erie, Lafayette, Superior and other Front Range cities pursue moratoriums on drilling. Supporters of the legislation say it’s about updating antiquated regulations that have not kept pace with growth in the industry.
A network of pipeline is spreading in Wyoming as energy companies prepare for the next boom -- Smith had been working on this and two other pipeline projects since September, one of the hundreds of pipeliners out in the Powder River Basin this spring, laying down the network of line necessary to carry Wyoming crude and natural gas to market. As the price of crude fell, they worked through the bitter Wyoming winter and are now trudging through a wet spring to finish projects. Across the state, citizen lawmakers are concerning themselves with how to regulate the industry while watching the low price of oil. The governor’s office is still trying to figure out how to address the multimillion dollar gap in Wyoming’s school funding from the oil and coal bust of a few years back. But in the oil field, talk is of the boom to come, the increase in traffic and the pipe going in the ground. The only thing holding back the Powder is the price of crude. That, and maybe the amount of pipe in the ground.There are 30,000 applications for permits to drill wells awaiting review in the state of Wyoming. Most are permit requests for horizontal wells in the Powder. Though not all of the wells will be drilled, the number represents a record level of interest, revealing companies’ desire to control drilling in the basin. The Casper oilman said lack of pipe to move crude out of Wyoming could be a problem in the near term, and it could dampen the basin’s development, which has otherwise seen modest-to-steady growth in the last 18 months.Lack of takeaway can slap an unfavorable discount on the value of a barrel of oil and cut into a driller’s opportunity to make money off of his investment, True said.“When a boom comes and you have nowhere to put your product ... you get significant price discounts,” he said.
Pacific Northwest sees highest daily natural gas spot prices in the U.S. since 2014 - Natural gas spot prices at the Sumas trading point on the Canada-Washington border averaged $161.33 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Friday, March 1, the highest daily spot price recorded by Natural Gas Intelligence anywhere in the United States in at least five years. The price spike was caused by regional supply constraints and unseasonably cold temperatures. Limited supply coincided with unusually high demand when part of the polar vortex moved into the region during the beginning of March. Temperatures in Washington state averaged 33 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) from March 1 through March 4, 10°F lower than normal. These temperatures led to high heating demand in the Pacific Northwest and neighboring areas of the Rockies and Western Canada, regions that supply the Pacific Northwest with natural gas. The October 2018 explosion on Enbridge’s BC Pipeline—which transports natural gas through British Columbia, Canada, into the United States at Sumas, Washington—led to reduced flows and higher prices at the Sumas trading point throughout the 2018–2019 winter. From November through February, Genscape data show daily flow through Sumas onto Williams’s Northwest Pipeline in Washington averaged about 610 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), about one-third lower than the same period in the previous year. Sumas prices averaged $10.56/MMBtu during that period compared with $2.62/MMBtu a year earlier. Throughout the winter, natural gas supply shortfalls in the Pacific Northwest were met by withdrawing natural gas from the Jackson Prairie storage facility in southwest Washington and by changing regional pipeline flows to bring additional natural gas into Washington and Oregon. However, around February 9, compression problems at the Jackson Prairie facility reduced the rate that natural gas could be withdrawn from the storage facility from 690 MMcf/d to 460 MMcf/d. Natural gas storage withdrawal rates decrease as natural gas is withdrawn from storage caverns, reducing the internal pressure and consequently the rate of withdrawal. As a result, the maximum withdrawal rate from Jackson Prairie would have been even lower than 460 MMcf/d by the beginning of March.
E&P Cash Surge Could Mean Return to Super Profits - A healthy amount of free cash flow among the world's public E&P companies could signal the return to super profits, according to Rystad Energy. The world’s public E&P companies saw their free cash flow (FCF) surge to nearly $300 billion last year and 2019 may be just as promising, according to analysis by Rystad Energy. “The fact that E&P companies are able to deliver the same shareholder returns despite much lower oil prices points to an impressive increase in profitability,” Rystad’s head of upstream research Espen Erlingsen said. Rystad looked at estimated global FCF for all public E&P companies since 2010. Their analysis shows that FCF peaked in 2011 but declined between 2012 and 2014 due to increased budget investments and more commitments. The FCF was reduced considerably in 2015 as the oil price collapsed. However, since 2015, FCF has had a gradual recovery to the all-time highs of today. “Our analysis of the latest annual reports from the majors clearly indicates that ‘super profits’ are back for large E&P companies,” said Erlingsen. “Free cash flow before financing activities was at a record high in 2018, and the mega profits were typically used to pay down debt and increase payments to shareholders.” And thanks to higher oil prices, lower development costs and lower investment activity, Rystad believes 2019 could be another “blockbuster year.” So who really benefits? According to Rystad – who analyzed recent cash flow statements from all the majors plus Norway’s Equinor – there’s a clear winner. “…almost 70 cents for every dollar in profits generated last year for these companies ended up in shareholders’ pockets,” Erlingsen said.
Cash flow still weak at U.S. shale firms, stock prices underperform (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers last year again spent more money than they collected, extending a years-long streak of putting oil output above cash flow and investor returns, according to a Reuters analysis of top independent producers. All but seven of 29 of these producers last year spent more on drilling and shareholder payouts than they generated through operations, according to securities filings. Total overspending by the group was $6.69 billion in 2018, according to Morningstar data provided to Reuters by the Sightline Institute and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. While total overspending was down slightly from a year earlier, stock prices in the sector have slid at a time when U.S. share prices in general have posted strong gains. Shale firms are pushing U.S. oil output to record-shattering levels, but companies have prioritized spending on acreage and drilling. The data showed few producers generated solid returns, even as U.S. crude prices rose 28 percent in 2018 to an average $65.06 a barrel, from $50.79 in 2017. Stock prices of all 29 shale producers fell in 2018, pressured by volatile crude prices and stronger returns in other sectors. Only one of the 29, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp, traded higher at the end of 2018 than it did two years earlier. For too many shale firms, generating more cash than they spend is “aspirational,” said Lee Tillman, chief executive officer of Marathon Oil Corp. “We’ve got to develop the trust and credibility that we are going to prioritize the shareholder going forward, that this really is a maturing of the shale business over time,” Tillman said. An investor who put $100 into the S&P 500 Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Index in 2013 would have had $58.99 at the end of 2018. Similar $100 investments were worth just $9 in Whiting Petroleum Corp, $33.51 in Apache and $38.88 in Devon, according to financial filings. By contrast, $100 in the S&P 500 grew to $150.33 over the same period.
US Imported Oil From Saudi Arabia -- Latest Data Just Posted -- January, 2019, Data --We keep hearing that Saudi Arabia continues to ship less oil to the US, resulting in higher gasoline prices (since oil itself hasn't inflated a whole lot), and irritating President Trump.The most recent figures have just been released. The data lags by two months. So, as of the first of April we have the January, 2019, data.The US actually imported slightly more oil from Saudi Arabia in January, 2019, compared to one year earlier, January, 2018: 711,000 bopd vs 710,000 bod. It's hard to believe that "we" will see numbers too much lower. And to think, at around 500,000 bopd had President Obama not killed the Keystone XL the "Saudi Arabia shortfall" would have easily been made up by Canada. From the EIA, most recent data, US imported crude oil from Saudi Arabia, in thousands of bbls daily:
Judge throws out Trump order that overturned Obama offshore drilling ban in Arctic - President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he reversed bans on offshore drilling in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean, a U.S. judge said in a ruling that restored the Obama-era restrictions.Judge Sharon Gleason in a decision late Friday threw out Trump's executive order that overturned the bans that comprised a key part of Obama's environmental legacy.Presidents have the power under a federal law to remove certain lands from development but cannot revoke those removals, Gleason said."The wording of President Obama's 2015 and 2016 withdrawals indicates that he intended them to extend indefinitely, and therefore be revocable only by an act of Congress," said Gleason, who was nominated to the bench by Obama.A message left Saturday for the Department of Justice was not immediately returned.The American Petroleum Institute, a defendant in the case, disagreed with the ruling."In addition to bringing supplies of affordable energy to consumers for decades to come, developing our abundant offshore resources can provide billions in government revenue, create thousands of jobs and will also strengthen our national security," it said in a statement.Eric Grafe, an attorney with Earthjustice, welcomed the ruling, saying it "shows that the president cannot just trample on the Constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife and climate."Earthjustice represented numerous environmental groups that sued the Trump administration over the April 2017 executive order reversing the drilling bans. At issue in the case was the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Wood said during a hearing before Gleason in November that environmental groups were misinterpreting the intent of the law written in 1953. He said it is meant to be flexible and sensible and not intended to bind one president with decisions made by another when determining offshore stewardship as needs and realities change over time.In 2015, Obama halted exploration in coastal areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the Hanna Shoal, an important area for walrus. In late 2016, he withdrew most other potential Arctic Ocean lease areas — about 98 percent of the Arctic outer continental shelf. The bans were intended to protect polar bears, walruses, ice seals and Alaska Native villages that depend on the animals.
Federal judge declares Trump’s push to open up Arctic and Atlantic oceans to oil and gas drilling illegal - A federal judge in Alaska declared late Friday that President Trump’s order revoking a sweeping ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans is illegal, putting 128 million acres of federal waters off limits to energy exploration. The decision by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason is the third legal setback this week to Trump’s energy and environmental policies. The judge, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2012, also blocked on Friday a land swap the Interior Department arranged that would pave the way for constructing a road through wilderness in a major National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, ruled that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service illegally approved two gas drilling plans in western Colorado. The judge said officials did not adequately analyze wildlife and climate impacts in their plans — which were challenged by a coalition of environmental groups — to drill 171 wells in North Fork Valley, which provides key habitat for elk and mule deer. Trump’s rollbacks of Obama-era conservation policies have suffered nearly two dozen setbacks in federal court, largely on procedural grounds. While the administration is appealing many of these decisions and holds an advantage if the cases reach the Supreme Court, the rulings have slowed the president’s drive to expand fossil fuel production in the United States.
Misson Springs- Fracking protesters 'locked in concrete' - BBC News - Two anti-fracking protesters have each locked an arm in a concrete "barrel" in a bid to disrupt work at an exploratory drilling site. Tests for shale gas at Springs Road, near Misson, Nottinghamshire, by Island Gas Limited (IGas), began in January. Campaigners are concerned over pollution, but IGas said its test drilling had been completed safely. Three women, aged 29, 41 and 69, and a 50-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of obstructing the highway. About 50 campaigners from anti-fracking group FrAcktion have been trying to disrupt operations as part of its "Fossil Fools' Day" action. The BBC has been told two women who locked their arms in barrel constructions at the entrance to the site are among those who have been arrested.Ruth Smart, from the group, said: "The industry's persistence on fracking, despite its devastating environmental impacts, is laughable. "Not only does fracking waste huge amounts of water, but it also leads to water pollution, air pollution, and has been known to cause earthquakes." In February, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust said owl breeding could be affected at its nature reserve, a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), which is about 120m (393ft) from the plant. IGas said initial drilling had finished and was "completed safely and environmentally responsible". "We have worked closely with our regulators, the Environment Agency, and with the local mineral planning authority to operate within our planning conditions and environmental permits, which includes continuous noise, air and water monitoring at the SSSI," it said. Nottinghamshire County Council approved tests for shale gas in 2016, and drilling officially started on 22 January.
Victory for fracking protesters against energy giant Ineos -Environmentalists are celebrating a major victory over the energy company founded by Britain’s richest man. Ineos had been granted a ‘draconian’ injunction preventing people from trespassing on or obstructing access to its fracking sites. Anti-fracking campaigners said the ruling had a ‘very serious chilling effect on lawful protests.’ Fracking protesters have had a victory in the High Court (Picture: Getty) They appealed against the decision and today the High Court agreed that parts of Ineos’ anti-protest ban was unlawful. Campaigners are now allowed to stand on public rights of way to peacefully protest about the controversial practice of fracking. Head of political affairs at Friends of the Earth, Dave Timms said Ineos had attempted to use the law to silence free speech. He told Metro.co.uk: ‘This is a fantastic victory for the rights of ordinary local people to stand up to one of the nation’s most powerful firms, led by the UK’s richest man. ‘We’re delighted the court agrees the law can’t be used to block peaceful protest and free speech. ‘This has important implications for all the injunctions currently in force around the country against protest to oil and gas.’
Fracking ban under consideration in Labour plans for Climate Change Bill - Labour plans to amend new climate change legislation at the Scottish Parliament, including looking at writing in a fracking ban. The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill will face its first parliamentary hurdle at a Stage 1 debate at Holyrood on Tuesday. The Bill would update laws to increase the greenhouse gas reduction target from the current 80% to 90% by 2050. It would also introduce tougher interim targets of 56% for 2020 and 66% for 2030. Labour plan to lodge several amendments to the Bill, including looking at whether a fracking ban can be written into the legislation. The move follows the Scottish Government recently announcing its third public consultation on the use of the unconventional oil and gas extraction technique. Ministers announced an “effective ban” on fracking in 2017 but a Court of Session ruling last year found no prohibition against fracking in Scotland. Labour will also lodge amendments calling for a target of net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest and a target of a 77% reduction by 2030. The party also wants a statutory, long-term Just Transition Commission to ensure the changes do not cost jobs or disproportionately hit the poor.
Venezuela’s Oil Production Plummets in February Due to New US Sanctions ― Venezuela’s crude oil production plummeted by 142,000 barrels per day in February, according to OPEC data, after the Trump administration recognized a parallel government in Venezuela on January 23 and imposed new sanctions on the country. For the six months prior to February, Venezuela’s crude oil production had fallen by an average of 20,500 barrels per day (see below). “This shows that the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in January had an immediate, very harsh impact on Venezuela’s economy, and on the general population, which depends on the export revenue from oil for essential imports including medicine, food, medical equipment, and other life-saving necessities,” said Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.The loss of this oil production would be expected to cost Venezuela more than $2.5 billion in oil revenues if it remained unchanged over the next year; however, the decline is expected to get much worse over the year, due to the US sanctions. Total imports of food and medicine last year were about $2.6 billion.Weisbrot noted that US sanctions since President Trump’s executive order of August 2017 imposing a financial embargo had already rapidly accelerated the decline of oil production, wiping out many billions of dollars of foreign exchange, in addition to other negative impacts on the economy.On the demand side, imports of Venezuelan oil by the United States fell to zero for the first time, in the week of March 15, according to the US Energy Information Administration. This was down from 112,000 the previous week.
Venezuela oil exports stable in March despite sanctions, blackouts (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state-run energy company, PDVSA, kept oil exports near 1 million barrels per day in March despite U.S. sanctions and power outages that crippled its main export terminal, according to PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data. The OPEC member stabilized exports in March after shipments fell about 40 percent in February from the prior months, in the immediate aftermath of the United States announcing it would impose sanctions on oil sales to choke off the main source of revenue for socialist President Nicolas Maduro. The United States and many Western governments have recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s rightful leader. Guaido in January invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency on the grounds that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. March’s exports of 980,355 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuel were only slightly below February’s shipments of 990,215 bpd, according to the documents seen by Reuters and the Refinitiv Eikon data. U.S. restrictions on Venezuelan exports will tighten further in May, when the grace period for winding down purchases expires for importers of Venezuelan oil who use U.S. subsidiaries or the U.S. financial system for transactions. U.S. President Donald Trump is considering imposing sanctions on companies from other countries that do business with Venezuela, White House national security adviser John Bolton told Reuters TV on Friday. Most oil shipments in February and March were destined for Asia. Until the sanctions, the United States was Venezuela’s largest crude buyer. Exports dipped below 650,000 bpd during the blackouts, TankerTrackers estimates. Two massive power outages in March caused Jose port, the country’s largest crude terminal, to shut for at least six full days, according to the Eikon data.
US to Add 34 of Venezuelan State Oil Firm’s Vessels to Sanctions List – Pence - Addressing the issue of the Venezuelan crisis in his speech at Houston’s Rice University on Friday, US Vice President Mike Pence stated that Washington would hit Caracas’ energy sector with additional sanctions. As the US vice president announced, Washington's new move against Maduro's government would include sanctions on 34 vessels owned or operated by Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA and two firms that transport Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba. "Today we are taking action against a vital source of the [Nicolas] Maduro regime's wealth," Pence said. "At the direction of President Donald Trump, the United States of America will sanction 34 vessels owned or operated by PDVSA as well as two additional companies that transport Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba," he said. He has also noted that Washington was considering more sanctions."We are considering more sanctions on the financial sector in the days ahead," Pence said. The United States has already slapped Venezuela's state oil producer PDVSA with punitive measures, blocking the company's assets worth $7 billion remaining under the US jurisdiction. According to the White House's forecast, the company might lose another $11 billion in oil supplies. In addition, the US introduced a ban on making deals with the company. Recently, commenting on the outcome of these restrictions, US Special Representative Elliott Abrams stated that Washington "had a fair amount of success" in persuading companies to reduce the amount of oil they purchase from PDVSA.
Rennell oil spill an inevitable outcome of broken system, says academic - An Australian academic and environmental management expert says the oil spill in Rennell was not just an accident but an inevitable outcome of a broken system. MV Solomon Trader oil spill on Rennell Island, Solomon Islands. Photo: The Australian High Commission Solomon Islands In February, a cargo ship loading bauxite from a mine on the island, during bad weather, ran aground on a reef in Lughu Bay, eventually spilling more than a hundred tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the ocean. After weeks of delays International salvage crews have now contained the spill but a massive clean-up operation is still underway with the assistance of Australia and New Zealand. Questions of liability, inadequate legislation and corporate responsibility have been pored over again and again with the maritime incident being described by the country's prime minister as the worst man-made environmental disaster in recent times.
Shell sees rise in Nigeria oil spills in 2018 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell last year experienced a sharp rise in the number of oil spills caused by pipeline theft in Nigeria, which the company said were the result of larger output and higher oil prices. The number of spills caused by sabotage and theft in the Niger delta rose last year to 111 from 62 in 2017, the Anglo-Dutch company said in its annual sustainability report. The volume of oil spilt as a result rose to 1,600 tonnes, or roughly 12,000 barrels, from 1,400 tonnes the previous year. “The increase can be partly explained by increased availability of our production facilities following the repair of a major export line in 2017 and the price of crude oil and refined products, which is seen as an opportunity for more illegal refining,” Shell said. Shell, the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, has for decades struggled with oil spills, a result of theft as well as poor maintenance, in the Nigeria delta where it controls a web of oilfields and pipelines.
Queries as Sh48b pipe spills diesel - The country’s new oil pipeline, which is barely one-year-old, has registered its first breakage at Kiboko near Emali town. A site visit by The Standard yesterday established that hundreds of litres of diesel had spilled before technicians moved to the site and repaired the ruptured pipe. The Sh48 billion pipeline project was commissioned in August last year after a protracted battle between the contractor and Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) over construction delays and additional payment demands. The spillage involved diesel, which is a less flammable fuel compared to petrol. Various petroleum products are pumped intermittently through the pipeline on a pre-determined schedule to ensure they do not mix. Villagers confirmed seeing an excavator drive to the site where the pipeline is buried at least one metre into the ground. It was not clear from a visual inspection what could have compromised the pipeline. KPC was also yet to provide the amount of fuel lost in the spillage that left about 50 metres of ground along the pipeline still soaked. Treating the affected ground would typically involve applying chemicals such as phosphate fertiliser to help break down the hydrocarbons that make up petroleum, to safeguard the environment. An engineer who spoke to The Standard on condition of anonymity said weakness as exhibited by the Kiboko breakage could typically be arrested when the pipeline was subjected to mechanical stress tests and electrical signal examination. Electrical signal examination typically checks the integrity of the welded joints using either laser testing or sending ultrasonic waves to detect any weaknesses, especially those resulting from corrosion. “We are staring at a calamity in the case of a rupture while petrol is being moved. Imagine what would happen if we scaled up pumping pressure to capacity? It would be deadly,” he said. In the worst case scenarios, the engineer added, the entire pipeline might need to be redone.
Tokyo Gas, Shell sign LNG deal linked to coal pricing in rare move (Reuters) - Japan’s Tokyo Gas said on Friday it has signed a deal with Royal Dutch Shell for the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), partly using a coal-linked pricing formula in an unusual move for an Asian LNG buyer. This is believed to be the first time a Japanese buyer is using a coal-based pricing index in an LNG contract, industry observers said. The companies signed a heads of agreement for Tokyo Gas to buy 500,000 tonnes a year of LNG for 10 years from April 2020. Japan’s second-biggest LNG buyer is stepping up its efforts to diversify its supply sources and reduce costs. “As far as Tokyo Gas and Shell know, this is the first time a pricing formula linked with a coal index has been used with LNG contracts,” a Tokyo Gas spokesman said. A pricing formula based on coal indexation will be used for part of the supply, the spokesman said, while the rest will be priced off conventional gas- and oil-linked indexes. Tokyo Gas did not give the volumes to be done under each pricing method. “With our long-term relationship and joint consideration, we were able to achieve an innovative agreement that would enhance further diversification of price indexation pursued by Tokyo Gas,” Tokyo Gas Managing Executive Officer Kentaro Kimoto said in a statement. In Asia, most long-term LNG contracts are linked to oil prices, while supply from the United States is typically priced off the Henry Hub Index for natural gas.
Global LNG demand to grow 2 pct a year for next 15 years -Qatar Petroleum CEO (Reuters) - Global demand for liquefied natural gas will grow at 2 percent a year for the next 15 years, the chief executive of Qatar Petroleum said at the LNG2019 conference in Shanghai on Tuesday. Growth in developed markets such as Japan and South Korea will be moderate, while there will be some growth in Europe after years of stagnation, said Saad Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs as well as president and chief executive of Qatar Petroleum. “China, along with India, will continue to lead Asia as the main drivers behind the growth of global LNG demand,” Al-Kaabi said at the conference, according to a press release later issued by Qatar Petroleum. Qatar has shipped more than 50 million tonnes of LNG to China, more than 22 percent of China’s imports of the fuel over the past ten years, he said. Al-Kaabi said demand for gas will continue to rise due to the growing concerns over the environment and climate change, and widespread moves towards using cleaner and more cost-effective fuels. “While some see natural gas as a transition fuel, we believe it is a destination fuel. It is the cleanest of all fossil fuels. It is reliable, affordable, and the fuel of the future,” he said. Qatar Petroleum also said in the press statement that it has awarded a number of contracts related to its LNG expansion project aimed at increasing LNG production capacity from 77 million tonnes a year to 110 million tonnes a year by 2024.
South Korea tests U.S. super light oil as Iran waiver uncertainty grows - sources (Reuters) - South Korea has begun testing super-light U.S. oil sold by Anadarko Petroleum Corp as a substitute for Iranian crude while it awaits word from Washington on whether it can keep buying oil from the Middle Eastern nation, sources said. South Korea is one of Iran’s biggest Asian customers and was one of eight importers that received waivers to keep buying Iranian oil when the United States re-imposed sanctions in November. Washington is expected to reduce those waivers in May, disrupting South Korea’s supply of Iranian condensate, an ultra-light crude oil that is used in its large refining and chemical industry. West Texas Light (WTL) is seen as a potential substitute for Iranian condensate because, when refined, WTL yields a large volume of the refined product naphtha, which can be used to produce petrochemicals. Most WTL is produced in the western part of the Permian Basin in Texas. Anadarko spokesman John Christiansen confirmed the company is exporting WTL grade with the first cargo having sailed in February. The current point of sale is at the Houston Ship Channel and from there the barrels are exported primarily to markets in Europe and Asia, Christiansen said, although he did not confirm whether South Korea was testing this grade. South Korea’s top refiner SK Energy and the country’s smallest refiner, Hyundai Oilbank, are studying the crude’s assay and testing samples, the sources said. “The crude’s API seems to be 48 degrees so in a way it’s possible (to replace Iranian condensate) but again we need to check the oil’s quality,” one of the sources said. The source is referring to the so-called API gravity of the crude, which measures its density and indicates the type of fuels an oil yields when refined.
The US 'will probably fail' to cut off Iranian oil exports — but that could be good news for Trump --The U.S. is overwhelmingly likely to fail in its attempt to completely halt Iran's oil exports, analysts told CNBC, with President Donald Trump eager to avoid rising gasoline prices ahead of presidential elections next year.As the first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and several world powers approaches, energy market participants are waiting to see whether the Trump administration will extend sanctions waivers on eight countries importing Iranian oil. Trump has until May 2 to decide whether to issue new waivers to eight governments — China, India, Japan, Turkey, Italy, Greece, South Korea and Taiwan — that were allowed in November to keep buying Iranian oil without facing penalties. "The U.S. will probably fail to reduce Iranian exports to zero, despite renewed talk from the White House about letting all oil import waivers expire in early May," analysts at Eurasia Group said in a research note published Tuesday. Given OPEC and non-OPEC production cuts and conditions in Venezuela, "the oil market probably cannot absorb the loss of 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude without a significant effect on domestic gasoline prices — a red line for U.S. President Donald Trump," they added. Trump withdrew from a nuclear accord with Iran in May last year and restored sanctions on the country's energy industry in November. The administration wants Iran to stop testing ballistic missiles, end its support for militant groups and accept tougher limits on its nuclear program. On Tuesday, the Trump administration's special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, told reporters that "there are better market conditions for us to accelerate our path to zero." Therefore, the U.S. is "not looking to grant any waivers or exceptions to our sanctions regime," he added.
Earthquakes linked to fracking in China - (UPI) -- Two damage-causing earthquakes have been linked to fracking operations in China's Sichuan Province.The two earthquakes, which originated in the South Sichuan Basin, registered magnitudes of 5.7 and 5.3. Though no one was killed, 17 people were hurt. Farmhouses, barns and local infrastructure suffered $7.5 million in damages.When scientists analyzed the seismic data, they traced the earthquakes to shallow origins, between one and six miles beneath the surface. Human activities, including oil and gas extraction, are often responsible for shallow earthquakes.Hydraulic fracturing involves the injection of high-pressure fluids deep into rock, most commonly shale, in order to trigger the release of oil and gas trapped between the rock layers. Often, wastewater left over from the activity is treated and then injected back into the ground.Fracking operations are plentiful in the South Sichuan Basin, home to the Changning shale gas block. Gas companies first moved into the region beginning in 2010, and, in 2014, several new wells were constructed. Since the increase in fracking activity, the region's earthquake rate has risen dramatically.Studies have previously linked fracking with earthquakes in Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio and Western Canada. Fracking-caused earthquakes tend to be shallow, and they also tend to feature few aftershocks. The seismic patterns registered by the two Sichuan earthquakes showed most of the shaking occurred during the initial shock.
Damaging Sichuan earthquakes linked to fracking operations - Two moderate-sized earthquakes that struck the southern Sichuan Province of China last December and January were probably caused by nearby fracking operations, according to a new study published in Seismological Research Letters.The December 2018 magnitude 5.7 and the January 2019 magnitude 5.3 earthquakes in the South Sichuan Basin caused extensive damage to farmhouses and other structures in the area. The December earthquake was especially destructive, injuring 17 people and resulting in a direct economic loss of about 50 million Chinese Yuan Renminbi (roughly $US 7.5 million).The Changning shale gas block in the South Sichuan Basin has been the site of fracking operations since 2010, with extensive horizontal fracking injection wells becoming more common since 2014. The earthquake rate in the Changning block rose dramatically at the same time that systematic fracking began.In the United States, wastewater disposal from oil and gas operations, where water produced during hydrocarbon extraction is injected back into rock layers, is thought to be the primary cause of induced earthquakes, especially in Oklahoma. However, there is growing evidence that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses injected water to break apart rock layers during hydrocarbon extraction, may have caused moderate-size earthquakes at some sites in Ohio, Oklahoma and western Canada. Both wastewater disposal and fracking have induced earthquakes in the south Sichuan basin, say Xinglin Lei of the Geological Survey of Japan and colleagues. In their new study in SRL, the researchers present "a full chain of evidence" to show that the December and January earthquakes were induced by fracking operations.
China's Sinopec dials back oil-purchase strategy after record Q4 loss -sources (Reuters) - China’s Sinopec Corp has ended a five-year crude oil purchasing strategy to rein in the speculative derivatives activity of its trading arm Unipec after a record trading loss late last year, four people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Sinopec, Asia’s largest crude oil buyer and its largest refiner, in January abandoned a buying formula used since 2014 to establish performance targets for Unipec and aimed at driving down its crude feedstock costs to a pre-set discount to global oil benchmarks. Under the strategy, Unipec had raked in a total 16.6 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) in net profit between 2014 and 2017, including a record year in 2016 at 6.17 billion yuan, according to Sinopec’s annual reports. The formula-based cost target, though, was blamed by two of the sources for driving speculative trades that led to a nearly $700 million loss for Unipec in the final quarter of 2018. “The headquarters believes that the purchasing scheme may be accountable for the trading debacle,” said one of the sources, “They are struggling to find a better way to manage (Sinopec’s) buying, but chose to drop it for now.” The changes are expected to make the state trader a less active player than in recent years in both physical and derivatives markets, the sources said, although it is not possible to quantify the exact impact on volumes. Unipec cut back its over-the-counter (OTC) paper activities shortly after news of the fourth-quarter loss broke, said a trader active in derivatives. Ending the purchase strategy will see Unipec - which last year bought some 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for Sinopec refineries - reduce its activities in both paper and physical markets, said the sources.
Hedge funds bullish on slowing oil output growth- Kemp (Reuters) - Hedge funds are becoming increasingly bullish on oil prices amid signs of slowing production growth as a result of output cuts by Saudi Arabia and a reduction in U.S. shale drilling. Hedge funds and other money managers bought 37 million barrels of futures and options in the six most important contracts linked to petroleum prices in the week to March 26. Funds have boosted their bullish position in the six major contracts by a total of 421 million barrels over the last 11 weeks, according to position reports published by regulators and exchanges. The fund community's net long position has climbed to 723 million barrels, up from just 302 million barrels on Jan. 8, though still well below the recent high of 1.099 billion barrels on Sept. 25. In the week to March 26, portfolio managers bought 29 million barrels of WTI-linked futures and options, taking total purchases to 158 million barrels since Jan. 8. Hedge funds also bought 13 million barrels of Brent contracts in the most recent week and have purchased a total of 186 million since Dec. 11 (https://tmsnrt.rs/2HQfhSs). On the products side, investors were net buyers of 6 million barrels of U.S. gasoline contracts, taking total purchases to 51 million barrels since the end of January. But there was less enthusiasm for middle distillates such as U.S. heating oil and European gasoil, notwithstanding the introduction of new ship fuel regulations at the start of next year which should boost consumption. Fund managers were net sellers of both heating oil (-5 million barrels) and gasoil (-7 million barrels) last week.
Why oil and gasoline prices are rising faster than expected this year -- Oil prices are rising faster this year than many energy analysts expected, leaving many consumers to wonder how much further their gasoline bills will jump. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices have rallied 37 percent this year, hitting a five-month high near $63 a barrel on Wednesday. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, is up 28 percent and almost breached $70 a barrel for the first time since November. The oil prices rally has contributed to seven straight weeks of higher U.S. gasoline prices. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now sitting around $2.70."There's no fooling motorists, gas prices have continued to surge," said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.com."The run-up this spring has felt worse than prior years, and thus far, the national average is up nearly 50 cents per gallon from our 2019 low. Unfortunately, this [is] a rut we'll be stuck in yet for at least a few more weeks," DeHaan said in an email briefing on Monday.One reason oil prices have surprised analysts this year: Demand for crude has been stronger than gloomy forecasts suggested last fall. Those projections said growth in oil consumption would slow significantly, but the world's appetite is growing at a healthy pace so far this year."Everybody came into the year with a very negative view and actually demand has been resilient," Michele della Vigna, co-head of European equity research at Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday."Demand remains robust particularly in the emerging markets, which continue to buy a lot of crude," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" in Europe.
Oil prices rise, adding to biggest quarterly gain in 10 years - Oil prices rose on Monday, adding to gains in the first quarter when the major benchmarks posted their biggest increases in nearly a decade, as concerns about supplies outweigh fears of a slowing global economy. Brent crude for June delivery was up by 43 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $68.01 a barrel by 0214 GMT, having risen 27 percent in the first quarter. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $60.46 barrel, after posting a rise of 32 percent in the January-March period. U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela along with supply cuts by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers have helped support prices this year, overshadowing concerns about global growth and the U.S.-China trade war. However, future gains will be limited by potential softness in the global economy as well as the ability of U.S. oil producers to ramp up production when prices spike, "It's tough to see a really big rally from here," Still, analysts have turned cautiously optimistic on crude oil prices this year, a Reuters poll showed on Friday. U.S. production has also steadied, with the U.S. government reporting on Friday that domestic output in the world's top crude producer edged lower in January to 11.9 million bpd. U.S. energy firms last week reduced the number of oil rigs operating to the lowest level in nearly a year, cutting the most rigs in a quarter in three years, Baker Hughes energy services firm said.
Oil rises to 2019 highs as demand outlook improves (Reuters) - Oil climbed about 2 percent to new 2019 highs on Monday, with Brent crude touching $69 a barrel, after positive signs for the global economy and tighter supplies drove both benchmarks’ largest first-quarter gains in nearly a decade. Brent crude ended the session up $1.43, or 2.1 percent, at $69.01 a barrel after rising to $69.19, its highest since November. The global benchmark rose 27 percent in the January-March period. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled up $1.45, or 2.4 percent, at $61.59 per barrel, after reaching their highest in nearly five months at $61.72. WTI gained 32 percent in the first quarter. “It was the 1-2 punch in terms of positive manufacturing PMI data from China and the U.S., two big economies, and that has emboldened the bulls in the market,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York. “The big headwind was the string of weak economic data and that has been relieved today, so the bullish narrative is not being held back.” U.S. stocks rallied after upbeat manufacturing numbers from the United States and China eased worries about slowing global growth. China’s manufacturing sector unexpectedly returned to growth for the first time in four months in March. U.S. manufacturing numbers also came in better-than-expected in March, helping investors overlook soft retail sales data for February. The United States and China said they made progress in trade talks that concluded on Friday in Beijing, with Washington saying the negotiations were “candid and constructive” as the world’s two largest economies try to resolve their trade war. China’s State Council said on Sunday that the country would continue to suspend additional tariffs on U.S. vehicles and auto parts after April 1, in a goodwill gesture following a U.S. decision to delay tariff hikes on Chinese imports. “This bull market in energy that has entered its fourth month in duration appears capable of continuing,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates. Production cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries helped push the group’s supply to a four-year low in March, a Reuters survey found, as top exporter Saudi Arabia over-delivered on the group’s supply-cutting pact while Venezuelan output fell further due to U.S. sanctions and power outages. Analysts have turned cautiously optimistic on the oil market, a monthly Reuters poll showed on Friday, lifting their forecast for the average Brent price in 2019 for the first time in five months to $67.12. Hedge funds and money managers raised bullish wagers on U.S. crude to the highest in more than five months, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday. Brent crude speculators also raised net long positions by 13,429 contracts to 322,035 in the week to March 26, data from the Intercontinental Exchange showed. That was the highest level since late October.
Oil rises on Iran sanctions threat, Venezuela shutdown -- Oil hit a 2019 high above $69 a barrel on Tuesday on the prospect that more sanctions against Iran and further Venezuelan disruptions could deepen an OPEC-led supply cut, and as the market became less worried that demand may slow. The United States is considering more sanctions against Iran, whose oil exports have been halved by existing measures, an official said. A key crude terminal in Venezuela, also under U.S. sanctions, has halted operations again. Brent crude touched $69.50, the highest since mid-November, and at was down 2 cents at $68.99 a barrel. U.S. crude was up 43 cents at $62.02, rising above $62 for the first time since early November. "The supply cuts have been there for a while but Venezuela is not improving," said Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix. "That is taking a lot of oil away from the market." Further supply losses from Iran and Venezuela could widen an OPEC-led production cut that took effect in January, designed to prevent a price-sapping rise in inventories. Supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hit a four-year low in March, a Reuters survey found, because top exporter Saudi Arabia cut more than it had agreed to and due to the involuntary declines. This week's reports on U.S. supplies are expected to show crude inventories fell, a sign that the OPEC curbs are having the impact producers intended. Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels in the week to March 29. The first of this week's supply reports, from the American Petroleum Institute, is due at 2030 GMT. Oil's pattern on the price charts could lead to further gains. Brent is trading just below the 200-day moving average and a move above this mark would provide additional technical support, Jakob said. Healthy data on the world's biggest economies, the United States and China, also bolstered prices.
Oil Hits 2019 High On Shale Slowdown - Crude oil hit fresh 2019 highs this week, pushed up by tightening supplies globally, a slowdown in U.S. output, and fewer concerns about the global economy. WTI bounced above $62 per barrel in early trading on Tuesday with Brent closing in on the $70-per-barrel mark. The EIA reported that U.S. oil production fell in January by 90,000 bpd, offering more evidence that suggests the shale industry slammed on the brakes at the end of last year when oil prices collapsed. Colorado’s House approved the new legislation that will overhaul regulation of the oil and gas industry in the state. The bill grants much more authority to local governments to regulate drilling operations, while also beefing up environmental oversight. The measure was already approved by the Senate. The oil and gas industry has sounded the alarm about the bill, warning that it could disrupt development, while local communities and environmental groups praised the move.. The natural gas prices in Western Texas fell into negative territory last week, plunging to a record low of -$2.50/MMBtu (yes, negative $2.50/MMBtu). There has been a shortage of takeaway capacity in the region, leading to a glut of gas. But equipment failures and maintenance have added to the midstream problems. The wave of new LNG export capacity that is hitting the market this year is leading to a meltdown in prices. “The gas market obviously is undergoing a winter hangover” Francisco Blanch, head of global commodities and derivatives research at Bank of America Corp. in New York, told Bloomberg. “We are getting a glut across the board and we don’t see that changing all that much.” Spot prices for LNG in Asia – the JKM marker – fell as low as $4.375/MMBtu at the end of March. . Data from a new prospectus for Saudi Aramco’s upcoming dollar-denominated bond reveals that the Saudi oil company can produce oil at a cost as low as $2.80 per barrel. Aramco’s profits of $111 billion last year makes it the world’s most profitable company, even as its obligations to prop up the state are enormous.
Oil prices jump on OPEC Cuts - Crude advanced for a third day after a further reduction in supply from OPEC signaled that global markets are tightening. Futures added as much as 1.3 percent to the highest level since November in New York on Tuesday. Declines in OPEC production are stoking optimism among investors as Saudi Arabia pressed on with output curbs and as power blackouts in Venezuela further squeezed supplies. Meanwhile, U.S. crude stockpiles probably declined by 900,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of a government report on Wednesday. “The fundamentals that drove us yesterday – the OPEC production numbers falling, Venezuelan production issues, strong manufacturing numbers and lower U.S. production – all of that is conspiring to take prices higher,” Oil has rallied about 37 percent this year as Saudi-led production cuts, together with receding fears over the global economic growth outlook, appear to be easing investor concerns. West Texas Intermediate for May delivery climbed 64 cents to $62.23 a barrel at 10:18 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The WTI prompt spread traded at a discount of eight cents, signaling a narrowing contango, a market structure where contracts in the near term are cheaper than those further out. Brent for June settlement added 18 cents to $69.19 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Brent’s prompt spread traded at 42 cents in backwardation, a market structure where prices in the near term are stronger than those further out. The global benchmark crude’s premium over WTI traded at $6.87 a barrel. A chemical storage complex fire near Houston caught on fire last month, partially shutting the local ship channel and causing local refiners in need to crude to dial back production. That will likely cause some uncertainty ahead of supply data from the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute later Tuesday.
WTI Dips To Key Technical Support After Surprise Crude Build - WTI extended its recent run today, breaking above its 200DMA... While technicals dominated today, "The fundamentals that drove us yesterday -- the OPEC production numbers falling, Venezuelan production issues, strong manufacturing numbers and lower U.S. production -- all of that is conspiring to take prices higher," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago. But once again all eyes will be on inventories... API:
- Crude +3.00mm (-900k exp)
- Cushing +18k
- Gasoline -2.6mm
- Distillates -1.9mm
EIA printed a surprise crude build in the prior week and expectations were for a return to draws this week but API reported a second weekly surprise crude build (+3mm vs -900k exp)... The WTI 200DMA level is $62.40 - which is exactly where it traded ahead of the API data. After a quick kneejerk higher, WTI slipped lower but remained above the key technical level...
Oil hits 2019 high as supply squeeze looms; Brent nears $70 per barrel - (Reuters) - Oil prices on Tuesday hit their highest level so far in 2019, with Brent crude approaching $70 a barrel, on the prospect that more sanctions against Iran and further Venezuelan disruptions could deepen an OPEC-led supply cut. Brent futures reached a session peak at $69.52 a barrel, the highest since Nov. 13. The global benchmark rose 36 cents, or 0.52 percent, to settle at $69.37 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 99 cents, or 1.61 percent, to settle at $62.58 a barrel, after touching $62.75, its highest level since Nov. 7. The United States is considering more sanctions against Iran, the fourth-largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an official said. Three of the eight countries to which Washington granted waivers to import Iranian oil have now cut their shipments from Iran to zero, a U.S. special representative said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a crude terminal in Venezuela, also under U.S. sanctions, halted operations again due to power problems. However, Venezuela stabilized exports in March after shipments fell about 40 percent in February from January. But further supply losses from Iran and Venezuela could widen an OPEC-led production cut. OPEC supply hit a four-year low in March, a Reuters survey found, due to the involuntary declines and as top exporter Saudi Arabia cut more than agreed. Russia, the biggest non-OPEC producer in the so-called OPEC+ group, has yet to reach its production-cutting target. While the country’s output was down by around 112,000 bpd from the October 2018 level, Russia has pledged to cut output by 228,000 bpd from that level. In the United States, crude inventories rose by 3 million barrels in the week to March 29 to 451.7 million, industry group the American Petroleum Institute said on Tuesday. Analysts had expected a decrease of 425,000 barrels.
WTI Breaks Below Key Support After Crude Inventories Showed Large Surprise Build - With WTI battling to hold its 200DMA after a surprise crude build from API overnight as the global crude market is warming to the thought that OPEC-Russia cuts and Venezuelan declines are keeping global supply in check, and as Bloomberg notes, U.S. production may need move up at a faster pace to keep equivocators from going long as well. DOE
- Crude +7.23mm (-800k exp, +699k whisper) - biggest build since Jan 2019
- Cushing +201k
- Gasoline -1.781mm
- Distillates -1.998mm
Confirming API's data, DOE reported a major surprise crude build (+7.23mm vs -800k exp). This is the biggest build since the first week of January and sent WTI prices lower... American refiners took no Venezuelan crude for the third week in a row, while the Saudis raised their weekly crude deliveries to the U.S. by about 20%. If the trend in oil rig counts is anything to go by, US Crude production is set to slow but it rose to a new record high last week... WTI tumbled below the 200DMA on the print but bounced pretty quick...
Oil prices slip as US crude stockpiles surge by 7.2 million barrels - Oil prices slipped on Wednesday after Brent pushed towards a nearly five-month high of $70 a barrel on OPEC-led supply cuts and U.S. sanctions, with gains capped by a surprise increase in U.S. crude stockpiles. U.S. commercial crude inventories surged by 7.2 million barrels in the week through March 29, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday. Analysts in a Reuters poll expected stockpiles to fall by 425,000 barrels. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 1.8 million barrels, and distillate fuel inventories, which include diesel and home heating fuel, dropped by 2 million barrels. Brent futures fell 5 cents to $69.32 around 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT). They earlier reached $69.96 — the highest since Nov. 12, when they last traded above $70. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 26 cents to $62.32, having hit $62.99, the highest since Nov. 7. "The psychologically important $70 a barrel threshold has proved a tough nut to crack for the Brent benchmark over the past few weeks," PVM oil broker Stephen Brennock said. "Underpinning this latest bout of upward pricing pressures is the positive afterglow from surveys pointing to another sizeable fall last month in OPEC output. Reduced supplies from the producer group will go a long way to cementing the tighter fundamental backdrop." Oil prices have been supported for much of 2019 by efforts by OPEC and allies such as Russia, who have pledged to withhold around 1.2 million barrels per day of supply this year. Supply from OPEC countries hit a four-year low in March, a Reuters survey found this week. Oil production from Russia fell to 11.3 million bpd last month, but missed the country's target under the supply deal. "We assume that OPEC crude oil production will average 30.1 million bpd in 2019 ... down from 31.9 million bpd in 2018," BNP Paribas said in a note, reducing an earlier forecast for this year by 200,000 bpd.
Oil prices dip but still near 5-month high after US crude storage build - (Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday after U.S. government data showed a surprise build in crude inventories, but futures hovered near five-month highs as OPEC-led output cuts and U.S. sanctions kept the supply outlook tight. Crude stocks in the United States rose 7.2 million barrels in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts had forecast a decrease of 425,000 barrels. Brent futures fell 36 cents to $69.01 a barrel by 1:10 p.m. EST (1700 GMT). Their session high was $69.96, the strongest since Nov. 12, when they traded above $70. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 19 cents to $62.39 a barrel, having briefly hit $62.99, the highest since Nov. 7. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 201,000 barrels, EIA said. "The report was bearish due to the large crude oil inventory build," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital Management in New York. "It appears to be a function of diminished exports for a second week in a row, and a low refinery utilization rate." Despite the large build in U.S. crude stocks, market participants said prices were positioned to move up on tightening global supply and signs of demand picking up. "Those are the issues that have supported the market here," said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho in New York. "At the end of the day, this market is really bulled up and it wants to trade higher." Crude oil futures were supported by ongoing efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia to reduce oil output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) this year. Supply from OPEC countries hit a four-year low in March, a Reuters survey found this week. Oil production from Russia fell to 11.3 million bpd last month, but missed the country's target under the supply deal. In a signal that supply may tighten more, a U.S. official said on Tuesday that three of eight countries granted waivers by Washington to import oil from Iran had cut such purchases to zero, adding that improved oil market conditions would help reduce Iranian crude exports further.
Oil Rally Halts After Another Big Build in U.S. Crude Stockpiles - A second-straight week of large crude builds in a market expecting a draw messed up, to some extent, the bullish narrative in oil on Wednesday. That prevented West Texas Intermediate crude from cracking the $63-a-barrel resistance and Brent oil from getting past the Saudis' first-aspired-to target of $70. New York-traded WTI settled down 12 cents, or 0.2%, at $62.46 a barrel after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a crude inventory rise of 7.24 million barrels for the week to March 29, versus market expectations for a stockpile drop of 425,000 barrels. London-traded Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was down 4 cents, or 0.1%, at $69.33 per barrel by 2:46 PM ET (18:46 GMT). Both benchmarks hit five-month highs earlier in the session, with WTI reaching $62.98 and Brent $69.96. The crude inventory build reported by the EIA came on top of the previous week's rise of 2.8 million barrels. Offsetting some of the negative sentiment from the crude build, the EIA also said gasoline inventories fell by 1.78 million barrels, compared to expectations for a draw of 1.54 million barrels. Distillate stockpiles dropped by 2.0 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a decline of 506,000. Those declines, which came on the back of refinery output running steadily at just under 86.5%, helped boost prices of gasoline and heating oil, which acts as a proxy for distillates and diesel. Gasoline has, so far, been the star of this year's energy rally, gaining 47%, while heating oil has risen 19%. (AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report shows pump prices nationally rising, too: up 19.3% this year to an average $2.703 a gallon.) The inventory build reported by the EIA also did not unduly affect Wednesday's market as many took it to be the result of distortions caused by the recent closure of the Houston Ship Channel. A fire late last month at a chemical storage facility led to the shutdown of the important hub for crude oil imports and refinery runs. U.S. crude exports have also slid due to the outage, reaching just 2.72 million barrels per day last week after record highs of 3.6 million earlier in March. WTI remains up 37.6% for the year and Brent 28.8% from four months of stiff output cuts by global oil producers led by Saudi Arabia.
Oil prices edge lower after US inventories build -- Oil prices steadied in back-and-forth trade on Thursday as expectations of tight global supply offset pressure from rising U.S. inventories and production.Brent futures were down 5 cents at $69.26 a barrel around 10:50 a.m. ET (1450 GMT). Brent fell 6 cents on Wednesday, after touching $69.96, highest since Nov. 12, when it last traded above $70. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude were down 19 cents at $62.27 a barrel. The contract dropped 12 cents in the previous session after briefly hitting $62.99, also the highest since November. Global benchmark Brent has gained nearly 29 percent this year, while WTI has gained 37 percent. Prices have been underpinned by tightening global supplies and signs of demand picking up. "There is a clear bias to the upside with the supply restrictions," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, pointing to supply cuts by OPEC and others, along with sanctions on Iran. "And there's a much-better-than-expected demand picture after the recent China and U.S. PMI numbers, along with a potential kicker from any U.S.-China trade agreement," he said. The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers' index rose to 54.4, the highest since January 2018 and up from February's 51.1, a fourth-month low, a private business survey of China's service sector showed on Wednesday. Trade talks between the United States and China made "good headway" last week in Beijing and the two sides aim to bridge differences during further talks, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Wednesday. Crude oil is also supported by an agreement between OPEC and allies such as Russia, a group known as OPEC+, to reduce oil output by about 1.2 million bpd this year.
Oil Hits $70 On Libya Unrest, Crisis In Venezuela - Oil prices rose in early trading on Friday on risks in Libya and positive trade news from the U.S.-China negotiations. “The geopolitics around Libya and Venezuela, alongside the possible reflation of risk appetite on positive U.S.-China trade talks may well pull the market out of its morning doldrums,” Harry Tchilinguirian, global oil strategist at BNP Paribas, told the Reuters Global Oil Forum. On Thursday, Brent briefly topped $70 per barrel for the first time this year, although it fell back again. On Friday, Brent was hovering just below that threshold. The head of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Haftar, ordered his troops to march on Tripoli on Thursday, dramatically escalating the risk of turmoil in the country. If oil production in the country is disrupted, it would “noticeably increase the pressure on Saudi Arabia to open up the oil tap again, as it did in the autumn”, Commerzbank said in a note. President Donald Trump met with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He at the White House on Thursday as the two sides inch closer to a landmark deal that could end the trade war. The agreement reportedly would give China until 2025 to meet commitments on commodity purchases from the U.S. and for the concession of allowing 100 percent foreign ownership for American companies operating in China. Expectations are rising that a breakthrough is close and could be announced in the next few weeks. The seven nations in the Arabian Gulf are set to produce a combined 26 mb/d by 2025, according to Rystad Energy, up from 24 mb/d in 2018. Rystad expects output in the region to grow by 300,000 bpd per year, with Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE adding the most. The NOPEC bill that has gained momentum in the U.S. Congress could spark antitrust action against OPEC. In response, Saudi Arabia has is reportedly threatening to sell its oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar should the bill pass, according to Reuters. “The Saudis know they have the dollar as the nuclear option,” a source told Reuters.
Oil prices rise 1.5 pct as strong U.S. economic data eases demand concerns (Reuters) - Oil prices gained 1.5 percent on Friday as strong U.S. employment data tempered fears about weakening global crude oil demand, and on expectations that an escalating conflict in Libya could tighten oil supplies. Optimism that Washington and Beijing are approaching a trade deal also boosted crude prices. Brent crude futures settled at $70.34 a barrel, up 94 cents, or 1.35 percent. The session high of $70.46 was the strongest since Nov. 12. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $63.08 a barrel, up 98 cents, or 1.58 percent. Earlier in the session, WTI hit $63.24, the highest since Nov. 6. Brent recorded its second straight week of gains, while WTI saw its fifth consecutive weekly rise. The U.S. Labor Department report showed employment growth accelerated from a 17-month low in March. “This data is going to be enough to keep us above the $60 level for a least a couple of weeks,” said Josh Graves, senior commodities strategist at RJO Futures in Chicago. Military action in Libya, which could disrupt supply from the OPEC member, also aided prices. On Thursday, Eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar ordered his troops to march on Tripoli, escalating a conflict with the internationally recognized government. “The developing situation in Libya is also supportive, but, for now the oil is continuing to flow and will likely continue to do so,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. Crude futures also received a boost from news of a potential slowdown in crude production out of Venezuela, as U.S. sanctions and energy blackouts hit the OPEC nation’s oil industry. Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA expects its crude upgraders to operate well below capacity this month, according to industry sources and documents seen by Reuters. Venezuela depends on the upgraders to convert the extra-heavy crude oil produced in the Orinoco Belt into exportable grades usable in overseas refineries
Oil Prices Up More Than Four Percent for Week =West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for May delivery added 98 cents Friday to settle at $63.08 per barrel. The WTI, which traded within a range from $61.82 to $63.26, is up 4.9 percent against last Friday’s settlement price.June Brent futures added 94 cents to settle at $70.34 – a psychologically important level. Having cleared that threshold, the Brent is up 4.1 percent for the week.“Oil continued its four-week rally this week and crossed over a key technical price once again, on strong fundamentals with a little help from technical indicators,” said Tom Seng, Assistant Professor of Energy Business with the University of Tulsa’s Collins College of Business. “Both WTI and Brent are trading above key resistance price levels of $60 and $70, respectively. In addition, both contracts are now trading above their one-year moving averages.”Seng pointed out that both benchmarks are up 32 percent for the first quarter of 2019 and up nearly 40 percent so far this year. In addition, he noted that OPEC production for March hit a four-year low – thanks in part to falling Venezuela output. Also, he observed that the latest Weekly Petroleum Status Report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed:
- An unexpectedly large 7.2 million-barrel increase in domestic commercial crude inventories – well above the 500,000-barrel stocks at the key hub in Cushing, Okla.
- A roughly 200,000-barrel increase in crude
- Falling refinery utilization to 86.4 percent and a 1.8 million-barrel and 2 million-barrel declines in motor gasoline and distillate inventories, respectively
- Crude imports 12 percent lower than the corresponding period in 2018
- Steady U.S. oil production week-on-week at 12.1 million barrels per day (bpd)
Seng also noted that the U.S. oil rig count from Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) rose by 15 last week – the first such increase in seven weeks. “On the economic news front, the stock market rose throughout the week on positive economic reports,” continued Seng. “In the ‘up-and-down’ U.S.-China trade talks, this week was deemed to be an optimistic one with President Trump indicating an agreement would be forthcoming in four weeks.”
Saudi Arabia is reportedly mulling 'nuclear option' of stripping the US dollar from oil trade -- The U.S. dollar is the dominant currency in oil trading, but Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering selling its crude in other currencies if American lawmakers pass an anti-OPEC bill. The discussions, reported by Reuters, suggest that Riyadh is preparing a strategy to deal with potential passage of the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, known as NOPEC. The legislation is widely viewed as a longshot, which means the Saudi move to marginalize the dollar is unlikely to come to pass.Still, the kingdom has discussed the proposal with other OPEC members, two sources told Reuters. Another source said Riyadh has broached the subject with U.S. energy officials.If the Saudis followed through, it would chip away at U.S. influence over global financial markets and Washington's ability to enforce sanctions on foreign entities. Efforts to diminish the greenback's role in oil trading have been fairly limited to date, but the Saudi plan would lend significant momentum to those efforts — and represent a coup for countries like Russia and China.Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter, and its total crude output is surpassed only by U.S. and Russian production. It pumps enough oil to meet about 10 percent of global demand, while OPEC fulfills about a third of global consumption.The NOPEC legislation would amend existing U.S. law, allowing the Justice Department to sue foreign countries for working together to limit oil supplies and influence prices. That represents an existential threat to OPEC. The 14-nation producer group regulates global oil supply by setting output limits for each member during times of oversupply.
Aramco's $10 billion-plus bond plan shows profits put top earner Apple in shade (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, made core earnings of $224 billion last year, almost three times as much as Apple, figures from the state-owned company showed on Monday ahead of its debut international bond issue. Previously reluctant to disclose its financials, Aramco had to reveal them in order to obtain a public rating and start issuing international bonds. Despite the huge profit, the state-owned oil giant was rated by credit agencies at par with Saudi Arabia, meaning the kingdom’s sluggish economy will weigh on Aramco’s cost of borrowing as it prepares its bond market debut. Aramco’s core earnings surpass those of Apple, ranked by Forbes as the world’s top company in terms of profits last year, which had normalized core earnings, or EBITDA, of $81.8 billion. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said earlier this year Aramco’s planned bond sale would raise around $10 billion, but banking sources said the transaction could be larger. Rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s rated Aramco A+ and A1 respectively, but both said that without sovereign rating constraints it would be in the same league as oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell. “Saudi Aramco’s rating is constrained by that of Saudi Arabia (A+/Stable),” Fitch said. “This reflects the influence the state exerts on the company through taxation and dividends, as well as regulating the level of production in line with its OPEC commitments.” However, Aramco’s bond prospectus said the kingdom would not guarantee Aramco’s notes and was under no obligation to extend financial support to the company. Fitch put Aramco’s standalone credit profile at “AA+”. Credit ratings allow investors to compare and assess the credit quality of bond issuers and their debt securities, and are important in determining how much borrowers have to pay. The planned bond deal is Aramco’s inaugural transaction in international markets. It still plans to launch an initial public stock offering or IPO in 2021, expected to generate $100 billion, having postponed its flotation from 2018. “Saudi Aramco has many characteristics of a Aaa-rated corporate, with minimal debt relative to cash flows, large scale of production, market leadership and access in Saudi Arabia to one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves,” said Rehan Akbar, senior credit officer at Moody’s.
For The First Time Ever Aramco Opens Its Books: Reveals Higher Profit Than Apple, Google And Exxon Combined - Long the subject of guesswork and speculation, Saudi Aramco, the state-controlled oil giant that's responsible for roughly 10% of the world's oil production, has for the first time ever opened its book to investors as it prepares to launch a $10 billion bond offering.And the three years' of financials confirmed what many have long suspected: Aramco's profits beat out tech giants like Apple and publicly-traded rivals in the energy space like Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, establishing the energy behemoth as by far the world's most profitable company. In 2018 alone, Aramco's profits exceeded $110 billion on $360 billion in revenue. That's nearly double Apple's $60 billion profit, and five times Shell's ($23.9 billion). Thanks to the surge in oil prices last year, Aramco's net income climbed by 50% from $75.9 billion in 2017.Last year, the company earned more than Alphabet, Apple and Exxon combined. The revelations come courtesy of Moody's Investors Service and other ratings firms, which released the results as part of its credit rating analysis for the upcoming bond offering. Moody's attributed Aramco's profitability to its sheer size and access to some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, per WSJ. Furthermore, the prospectus for the bond offering, which included three years' worth of financials, showed the company's operating profit, before interest and tax, was $212 billion."Aramco’s scale of production in combination with its vast hydrocarbon resources is a very strong competitive advantage," Moody's said. Aramco produced, on average, 13.6 million barrels a day in 2018, three times Exxon Mobil's 3.8 million barrels.
How the mysteries of Khashoggi’s murder have rocked the U.S.-Saudi partnership - It has been nearly six months since Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, but the aftershocks continue. Saudi Arabia still hasn’t explained officially how and why the Post Global Opinions columnist was killed. The basic questions remain much the same as they did in October, when Khashoggi died: How was the Istanbul strike team that carried out the operation trained and controlled? What exact roles did Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his close aides play in the killing? What new controls can be implemented, in Riyadh and Washington, to make sure that such a grisly murder of a journalist never happens again? And most important, will anyone be held accountable? Saudi Arabia’s initial lies about the killing collapsed soon after Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2. But MBS, as the crown prince is known, still hasn’t taken responsibility for the killers’ actions, which were done on his behalf and perhaps his orders. Until he provides real answers, the U.S.-Saudi military and intelligence partnership, important for both countries’ security, is likely to remain in limbo. This case is personal for us at The Post. Khashoggi was our colleague, and my friend for 15 years. To understand how his gruesome murder happened and whether it’s possible to rebuild the U.S.-Saudi relationship, I’ve interviewed more than a dozen knowledgeable American and Saudi sources, who revealed some previously secret details because they hope to establish new rules and accountability that might preserve the relationship. The sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. The bottom line is that unless the crown prince takes ownership of this issue and accepts blame for murderous deeds done in his name, his relationship with the United States will remain broken. Saudi officials claim that MBS has made changes, firing Saud al-Qahtani, his former covert-operations coordinator. But the Saudi machine of repression remains intact, run by many of the same people who worked for Qahtani. U.S. officials worry that the young crown prince has become a Saudi version of Saddam Hussein, an authoritarian “modernizer.”
Khashoggi's Kids Have Received Multi-Million Dollar Homes, Massive Payouts From Saudi Government --Apparently, despite the Saudis alleged leaking of Jeff Bezos' intimate texts as retribution for his newspaper's aggressive coverage of the Khashoggi murder, the Amazon founder has remained unfazed, and on Tuesday, the Washington Post published its latest scoop in the ongoing saga of murder and deception.As the international outcry over Khashoggi's killing, and the suspected involvement of Saudi Crown Prince MbS, continues to fade, WaPo reports that the kingdom has provided generous financial settlements to Khashoggi's children, including multi-million dollar homes and five-figure monthly payouts, in what the paper describes as an arrangement to keep them from speaking out against the Kingdom. In addition, the two sons and two daughters of the slain former government insider-turned-dissident - whom the kingdom has said was accidentally murdered during a botched rendition attempt inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul (though WaPo's reporting has established that US intelligence believes MbS personally ordered the hit) - could receive a payout worth tens of millions of dollars in a "blood money" settlement - that is, if they're willing to forgive their father's alleged killers. If the men are convicted and sentenced to death, the Saudi system of justice could allow the Khashoggi family members to grant their father’s killers clemency as part of a "blood money" arrangement in which they might then be entitled to tens of millions of dollars.It is unclear whether Khashoggi’s children would be required to forgive or absolve the killers to collect the payments. Former Saudi officials and experts said that the royal court and government have incentives to seek such an agreement and avoid a situation in which only low-level operatives are executed for their role in a plot that was developed and orchestrated from high levels of government.
Saudi Arabia arrests more activists, including 2 U.S. citizens - Saudi Arabia detained eight people, including two dual U.S.-Saudi citizens, in a new round of arrests in the kingdom targeting individuals supportive of women's rights and those with ties to jailed activists, a person with knowledge of the apprehensions said Friday.It marks the first sweep of arrests to target individuals perceived as critics of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October. The arrests come despite global outcry over Khashoggi's grisly killing by Saudi agents in an operation directed by former top aides to the crown prince. The arrested individuals, nearly all of whom were detained Thursday, are not seen as front-line activists. They are writers and advocates who quietly supported greater social reforms and most had ties to the group of women's rights activists currently on trial.Those detained include a pregnant woman and seven men, among them two U.S.-Saudi nationals: Badr Ibrahim, a writer and physician, and Salah Haidar, whose mother is prominent women's rights activist Aziza Yousef, who was recently temporarily released from prison.Haidar has a family home in Vienna, Va., and lives with his wife and child in Saudi Arabia. A third U.S.-Saudi national, Walid Fitaihi, remains imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since late 2017, when the crown prince detained more than 100 businessmen, princes and officials in a purported anti-corruption sweep. Fitaihi, whose family alleges that he's been tortured in prison, worked as a physician in the Boston area before he returned in 2006 to his native Saudi Arabia, where he helped found a hospital built by his family.
Germany extends ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia - Germany has extended its current ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia for six more months, ending on September 30, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Thursday. During that period, no new contracts will be approved, Seibert said. The decision came after Merkel met with members of her cabinet to review the policy. The German government had placed a temporary ban on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in October 2018, following the controversial killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. At the time, Merkel said that no new exports to the country would be allowed until the circumstances of Khashoggi's death had been established. But more recently, the chancellor indicated that Germany needed to be more flexible.The ban has divided Merkel's governing coalition, but it has also drawn criticism from France and Britain. Both countries have decried the fact that the Saudi weapons freeze also bars sales of arms manufactured in different countries that happen to have German components in them. France's Ambassador to Germany, Anne-Marie Descotes, said this week that Germany's arms export policy and cumbersome licensing rules threatened future bilateral defense projects. Descotes warned that this debate would leave companies preferring "German-free arms products" — in other words, weapons systems that did not include German components. She also admonished Germans for treating the debate as if weapons exports were a domestic policy matter, when in fact "it has serious consequences for our bilateral cooperation in the field of defense, and for the strengthening of European sovereignty."
Saudi Arabia Went On Arms Buying Rampage Over Past 2 Years- Study -- Despite Saudi Arabia coming under intensified international scrutiny after last year's brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, a new study shows Riyadh has been on a record-setting weapons buying spree over the past two years. And who supplies most of these arms? Of course the United States, which has by all indicators done nothing to curtail its perpetual arms pipeline to the Saudis; instead it has grown. According to a new 2019 study published in March from arms transfer monitoring group, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 70 percent of the Saudi arsenal now comes from the United States. Furthermore, the Saudis have hands down led the world in global weapons purchases for the past two years, and there's little sign this trend will let up as Riyadh keeps up its merciless bombing campaign over neighboring Yemen, and as its regional ambitions have grown in competition with perceived "Iranian influence" — also given Syria's Assad emerging victorious in the long-running proxy war in Syria, and as Hezbollah is now considered stronger than ever. Senior researcher and Middle East specialist with SIPRI, Pieter Wezeman, told PRI the US-Saudi arms trade has continued to grow: "There's been a very significant growth in arms supplies to Saudi Arabia by the US," he said.He detailed the bulk constitutes major weapons systems as follows: To Saudi Arabia, the US supplies a very wide range of arms. The most important types of arms include combat aircraft, tanks and missiles. It includes very advanced sensors and intelligence gathering equipment, often on planes. In the coming years, it will also include frigates and other ships. So, really, the whole package of weapons which Saudi Arabia wants to have is what the US is willing to supply and already has supplied. Wezeman also suggested the Saudis are worried about Iranian escalation in Yemen. Saudi officials have long accused Tehran of transferring ballistic missiles to Shia Houthi rebels, in order to strike at targets deep inside Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Nuclear Facility Near Completion According To Satellite Photos - Saudi Arabia has nearly completed its first nuclear reactor according to satellite photos of the facility published by GoogleEarth, which reveal a "columnar vessel that will contain atomic fuel," according to Bloomberg. Located in the southwest corner of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, the new facility has raised concerns in the West - as the Saudis have yet to sign up to the international framework of rules adhered to by other nuclear powers in order to prevent civilian atomic programs aren't used to develop weapons. Nuclear fuel providers, meanwhile, cannot legally supply the new reactor until modern surveillance arrangements have been reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. "There’s a very high probability these images show the country’s first nuclear facility," said former IAEA director Robert Kelley, who also directed the US Department of Energy's remote sensing laboratory. "It means that Saudi Arabia has to get its safeguards in order."Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said in a statement the facility’s purpose is to ``engage in strictly peaceful scientific, research, educational and training activities in full compliance with international agreements.’’ The reactor is being built with transparency, and the kingdom has signed all international non-proliferation treaties, the ministry said, adding that the facility is open to visitors.While Saudi Arabia has been open about its ambitions to acquire a nuclear plant, less is known about the kinds of monitoring the kingdom intends to put in place. More arms-control experts are scrutinizing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear work because of official statements that the kingdom could try to acquire nuclear weapons. -BloombergLast year, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman threatened to develop a nuclear bomb if regional rival Iran does first. "The much louder debate in Washington is about whether Saudi Arabia acquires nuclear weapons," said researcher and former diplomat on non-proliferation Sharon Squassoni of George Washington University. "The fuel isn’t going to be supplied until it has a strong safeguards agreement in place," Squassoni added. "Once they cross that threshold of needing fuel, it has to be in place."
Nuclear regulators were unaware of transfer of sensitive technical information to Saudi Arabia - When the Trump administration on seven occasions authorized companies to share sensitive nuclear energy information with Saudi Arabia, it was supposed to consult with several agencies, including the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But NRC Chairman Kristine L. Svinicki testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday that she did not know whether the agency had been consulted, and if so whether it had raised any concerns. At one point Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked four questions in a row about the agency’s participation, pausing after each one, and Svinicki and her four fellow commissioners remained silent. “I know you don’t have sign-off authority, but none of you at this table know whether the NRC raised any concerns about entering in these 810 authorizations?” he asked. “I do not,” Svinicki replied. The term “Part 810 authorizations” refers to permission given to share technological information but not pieces of equipment. For that, companies need a different approval under a 123 Agreement, which the United States and Saudi Arabia have not agreed on. The exchange between Van Hollen and Svinicki illustrates growing concern in Congress over the Energy Department’s authorization of Part 810 information — nonclassified but sensitive details about nuclear energy reactors U.S. companies are trying to sell to Saudi Arabia. Last week, the administration divulged that it had kept secret from Congress as well as the public seven authorizations for nuclear energy companies to use in wooing Saudi Arabia, a potential customer interested in building two nuclear reactors for civilian purposes. The information kept under wraps includes the identity of the companies and the type of information. In the past, that information has been placed in the Energy Department’s reading room. But Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the companies had asked for confidentiality because of proprietary information.
UAE Hired US Hackers to Spy on Al Jazeera Chief, BBC Journalist – Former US intelligence operatives helped the United Arab Emirates spy on the chairman of Al Jazeera and other prominent Arab media figures with alleged ties to Qatar, a Reuters investigation has revealed.The phone-hacking operation dates back to June 2017, the same week that four Arab countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, broke diplomatic ties and imposed a blockade on Qatar.The hacking was part of Project Raven, Reuters reported, a clandestine Emirati intelligence operation that spied on opponents of the UAE monarchy, including a British activist and several US journalists.Former Raven operatives told the news agency that they were tasked with finding material showing that Qatar’s royal family had influenced the coverage of Al Jazeera, the influential, Doha-based media network, and other outlets. The operatives also said they were asked to uncover any ties between Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood. The blockading countries have accused Qatar of meddling in their internal affairs, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, and working to build stronger ties to Iran, charges that Doha has repeatedly denied. The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment about the alleged hacking operation, Reuters said in its report.
Forces advance on Libyan capital, threatening to tip key OPEC oil producer into war - Members of a brigade headed by field commander Salah Bogheib and loyal to Khalifa Haftar -a retired general and former chief of staff for Moamer Kadhafi- hold up their guns as they fight alongside Libyan army troops against Islamist gunmen in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libya's eastern military leader has ordered his forces to march on Tripoli, sparking concerns that open war could soon break out between the main political factions in a key oil-producing nation. The OPEC member state has been riven by conflict since the fall of dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. For much of that time, General Khalifa Haftar has held the country's east, drawing support from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and serving as a foil to the United Nations-recognized government in the capital of Tripoli. The two sides have been engaged in UN-sponsored power-sharing talks. But on Wednesday, Haftar's Libyan National Army unexpectedly advanced towards Tripoli. Skirmishes between the LNA and forces loyal to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj have since been reported, including in the city of Gharyan south of Tripoli. Earlier, it remained unclear whether Haftar intended to bring the west under his grip or merely increase his leverage ahead of a national conference later this month. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is in Libya to meet with leaders, called for calm and restraint. Tweet But the order to enter Tripoli came in the early evening in Libya in a voice recording from Haftar posted online, the Associated Press reported. The general told his troops only to raise their weapons "in the face of those who seek injustice and prefer confrontation and fighting," according to AP. "Those who lay down their weapons are safe, and those who raise the white banner are safe," he said. This year, Haftar's LNA forces have already sought to bring order to the restive southern oil-producing region. But a campaign to take Tripoli could be even more grueling
This Is the Algerian End Game That Has Oil Investors Worried - Protests that erupted six weeks ago in Algeria have now transformed into a million-strong force against aging Algerian strongman President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with Exxon having already called the political unrest endgame when it stalled talks over a major Algerian shale deal just over a week ago. For investors in this oil- and gas-rich venue that is critical most immediately to Europe, the uncertainty is high enough to put everything on hold.Mass protests across Algeria erupted when Bouteflika announced he would run for a fifth term as president. Those protest forced him to rescind that decision, but the momentum against him failed to subside. Instead, it has increased and intends to do so until he steps down entirely.On Friday, news wires around the world reported that a million had gathered to protest against the president’s rule, with fighting a losing battle using tear gas.But what signals Bouteflika’s doom more than anything is the fact that the million-strong protests were covered live on three state TV channels. Traditionally, there would have been a local media blackout.In other words, Bouteflika is losing support—quickly—and now everyone is watching the military kingmakers to see where this ends.In large part, the kingmakers have already spoken, which has given further impetus to the protests. Earlier this week, the army chief called for a constitutional process to declare the aging and ill Bouteflika unfit for office.But for investors, what happens next is a tricky transition process, for which opposition leaders have agreed to a roadmap, but for which uncertainty is the ruling element.The current presidential appointment ends on April 28, and the opposition is suggesting the creation of a presidential authority body that would be in power for less than six months and whose representatives would not be allowed to run for office or back any ca ndidates after the transition period.
Algeria protests: President Bouteflika to quit before 28 April - Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will step down before his mandate expires on 28 April, Algerian state media reports. The 82-year-old, who has been in power for 20 years, will ensure "continuity of the state's institutions" before he quits, a presidential statement carried by APS news agency said. The news comes after weeks of mass protests demanding his resignation. As a result, he had dropped plans to seek re-election for a fifth term. The elections have been postponed and the government has promised to organise a national conference which would discuss reforms to address the discontent. Up until now, it had been unclear when or if he would step down, observers say. The BBC's Ahmed Rouaba says that many Algerians believe the octogenarian's health has declined to such an extent that he is now being used as a front by a group of businessmen, politicians and military officials known as "le pouvoir" (the power), who do not want to give up their influence. This group dominates the National Liberation Front (FLN), which has governed Algeria since independence from France in 1962.
Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns after mass protests - Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has resigned with immediate effect, according to state media, ceding power in the face of massive street protests against his 20-year rule. The ailing, 82-year-old leader announced he was stepping down in a letter published by APS news agency on Tuesday, just hours after the army chief demanded immediate action to remove him from office. "My intention ... is to contribute to calming down the souls and minds of the citizens so that they can collectively take Algeria to the better future they aspire to," Bouteflika said in the letter to the president of the Constitutional Council. "I have made this decision to avoid and prevent the arguments which distort, unfortunately, the current situation, and avoid its turning into serious skirmishes, to ensure the protection of persons and property," he added. The announcement prompted celebrations in Algeria's capital, Algiers, with hundreds of people singing songs and waving flags in front of the city's central post office. "This is a victory for my country," said 25-year-old Kamel, who only gave his first name. "We now want the rest of the old guard to leave, we also want the corrupt businessmen to be judged. We have won one political battle, not yet the war."
Iran To Establish First Ever Mediterranean Port On Syrian Coast --It's a neocon nightmare come true: for the first time in modern history Iran is set establish a Mediterranean port on the Syrian coast. In a breaking exclusive, Asia Times reports that Iran has leased a section of the port of Latakia, on the northwest Syrian coast in close vicinity to the Russian Navy, which will end the Kremlin's exclusive foreign presence on the coastal district. The Asia Times report provides the following details: ...from next October the Russians will no longer have the neighborhood to themselves – as Iran has leased parts of the port of Latakia... The Syrian move comes in response to an official Iranian request, presented to Damascus last February. Realizing that they were unable to establish a permanent military presence like that of the Russians, or to illegally grab territory like the Turks, the Iranians settled for long-term economic influence in Syria in order to maintain a foothold in a crucial part of the region. Both counties are currently under crippling US sanctions, with Washington recently announcing that it would seek to enforce a total ban on all Iranian and Syrian oil shipping activity, even in international waters. Iran, as a longtime ally of Syria's Assad, has given front line assistance to the Syrian army and allied militias like Hezbollah since near the start of the war that engulfed the country which began in 2011 and exploded into nation-wide fighting and chaos by 2012.Tehran has consistently helped Damascus weather the storm of both the externally fueled regime change war and collapsed economy that followed in its wake. The Iranian lease of the port of Latakia is set to take effect next October, according to the Asia Times. Meanwhile, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia — on the other side of the proxy war — have long feared the so-called "Shia land bridge" connecting Tehran with pro-Shia forces from neighboring Baghdad to Damascus to Beirut. An Iranian port on the Syrian coastline would bring this scenario to ultimate fulfillment, perhaps beyond what Washington defense planners had ever imagined in the first place. ‘
New Middle East Alliance Shakes World Powers - A new bloc is emerging in the greater Middle East with the declared objectives of dominating the entire Arab world, confronting and containing the US and its allies; and controlling and benefiting from the entire hydro-carbon economy, from production to transportation.The leading members of the new bloc are Turkey, Iran, and Qatar; with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan submitting to the new bloc.Russian experts call the new bloc “the Middle Eastern Entente”. The key to the success of the bloc is the emerging correlation of influence of the great powers in the aftermath of the wars in Syria and Iraq. Russia and the People’s Republic of China are ready to compromise with the regional powers in order to secure their vital and global interests, while the US, Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Israel, are the nemeses of the bloc.The roots of “the Middle Eastern Entente” are in Doha. Qatar in Summer 2017 initiated a myriad of bilat-eral and trilateral discussions with Iran and Turkey after Saudi Arabia and the GCC allies imposed the siege on Qatar in June of that year. However, it was not until the second half of 2018, with the initial impact of the siege largely ameliorated, that the long-term post-war posture of the greater Middle East became a major priority.It was then that Doha, Tehran, and Ankara started talking about forming a coherent strategic bloc.According to Iman Zayat, the Managing Editor of The Arab Weekly, in late November 2018, the three coun-tries struck a deal in Tehran to create a “joint working group to facilitate the transit of goods between the three countries”. This was the beginning of a profound realignment of the three regional powers. “Qatar has irrevocably joined with Ankara and Tehran against its former Arab allies. It has conclusively positioned itself in a regional alliance that pursues geopolitical dominance by driving instability,” Zayat noted. It did not take long for the three powers to realize that for such a bloc to succeed it must focus on security issues and not just economic issues.
Stunning setbacks in Turkey's elections dent Erdogan's aura of invincibility - — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faced the prospect Monday of a stinging electoral defeat in Istanbul, the city whose politics he dominated for a quarter of a century, with vote results showing what appeared to be an opposition victory in the race for the city’s mayor. Members of Erdogan’s ruling party vowed to challenge the outcome. Victories by candidates from Turkey’s main opposition party in several of the country’s largest cities, including Ankara, the capital, were a significant symbolic defeat for Erdogan — denting his aura of invincibility and providing a surge of confidence to an opposition party that Erdogan for decades has easily outflanked. The local elections Sunday across Turkey were widely seen as a referendum on Erdogan’s policies and produced mixed results. His ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, led all other parties in the elections and, along with a coalition partner, captured a majority of the vote. But the loss of Istanbul, if confirmed, would be an especially harsh blow to the president. Erdogan rose to national prominence as the city’s mayor from 1994 to 1998. The city has served since then as a source of wealth and prestige for his party and a showcase — with its sprinting construction, megaprojects and multiplying mosques — for his broader ideological vision. “Psychologically, it is a big loss.”
Erdogan Disputes Election Results After AKP Stunning Loss Of 3 Largest Cities - It's official, or maybe not quite — as perhaps predictably the AK party plans to challenge the stunning defeat: Erdogan’s party has lost Turkey's three largest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, to the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Ballots in the crucial local election were completely tallied on Tuesday, and the upset represents a huge setback for the president and his party amid a continued bleak and worsening economic situation. The final results now with 100% of the ballots counted as reported by the semiofficial Anadolu news agency put opposition candidate for mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, at 48.79%, barely inching out rival AKP candidate Binali Yildrim's 48.51%. And in the capital of Ankara, CHP's Mansur Yavas won with 50.93% of the vote, compared to AKP's Mehmet Ozhaseki's 47.12%. Shooting back against critics who point out the local races were clear and biting indictments of Erdogan's leadership amid an ailing and troubled economy, and further amid worsening relations with the United States and the West, a representative of the Turkish presidency tweeted: “They will never learn. AK Party won 44.3% and the coalition won 51.6% of the votes.” Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin lashed out further as part of the statement: “Erdogan has his mandate until 2023. Stop presenting your wishful thinking as fact and analysis.”Some are servicing the ‘beginning of the end for Erdogan’ story again.They will never learn.AK Party won 44.3 % and the coalition won 51.6 % of the votes. Erdoğan has his mandate until 2023. No elections till then.Stop presenting your wishful thinking as fact and analysis.— Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) April 2, 2019The AKP spokesman, Omer Celik, claimed early on Tuesday that there were significant voting tally discrepancies between polling and the actual vote — enough to cause AKP to lodge objections.
Israeli military kills four Palestinians in Gaza protest - Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian protestors in Gaza on Saturday, killing four young Palestinians, three of them children, and sending more than 300 other people to hospital. Five of the 60 wounded by live fire are in a critical condition, while nine are in a serious condition.Tens of thousands joined the demonstration to mark one year since the start of weekly protests at the Gaza-Israel border under the slogan of the Great March of Return. Originally scheduled to conclude on May 15 of 2018, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence, which Palestinians mark as Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, the rallies have demanded the right of Palestinians to return to the homes from which their families were driven in the wars of 1948-49 and 1967.They have also called for the lifting of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has turned the tiny enclave into an open-air prison for its two million inhabitants and deprived them of the most basic essentials of everyday life, including clean water, sanitation and electricity.Those killed included three 17-year-old boys, Tamer Abu el-Khair, Bilal Al-Najar and Adham. It brings the total of children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the Great March of Return began to 52. The fourth person killed was Mohammed Jihad Saad, a 21-year-old Palestinian who was hit late Friday night by live fire east of Gaza City. He died of his wounds during a protest near the border fence.
Israel occupies Golan Heights with some 250K new settlers – In defiance of massive international criticism over the U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the Israeli government hopes to settle some 250,000 Israelis in the occupied Syrian Golan heights over the next 30 years, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (IBA) reported on Monday.Israel plans to construct two new Jewish-only settlements in the Golan, along with thousands of new settlement units and a raft of planned transport and tourism projects in the region, according to IBA. The population of the Golan Heights currently stands at around 50,000, including 22,000 Israeli settlers, according to Israeli figures.U.S. President Donald Trump signed a decree on Monday at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the U.S. now recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory that Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 war. The decree formalized Trump's statement on March 21 saying it was time for the U.S. "to fully recognize" Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The move appeared to give Netanyahu a boost ahead of the closely contested April 9 Israeli elections. The illegal settlement projects in the occupied territories have been seen as a pillar of the electoral campaign launched by Netanyahu's government.However, according to the U.N., the Golan's legal status will remain unchanged and still be considered "occupied territory" under international law. Since the decision first made by the U.S., Turkey, along with other countries, has strongly criticized the unilateral move. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned the move, saying the decision has brought the region to the brink of a new crisis.
UK Condemns Trump's Recognition Of Golan Heights As Israeli Territory - Speaking Tuesday in the House of Commons, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued a critique of US policy and stern rebuke to President Trump's recent controversial move to bestow formal US recognition on the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory.Hunt's words, which he said represents long-standing UK policy, came during a question and answer session in reaction to a fellow Conservative MP member, who raised the “matter of the greatest regret that our allies, the United States, are in clear contravention of UN Resolution 497.” Hunt condemned Trump’s actions “with a heavy heart” because Israel was also “an ally and a shining example of democracy in a part of the world where that is not common… We want Israel is to a success and we consider them to be a great friend but on this we do not agree,” according to The Times of Israel.Hunt agreed with Tory Grandee Nicholas Soames' perspective that the White House's signing into US law formal recognition of the disputed region previously wrested from Syria was "illegal".Soames said that “annexation of territory is prohibited under international law” and asked Hunt to “condemn unreservedly this breach of the rules-based order”. Without hesitation Hunt declared he was “absolutely happy to do that,” and added: “We should never recognize the annexation of territory by force… that has been one of the great achievements since the founding of the United Nations.” Israel fully annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 after capturing it from Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967. The United Nations has never recognized Israeli annexation and settlement there, but has repeatedly condemned it.
$7 Billion in Equipment Looted From Former US Base in Afghanistan — The US handed over the Camp Kearney base in Paktika Province to the Afghan government in 2014, with an estimated $8 billion in equipment still inside. Today, the estimation is that about $1 billion worth of equipment is left. So what happened between then and now that cost the site about $7 billion? Mass looting. The provincial governor says that former governors, local mayors, MPs, and commanders have all had a go at the site, and everyone has been entering the base and taking anything that isn’t nailed down. Though he didn’t name names, pretty much everything was considered fair game, with military equipment stripped, vehicles stolen and sold off, and even locked containers full of weapons broken open and looted. While the looting apparently was not legal or authorized, it’s not at all clear the government intends to do anything about it either. Despite having a fairly good idea that the looting was mostly done by officials in positions to get access, it’s not clear how much is left or who has it.
Hollywood Boycotts Brunei-Owned Hotels In Response To Sharia Death Penalty For Gay Sex - Hollywood starts have launched a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels after the tiny Islamic nation on the island of Borneo announced that they would be enforcing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery. While the new laws were announced five years ago with the nation's adoption of Sharia law, the death penalty for homsexual sex and adultery will begin on April 3, according to CNN. Spearheaded by actor George Clooney, the boycott has been joined by the likes of Sharon Stone, Elton John, Jamie Lee Curtis, George Takei and others, who refuse to patronize the Brunei-owned establishments: "I commend my friend, George Clooney, for taking a stand against the anti-gay discrimination and bigotry taking place in the nation of Brunei – a place where gay people are brutalised, or worse – by boycotting the sultan’s hotels," tweeted Elton John on Saturday. The 72-year-old, a veteran gay rights campaigner, said his “heart went out” to staff at the hotels, but that “we must send a message, however we can, that such treatment is unacceptable”. -The Guardian Last week Clooney called for the boycott, saying "Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels, we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery." Brunei has been ruled for 51 years by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah as an absolute monarchy. While homosexuality is already illegal there, it will now become a capital offense.
No comments:
Post a Comment