oil prices rose for the 2nd week in 6 this week, as a strike in Norway threatened that country's oil output and as a major hurricane shut down US Gulf production...after falling 8% to $37.05 a barrel last week on an increase of coronavirus cases globally and Trump's positive test, the contract price of US light sweet crude for November delivery opened 5 cents lower on Monday but quickly rallied more than 6%, driven by the announcement that Trump would be discharged from the hospital later that day, and settled with a gain of $2.17, or 5.9%, at $39.22 per barrel, supported by hopes for a new stimulus package and by an escalating oil workers' strike in Norway over pay...oil prices continued higher on Tuesday amid the supply disruptions in Norway, a new hurricane in the Gulf and Trump's return to the White House and finished $1.45 higher at $40.67 a barrel, but slipped in post-settlement trading after Trump said he was instructing his team not to negotiate a new stimulus package until after the election...oil prices then opened 2% lower on Wednesday and traded in a narrow range before closing down 72 cents at $39.95 a barrel, after the EIA reported a slightly larger-than-expected build in U.S. commercial crude inventories...but the November oil contract price opened higher and rallied again on Thursday as the impact of higher US crude inventories was negated by draws in product inventories and escalating supply disruptions in Norway and the Gulf of Mexico, and prices went on to settle $1.24 or 3.1% higher at $41.19 a barrel, the higherst close in nearly 5 weeks, as hurricane Delta forced the shut-in of more than 90% of Gulf crude oil output...after opening higher, oil slipped more than 1% on Friday, after Norwegian oil firms struck a wage bargain with labour unions on Friday, ending the 10-day strike that had threatened to cut the country’s oil and gas output by close to 25%, with US crude falling 59 cents to $40.60 a barrel....even so, the U.S. benchmark crude price advanced more than 9% this week on the supply disruptions from Hurricane Delta, and on optimism for a U.S. stimulus deal...
natural gas prices also rose this week, as exports rose and Hurricane Delta shut in Gulf production...after falling 13.1% to $2.438 per mmBTU last week on an increase in gas output and a forecast for reduced demand, the contract price of natural gas for November delivery opened higher on Monday and jumped 17.7 cents, or over 7%, as LNG exports rose and traders worried production would be shut in again with another hurricane expected in the Gulf of Mexico...natural gas prices then gave up half of those gains on Tuesday, falling 9.5 cents to $2.520 per mmBTU as forecasts indicated milder weather and lower demand over the next two weeks than had been previously expected...but most of that loss was regained on Wednesday when gas rose 8.6 cents to $2.606 per mmBTU as producers shut Gulf of Mexico wells ahead of Hurricane Delta and as forecasts were revised to show larger-than-expected demand over the next two weeks...natural gas prices then inched up 2.1 cents on Thursday as the natural gas storage report was in line with the increase that analysts had forecast, and then jumped 11.4 cents or 4.3% cents to $2.741 per mmBTU on Friday as Gulf Coast producers shut wells ahead of Hurricane Delta and on forecasts for colder weather and higher demand in mid October than was previously indicated...that left prices 12.4% higher on the week and at their highest since last November, although we should note that wintertime natural gas contracts almost always trade at higher prices than those during the rest of the year..
the natural gas storage report from the EIA for the week ending October 2nd indicated that the quantity of natural gas held in underground storage in the US increased by 75 billion cubic feet to 3,831 billion cubic feet by the end of the week, which left our gas supplies 444 billion cubic feet, or 13.1% greater than the 3,285 billion cubic feet that were in storage on October 2nd of last year, and 394 billion cubic feet, or 11.5% above the five-year average of 3,437 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been in storage as of the 2nd of October in recent years....the 75 billion cubic feet that were added to US natural gas storage this week was a bit more than the forecast for a 71 billion cubic foot increase from an S&P Global Platts' survey of analysts, but it was below the average of 86 billion cubic feet of natural gas that has been added to natural gas storage during the same week over the past 5 years, and it was much lower than the 102 billion cubic feet that was added to natural gas storage during the corresponding week of 2019...
The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA
US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending October 2nd showed that due to an increase in our oil imports and an increase in our oil production, we managed to add a bit of oil to our stored commercial supplies for the 2nd time in the past eleven weeks and for the twenty-fourth time in thirty-eight weeks...our imports of crude oil rose by an average of 610,000 barrels per day to an average of 5,732,000 barrels per day, after falling by an average of 45,000 barrels per day during the prior week, while our exports of crude oil fell by an average of 853,000 barrels per day to an average of 2,659,000 barrels per day during the week, which meant that our effective trade in oil worked out to a net import average of 3,073,000 barrels of per day during the week ending October 2nd, 1,463,000 more barrels per day than the net of our imports minus our exports during the prior week...over the same period, the production of crude oil from US wells was reportedly 300,000 barrels per day higher at 11,000,000 barrels per day, and hence our daily supply of oil from the net of our trade in oil and from well production totaled an average of 14,073,000 barrels per day during this reporting week...
meanwhile, US oil refineries reported they were processing 13,853,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending October 2nd, 184,000 more barrels per day than the amount of oil they used during the prior week, while over the same period the EIA's surveys indicated that a net total of 92,000 barrels of oil per day were being pulled out of the supplies of oil stored in the US....so based on that reported & estimated data, this week's crude oil figures from the EIA appear to indicate that our total working supply of oil from net imports, from storage, and from oilfield production was 312,000 barrels per day more than what our oil refineries reported they used during the week...to account for that disparity between the apparent supply of oil and the apparent disposition of it, the EIA just inserted a (-312,000) barrel per day figure onto line 13 of the weekly U.S. Petroleum Balance Sheet to make the reported data for the average daily supply of oil and the data for the average daily consumption of it balance out, essentially a fudge factor that they label in their footnotes as "unaccounted for crude oil", thus suggesting that there must be an error or errors of that magnitude in the oil supply & demand figures we have just transcribed...moreover, since last week's fudge factor was +819,000 barrels per day, indicating a week over week difference of 1,131,000 barrels per day in the line 13 balance sheet adjustment, the difference between those errors means any week over week comparisons of oil supply and demand figures reported here are nonsense...however, since most everyone treats these weekly EIA figures as gospel and since these numbers often drive oil pricing and hence decisions to drill or complete wells, we'll continue to report them as published, just as they're watched & believed to be accurate by most everyone in the industry...(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) indicate that the 4 week average of our oil imports rose to an average of 5,258,000 barrels per day last week, which was still 18.9% less than the 6,486,000 barrel per day average that we were importing over the same four-week period last year....the 92,000 barrel per day net withdrawal from our total crude inventories was as 72,000 barrels per day were being added to our commercially available stocks of crude oil and 164,000 barrels per day were being withdrawn from the oil supplies in our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, space in which is now being leased for commercial use, and hence the recent SPR additions and withdrawals should really be included in our commercial supplies....this week's crude oil production was reported to be 300,000 barrels per day higher at 11,000,000 barrels per day because the rounded estimate of the output from wells in the lower 48 states rose by 200,000 barrels per day to 10,500,000 barrels per day, and because a 16,000 barrels per day increase to 459,000 barrels per day in Alaska's oil production added another 100,000 barrels per day to the rounded national total (EIA math)....last year's US crude oil production for the week ending October 4th was rounded to 12,600,000 barrels per day, so this reporting week's rounded oil production figure was 12.7% below that of a year ago, yet still 30.5% 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 77.1% of their capacity while using 13,853,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending October 2nd, up from 75.8% of capacity during the prior week, but excluding the 2005 and 2008 hurricane-related refinery interruptions, still one of the lowest refinery utilization rates of the last thirty years...hence, the 13,853,000 barrels per day of oil that were refined this week were 11.5% fewer barrels than the 15,656,000 barrels of crude that were being processed daily during the week ending October 4th of last year, when US refineries were operating at 85.7% of capacity....
with the increase in the amount of oil being refined, gasoline output from our refineries was much higher, increasing by 630,000 barrels per day to 9,522,000 barrels per day during the week ending October 2nd, after our refineries' gasoline output had decreased by 423,000 barrels per day over the prior week (when refinery throughput had increased by 300,000 barrels per day)...but since our gasoline production is still recovering from a multi-year low in the wake of this Spring's covid lockdown, this week's gasoline output was still 5.1% less than the 10,081,000 barrels of gasoline that were being produced daily over the same week of last year....at the same time, our refineries' production of distillate fuels (diesel fuel and heat oil) increased by 174,000 barrels per day to 4,532,000 barrels per day, after our distillates output had decreased by 112,000 barrels per day to a three year low of 4,358,000 barrels per day over the prior week...even after this week's increase in distillates output, our distillates' production was 6.3% less than the 4,835,000 barrels of distillates per day that were being produced during the week ending October 4th, 2019....
even with the increase in our gasoline production, our supply of gasoline in storage at the end of the week decreased for the 11th time in 14 weeks and for the 26th time in 36 weeks, falling by 1,435,000 barrels to 226,747,000 barrels during the week ending October 2nd, after our gasoline supplies had increased by 683,000 barrels over the prior week...our gasoline supplies decreased this week because the amount of gasoline supplied to US markets increased by 367,000 barrels per day to 8,896,000 barrels per day, and because our exports of gasoline rose by 235,000 barrels per day to 903,000 barrels per day, while our imports of gasoline rose by 117,000 barrels per day to 849,000 barrels per day...after the gasoline inventory drawdowns of recent weeks, our gasoline supplies were 0.9% lower than last October 4th's gasoline inventories of 228,763,000 barrels, but still close to the five year average of our gasoline supplies for this time of the year...
meanwhile, with our distillates production still near a three year low, our supplies of distillate fuels decreased for the 9th time in 27 weeks and for the 30th time in 52 weeks, falling by 962,000 barrels to 171,796,000 barrels during the week ending October 2nd, after our distillates supplies had decreased by 3,184,000 barrels during the prior week....our distillates supplies fell by less this week even though the amount of distillates supplied to US markets, an indicator of our domestic demand, rose by 213,000 barrels per day to 3,868,000 barrels per day, because our exports of distillates fell by 268,000 barrels per day to 1,031,000 barrels per day, while our imports of distillates rose by 89,000 barrels per day to 230,000 barrels per day....but even after this week's inventory decrease, our distillate supplies at the end of the week were still 34.9% above the 127,324,000 barrels of distillates that we had in storage on October 4th, 2019, and about 23% above the five year average of distillates stocks for this time of the year...
finally, with the increase in our oil imports and the increase in our oil production, our commercial supplies of crude oil in storage (not including commercial oil in the SPR) rose for the 7th time in the past seventeen weeks and for the 35th time in the past year, increasing by 501,000 barrels, from 492,426,000 barrels on September 25th to 492,927,000 barrels on October 2nd...after that increase, our commercial crude oil inventories were around 12% above the five-year average of crude oil supplies for this time of year, and about 49% above the prior 5 year (2010 - 2014) average of our crude oil stocks for the fourth weekend of September, with the disparity between those comparisons arising because it wasn't until early 2015 that our oil inventories first topped 400 million barrels....since our crude oil inventories have generally been rising over the past two years, except for during the past two summers, after generally falling over the year and a half prior to September of 2018, our commercial crude oil supplies as of October 2nd were 15.8% above the 425,569,000 barrels of oil we had in commercial storage on October 4th of 2019, 20.2% more than the 409,951,000 barrels of oil that we had in storage on October 5th of 2018, and 6.6% above the 462,216,000 barrels of oil we had in commercial storage on September 29th of 2017...
This Week's Rig Count
the US rig count rose for the 4th week in a row during the week ending October 9th, but for just the 6th time in the past 31 weeks, and hence it is still down by 66.1% over that thirty week period....Baker Hughes reported that the total count of rotary rigs running in the US rose by 3 to 269 rigs this past week, which was still down by 587 rigs from the 856 rigs that were in use as of the October 11th report of 2019, and was also 135 fewer rigs than the all time low prior to this year, and 1,660 fewer rigs than the shale era high of 1,929 drilling rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014, the week before OPEC began to flood the global oil market in their first attempt to put US shale out of business....
The number of rigs drilling for oil increased by 4 rigs to 189 oil rigs this week, after increasing by 6 oil rigs the prior week, still leaving us with 519 fewer oil rigs than were running a year ago, and less than an eighth of 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 decreased by one to 73 natural gas rigs, which was also down by 70 natural gas rigs from the 143 natural gas rigs that were drilling a year ago, and was also less than a twentieth of the modern era high of 1,606 rigs targeting natural gas that were deployed on September 7th, 2008...in addition to those rigs drilling for oil & gas, three rigs classified as 'miscellaneous' continued to drill this week; one on the big island of Hawaii, one in Sonoma County, California, and one in the Permian basin in Eddy County, New Mexico...a year ago, there only one such "miscellaneous" rig deployed...
The Gulf of Mexico rig count remained unchanged at 14 rigs this week, with 12 of those rigs drilling for oil in Louisiana's offshore waters and two drilling for oil offshore from Texas...that was 9 fewer Gulf rigs than the 23 rigs drilling in the Gulf a year ago, when all 23 Gulf rigs were drilling offshore from Louisiana...while there are no rigs operating off of other US shores at this time, a year ago there was also a rig deployed offshore from Alaska, so this week's national offshore count is down by 10 from the national offshore rig count of 24 a year ago...also note that in addition to those rigs offshore, a rig continues to drill through an inland body of water in St Mary County, Louisiana this week, while a year ago there were no rigs drilling on inland waters..
The count of active horizontal drilling rigs was up by 4 to 233 horizontal rigs this week, which was still 517 fewer horizontal rigs than the 750 horizontal rigs that were in use in the US on October 4th of last year, and less than a sixth of the record of 1372 horizontal rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014....at the same time, the directional rig count was unchanged at 21 directional rigs this week, and those were down by 34 from the 55 directional rigs that were operating during the same week of last year....on the other hand, the vertical rig count was down by one to 15 vertical rigs this week, and those were down by 36 from the 51 vertical rigs that were in use on October 4th of 2019....
The details on this week's changes in drilling activity by state and by major shale basin are shown in our screenshot below of that part of the rig count summary pdf from Baker Hughes that gives us those changes...the first table below shows weekly and year over year rig count changes for the major oil & gas producing states, and the table below that 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 October 9th, the second column shows the change in the number of working rigs between last week's count (October 2nd) and this week's (October 9th) count, the third column shows last week's October 2nd active rig count, the 4th column shows the change between the number of rigs running on Friday and the number running during the count before the same 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 11th of October, 2019...
once again, there were very few changes this week, with only five rig additions and two removals nationally....by checking the rig counts in the Texas part of Permian basin, we find that one rig was added in Texas Oil District 7C, which roughly aligns with the southern part of the Permian Midland, while 1 rig was pulled out of Texas Oil District 8A, which corresponds to the northern Permian Midland, thus leaving the rig count in the Texas Permian unchanged....since the national Permian basin rig count was up by one, that means that the rig that was added in New Mexico must have been set up to drill in the far western Permian Delaware, in order to balance the overall rig count on that basin...elsewhere in Texas, one rig was added in Texas Oil District 2, which accounts for the rig added in the Eagle Ford, and two more rigs were added in Texas Oil District 3, one in Washington county, and another in Brazoria county, both of which were horizontal rigs targeting an "other" formation, ie, not the Eagle Ford...other than those, the only other rig change nationally was the natural gas rig that was removed from Pennsylvania's Marcellus....
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Columbia Gas fined $156,000 for Leach Xpress violations – TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission LLC has agreed to pay $156,000 to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for pipeline sedimentation and erosion violations in southwest Pennsylvania, Kallanish Energy reports.The violations occurred from June 6, 2017, to Nov. 8, 2019, during construction of the Leach Xpress natural gas pipeline in Greene County.The company and the DEP have agreed to a consent order and agreement.DEP reported numerous violations on a 28.3-acre site in Richhill Township.Erosion and sedimentation discharges from the pipeline construction entered two streams and a damaged a wetland, DEP said.The company was cited for failing to implement best management practices to minimize erosion, failing to implement the erosion plan in its permits, failing to stabilize area where the soil had been disturbed, failing to comply with permit conditio0ns and failing to perform work according to specifications in its permits, it said.Not all the problems have been corrected by the company, the state agency said.It issued two compliance orders to Columbia Gas Transmission.It must also reimburse the Greene County Conservation District $1,126 for costs incurred.
Center Twp. reflects on explosion as Revolution Pipeline construction resumes - Karen Gdula, a retired MSA project manager, grew up on Ivy Lane. When Energy Transfer’s Revolution Pipeline exploded in the early hours of Sept. 10, 2018, the fire’s roar was so loud emergency dispatchers could hardly hear calls for help. “My immediate words to my husband were ‘get dressed, get your meds, we’re going to evacuate,’” Gdula said. “The house shook, and the flames were as high as the pine trees.” Barbara Goblick, who lives near Gdula on Ivy Lane, was making coffee just before 5 a.m. that day. She quickly dialed 911 as her house violently rattled. Emergency responders received as many as 800 calls that morning; residents reported possible plane crashes, tanker truck explosions and meteors as they grappled with what could have caused a fireball so large. “The dispatcher said, ‘What was that noise?’ and I told him it was the fire,” Goblick said. “And I think that’s when it got real for him. Not that he didn't believe us, but it was the sound of it. Some neighbors said they could feel the heat. I don't remember feeling any heat, but every time I think about it, I hear the sound.” Police and firefighters from multiple departments spent 14 to 18 hours assisting Ivy Lane homeowners, rerouting traffic and clearing debris. Goblick’s mother was so startled by the explosion that her legs knocked together and bruised her knees. Another Ivy Lane neighbor was in hospice and on oxygen, causing confusion for first responders. “She could have died that day,” Gdula said. Now, as Energy Transfer resumes Revolution Pipeline construction near the explosion site two years later, Ivy Lane residents are prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best. Just one week after the Revolution Pipeline became active in Beaver County, it burst into flames in a valley near Ivy Lane following heavy rainfall and a subsequent landslide. The blast torched multiple acres of forested areas, destroyed a single-family home, forced the evacuation of nearby residents and caused six high-voltage electric transmission towers to collapse. An investigation found a subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer had not stabilized a number of areas along the pipeline to prevent landslides. Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protectionlater fined Energy Transfer $30.6 million in civil penalties related to the incident, essentially authorizing the company to resume construction. The 40-mile gathering line travels across Butler, Beaver and Washington counties to feed natural gas liquids from western Pennsylvania into the company’s larger statewide lines.
GRID: Natural gas projects at risk in 4 states, report warns -- Wednesday, October 7, 2020 -- An oversupply of natural gas in the nation's largest regional grid operator's portfolio could pose substantial risks for its customers and investors, according to a new report.
Coal, nuclear retirements in US Midwest might boost gas-fired power demand | S&P Global Platts — As natural gas storage surpasses five-year maximum levels in the US Midwest, a swath of coal and nuclear power plant retirements look to boost gas' share of generation winter over winter, helping balance a towering inventory despite higher hub prices in the region. About 70 MWh of coal-fired capacity has retired since last winter with another 173 MWh offline by the end of this upcoming winter in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and Southwest Power Pool, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. This pales in comparison though to the 619 MWh of nuclear generated capacity lost this year. Overall, these losses should provide more opportunity for gas-fired generation in the region. Last winter power burn exceeded expectations thanks to low cash prices. Chicago averaged just $1.90/MMBtu last winter, down from an average of $3.00/MMBtu the past five years. This incentivized greater coal-to-gas switching and boosted power burn in the Midwest to 3.8 Bcf/d. This winter, Platts Analytics expects stronger prices to weaken power burn by a sizable 595 MMcf/d from last winter in the region. However, these winter-over-winter losses could be mitigated in part by the retirement at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. Duane Arnold was Iowa's only nuclear power plant and ran from 1975 to August 2020. The plant was scheduled to retire at the end of October, but the plant could not restart after heavy El Derecho rains in early August, pushing the retirement earlier than expected. The nuclear plant had a nameplate capacity of 619 MWh. US Energy Information Administration data, however, showed the plant averaged 445 MWh in the winter of 2019 and 2020 and hit as high as 456 MWh in January 2020. This lost generation could help boost power burn by 85 MMcf/d if gas fills in for all of the lost nuke output. The region has also seen smaller coal retirements with 129 MWh lost with the JB Sims and TES Filer City Stations in Michigan during the first half of the year. The loss of another 173 MWh is expected with the closure of the Dallman coal-fired power plant in Illinois later this year. Last winter both ran below their nameplate capacity, with JB Sims averaging 22 MWh out of its 68MWh capacity, TES Filer City at 34 MWh of 61 MWH, and Dallman at 81 MWh of 173 MWh. While these plants present a combined 302 MWh of nameplate capacity, only 138 MW was utilized last winter. The lost coal-fired capacity could boost power burn by 26 MMcf/d. Platts Analytics forecasts power burn to decline this year from last assuming normal temperatures and stronger prices. The EIA, however, estimates 22% of the Midwest primarily heat their home with electricity while 20% also use it as a secondary heating source. The loss of generation from coal and nuclear retirements this winter will therefore provide a substantial upward risk to Platts Analytics winter power burn forecast. The region also has a surplus of gas in storage to draw upon, with levels towering above the five-year maximum since August. Cooler winter-over-winter temperatures would only further boost power demand, exacerbating the effects of these retirements. The National Weather Service forecasts Midwest temperatures to be slightly cooler than normal for winter 2020-21.
Trump pounds fracking as a wedge issue in Pa. But if it's not a top concern for voters, how much can it help? - Pennsylvania has emerged as one of the key swing states in the presidential election. And while natural gas drilling is near the bottom of a list of concerns for the state’s voters, fracking just keeps coming up.It got a surprising amount of air time during Wednesday’s vice presidential debate between Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and Republican Vice President Mike Pence.“They want to abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking,” Pence said. “Joe Biden will not ban fracking, he’s been very clear about that,” countered Harris. In fact, Joe Biden can’t actually ban fracking, at least not in Pennsylvania. The technology that helped tap Pennsylvania’s deeply buried shale gas transformed some of the state’s quiet farm and forest communities over the past 12 years. It’s created good-paying jobs, and an influx of cash for people who lease their land to gas drillers. And that’s something President Trump likes to bring up, as at a recent rally at Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown. “You’re a big fracker,” Trump told the crowd. “It’s a big business here, 900,000 jobs.” Quick fact check here: That number is wrong. The state puts the figure at about 26,000 jobs in the oil and gas sector. That’s less than 1 percent of all jobs in the state. It doesn’t even make the state’s top 50 list of employment sectors. And even the industry claims a job figure of about 300,000, which is one-third of Trump’s number. On his trips to Pennsylvania, he’s repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent Joe Biden of wanting to ban fracking. “He wants to eradicate all the things that you’re doing, all the things that are bringing in so much money for your state, it’s a disgrace,” Trump told the crowd in Middletown. “Now he’s trying to say, well, I didn’t really mean that.” The Democratic party’s progressive wing has pushed for a ban on fracking because of the environmental damage drilling caused in some areas, including Pennsylvania. But a president cannot ban fracking on private land — only Congress can do that. And the vast majority of fracking in Pennsylvania takes place on private and state land. The state leases about 11 percent of its land — 251,233 acres — to gas drillers.What Biden says he wants to do — as part of his larger plan to tackle climate change — is stop leasing any new oil and gas rights on federal land. But Pennsylvania has very little federal land. The only place where federal leases exist are in the Allegheny National Forest, where there are three oil and gas leases that span about 855 acres.
Whistleblower claims Mariner East construction lacks proper safety measures related to sinkholes, subsidence | StateImpact Pennsylvania -A professional geologist who worked on the Mariner East pipeline project says pipeline builder Sunoco/Energy Transfer prevented him and other geologists from inspecting and reporting on dangerous subsidence, or sinkholes, during construction.The whistleblower says professional geologists were prevented from speaking to drillers, unable to gain access to drill sites, told to change the name from subsidence to “earth feature” in reports, and had their mandated reports to agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection edited and changed by non-geologists.He says the company had what they called a “limited disturbance policy” whereby geologists should only report subsidence issues within a specific area. Failing to follow the policy would risk termination.The claims are detailed in a notice of intent to sue Sunoco by the Clean Air Council. The legal notice was sent to the company on Tuesday. The whistleblower is not identified in the document. Tim Fitchett, staff attorney for Fairshake Environmental Legal Services, is representing Clean Air Council in the case. Fitchett said Sunoco fired the geologist after he reported a sinkhole in Chester County that lay outside the area defined by the company’s “limited disturbance policy.”Clean Air Council sued Sunoco in 2017, which resulted in a settlement agreement with the company and DEP.“Sunoco is so scared of what its scientists will find in investigating its pipeline construction that it’s muzzled them and doctored their reports,” said Joseph Minott, executive director and chief counsel of Clean Air Council.Sunoco’s erosion and sediment control permits issued by the Department of Environmental Protection require the company to report subsidence and stop work until a plan is created and approved by DEP. But Fitchett said the geologist witnessed examples where work stopped for about a week, the subsidence was “cursorily” monitored, and reports issued to DEP claimed no issues. At that point, work would restart at the site. Fitchett said the geologist saw issues similar to the kinds of subsidence that occurred in Beaver County at another Energy Transfer pipeline construction site, which led to an explosion in September 2018. No one was injured in the Revolution Pipeline incident, but it burned a house to the ground. Fitchett said the geologist decided to inform the Clean Air Council of his experiences due to safety concerns.
It Takes Two, Part 2 - U.S. Ethane Export Terminals, Throughputs, and Cargo Destinations | RBN Energy - Taken together, the ethane-related infrastructure projects developed in the U.S. over the past several years serve as a reliable feedstock-delivery network for a number of steam crackers in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. NGL pipelines transport y-grade to fractionation hubs, fractionators split the mixed NGLs into ethane and other “purity” products, ethane pipelines move the feedstock to export terminals fitted with the special storage and loading facilities that ethane requires, and a class of cryogenic ships — Very Large Ethane Carriers, or VLECs — sails ethane to mostly long-term customers in distant lands. The end results of all this development are virtual ethane pipelines between, say, the Marcellus/Utica and Scotland, or the Permian and India. Today, we continue our series on ethane exports with a look at the two existing export terminals, the ethane volumes they have been handling, and where all that ethane has been headed. As we said in Part 1, U.S. fractionators are now churning out record volumes of ethane, with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) last week reporting the highest production volume ever: 2.2 MMb/d for July 2020. We estimate that around a million additional barrels per day on average this year has been “rejected” into the natural gas stream at processing plants and sold (at the price of gas) for its Btu value (see Turnin’ Natgas into Gold). Most important to the export focus of this series, about 280 Mb/d, or 14% of total U.S. ethane production, has been sent to other countries so far in 2020. More than one-third of that 280 Mb/d is being piped to Canadian steam-cracker customers on either the Vantage, Mariner West, or Utopia pipelines. The rest is being loaded on VLECs or smaller ethane tankers and sent to crackers in a number of other countries, with the vast majority going to these seven: India, the UK, Norway, China, Mexico, Sweden, and Brazil. These export numbers represent a big change from just a few years ago. Ethane exports from the U.S. only started in 2014, when the Vantage and Mariner West pipelines to Canada came online. And it wasn’t until March 2016 when the first ethane was loaded onto ships for export, first from the Marcus Hook marine terminal near Philadelphia, and then from Morgan’s Point Ethane Export Terminal in the Houston area, which didn’t occur until September 2016 — barely four years ago. Before those terminals opened for business, nary a drop of ethane had ever moved via ship to ethylene crackers. Today, we discuss the Marcus Hook and Morgan’s Point export facilities, which so far account for all U.S. ethane exports by ship.
Shell says Pennsylvania ethane cracker about 70% complete (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Friday its multibillion-dollar petrochemical complex near Pittsburgh was about 70% complete and remains on track to enter service in the early 2020s.After temporarily suspending construction activities on the ethane cracker in March to limit the spread of coronavirus, Shell said it has been re-introducing workers at a measured pace – bringing the total number of workers on site to about 6,500.“As we safety ramp up to a pre-pandemic level of activity, the project remains on schedule to be completed sometime in the early 2020s,” Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said.
Big Oil quietly built a plastics and chemicals empire worth billions. Now Exxon, Shell, and other giants are betting it will help save them in a future without gas-powered cars. - Most people are familiar with oil giants like Shell and Chevron, largely because they sell gasoline and diesel at stations across the country — fuel, after all, is the biggest market for oil companies. But there's a large and growing part of Big Oil that's less visible to the public: petrochemicals.Petrochemicals, or chemicals derived from petroleum, are absolutely everywhere.They're used to make plastics, yes. But they're also in laundry detergents and windshield wiper fluids. They're in the blades of wind turbines. And they're key ingredients in hand sanitizers and other products that have surged in demand during the pandemic. For years, petrochemicals have fueled Big Oil, and vice versa.From 2015 to 2018, for example, chemicals represented about a quarter of Exxon's earnings, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley. That proportion has since fallen substantially, due to an industry-wide drop in margins, but the bank says profits are poised to recover as chemicals rebound from a pandemic-driven slump."Exxon's business is easily big enough to be a standalone company," Sam Margolin, an analyst at Wolfe Research, said. "That should give you a sense of scale."Now, petrochemicals look like an even better bet, as Big Oil faces an unprecedented challenge: Over the long term, demand for gas-powered cars, and the fuel that runs them, is set to weaken as more people opt for electric vehicles.In fact, by 2050, petrochemicals are projected to overtake the transportation sector as the largest driver of growth in oil demand, according to the International Energy Agency. So it's no surprise that companies like Exxon, Shell, and Total have all been bulking up their chemical arms. That could be good for their bottom line, and even push them closer to their climate-change targets. But petrochemicals create another big problem — plastic waste. Chemicals were a smart bet well before the oil price downturn or electric car revolution, especially for companies experienced in turning oil and gas into other products.The market for chemicals is huge, worth more than a half a trillion dollars in the US alone, according to the American Chemistry Council. It's also growing faster than global GDP, said Alan Gelder, an analyst at the research firm Wood Mackenzie."What they've been doing over the last 40 years is effectively displacing other materials," Gelder said of chemicals, which is why petrochemicals are growing at what he calls "GDP-plus." A future with fewer gas-powered cars only makes chemicals more appealing to oil companies looking to keep growing. Thus, many of the integrated oil majors including Exxon, Shell, and French energy giant Total are doubling down on their chemical bets, even as they cut elsewhere to stay afloat in the wake of a pandemic-fueled collapse in oil prices. BP is the notable exception, having sold off its chemicals business earlier this year."They all view petchems as among the fastest-growing product group within the hydrocarbon value chain," Jason Gabelman, an energy analyst at Cowen, said. Exxon, which dominates the chemical space among majors, broke ground on four large projects in 2019. "We feel very well positioned in that business," Neil Chapman, SVP of Exxon, told investors this summer.
State approves $56 million settlement with Columbia Gas for Merrimack Valley gas explosions - The Boston Globe - A settlement agreed upon in July that requires Columbia Gas of Massachusetts to pay $56 million for its role in the 2018 Merrimack Valley gas explosions was approved by the state Department of Public Utilities on Wednesday, officials said.The settlement also requires Columbia Gas to leave Massachusetts and transfer its assets to Eversource Energy, the department said in a statement.The agreement resolves the department’s investigation into the company’s pipeline safety compliance and emergency response related to the September 2018 explosions.
Weymouth officials, residents want to see gas company's emergency plan - — Officials are pushing to get more information on the emergency response plan for the newly-completed natural gas compressor station on the banks of the Fore River following two incidents at the facility in less than three weeks that caused emergency releases of gas. Alice Arena, president of the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station, went before town council at its virtual meeting this week regarding safety, risk and evacuation planning at the compressor station, which is close by the MWRA sewage pumping station, Fore River Bridge, numerous industrial facilities and hundreds of homes. Arena said Enbridge, the energy company that owns the compressor station, is required to have an emergency plan, yet has released no information on how it will build and maintain communications with local first responders, make personnel, equipment, tools and materials available during an emergency, evacuate residents and other factors. “It is simply unacceptable that this compressor station has received its final operating permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but we still have no safety and evacuation plan available to the vulnerable residents and no risk assessment was ever done by federal or state agencies,” Arena said.
‘Less-than-ideal bedfellows’: Mountain Valley Pipeline payout prompts criticism - Maury Johnson has been tangling with a long, skinny, unwelcome intruder — the Mountain Valley Pipeline — on his West Virginia homestead for close to six years. He and his rural neighbors figured the Appalachian Trail Conservancy would continue to back them as they strategized to prevent the long-delayed, contentious natural gas pipeline from being buried along 303 miles of sensitive West Virginia and Virginia habitat. So, Johnson was crestfallen when he learned in mid-August that the nonprofit Conservancy had signed a $19.5 million “voluntary stewardship agreement” with the handful of companies building the pipeline. A Conservancy staffer delivered the news via telephone minutes before a press release landed in his inbox. “It shocked me so much that I almost fell to the floor,” said the 60-year-old retired farmer and former teacher from Monroe County. “At first, I wanted to drop my membership in the Conservancy. But then I thought, wait a minute, membership gives me power because they have to be responsive to members.” The Conservancy, founded in 1925, is the guardian of the storied footpath that stretches 2,193 miles from Georgia to Maine. Its charge, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, is a unit of the National Park Service. Johnson convinced his anti-pipeline colleagues to hold off on a protest at the Conservancy headquarters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, until he composed a letter to Sandi Marra, the president and CEO of the nonprofit, and checked in with other allies. “I didn’t want to be confrontational with Sandi,” he said, adding that other Conservancy staffers had reassured him that anti-pipeline efforts would not be ignored just because of the pact. Johnson is upset enough that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is slated to be buried under a lengthy section of his 150-acre farm. But he’s also heartsick because his once-pristine view of Peters Mountain is now of chain-sawed trees. That’s about 11 miles from his home and where the pipeline will likely cross under the Appalachian Trail in the Jefferson National Forest on the Monroe County, West Virginia-Giles County, Virginia border.
Stream-Crossing Permits Bring New Court Challenges as MVP Awaits Construction Restart - In keeping with an extensive history of persistent legal opposition to Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP), environmental groups have asked a federal appeals court to stay recently updated waterbody-crossing permits for the 303-mile, 2 million Dth/d natural gas conduit. In petitions filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a coalition of plaintiffs including the Sierra Club has asked the court to put a hold on MVP’s Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) approvals, issued by the Huntington, WV, and Norfolk, VA, districts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The groups have asked the Fourth Circuit to issue a stay while the court reviews the approvals, arguing that the Army Corps has failed to meet standards laid out in the federal Endangered Species Act and that the NWP 12 issued by the Huntington District “relies on unlawful modifications.” The groups claimed that “MVP’s haste” to restore its federal permits and complete construction on the project “necessitates this stay motion.”The NWP 12 approvals are among a number of federal permits that have come under scrutiny since MVP secured its FERC certificate in 2017, with opposition groups scoring key legal victories that have stalled construction progress on the pipeline. After securing a number of updated and reissued permits in recent weeks, including a new Endangered Species Act review conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MVP has been seeking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s blessing to resume construction activities. The operator has pointed to adverse impacts on landowners and the environment from temporary stabilization on unfinished stretches of the pipeline, which is designed to transport Marcellus and Utica shale gas from West Virginia to an interconnect with the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line in Virginia. MVP has sought to further bolster its case to resume construction by pointing to a draft supplemental environmental impact statement the U.S. Forest Service recently completed for the project. MVP has also received a right-of-way permit from the National Park Service to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway, the operator said in a FERC filing late last week. Genscape Inc. analyst Colette Breshears said in a note to clients Tuesday that the firm anticipates MVP entering full service in March 2021.However, “delays to some of these permits will be consequential, especially the NWP 12 permits,” Breshears said. “Despite their issuance and MVP’s renewed request to construct, these permits aren’t a foregone conclusion” amid the renewed legal opposition.A previously raised issue concerning river crossings in West Virginia “may haunt the project again,” the analyst said.
FERC study finds no risk from protective coating of Mountain Valley Pipeline - Segments of steel pipe stockpiled along the path of a natural gas pipeline, exposed to the elements for two years while lawsuits delayed construction, pose no risk to the surrounding air, soil or water, a federal agency has concluded.In a report released Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addressed concerns that have been raised about the Mountain Valley Pipeline.An epoxy coating applied to protect the pipe from corrosion may have released toxins in two ways, the theory goes: into the air after it degenerates from sitting too long in the sun, and into groundwater after the 42-inch diameter pipe is assembled and buried.But after more than a year of study, FERC found no basis for the fears about Mountain Valley or the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a similar project that collapsed in July under the weight of multiple legal challenges.The report cites the conclusion of ToxStrategies, a consulting firm hired by Atlantic Coast, that there should be “no impact on human health or the environment from the chalky residue” that forms on the pipes after prolonged exposure to sunlight. After getting the report last year, FERC requested more information, including an assessment of pipeline storage yards. A revised study dated Aug. 27 reached the same conclusion as the first.
Video Conversation: Pipeline Opponents Discuss Lessons Learned – ‘You Can’t Give Up’ - Daily Yonder -- At the height of the summer as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to spread throughout the U.S. — particularly in rural areas —and as protests demanding racial justice continue in cities and towns, several oil and gas infrastructure projects were either cancelled or hit major stumbling blocks. On July 5, Dominion Energy cancelled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 600-mile natural gas project the utility proposed to build from West Virginia to North Carolina. A day later, a court ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to halt operations. On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision to suspend construction on parts of the Keystone XL pipeline. A permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate extension was rejected by North Carolina regulators.The decisions will have a significant impact on movements around public health, anti-racism, and environmental conservation. Oil and natural gas pipelines are typically proposed in rural areas, in communities that are low-wealth and have a history of extraction or other industrial and polluting facilities. They are often routed through communities where Black, Latino, and Indigenous people live. These projects have been in the works for years, with varying degrees of success: The Dakota Access Pipeline already had oil flowing through it; less than 10% of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was in the ground. The projects, touted as economic silver bullets for rural places by developers, have divided communities, churches, neighborhoods, and families. Those opposing them have spent years working to stop them, writing op-eds for newspapers, filing lawsuits, organizing protests and meetings and fundraisers. Some people camped out in trees for weeks on end. Others trained themselves on how to monitor construction to ensure any environmental damage was reported. Southerly and the Rural Assembly wanted to know about this work: the successes, concerns, and challenges, how these folks have organized against pipeline projects they say are dangerous and unnecessary. We wanted to learn about the mistakes they made, the lessons they’ve learned, and the small and large victories they have celebrated. In late summer, I spoke to Belinda Joyner, an activist in Northampton County, North Carolina, who fought the Atlantic Coast Pipeline; Becky Crabtree, a retired teacher and activist in West Virginia who protested the Mountain Valley Pipeline; and Greg Buppert, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which had multiple lawsuits against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. We talked about their efforts to oppose fossil-fuel pipelines and what they would tell other folks in rural communities where industrial projects are proposed.
Additional clean up needed at oil spill on WK Parkway— The clean up from a crude oil spill occurring Friday, Sept. 25, on the Western Kentucky Parkway, will continue through Thursday, Oct. 8. The clean up began Monday, Oct. 5.The work zone is eastbound between Central City and the Muhlenberg/Ohio County line. Signage will be in place to alert motorists of the work on the parkway. Motorists can expect an eastbound, right lane restriction while this work is addressed at mile marker 63.8. The work is scheduled for completion Thursday afternoon.
12 million cubic feet of natural gas released after rupture near Florida's Turnpike — Contact 5 is learning new details about a natural gas line that ruptured late last month next to Florida's Turnpike near Lake Worth Road. More than a week and a half after the incident, there is still no word on the cause of the failure. According to a federal incident report, Florida Gas Transmission reported that the rupture of the 18-inch transmission pipeline released 12 million cubic feet of natural gas into the air. Security cameras at a nearby business caught the moment the line ruptured. The incident closed the turnpike for hours and led to a shelter in place and evacuations. A U.S. Department of Transportation incident report located by Contact 5 shows a minor natural gas leak not far from the site in 2012. According to the report, in that incident, only 6,000 standard cubic feet of gas released.
Natural gas production, consumption hit record highs in 2019 – US natural gas production, consumption and gross exports rose to record levels in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Data recently released in EIA’s Natural Gas Annual shows dry natural gas production rose by 10% to a record-high average of 93.1 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. U.S. natural gas consumption increased by 3%, and the increase could be attributed to the greater use of natural gas in the electric power sector. Natural gas gross exports rose 29% to 12.8 billion cubic feet per day. The electric power sector consumed 7% more natural gas in 2019 than in 2018. Electric power sector consumption increased because of favorable natural gas prices and ongoing coal plant retirements. Natural gas consumption in all other sectors was flat. The volume of natural gas exports in pipelines and as liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose for the fifth consecutive year to an average of 12.8 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. U.S. LNG exports contributed to the majority of the increase. The United States exported more natural gas than it imported in 2019, and net natural gas exports were an average of 5.2 billion cubic feet per day. In 2019, the United States also exported more natural gas by pipeline than it imported for the first time since at least 1985, and this could be attributed to an increase in pipeline capacity to send natural gas to Canada and Mexico. In 2019, dry natural gas production rose by 10%, or by 8.7 billion cubic feet per day, to a record of 93.1 billion cubic feet per day. The increase was the second-largest volumetric increase since at least 1930 and second only to the increase in 2018. Texas and Pennsylvania produce the most natural gas in the United States, and they had the largest increases in natural gas production in 2019. In Texas, dry natural gas production rose 15%, from 19.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2018 to 22.2 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. In Pennsylvania, the production rose 10%, from 16.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2018 to 18.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. In Wyoming, natural gas production declined 11%, from 4.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2018 to 3.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2019. The decrease was the largest year-over-year decline of any state last year.
U.S. natgas rises to 5-week high on higher LNG exports, hurricane worries (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures jumped over 7% to a five-week high on Monday as liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports rise and worries production could be shut in again later this week with another hurricane expected in the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical Storm Delta is expected to strengthen into a hurricane before slamming into the Gulf Coast between Louisiana and Florida on Friday. Front-month gas futures rose 17.7 cents, or 7.3%, to settle at $2.615 per million British thermal units, its highest close since Aug. 31. Despite the rise in the futures, spot gas prices for Monday fell to their lowest in years in several regions of the United States and Canada as mild weather and coronavirus demand destruction cut usage of the fuel for heating and industrial purposes. Gas speculators, meanwhile, boosted their net long positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges last week for a second week in three on expectations energy demand will rise as the economy rebounds once state governments lift more coronavirus-linked lockdowns. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 U.S. states averaged 86.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in October, down from a four-month low of 87.2 bcfd in September. Those production declines come as low prices earlier in the year due to coronavirus demand destruction caused energy firms to shut wells and cut back on new drilling so much that output from new wells no longer offsets existing well declines. With milder weather coming, Refinitiv projected demand, including exports, would slip from 86.8 bcfd this week to 86.4 bcfd next week. That, however, was higher than Refinitiv's forecasts on Friday. The amount of gas flowing to LNG export plants averaged 7.1 bcfd so far in October, up from 5.7 bcfd in September as vessels started returning to Cameron in Louisiana.
Winter Severity Doubts Add to Wild US Gas Price Swings -- Rollercoaster moves in the U.S. natural gas market over the past few weeks are underscoring traders’ uncertainty about whether a frigid winter, muted output and rebounding demand will send prices rocketing higher in the coming months. Gas futures settled more than 7% higher on Monday, mimicking gains in oil and equities. But just two weeks ago, prices posted their biggest one-day loss in almost two years. Historical volatility has surged to levels not seen since late 2018, and implied volatility, a measure of how dramatic price swings may be going forward, is the highest in data going back to 2010. Bullish bets on U.S. gas have soared as traders wager on lackluster production and surging demand heading into winter. Liquefied natural gas exports are rising as consumption recovers from pandemic-driven lockdowns, and as terminals restart after storm-related outages and maintenance. Meanwhile, shale output remains subdued as drillers heed investor calls for financial restraint after this year’s oil-price crash. Outsize moves in risk assets amid geopolitical turmoil have magnified the volatility in gas, while a hyperactive hurricane season has disrupted offshore production and LNG exports and triggered blackouts that curtailed gas demand for power generation. “You’ve had a volatile market, but this is the icing on the cake,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securities USA Inc. “Guys were stepping in to pick at the bottom.” But as is often the case with the gas market, it all hinges on the weather. Though a La Nina pattern has emerged, which could lead to a chilly winter in the northern U.S., brutally cold conditions are far from certain. A mild December, January and February would limit gas demand for heating and curb withdrawals from underground storage, leaving the market oversupplied heading into spring. Almost half of respondents in a Bloomberg News survey of traders and analysts late last month said winter prices could rise higher than $3 per million British thermal units, perhaps testing $4 or more, a level not seen for years. Hedge funds are the most bullish on gas prices since 2017. Gas futures jumped 17.7 cents to $2.615 in New York on Monday, the biggest gainer among major commodities. Shares of gas producers including Southwestern Energy Co. also climbed. With temperatures not expected to be cooler until late October, EBW AnalyticsGroup CEO Andy Weissman said gas traders are closely watching the recovery process of Cameron LNG, a Sempra Energy-owned export terminal in Louisiana that’s restarting after shutting due to Hurricane Laura in late August. If cold weather doesn’t materialize, money managers will jettison their bullish positions, leading prices to plummet.
U.S. natgas drops 3% on mild forecasts, LNG export hurricane worries - (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures fell over 3% on Tuesday on forecasts for milder weather and lower demand over the next two weeks than previously expected and worries Hurricane Delta could disrupt liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. That price decline came despite a rise in LNG exports so far this week and a drop in output as producers shut Gulf of Mexico wells ahead of the storm. Delta is expected to slam into the Gulf Coast between Texas and Florida as a major hurricane on Friday. Front-month gas futures fell 9.5 cents, or 3.6%, to settle at $2.520 per million British thermal units. Earlier in the day, the contract was on track for its highest close since November. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 U.S. states was on track to drop from 86.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Monday to 84.2 bcfd on Tuesday, its lowest since August 2018 as Gulf Coast producers shut-in wells. That data is preliminary and subject to change later in the day. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said energy firms have already shut-in about 0.2 bcfd, or 9%, of offshore gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. With milder weather coming, Refinitiv projected demand, including exports, would slip from 86.0 bcfd this week to 85.8 bcfd next week. That was lower than Refinitiv's forecasts on Monday. The amount of gas flowing to LNG export plants has averaged 7.0 bcfd so far in October, up from 5.7 bcfd in September, as vessels started returning to Cameron in Louisiana. Traders noted Cove Point in Maryland was expected to exit its maintenance outage next week.
U.S. natgas futures rise as producers shut wells ahead of Hurricane Delta | Reuters(Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures gained over 3% on Wednesday as producers shut Gulf of Mexico wells ahead of Hurricane Delta and on forecasts for larger-than-expected demand over the next two weeks. Prices rose despite worries Delta could cut liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports as happened with Hurricane Laura in late August. Actual gas flows to LNG export plants, however, were at their highest since April. Delta is expected to slam into Louisiana as a major hurricane on Friday. Front-month gas futures rose 8.6 cents, or 3.4%, to settle at $2.606 per million British thermal units. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 U.S. states was on track to drop from a four-month low of 84.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Tuesday to a 26-month low of 83.3 bcfd on Wednesday as Gulf Coast producers shut wells. That data is preliminary and subject to change later in the day. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said energy firms shut in 1.3 bcfd, or 49%, of offshore Gulf of Mexico gas production. With milder weather coming, Refinitiv projected demand, including exports, would slip from 87.0 bcfd this week to 86.8 bcfd next week. That, however, was higher than Refinitiv's forecasts on Tuesday. The amount of gas flowing to LNG export plants averaged 7.2 bcfd so far in October, up from 5.7 bcfd in September. That was on track to rise for a third month in a row for the first time since hitting a record 8.7 bcfd in February as higher global gas prices in recent months have prompted buyers to reverse some cargo cancellations.
US working natural gas volumes in underground storage rise by 75 Bcf: EIA | S&P Global Platts — US working natural gas inventories rose by 75 Bcf last week while an approaching hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico douses LNG export demand in the South-Central storage region. Stay up to date with the latest commodity content. Sign up for our free daily Commodities Bulletin. Sign Up US gas in storage increased 75 Bcf to reach 3.831 Tcf for the week ended Oct. 2, Energy Information Administration data showed Oct. 8. The injection was above an S&P Global Platts' survey of analysts that called for a 71 Bcf build. Responses to the survey ranged from an injection of 62 Bcf to 86 Bcf. The injection measured less than the 102 Bcf build reported during the same week last year as well as the five-year average gain of 86, according to EIA data. Storage volumes now stand 444 Bcf, or 13%, above the year-ago level of 3.285 Tcf and 394 Bcf, or 11.5%, above the five-year average of 3.351 Tcf. Stock levels for the Continental US were 128 Bcf higher than the previous five-year maximum for this calendar week. Nearly half of those extra volumes were stored in the South-Central region's salt dome facilities, which are 58 Bcf higher than the five-year maximums. NYMEX Henry Hub futures prices were muted the morning of Oct. 8, with November rising 1 cent to $2.62/MMBtu, while the balance of winter was trading about 1 cent lower. After a rocky month of trading, winter strip prices were roughly equal to where they were a month ago, with the strip priced at $3.09 after briefly dropping as low as $2.93 last weekend. S&P Global Platts Analytics' supply and demand model currently forecasts a 37 Bcf injection for the week ending Oct. 9. This would lower the surplus to the five-year average by 50 Bcf. Markets have tightened for the week ending Oct. 9, with the week in progress seeing fundamentals trending more than 4 Bcf/d tighter compared with the week prior. Total supplies week have averaged about 300 MMcf/d lower, after a nearly 1 Bcf/d combined drop in onshore and offshore production was supported, in part, by a 700 MMcf/d increase in net Canadian imports. Downstream, residential and commercial demand has made a strong showing, up nearly 3 Bcf/d week on week, while LNG feedgas demand has ticked up another 700 MMcf/d, helping drive a combined 3.9 Bcf/d increase in total US demand. Injections tightened in response to the rapid intensification of Hurricane Delta from a Tropical Storm to a Category 4 hurricane Oct. 6. Despite the calm start to the week, the South-Central region finishes as the primary driver of weaker US-level injections, with the salt domes alone accounting for nearly half of the week-on-week change.
U.S. natgas up to highest since August as Hurricane Delta shuts output | 路透 (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures edged up on Thursday to their highest since August, as the Gulf of Mexico braced for Hurricane Delta's arrival and the market focused more on production declines than on lower gas flows to the region's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants. Delta was expected to slam into Louisiana on Friday with winds over 100 miles per hour (161 kph). Traders noted that prices fell early in the session, then turned positive following a report showing an expected, below-normal storage build last week that keeps inventories on track to reach a record high by the end of October. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said utilities injected 75 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage in the week ended Oct. 2. That is in line with the 73-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 102 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2015-19) average build of 86 bcf. Front-month gas futures rose 2.1 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $2.627 per million British thermal units, their highest since Aug. 31. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 U.S. states was on track to drop from a 26-month low of 84.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Wednesday to a preliminary 83.3 bcfd on Thursday as Gulf Coast producers shut wells. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said energy firms shut 1.7 bcfd, or 62%, of offshore Gulf of Mexico gas production. In Louisiana, Cameron LNG said it would shut its LNG export plant, while Cheniere Energy Inc reduced gas flows to its Sabine Pass facility but planned to keep it operating with a small "ride-out" crew. With LNG exports declining, Refinitiv projected demand would slip from 86.9 bcfd this week to 85.5 bcfd next week.
U.S. natgas highest since November as hurricane shuts output, cold forecasts - (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures jumped to their highest since November on Friday as production fell to its lowest in over two years after Gulf Coast energy firms shut wells ahead of Hurricane Delta and on forecasts for colder weather and higher demand in mid October. That price increase came despite a drop in gas flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants as operators either shut or reduced their Louisiana facilities before Delta makes landfall. Delta was expected to slam into Southwest Louisiana near the Cameron LNG export plant later Friday. The storm has already caused about 12,000 power outages in Louisiana, according to local utilities. Front-month gas futures rose 11.4 cents, or 4.3%, to settle at $2.741 per million British thermal units, their highest close since Nov. 8. After rising 19% over the past two weeks, the front-month was up almost 13% this week. Data provider Refinitiv said output in the Lower 48 U.S. states would drop from a 26-month low of 84.0 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) earlier this week to a preliminary 83.1 bcfd on Friday as Gulf Coast producers shut wells. The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said energy firms shut 1.7 bcfd, or 62%, of offshore Gulf of Mexico gas production. In Louisiana, meanwhile, Cameron shut its LNG export plant on Thursday, while Cheniere Energy Inc reduced gas flows to its Sabine Pass facility from a five-month high of 4.0 bcfd earlier in the week to a preliminary 2.1 bcfd on Friday. Cheniere said it planned to keep Sabine operating with a small "ride-out" crew. Refinitiv projected demand would slip from 87.0 bcfd this week to 85.3 bcfd next week before jumping to 93.2 bcfd in two weeks as the weather turns colder and with LNG plants in Louisiana and Cove Point in Maryland expected to return.
Report questions feasibility of LNG industry - A new report released Monday questions not only the environmental impact, but also economic feasibility of the liquid natural gas industry based mostly on the U.S. Gulf Coast — including three proposed and existing facilities in Southeast Texas. In the report “Troubled Water for LNG,” the Environmental Integrity Project tracks the environmental toll of additional releases from LNG facilities and what it characterized as a volatile marketing that has led to 10 proposed projects being delayed by a year or indefinitely while still being approved by the federal government.Locally, the Golden Pass LNG and Port Arthur LNG projects — both planned for the Sabine Pass community of Port Arthur — were listed among six projects that have been delayed by at least a year since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the United States this spring. Authors of the report posited that such delays weren’t symptoms of the pandemic-related recession, but were the result of an already saturated market that was already becoming unattractive to investors as evidenced by some companies going more than three years after receiving air permits without making a final investment decision.
North American Pipeline Project Roundup: September/October 2020 - Project Roundup - Project Roundup is a monthly feature that summarizes the contracts awarded for pipeline projects in North America. The following oil and gas pipeline projects have been announced. Projects are in order of most recent approximate starting date. All projects are for 2020 unless noted. (dozens)
Pipeline Billionaire Steps Down-- Kelcy Warren, the Dallas billionaire known for controversial pipelines and aggressive dealmaking, is stepping down as chief executive officer of Energy Transfer LP. But if the move is anything like those of fellow moguls in the pipeline industry, he isn’t going far. The company late Thursday named Chief Operating Officer Mackie McCrea and Chief Financial Officer Tom Long as co-CEOs. Warren, 64, will stay on as executive chairman and remains the top investor. He’ll also retain a majority stake in the so-called general partner that controls Energy Transfer’s board. Warren appears to be following a playbook employed by his billionaire rivals in the pipeline industry. Kinder Morgan Inc. founder Rich Kinder continues to serve as his company’s chairman despite relinquishing the CEO title in 2015, and Randa Duncan holds the same spot at Enterprise Products Partners LP after her father, the company’s founder, died in 2010. “Although I am stepping away from the day-to-day management of our business, I will continue to be intimately involved in the strategic growth of Energy Transfer,” said Warren, who has a net worth of about $3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Warren co-founded Energy Transfer in 1996 alongside Ray Davis, who now co-owns the Texas Rangers baseball team. Warren’s appetite for takeovers and his use of the tax-advantaged master limited partnership model allowed him to turn 200 miles of natural gas conduits into one of the biggest pipeline operations in the country. Those same characteristics have frequently earned him the ire of everyone from regulators to environmental groups to investors. Warren rose to national attention for his Dakota Access crude oil pipeline, which triggered months of on-the-ground protests after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe objected to the path of the project in North Dakota. Even once Dakota Access faded from headlines after the project was fast-tracked by the Trump administration, Warren and Energy Transfer continued to attract scrutiny. When building the Rover natural gas pipeline, the company bulldozed an historic house in Ohio that it had told federal regulators it would use as office space. And Energy Transfer’s Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline has been blamed for a series of sinkholes in Pennsylvania. Williams Deal Warren has taken a similarly pugnacious approach when it comes to dealmaking. Energy Transfer in 2016 backed out of a $36.6 billion deal with Williams Cos. that would have created the nation’s largest natural gas transporter. Two years later, Energy Transfer made a hostile, and unsuccessful, run at NuStar Energy LP. And despite all the acquisitions he’s managed to make, two dramatic oil-industry downturns have pushed down the value of Energy Transfer to less than $6 billion, from a peak of more than $35 billion in 2015.
Containership no longer leaking fuel in Bayonne terminal - A fuel oil leak from a containership at the Global Container Terminal in Bayonne has been stopped, the U.S. Coast Guard announced on Sept. 30. The container vessel YM Mandate is no longer leaking fuel oil from a crack in the hull. The ship is internally conducting a transfer of fuel oil from the affected tank. Fuel oil is being pumped from the affected tank to a barge alongside the vessel and will continue to be pumped until the affected tank is empty, and repairs to the hull can be made. All leaking product is currently contained within the boom and skimmer system. An oil containment boom, a temporary floating barrier, and absorbent pads have been deployed around the YM Mandate, according to the Coast Guard. Contracted skimming vessels have been working to remove oil from the water. A unified command consisting of the Coast Guard, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and Gallagher Marine Systems, responded to the report of an oil leak in the water. The National Response Center contacted Coast Guard Sector New York watchstanders on Sept. 28, reporting a sheen near the vessel Yang Ming (YM) Mandate. The YM Mandate was built in 2010 and can hold 6,572 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). Each storage container is 20 feet long, meaning the YM Mandate can carry approximately 6,572 storage containers. A Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team (MSST) New York boat crew in the area reported a small crack in the ship’s hull, which was leaking fuel oil. Coast Guard investigators confirmed the leak. YM Mandate activated its Coast Guard-approved vessel response plan by making notifications and activating response resources. The affected tank has a capacity of 462,297 gallons. The amount of fuel oil leaked is not known at this time. The last time an oil spill occurred was in 2018. APM Terminal alerted the National Response Centre that fuel had spilled into Newark Bay while a ship was refueling pier-side at the terminal. While commercial cleanup crews used a boom to contain the fuel and recover it from the waterway, it’s not clear how much oil was spilled and how much was recovered.
Delta Threatens Louisiana Energy Hub Still Reeling from Laura -- For six weeks, residents of the tiny bayou town of Cameron, Louisiana, have been plucking their wind-tossed belongings from swamps, ripping out soggy dry wall and attempting to piece their lives back together after being bowled over by Hurricane Laura. Now, with the waterfront town still in ruins, another storm is approaching. Hurricane Delta, which grew into a major Category 3 storm Thursday, is forecast to hit nearly the same spot as Laura. For Cameron, which sits 3 feet above sea level and has a population of 400, it would be a devastating one-two punch. “Debris is still everywhere,” said Tressie Smith, a Cameron native who lost her home and the seafood restaurant she owns in Laura. She’s evacuating to the Houston area to avoid Delta, forecast to make landfall Friday. Laura’s destruction has left the region -- a hub for the oil, petrochemical and liquefied natural gas industries -- fully exposed. Many people in Cameron and nearby Lake Charles work at refineries or on shrimping boats or offshore platforms. If the forecasts are right, they’ll soon be facing the rare and unfortunate fate of fending off one hurricane while still recovering from another. As of late Friday, Delta wasn’t forecast to be as strong as Laura, but even a weak storm can do more damage than usual when hitting so soon after another. A warmer-than-normal Atlantic and decreased wind shear have combined to spawn 25 named storms this year, the second most after 2005 when deadly Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans. Delta will be the record 10th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the U.S. in a year. “Lake Charles is still very much on its knees,” said Jim Serra, a long-time resident. Entergy Corp., which owns the local utility, didn’t fully restore power to the region until Oct. 1. On Wednesday, workers in Lake Charles were picking up debris and downed trees that have lined the streets since Laura so that they don’t become projectiles during Delta. Thousands of residents are living in temporary housing, including trailers and tents, after their homes were destroyed in Laura. Others are living in homes with tarps covering massive holes in their roofs.
92 Percent of US GOM Oil Production Shut-In - The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) estimates that approximately 91.53 percent of the oil production and around 61.82 percent of the gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in in response to Hurricane Delta. Production percentages are calculated using information submitted by offshore operators in daily reports, the BSEE notes. Shut-in production information included in these reports is based on the amount of oil and gas the operator expected to produce that day, according to the BSEE, which said the shut-in production figures are estimates that it compares to historical production reports to ensure the estimates follow a logical pattern. Personnel have been evacuated from a total of 272 production platforms in the U.S. GOM, the BSEE highlighted, adding that this figure is equivalent to 42.3 percent of the 643 manned platforms in the region. Personnel have also been evacuated from seven non-dynamically positioned rigs, which is equivalent to 70 percent of the ten rigs of this type currently operating in the area. A total of 15 dynamically positioned rigs have moved off the location of the hurricane’s projected path as a precaution. This number represents 88.24 percent of the 17 dynamically positioned rigs currently operating in the region. “After the hurricane has passed, facilities will be inspected,” the BSEE said in a statement posted on its website. “Once all standard checks have been completed, production from undamaged facilities will be brought back online immediately. Facilities sustaining damage may take longer to bring back online,” the BSEE added. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has described Hurricane Delta as “major”. The hurricane is currently heading towards southwestern Louisiana and it expected to bring hurricane conditions and a life-threatening storm surge to portions of the northern gulf coast later today, according to the NHC.
Old wellsite spraying oil and natural gas after hit by logging equipment - Emergency responders were busy in far northwest Jasper County on Tuesday afternoon after logging equipment accidentally hit an old wellsite. It happened during the noon hour at the George W. Brown #2 well, located off of County Road 32 about a mile north of Recreational Road 255 in the Ebenezer Community. The Angelina River and Rayburn Fire Departments along with Jasper County deputies responded when it was reported that the well was spraying a blue-tinted mist into the air. A representative from the Texas Railroad Commission arrived at the scene and walked about 100 yards off the road to the well, where he said he determined that the well was spewing a combination of oil and natural gas. Although the gas had no smell, the odor of the crude oil was very obvious. Fortunately, a stiff northerly breeze on Tuesday was quickly blowing away the escaping natural gas. Jasper County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Scotty Duncan was at the scene along with Lieutenant John Cooper and Deputy Chris Sherer. Duncan said they would remain on site until a work crew could arrive and repair the damage and stop the leak.
Texas oil well spewed pollution for 10 months, group says - An oil well site in the Permian Basin owned by a bankrupt shale producer has spewed polluting gases into the atmosphere for 10 months, despite being investigated by Texas regulators, according to an environmental group. Infrared video footage collected during multiple visits from November 2019 through September show "intense and significant" emissions from MDC Energy LLC's Pick Pocket location in West Texas, Earthworks said in a letter to two state regulatory agencies on Thursday. The group called on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission to rescind permits for MDC. "TCEQ and RRC must properly address these intense emissions including, but not limited to, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), methane, and hydrogen sulfide," Sharon Wilson, Earthworks' thermographer, wrote in the letter. TCEQ said in a statement that it would look into the issues raised in Wilson's letter. An enforcement case for complaints raised about MDC's operations "is currently under development and will include the assessment of an administrative penalty and corrective actions, as needed," the agency said. The RRC didn't immediately have comment. As the list of U.S. oil companies collapsing into bankruptcy grows, concerns are mounting about what happens to their wells if they're unable to pay to maintain or properly plug them. Millions of wells have been left abandoned across the country, many of which have been found to leak methane. That's drawn particular scrutiny because methane is a greenhouse gas that retains far more heat in the atmosphere upon its release than carbon dioxide. Texas has taken a friendly stance toward the shale industry. But, more recently, some of the industry's biggest investors, and even some oil producers, have called for stricter regulations. Another major environmental concern is the widespread industry practice of flaring in which producers burn off excess natural gas. Recent surveys by the Environmental Defense Fund found flares in the Permian are frequently unlit or malfunctioning, meaning methane is being released directly into the air.
Oil Pipeline Operators Offer New Discounts as Demand Craters - U.S. oil pipeline operators are slashing fees to encourage customers in Texas to keep using their networks to ship barrels to the Gulf Coast as the pandemic wreaks havoc on profits.Kinder Morgan Inc. is offering discounts of about 50% on the Eagle Ford pipeline for some existing customers, according to people familiar with the matter. Magellan Midstream Partners LP is negotiating lower tariffs on the Permian’s BridgeTex system for certain users whose contracts are up for renewal at the end of 2020, they said. Energy Transfer LP plans a volume incentive program for those who qualify on its Permian Express 2 and 3 pipelines.The discounts reflect efforts by pipeline companies to combat sluggish oil consumption and a drilling slowdown in prolific regions such as the Permian Basin after they expanded capacity in recent years. Last month, Enterprise Products Partners LP shelved plans for a major crude pipeline which would have added 450,000 barrels a day of capacity to a system that carries oil from the Permian to the Gulf Coast.Kinder Morgan and Energy Transfer declined to comment. Magellan is always working with customers to meet their needs in any market environment, Bruce Heine, a company spokesman, said by email.The industry responded with similar discounts during previous slowdowns such as the 2014-2015 downturn, said Jon Sudduth, senior North American crude analyst at Energy Aspects in Houston. At that time, U.S. crude prices crashed after Saudi Arabia flooded the market in an attempt to kill off what the Kingdom saw as rising competition from booming North American shale fields.The lack of demand for pipeline capacity has reduced the premium for oil delivered to export hubs on the Gulf Coast to under $1 a barrel from around $3 a barrel at the start of the year. That’s not enough to cover transport costs for most Permian pipelines.While shippers regard tariffs as sunken costs, there are other variable charges, said Sudduth. “If the spread between Permian oil prices and those on the Gulf doesn’t cover the variable costs, it would mean losing not just on the cost of tariff, but those variable charges as well,” he said.
Simplifying the debate about routine flaring - There is broad and growing agreement that the practice of routinely flaring natural gas in Texas must quickly come to an end. The reason for this is obvious. Setting fire to natural gas produced at oil wells is a significant waste of resources and releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and other harmful pollution into the atmosphere.That’s why EDF and other environmental groups, investors, elected officials, communities and even some oil and gas companies are calling on the Texas Railroad Commission to end the practice as soon as possible. Sometimes discussions about routine flaring get bogged down in details, loopholes and special circumstances. But at its core, routine flaring and the need to end it are pretty simple.Routine flaring occurs when an operator is producing oil (or gas condensates) from a well without a use or destination for the associated natural gas that is produced.Because the oil and, sometimes, gas condensate, are more valuable, the operators may only want to capture those valuable products. Natural gas is less valuable, so many companies don’t want to capture it or don’t have an immediate plan to capture it. The simplest and cheapest solution is burning it. Routine flaring is, essentially, convenience flaring, and it has occurred across Texas during the shale boom. We don’t think flaring should be considered a free waste disposal solution. Before getting a drilling permit from RRC, operators should be required to submit a plan for how the natural gas they produce will be put to beneficial use and demonstrate that the plan will be in place before drilling begins. And for existing wells, the RRC should require a plan that expeditiously phases out routine flaring, ultimately resulting in the capture of the gas or a shutting in of the well.
Company wants to take Minnesota county's frac sand ban to U.S. Supreme Court - A mining company plans to take its fight to overturn the Winona County ban on frac sand mining to the U.S. Supreme Court, a company spokesman said Tuesday. Minnesota Sands, which lost its case before the Minnesota Supreme Court in March, said the ban violates the U.S. Constitution. “We are hopeful the Court will decide to hear this case and overturn what we continue to believe is an ordinance that clearly interferes with interstate commerce and violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause,” company president Rick Frick said in a statement. The southeast Minnesota county passed the ban in 2016 — the first in the state — after mining of the rich silica sand deposits there had begun. Frick sued the county in 2017. A district court upheld the ban, as did the Appeals Court in a 2-1 decision in 2018. In March, the seven-member state Supreme Court affirmed lower court rulings that let the ban stand, with two justices dissenting in full and one dissenting in part. The ban allows mining for construction sand, a cheaper and less-pure material used on roadways and for other commercial uses. Silica sand is 95% quartz and consists of round, extremely hard granules that prop open cracks in shale rock, allowing the extraction of oil, gas and natural gas liquids.
EPA gives Oklahoma authority over many tribal environmental issues The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is turning its oversight of a number of environmental issues on tribal lands over to the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma requested the authority in July using a little-known provision of a 2005 law carved out especially for the state. In a seven-page letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler lists a number of Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act authorities that will now be overseen by Oklahoma. The move will give the state more oversight over environmental issues for Oklahoma’s 38 federally recognized tribes, something the Cherokee Nation called a “knee-jerk reaction to curtail tribal jurisdiction [that] is not productive.” Stitt’s request is the first use of the Oklahoma-only provision in a 2005 transportation bill sponsored by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) that allows Oklahoma to oversee environmental issues “in the areas of the state that are in Indian country, without any further demonstration of authority by the state.” “EPA’s letter grants Oklahoma’s request to administer the State’s EPA-approved environmental regulatory programs in certain areas of Indian country. EPA’s letter resolves ambiguity and essentially preserves the regulatory status quo in Oklahoma,” EPA spokesman James Hewitt said in a statement, adding that existing exemptions would still stand and that the agency would implement federal environmental programs. “Additionally, if any tribe wants to apply for regulatory oversight of these environmental programs, then they can apply through EPA’s Treatment as a State process,” he added. The Oct. 1 letter was first reported by The Young Turks, a left-wing news outlet, on Monday. The move raised alarm with those who see the potential for a loss of tribal sovereignty as well as for the state to greenlight polluting projects on tribal lands over objections from Natives. “It’s disappointing the Cherokee Nation’s request that EPA consult individually with affected Oklahoma tribes was ignored,” Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a statement to The Hill. “Unfortunately, the governor’s decision to invoke a 2005 federal law ignores the longstanding relationships between state agencies and the Cherokee Nation. All Oklahomans benefit when the Tribes and state work together in the spirit of mutual respect and this knee-jerk reaction to curtail tribal jurisdiction is not productive,” he added.
Court strikes down Obama-era rule targeting methane leaks from public lands drilling -A federal court on Thursday struck down an Obama-era regulation targeting methane leaks from drilling on public lands, arguing that it went beyond the scope of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which promulgated the rule. The 2016 rule required oil and gas companies to cut a practice called flaring, in which natural gas is burned, by half, inspect their sites for leaks and replace old equipment that released too much methane. The court argued that although the rule’s stated purpose was to reduce waste, it was essentially used to regulate air quality, which is not the job of the BLM. “Although the stated purpose of the Rule is waste prevention, significant aspects of the Rule evidence its primary purpose being driven by an effort to regulate air emissions, particularly greenhouse gases,” wrote judge Scott Skavdahl, an Obama appointee. Skavdahl particularly noted that the rule’s cost-benefit analysis only showed the rule to be beneficial “if the ancillary benefits to global climate change are factored in." “Without these ‘indirect’ benefits, the costs of the Rule likely more than double the benefits every year,” he wrote. The Trump administration had issued a rollback of the Obama-era rule, but that too was recently struck down in court. The Obama administration billed its rule as an update to “30-year old regulations governing venting, flaring, and leaks of natural gas," saying it "will help curb waste of public resources, [and] reduce harmful methane emissions.” Since both of the recent rules were struck down, those decades-old rules appear to now govern methane leaks. The Interior Department celebrated the ruling, signaling that it’s unlikely to appeal the decision. Interior spokesperson Nicholas Goodwin, in a statement, called the 2016 rule “illegal, another job-crushing regulation targeted at small businesses and more government overreach.” “Today’s decision is a win for the American people, the rule of law and our country’s economic future,” he added. Methane is a major greenhouse gas, significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, and it’s also the primary component of natural gas. The Obama administration projected that its rule would cut methane emissions from public lands by 35 percent. The new ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Independent Petroleum Association of America and Western Energy Alliance, two oil and gas groups.
INTERIOR: Trump admin: Pendley took 'no relevant acts' as BLM chief -- Tuesday, October 6, 2020 -- The fallout from a federal judge's ruling last month that William Perry Pendley illegally performed the duties of Bureau of Land Management director for more than a year has taken another notable turn.The Trump administration, in a supplemental brief it filed late yesterday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, argues Pendley performed "no relevant acts" while "exercising the authority of director" that should now be thrown out as a result of the judge's order.That argument differs from the Interior Department's vigorous defense over the past year of Pendley and his authority to perform the duties of BLM acting director.The filing offers valuable insight into how Interior plans to challenge last month's ruling by Chief Judge Brian Morris that Pendley's 424-day tenure leading BLM violated federal laws (Greenwire, Sept. 25). Interior has vowed to fight the ruling with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.As part of Morris' order, which was sparked by a lawsuit from Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), the judge directed the state and the Interior Department to file briefs addressing specific actions that Pendley may have taken that could be tossed out as a result of the ruling. Interior's brief suggests it plans to follow the same legal argument — already rejected by Morris in his order — that Pendley took no actions that could have inflicted a "particular injury" to Bullock or the state. Thus, Montana and its governor had no legal standing to file the lawsuit in the first place. In its own supplemental brief, also filed late yesterday, Montana asked Morris to throw out three amended land use plans that it argues are invalid. The request targeting only three Montana-specific BLM actions under Pendley is significant, as legal experts, congressional Democrats and environmental advocacy groups have asserted that all BLM actions since July 2019 — when Interior Secretary David Bernhardt added "exercising the authority of director" to Pendley's title — should be ruled invalid.
Pendley says court decision ousting him from BLM has had 'no impact' - One of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) highest ranking officials said his ouster ordered by a federal judge last month “has no impact, no impact whatsoever” on his role within the department. A Montana-based U.S. District Court judge ruled last month that William Perry Pendley "served unlawfully ... for 424 days," giving the Department of the Interior 10 days to justify why it shouldn’t throw out many of the decisions Pendley has made during his tenure. In an interview with the Powell (Wyo.) Tribune, Pendley said the court ruling has changed little for him as he stays at the department by virtue of his official title as one of the department’s two deputy directors. “I’m still here, I’m still running the bureau,” Pendley told the outlet. “I have always been, from day one.” Pendley, who had served as the de-facto head of BLM for over a year, was only nominated to the position this summer, but the nomination was withdrawn shortly thereafter. Pendley has a long history of opposing federal ownership of public lands, and the entire Democratic caucus planned to oppose him — putting the spotlight on vulnerable Republicans up for reelection. Last month several Democrats took to the House floor, demanding he be removed from the department due to views they see as being in conflict with the BLM mission along while expressing concern over comments Pendley has made about the Black Lives Matter movement and Native Americans.
Interior secretary discusses Chaco drilling, outdoor recreation plans — U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said he will not be delaying a land-use plan that opponents say will lead to thousands of new oil and gas wells being drilled in the Greater Chaco region. The comment period ended on Sept. 25 after Bernhardt extended it from its original May deadline. Opponents say the conditions with the COVID-19 pandemic that led Bernhardt to extending the comment period once before have not changed and that the plan should be placed on hold until there can be in-person meetings once again But during his visit to Farmington on Oct. 5, Bernhardt said the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs will go forward with the Farmington Field Office Mancos-Gallup Resource Management Plan Amendment. Bernhardt said the resource management plan amendment has been in the works since 2014. “We need to move forward and get this plan done,” he said. He said staff members will be reviewing the comments received and weighing the various alternatives outlined in the draft environmental impact statement. Generally, Bernhardt said the end decision for such plans is not identical to the proposed preferred alternative in the draft documents. Various entities, including the Navajo Nation, have asked to have the plan placed on hold until after the pandemic conditions have passed. In a comment submitted during the comment period, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham echoed those requests to delay adoption of the resource management plan amendment. She requested that an ethnographic study be completed before the plan is finalized. Congress has allocated $1 million for such an ethnographic study, which has not been completed. Bernhardt said while the study will be useful and important, there are laws in place like the National Historic Preservation Act that protect cultural sites.
House Of Pain - Once Again, Bakken Crude Oil Producers Were Hit Especially Hard By Sagging Prices --Tough times in the crude oil sector generally affect all participants to some degree, but the impacts can vary widely by production basin. We saw that back in 2014-16, when the crash in oil prices battered the Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Niobrara but left the Permian unscathed — production there actually kept rising. Fast-forward to 2020, with its COVID-induced demand destruction, anemic prices, and uncertain-at-best recovery, and again the Bakken really took it on the chin. Production in the basin plummeted by 28% in one month — from April to May — and while Bakken output rebounded this summer, the rig count has been hovering at its lowest level in memory and another, albeit slower production decline may be imminent. Today, we discuss the challenges facing exploration and production companies in western North Dakota.
US oil, gas rig count slips 3 on week to 323, ending two weeks of sizable gains: Enverus — The US oil and gas rig count slipped by three to 323 on the week, rig data provider Enverus said Oct. 8, ending two consecutive weeks of sizable gains as activity slowed early in the final quarter of the year. The small weekly decline broke a five-week tranche of rig additions that had boosted the domestic fleet more than 15% and accounted for the bulk of increases since the July trough of 279. For the week ended Sept. 30, the rig count jumped 18, on top of 15 the previous week. The most recent week's decline, and then some, came from rigs chasing oil. These fell by six to 228, while gas-weighted rigs were up three to 95, Enverus said. "We don't expect significant rig growth every week," analyst Matt Andre, of S&P Global Platts Analytics, said. "Prices are still modest and don't really call for operators to add double-digit rigs every week." Over the long term, US rig fleet increases "will most likely be slow and steady, compared to how fast [they retreated] in Q2," Andre said. Domestic basins in the past week represented a checkerboard of mostly stable activity with rig movements mostly in gassy basins. The Haynesville Shale in Northwest Louisiana/East Texas rose two rigs to 38, while the Marcellus Shale largely sited in Pennsylvania fell two, leaving 25. The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas rose one to 18 on the week, while the DJ Basin in Colorado fell by one to four. The Permian Basin of West Texas/New Mexico was stable at 139, as were the SCOOP/STACK play in Oklahoma, Bakken Shale of North Dakota/Montana, and Utica Shale mostly in Ohio, respectively at 12, 11 and seven rigs. Starting in early March 2020, the domestic rig count, along with oil prices, began to plummet as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated. The US rig count, which stood at 838 the first week of March, fell more than 65% over the next four months before ticking back up. For the week ended Oct. 7, WTI averaged $39.13/b, down 94 cents, while WTI Midland averaged $39.17/b, down $1.05 and Bakken Composite, $35.91/b, down 93 cents. Natural gas prices for that same period averaged $1.73/MMBtu at Henry Hub, down 7 cents, and 93 cents/MMBtu at Dominion South, down 22 cents.
Producers Pay Dearly for Aviation Hedge Collapse-- The cost for oil producers to lock in the price at which they sell their crude has soared because of the collapse in the aviation industry. It emerged this week that Mexico may be trying to organize its annual oil-price hedge, the biggest sovereign program of its kind in the world. As well as Mexico, producers everywhere from Oklahoma to the North Sea will try to guarantee the future price for their barrels, often through options trades that pay out if the oil market collapses. However, their efforts have been rendered far costlier in the past few months because airlines are not making the opposite side of the trade by insuring themselves against high prices. With international flights still way down on where they were before Covid-19 struck, the airlines have all but abandoned the options market, meaning the cost of the contracts for oil producers has spiraled. “It’s becoming extremely difficult for big producers to hedge without the large airline flows around,” said Thibaut Remoundos, founder of Commodities Trading Corp. in London, which advises oil producers on their hedging strategies. “Some don’t have a choice and have to spend premium to buy puts, which are expensive.” In normal times, producers like Mexico will buy bearish put options, whose volatility would normally be a fraction higher than an equivalent bullish call option. When air travel ground to a halt in the depths of the virus outbreak, that relationship -- known as the skew -- exploded. In other words, puts to insure against a price crash soared relative to comparable calls. The relationship shows no sign of returning to normal. In the esoteric world of the oil options market, consumers, notably airlines, tend to manage their fuel bills by purchasing call options to cap what is normally their single biggest cost. They will also sell puts to cheapen that transaction. But with air travel so restrained, far fewer are selling the put options that producers want to buy, ramping up the cost of producer deals. The premium for puts showed up clearly on Thursday. A set of contracts for 2021 that would lock in $40 a barrel for a producer traded at a cost of $4.10 a barrel. On average last year, when oil was higher and volatility was lower an equivalent option would have been between $1.25 and $1.50 cheaper, Remoundos said. While the issue is one that affects all oil producers, the Mexican hedge -- if it’s happening as many traders suspect -- would be the starkest example. In previous years, the country paid $1 billion to lock in the value of its crude sales.
Chevron overtakes Exxon Mobil as America's largest oil company - Chevron Corp. overtook Exxon Mobil Corp. as the largest oil company in America by market value, the first time the Texas-based giant has been dethroned since it began as Standard Oil more than a century ago. California-based Chevron had a market capitalization of $142 billion at the close of U.S. trading on Wednesday, compared with Exxon’s $141.6 billion. The entire oil and gas sector is suffering from the plunge in energy prices this year caused by Covid-19. But Chevron has emerged with the strongest balance sheet among its Big Oil peers -- it was able to complete its $5 billion acquisition of Noble Energy Inc. last week. Exxon, by contrast, is struggling to generate enough cash to pay for capital expenditures, leaving it reliant on debt and putting pressure on its $15 billion-a-year dividend. Chevron had been closing in on its long-time rival for more than a year, even before the pandemic crushed oil demand. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth has focused on Chevron’s shale operations, cutting costs and keeping a tight rein on new projects. Exxon pursued a series of expensive projects that promised growth after years of stagnating production, but which became a drag on its cash flow when the pandemic hit. The American giants’ biggest European rivals, BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, face problems of their own -- their shares slumped after cutting their prized dividends earlier this year. Some analysts believe Exxon may be next in line to cut its payout. The U.S. company will be unable to fund its dividend without drawing down cash or selling assets before 2025, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a note Tuesday.
Banks’ Arctic Financing Retreat Rattles Oil Industry – WSJ - Defenders of the oil-and-gas industry in Washington are fighting back against big banks who want to stop financing new Arctic-drilling projects, fearing it could be a harbinger of an unbankable future for fossil-fuel companies. Five of the six largest U.S. banks— Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo —have pledged over the past year to end funding for new drilling and exploration projects in the Arctic. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and a group of fellow Republican lawmakers, mostly from energy-producing states, have been lobbying the Trump administration to examine whether the federal government can prevent the banks from cutting off financing, or punish them for doing so. Mr. Sullivan said banks are unfairly discriminating against oil-and-gas producers in Alaska, and that lenders ought to examine loans on a client-by-client basis instead of denying financing to an entire category of customers. “That these banks would discriminate against one of the most important sectors of the U.S. economy is absurd,” Mr. Sullivan said in an interview. “I thought it was important to push back.” The American Petroleum Institute, one of industry’s most influential lobbying groups, has said it is working with the Trump administration on the issue, which it called a “bad precedent.” API, Mr. Sullivan and others have also suggested the White House should examine whether it could cut off the banks’ access to funding under coronavirus relief packages. Representatives of the banks declined to comment. White House spokesman Judd Deere said Mr. Trump “has strong concerns if roadblocks are being thrown up to specifically harm the oil-and-gas industry.”
Trump administration faulted over breaks for oil companies (AP) — A U.S. government watchdog agency faulted the Trump administration Tuesday for its handling of a COVID-19 relief effort that awarded energy companies breaks on payments for oil and gas extracted from public lands in more than 500 cases. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, said haphazard rules for the program left the administration unable to say how much relief was given or if it would ultimately benefit taxpayers, as was intended. The Bureau of Land Management gave breaks on royalty payments from companies in at least five Western states because of workforce problems or other issues after the pandemic shut down much of the economy and helped drive a collapse in oil prices. The Trump administration also gave breaks to companies that extract oil in the Gulf of Mexico, but it has released scant details of that effort. Offering royalty relief to companies had been done before the pandemic and is intended to boost the profitability of oil and gas wells so they can still be profitable. The idea is to protect against companies being forced to shut down uneconomical wells permanently, meaning they would never again generate government revenue. But it’s unknown if that’s what happened after the Trump administration approved at least 581 relief requests during its scrambled early response to the pandemic. Most of the approvals were in Wyoming, with cases also approved in Utah, Colorado and by a bureau office that covers Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. GAO natural resources branch director Frank Rusco described the program as “poorly designed and executed” during testimony on the report Tuesday before the House Natural Resources Committee. The bureau did not know if the relief granted achieved the intended goal of conserving oil and gas for future recovery, nor it the government was getting a fair return for letting companies use public resources, Rusco said.
Trump administration dinged by government watchdog for pandemic relief for oil companies - The Washington Post - The Trump administration mismanaged its efforts to provide relief to oil and gas producers during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, failing to ensure aid went to those that needed it, according to a new congressional report.The U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog office of Congress, said the government flouted its own goals when giving struggling producers a break this spring on payments to the government for oil and gas pumped from federal lands. That royalty relief was supposed to go to wells that would have otherwise shut down because of the sharp decline in oil prices. The idea was to make sure that normally profitable wells were not plugged permanently because of the health crisis. But the GAO, in a report released Tuesday, said the Trump administration failed to properly take the economic viability of wells into account when deciding which wells got relief — and probably ended up offering aid to oil producers that did not need it, shortchanging taxpayers in the process. “This is exactly the time the government should be spending money,” said Frank Rusco, the watchdog agency's director of natural resources and environment. “But we're about good government. And if you do it, do it in a smart way.”When oil prices plummeted this spring, the Trump administration offered a 60-day reprieve on royalty payments in more than 500 cases in Western states. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees drilling on federally controlled lands, reduced rates from the agency's usual minimum of 12.5 percent to an average of less than 1 percent between March 24 and June 11.
Why is the Biden-Harris campaign fine with fracking? - - For 90 minutes on Oct. 7, the US vice-presidential contenders sparred on stage about whether Democratic candidate Joe Biden would “ban fracking,” a charge lobbed as political dynamite across the aisle. Kamala Harris, Biden’s vice presidential nominee, refused it in no uncertain terms. “The American people know that Joe Biden will not ban fracking,” said Harris. “That is a fact. That is a fact.” The political debate over what the US should do about fracking, the oil extraction technique that has transformed the country into an oil exporter, is explosive. The Biden climate plan has been called themost ambitious ever for a major party’s campaign. Yet every time the Biden-Harris ticket has the opportunity to come out fully against fracking, they have refused. The reason why is simple. Biden’s campaign isn’t calling for a ban because it tempts political suicide in swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio where fossil fuels still rule. And the political risk isn’t even necessary: Government leaders may not have to ban fracking, because the economics will likely do it for them. Fracking has created a petroleum boom, opening up fields from North Dakota to Texas. More than half a million jobs in key states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado have been created by the industry (if even many of those are gone amid the pandemic). Yet it’s also unleashed a climate problem. By venting huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere, and generating vast amounts of contaminated groundwater (some of which may pose a health risk), oil fracking wells are seen as a major barrier to a stable climate, despite its role in displacing even dirtier coal. From 2016 to 2018, US oil and gas emissions rose 13%. For some on the left of the Democratic party, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, a fracking ban is an essential step toward meeting the country’s climate commitments. Biden, like other moderates, prefers tighter regulation of its health and environmental risks. That resistance to an outright ban may come from the ghosts of campaigns past. In March of 2016, Hilary Clinton told an Ohio town hall that her policy to bring clean renewable energy and economic opportunity was “going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” She came to regret those words (“the point I had wanted to make was the exact opposite of how it came out,” she wrote), but it was too late. The words were used to bludgeon Clinton’s election chances in must-win blue states in coal country.Clearly, Biden and Harris will not make the same mistake.
Two oil spills in east-central Alberta - The Alberta Energy Regulator says 150,000 litres of crude oil have leaked from a pipeline near Hardisty southeast of Edmonton. It says the spill has been contained and has not affected wildlife or water bodies. The regulator says Calgary-based AlphaBow Energy reported the breach on Wednesday. It says the cause of the spill will be investigated.
Cleanup is underway after a 126-barrel oil spill -- Energy Canada says it has been notified and will monitor the situation after the oil spill in southern Alberta on Friday. CER said the crude oil release occurred at a pumping station on the Enbridge Express pipeline, about 270 kilometers northeast of Calgary, near Youngstown. Initial reports show that 20,000 liters of oil (or about 126 barrels) were released on company property, and an estimated 75 liters (or half a barrel) spilled into a nearby farmer’s field. The agency said in a statement that there were no livestock at the time. The total volume of the spill is still under investigation. Cleaning is in progress. Inbridge said in a statement the line was initially closed but had resumed work Friday evening after it was deemed safe to do so. “There are no immediate safety concerns and we are cooperating fully with regulators in our response,” said Inbridge. No bodies of water or wildlife have been reported affected, and the Calgary-based company said all off-site oil has been recovered. The agency said it deployed an inspection officer to monitor the company’s response. CER said: “The top priority of CER standards is to protect people and the environment. Enbridge will be held accountable to ensure that the site is cleaned and that their response meets CER’s stringent safety and environment standards. The express pipeline, which went into operation in 1997, ships up to 280,000 barrels per day from Hardesty to Casper, Wyoming.
Pemex Issues $1.5-Bln Bond To Refinance Massive Debt Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has issued a $1.5-billion bond to raise funds necessary to refinance existing debt, Reuters reported, quoting a source in the know that remained unnamed.According to the report, this is the first time the Mexican giant has raised new debt after it lost its investment-grade rating from Moody’s. Fitch has a BBB- rating on Pemex, which is still in investment-grade.Regardless of credit ratings, however, Pemex has become the most indebted energy company in the world and that’s despite efforts by the Lopez Obrador to strengthen the company, including through tax relief and a reversal of liberalization measures taken by the previous government.Yet, according to the Reuters source, the new Pemex bond was substantially oversubscribed: the 6.875-percent coupon incentivized investors to bid a total $10 billion for the bond.In addition to its swollen debt pile, which has reached some $100 billion, Pemex has also been fighting a steady production decline that most recently forced it to revise down its output projections for 2021. Last month, the country’s finance ministry said it expected Pemex to produce 1.857 million bpd on average next year down from a previous forecast for 2.027 million bpd.The projected output for this year may also need to be revised down. The daily average is seen at 1.83 million bpd, but with natural depletion and lack of new exploration at sufficient levels, it may be difficult to achieve despite government support. It was actually the government that may have contributed to the decline: all contracts with foreign oil field operators have been put under review for possible evidence of corruption and no new tenders for exploration blocks have been planned for the duration of this review. Between January and July, Pemex produced an average of 1.692 million bpd of crude oil, much below its forecast for the year.
US deploys missile destroyer off coast of Venezuela - In an escalation of the US “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela, the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has deployed a guided-missile destroyer, the USS William P. Lawrence, barely 15 nautical miles off the Caribbean coastline of the South American nation. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza issued a statement denouncing the deployment as an “erratic and infantile provocation” on the part of Washington, while ridiculing US claims that it is part of a US operation against drug trafficking. In addition to drug interdiction pretext, the Pentagon justified the deployment of the advanced warship as a “freedom of navigation” operation designed to challenge what it termed Venezuela’s “excessive maritime claims in international waters.” The provocative deployment of the US warship follows by barely two weeks joint exercises conducted by the US and Colombian militaries in a threatening show of force against Venezuela. The exercises were timed to coincide with a four-day Latin American tour by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited every country bordering Venezuela, promoting regime change in Caracas and railing against China’s influence in the region. The US naval provocations are particularly threatening under conditions in which Venezuela is receiving desperately needed gasoline supplies aboard tankers sent from Iran, which is also the target of a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign and continuous military provocations aimed at achieving regime change in Tehran. The Faxon, the third in a group of three Iranian tankers carrying fuel, is expected to arrive at a Venezuelan refinery port over the weekend. Together with two Iranian ships that have already reached the country, the Forest and Fortune, the total cargo amounts to 800,000 barrels of gasoline. While Venezuela has the largest known petroleum reserves, its production has fallen precipitously under the impact of US sanctions, falling global oil prices and a lack of investment and maintenance of the country’s state-owned energy firm, PDVSA. It is also dependent on the import of condensate, a natural gas needed to turn Venezuela’s crude oil into gasoline. Its two functioning refineries are producing just 55,000 barrels per day, roughly 50 percent of the country’s requirements, meaning that the Iranian imports will not go that far. Nonetheless, Washington is determined to cut off the gasoline imports. Last month, Washington claimed to have intercepted four ships carrying Iranian gasoline to Venezuela. None of the vessels were Iranian-flagged or owned, and the UAE, Oman and UK-based owners of the cargo shipped on Greek-owned tankers are suing the US government, insisting that the fuel was bound for Trinidad and destined for sale to Colombia and Peru.
An escalating labor strike could soon wipe out almost 25% of Norway’s oil and gas production — A strike by workers in the Norwegian oil sector could soon wipe out nearly one-quarter of the country's petroleum output, Norway's Oil and Gas Association warned on Thursday, with the intensifying dispute helping oil prices to build on recent gains. International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $43.09 a barrel on Thursday afternoon, up more than 2.6%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures stood at $41.01 a barrel, around 2.7% higher. The dispute between Lederne union and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association began when talks collapsed on Sept. 30, prompting production outages from Oct. 5. Lederne is pushing for the organization to match the pay and conditions at onshore remote-control rooms with those of offshore workers. The striking union told CNBC that this request would not impose an additional cost on companies. "Lederne fear that this is the start of a deterioration of our members' accumulated pay and working conditions, and therefore see no other option than to use the right to strike when negotiations and mediation do not succeed," the union said via email. At present, 169 Lederne members are on strike on four platforms: Johan Sverdrup, Gudrun, and Gina Krog (all operated by Norway's state-controlled energy giant Equinor), and Gjoa (operated by Neptune Energy). From midnight on Oct. 10, Lederne said an additional 93 members on the following platforms would also go on strike: Kristin, Oseberg Sor, Oseberg Ost (all operated by Equinor), and the Ekofisk Bravo/Kilo installation (run by U.S. producer ConocoPhillips). An oil drilling platform sits on board the world's largest construction vessel, the Pioneering Spirit, in the Bomla fjord near Leirvik, ahead of its transportation to the Johan Sverdrup oil field, Norway, on "The demands from Lederne suggest that we either expand the scope of the shelf agreement or establish a new agreement for the members they have onshore," a spokesperson for Norway's Oil and Gas Association told CNBC via email. "Both alternatives are far beyond the regulatory provisions of the collective agreement. Norwegian Oil and Gas cannot accept either an extension or a new agreement," they added. The association said the financial offer it had made had been accepted by the two largest unions, Industri Energi and Safe, which together represent 85% of the employees covered by the shelf agreements. Nonetheless, it said, "the demands from Lederne were otherwise significantly higher than what was agreed in the lead sector settlement." Six offshore oil and gas fields shut down on Monday as a result of the strike action, Norway's Oil and Gas Association said, cutting output by 8% or 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. "Strike is a lawful action," Norway's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs told CNBC on Thursday in an emailed statement. "The responsibility for reaching a solution in this situation lies first and foremost with the social partners," the Ministry said, adding it would "monitor the situation in the same fashion as with any other labor conflict."
Indo-French satellites to trace illegal spillage of oil - The constellation of maritime surveillance satellites for the Indian Ocean Region, to be jointly launched by India and France, will be able to trace illegal spillage of oil by ships, a senior French space agency CENS official said on Sunday. In August last year, CNES and ISRO committed to developing and building a constellation of satellites carrying telecommunications and radar and optical remote-sensing instruments, constituting the first space-based system in the world capable of tracking ships continuously. The monitoring centre will be based in India, the official added. "With a revisit capability (of the satellites), this makes possible to task acquisitions several times a day. It will also be able to detect oil slicks and trace their origin," the official said. The main purpose of this is to trace illegal spillage of oil by ships. The Indian Ocean Region has several Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC) and used by many ships every day. The satellites will be operated jointly by France and India to monitor ships in the Indian Ocean. The system will also cover a wide belt around the globe, benefiting a broad range of French economic interests, the official said. Parts of the satellites will be built in both the countries and launched from India, he added. CNES and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are also operating a number of climate-monitoring satellites together. 'Trishna', a highly precise thermal infrared observer, will also be part of the fleet of Indo-French satellites. After a successful design phase led by a joint team of ISRO-CNES, the satellite is now set to enter its development phases in the coming months, the official said. France and India are also collaborating on the Gaganyaan, India's first manned space mission. France will also be part of ISRO's mission to Venus, the official added.
Blaze-hit oil tanker on way to UAE for repairs - The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) will have to wait longer to get its consignment of three lakh metric tonnes of crude oil from the blaze-hit Panamanian oil tanker MT New Diamond as the vessel is being towed to Fujairah port in the United Arab Emirates for repairs. The Indian Coast Guard said the vessel, chartered by the IOCL, is being towed with the help of salvors under its watchful eyes as a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident, particularly the spill of oil. A fire had erupted in the tanker following a major explosion in its engine room on September 3. The 20-year-old vessel was carrying Kuwaiti crude oil from Mina al Ahmadi to Paradip in Odisha.An Indian Coast Guard spokesman told Express that its pollution control vessels Samudra Pavak and Samudra Praheri with integral helicopter and ICGS Shaunak with pollution-response gears will be escorting the MT New Diamond. “ICG ships will provide preventive pollution response cover in case of any oil leakage contingency during the passage of the vessel to Fujairah,” the spokesman said. It is learnt that the coast guard is taking precaution so that Indian shores are safe in case of any oil spill. The vessel is being taken to Fujairah, a deep-water port, as its liquid cargo can’t be pumped out in the open sea. The decision taken by the ship owners and salvors, said coast guard sources. This comes after Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and S Jaishankar last month reviewed the condition of the vessel and discussed ways to expedite arrangements for the discharge of crude from the vessel. The IOCL has its biggest refinery with 3,00,000 barrels per day capacity at Paradip. With a combined refining capacity of almost 5 million barrels per day, India is the world’s fourth largest refining centre after the US, China and Russia.
The Mauritius Oil Spill Cannot Be Cleaned Up, but Damages Must Be Paid - On the 25th of July the Japanese bulk carrier MV Wakashio — chartered by Mitsui OSK and owned by Nagashiki Shipping — struck a beautiful and irreplaceable coral reef on Mauritius' southeast coast. The ship was sailing dangerously close to the reef, and ran aground. Twelve days later, the ship began leaking heavy fuel oil, devastating one of the most beautiful places in the world and ruining the livelihoods of coastal communities. Over the past five weeks in Mauritius, we have witnessed long stretches of ocean, unique mangroves and pristine lagoons become quickly coated with oil. We have watched the people of Mauritius rushing to the beach, risking themselves as they attempt to remove the oil from every rock and grain of sand, desperately trying to recapture their homeland's beauty submerged by toxic waves, being brought relentlessly by the tide to the shore. Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d'Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of suffocating or drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius' tourism, and people's food security and health. Furthermore, some of the most toxic components of the oil spill can build up as hidden contaminants in marine organisms, through which they can enter into the food-chain. Oil residues accumulate in sediments, especially on shores. The impacts of this oil spill — like any other oil spill — will be felt years after the surface oil has been removed. The people of Mauritius are going to have to live with this devastating reality for decades. There is no question that Mitsui OSK and Nagashiki Shipping are jointly the cause of the devastating pollution in Mauritian waters. After the first 12 days of their silence, Mitsui OSK and Nagashiki Shipping apologized for this disaster. For that apology to mean anything, it must be backed up with action. This would require fully applying the "polluter pays" principle, which means the companies pay for all current and future damages. While steps by the Japanese government to help the government of Mauritius cope with the toxic impacts of the oil spill are welcome, Japanese taxpayers should not be liable for the actions of the Japanese companies, which were reckless enough to allow one of its largest vessels to travel so close to coral reefs and run aground. Ultimately, those who are responsible for the pollution must pay for the damage that their pollution has caused. Mitsui OSK and Nagashiki Shipping seem to be avoiding their responsibilities. The "polluter pays" principle would require funding, among other things, a fully public independent investigation into the causes and consequences of the oil spill, and a commitment to stop using this shipping route.This needs to account for the livelihoods of those dependent on fishing and tourism, the coral reefs, mangroves, wetlands and the entire, vulnerable ecosystem.
UN warns of decaying tanker that threatens oil spill and port closure - A decaying oil tanker carrying 1.1 million barrels of oil off Yemen risks causing a major oil spill, the closure of a key port and disruption to a busy trade route, if immediate action is not taken. The United Nations (UN) has called for inspections and repairs of the tanker, which previously served as a floating export terminal. The FSO Safer is located near the port of Hodeidah, a key entry point for humanitarian aid in Yemen, a country embroiled in a six-year civil war between the Iran-backed Houthi group and a Saudi Arabia-backed coalition supporting government forces. Built in 1974, the ship has served as a floating export terminal and storage unit since arriving in Yemen in the late 1980s. In 2015, when the conflict in Yemen intensified and Houthi rebels took control of the nearby coastline, it was abandoned by its owner, a state-run oil company. For the past five years, the ship has been slowly corroding. Time may have already run out to avoid environmental disaster. In late September, the Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, wrote in a letter to the global organisation that an “oil spot” had been seen 50km west of the vessel, reports Reuters. Al-Mouallimi reportedly wrote that the tanker “has reached a critical state of degradation, and that the situation is a serious threat to all Red Sea countries, particularly Yemen and Saudi Arabia”, adding “this dangerous situation must not be left unaddressed”. The UN has been waiting for authorisation from the Houthi group to send experts to the Safer tanker to conduct a technical assessment and make any initial possible repairs. The Houthi group has rejected requests to inspect the tanker, raising concerns that the rebels may use it as leverage in negotiations. In an August statement, UN secretary general António Guterres said that a potential oil slick in the Red Sea would not only “severely harm Red Sea ecosystems relied on by 30 million people across the region”, but would also force the nearby port to close for months and “cut off millions of people from access to food and other essential commodities”. The scale of any leak from the tanker could prove disastrous. The UN has warned that a spill from the vessel could be four times worse than the 38,500-tonne Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989.
Oil spill detected next to FSO Safer United Nations inspectors were once again barred from boarding the decaying floating storage tanker Safer yesterday by Houthi militia as images emerge of a leak around the 44-year-old ship moored in the waters of war-torn Yemen. The FSO Safer, stranded for the past five years to the north of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, contains 157,000 tonnes of light crude oil, four times as much as the amount of oil that gushed into the sea off Alaska from the Exxon Valdez tanker 31 years ago. In May, seawater leaked into the abandoned FSO’s engine room, which was eventually patched by a team of divers. Research by TankerTrackers using satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows that an oil spill occurred a fortnight ago from the ageing ship. “From what we’ve been able to gather, the spill went pretty far and wide in the immediate area, but is no longer spilling,” TankerTrackers tweeted on October 3, adding: “The vessel is still floating in place, but time is quickly running out for this ship.” Saudi Arabia’s UN Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi warned last month that experts had discovered 50 km west of the Safer that a pipeline attached to the vessel had likely separated from the stabilizers holding it to the bottom and it was now floating on the surface of the sea. The 1976-built ship was owned by the Yemeni government but was seized by the Houthis in 2015. It has been stationed in Yemeni waters for the past 33 years. Writing for Splash last month, Carlos Luxul, the author of The Ocean Dove, noted of the FSO: “Years of neglect have taken their toll. There are no reliable estimates of the present thickness of the Safer’s hull, but it is not unreasonable to assume that it is down to its last few millimetres in certain places, masked by the presence of a generous coating of marine encrustation.”
Turkey Set to Revise Black Sea Discovery Estimate-- Turkey expects to raise its estimate for the amount of natural gas discovered in the Black Sea and plans to announce the new guidance as early as next week, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The government will outline a sizable revision to the initial discovery of 320 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas, unveiled in August, once exploratory drilling is completed this month, the people said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the find. The energy discovery in the Black Sea is critical for Turkey’s current-account balance which is dragged down by the need to import nearly all of the 50 billion cubic meters of gas the country consumes annually. Drilling to a depth of around 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) at the Tuna-1 discovery would penetrate two additional formations that appear promising, a senior Turkish energy official said last month. A second drill ship is likely to be moved to the region next year. Ankara has dramatically expanded energy exploration in the Black Sea and contested waters of the eastern Mediterranean. It’s keen to find sizable energy reserves to ease its heavy reliance on imports from Iran, Iraq and Russia, and support one of the biggest economies in the Middle East. Shares of Turkish oil refiner Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri AS, or Tupras, gained as much as 2% following the news, while petrochemical company Petkim Petrokimya Holding AS climbed as much as 4.5%. They were trading 1.7% higher and 3.8% higher as of 4:05 p.m., respectively. Shares of energy companies Aksa Enerji Uretim AS and Aygaz each rose 2.3%. But the searches have mired the government in territorial disputes with Greece and Cyprus in the Mediterranean.
How a Biden presidency may lead to increased supply in the oil market— A Biden presidency could bring 1 million barrels per day of Iranian oil back into the market, but lead to lower demand in the long run, an economist said this week. That's because Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is likely to reestablish relations with Tehran if he is elected, but introduce environmental policies that limit U.S. oil and gas, said David Fyfe of Argus Media. "Arguably, a Biden presidency would move fairly rapidly toward some sort of rapprochement with Iran," he told CNBC's "Capital Connection" on Friday. "That of course could lead to maybe up to a million barrels a day of Iranian oil coming back onto the market," he said. "It might not happen immediately, but you could see that happening within the sort of first six months of a Biden presidency." By contrast, the Trump administration has put maximum pressure on Iran, which has seen heavy economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, including on its oil exports. Biden has been leading President Donald Trump in multiple polls, including one by NBC News, which shows that he is up more than 10 percentage points, 51.6% compared to 41%. On the flip side, the Democrat's policies on climate change could tighten the market over the long run. "A Biden administration would try to get the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Accord," Fyfe said. "Therefore, over the longer term, it might actually be relatively bearish in terms of restraining hydrocarbon demand in the U.S. going forward." Biden last year announced a climate plan that would see $1.7 trillion invested into clean energy research and changes in infrastructure. He could also impose restrictions that would further slow the growth in U.S. shale oil and gas production, said Fyfe. Separately, he said Argus Media's base case scenario is for a "steady recovery" in the oil market, assuming Covid-19 cases do not surge and lead to widespread lockdowns. Oil futures crashed when demand evaporated as the coronavirus crisis spread earlier this year and the market worried about an oversupply. If the virus situation doesn't escalate, the oil market should continue to recover, Fyfe said. "Gradually, the 1.3 billion barrels of surplus oil that has accumulated in storage, that can be drawn down by the end of 2021, and that suggests that prices could recover to something closer to $50 to $55 by late 2021," he said. "If we have a second spike in the virus and renewed shutdowns on a broad basis, then really, all bets are off and OPEC will be scrambling to try and stitch together a new deal on supply."
OPEC cuts long-term forecast for oil demand growth, sees 'continued disparity’ in climate policy- OPEC on Thursday said it had downwardly revised its forecast for global oil demand growth over the long term, given the industry faced "an existential threat" this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and as climate policies continue to shape the future of energy. In its closely-watched annual World Oil Outlook, the Middle East-dominated group of oil producers outlined its medium to long-term expectations for the global economy, oil and energy demand, and related policy matters. It also extended its forecast period through to 2045, from 2040. OPEC said worldwide oil demand was expected to increase by nearly 10 million barrels per day (b/d) over the long term, rising to 109.3 million b/d in 2040, and to 109.1 million b/d in 2045. Global oil demand stood at 99.7 million b/d in 2019. It represents a downward revision of over 1 million b/d when compared to the 2040 levels projected in the group's 2019 outlook, published last November. "The year 2020 will be remembered primarily for the omnipresence, as well as unprecedented scale and reach, of the Covid-19 pandemic. From an energy point of view, the lockdown-induced economic recession has resulted in the sharpest downturn in energy and oil demand in living memory," OPEC said in the report. Looking ahead, OPEC said the "big question hanging over energy and oil markets" was to what extent there would be a longer-term impact on consumer behavior, and thus energy demand. OPEC said it believed oil would remain the largest contributor to the energy mix through to 2045, accounting for more than 27%, followed by gas (roughly 25%), and coal (nearly 20%). These respective energy sources were also the three largest contributors to the fuel share in 2019. The contribution from solar, wind and geothermal energy was expected to grow by 6.6% per year on average through to 2045, "significantly" faster than any other energy source. These renewable energy sources were expected to represent 8.7% of the fuel share in 2045, up from 2.1% in 2019.
OPEC isn’t worried about peak oil demand yet - OIL DEMAND WON’T PEAK UNTIL 2040, OPEC SAYS: For OPEC, the rumors of the death of oil demand are greatly exaggerated. In fact, OPEC’s research arm expects oil demand to partly recover next year, so long as the coronavirus pandemic is largely under control by then. It doesn’t expect global peak oil demand until 2040, after which OPEC expects demand to gradually decline, according to its latest World Oil Outlook released Thursday.“[O]il will continue to account for the largest share of the energy mix by 2045, providing a stable foundation for addressing global energy needs for years to come,” reads the OPEC report. That’s even with renewable energy and natural gas taking over a growing share of the energy mix. OPEC’s view offers a stark contrast to many in the energy industry who see peak oil as a much nearer possibility.Just last month, BP projected oil demand may never reach its pre-COVID-19 levels again, especially if the world begins to cut carbon emissions dramatically in line with the Paris climate agreement. Even in a business-as-usual scenario, BP said it expects global oil demand to flatten out and start declining in about 10 to 15 years. In the near-term, economic growth, especially in developing countries, and a demand “catch-up” in sectors such as aviation and road transportation will drive post-pandemic recovery for oil demand.Longer-term, OPEC expects the aviation sector’s demand for oil to increase dramatically. In addition, growth in the petrochemical sector will drive the most significant growth in overall oil demand.And more broadly, OPEC doesn’t expect oil demand growth to slow down in developing countries, such as India and China, as their economies and demand for energy grow rapidly.OPEC is also less bullish on electric vehicle adoption over the next few decades, a shift that could take a significant chunk out of overall oil demand if it accelerates. In its outlook, OPEC projects global share of electric vehicles would be more than 16% by 2045. By comparison, BP in its September outlook expects electric cars to account for between 80-85% of total global vehicles by 2050 under scenarios where the world cuts carbon dramatically and at least 35% in a business-as-usual scenario.
Barrel rises 5% over Trump health update, strike in Norway - (Reuters) – Oil prices rose 6% on Monday, driven by the announcement that US President Donald Trump will be discharged from the hospital on Monday, just days after the news. his contagion of coronavirus caused widespread alarm. Brent crude rose $ 2.02, or 5.14%, to $ 41.29 a barrel, while United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil gained $ 2.17, or 5.86% , at $ 39.22 per barrel. “This moment of strength is unlikely to support the growing number of unknowns. After all, the oil market is trapped in an endless cycle of uncertainty,” Prices fell more than 4% on Friday after Trump’s diagnosis. However, the president made a surprise appearance Sunday in a caravan outside the hospital where he is being treated, which helped boost market confidence. Trump announced that he will leave the military hospital where he is being admitted at 2230 GMT on Monday after being treated for COVID-19, adding that he feels “really good.” [nL1N2GW194] Oil was also supported by a workers’ strike in Norway. Energy company Equinor closed four of its offshore oil and gas fields on Monday as its workers expanded their mobilization, a company spokesman told Reuters. The reduction in Norwegian production was mainly offset by increased pumping in Libya, analysts said. Libyan oil production has risen by about 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) since last week to 290,000 bpd as exports grow, a Libyan source in the sector told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Oil jumps nearly 6% on stimulus hopes, Norway production shutdowns - Oil prices surged more than 5% on Monday after doctors said U.S. President Donald Trump could soon be discharged from the hospital where he is being treated for COVID-19, while six Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields were shut as more workers joined a strike. Brent crude rose $2.30, or 5.9%, to $41.57 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude gained $2.17, or 5.9%, to settle at $39.22 per barrel. "A lot of people thought last week's selloff was overdone," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "There were a lot of assumptions." On Friday, prices slumped more than 4% following Trump's diagnosis. Trump's medical condition remained unclear as he began a fourth day at the military hospital where he is being treated, but his doctors have said he could be discharged as soon as Monday, which improved market sentiment. Hopes for a U.S. stimulus package to counter the economic impacts of the pandemic also supported prices. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said there was still potential to reach agreement with U.S. lawmakers on more economic relief during the coronavirus pandemic. Oil was also supported by an escalating workers' strike in Norway over pay. Six Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields were shut. The strike will cut Norway's total output capacity by just over 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or about 8% of total production, according to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG). "This will not entail any serious tightening of supply on the market as concerns about demand and fears of a renewed oversupply predominate at present," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch. The reduction in Norwegian production was mainly balanced by rising output in Libya, analysts said. Libyan oil production has increased to 290,000 barrels per day, a source told Reuters on Monday, almost three times more than its output during a blockade that began in January and ended in September.
Oil prices gain on supply disruptions, Trump's hospital exit - Oil prices gained on Tuesday amid supply disruptions in Norway, a new hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House after being treated for COVID-19 in hospital. Brent crude futures were up 82 cents, or 2%, at $42.11 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading 82 cents higher, or 2%, at $40.06. An oil workers' strike in Norway will cut the country's total output capacity by just over 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or about 8% of total production, according to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association. Around 60% of the total cuts were in natural gas, with crude oil and natural gas liquids making up the rest, according to Reuters calculations. "Besides Norway, there could also be production outages in the Gulf of Mexico this week, where another hurricane has developed," Commerzbank said. Energy companies were evacuating offshore oil platforms as Hurricane Delta strengthened to category 2 and could become a major hurricane when it reaches the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. Chevron has begun evacuating all personnel from its platforms in the region and is shutting-in the facilities, the company said. A rally in world stock markets after Trump's return to the White House from hospital and expectations of a new U.S. stimulus package being agreed also boosted oil. Oil prices had fallen sharply when Trump went to hospital on Friday, as it created uncertainty for investors over what would happen in the United States as the country gears up for a presidential election on Nov. 3. Hopes for a bipartisan U.S. economic relief package grew as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke on Monday and prepared to talk again on Tuesday, in a concerted effort to reach a compromise on legislation.
Oil ends up on supply issues, nixed U.S. stimulus talks a bearish sign (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 2% on Tuesday, supported by expected supply disruptions from a hurricane approaching the Gulf of Mexico and an oil worker strike in Norway. The market slipped in post-settlement trading, however, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was instructing his administration not to negotiate a stimulus package until after the Nov. 3 election. Brent crude futures settled at $42.65 a barrel, up $1.36 a barrel, or 3.29%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $40.67 a barrel, rising $1.45, or 3.7%. In post-close trading, however, Brent fell to $42.19 while U.S. crude dropped to $40.13 a barrel. Oil prices eased further after the close following American Petroleum Institute data that showed U.S. crude stocks climbed 951,000 barrels last week compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a build of 294,000 barrels. Trump returned to the White House following three days in the hospital for treatment for COVID-19. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had been in negotiations for an additional $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in economic stimulus before Trump’s tweet. “It looked like something was going to materialize, and now it has been blown up so everything is selling off,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. “The petroleum complex needed that stimulus to help stoke demand once again, and we’re obviously not getting it.” Energy companies shut offshore oil platforms as Hurricane Delta strengthened to a Category 2 and was on track to reach the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. It would be the 10th named storm to hit the United States this year, which would break a record dating back more a century. Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSa.L said it was evacuating nonessential workers from all nine of its offshore Gulf of Mexico operations and preparing to shut production. Equinor ASA EQNR.OL and BHP Group Ltd BHP.AX also shut in production and evacuated workers. Norway’s petroleum output is down 8% due to an oil worker strike. A major labor union in the country is trying to resolve the dispute with oil companies, which have shut six offshore oil and gas fields.
Oil falls nearly 2% on oversupply concerns - Oil prices fell nearly 2% on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump dashed hopes for another stimulus package to boost the coronavirus-hit economy and after U.S. crude inventories rose in the most recent week. Brent crude futures were down $1.15, or 2.7%, to $41.51 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled 72 cents, or 1.8% lower at $39.95 per barrel. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Wednesday said he was not optimistic that a comprehensive deal could be reached on further COVID-19 financial aid and that the Trump administration backed a more piecemeal approach. "Trump pulling out of relief negotiations generates a lot of uncertainty about the economy," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodities research at BNP Paribas. Oil prices were also hit by a slightly larger-than-expected build in U.S. crude inventories. Crude inventories rose by 501,000 barrels in the week to Oct. 2 to 492.9 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 294,000-barrel rise. Both gasoline and distillate inventories fell. "The inability to coordinate another stimulus package is having a negative impact on demand sentiment, but the data shows that we perhaps have something to be encouraged about," said Tony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging. Energy companies secured offshore platforms and evacuated workers on Tuesday, some for the sixth time this year, as Hurricane Delta threatened U.S. oil output in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm has shut 29% of offshore oil production in the Gulf, which accounts for 17% of total U.S. crude output. In Norway, the Lederne labour union said on Tuesday that it will expand oil strike from Oct. 10 unless a wage deal can be reached. Six offshore oil and gas fields shut down on Monday because of the strike, cutting Norway's output capacity by 8%.
Crude oil futures inch higher despite US crude build | S&P Global Platts- Crude oil futures ticked up during mid-morning trade in Asia Oct. 8, clawing back some of the overnight losses, as the impact of a build in US crude inventories was negated by the support offered to the market by draws in product inventories and escalating supply disruptions in Norway and the US Gulf of Mexico. At 11.23 am Singapore time (0323 GMT), ICE Brent December crude futures were up 13 cents/b (0.31%) from the Oct. 7 settle to $42.12/b, while the NYMEX November light sweet crude contract was up 5 cents/b (0.13%) at $40/b. Both international crude markets had dived 1.55% and 1.77% to settle at $41.99/b and $39.95/b respectively on Oct. 7, when the cancellation of US stimulus negotiations had rattled the market. The uptick came despite data from the US Energy Information Administration showing that, due to increased US production and a slowdown in exports, US commercial crude inventories jumped 500,000 barrels to 492.93 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 2. The impact of the crude inventory build was cushioned by indications of improved downstream demand, as the EIA data also showed that, in the same week, US distillate inventories fell 960,000 barrels to 171.8 million barrels and US gasoline inventories fell 1.44 million barrels to 226.75 million barrels, 0.4% lower than the five-year average gasoline inventory. Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at AXI, in an Oct. 8 note said: " Prices received some support from a draw in product stocks in the DOE data, which offset small crude build." In addition, escalating supply disruptions in Norway and the US Gulf has also buoyed oil prices. With 330,000 b/d of oil equivalent production already offline in Norway, the Lederne union in Norway said that it will extend its strike on Oct. 11 to include two platforms at the flagship Ekofisk field, two satellite fields that feed the Oseberg crude stream, and Kristin, a satellite of the Asgard crude stream, S&P Global Platts reported on Oct. 7. "Around 330,000 barrels a day have already been lost to the strike, and [the Lederne union's latest move] is expected to add about 170,000 more," Innes said. Meanwhile, in the US Gulf of Mexico, nearly 1.49 million b/d of crude production and 1,335 MMcf/d of natural gas production -- 80.42% and 49.26% of total offshore output, respectively, -- was offline, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, as producers in the region braced for the Hurricane Delta.. Lastly, hopes of fiscal relief continued to lift market sentiment. US President Donald Trump, after shutting down discussions over a US stimulus package till after the elections, said he supported passing stand-alone relief provisions instead.
Oil jumps 3% to highest level in nearly five weeks on supply losses - Oil climbed on Thursday on support from output shutdowns ahead of a storm in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the prospect of more supply losses in Norway. Oil and gas workers have withdrawn from offshore U.S. Gulf production facilities as Hurricane Delta was forecast to intensify into a powerful, Category 3 storm. Nearly 1.5 million barrels of daily output was halted. Brent crude was up 86 cents, or 2%, to $42.85 barrel, after falling 1.6% on Wednesday. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled $1.24, or 3.1%, higher at $41.19 per barrel after falling 1.8% on Wednesday. "Hurricane Delta is a crude oil supply event, and with all of this Gulf of Mexico production offline, we will probably lose more than 5 million barrels of crude oil due to the storm," said Andrew Lipow, President of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, Texas. "However, the storm is having a limited impact on gasoline and diesel demand," he added. Oil also gained support from the prospect of more production outages in the North Sea because of a workers' strike. The major Johan Sverdrup field will have to shut unless the strike ends by Oct. 14. The production losses offset concerns about demand, rising coronavirus cases and rising U.S. crude inventories. Renewed optimism over some U.S. coronavirus relief aid also supported the market. After shutting down talks over a larger U.S. stimulus deal, President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that Congress should pass funding for airlines, small businesses and stimulus checks for individuals, fuelling hopes for relief. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries faces a new challenge from rising output in Libya, an OPEC member exempted from cutting output. On Thursday, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said the worst was over for the oil market.
Oil ends higher as hurricane cuts over 90% of Gulf crude output – Oil prices ended higher Thursday as Hurricane Delta forced the shut-in of more than 90% of the Gulf of Mexico’s crude output and the Saudis reportedly consider postponing OPEC plans to raise output. West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery rose $1.24, or 3.1%, to settle at $41.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude, the global benchmark, added $1.35, or 3.2%, at $43.34 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. A strike in Norway also threatened to reduce production in the North Sea according to MarketWatch. As of Wednesday, 91.53% of Gulf oil production and 61.82% of natural-gas output were shut in as the hurricane churned in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is considering the postponement of plans for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise oil production early next year to the end of the first quarter, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing comments from senior Saudi oil advisers. They cited the rise in COVID-19 cases in many parts of the world, as well as the expected return of Libyan crude oil to the world market for rethinking the plan, the report said. OPEC and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, had agreed to cut overall oil output by 9.7 million barrels per day starting in May. The group tapered the cuts starting in August to 7.7 million barrels per day. “The Saudi reluctance to raise output should solidify an oil bottom,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group, told MarketWatch. With uncertainty surrounding a second wave of COVID-19 cases and the success that OPEC+ has had with output cuts, and with global supply tightening, “why change course?”
Oil prices slip over 1% after Norway oil worker strike ends (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped more than 1% on Friday after an oil worker strike in Norway ended, which should boost crude output even as Hurricane Delta forced U.S. energy firms to cut production. in an attempt to end the strike. Brent futures fell 49 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $42.85 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell 59 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $40.60. Despite Friday’s price slide, both benchmarks gained about 9% this week, their first increase in three weeks and the biggest weekly rise for Brent since June. Oil futures climbed earlier in the week due to concerns the strike in Norway and the hurricane headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast would cut crude output. Norwegian oil firms struck a wage bargain with labour union officials on Friday, ending a 10-day strike that had threatened to cut the country’s oil and gas output by close to 25% next week. “One of the bullish factors that had been supporting prices fell apart late in the day when it was announced that Norway would end their strike,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. Also weighing on prices were doubts voiced by Republicans in the U.S. Senate that a coronavirus economic stimulus deal could be reached before the Nov. 3 election. Earlier in the day, oil prices briefly turned positive after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would resume talks on a possible $1.8 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Hurricane Delta, meanwhile, dealt the greatest blow to U.S. offshore Gulf of Mexico energy production in 15 years, halting most of the region’s oil and nearly two-thirds of natural gas output. Looking ahead, JP Morgan said that a worsening global oil demand outlook due to a potential rise in coronavirus cases this winter would likely prompt the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to reverse a planned easing of oil cuts in 2021, with Saudi Arabia offering deeper cuts below its current quota.
Oil Prices Up More Than 9% for the Week | Rigzone -- Crude prices slid after oil workers in Norway called off a strike that had shut down about 8% of the country’s production. Futures in London and New York both fell over 1% on Friday. The settlement will restore production at six fields already shut down by the dispute and prevent an escalation to another six. It also averts the shutdown of Norway’s largest oil field, the 460,000 barrel-a-day Johan Sverdrup facility. Still, Brent futures posted the largest weekly gain since early June and U.S. benchmark crude futures also advanced this week on supply disruptions from Hurricane Delta and optimism on a U.S. stimulus deal. “If the strike lasted into next week or even beyond, that would mean a significant additional amount of platforms and fields that were impacted by the strike,” Gary Cunningham, a director at Tradition Energy. “Now that it’s resolved, not only are the incremental curtailments not going to happen, but now the original production is going to come back online.” Futures were boosted this week amid President Donald Trump’s departure from the hospital following treatment for Covid-19 and mounting enthusiasm over a U.S. virus aid package, which would help spur a demand recovery. The coronavirus pandemic has been forcing governments worldwide to rethink reopening plans: Spain’s government has declared a state of emergency for the Madrid region and in the U.S., Texas virus hospitalizations jumped to a four-week high. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin headed into talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, carrying a White House offer of $1.8 trillion for economic stimulus, according to people familiar with the matter. The two spoke for about 30 minutes and Mnuchin’s proposal “attempted to address some of the concerns Democrats have,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said on Twitter. “This is a very positive development,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC. “The petroleum complex needs a stimulus package as badly as any of the other asset classes, maybe even more so. To the extent that this gets the economy sort of stabilized, or maybe revived, that portends well for demand going forward.” Prices West Texas Intermediate for November delivery fell 59 cents to settle at $40.60 a barrel. The contract rose 9.6% this week. Brent for December settlement lost 49 cents to end the session at $42.85 a barrel. The benchmark posted a 9.1% weekly gain. Meanwhile, Hurricane Delta has weakened to a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 miles (177 kilometers) per hour. Energy companies have evacuated staff from offshore and onshore facilities. Currently, 1.7 million barrels a day of oil output in the Gulf of Mexico shut in.
UAE official says Turkey's army in Qatar destabilises region (Reuters) - Turkey’s army in Qatar is an element of instability in the Gulf region, a senior official of the United Arab Emirates said on Saturday, adding that it contributes to negative polarization. “The Turkish military presence in the Arab Gulf is an emergency,” UAE minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash tweeted. “It reinforces polarization, and it does not take into account the sovereignty of states and the interests of the Gulf countries and its peoples.”r
Armenia, Azerbaijan bomb each other’s cities - A week after fighting erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan, bloodshed escalated this weekend as both sides bombarded each other’s cities. A new eruption of the 1988-1994 war between the two former Soviet republics over control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which initially broke out in the run-up to the Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, threatens to escalate into an all-out regional war. The war threatens to drag in not only the two countries’ main regional backers—Russia, which supports Armenia, and Turkey, which backs Azerbaijan—but also to intensify divisions within NATO. Calls are growing in France, which is already fighting a proxy war against Turkish-backed forces in Libya and backing Greek maritime claims in the Mediterranean against Turkey, to intervene more aggressively in support of Armenia. Azeri barrages targeted several towns in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Armenian forces have held since 1994 and Azeri forces are trying to retake. Azeri forces also reported that they captured several villages there.Azeri President Ilham Aliyev tweeted: “Today the Azeri army liberated the village of Talish in the Terter region; the villages of Mehdili, Chakhyrly, Ashagi Maralyan, Shaibey and Guidzhag in the Jebrail region; and the village of Ashagi Abdurrahmanli in the Fizuli region. Karabakh is Azerbaijan.” On October 2, Armenian authorities reported that Azeri forces hit the road linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh with an Israeli-made LORA missile. Yesterday, Armenian forces bombed Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city after Baku, saying the risk of civilian casualties would not deter them. The Azeri Defense Ministry reported that in Ganja, “As a result of enemy fire, civilians, civilian infrastructure, and ancient historical buildings were harmed.” Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of Artsakh, the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh, said he would respond to strikes on his capital, Stepanakert, by bombing Azeri cities. He declared: “The Azeri terrorist army is targeting civilians in Stepanakert, using Polonez and Smerch weapons systems. From now on, military targets in large Azeri cities are the target of the Defense Army of Artsakh. We are calling on the Azeri population to leave these cities to avoid inevitable losses.” The toll in civilian and military losses is rising rapidly. Officials reported 21 civilian deaths in Azerbaijan and 13 in Armenia this weekend, with the military situation on the ground remaining unclear. Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh reported that 51 servicemen were killed on Saturday, while Azeri forces have declined to state their military losses.In a TV address Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said: “As of now, we already have significant human losses, both military and civilian, large quantities of military equipment are no longer usable, but the adversary still has not been able to solve any of its strategic issues.”
Armenian-Azerbaijan war turns Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia into a powder keg - The war between Armenia, whose population is Christian, and Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim country, in the South Caucasus has turned the entire region into a military and ethnic-religious powder keg. The war began on September 27, when Azerbaijan launched a major offensive, involving heavy artillery, tanks and warplanes, against the Armenian-controlled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Baku and Yerevan have now bombed major cities, and civilian casualties are estimated to be in the hundreds. Military analyst Leonid Nersisyan told the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazetalast week that the scale of the fighting was unprecedented, and that the military losses incurred in a single day already went beyond what occurred during the war of 1992-1994. In an address to the nation on October 4, Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, declared that his country would not stop the offensive until Armenia formally agrees to withdraw its forces from Azerbaijani territory. He also demanded a public apology from Armenia. These conditions are generally deemed unacceptable to Armenia. On Monday, Iran announced a peace plan, offering itself as a mediator between the two warring sides. However, the Russian press reported that Baku and Turkey, which is heavily backing Azerbaijan, are preparing for a prolonged war that might eventually draw in both Russia and Iran. Russia has an important military base in Armenia, and the war threatens to cut off supply routes to this base. The war has major implications for Europe, Russia and the Middle East, as it directly intersects with the conflicts in the Middle East and Northern Africa that have been ignited by the intervention of US imperialism in the past decades. By virtue of its geographic position as a bridge between Europe, the Black Sea and the Middle East, the energy-rich Caucasus has long been a hotspot for geopolitical rivalries. Since the break-up of the USSR in 1991, the religious and ethnic tensions in the region, which had been exacerbated by decades under the rule of the Stalinist bureaucracy, have systematically been exploited, especially by the US and its allies, to further their interests.
Turkey backs Azeri offensive on Armenia as Russia, Iran warn of escalation -Azeri forces launched a large-scale offensive in the south of the Nagorno-Karabakh, nine days after fighting broke out again between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region. On Tuesday, Armenian Defense Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan cited reports from Artsakh, the Armenian authority in the Karabakh: “According to the Artsakh Defense Army, this afternoon the Azeri Armed Forces launched a large-scale attack in the southern direction of the line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, throwing reserve forces, large amounts of military equipment, including tanks and artillery [into battle]. The enemy ignores also the security of the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” which Azeri and Armenian forces have both shelled.The Armenian Foreign Ministry also noted that the offensive began during Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s visit to the Azeri capital, Baku, pledging support for the ethnic-Turkic Azeris against Armenia.In Baku, Çavuşoğlu rejected cease-fire calls from France, Russia, Iran and other powers, demanding Armenia hand the Karabakh over to Azerbaijan: “Let’s have a cease-fire, OK, but what will happen after that? Will you be able to tell Armenia to immediately withdraw from Azerbaijan’s territory? Or are you able to draw up a solution for it to withdraw? No. We have supported efforts for a peaceful resolution, but Armenia has enjoyed the fruits of the occupation for 30 years.”Azeri President Ilham Aliyev met Çavuşoğlu to thank him for Turkey’s support: “This support inspires us, gives us additional strength and at the same time plays an important role in ensuring stability and prosperity in the region.” There have also been multiple independent reports in European media, not denied by Turkish officials, that Syrian Islamist militias and Turkish private security firms are sending fighters to join Azeri troops against Armenia. On this basis, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan issued a pledge yesterday to continue fighting as part of the so-called “war on terror.”
Armenians Fight Back Against Azerbaijani Advance, Strike Key Oil Pipeline - Armenian forces launched a missile attack on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, according to Azerbaijan. The country’s prosecutors said that Armenian forces had carried out the attack, which was prevented by the Azerbaijani military, on the pipeline in Yevlah at around 9 p.m. local time on October 6. The incident was described as a “terrorist act”.The BTC pipeline delivers Azeri light crude oil (mainly from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field) through Georgia to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan for export via tankers. Another crucial Azerbaijani energy infrastructure object, which could become a potential target of Armenian attacks is the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline, which connects the giant Shah Deniz gas field with Europe through Georgia and Turkey. The Armenian side denounced the Azerbaijani report as fake news. Both Azerbaijan and Armenia regularly accuse each other of striking civilian and infrastructure objects on their sovereign territory and denounce the opponent’s claims as propaganda and fakes.Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov threatened Armenia with “using the weapons with great destructive power” to deliver strikes on “the military-strategic infrastructure” of Armenia if it employs its Iskander operational-tactical missile systems against Azerbaijani forces.However, it does not seem that the Armenian political leadership is ready to employ all the variety of its means and forces to fight back in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region. Instead, the government of Nikol Pashinyan is now mostly focused on the diplomatic campaign in Western media in an attempt to convince the so-called international community to help it to keep control over Karabakh. Mr. Pashinyan, who just a few days ago was promising to inflict a military defeat on what he called the Azerbaijani-Turkish terror alliance even declared that Armenia is ready for mutual concessions. Nonetheless, Baku and Ankara do not seem to be ready for a new ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations at the present time.On the frontline in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region itself, the main hot point is the district of Jabrayil. Using the worsening weather conditions (fog and thick clouds), which complicate the work of Azerbaijani combat drones, Armenian forces were able to stabilize the frontline and prevent further gains of the Azerbaijani military in this part of Karabakh. On October 7, Armenia even claimed that a large-scale Azerbaijani attack had been repelled in the area. The Defense Ministry claimed that over 60 dead and multiple equipment pieces were left by Azerbaijan on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Armenian forces and cities of the region are still subjected to intense artillery bombardment by the Azerbaijani military. Heavy destruction was inflicted on the city of Stepanakert. As soon as the weather improves, Azerbaijan with help from Turkey will likely resume active drone strikes and launch a new phase of the ground offensive along the contact line.
Armenia and Azerbaijan Reach Cease-Fire After Russia-Brokered Talks – WSJ —Armenia and Azerbaijan announced a cease-fire after nearly two weeks of intense fighting that has claimed hundreds of lives following Russia-brokered talks over thedisputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.The foreign ministers of the two warring countries said in a statement early Saturday that the truce, which began at noon local time, is intended to provide space to exchange prisoners and recover the dead. The announcement followed more than 10 hours of negotiations in Moscow mediated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said that specific details will be agreed on later as talks continue.Azerbaijan and Armenia “are starting substantive negotiations with the aim of achieving a peaceful settlement as soon as possible,” Mr. Lavrov said, adding that the talks would be mediated by Russia, the U.S. and France.Underscoring the precariousness of any truce in the volatile region, both sides accused each other of violating the cease-fire shortly after it took effect. Armenia said Azeri units launched an assault five minutes after 12 p.m. Azerbaijan, meanwhile, said that Armenian armed forces were firing on Azeri regions. Roughly the size of Delaware, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh—a disputed enclave controlled by ethnic Armenians but internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan—has been a flashpoint between the two countries since the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The fighting flared up last month after nearly three decades of on-again, off-again skirmishes. A six-year war that ended in a 1994 cease-fire claimed some 30,000 lives.Both sides have blamed each other for triggering the current outbreak of hostilities on Sept. 27. Armenia said Friday that 376 of its soldiers had been killed in the fighting so far, while Azerbaijan hasn’t disclosed how many of its troops have been killed.Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh said the conflict so far has cost at least 22 lives and injured more than 80 people. Azerbaijan said 31 Azeri civilians have been killed and 168 have been injured.
Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire (Reuters) - Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of swiftly and seriously violating the terms of a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, raising questions about how meaningful the truce, brokered by Russia, would turn out to be. The ceasefire, clinched after marathon talks in Moscow advocated by President Vladimir Putin, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead. The Moscow talks were the first diplomatic contact between the two since fighting over the mountainous enclave erupted on Sept. 27, killing hundreds of people. The enclave is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians. Within minutes of the truce taking effect from midday, both sides accused each other of breaking it. The Armenian defence ministry accused Azerbaijan of shelling a settlement inside Armenia, while ethnic Armenian forces in Karabakh alleged that Azeri forces had launched a new offensive five minutes after the truce took hold. Azerbaijan said enemy forces in Karabakh were shelling Azeri territory. Both sides have consistently denied each others’ assertions in what has also become a war of words accompanying the fighting. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev told Russia’s RBC news outlet that the warring parties were now engaged in trying to find a political settlement, but suggested there would be further fighting ahead. “We’ll go to the very end and get what rightfully belongs to us,” he said. Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said the truce would last only for as long as it took for the Red Cross to arrange the exchange of the dead. Speaking at a briefing in Baku, he said Azerbaijan hoped and expected to take control of more territory in time.
No comments:
Post a Comment