oil prices fell for the first time in four weeks as a report that the Saudis would pressure other OPEC members to carry their own weight at next week's OPEC meeting precipitated a 5% drop on Friday...after closing little changed last week at $57.77 a barrel on conflicting stories on US-China trade, oil inventories, and OPEC, the price of light sweet domestic oil for January delivery started this week higher on new optimism that the US and China would soon sign a deal to end their trade war, and finished Monday up 24 cents at $58.01 a barrel...hopes of progress towards a trade agreement and hopes for an OPEC+ production cut extension pushed prices another 40 cents higher to $58.41 a barrel on Tuesday, even as prices backed backed off before reaching last Thursday's two month high...oil prices then slumped after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a crude oil inventory increase much greater than was expected, but came back near the close on Wednesday to end down 30 cents at $58.11 a barrel, as losses were limited by optimism that a U.S.-China trade deal would soon be reached...US oil again traded lower on Thursday in Asia, reacting to the EIA report that oil crude inventories unexpectedly rose last week and ended down 33 cents, or 0.6%, to $57.78 a barrel in overseas trading after Trump signed into law a bipartisan bill backing protesters in Hong Kong, fueling new tensions with China...oil prices then fell sharply in US markets on Friday on rising US-China tensions over Hong Kong and on the resignation of the Iraqi Prime Minister, which traders believed would help quell weeks of unrest in Iraq, and went on to finish $2.94 or 5.1% lower at $55.17 a barrel following reports the Saudis would no longer compensate for excessive production by other OPEC members, and on comments by the Russian Energy Minister that he would prefer if OPEC and other producers delayed the decision on whether to extend their production cuts till April...oil prices thus ended the week 4.5% lower than the prior week's close, but still managed to log an increase of 2.3% for November, their largest monthly gain since June...
meanwhile, natural gas prices fell nearly 16% to an all time low as warmer weather and record high gas production sent prices tumbling...after recovering to lose less than 1% last week at $2.665 per mmBTU, the contract price of natural gas for December delivery fell 13.4 cents on Monday and 6.1 cents on Tuesday, as weekend natural gas production was at a record high while weather models changed from indicating much below normal temperatures over the entire country to just a modest cooling in the East...with trading in the December contract rolling off the boards at $2.470 per mmBTU on Tuesday, the contract price of natural gas for January delivery, which had ended the prior week at $2.710 per mmBTU, fell another 3.2 cents to $2.501 per mmBTU on Wednesday, and then fell 22 cents to an all time low of $2.281 per mmBTU on Friday as the outlook for the second week of December turned warmer, with temperatures expected to be above normal across most of the contiguous U.S.
with natural gas prices for delivery in January thus closing at an all time low, we'll bring up a few price graphs to see what they look like, and what the implications of that record low price might be....the first graph we have here shows the daily price of the January 2020 natural gas contract over the past 6 months...
the above graph is a screenshot of the interactive daily price of the January natural gas contract at Barchart.com, "the leading provider of real-time or delayed intraday stock and commodities charts and quotes", and it shows the range of prices, in dollars per mmBTU, for that January natural gas contract as a vertical bar for each day over the past 6 months...you might note that each bar has two small horizontal appendages: the one on the left is the opening price for that day, while the appendage on the right is the day's closing price...what we can see here is that up until Friday of this week, this contract had seldom sold for less than $2.50 per mmBTU, and then on Friday it crashed 22 cents to $2.281 per mmBTU, 20 cents lower than it had ever been priced for previously...we should make clear that this graph shows the price of the January contract, which is historically the most expensive, and that mid-summer gas contract prices we have quoted earlier this year were often lower priced...
to extend that price picture out a bit, we'll also include a graph of weekly price of the January natural gas contract over the past year...the format is the same as the graph above, but in this case each bar represents the price range of the January 2020 contract over each of the past 52 weeks...again, the magnitude of this week's price drop compared to other weekly changes stands out..
lastly, to give us a long term historical view, we'll include a version of that graph that shows the price range of the January 2020 natural gas contract for each quarter over the past 11 years...:hence, the entirety of what we saw on the daily graph is represented by just the two rightmost bars on this graph, which should give you a good sense of how long natural gas prices have been falling, and how far they have fallen....again, remember this is the graph for the January 2020 futures contract; daily spot prices and the widely quoted front month contract price have been much more volatile over time than the price that a commodity such as natural gas would trade for on a contract that references delivery 5 or 10 years from the date that it's being traded...ie, while futures prices were toying with $9 per mmBTU ten years ago, the then current contract prices topped $12..
these prices represent what a natural gas exploitation company could have locked in to sell their gas in January 2020 at any time over the past 11 years, or the price that a utility could have locked in their purchase of gas over the same period, although in practice, producers and users of gas seldom lock in contract prices that far out...there are similar futures contracts for each month of each year going out at least 5 years (ie, here's natural gas contract prices for February 2024) and then for the beginning month of each quarter going out at least 20 years...while this isn't the lowest price a natural gas contract has traded for, it is the lowest that natural gas contracted for January has ever been priced at...and since futures contract prices farther out generally moved in tandem; ie, natural gas contracted for July 2020 delivery, for instance, fell 11.1 cents on Friday to $2.250 per mmBTU, this week's price move suggests that anyone planning to drill this summer will have a hard time securing a price that will enable profitability..
the natural gas storage report for the week ending November 22nd from the EIA indicated that the quantity of natural gas held in storage in the US decreased by 28 billion cubic feet to 3,610 billion cubic feet by the end of the week, which left our gas supplies 548 billion cubic feet, or 17.9% higher than the 3,062 billion cubic feet that were in storage on November 22nd of last year, but still left our supplies 31 billion cubic feet, or 0.9% below the five-year average of 3,641 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been in storage as of the 22nd of November in recent years....the 28 billion cubic feet that were withdrawn from US natural gas storage this week was 3 billion cubic feet more than the average forecast of a 25 billion cubic feet withdrawal by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts, but was quite a bit less than the average 57 billion cubic feet of natural gas that have been pulled from natural gas storage during the third week of November over the past 5 years, which thus suggests that my theory that we may have entered a new normal where both injections and withdrawals would be greater than their previous norms was only a one week wonder...
The Latest US Oil Supply and Disposition Data from the EIA
US oil data from the US Energy Information Administration for the week ending November 22nd showed that because of increases in our oil imports and oil production, as well as another large draw from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we again managed to have a small surplus of oil available to be added to our stored commercial supplies for the tenth time in the past eleven weeks...our imports of crude oil rose by an average of 217,000 barrels per day to an average of 6,190,000 barrels per day, after rising by an average of 222,000 barrels per day during the prior week, while our exports of crude oil rose by an average of 453,000 barrels per day to an average of 3,480,000 barrels per day during the week, which meant that our effective trade in oil worked out to a net import average of 2,710,000 barrels of per day during the week ending November 22nd, 236,000 fewer 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 reported to be 100,000 barrels per day higher at a record 12,900,000 barrels per day, so our daily supply of oil from the net of our trade in oil and from well production totaled an average of 15,610,000 barrels per day during this reporting week..
meanwhile, US oil refineries were reportedly processing 16,334,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending November 22nd, 101,000 fewer barrels per day than the amount of oil they used during the prior week, while over the same period the EIA reported that a net average of 29,000 barrels of oil per day were being added to the supplies of oil stored in the US....hence, this week's crude oil figures from the EIA appear to indicate that our total working supply of oil from net imports and from oilfield production was 753,000 barrels per day less than what was added to storage plus 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 inserted a (+753,000) barrel per day figure onto line 13 of the weekly U.S. Petroleum Balance Sheet to make the reported data for the daily supply of oil and the consumption of it balance out, essentially a fudge factor that they label in their footnotes as "unaccounted for crude oil"....with that much oil unaccounted for again this week, it means that one or all of the oil metrics that the EIA has reported and that we have just transcribed must necessarily be seriously off the mark...however, since the media treats these figures as gospel and since they drive oil pricing and hence decisions to drill for oil, we continue to report them just as they're seen & believed by everyone else, since commonly held illusions always top reality (for more on how this weekly oil data is gathered, and the possible reasons for that "unaccounted for" oil, see this EIA explainer)....
further details from the weekly Petroleum Status Report (pdf) indicated that the 4 week average of our oil imports fell to an average of 5,997,000 barrels per day last week, now 21.9% less than the 7,677,000 barrel per day average that we were importing over the same four-week period last year....the 29,000 barrel per day net addition our total crude inventories included a 224,000 barrel per day addition to our commercially available stocks of crude oil, which was mostly offset by a withdrawal of 195,000 barrels per day from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve...this week's crude oil production was reported to be 100,000 barrels per day higher at a record 12,900,000 barrels per day because the rounded estimate of the output from wells in the lower 48 states was 100,000 barrels per day higher at a record 12,400,000 barrels per day, while a 7,000 barrel per day increase to 488,000 barrels per day in Alaska's oil production was not large enough to impact the final rounded total...last year's US crude oil production for the week ending November 23rd was rounded to 11,700,000 barrels per day, so this reporting week's rounded oil production figure was 10.3% above that of a year ago, and 53.1% 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 89.3% of their capacity in using 16,334,000 barrels of crude per day during the week ending November 22nd, down from 89.5% of capacity the prior week, and below normal for the third week of November...as a result, the 16,334,000 barrels per day of oil that were refined this week was 6.9% below the 16,855,000 barrels of crude per day that were being processed during the week ending November 23rd, 2018, when US refineries were operating at 95.6% of capacity....
even with a modest decrease in the amount of oil being refined, gasoline output from our refineries was a bit higher, increasing by 12,000 barrels per day to 10,065,000 barrels per day during the week ending November 22nd, after our refineries' gasoline output had decreased by 120,000 barrels per day the prior week....but even with this week's increase in gasoline output, our gasoline production was still 1.0% lower than the 10,186,000 barrels of gasoline that were being produced daily over the same week of last year....on the other hand, our refineries' production of distillate fuels (diesel fuel and heat oil) fell by 49,000 barrels per day to 5,075,000 barrels per day, after our distillates output had increased by 85,000 barrels per day over the prior week...after this week's decrease in distillates output, our distillates' production for the week was 7.2% below the 5,471,000 barrels of distillates per day that were being produced during the week ending November 23rd, 2018....
with the increase in our gasoline production, our supply of gasoline in storage at the end of the week increased for the 3rd time in nine weeks and for the 9th time in 23 weeks, rising by 5,132,000 barrels to 225,978,000 barrels during the week to November 22nd, after our gasoline supplies had increased by 1,756,000 barrels over the prior week....our gasoline supplies increased by more this week because our imports of gasoline rose by 258,000 barrels per day to 773,000 barrels per day while our exports of gasoline rose by 46,000 barrels per day to 935,000 barrels per day, and while the amount of gasoline supplied to US markets increased by 12,000 barrels per day to 9,204,000 barrels per day....after this week's increase, our gasoline supplies were 0.6% higher than last November 23rd's inventory level of 224,551,000 barrels, and rose to roughly 4% above the five year average of our gasoline supplies for this time of the year...
however, even with the decrease in our distillates production, our supplies of distillate fuels rose for the 1st time in 10 weeks and for 11th time in the past 35 weeks, increasing by 725,000 barrels to 116,406,000 barrels during the week ending November 22nd, after our distillates supplies had decreased by 974,000 barrels over the prior week...our distillates supplies rose this week because our exports of distillates fell by 439,000 barrels per day to 816,000 barrels per day while our imports of distillates fell by 77,000 barrels per day to 238,000 barrels per day, and while the amount of distillates supplied to US markets, an indicator of our domestic demand, increased by 70,000 barrels per day to 4,393,000 barrels per day....but even after this week's inventory increase, our distillate supplies were still 4.4% lower than the 121,801,000 barrels of distillates that we had stored on November 23rd, 2018, and fell to around 12% below the five year average of distillates stocks for this time of the year...
finally, despite this week's increase in oil exports, the oil we pulled out of the SPR meant our commercial supplies of crude oil in storage rose for the twelfth time in twenty-four weeks and for the twenty-seventh time in 44 weeks, increasing by 1,379,000 barrels, from 450,380,000 barrels on November 15th to 451,952,000 barrels on November 22nd...after that increase, our crude oil inventories were roughly 3% above the five-year average of crude oil supplies for this time of year, and almost 35% higher than the prior 5 year (2009 - 2013) average of crude oil stocks after three weeks of November, with the disparity between those comparisons arising because it wasn't until early 2015 that our oil inventories first rose above 400 million barrels...since our crude oil inventories had generally been rising over this year up until July, after generally falling until then through most of the prior year and a half, our oil supplies as of November 22nd were still 0.3% above the 450,485,000 barrels of oil we had stored on November 23rd of 2018, but at the same time were 0.4% below the 453,713,000 barrels of oil that we had in storage on November 24th of 2017, and 7.4% below the 488,145,000 barrels of oil we had in commercial storage on November 25th of 2016...
This Week's Rig Count
the US rig count fell for the 14th time in 15 weeks and for the 37th time in 41 weeks over the week ending November 29th, and is now down by 26% since the end of last year....Baker Hughes reported that the total count of rotary rigs running in the US fell by 1 rig to a 32 month low of 802 rigs this past week, which was also down by 274 rigs from the 1076 rigs that were in use as of the November 30th report of 2018, and 1127 fewer rigs than the shale era high of 1929 drilling rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014, the week before OPEC began their attempt to flood the global oil market...
the number of rigs drilling for oil decreased by 3 to a 31 month low of 668 oil rigs this week, which was also 219 fewer oil rigs than were running a year ago, and well below the recent high of 1609 rigs that were drilling for oil on October 10th, 2014...at the same time, the number of drilling rigs targeting natural gas bearing formations increased by 2 rigs to 131 natural gas rigs, which was still down by 58 rigs from the 189 natural gas rigs that were drilling a year ago, and way down from the modern era high of 1,606 rigs targeting natural gas that were deployed on September 7th, 2008...in addition to those drilling for oil & gas, three rigs classified as 'miscellaneous' continued to drill this week; one on the big island of Hawaii, one in Washoe County, Nevada, and one in Lake County, California, in contrast to a year ago, when there were no such "miscellaneous" rigs deployed..
offshore drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico was unchanged at 22 rigs this week, with all 22 of those drilling offshore from Louisiana...but that's down by one from the Gulf of Mexico rig count of 23 a year ago, when 22 rigs were drilling in Louisiana waters and one was drilling offshore from Texas...since there are no rigs deployed off US shores elsewhere, nor were there a year ago, the Gulf of Mexico count for both years is equal to the national total in each case..
the count of active horizontal drilling rigs was up by 2 rigs to 701 horizontal rigs this week, which was still 233 fewer horizontal rigs than the 934 horizontal rigs that were in use in the US on November 30th of last year, and also well down from the record of 1372 horizontal rigs that were deployed on November 21st of 2014.....on the other hand, the vertical rig count was down by 2 to 48 vertical rigs this week, and those were down by 26 from the 74 vertical rigs that were operating during the same week of last year...at the same time, the directional rig count was down by 1 to 53 directional rigs this week, and those were down by 15 from the 68 directional rigs that were in use on November 30th of 2018...
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 November 29th, the second column shows the change in the number of working rigs between last week's count (November 22nd) and this week's (November 29th) count, the third column shows last week's November 22nd active rig count, the 4th column shows the change between the number of rigs running on Friday and the number running 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 30th of November, 2018...
even though the Permian basin shows no change this week, there was a rig added in Texas Oil District 8, or the core Permian Delaware, while at the same time, a rig was shut down in Texas Oil District 8A, or the northern Permian Midland...since there are no other changes in Texas oil districts that could possibly indicate another Permian change, it's apparent that the rig that was pulled out of New Mexico was operating in an "other" basin in the state, such as the fairly active San Juan Basin in the northwest corner of the state...the two rigs that were pulled out of north-central Texas's Barnett shale were both oil rigs; the two that remain are drilling for natural gas...in addition, an oil rig was pulled out of the Denver-Julesburg NIobrara chalk in Colorado, while the oil rig pulled out of the Mississippian shale came out of Oklahoma, since there haven't been any Mississippian rigs operating in Kansas for quite a while...meanwhile, the increase of 2 rigs targeting natural gas included one added in the Eagle Ford of southeast Texas, which now has 6 natural gas rigs, as an oil rig in that basin was shut down at the same time, and the rig that was added in Texas Oil District 8, or the core Permian Delaware, which is the first natural gas drilling in the Permian since early August 2018....we should also note that a rig started drilling in Nebraska this week, in the first Nebraska activity since April....all 4 Nebraska rig startups since mid-2016 have only lasted a week each time, which is quite unusual...
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ODNR Awards 9 Permits for Utica Drilling - Nine permits for drilling in the Utica-Point Pleasant shale play were awarded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the week ended Nov. 23.Seven of those permits were awarded to Ascent Resources Utica LLC. Four were for wells in Noble County’s Marion Township while three were in Wheeling Township in Belmont County. Two permits were also granted to Gulfport Appalachia LLC for wells in Pultney Township in Belmont County. No permits were granted in Mahoning, Trumbull or Columbiana counties. Nor were any permits awarded in Lawrence or Mercer counties in Pennsylvania, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. Through Nov. 23, ODNR had issued 3,206 permits for horizontal drilling the Utica-Point Pleasant shale play, with 2,734 wells drilled. There are 2,366 producing wells in the state.
Oil production increases 9.5% in Ohio's Utica Shale - Oil production in Ohio’s Utica Shale increased by 9.5% in the second quarter 2019, according to new data released on Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.Oil production jumped from 4,488,104 barrels in 2Q 2018 to 5,813,755 barrels in 2Q 2019, Kallanish Energy reports.Oil production in 1Q 2019 was 5,073,536 barrels. Ohio also reported that natural gas production increased by 0.8% from 2Q 2018 to 2Q 2019.Gas production went from 554,306,916,000 cubic feet in 2Q 2018 to 614,218,362,000 cubic feet in 2Q 2019.Gas production was 609,452,000,000 cubic feet in 1Q 2019. The quarterly Ohio report lists 2,365 horizontal shale wells, of which 2,317 reported oil or gas production during the quarter.The average well produced 2,509 barrels of oil and 265,092,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The typical well was also in production for 86 days during the quarter.Condensate and natural gas liquids are included in Ohio’s oil and natural gas totals and are not listed separately. The results are available at https://oilandgas.ohiodnr.gov/production.
Ohio oil and gas numbers released — The Ohio Oil and Gas Association released information on the ad valorem property tax operators’ pay on Monday. Much of the money goes to schools -- and it also supports levies. From 2010 through 2017, local Ohio counties have received close to $142 million. Harrison County raked in $40.8 million, Belmont County $16.8 million and Jefferson County $2.1 million. “Since most of this goes to schools, we're having the opportunity to invest in that next generation and leaving that legacy of an improved economy an improved environment here in southeast Ohio,” said Mike Chadsey of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. Jefferson County Auditor E.J. Conn said while some counties have seen a decrease in tax revenue from oil and gas, Jefferson County is still on an upswing, partly because the county was initially behind in development and had to wait for pipelines to be constructed. He also noted changes to tax laws have made the process of collecting the money more efficient, and fair in the way the funds are dispersed to communities. “I think the future looks positive,” Conn said. “I do know if it wasn't for oil and gas in Jefferson County, we would be hurting for tax revenue right now because we've seen decreases in other areas in other industries. Public utilities, electric coal-fired power plants, they've been devalued so there's a number of areas that are decreasing, so we're lucky to have this resource."
Shale investment hits $78 billion - The shale industry has invested $78 billion in Ohio since 2011, according to a study by Cleveland State University. Researchers at CSU’s Energy Policy Center at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs prepared the study for JobsOhio, the state’s privatized economic development corporation.The study looked at upstream, midstream and downstream investments through 2018. Ohio is part of the Utica and Marcellus shale regions.According to the study, during the second half of 2018 the industry invested:
- • $3.5 billion in the upstream sector, including royalties, drilling and lease payments. Belmont, Monroe and Carroll counties were the most active.
- • $232 million in the midstream sector, including natural gas gathering systems.
- • $48 million in the downstream sector, including two electric power plants that burn natural gas.
JobsOhio is looking to bring more downstream investment, such as petrochemical plants, to the state, according to a news release.
Changes could come on fracking on public land - Ohio Oil and Gas Leasing Commission members plan to recommend changes to state law governing fracking on public land and the size and operations of the commission.The commission meeting held Wednesday morning at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources offices was the group’s first since Gov. Mike DeWine took office. Changes, proposed by ODNR staff, were presented to the five-member commission, which is chaired by Mike Angle, chief of Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Geological Survey, and includes two members representing oil and gas interests, attorneys Matt W. Warnock and Michael W. Wise; one member representing the environment, Richard Shank, former director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and now board president of the Ohio Environmental Council; and a public representative, Steve Buehrer, former state Bureau of Workers’ Compensation CEO.Buehrer was absent Wednesday. “I think we see these ideas ... as the initiation of a much larger conversation,” said Brittney Colvin, a deputy director at ODNR who oversees three divisions, including Oil and Gas Resources Management. “That conversation that takes place between us and the commission, but also I believe with a lot of other stakeholders, whether that be the members of the General Assembly, or certainly important stakeholders that have various vested interest in development.” Some of the proposed changes include:
- ‒ Adding members to the commission, which could include other representations such as universities or recreational interests.
- ‒ Ensuring there are no conflicts of interest involving commission members when it comes to mineral rights.
- ‒ Clarifying language to allow state agencies to make lease stipulations.
- ‒ Revising state law to allow agencies to use revenues where they see fit.
- ‒ Requiring nominating groups for leasing land for fracking to conduct necessary title work rather than ODNR.
Duke Energy receives approvals - The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has approved a route for a new natural gas pipeline for the southwest region of Ohio, US. The decision to secure a better energy future for residents and businesses through the natural gas deliver comes after a review of Duke Energy’s application and public hearings about the approximately 22.5 km Central Corridor pipeline. In the ruling, the OPSB said the best route for the pipeline is the proposed western route running through Sharonville, Sycamore Township, Blue Ash, Evendale, Reading, Amberley Village and Golf Manor in Ohio. The pipeline will serve customers in southwest Ohio and connect an existing Duke Energy Ohio pipeline near the intersection of Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties with an existing company pipeline in the Norwood area. The demand for the project had been demonstrated through aged and outdated propane-air facilities that are in need of retirement, as well as being able to create a supply balance between north and south systems. Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky President Amy Spiller said the company looks forward to working on the pipeline route while keeping the community informed. “The OPSB’s certificate to construct this critical infrastructure is an important milestone for the Central Corridor Pipeline, and we thank the board for its thorough review of this project,” said Ms Spiller. The pipeline construction is expected to begin at the end of next year and will take three to six weeks on each parcel the pipeline crosses.
Korean consortium finalizes purchase of 50% stake in Utopia Pipeline from Riverstone - A South Korean consortium of EIP Investment Co., Shinhan Investment Corp. KIAMCO, and energy firm Samtan Co. has closed the deal to take up a 50 percent ownership interest in the Utopia shale gas pipeline spanning from the United States to Canada from Riverstone Holdings, EIP Investment announced Monday. The recently-completed 268-mile pipeline delivers ethane sourced from the Marcellus and Utica shales in Ohio to the Samica petrochemical market in Ontario in Canada. It will be able to funnel 40,000 barrels of ethane per day by 2038, almost half of the total 86,000 barrels of ethane transported from the U.S. to Canada every day. The ownership acquisition would deliver stable profits to the investors for almost two decades. Riverstone formed a joint venture with Kinder Morgan to build the pipeline in 2016. Kinder would maintain its stake. The consortium also expects additional profits from the deal as Nova Chemicals, a plastics and chemical company based in Calgary that is a major importer of ethane from the U.S., plans to expand its manufacturing plant with an investment of $2 billion in 2021, EIP Investment said. Financial value of the deal has not been disclosed, but market watchers estimated the price at $500 million to $600 million. The Korean consortium was named the preferred bidder for the stake sale in September after beating 10 or more institutional investors from North America.
Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Grows Stake in Chevron Co. --Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its stake in shares of Chevron Co. (NYSE:CVX) by 0.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,225,830 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 4,604 shares during the period. Chevron accounts for about 0.8% of Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Chevron were worth $145,383,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CVX. Nuveen Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Chevron by 3.6% during the second quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 14,886,232 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $1,852,443,000 after purchasing an additional 14,201,379 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Chevron by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 131,522,440 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $16,366,651,000 after acquiring an additional 4,401,622 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in Chevron by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 5,518,090 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $602,978,000 after acquiring an additional 2,061,187 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Chevron by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 157,513,617 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $19,600,995,000 after acquiring an additional 1,572,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments purchased a new stake in Chevron during the 2nd quarter valued at about $164,371,000. 65.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
With Coal’s Decline, Pennsylvania Communities Watch the Rise of Natural Gas-fueled Plastics -- For Beaver County, just northwest of Pittsburgh, the construction of Royal Dutch Shell’s towering new plastics factory overshadows the closure of the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant, the state’s largest coal power station, located along the same stretch of Ohio River in western Pennsylvania. The juxtaposition of these two projects, in which one powerful fossil fuel supply rises as the other falls, reflects the broader pattern of changing energy sources in America. A growing chorus agrees the expansion of the natural gas industry, which feeds plastics and petrochemical plants like Shell’s, is moving the U.S. in the wrong direction to prevent catastrophic impacts from climate change. The shale gas industry has been building demand for fossil fuels from its fracked oil and gas wells by promoting turning its products into plastics and petrochemicals. DeSmog’s Sharon Kelly has created a field guide to the petrochemical and plastic industry and reported on the climate impacts of building a new petrochemical corridor in America’s Rust Belt and expanding the existing corridor, and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, on the Gulf Coast. At the forefront of this buildout, the Shell Petrochemical Complex under construction in Beaver County is designed to take ethane from the region’s natural gas fields and transform it into polyethylene, a plastic used in consumer products like food packaging and car parts. At a packed November 6 public meeting at the Beaver Library, Matt Mehalik, executive director of the advocacy group Breathe Project, presented a slide show about the plant and the buildout of the petrochemical industry in the Ohio River Valley. He labeled the Shell plant’s annual permitted 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions “a disaster from a climate perspective.” He then pointed to the Cheswick Power Plant, another old coal station 18 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, as a comparable carbon polluter. Climate pollution isn’t the only concern for a region which has received an ‘F’ grade for high ozone days (the main component of smog) and particulate pollution in the American Lung Association’s 2019 State of the Air report. Shell’s plastics plant could be joined by similar plants proposed nearby, including PTT Global Chemical’s in Belmont County, Ohio, which would also affect regional air quality. And rumors that ExxonMobil has been searching in Beaver County for a suitable location to build a petrochemical plant like Shell’s have many worried that the area will become too polluted to live in.
Pennsylvania Communities Grow Wary of Worsening Air Pollution as Petrochemical Industry Arrives - While the Ohio River Valley, long home to the coal and steel industries, is no stranger to air pollution, the region’s natural gas boom and burgeoning petrochemical industry threaten to erase the gains of recent decades. Concerns about air quality, which has already begun declining nationally since 2016, are growing rapidly for those living in the shadow of Shell’s $6 billion plastics plant under construction along the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County.Residents and activists from the greater Pittsburgh area fear that worsening air quality will lower the value of homes, deter new clean business development, and sicken people. “It is not lost on us that Allegheny Health Network is building a cancer institute directly above the cracker plant at the Beaver County Mall,” Matt Mehalik, executive director of the advocacy group Breathe Project, said at a November 6 public meeting about the Shell plastics plant, also known as an “ethane cracker.” “There is a certain degree of sick irony about that.”He warned of the significant healthcare impacts, and the associated financial cost to treat them, from the development of the petrochemical industry in the region.According to the U.S. Office of Fossil Energy, Appalachian shale gas, primarily from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, is the main driver for growth of the U.S. natural gas industry. “The Appalachian region has abundant resources and extensive downstream industrial activity, particularly in the quad-state area of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky,” a post on the Office of Fossil Energy website says, adding that petrochemical infrastructure represents a key opportunity for the region.The agency touts the potential jobs and business and tax revenues the petrochemical industry could bring to the region. Missing is any mention that with the natural gas and petrochemical industries’ expansion comes a rise in emissions of greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter, along with related environmental and health impacts. Mehalik listed to me the reasons for the growing number of people pushing back against the fossil fuel industry in the Ohio River Valley, despite its traditionally industry-friendly attitudes. “The region is experiencing increasing levels of trauma in the form of environmental disasters that are catching people’s attention,” he said. “The explosion of pipelines, drilling mud spills, wells that are vented, frack water truck traffic everywhere, permitting fights in local municipal governments regionally over petrochemical infrastructure projects, stories of farmland and people’s homes being ruined, water supplies being ruined, and an increasing sense of doom as the Shell plant’s future reality takes shape on the banks of the Ohio [River] across from neighborhoods.”
Two Big Reasons to Attend Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference (press release) Royal Dutch Shell is building a $7 billion world class polymers cracker plant in Monaca, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The plant is nearing completion and could go into operation fourth quarter of 2020. There are currently over 6,000 workers currently on the site as it moves to completion.The second world class cracker plant is a joint venture between with PTT Global Chemical Plc (PTTGC), Thailand's largest petrochemical producer and Korea-based Daelim Industrial Company. PTTGC is about to make the Final Investment Decision (FID) on $7-$9 billion investment on plant which will be located in Dills’ Bottom, Belmont, County, Ohio. While the FID is pending, considerable preparation work is currently being done on the site.Other global oil companies are evaluating petrochemical sites in the Appalachian Basin (Marcellus and Utica shale plays). In addition to these companies, South Korean and Taiwanese companies have had representatives in the Appalachian Basin considering the opportunities that will be evolving in the region. “It is becoming apparent the Appalachian Basin will be generating even greater investment in the upcoming years,” commented Joe Barone, President, Shale Directories, LLC, the company producing the Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference. The development and investment opportunities attached two world class cracker plants are once in a generation. Attendees at Shale Directories’ Inaugural Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference will be afforded the opportunity to see first-hand the developments which are taking place as well as the ones that are planned. The Appalachian Basin Real Estate Conference will be held on December 11th and 12th at Oglebay Resort in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Pennsylvania to fund research into fracking health dangers - Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday his administration will spend $3 million on a pair of studies to explore the potential health effects of the natural gas industry, taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of pediatric cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state. Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh, where energy companies have drilled more than 3,500 wells since 2008. Ewing has no known environmental cause, and gas industry officials say there is no evidence linking pediatric cancer to drilling. But the families nevertheless suspect that drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the method that energy companies use to extract natural gas from shale rock, played a role. They have been pressing the Wolf administration for an investigation into any possible link between this extremely rare form of bone cancer and shale gas development — and confronted Wolf himself at the Capitol on Monday. “I want to thank the families that have shared their heartbreaking stories,” the Democratic governor said in a statement Friday. “I understand and support the concerns of parents and desire of community members to learn more about the possible reasons for these cancer cases.” The research, he said, is meant to address “the concern that there is a relationship between hydraulic fracturing and childhood cancers.” One study will use existing research that linked natural gas activity to medical conditions like asthma and, applying the same methodology, try to replicate those earlier findings in the population in southwestern Pennsylvania. The other study will focus specifically on rare childhood cancers, including Ewing sarcoma, with researchers looking at whether these young cancer patients were exposed to fracking more often than a control population.
Pennsylvania To Spend $3M To Study Possible Link Between Fracking And Spike In Childhood Cancer (KDKA/AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says his administration will spend $3 million on a pair of studies to explore the potential health impacts of the natural gas industry.Wolf is taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of pediatric cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state. Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh. Ewing has no known environmental cause, but the families have been pressing the Wolf administration for an investigation into any possible link between this extremely rare form of bone cancer and shale gas development. Wolf says the research will address “the concern that there is a relationship between hydraulic fracturing and childhood cancers.” His statement reads: “Ewing Sarcoma is rare and currently has no known environmental cause, but it is imperative that we do all that we can to thoroughly research and advance the science on the health effects of oil and gas extraction. “Secretary of Health Levine and her team, including the commonwealth’s top epidemiological experts, have done diligent work to explore possible avenues to look more closely at available science. To further their efforts, I am directing the Department of Health to undertake two research projects that will help to better understand the possible health effects related to the natural gas industry, in particular as they pertain to confirmed cases of Ewing Sarcoma and other childhood cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania. “This investment will advance science by building upon previous research and investigating the concern that there is a relationship between hydraulic fracturing and childhood cancers..”State Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine released this statement: “It is essential to better understand the scientific evidence of public health issues related to hydraulic fracturing. These studies will provide us with a more in-depth understanding of this issue than we have been able to do with the resources at our disposal..” The news of the funding for the studies comes one day after a KDKA Investigation aired into whether there could be a link between fracking and a spike in childhood cancer.Emotions are running high throughout the four-county area of Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties, and at a recent meeting in Canon-McMillan High School’s Auditorium. With fewer than 250 cases of Ewing sarcoma recorded annually in the United States, parents and family members believe they are living in a cancer cluster and the shale gas industry is to blame.
Pennsylvania’s LNG export boom heads to Japan - At the busy Port of Yokohama, near Tokyo, tankers full of coal, liquefied petroleum gas, and liquefied natural gas, or LNG, sail into the harbor from all over the world, including Pennsylvania. Since spring 2018, shale gas from Pennsylvania has been shipped out of an export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay to 20 different countries. Most of those ships went to Japan. Right now, natural gas on the global market is fetching almost $6 per mmBtu, or million British thermal units – about triple the price Pennsylvania producers get selling to the domestic market. Speaking at a recent Chamber of Commerce event in Philadelphia, American Gas Association president Karen Harbert extolled the benefits of exports. “We’ve got the cheapest gas in the world,” said Harbert. “And we’re trading all over the world. Every molecule that we can export that supplants the mullahs of Iran is a good day for America.” The abundant drilling of Pennsylvania’s Marcellus and Utica Shale has created a glut of natural gas and driven down prices. In the past 12 years, shale gas producers drilled more than 12,000 fracked gas wells in northeastern, central, and southwestern Pennsylvania. The price of that overproduction means Pennsylvania’s gas is now selling at about $2.30 per mmBtu. In 2008, before the shale gas boom, natural gas prices averaged almost $9/mmBtu. Producers eager to find new markets now ship gas overseas, aided by newly built pipelines and export terminals. Ira Joseph, head of gas and power analytics of S&P Global Platts, said there’s been an “unprecedented surge” in new supplies of LNG in 2019. “In the case of the Northeast, the Marcellus and Utica, it’s a constant fight to support price,” said Joseph. “Production has gone up so much that to push gas out of the region, it’s been a constant battle to create new pipeline capacity, and reverse existing pipeline capacity to create demand for the gas.” Exports won’t necessarily force the price back up to 2008 levels, Joseph said, but they will prevent further dips. Five new LNG export terminals have come online since 2016. Another 16 have been approved and eight are pending approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Japan is the world’s largest importer of LNG. In March 2011, its energy needs were suddenly transformed when the massive Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami led to a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Residents fled the radiation; some never returned to their homes. Japan shut down its nuclear power plants in the wake of that disaster. Increased imports helped make up for the loss. And the newly abundant U.S. shale gas wells provided a solution.
Report calls for ‘cleaner, safer’ future for refinery site (AP) — A city report calls for a “cleaner, safer, and healthier” future for the site of a closed Philadelphia oil refinery but says the near-term future of the site will be determined by the ongoing federal bankruptcy process. The report by the mayor’s Refinery Advisory Group, which held public hearings last summer, calls for uses that protect public safety and health but that also provide “significant long-term economic benefit.” It says, however, that the 1,300-plus-acre site is large enough to support multiple uses, which should include “as many economically, socially, and environmentally positive activities as possible.” Federal investigators said last month that failure of an aging elbow pipe appears to have led to the June 21 fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant, which closed, laying off almost 1,000 workers.
Bankrupt Philadelphia refiner seeks $2.5 million in executive bonuses -court filings - (Reuters) - The bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refiner is seeking a minimum of $2.5 million in bonus payments to the refiner’s top executives as part of a plan to reorganize or sell the company, U.S. bankruptcy court filings show. This would represent a potential second round of bonuses for PES executives, who were already paid roughly $4.5 million in retention awards after a massive June fire that resulted in the plant’s shutdown. PES laid off hundreds of workers without severance pay or benefits following the blaze. The latest round of bonuses will be paid if PES confirms a reorganization within 15 months of its July Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to documents filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Friday. Alternatively, the $2.5 million could also be paid if PES secures at least $300 million in net proceeds from a sale, insurance proceeds or other payments, including a lawsuit the refiner filed against the federal government over excise taxes, the documents show. Under the plan, Chief Executive Officer Mark Smith would receive 29% of any incentive bonuses, PES board of directors Chairman Mark Cox gets 25%, Chief Financial Officer Rachel Celiberti 18% and attorney Anthony Lagreca would get 14%. Three other employees would receive smaller amounts.
National Grid to lift natgas moratorium after NY settlement (Reuters) - National Grid said on Monday it would pay $7 million in compensation for a moratorium on new gas customers in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island after the utility reached an agreement with the State of New York. National Grid will lift its moratorium for about two years. Its settlement includes a commitment to invest $8 million in energy efficiency programmes and an additional $20 million in clean energy projects, it said. The company had said in May it would not process new applications for natural gas services in its New York City and Long Island service area until Williams Cos Inc’s Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline received the permits it needs to proceed. Since then, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatened to revoke its certificate to operate its gas franchise in downstate New York, saying the utility had failed to provide “adequate and reliable service.”
National Grid Gas: Independent Monitor To Oversee Return Of Service For 3,700 Customers – CBS New York– The New York State Public Service Commission is stepping in to help resolve the end of National Grid’s gas moritorium that denied service to 3,700 customers.In addition to paying $36 million in penalties, the PSC will also establish an independent monitor for compliance as the utility resumes service hook-ups to thousands of businesses and homeowners.On Monday customers in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island got word they would finally get hooked up for their natural gas service needs.Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an agreement with the utility to immediately lift a six-month-long moratorium on gas service that left thousands with no way to heat their buildings or run their businesses, reports CBS2’s political reporter Marcia Kramer.For months, CBS2 has been demanding answers from National Grid and the governor after thousands of customers were left without gas, including a $92 million development in Nassau County and a Long Island municipal fire department in urgent need of upgrading its facilities.The agreement promises the utility will meet the demand for the next two years, allowing it to restore service to any customers that it had refused and grant all pending applications.
The pipeline war on Long Island isn’t really over - Gov. Andrew Cuomo and National Grid struck a deal on Nov. 25 to end a moratorium on new natural gas hookups in Brooklyn and Queens and on Long Island, but the political fight continues over the future of a proposed natural gas pipeline that would run through Lower New York Bay from New Jersey to New York. Environmentalists say that slowing climate change requires the state to block fossil fuel projects, but the latest deal between New York and National Grid still offers the company a chance to make its case that a pipeline is necessary to ensure economic development in the downstate area – though it does take away a key source of leverage from the company. National Grid imposed the moratorium in May, after the state Department of Environmental Conservation withheld a state water quality permit requested by the Oklahoma-based Williams Companies to build the Williams pipeline, which is officially known as the Northeast Supply Enhancement Project. Williams has resubmitted the application, which is currently under review by the department. The company will also need a similar permit from New Jersey before it can proceed with the project, which has already received necessary approvals from the federal government. The agreement requires National Grid to provide thousands of new gas hookups that had been put on hold in recent months, pay $36 million in penalties and develop within two years a long-term plan to ensure a steady gas supply going forward. National Grid will have three months to consider options before a series of public hearings in the four counties that were affected by the moratorium: Queens, Kings (Brooklyn), Nassau and Suffolk. The goal will be to implement this long term strategy by fall 2021 and while renewable energy and conservation programs will be in the mix of ideas, so will the controversial pipeline that led to the moratorium in the first place. The pipeline would provide roughly 15% of the gas that the company says it needs in future years, according to Elizabeth Arangio, director of gas supply planning at National Grid. “If the project does not become available by the 2020/21 winter season, the companies will not be able to prudently satisfy new or additional service requests without jeopardizing the companies’ ability to provide safe, reliable service to its existing firm customers,” she told the Public Service Commission in April.Pipeline opponents have disputed those claims and cited data showing gas demand is not growing at the rate that National Grid said it would. Increased efficiency and conservation of both gas and electricity have eaten into that projected 10% growth, according to onereport published by opponents of the pipeline.
Gas bans, once a California specialty, arrive in New England -Cities in California and Massachusetts are advancing what has become the newest trend in the local fight against climate change: bans on natural gas hookups in new buildings. In July, Berkeley, California, outlawed them. A handful of other California communities soon followed. Then, last week, Brookline, Massachusetts, took up the cause. In a 200-3 vote at a town meeting — the form of citizen government employed by many New England towns — Brookline residents approved a plan to block gas hookups in new homes and in major renovations. “We need to do something about climate change,” Werner Lohe, one of the measure’s sponsors, told The Boston Globe. “We need to stop burning fossil fuels inside our buildings. … This is the first step in Brookline toward an all-electric, all-renewable-energy world.” Berkeley and Brookline have a lot in common. Both are among the most liberal communities in overwhelmingly blue states. Both are well-educated and affluent. Brookline’s vote nevertheless signals an important shift in local climate action. Where municipalities previously have focused on reducing emissions in electricity generation, attention is shifting toward the carbon footprint associated with heating and cooling buildings. In Massachusetts, residential buildings account for roughly 15% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Commercial buildings represent another 9.5%. Power plants, by contrast, are responsible for almost 20% of Massachusetts’ greenhouse gases. “If we are going to decarbonize the economy, we have to stop putting gas in new buildings now,” said Deborah Donovan, Massachusetts director at the Acadia Center, an environmental group. “Building stock built now will be us in 2050 when we need to be decarbonized.” But what replaces New England’s fleet of old oil furnaces is a matter of mounting debate. Local climate hawks increasingly are pushing electric heat pumps as a low-carbon alternative, arguing the newer brands are able to withstand the region’s long winters. They’ve had particular success in northern New England, which lacks widespread gas infrastructure.
Warmer Weather And Record High Production Send Natural Gas Prices Tumbling - After what looked like a rather promising natural gas open Sunday evening for the bulls, we have seen nothing but selling since then. Today is the December contract's final day on the board, and as of this writing, it sits at a price level of $2.43, more than 25 cents lower than we saw immediately after the Sunday open. Why such carnage? The primary reason has been due to a solid warming trend in weather models since Sunday evening. Sunday night's models all trended solidly warmer, and that continued into this morning, with models solidly warmer compared to 24 hours ago. An even better visualization of the change comes from looking at how forecast trended since Friday in map form. Here is the 11-15 day forecast from midday Friday run of the GEFS: Now, let's look at the latest run, valid the same days: Why such a large change? Models have had a difficult time resolving the pattern in the high latitudes. Latest modeling features more troughing (lower 500 mb heights) both around Alaska and over Greenland, a setup which typically keeps strong cold bottled up well north of the United States. As a result, the cold shown in Friday's models has faded away, lowering forecast weather demand. While weather is most often the primary driver of price volatility at this point in the season, it was not the only piece of bearish news. We continue to see new all-time highs in dry production, with new highs over the weekend, and yet another new high just yesterday. We are also heading into a holiday period, typically a time when we see a weaker overall market in terms of gas burns, something which could be exacerbated this week, as wind output looks rather high through the long holiday weekend. To summarize, we've basically seen a "perfect storm" of bearish factors line up so far this week. Granted, the weather pattern is not super warm, so it could be worse, but each of the last two weeks also started off with warmer changes, only to move back colder later in the week.
US natural gas in underground storage falls 28 Bcf to 3.160 Tcf: EIA - US working natural gas volumes in underground storage dropped by 28 Bcf, decreasing by just under half the five-year average, while the NYMEX January Henry Hub contract fell about 3 cents after the number’s release, continuing recent declines and nearing an all-time low.Storage inventories fell to 3.610 Tcf for the week ended November 22, the US Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday, one day ahead of the usual schedule because of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.The pull was slightly more than an S&P Global Platts’ survey of analysts calling for a 25-Bcf draw. Survey responses were a withdrawal of between 14 Bcf to 33 Bcf.The withdrawal was well below the 70 Bcf pull reported during the corresponding week in 2018, as well as the five-year average draw of 57 Bcf, according to EIA data. As a result, stocks were 548 Bcf, or 18%, above the year-ago level of 3.062 Tcf and 31 Bcf, or 1%, above the five-year average of 3.641 Tcf.The draw proved well below the 94 Bcf pulled from working gas in storage reported the week prior.Temperatures across the US rose 5 degrees week on week, with warmer weather particularly focused in the Midwest and South Central storage regions. The EIA reported a net injection of 2 Bcf into South Central region storage fields and 1 Bcf addition in the Pacific region.Although temperatures remain 2 degrees below normal, warmer weather for the week that ended November 22 cut out an estimated 49 Bcf of residential and commercial demand, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics. Weaker power burn also contributed to the bearish draw, declining an estimated 2.1 Bcf/d, largely in the Southeast.Inventories will continue to be supported into December from strong production receipts out of Texas and the US Northeast, keeping the gas market bearish, barring another cold snap. The now prompt NYMEX January Henry Hub contract has been under heavy selling pressure this week, as forward-looking temperatures have moderated. Since hitting a monthly peak of just under $3.00/MMBtu November 5, the January contract has contracted by roughly 15%. Indeed, entering the report the contract was sitting just above $2.50/MMBtu, or within striking distance of the all-time intraday low of $2.48/MMBtu August 5.
Natural Gas Tumbles as Temperatures Set to Rise-- Natural gas prices capped their biggest November drop since 2001 as forecasts showed no sign of the teeth-chattering U.S. cold needed to boost demand for the heating fuel. The outlook for the second week of December turned warmer overnight, with temperatures now expected to be above normal across most of the contiguous U.S., according to forecaster Commodity Weather Group LLC. “The trends into mid-month should keep getting warmer” without evidence of a stronger high-pressure area that would allow frigid conditions to settle over the Lower 48, CWG said. As gas output from shale basins climbs to fresh highs, the market needs a polar blast to help siphon off the excess supply. Though exports have soared to a record and American homes and businesses are using more of the fuel than ever, production is outstripping demand, leaving gas stored in depleted aquifers and salt caverns near a two-year high. “The weather outlook continues to fall apart for December,” says John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital. “Futures broke some key support at the $2.50 level,” and they may now be heading for $2.20, he said. Gas for January delivery fell 22 cents, or 8.8%, to $2.281 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices were down more than 13% in November, and the drop on Friday was the worst one-day slide since January. There was no settlement Thursday due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and all transactions were booked Friday. U.S. gas production rose to 1.5% in August to 112.879 billion cubic feet per day from a month earlier, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report Friday.
Kennebunkport oil leak abates, but source still a mystery- The origin of some dyed #2 fuel oil that the local wastewater treatment plant received through the town’s sewer system early last week is still a mystery. “We have not located the source yet,” Deputy Director of Public Works Chris Simeoni said on Monday afternoon. Simeoni added that the plant is no longer receiving the fuel oil and has cleaned up the plant’s collection system as much as possible. He said efforts are underway to eliminate the possibility of the fuel oil from being introduced into the system in the future. “It’s a water quality concern,” he said. The plant, located on Recreation Way, announced on Thursday, Nov. 21, that it had received what appeared to be the dyed #2 fuel oil via the town’s sewer system on Monday, Nov. 18, at 11:30 a.m. “It is difficult to determine how much fuel oil was received at the plant,” the town stated in a news release. “Crew members immediately began checking the collection system for the source.” They narrowed it down to the residential area of Dock Square. but could not pinpoint the precise source, according to the town. Crew members have been contacting occupied properties in the area and conducting inspections to try to locate the source. They have even been attempting to contact the owners of vacant properties to request making inspections, as well. “It is possible that a residence (or) business may have experienced a catastrophic oil tank (or) oil line failure that may have gone unnoticed and was inadvertently discharged into the town’s sewer system by means of a sump pump,” the town stated in its release.
Public comments being taken on lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline -- Before a judge decides whether to approve a $2.15 million settlement of a lawsuit alleging environmental damage caused by building the Mountain Valley Pipeline, state regulators will consider public comments on the proposal. About 130 people had submitted input by midday Tuesday, according to Ann Regn, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The deadline for written comments is Wednesday. DEQ and the State Water Control Board sued Mountain Valley last December, saying the company violated state regulations meant to limit erosion and sedimentation more than 300 times in building the largest natural gas pipeline ever to cross Southwest Virginia. In October, Attorney General Mark Herring announced a settlement that provides a framework for court-ordered enforcement going forward, with the possibility that the financial penalty will exceed the $2.15 million agreement if additional violations occur. Mountain Valley agreed to conditions — which include hiring independent monitors to make inspections beyond what had previously been required by the state — as part of a consent decree that will soon go to a judge in Henrico County Circuit Court. DEQ will review the comments before sending the settlement to the judge, Regn said. Digging trenches to bury the 42-inch diameter steel pipe along steep mountain slopes has led to widespread runoff, washing harmful sediment into nearby streams and onto the property of adjacent landowners. Meanwhile, separate lawsuits against federal agencies led to the suspension of two sets of permits for the pipeline last year, and a third approval was more recently pulled while an appeals court reviews yet another challenge, this one of the project’s impact on endangered species of fish and bats. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the lead agency overseeing construction of the $5.5 billion project, ordered new construction to cease Oct. 15 until the most recent lawsuit, filed by environmental groups against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, is resolved. Since then, Mountain Valley and environmental advocates have continued to spar over pipeline work, which FERC ordered be limited to stabilization of work sites and erosion-control measures to prepare for a winter lull.
FERC takes more time for review of MVP Southgate after route changes - Platts — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has pushed back the environmental review schedule for the 73-mile, 375 MMcf/d MVP Southgate project, due to recently proposed route changes, and set the timetable for reviewing the 750 MMcf/d Cameron Expansion project in Louisiana. The natural gas project would connect the mainline of the Mountain Valley Pipeline near Chatham, Virginia, and extend to Rockingham and Alamance counties in North Carolina. FERC now expects to release a final environmental impact statement for MVP Southgate on February 14, 2020, rather than December 19 of this year as previously proposed. FERC pointed to changes to the route and revised data for resource impact, filed October 23, in explaining the extension. "Because the supplemental information needs further review and required an additional notice to the landowners affected by the route changes, issued November 15 ... commission staff has revised the schedule for issuance of the final EIS," FERC said. In a July draft environmental impact statement, FERC staff found the project would have environmental impacts, but those would be reduced to less-than-significant levels through avoidance, minimization and mitigation (CP19-14). The report drew objections from environmental groups, concerns about data gaps from the Fish and Wildlife Service and a request from the Environmental Protection Agency that FERC study an alternative route in North Carolina. Developers of two other pipelines, Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line, also touted their ability to offer alternatives that might reduce environmental impacts. The MVP-Southgate project is supported by a 300,000 Dt/d firm contract with the utility Dominion Energy North Carolina, formerly PSNC Energy. The project is targeting in-service in 2021, extended from the November 1, 2020, date listed in its initial application at FERC. The larger, 303-mile, 2 Bcf/d MVP project in October pushed back its in-service target in late 2020 and bumped up its cost estimate to a range of $5.3 billion to $5.5 billion. That project has been targeted by legal challenges to its non-FERC permits, and most recently faced a 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals stay involving its Endangered Species Act authorizations.
SUPREME COURT: Atlantic Coast pipeline arguments set for February -- Wednesday, November 27, 2019 -- Supreme Court justices are set to hear oral arguments in a high-profile legal dispute over the Atlantic Coast pipeline early next year.
Expanding pipeline industry in Louisiana- The pipeline industry is prominent here in the state and quickly expanding.According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are 20 natural gas pipeline projects queued up in Louisiana. Seven projects completed construction this year.The map of Louisiana is covered with pipelines. “Our chancellor says that it looks like a spaghetti bowl because there are pipeline running everywhere because we have both liquid and gas pipelines running through the state,” said David Hayes, director of workforce solutions at SOWELA Technical Community College.SOWELA is starting a Pipeline Training Academy to train high-school students in foundational skills, those that want to enter the industry, and those that want to move higher that are already in the industry.“There’s nothing really in the area that is training people for the pipeline industry," Hayes said. "There’s a few smaller things that happen in Houston that I’m aware of but nothing that is a true program or academy like this that will have the impact that we hope this one has.” The academy will have certification programs in more than just pipeline construction, it will also provide certification in operation and management. The curriculum will also focus on more than just natural gas, but water and other aspects of the pipeline industry.
OFFSHORE DRILLING: BOEM rejects $4.4M in leases after critical federal report -- Wednesday, November 27, 2019 -- The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) rejected $4.4 million worth of oil and gas industry bids to potentially drill in the Gulf of Mexico from a recent auction that otherwise netted $155 million.
Congressman Higgins says Fed has helped the oil and gas industry, now it’s Louisiana’s turn — Federal agencies are making changes to bring more oil and gas jobs to the Louisiana coast, but U.S. Representative for Louisiana’s 3rd District Clay Higgins said the Bayou State could miss out unless Baton Rouge takes action as well. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management released a report indicating the Gulf of Mexico will now be treated as two separate provinces: shallow water and deep water. To increase drilling, those investing in shallow water reservoirs will get a higher return on investments and their applications will be considered on a per-project basis. In 2018, 97 platforms abandoned the continental shelf while zero new ones were constructed, but with federal reform and new tech which can locate previously untapped resources, Congressman Higgins said there is potential to reverse the trend. “There’s a tremendous opportunity,” U.S. Representative Higgins told News 10. “We have done everything possible at the federal level to create this opportunity, and we need a little help from Baton Rouge.” Congressman Clay Higgins said he is confident BSEE’s plan to make drilling in the Gulf of Mexico more profitable will work, “The prospect of new projects coming to the gulf in Louisiana is much greater now then it was two weeks ago.”
Commonwealth LNG lands supply deal for one-third of proposed production - The proposed Commonwealth LNG export terminal in southwest Louisiana has landed a marketing and supply deal that will account for more than a third of the facility's planned production. In a Monday morning statement, the Houston liquefied natural gas company announced a deal with Gunvor, a global LNG marketing and trading firm headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Commonwealth LNG is seeking permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to build a brand new liquefied natural gas export terminal at the mouth of the Calcasieu Ship Channel along the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. Under the deal, Gunvor will take 3 million metric tons of production from the plant and help Commonwealth LNG land contracts to sell the rest of the facility's production on the global market. Business: Four approved LNG projects to bring billions to South Texas Commonwealth LNG's application remains under review by FERC officials, who are not expected to make a permit decision until the first quarter of 2021. The company expected to make a final investment decision shortly thereafter and deliver its first shipments of LNG in second quarter of 2024. The announcement comes less than a week after FERC officials approved permits for four LNG export terminal projects in Texas. Although the four projects have obtained permits, they still need to land contracts for their production and secure financing for the multi-billion projects.
EDITORIAL: Gassed: LNG companies advance, official actions should start - Three companies that want to build liquefied natural gas export terminals cleared a major hurdle Thursday when they all received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC approval brings the sites closer to reality, although the companies are still at various stages in the permitting process with other agencies including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The companies propose to receive the LNG through pipelines and trucks, then load it onto tanker ships for worldwide distribution. Together they represent nearly $40 billion investment at the South Texas port. Final approval by all agencies isn’t assured and environmentalists and others opposed to the terminals have pledged to step up their fight against them. However, we note that most of the gas that moves through the local port would be shipped to fuel electrical plants worldwide, reducing the need to continue relying on coal- and oil-burning turbines that are greater polluters. LNG is around 16% cheaper than coal, saving users money, and it burns up to 60% cleaner than coal. Even if the ultimate goal is total reliance on renewable energy sources, LNG offers a viable bridge that can be used until technology and cost make that goal feasible. Locally, the terminals bring the promise of jobs. In addition to more than 1,000 total workers involved in the construction of the buildings and pipelines, together they promise to employ hundreds of permanent full-time workers, many, they say, earning salaries above $50,000.M
State permit for Texas LNG remains up in the air - Houston liquefied natural gas company Texas LNG landed a federal permit for its proposed export terminal at the Port of Brownsville but its state permit remains tied up in a legal process that may take at least another four months to sort out. After more than three years of review, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted Texas LNG a permit authorizing the plant to make up to 4 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year. Before construction can begin, the company must secure customers, financing and obtain permits from nearly a dozen state and federal agencies. But the company may not be able to obtain a state air pollution permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality until March. With the project facing opposition from the City of Port Isabel and residents from the nearby colonia of Laguna Heights, a panel of judges with the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings has been tasked with reviewing the state air pollution permit.The judges heard two days of testimony from both sides on Wednesday and Thursday. Attorneys for Texas LNG, Port Isabel and the colonia residents have until Dec. 10 to file their written closing arguments. Responses are due by Dec. 20. The judges have until Feb. 24th to make a ruling. Once a ruling has issued, their decision will be placed on the next TCEQ commissioners meeting, which would most in March at the earliest.
Evacuation Ordered After Apocalyptic Fireball Erupts Over Texas Town In Chemical Explosion - More details are emerging after a massive chemical explosion at a southeast Texas refinery in the early hours of Wednesday ripped through the plant and shattered windows across nearby residential areas of Port Neches, which lies about 90 miles east of Houston. People in homes that are miles away from the blast site reported windows, doors, and rooftops being blown out by the initial shock wave from the blast. All residents within a half mile of the burning chemical plant have been issued a mandatory evacuation order, and so far plant operator TPC said its more than 175 full-time employees and 50 contractors are all accounted for, though a handful were transported to the hospital for burns and other injuries, at least one in serious condition. Some of the eyewitness accounts of the chemical explosion collected by NBC News convey at atmosphere of confusion when the first blast occurred at about 1am, resulting in a blaze that overtook much of the plant.Currently the emergency is considered "ongoing" but response crews say they will soon bring it under control."Their doors were blown open... doorknobs themselves were shot across rooms," one resident said. "We didn't know what had exploded and what gasses were in the air," the woman said, and described a panic scramble of nearby residents to flee the area: "I've never seen the traffic like that ever." And another eyewitness identified as Omar Hamza described a "loud boom" and "bright flash" which was followed by a deafening explosion."We waited for a little bit and we kind of looked outside and everyone was running around and freaking out." He continued, "So we just grabbed the important stuff we needed — I left a note on the door and we left." Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick, who lives within the evacuation zone, described an apocalyptic scene where he initially thought they were under attack: Branick, who lives less than a mile away from the explosion site, said his wife thought someone was shooting at their home when she heard the blast. "I ran out with my pistol," the judge said, before he realized it was a refinery explosion.
Residents flee fourth major Texas petrochemical fire this year - (Reuters) - Three workers were injured and residents of four towns were told to evacuate after explosions on Wednesday at a Texas petrochemical plant, the latest in a series of chemical plant accidents in the region.An early morning blast at a TPC Group complex in Port Neches, Texas, was followed by a series of secondary explosions that shattered windows and blew locked doors off their hinges. About 60,000 people within a four-mile (6.4 km) radius of the facility were ordered to leave after a distillation column blew up about at 2 p.m. (2000 GMT) It was uncertain when residents would be able to return, Jefferson County chief executive Jeff Branick said. The explosion was reported by local media and other eyewitnesses. Branick ordered the departures on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday out of fear heat from the fire would ignite petrochemical tanks at the site. Firefighters were spraying water on the spherical tanks containing butane and other fuels to keep them cool, officials said. The mandatory evacuation covers Port Neches and Groves, and portions of nearby Nederland and Port Arthur, Texas, officials said. State police would patrol the communities to prevent looting, Branick said. The plant sits on a 218-acre (88.22-hectare) site located about 90 miles (145 km) east of Houston. It processes petrochemicals used to make synthetic rubber and resins, and a gasoline additive. TPC is nestled among several other chemical complexes that were not affected by the flames. Peyton Keith, a TPC spokesman, said fire officials were determined to let the fire in a butadiene processing unit burn itself out, and were attempting to keep the flames from spreading. He could not say when the fire could be extinguished. A smoky plume visible from miles (km) away released volatile organic compounds that can lead to eye, nose and throat irritation, shortness of breath, headaches and nausea, pollution regulator Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said.
Just One Week After Trump Rolled Back Safety Measures, Chemical Plant Explosion Rocks Texas Town - Concerns about air quality lingered Wednesday following a major early morning explosion at a chemical plant in Port Neches, Texas that shot a fireball into the sky. The disaster at the TPC Group-owned facility roughly 94 miles west of Houston took place a week after the Trump administration rolled back safety rules meant to protect workers and people who live near chemical plants. In light of the timing, Catherine Fraser, Environment Texas's clean air associate, called Wednesday's explosion "a timely warning that state and federal officials need to do more to keep communities safe." "It shook our house twice," Shawn Dunlap, who lives in neighboring Nederland, told NBC News. "It was just like a bomb going off." Twitter user @souljaslim52 put it another way: "shit blew tf up." According to a statement from TPC Group, the incident occurred at 1:00am local time. The company said it "cannot speak to the cause of the incident or the extent of damage." The Port Neches Police Department, in a statement posted to Facebook, said, "There's extensive damage throughout the city."Area residents reported damaged homes, with some suffering shattered glass and blown-off doors. Three workers at the plant also suffered minor injuries, the company said."Throughout the morning more booms could be heard in the area as firefighters attempted to control the blaze," reported Beaumont's KBMT.Local ABC affiliate KTRK reported that the chemical burning is butadiene, which the EPA classifies as carcinogenic.Environment Texas's Fraser, in her statement, pointed to the plant's history as cause for particular concern. "This facility has a track record of violating the Clean Air Act," she said, "with five other illegal emissions events just in 2019, emitting carcinogenic 1,3 butadiene and other chemicals, and a history of community complaints." "According to the EPA, the TPC Plant has been in non-compliance 12 separate quarters over the last 3 years, and has received 7 formal enforcement actions over the last 5 years. According to the TCEQ, the chemical of most concern is butadiene," Fraser continued. "The TPC plant emitted 61,379 pounds of butadiene in 2018. Butadiene is a known human carcinogen."
Second Explosion Seen At Burning TPC Plant In Texas - A second minor explosion erupted at the TPC Group chemicals plant that is ablaze after a fire broke out early Wednesday, the Grove Fire Department told Bloomberg.
Texas chemical fire rages for second day, thousands evacuated - Reuters (Reuters) - A major fire at a Texas petrochemical plant continued to burn for a second day on Thursday, with the 60,000 people forced to evacuate still uncertain as to whether they could return home in time to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. The fiery blast inside a distillation column at the Port Neches, Texas, TPC Group facility on Wednesday injured three workers, blew locked doors off their hinges and spewed a plume of toxic chemicals for miles (kilometers). The plant manufactures petrochemicals used to make rubber and resins, and the volatile organic compounds in the explosion’s smoke can lead to eye, nose and throat irritation, shortness of breath, headaches and nausea, the pollution regulator Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said. No impact to water was reported. The plant, 90 miles (145 km) east of Houston, has a long history of environmental violations and has been out of compliance with federal clean air laws for years, according to the Texas Tribune and state records; it was also declared a high priority violator by the Environmental Protection Agency. State agencies are monitoring air quality. Police are patrolling the evacuated communities to prevent looting. TPC spokesperson Sara Cronin said that it was uncertain when the fire would be extinguished or the chemicals burned off but pointed the public to the company’s emergency response website at www.portnechesresponse.com. The explosion was the fourth major petrochemical fire in the region this year.
Pipeline owner sues Texas over flaring - US midstream operator Williams is suing Texas regulators over an exemption it says will give oil producers a "blank check" to flare off associated natural gas whenever doing so would be profitable. The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas in the state, this summer gave US independent EXCO Resources a two-year exemption from the state's prohibition on flaring for 130 wells in the Eagle Ford basin. The company said it would have to shut in the wells, reducing recovery of oil, if it were unable to flare the gas. But Williams, which owns a gathering system that could service the wells by turning an existing valve, says regulators were incorrect that flaring is necessary. The pipeline operator, in a lawsuit filed last week, says the decision effectively guarantees an exemption to any operator requesting one and marks a shift from a state policy to ban flaring unless an operator shows it is a necessity. "This shift eviscerates the no-flaring rule and policy by effectively giving operators total discretion in deciding whether and how much to flare," Williams said in the lawsuit. Texas producers this year have been flaring record amounts of natural gas, as a shale oil boom generated massive amounts of associated gas with too few pipelines to carry it away. Flaring and venting in the Permian Basin, which straddles Texas and New Mexico, reached an all-time high of 661mn cf/d in the second quarter of 2019, according to the consulting company Rystad Energy. Williams had a gathering contract with the previous owner of the wells at issue in the lawsuit. But that agreement terminated in 2017, and EXCO and Williams have yet to reach a gathering agreement for the wells. The wells' owners said the pipeline gathering rates were uneconomic, resulting in the need to flare. Texas Railroad Commission member Ryan Sitton, in explaining his vote to support the exemption, said he did not want to "artificially force" the producer into a pipeline contract to avoid flaring gas worth $10,000/d when the wells at issue are producing $500,000/d of crude.
New study blames some fracking practices for Eagle Ford earthquakes - Earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing are more common in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas than previously thought, a new study reveals. Researchers with Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed more than 2,800 earthquakes recorded in the South Texas shale play between 2014 and 2018. In a recently published study, the researchers revealed that more than 2,400 of those earthquakes could be linked to hydraulic fracturing activity and that certain industry practices were more likely to trigger them. Earthquakes were twice as likely to happen when operators simultaneously injected fluids into multiple nearby wells compared to when they injected fluids into multiple wells one at a time, the researchers determined. Out of the 2,823 earthquakes analyzed in the study, only 121 of them registered above a magnitude 2.0 on the Richter Scale, which would have been strong enough to be felt by some close to the epicenter.The Miami University study was released a month after researchers with the University of Texas at Austin published a study that linked hydraulic fracturing to some earthquakes in the Permian Basin of West Texas.Previous studies blamed the shale play earthquakes on an industry practice of injecting oil field wastewater deep underground. Those studies prompted the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency that regulates the oil and natural gas industry, to enact stricter rules and regulations for saltwater disposal wells.Favoring regulations based on science, Texas Oil & Gas Association President Todd Staples said his organization created a committee that allows members to work with seismologists, geologists and regulators to address the issue of earthquakes.“The oil and natural gas industry is actively working to mitigate impact through recommended practices including pre-completion risk assessment, proper monitoring, and mitigation protocols," Staples said in a statement.
World Cracked Open: When Fracking Came to Town - “When I first bought my property, it was a dream come true, Sharon Wilson told WhoWhatWhy. “The air was beautiful and clean when we first moved out there and the sky was this gorgeous color of blue. I mean blue, not this washed out blue you see in the cities, but this vivid, electric blue.” What she didn’t realize four decades ago was that she was establishing her home next door to one of the nation’s first and most widespread experiments in fracking — cracking open the Barnett Shale. She didn’t know anything about mineral rights or threats to the environment. But when the trucks started moving in and the pollution started filling the air, she learned firsthand. Experts say the fracking process releases both methane — a greenhouse gas — and a multitude of hydrocarbons into the air. Hydrocarbons oxidize in the atmosphere in the presence of nitrogen oxide, forming ozone, also a greenhouse gas. Benzene, one of the hydrocarbons released, is a known carcinogen. In addition to emissions that come directly from fracking, scientists have evaluated indirect emissions from trucking huge amounts of water to sites, and transporting huge amounts of hydrocarbons away from the sites,” Gunnar Schade, a professor of geosciences at Texas A&M, explained. According to a study published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Global Public Health, fracking has been linked to increased heart problems, early births, high-risk pregnancy, certain types of cancer, asthma, migraine headaches, skin disorders, fatigue, and nasal and sinus symptoms. In Wise County, Wilson watched as fracking put an end to her quiet country lifestyle. “There was diesel from the rigs and soot from the flaring and horrible emissions. Eventually, my air turned brown and my water turned black.” “The polluted air was the worst,” said Wilson. “Because you can get clean water somewhere — it’s not ideal, but you can get it. You can’t get air.” This story is not unique. Wilson said she has corresponded with hundreds of people with similar stories, all having their lifestyles eroded by fracking. “You have this deep connection and caring for each other because you have gone through something traumatic. Because I’ve lived through it, I can help other people,” said Wilson. “I know exactly what it feels like to have your American dream, and then realize that your paradigm of America was false.”
Hill Country Landowners Say Kinder Morgan Is Lowballing Them. Special Courts Are Agreeing. - Kay Pence owns a ranch in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg. About a year ago, she got a call from the pipeline company Kinder Morgan. The caller told her the company planned to run a section of its 430-mile Permian Highway natural gas pipeline through her property. Pence didn’t like that.“This is going to sound overreactive, but you felt violated,” Pence says. “They have access to your property, and there was nothing you could do.”In Texas, pipeline companies have the power of eminent domain. That means they can take private land even if the landowner doesn’t want to sell. The company only needs to pay a fair price. Companies say this allows them to build the infrastructure necessary to move oil and gas. “You have property in the Hill Country that is fifth generation and their property is being cut in half,” Pence says. “Their property is ruined.” Now, as building starts on the pipeline, some landowners are rejecting Kinder Morgan’s offers and winning awards vastly greater through a legal process called a condemnation hearing. It’s a unique proceeding where three local volunteers appointed by a district judge hear arguments about the land's value and make a decision.In Pence’s case, an offer of $45,000 for a 3-acre strip of land turned into an award of $1.2 million after the hearing. In Blanco County, a landowner who was told by Kinder Morgan that his land was worth $20,000 was awarded $1.3 million. Another landowner in Gillespie County turned an offer of $85,000 into an $11 million award.Kinder Morgan has appealed some of the awards. But pipeline opponents are pointing to the results of these hearings as evidence the company is undervaluing Hill Country land. Some also see this as proof the company is messing with the wrong small towns.
Seaway Sets Open Season for Expansion - Seaway Crude Pipeline Co. LLC on Monday unveiled plans for a binding open season for customers to commit to expansion capacity on its pipeline extending from Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf Coast. According to a written statement from the 50/50 joint venture (JV) owned by Enterprise Products Partners L.P. and Enbridge Inc., the open season will run from 9 a.m. Central time on Dec. 16, 2019, to 5 p.m. Central on Feb. 14, 2020. Seaway links to an integrated network of pipelines, storage facilities and export terminals along the Gulf Coast and connects to every refinery in the Houston, Freeport, Texas City and Beaumont/Port Arthur areas, the JV noted. The expansion – announced in October – reportedly would add 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) or more of light crude capacity to the Seaway system, primarily through pump upgrades. Moreover, the JV stated the expansion could include further quality enhancements to segregate heavy and light crude oil shipments. Seaway noted that up to 100,000 bpd of initial light crude expansion capacity could be available as soon as the second half of 2020, with the remainder of the expansion implemented in 2022. The JV, which will determine the final capacity for committed and uncommitted service during the open season, added that its fee schedule starts at 99 cents per barrel for light crude transportation from Cushing. Factors affecting fees include volume, destination and term.
OKLAHOMA: 'Flowback' — a new cause of oil-driven earthquakes? -- Two earthquakes that shook Oklahoma on Sunday evening may be part of a new trend — shaking that's neither natural, linked to oil field disposal nor linked to hydraulic fracturing.
Evers signs bill making it a felony to trespass on pipelines (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers has signed into law a bipartisan proposal making it a felony to trespass or damage oil or gas pipelines in Wisconsin. Evers signed the measure Wednesday, despite complaints from opponents that it would violate free speech rights and disproportionately affect American Indians whose lands are often affected by pipeline projects. Evers says even though he signed the measure, he wanted to reaffirm that tribal nations “deserve to have a voice in the policies and legislation that affect indigenous persons and our state.” The new law builds upon a 2015 state law that made it a felony to intentionally trespass or cause damage to the property of an energy provider. The bill Evers signed expands the definition of energy provider to include oil and gas pipelines, renewable fuel, and chemical and water infrastructure. The Wisconsin measure has broad support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and numerous organizations..
Pipeline protester arrested during northwestern Minnesota incident – — An environmental protest on Monday at an Enbridge Energy terminal in northwestern Minnesota resulted in one arrest. Sara-Beth Anderson, 21 of Minneapolis, was arrested on the charge of trespassing on a critical public service facility. The protesters tied three large poles together to form a tripod structure. Anderson then suspended herself from the top of it, hanging above the ground. Clearwater County Sheriff Derin Halverson said they first received word of the Clearbrook protest around 7:30 a.m. Monday. He said it continued until approximately noon. A press release from Enbridge indicated although the demonstration delayed some employees from arriving to work, “the terminal continued to safely operate without interruption.” Anderson released a statement before her arrest, explaining her reasons for protesting in front of the oil pipeline terminal. “I am a diver and love the ocean with all of my heart. The destruction of the sacred is happening because of these terrible decisions to keep extracting, to keep harming the earth despite what climate science has told the world’s leaders,” her statement said in part. Although Anderson eventually lowered herself to the ground, it was not before law enforcement called in assistance from the Beltrami County sheriff’s office to help remove her, Halverson said. Tara Houska, a member of the environmental organization Ginew, was one of the people at the protest. Houska said Anderson lowered herself when officials began cutting through the poles of the tripod. Houska said although there was an ambulance on scene, Anderson likely could have been injured from the fall. “It was a very tense moment … It was incredibly dangerous,” Houska said of the officials’ decision to cut through the poles. “That was the reason she lowered herself; she felt unsafe.”
Keystone XL: police discussed stopping anti-pipeline activists 'by any means' - US law enforcement officials preparing for fresh Keystone XL pipeline protests have privately discussed tactics to stop activists “by any means” and have labeled demonstrators potential “domestic terrorism” threats, records reveal. Internal government documents seen by the Guardian show that police and local authorities in Montana and the surrounding region have been preparing a coordinated response in the event of a new wave of protests opposing the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canada to Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Civil rights organizations say the documents raise concerns that law enforcement is preparing to launch an even more brutal and aggressive response than the police tactics utilized during the 2016 Standing Rock movement, which drew thousands of indigenous and environmental activistsopposed to the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) to North Dakota. At Standing Rock, law enforcement organized repeated rounds of mass arrests and filed a wide array of serious charges in local and federal courts against activists. Police also deployed water cannons, teargas grenades, bean bag rounds and other weapons, causing serious injuries toprotesters. The documents are mostly emails from 2017 and 2018 between local and federal authorities discussing possible Keystone protests. They show that police officials are anticipating construction will spark a sustained resistance campaign akin to the one at Standing Rock and that police are considering closing public lands near the pipeline project. The new records have come to light as the Keystone pipeline project hasovercome numerous legal hurdles with help from the Trump administration, and as the project’s owner, TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), is moving forward with initial construction efforts. Among the major revelations in the documents:
- Officials at a 2017 law enforcement briefing on potential Keystone XL protests said one key tactic would be to “initially deny access to the property by protestors and keep them as far away [from] the contested locations as possible by any means”, according to an email summary from a US army corps of engineers security manager in Nebraska in July 2017.
- Officials with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said in 2017 that the bureau had 10 armed officers in Montana and was prepared to “work with local [law enforcement] to deny access to federal property”. In 2018, army corps officials were also in discussions with the Montana disaster and emergency services department to discuss ways to “close access” to lands near the pipeline route, including areas typically open for hunting and other activities.
- A “joint terrorism task force” involving the US attorney’s office and other agencies, along with federal “counterterrorism” officials, said it was prepared to assist in the response to protests and a “critical incident response team” would be available for “domestic terrorism or threats to critical infrastructure”. Authorities have also pre-emptively discussed specific potential felony charges that protesters could face, noting that a “civil disorder” statute was used to prosecute activists at Standing Rock.
- Authorities have been preparing for possible protests in the Fort Peck area,home to a Native American reservation and indigenous people opposing the project.
“There is a lot of muscle behind this effort to make sure that Keystone is constructed,” said Alex Rate, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, which obtained the documents through records act requests and shared them with the Guardian. “There are historically marginalized communities, primarily indigenous folks, who have grave concerns about the impact of this pipeline on their sovereignty, their resources, their religion and culture. They have a first amendment right to assemble and make their viewpoints heard.”
Oil giant confirms sale of its Colorado oil and gas acreage to Crestone Peak Resources - One of the biggest international oil giants is selling its oil and gas lease rights at the northeast edge of the metro area in a deal poised to make Denver-basedCrestone Peak Resources much bigger. Houston-based ConocoPhillips Co. said Tuesday that it has negotiated the deal.“We can confirm we are working towards a transaction with Crestone Peak Resources to sell our Niobrara assets and will continue to operate the assets until a transaction is complete. Beyond this, we won’t comment,” said Rachel David, a spokeswoman for ConocoPhillips’ Lower 48 oil and gas business. Niobrara refers to geological formation that’s most sought after for unconventional oil and gas development in northeast Colorado.Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.Crestone Peak revealed Monday that it had struck a deal to buy 97,000 acres of oil and gas lease rights in Adams and Arapahoe counties and in the city of Aurora, nearly tripling the company’s size in the southern Denver-Julesburg Basin.The deal includes the Lowry Range, a former military bombing range east of Aurora, and some ConocoPhillips acreage in northern Douglas and Elbert counties, too.The company is going through due diligence on the purchase and expects the acquisition to close in early 2020, it said.Crestone Peak would have a total of 148,000 acres on which to drill and operate oil and gas wells.Crestone Peak didn’t identify the seller of the territory it’s acquiring. It mentioned that the Aurora acreage it’s buying is covered by an operator’s agreement with the city, something only a couple companies have in place.ConocoPhillips’ online profile of its Colorado operations said it holds about 100,000 acres of leased rights, and that it employs about 160 people based from an office in the town of Watkins. The company, and its predecessor Burlington Resources Oil and Gas, have operated in the area for years. ConocoPhillips acquired Burlington Resources Oil and Gas in 2006.
Fracking workers exposed to dangerous amounts of benzene, study says - Some workers at oil and gas sites where fracking occurs are routinely exposed to high levels of benzene, a colorless gas that can cause cancer, according to a study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.The agency, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends that people limit their benzene exposure to an average of 0.1 of a part per million during their shift. But when NIOSH researchers measured the amount of airborne benzene that oil and gas workers were exposed to when they opened hatches atop tanks at well sites, 15 out of 17 samples were over that amount.Workers must open these hatches to inspect the contents of these tanks, which could include oil, waste water or chemicals used in high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The real-time readings taken by researchers show that benzene levels at the wells “reached concentrations that, depending on the length of exposure, potentially pose health risks for workers,” the researchers reported in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. Researchers visited six oil and gas sites in Colorado and Wyoming in the spring and summer of 2013, spending about two days at each site. They outfitted 16 workers at flowback tanks with small devices attached to their shirt collars that sampled the air throughout the day. The key measurements were taken when these workers were standing above the hatch.Over the course of a 12-hour shift, workers open the hatches and stand above them one to four times per hour, breathing in the fumes for two to five minutes each time. This could add up to dangerous levels of exposure to various volatile organic compounds from the chemicals used in fracking, or from the hydrocarbons themselves.Benzene, a component of crude oil, “is of major concern because it can be acutely toxic to the nervous system, liver, and kidneys at high concentrations,” the study authors wrote. As the CDC explains, benzene interferes with the normal workings of cells.
State Finds Elevated Benzene Level at Fracking Site Near Greeley School - For years, Greeley's Bella Romero Academy has served as a rallying cry for anti-fracking activists who say the elementary school, located about 1,200 feet from an oil and gas site where drilling operations began in 2018, had become a symbol of everything wrong with Colorado's neighborhood fracking boom. Now, state officials have confirmed the results of air-monitoring tests that activists say heighten their concerns about the site's potential health hazards.A mobile air-monitoring unit deployed to Bella Romero earlier this month recorded benzene levels at 10.24 parts per billion (ppb), exceeding the federal short-term health guideline of 9 ppb, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said today, November 25."The state health department does not believe people were harmed by this single elevated measurement but is taking swift action to investigate the cause of the elevated level and conduct additional monitoring," read the department's press release, noting that the mobile lab recorded only one elevated benzene reading in an 85-day test period. The Bella Romero air-monitoring tests come as the state ramps up its efforts to evaluate the health impacts of oil and gas activity following therelease of a long-awaited air-quality modeling study last month. That report found the potential for short-term effects from drilling sites at distances up to 2,000 feet, well in excess of current statewide "setback" minimums, and specifically identified benzene, a toxic chemical that can cause a wide variety of short- and long-term health problems, as a top concern.Following last week's test results, Colorado health officials say they're "conducting an investigation of nearby oil and gas activities on the day of the high reading." The state's air-monitoring unit will return to Bella Romero to conduct additional tests, and will report any additional elevated benzene measurements "as soon as data can be validated."
Shale Slowdown Continues As Oil Rig Count Falls Again - The US oil and gas rig count continued to fall this week, according to Baker Hughes, falling by 1 rig for the week.For oil rigs, this week marks the thirteenth decrease out of the last fifteen weeks, falling 102 rigs in that timeframe.The total oil and gas rig count now stands at 802, or 274 down from this time last year.The total number of active oil rigs in the United States decreased by 3 according to the report, reaching 668. The number of active gas rigs increased by 2, settling at 131 for the second week. By state, Texas has seen a drop of 126 year on year, while Oklahoma sunk by 94 to hit 51 rigs.Even though the number of oil rigs has declined by 209 this year alone, production has grown from 11.7 million bpd at the beginning of the year to an all-time high of12.9 million bpd—another brand new high for the United States.Oil prices were down on Friday ahead of the data, with WTI at 1:42 pm at $57.86 per barrel (-$0.55), which is flat from last week. Brent was trading down at $62.76 (-$0.45), which is $0.50 under last week's figures.Canada’s overall rig count decreased this week, with oil and gas rigs falling by 11, after last week’s 3-rig increase. Oil and gas rigs in Canada now stand at 126, down 73 year on year. At 7 minutes past the hour, WTI was trading at $57.85 and Brent was trading at $63.35.
Dunn County produced water spill far exceeds initial report - A pipeline that leaked produced water in Dunn County last month released far more of the brine than originally estimated, a state agency said Friday, Nov. 22. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality announced that it had received an updated estimate on a Marathon Oil produced water spill about a mile and a half northeast of Manning on Oct. 2. According to an investigation into the incident, 32,826 barrels, or 1,378,692 gallons, were discharged. Marathon’s initial estimates indicated that roughly 500 barrels, or 21,000 gallons, were discharged. “We got out to the site and when we looked at it, everyone kind of knew it’d be bigger than (Marathon) initially estimated,” Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the state agency, told The Press on Friday. “They based their calculations on the surface impact they saw at the time, but with just the concentration we had seen in the stock pond, we knew it was going to be bigger — we just didn’t know how big.” As for the discrepancy in Marathon Oil’s estimates for the volume of the spill, Suess claims that, given that the pipeline was buried and that produced water spills are often harder to detect than crude oil, since most of the effects are subsurface, there is no way that Marathon could have been definitive that early in the investigation. The spill site is near a small creek flowing into the Knife River about a mile downstream of a stock pond. No impacts have been detected in the Knife River, the Department of Environmental Quality said in a news release. Produced water is a toxic and often hard to detect natural byproduct of crude oil extraction. “I’d rather deal with a crude oil spill on land, than a salt water spill,” Suess said.
Newsom freezes new fracking permits, but oil drilling permits outpace 2018 - The FracTracker Alliance and Consumer Watchdog unveiled a new website on November 19 to continually map and update the number of oil and gas wells permitted by the Newsom Administration: http://www.NewsomWellWatch.com. “The pace of permitting overall is still on track to beat the total number of permits issued during Brown’s final year in office (2018). The number of drilling and rework permits issued in the first ten months of 2019 through November 4 total 4,049. In the same period of 2018, under Governor Brown, the total was 3,723,” the groups stated. On November 19, Governor Gavin Newsom froze the approval of new fracking permits as a scientific study of fracking is conducted, but the total number of permits approved under the Newsom Administration still outpace those approved under Jerry Brown in 2018.State oil and gas regulators have not issued a new permit for fracking or acidizing in California since mid-July and have slowed the overall rate of permitting oil wells. Yet public interest groups Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance point out that regulators have granted oil permits at a pace that is 8.8% greater in the first ten months of 2019 than in the same period last year under Governor Jerry Brown, based on an analysis of state data.Three actions were announced by Newsom and the Department of Conservation’s Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR):
1. A halt of approvals of new oil extraction wells that use high-pressure steam to break oil formations below the ground, a process linked to recent oil leaks in Kern County.
2. Rules for public health and safety protections near oil and gas extraction facilities will be updated and strengthened.
3. Pending applications to conduct hydraulic fracturing and other well stimulation practices will be independently reviewed.
“These are necessary steps to strengthen oversight of oil and gas extraction as we phase out our dependence on fossil fuels and focus on clean energy sources,” said Governor Newsom. “This transition cannot happen overnight; it must advance in a deliberate way to protect people, our environment, and our economy.”
Fracking Blows Up Investors Again- Phase 2 Of The Great American Shale Oil & Gas Bust - Wolf Richter - In 2019 through third quarter, 32 oil and gas drillers have filed for bankruptcy, according to Haynes and Boone. Since the end of September, a gaggle of other oil and gas drillers have filed for bankruptcy, including last Monday, natural gas producer Approach Resources. This pushed the total number of bankruptcy filings of oil and gas drillers since the beginning of 2015 to over 200. Other drillers, such as Chesapeake Energy, are jostling for position at the filing counter. Chesapeake has been burning cash ever since it started fracking. To feed its cash-burn machine, it has borrowed large amounts and has been buckling under its debt for years, selling assets to raise cash and keep drilling for another day. But its debt is still nearly $10 billion. Its shares closed on Friday at 59 cents. On November 5, in an SEC filing, it warned of its own demise unless oil and gas prices surge into the sky asap: “If continued depressed prices persist, combined with the scheduled reductions in the leverage ratio covenant, our ability to comply with the leverage ratio covenant during the next 12 months will be adversely affected which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.” Other exploration and production (E&P) companies have seen their shares get crushed as reality began to re-set in. Whiting Petroleum shares [WLL] had spiked to $370 in August 2014, when the oil bust was setting in. By the trough of Phase 1 of the oil bust, in February 2016, its shares had plunged to $14. Then new money started flowing into the sector, and its shares rallied to $55 by August last year. Then Phase 2 of the oil bust set in, and after some disastrous earnings reports, its shares closed on Friday at $5.34. In June 2018, Whiting sold $1 billion of callable senior unsecured bonds, with a coupon of 6.625%. The next call date is in October 2025. Through September 2018, the notes were trading at 103-104 cents on the dollar. Then Phase 2 of the oil bust took its toll. On Friday, the bonds closed at 57.8 cents on the dollar, at a yield of 18.375% (via FINRA’s TRACE): The S&P U.S. High Yield Corporate Distressed Bond Index tracks bonds that trade at a yield that is at least 10 percentage points higher than the equivalent Treasury yield (“Option Adjusted Spread” of 1,000 basis points). Chesapeake’s bond illustrated above, trading at 21%, and Whiting’s bond trading at 18.375% qualify for this index with flying colors. Of the 182 constituents in the index, many are energy bonds. Since November 2018, the index has plunged by 28%:
Icahn to Seek Control of Oxy Board-- Carl Icahn plans to nominate a slate of 10 directors in an attempt to seize control of the board of U.S. oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. The billionaire investor, who owns a stake in the company valued at about $1 billion, plans to make his move before the Nov. 29 deadline for nominations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. A representative for Icahn declined to comment, while a representative for Occidental wasn’t immediately available for comment. Icahn has been a vocal critic of the company -- and Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub in particular -- over its $37 billion takeover of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. completed in August. He has attacked the lack of a shareholder vote and the pricey $10 billion financing the company obtained from Warren Buffett to get the deal done. Occidental’s stock has slumped 41% since its interest in Anadarko was first reported in April, wiping out about $15 billion of shareholder value. The company is the seventh-worst performer in the S&P 500 index this year. In a Nov. 8 letter explaining his decision to launch a proxy fight, Icahn said the merger made “no sense” to anyone other than Hollub and certain members of the board, who he said “grossly overpaid” for Anadarko to avoid becoming a takeover target themselves. Icahn has argued Occidental should launch a strategic review, including a potential sale of the combined company, once the Anadarko deal was completed. “I believe it has become apparent — perhaps to everyone except Hollub and her board — that OXY’s massive Anadarko gamble is seriously jeopardizing the company’s future value,” Icahn said in the letter, referring to Occidental by its stock symbol. Houston-based Occidental said this month it plans to cut spending by 40% next year and accelerate asset sales in order to pay down debt and protect its dividend, both of which Hollub described as her “top priorities.” The company said it’s on track to exceed the upper end of its $10 billion to $15 billion asset plan by the middle of 2020, six months ahead of schedule.
Global oil consumption remains sluggish - (Reuters) - Global oil consumption has apparently accelerated since mid-year as lower prices filter through the supply chain, increasing demand and avoiding a big increase in inventories. But all may not be as it seems. Much of the growth has come from China, where reported consumption is rising at rates inconsistent with the country’s slumping auto sales and slowing economy. China’s fuel distributors and consumers have most likely taken advantage of lower prices to boost the amount of products held at fuel depots and in end-user tanks before prices rise again. If that is the case, much of the increase can be accounted for by a one-time shift in the location of stocks rather than a sustainable increase in consumption and it will likely unwind if prices rise again next year (https://tmsnrt.rs/2XP8U7d). Consumption in the rest of the world remains sluggish, according to the latest government figures reported to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI). The world’s top 18 consuming countries, each using more than 1 million barrels per day, reported a rise in consumption of 1.6% in the three months from June to August compared with the same period a year earlier. That was the fastest rate since the start of the year and a marked turnaround from the small year-on-year decline in the three months between March and May. But China's reported surge in consumption of almost 13% year-on-year in June-August -- among the fastest rates of the last eight years -- is flattering the figures and hard to square with the country's economic backdrop. Excluding China, consumption in the other top-17 countries was down 0.9% in the three months from June to August compared with a year ago, an improvement on a few months ago, but still weak. The flat or falling consumption trend in the rest of the world is consistent with the decline in global freight movements and the decline in global manufacturing activity reported in business surveys.
Freezing in the dark could happen in that place that doesn't believe in our petroleum - “Let them freeze in the dark” is an old saying that got a lot of play in late November, as famously anti-pipeline, anti-oil, pro-equalization Quebec said on Nov. 21 it was within days of running out of propane due to the Canadian National Railway strike. A few days later, it was announced a train was expected by Nov. 25 which would tide the province over for a few more days. On Nov. 24, Pembina announced it was essentially coming to the rescue, stating in a press release, “Pembina is preparing unit trains, comprising up to 105 cars, with propane sourced from Western Canada, by Canadian producers at Pembina's Redwater, Alberta, facility. Pembina's facility is the only one in Canada capable of amassing these quantities of propane and building such unit trains.” Where do you use propane? Basically, wherever you need a flame and there is a lack of natural gas infrastructure. In other words, no pipelines. This includes remote communities, farmers drying grain, your barbecue in the backyard or the one you take to the lake. A few years ago, my dad converted his house on the farm from fuel oil (essentially diesel) to propane heat, resulting in a tremendous cost savings.But I’ve also learned that sometimes propane is used to supplement natural gas supplies, where either there’s insufficient pressure or insufficient energy from the natural gas by itself. In these cases, propane is used in a mixed-fuel scenario.There’s not a lot of pipe moving propane to Central Canada. There once was a dedicated pipeline which carried propane from Alberta to central Canada, the Cochin Pipeline. Kinder Morgan owns it, but is in the process of selling it to Pembina. In March 2014, the direction of flow on the segment of the Cochin Pipeline from Kankakee, Illinois, to Fort Saskatchewan was reversed to transport condensate westbound. The eastern portion of that pipeline system now delivers ethane from Ohio to Windsor. Enbridge’s Line 1 takes NLGs to Superior, Wisc., and then its Line 5 takes NGLs from there to Sarnia, Ont. These days, most propane, at least from Saskatchewan, is shipped by rail, with the rest by truck. A lot goes through the rail terminal at Northgate, on the U.S. border. This whole supposed crisis in Quebec leaves some interesting questions. How does a province run so dangerously low of a critical fuel supply like propane? Was it the increased consumption by farmers trying to dry grain there, as well as on the Prairies? Or was there some sort of market failure? And if it was, how and when did the government of Quebec step in? Why should governments have to ration supplies?
Unpaid Bills in Mexico Oil Patch Add to Pemex Troubles - Companies that help keep Mexico’s faltering oil wells operating are waiting months to get paid and the debts are building up, complicating efforts to revive an industry whose production has plunged by half since 2004. Petroleos Mexicanos, facing pressure from the government to slow spending, has delayed some payments to contractors for as long as seven months. The result: goods and services are becoming scarcer and contractors are finding it tougher to secure financing of their own. “Investors and credit ratings agencies don’t have confidence in what Pemex is doing in the sector,” said Sergio Suarez Toriello, director of strategy at Marinsa de Mexico, which does contract work for Pemex. “So this is the biggest risk for suppliers: Getting access to resources and financing for working capital and investment.” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is pushing to end the year with a government-wide surplus, and that effort has slowed payments from Pemex, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The president has previously pledged to rescue Pemex from its debilitating debt and long-term production declines. Pemex faces about $100 billion in debt, the most of any major oil producer. Pemex owes Marinsa, which provides marine services for Mexico’s offshore drilling platforms, 155 million pesos ($8 million), according to Suarez Toriello. The company has been waiting seven months for about 47 million pesos of that debt from logistics contracts, he said. The remaining amount has been in arrears for about three to four months. Marinsa isn’t alone. Another international service supplier with an established presence in Mexico is facing delays of more than three months on its payments, said a person familiar with the finances who asked not to be named because the information is private.
Exclusive: Facing U.S. sanctions, Venezuela offers suppliers payment in Chinese yuan - sources - (Reuters) - Venezuela’s government and its oil company PDVSA have offered to pay suppliers and contractors into accounts in China using the yuan currency, five people familiar with the matter said. The move made in recent months is the latest example of how Caracas has sought new ways of making international payments since sweeping sanctions by Washington, intended to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro, cut off the country’s access to the U.S. financial system. Officials have made the proposal verbally to at least four companies that provide services to the public sector, said the people, including two government officials and three sources from private companies in the financial or oil sectors. The individuals declined to disclose which companies have been approached. The companies are evaluating the proposal, the sources said. Reuters could not determine whether any such payments in yuan have been made. China’s central bank, the Peoples’ Bank of China, did not respond to a faxed request for comment. PDVSA, Venezuela’s central bank, and Venezuela’s information ministry did not respond to requests for comment. Venezuelan public entities have traditionally paid private sector partners in the local bolivar currency or U.S. dollars. But hyperinflation and U.S. sanctions, which prohibit American companies from doing business with Venezuela’s public sector, are complicating those methods.
Two Injured in Offshore Explosion - Two Equinor employees were injured when a portable nitrogen gas bottle exploded on board the Heimdal platform in the North Sea on Thursday November 28. The two injured employees, a man (22) and a woman (19), were taken care of by health personnel on board Heimdal and were transported to Haukeland University Hospital and Stavanger University Hospital. Their injuries are not life-threatening. “This is a serious work-related incident that has strongly affected all of us. Our main priority now is to keep following up and supporting our injured personnel and their next-of-kin. Their colleagues on Heimdal, where the incident occurred, are also being taken care of and we have sent extra personnel offshore to support them,” says Arne Sigve Nylund, executive vice president for Development and Production Norway. There were 70 personnel on board the platform when the incident occurred. It is too early to say something about the cause of the incident, says Equinor. The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway and the police have travelled to the platform to start their investigations. “We have also initiated an internal investigation, and we are helping the police and other relevant authorities carry out their investigations in the best possible way,” says Nylund. He adds that a controlled production shutdown on Heimdal is planned.
North Sea Oil Is Doomed With Or Without Brexit Authored - The uncertainty of the future of Brexit has left the United Kingdom’s economy in stagnation as business investment falters on the eve of the nation’s December general election. “British business investment has fallen 1.1 percent since the June 2016 Brexit referendum, and analysts warn that it could cause long-term damage to the economy,” according to reporting from Al Jazeera this week. The Al Jazeera report continues, “the International Monetary Fund says China-US trade tensions are hurting investment globally. But Brexit uncertainty threatens to turn the UK problem into a crisis.” The crisis is already beginning, as weak investment patterns have already make the UK’s economy too at risk for inflation for the central bank to be able to stimulate it by cutting interest rates, according to a representative from the Bank of England. All of this will have major implications for the oil industry in the UK’s North Sea, from the obvious impacts of economic slowdown on the domestic energy sector to the added uncertainty of Scotland potentially splitting off from the UK to stay in the European Union. If Scotland does decide to break away from the UK definitively, it would make major waves in the North Sea drilling industry (pun most definitely intended). In the extremely possible scenario of an independent Scotland, if operating costs or ease become compromised or complicated, it is likely that many North Sea oil producers would very soon opt to take their business elsewhere. Back when this concern first surfaced in 2016, CEO of oil and gas company Petroplan Andrew Speers told CNBC that “Many of the operators and service companies [in the North Sea] with Scottish operations are global by nature and the most important thing is Scotland remains an easy and profitable place to do business.” At the same time, however, there were some experts that speculated that the opposite could be true, and that an economic slowdown could ultimately be a boon for UK oil producers thanks to a deflated pound sterling. “For those in the U.K. and those producing oil in the U.K. North Sea, the weaker U.K. currency will reduce costs because operating costs are paid in pounds but the product (oil) is sold in U.S. dollars,” IHS Energy director Spencer Welch told CNBC. These concerns and hopes are still as valid now as they were in 2016, as Brexit still hangs in the bureaucratic balance.
Crude oil from Brazil spill washes up on a beach in Rio de Janeiro - The Brazilian Navy says it has found small bits of crude oil on a beach in Rio de Janeiro state, the 11th state to be affected by a mysterious and massive oil spill. Authorities reported Saturday finding very small quantities of the black tar -300 grams- but its arrival on a beach in the highly touristic state of Rio is symbolic. The Navy confirmed the oil collected Friday was "compatible" with that found in other states. Authorities have retrieved more than 4,000 tons of oil thus far. The thick, viscous substance first showed up early September and has since polluted more than 720 beaches, rivers and mangroves, hurting fishing and tourism. Authorities have described the spill as one of the country's worst environmental disasters and say more might be coming.
Oil from spill in Brazil washes up in Rio state -- Oil from a spill that has contaminated a stretch of Brazil's coast was detected in Rio de Janeiro state, the navy said Saturday, as President Jair Bolsonaro warned the country was preparing for the worst. Some 300 grams—a small quantity of oil—were found far from the region's most famous beaches, in the sand in the town of Sao Joao da Barra, as the spill moves southward. The town is located about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's tourism capital, and far from the state's most emblematic beaches such as Copacabana. On Saturday, Bolsonaro said that "we still don't know how much oil is left in the sea." "In the worst case, if an oil tanker unloaded all of its cargo into the sea, less than 10 percent has reached our shores, which is why we are preparing for the worst," Patches of oil have turned up along a 2,000-kilometer stretch of Atlantic coastline, after oil started tarnishing beaches in Paraiba state in late August. It has since spread dramatically and reached Espirito Santo state, which neighbors Rio. Brazil's environmental protection agency Ibama has identified more than 700 locations where the coast has been contaminated. Workers and volunteers wearing rubber gloves are racing against time to clear beaches ahead of the country's peak tourism season. According to the Navy, more than 4,500 tons of oil has been removed and more than 5,000 soldiers mobilized for cleaning operations. The spill has proven deadly for dozens of types of animals, including turtles, and has also reached a humpback whale sanctuary off Bahia state, which has some of the country's richest biodiversity. Early this month, the government named a Greek-flagged tanker as the "prime suspect" for being the source of the oil slicks. The ship, "Bouboulina," took on oil in Venezuela and was headed for Singapore, it said. The tanker's operators have denied the vessel was to blame.
Brazilian oil spill keeps advancing and has reached the north of Rio do Janeiro state - Oil from a spill that has contaminated a stretch of Brazil's coast was detected in Rio de Janeiro state, the navy said over the weekend, as President Jair Bolsonaro warned the country was preparing for the worst. Some 300g - a small quantity of oil - were found far from the region's most famous beaches, in the sand in the town of Sao Joao da Barra, as the spill moves southward. The town is located about 300km north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's tourism capital, and far from the state's most emblematic beaches such as Copacabana. “The samples analyzed are compatible with the oil found on the northeast coast,” the navy said in a statement. On Saturday, Bolsonaro said that “we still don't know how much oil is left in the sea.” “In the worst case, if an oil tanker unloaded all of its cargo into the sea, less than 10 percent has reached our shores, which is why we are preparing for the worst,” he said, speaking outside a military ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. Patches of oil have turned up along a 2,000km stretch of Atlantic coastline, after oil started tarnishing beaches in Paraiba state in late August. It has since spread dramatically and reached Espirito Santo state, which neighbors Rio. Brazil's environmental protection agency Ibama has identified more than 700 locations where the coast has been contaminated. Workers and volunteers wearing rubber gloves are racing against time to clear beaches ahead of the country's peak tourism season. According to the Navy, more than 4,500 tons of oil has been removed and more than 5,000 soldiers mobilized for cleaning operations. The spill has proven deadly for dozens of types of animals, including turtles, and has also reached a humpback whale sanctuary off Bahia state, which has some of the country's richest biodiversity. It is the third major environmental disaster to strike Brazil this year. In recent months fires ravaged the Amazon rainforest and in January a mine dam collapsed in the southeast, spewing millions of tons of toxic waste across the countryside.
Brazil‘s oil spill ‘criminally deposited‘ on beaches: Bolsonaro --President Jair Bolsonaro has suggested a criminal element to the mystery oil slicks polluting Brazil‘s northeast coast. About 100 oil spills have been detected along the nation‘s beaches since early September.Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said appeared to have been “criminally deposited” there, reported Reuters news agency.The crude oil “does not seem to come from an offshore platform,” Bolsonaro told reporters, suggesting it was from another country, without elaborating because of an ongoing police probe. “It could be something criminal, it could be an accidental spill, it could also be a ship that sank. It is complex. We have on our radar screen a country that could be the origin of the oil.” If the oil originated from a shipwreck, as the president suggested earlier this week, it would still be seeping onto the beaches, he said.
Ex-Petrobras Trader Tells Judge Vitol Bribed Him-- A former Petroleo Brasileiro SA oil trader who went by the code name “Phil Collins” told a Brazilian judge he received bribes from Vitol Group to favor the firm in contracts with the crude producer, court documents show. Carlos Roberto Martins Barbosa said he collected payoffs between 2003 and 2005 to steer fuel oil contracts to Vitol with Petrobras, as the state-controlled company is known, and give Vitol more favorable terms. Payments equivalent to 12 cents per barrel were deposited by Vitol into his bank account in Switzerland, according to his Oct. 23 testimony, which was published for the first time on a court website in Brazil’s Parana state. The alleged bribes were paid following negotiations with the head of Vitol in Brazil at the time, Lauro Moreira, and with the consent of the firm’s U.S. boss Mike Loya and then-Latin America head Tony Maarraoui, the ex-Petrobras trader testified. Loya and Maarraoui have previously been cited in court documents as part of Brazil’s sprawling Carwash corruption probe. “In trading, when you want to get a bribe, you don’t make $10 a barrel in one cargo,” Barbosa said in the testimony. “It’s the perpetuity of a few cents in each sale, in each product, that provides the illicit gain.” Investigators say their long-running investigation is zeroing in on commodity trading houses. On Thursday, Brazilian prosecutors said Swiss authorities executed search warrants at Geneva addresses linked to Vitol and Trafigura Group Ltd., which are the subject of a corruption and money-laundering investigation for allegedly bribing employees at Petrobras. One Brazilian prosecutor said top executives of the two firms could face charges for being aware of and engaging in the scheme.
Diesel oil spill from cruise ship cleaned up at Aotea Quay - Thanks to quick action from our Harbours and Environmental Protection teams, Monday afternoon’s diesel spill at Aotea Quay was mitigated swiftly. While less than 100 litres of diesel hit the water, we activated our emergency response procedures immediately and assisted the oil to break up naturally. The most immediate threat to the environment has passed. Meanwhile we’re working with the oil company to see just how the spill occurred, and to prevent it from happening again. We are continuing to monitor the harbour, but no oiled wildlife has been found.The DomPost reports that the diesel spilled into Wellington Harbour while mega-cruise ship Radiance of the Seas was taking on fuel. Harbour master Grant Nalder confirmed that there were reports of penguins in the area of the spill. Initially, there were fears of up to 800 litres being spilled. The official estimate was earlier about 400 litres but this was reduced today to fewer than 100 litres.
Small amount of oil spilt off Taranaki coast - A "small amount" of oil was recently spotted near floating production, storage and offloading ship The Umuroa off the coast of Taranaki. The Umuroa, owned by BW Offshore, has been operating from Tamarind Taranaki's Tui Oil field and was 60 kilometres off shore when the oil was spotted. In an emailed statement, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said a "small amount of oil dispersed naturally" and there had been no reports of any environmental damage. The spokesman said oil across 20-30 metres of water could be seen about 400 metres from The Umaroa. "A helicopter was used to fly over the site at about 6pm Thursday. It found the sheen on the water was dispersing and the area covered getting smaller," the MNZ spokesman said in an emailed statement. "An aircraft was used to fly offer the site at about 9am Friday. It found no sheen and no oil." The Taranaki Regional Council said it was notified of the spill by MNZ but had no involvement in the clean up as it was outside its boundary.
Tamarind Taranaki told to stop pumping oil from offshore - Struggling oil company Tamarind Taranaki has been issued an abatement notice to stop pumping crude oil from three wells in the Tui field off the region's coast after an oil spill last week. Environment Protection Authority (EPA) issued the abatement notice this week to the Malaysian-based company, which is currently under voluntary administration owing more than $190m to creditors. The notice stopped Tamarind Taranaki extracting oil from the Pateke 3H, Pateke 4H and Amokura wells to the Umuroa floating production storage and offtake vessel, or FPSO, in the Tui field until certain conditions were met, the EPA said. Tamarind will be able to resume production when the company complied with the abatement notice conditions, the authority said. Under the conditions the company must "conclusively identify the source of the hydrocarbon sheen and provide evidence to the EPA supporting the conclusion reached, assess the condition of the flowlines and associated connections of Pateke 3H, Pateke 4H and Amokura wells, and provide evidence to the EPA that confirms system integrity will be maintained on start-up." The authority is continuing to investigate the spill which was detected after a 20-30m long sheen about 400m from the Umuroa was discovered about 60km off shore on November 21. The sheen, estimated by Tamarind to be about 100 litres, dispersed naturally. A subsequent survey undertaken by the company found a 10-12 metre split in the flow line connecting the Umuroa to the Tui 2H well. Tamarind Taranaki can appeal the abatement notice and is working with the EPA to achieve compliance. BW Offshore, which operates the Umuroa, is due to leave the Tui field in December 31 after Tamarind Taranaki decided not to renew its contract in September. The Norwegian-based company estimates it is owed $35.8m (US$23m) by Tamarind in unpaid costs.
Large oil spill reported off Irans Kharg Island - The Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has confirmed a large oil spill off Kharg Island, the home of the nation's largest offshore oil field and main oil export loading terminals. The spill - first reported by TankerTrackers - may come from an oil rig off the island's west coast, according to U.S.-financed Radio Farda, and it began on about November 22. The rig may be one of several in the Abouzar offshore oil field, a large reservoir first developed in the 1970s. The field produces approximately 200,000 bpd of oil, but about 40 out of its 100-plus wells are old and out of production, according to state oil outlet Shana. The spill has spread to at least 12-15 miles in length, according to Iranian sources. Four vessels have been assigned to the task of spraying dispersants to break up the sheen. Given the size and severity, national-level response assets are being mobilized, a PMO official told state media. According to Mehr News, a dive team repaired a leak in the main oil transfer pipeline from the Abouzar field to Kharg Island earlier this month, with no leaks and no effects on production.
A New Pipeline Could Undo America’s Influence In Asia -- From the moment that the U.S. re-imposed sanctions in earnest on Iran late last year, Pakistan has been looking at ways to resuscitate a deal that had been agreed in principle before the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last May. This deal involved moving as much gas as Pakistan needs from Iran’s Asalouyeh into Pakistan’s Gwadar and then on to Nawabshah for further transit if required. At the same time, China has been in long-running discussions with Pakistan over the specific projects that Beijing wanted to place in Pakistan as part of its ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR) programme. All the while, the U.S. has been trying to stymie any such arrangement but OilPrice.com understands that the Iran-China-Pakistan deal is now back on, and with a vengeance. Joint statements just over a week ago from both Pakistan and China sides laid out four projects that are part of a ‘broader co-operation’ between China and Pakistan. They all sound relatively run-of-the-mill affairs, although still major undertakings, and are: the upgrading of the Pakistan Refinery Karachi, the building out of a coal to liquid engineering plant based on Thar coal at Thar Sindh, the utilisation of Thar Block VI for coal gasification and fertiliser projects, and the finalisation of the feasibility study on South-North Gas Pipeline Project that traverses Pakistan. The fact that they are much more significant to the global geopolitical balance was evidenced by the U.S.’s furious warnings to Pakistan, based on the fact that all of these projects are in reality a key part of Beijing’s planned China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which, in turn, is a cornerstone of the OBOR initiative. Even as it was, U.S. South Asia diplomat, Alice Wells, warned that CPEC – which, vitally, includes heavy financing from Beijing and, therefore, a massive debt obligation to China by the host country over time – will only profit Beijing. As it stands, the cost of just the first round of CPEC projects has risen from an initial costing of US$48 billion to at least US$62 billion right now. For China, the new pipeline – integral to its plan of making Iran and Pakistan its client states over time – has the added benefit of putting the U.S. on the backfoot in the ongoing trade war. For Iran, the incentives of closer ties with China and Russia are principally financial but also relate to China being just one of five Permanent Members on the U.N. Security Council (the others being Russia, the U.S., the U.K., and France). For Pakistan as well there is the added incentive that it is tired of being lambasted by the U.S. for its duplicity in dealing with international terrorism. In practical terms, Pakistan certainly needs all the sustainable energy sources it can get.
Landmark Siberian gas to test CNPC's marketing mettle in China's backwaters - - Across China’s coal-burning northeastern provinces, pipelines are being laid, contracts signed and coal-fired boilers ripped out ahead of the arrival next week of the country’s first piped natural gas from Russia. The ‘Power of Siberia’ pipeline, due to open on Dec. 2, will pipe natural gas around 3,000 km (1,865 miles) from Russia’s Siberian fields to the fading industrial region, which has lagged the push to gas in China’s south and east. The pipeline - which will deliver gas under a 30-year, $400 billion deal signed in 2014 - has the potential to transform northeast China’s energy landscape and even slow the country’s surging imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will also make Russia a key supplier to China, to rival Turkmenistan and Australia, boosting ties amid Beijing’s trade war with the United States. More immediately, it poses a challenge for the sole marketer of the gas, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), or PetroChina, as it looks to drum up demand in the relatively sparsely populated region that has relied on coal for heating during sub-zero winters. The pipeline will emerge in Heilongjiang, which borders Russia, and feed on to Jilin and Liaoning, China’s top grain hub, where rust belt industries have long been overshadowed elsewhere. The region’s industry and 68 million city dwellers consume just 14 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year, well below the 38 bcm the pipeline will deliver at full capacity by 2025. Russia’s Gazprom has said it expects to supply 4.6 bcm in 2020, rising to 10 bcm in 2021, 16 bcm in 2022, 21 bcm in 2023 and 25 bcm in 2024. With local power prices capped by authorities to support manufacturing, and cheaper imported coal available via Liaoning’s Dalian port, CNPC faces a tough task to sell gas. “It will take a long time to nurture a market in the northeast where gas-fired power generation barely exists and the industrial sector is weak,” said Li Yao, chief executive of consultancy SIA Energy. “With no take-or-pay contracts in place (domestically), CNPC shoulders most of the marketing risk.” Neither PetroChina nor Gazprom has revealed the gas pricing terms, but Beijing-based analysts said the price is linked to crude oil or a basket of competing fuels. Ling Xiao, a PetroChina vice president in charge of gas marketing, said last month Siberian supplies would be priced “slightly lower” than piped imports from Turkmenistan, but the company “will still be making a loss as (the price) exceeds that of domestic city-gate benchmark rates.”
Qatar Targeting 64 Percent Jump in LNG Capacity-- Qatar, the world’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas, plans to boost output capacity by almost two thirds after it adds production facilities to exploit recently discovered reserves. The Persian Gulf state will expand its LNG capacity to 126 million tons a year by 2027, thanks to gas from a newly explored section of the planet’s largest field, Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al Kaabi said at a news briefing in Doha. Qatar can currently produce 77 million tons of LNG annually and expects to raise capacity to 110 million tons by 2024. Qatar’s massive North Field extends onshore into the area around the industrial city of Ras Laffan, Al Kaabi said on Monday. “Studies and well tests have also confirmed the ability to produce large quantities of gas from this new sector,” he said. Qatar’s plan for a 64 percent increase in LNG capacity is likely to intensify a global glut in the fuel. The nation is seeking to fend off competition from rival producers such as Australia and the U.S. that have ramped up production and eroded the Gulf state’s historic dominance of the market. Australia has exported about 70 million tons of LNG this year, compared with 71.9 million for Qatar, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The North Field holds more than 1,760 trillion cubic feet of gas, and state-run Qatar Petroleum will “immediately” start engineering work for two additional LNG production plants, or trains, for a combined capacity of 16 million tons annually, Al Kaabi said in a statement. Qatar will be able to produce about 6.7 million barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2027, said Al Kaabi, who also serves as QP’s President and Chief Executive Officer. The country is also looking to invest in LNG facilities in importing countries, possibly including the U.K., Belgium, and Italy, Al Kaabi said. QP is a partner in the Adriatic LNG terminal near Venice, Italy.
OPEC and Russia likely to extend oil production cuts at upcoming meeting - OPEC and Russia are likely to extend their oil production deal at least through midyear, but if they were to cut more output, as some speculate, it would blindside what has become a complacent market, analysts said.The ministers head into the Dec. 5 and 6 meeting with oil prices near their highest levels in two months. OPEC and Russia and other allies have an ongoing agreement to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels a day, with the biggest cuts coming from Saudi Arabia."At this stage, it's not perfect for a number of producers, but it's not catastrophic either," said Helima Croft, global head of commodities strategy at RBC. "We're kind of treading water."The current agreement expires in March, but many analysts expect the OPEC plus group to extend it until its next meeting in June or even to its meeting a year from now."It's a very unsettled time for OPEC. The gulf between the haves and have nots has widened. Price relief has not been enough to stave off social unrest in a number of key producer states. ... There's no better option at this point," Croft said. "...We've had almost like a second Arab spring."Croft expects the deal to be extended until June, and then ministers will again review it. Many other analysts expect the cuts will be extended as well, but some believe OPEC and Russia could cut even more."A Hollywood shock ending would be if they actually went deeper," Croft said.
Oil rally pauses as hedge funds await trade talks (Reuters) - Oil prices ran out of momentum last week as hedge fund managers stopped buying and realised some profits following a strong rally since the start of October. Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 29 million barrels in the six major futures and options contracts linked to petroleum prices in the week to Nov. 19. Fund managers became small sellers after buying 176 million barrels over the previous five weeks, records published by ICE Futures Europe and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. Portfolio managers last week sold NYMEX and ICE WTI (-23 million barrels) and European gasoil (-8 million) while buying small volumes of Brent (+1 million) and U.S. gasoline (+2 million). Oil prices have rallied amid expectations the United States and China will reach a limited trade deal, helping the global economy to avoid a recession and supporting oil consumption in 2020. Traders are also increasingly optimistic production growth from U.S. shale will slow next year as price cuts result in fewer new wells drilled (https://tmsnrt.rs/2DgroUp). Neither the trade deal nor the slowdown in U.S. shale output is certain, however, and there is a risk of the market getting ahead of itself. Most hedge fund managers appear content to wait for a stronger signal about the talks before committing more money to the rally, and in a few cases betting on a short-term pullback. With front-month Brent prices already up more than $5 per barrel (10%) since the start of October and $7 (13%) from their August lows, traders stopped buying and made minor sales in a few cases.
Oil kicks off week with gains on fresh hopes for US-China trade talks - Oil prices began the week on a brighter note on Monday, posting early gains as positive noises from Washington over the weekend rekindled optimism in global markets that the United States and China could soon sign a deal to end their bitter trade war. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 10 cents, or 0.17% to $57.87 a barrel by 0220 GMT, having ended last week little changed after tracking ups and downs in the trade talks process. Brent crude futures were at $63.46 was up 7 cents, or 0.11%, the benchmark having also finished little changed last week. “It is still all about trade talks,” “It seems to be dominating markets action at the moment.” Monday’s higher opening prices came after U.S. national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Saturday that an initial trade agreement with China is still possible by the end of the year. This came a day after both President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed a desire to sign an initial trade deal and defuse a 16-month tariff war that has lowered global growth — though Trump also he had yet to decide whether he wanted to finalize a deal while Xi said he would not be afraid to retaliate when necessary. At CMC Markets, strategist McCarthy noted that a move by China to protect intellectual property was also providing a supportive atmosphere for the trade talks. “This is a big step forward for potential trade negotiation if they are adopted as official policy,” McCarthy said. Still, concern remains that events in Hong Kong, riven by months of anti-government unrest, could overshadow trade talk progress. U.S. national security adviser O’Brien warned on Saturday that Washington would not turn a blind eye to what happens in Hong Kong, where demonstrators remain angry at what they see as Beijing meddling in freedoms promised to the ex-British colony when it returned to Chinese rule more than 20 years ago. Over the weekend, the city’s democrats won a landslide and symbolic majority in district council elections.
Oil gains, holds near 2-month high as looming OPEC meeting expected to yield deeper cuts – Oil prices recovered late Monday after a mostly down day, having gained in three of the past four sessions. Prices remained near the two-month closing highs scored last Thursday as “the trifecta of positivity: U.S.-Sino trade talk optimism, OPEC+ compliance and a sturdy U.S. macro data scrim, should continue to resonate” with oil bulls, said Stephen Innes, chief Asia market strategist with AXI Trader. West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January delivery closed up 24 cents, or 0.4%, to $58.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. January Brent crude, the global benchmark, gained 26 cents, or 0.4%, at $63.65 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Contributing to the positive tone on the trade front, the Chinese government on Sunday released a document calling for more protection of intellectual property rights. Oil futures hit a two-month high on Thursday before choppy trading action took over at week’s end when China’s President Xi Jinping said Beijing wants to work with the U.S. for a trade deal, but was not afraid to “fight back” to protect its own interests, according to the Associated Press. “Traders will be looking for any positive signs that the much-discussed face to face between the U.S. and China will take place before Dec. 15 when the U.S. is scheduled to impose more tariffs,” said Innes. The front-month U.S. benchmark WTI contract ended 0.1% lower last week, while Brent, the global benchmark, logged a weekly gain of roughly 0.1%. Oil prices have climbed of late as global supplies have fallen so far this year thanks to efforts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, but growth in U.S. shale output and a slowdown in crude demand threaten to ruin that progress. Those are among the big issues that the group will deal with when it holds meetings to discuss the oil market on Dec. 5-6 in Vienna. As officials ready to meet, global benchmark Brent trades around 19% higher year to date, after posting a yearly loss of almost 20% in 2018, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Oil Inches Higher As OPEC Optimism Returns To Markets - Oil edged back from two-month highs this week as ambiguous signals from the US-China trade talks continue to hinder global trade prospects. News of an OPEC+ production cut extension into the mid-2020s and a more stringent export control system for Nigeria and Iraq added some short-term bullish sentiment to oil markets, but both Brent and WTI have since fallen back into their respective comfort zones. Prices were up slightly on Tuesday morning as a little OPEC-driven optimism returned to markets. The US Bureau of Land Management has issued a draft environmental impact statement on opening up 30 percent of protected areas in the Alaskan National Petroleum Reserve (NPR). The Trump Administration seeks to rekindle North Slope oil field development as production rates went into decline. Previous lease sales in Alaska’s NPR were largely unsuccessful as companies were frightened off by prolonged environmental permits. If pushed through, this legislation would revise 2013 Obama-era protections for the nature reserve. As the European Parliament braces for a series of votes on new EU commissioners this Wednesday, the political pressure intensifies for EU members to embrace the New European Green Deal which seeks to make Europe the world’s first-ever “climate-neutral continent”. In addition to fulfilling its Paris Agreement commitments, Brussels wants to use Emission Trading income to fund the fossil-dependent countries’ transformation, simultaneously intending to issue a carbon border tax on imported goods. Interestingly, nuclear energy will be considered clean under the Green Deal. Acting upon the European Commission’s Green Deal, Europe’s wind energy associations have asserted exclusion zones ought to be curbed in order to accommodate more wind farms. WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson told Reuters that Europe would need to reassess its maritime spatial planning approach and take on resolving the compatibility of wind energy with fishing and shipping lanes if it wants to speed up its current rate of 3 GWh annual capacity additions. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow will continue to work with OPEC in what he sees as their common task, stabilizing oil markets. Russian officials have recently started to raise the possibility of increasing the amount of gas condensate exports being exempted from the country’s production quota. Labelling the US shale growth’s environmental consequences “barbaric”, Putin has pledged to maintain Russia’s oil output without resorting to shale drilling.
Oil gains as optimism returns to U.S.-China trade talks - Oil prices rose on Tuesday on hopes of progress towards a trade agreement between the United States and China, the world’s biggest oil users, and predictions of a draw on U.S. crude inventories. Brent crude, the international price benchmark, gained 12 cents to trade at $63.77, while West Texas Intermediate crude gained 13 cents, or 0.2%, to trade at $58.14 a barrel. Top U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators held a phone call on Tuesday morning, China’s Commerce Ministry said, as the two sides try to hammer out a so-called Phase 1 deal in a trade war that has dragged on for 16 months. The call took place amid heightened tensions, with China saying it had summoned the U.S. ambassador on Monday to protest against the passage in the U.S. Congress of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. “The optimism that the trade conflict will at least ease somewhat is currently preventing prices from falling,” said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch. “The positive effect this is having on the oil price is more psychological in nature,” he added, noting that he does not expect oil demand to pick up noticeably even after any partial agreement is signed. On the supply side, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Vienna on Dec. 5, followed by talks with the broader OPEC+ group featuring other producers that have agreed to cut output, including Russia. “The current consensus is that the OPEC+ supply agreement will be rolled over for at least three months at the group’s next meeting with special emphasis on stricter compliance,” Tamas Varga of oil brokerage PVM said. The head of the International Energy Agency told Reuters that OPEC countries should make the right decision for a “very fragile” global economy. Predicting strong oil production growth from the non-OPEC countries, especially the United States, Brazil, Norway and Guyana, Fatih Birol said: “There will be lots of oil in the markets. I hope they will make the right decision for themselves and for the global economy.”
Oil up Again Amid Hopes OPEC Will Make 'Right Decision' - Oil bulls’ hopes to keep crude prices positive until next week’s OPEC meeting are being helped unexpectedly by the International Energy Agency’s hopes that the cartel would make the “right decision” on output amid growing supplies. U.S. West Texas Intermediate and U.K. Brent crude futures rose for a second-straight day after the head of the Paris-based IEA, which typically tries to achieve lower oil prices for consumers with soundbites that highlight oversupply, urged OPEC to consider the "very fragile" market for crude at the cartel’s Dec. 5-6 meeting. NYMEX-traded WTI settled up 40 cents, or 0.7%, to $58.41 per barrel, extending Monday’s modest 24-cent climb. ICE-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, closed the New York trading session up 62 cents, or 1%, at $64.27, after the previous session’s 26-cent gain. An anonymous source at OPEC told Reuters last week the cartel and its allies, including Russia, are likely to extend until June current production cuts of 1.2 million barrels per day under their OPEC+ cooperation. There’s speculation, of course, that the group will do more by deepening cuts beyond 1.2 million bpd when it meets next week, although there’s little consensus for now on such thinking. IEA chief Fatih Birol altered some of those dynamics when he told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo on Tuesday that it was up to OPEC+ members to figure out the exact production levels needed of them, although they should be aware of fragile market conditions. Birol also cautioned that a wall of new oil supply was building amid the soft global economy. "It is up to OPEC countries to decide, but what I see is that the pressure is strong on the OPEC plus Russia, as a result of the strong growth coming from the non-OPEC countries – the U.S., Brazil, Norway, Guyana and others," Birol said. "There will be lots of oil in the markets. I hope they will make the right decision for themselves and for the global economy, which is still very fragile."
Oil Steady as Stockpile Data Offsets Trade Deal Hope - -- Oil steadied as an industry report showing an increase in U.S. crude stockpiles offset optimism that a limited trade deal is getting closer. Futures edged lower in New York after rising 1.1% over the previous two sessions. The American Petroleum Institute reported inventories swelled by 3.64 million barrels last week, according to people familiar with the data. Official government figures due Wednesday are forecast to show supplies slid for the first time in five weeks. President Donald Trump said talks with Beijing on the first phase of a trade agreement were near completion, although he told Fox News later that he was holding up the deal to ensure better terms for the U.S. While a limited pact would be positive, it may not do much to revive crude demand unless existing tariffs are rolled back. China’s economy slowed for a seventh month in November, according to early indicators, highlighting how the trade war is damping economic growth. “The oil market is still pessimistic about the medium-term outlook,” said Daniel Hynes, a senior strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Sydney. “There’s not much optimism about the trade deal delivering something beyond a halt to rising tariffs.” West Texas Intermediate for January delivery dropped 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $58.33 on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 7:34 a.m. in London. The contract closed 0.7% higher on Tuesday. Brent for January settlement lost 0.2% to $64.17 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange after climbing 1% in the previous session. The global benchmark traded at a $5.84 premium to WTI. Trump’s comments came after officials on both sides signaled talks were back on track toward an interim deal after negotiators from the world’s two largest economies spoke by telephone. “We’re in the final throes of a very important deal,” the president told reporters at the White House. “It’s going very well.”
Surprise Crude Build Disappoints Oil Bulls - The American Petroleum Institute (API) has estimated a crude oil inventory build of 3.639 million barrels for the week ending November 21, compared to analyst expectations of a 418,000-barrel draw in inventory.Last week saw a build in crude oil inventories of 5.954 million barrels, according to API data. The EIA’s estimates, however, reported a build of 1.4-million barrels for that week.After today’s inventory move, the net draw has swung into build territory for the year, standing at 830,000 barrels for the 48-week reporting period so far, using API data. Oil prices were trading up on Tuesday prior to the data release on trade talk hopes for China and the United States surfaced again on Tuesday, with negotiators for both sides conversing today by phone. Still, no tangible progress has been made.At 2:48pm EST, WTI was trading up $0.24 (+0.41%) at $58.28—roughly $2.50 per barrel above last week’s prices. Brent was trading up $0.36 (+0.57%) at $62.98, up almost $2 a barrel from last week. The API this week reported a build of 4.378 million barrels of gasoline for week ending November 21, compared to analyst expectations of a smaller build in gasoline inventories of 1.222-million barrels for the week.Distillate inventories saw a draw of 665,000 barrels for the week, while Cushing inventories fell by 516,000 barrels. US crude oil production as estimated by the Energy Information Administration showed that production for the week ending November 15 stayed at the most recent high of 12.8 million bpd for a second week in a row.
WTI Extends Losses After Crude, Gasoline Builds - Oil prices roller-coastered overnight after a bigger than expected crude build (from API) sent prices lower before yet more trade-deal optimism sent prices higher this morning, before sliding back to pre-API levels ahead of the official data.“Despite national growth in gasoline inventories, which are quite common in the autumn as refiners emerge from maintenance, concerns are growing for the extended impact of the loss of the PES refinery in Philadelphia,” Tom Finlon, director of Energy Analytics Group Ltd in Wellington, Florida, said in a note. DOE:
- Crude +1.57mm (-878k exp)
- Cushing -97k
- Gasoline +5.132mm (+800k exp) - biggest build since Jan 2019
- Distillates +725k
After API reported big surprise builds in crude and gasoline, official data showed a smaller crude build of 1.57mm barrels and a huge gasoline build of 5.13mm barrels (also Distillates built for for the first time in 10 weeks)... Overall crude inventories are at their highest since July.US crude production continues top rise to new record highs ignoring the ongoing collapse in the US oil rig count.....
Oil snaps 2-day win streak on surprise US inventory build-- Oil eased on Wednesday after a report showing U.S. crude inventories grew unexpectedly last week and gasoline stocks surged, but losses were limited by optimism that a U.S.-China trade deal would be reached soon.Brent crude futures fell 27 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $64.00 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 30 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $58.11 a barrel. WTI trade volumes were also on track to be lower for the week ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. U.S. crude stocks swelled by 1.6 million barrels last week as production hit a record high at 12.9 million barrels per day and refinery runs slowed, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a drop of 418,000 barrels.The more bearish news from the EIA was that U.S. gasoline inventories soared 5.1 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel gain. U.S. gasoline futures dropped 3.63 cents, or 2.1%, to $1.67 a gallon. "Overall, the inventories were disappointing, led by a much greater-than-expected increase in gasoline inventories," "That's definitely leading the way down." Oil prices pared losses slightly after a report showing U.S. oil drillers reduced the number of drilling rigs for a record 12 months in a row, despite fresh production highs. Drillers cut three oil rigs in the week to Nov. 27, bringing the total count down to 668, the lowest since April 2017, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said in data released two days early due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.Hopes that Beijing and Washington would strike a trade deal limited losses in oil. Prices had risen for the last two days on expectations that China and the United States, the world's two biggest crude users, would soon sign a preliminary agreement, signalling an end to their 16-month trade dispute. "The belief in a positive trade deal continues unabated." That was fuelled by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, who said the United States and China were close to agreement after top negotiators spoke by telephone and agreed to keep working on remaining issues. Expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia will maintain their deal to restrain supply have supported prices. The producers, known as OPEC+, are expected to extend their supply cut agreement further into 2020.
Oil falls as US rights bill fuels tensions with China - Oil prices fell for a second day on Thursday after official data showed U.S. crude and gasoline stocks rose and President Donald Trump signed into law a bill backing protesters in Hong Kong, fueling tensions with China.Brent crude was down 19 cents, or 0.3%, at $63.87 a barrel by 0854 GMT, having dropped 0.3% on Wednesday.West Texas Intermediate crude fell 33 cents, or 0.6%, to $57.78, after losing 0.5% in the previous session.China warned the United States that it would take "firm countermeasures" in response to U.S. legislation backing anti-government protesters in Hong Kong. Investors are concerned that the move might delay further a preliminary agreement between the United States and China to put an end to their trade war that has slowed global economic growth, and consequently consumption of oil."The approval of the Hong Kong legislation backing protesters is likely to put the trade agreement into question as China has reiterated its threat of retaliation," said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM."If investors suspect that the trade agreement is under real danger, expect to see a sharp sell-off in December. For now, investors are taking a wait-and-see approach."Crude stockpiles in the United States swelled by 1.6 million barrels last week as production rose to a record 12.9 million barrels per day (bpd) and refinery runs slowed, the Energy Information Administration said. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a drop of 418,000 barrels.Investors have also been focusing on next week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+, which have been withholding production to support prices."We expect OPEC+ to roll over its current production-cut deal, which is set to expire at the end of March, by three to six months," UBS oil analyst Giovanni Staunovo said. "The upshot is that deeper cuts by the entire membership are unlikely." Reuters reported that Russia may call on OPEC+ to exclude condensate — a high-premium light oil mainly extracted during gas production — from its crude oil production numbers.Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday there was no decision yet on this issue. "We are holding discussions, making calculations," Novak told reporters.In the United States, energy services company Baker Hughes reported that the country's oil drillers reduced the number of drilling rigs for a record 12th month in a row.
Oil Prices Down Amid Rising Crude Inventories, Escalating Sino-U.S. Tensions -Oil prices traded lower on Thursday in Asia after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that oil crude inventories unexpectedly rose last week. U.S Crude WTI Futures dropped 0.5% to $57.84 by 12:30 AM ET (04:30 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures fell 0.4% to $62.79. The EIA said oil inventories rose 1.572 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 22, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decline of 418,000, according to forecasts compiled by Investing.com. “While imports did go up a little, refining is steady at near 90% of capacity,” Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan said. “So, as much as the bulls would like to create a narrative here, they haven’t got the numbers yet for it.” “After last week’s slight miss on the crude build numbers, this week, the market has completely missed the direction on the crude storage,” Krishnan said. Gasoline inventories jumped by about 5.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a rise of about 1.2 million barrels, the EIA said. Distillate stockpiles were in line with a rise of 725,000 barrels, compared with forecasts for a rise of 750,000 barrels. Separately, energy services company Baker Hughes reported that U.S. oil drillers reduced the number of drilling rigs for a record 12 months in a row. Drillers cut three oil rigs in the week to Nov. 27, bringing the count down to 668, lowest since April 2017, Baker Hughes said. Meanwhile, Sino-U.S. tensions intensified once again after U.S. President Donald Trump signed two bills backing Hong Kong protesters into law. The move is likely to complicate trade talks with Beijing, which has repeatedly criticized the U.S. for meddling in its domestic affairs. In a statement released hours after Trump signed the bill, China said the move highlighted the “sinister intentions and hegemonic nature of the United States.”
Oil drops 4%, cutting gains for the month -Oil prices dropped on Friday, cutting into a winning month for crude.West Texas Intermediate futures fell more than 4% to settle at $55.17, posting a 4.1% loss for the week and snapping a 3-week winning streak. Trading volume was lighter than usual Friday, and crude did still manage to finish the month with a 2.3% gain. European Brent futures fell $1.44 to settle at $62.43. For the month prices were up 6%, making it the best month since April.Traders chalked the decline up to the resignation announcement of Iraq's prime minister after weeks of deadly protests, as well as investors jockeying for position before the OPEC+ meeting next week. Following weeks of unrest in Iraq, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi announced plans to resign Friday. Some traders believe an end to the country's ongoing protests will lead to an end of threats to oil disruption, which is bearish for prices. But RBC's Helima Croft said tensions in the country may not be over so soon.
Oil Prices Fall Sharply On Rising Tensions, Looming OPEC Meeting -- After moving modestly higher in the two previous sessions, the price of crude oil showed a substantial pullback during trading on Friday. Crude for January delivery plunged $2.94 or 5.1 percent to $55.17 a barrel, ending the session at its lowest closing level in a month. The sell-off by oil prices came amid concerns rising tensions between the U.S. and China over the situation in Hong Kong could impact ongoing trade talks. The resignation of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi also contributed to the steep drop, as traders believe the news could help quell weeks of unrest in Iraq. Traders were also looking ahead to next week's OPEC meeting, where the cartel and its allies are widely expected to extend the current output cut of 1.2 million barrels per day. After President Donald Trump signed two bills in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry threatened strong countermeasures. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused the U.S. of interfering in China's internal affairs and violating international law and the basic norms governing international relations. "China will take strong counter-measures in response to the U.S. behavior that interferes in China's internal affairs and undermines China's interests," Geng said. "No one shall underestimate China's determination in safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests," he added. "Nor shall they misjudge China's resolve in implementing the 'one country, two systems' principle and in upholding prosperity and stability in Hong Kong." With a fresh round of protests expected over the weekend, the dispute over the situation in Hong Kong could potentially derail the long-awaited phase one trade deal.
Oil prices fall sharply as reports of a bearish OPEC outcome find traction - Oil prices posted sharp losses Friday, trimming the November gain, as the much-anticipated approval of a production-cut extension at next week’s OPEC meeting grew more doubtful following speculative reports. Saudi Arabia probably will indicate it’s no longer willing to compensate for excessive production by other members of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries, according to people familiar with the kingdom’s thinking, a Bloomberg report out Friday said. Traders cited that report as helping drive futures down some 5% in an abbreviated, post-holiday session in New York after a quiet start, a move that brought the weekly decline to about 4.5% for the January contract, the steepest weekly retreat for it since early October, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Expectations for the cartel to possibly extend expiring production agreements beyond March when the group meets in Vienna on Dec. 5-6 had driven oil prices to their highest since September as recently as a week ago.Further, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said he would prefer if OPEC and its non-OPEC allies made a decision closer to April on whether to extend their now three-year-old production coordination pact, Russia’s TASS news agency reported Thursday. Russia is considered to be part of OPEC+ with its role as a major producer and policy-influencer, although it is not officially in the cartel.“Oil prices fell almost 5% as fears grew that Russia will block an OPEC+ quota extension,” At Friday’s early close, West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January delivery were down $2.94, or 5.1%, at $55.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. the January contract is up 1.8% for the month, the largest single-month percentage gain since June, Dow Jones Market Data showed. January Brent crude, the global marker, fell $1.44, or 2.3%, at $62.43 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. January Brent expired at Friday’s close. The contract wrapped the week’s trading down 1.5%, trimming its gain for the month to roughly 3.7%. November’s performance for the contract marked the largest one-month gain since April.
Like It Or Not, Saudis Stuck With OPEC Even After Aramco Public Offering -Saudi Arabia’s planned initial public offering of its state oil company, Saudi Aramco, is stirring speculation that it could spell the end of the price-controlling cartel known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). But such analysis misses a crucial point.On the surface, it makes sense that the future of Saudi participation in OPEC is in question after its state-owned oil company is listed. After all, a publicly-traded Aramco will be under investor pressure to increase short-term profits and boost shareholder dividends, something it doesn’t have to worry about now. The demand to maximize profits will increase as more shares of Aramco are offered to private investors, especially if the Saudi Royal Family seeks a second listing on large foreign exchange. Upping production would be a natural way for Aramco to respond to demands for more profits. Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, currently produces about 10 million barrels a day. Still, Saudi Arabia has roughly 2 million barrels a day of spare capacity – oil that could be poured onto the market in a matter of weeks if the Saudis choose to.Aramco has a competitive advantage over other oil-producing regions due to its meager cost of production. In its 658-page prospectus for investors, Aramco touts breakeven costs of under $10 a barrel – the world’s lowest. Its closest competitor, the United Arab Emirates which spends $20 to produce a single barrel of oil. The Russians must pay $40 per barrel, and in the prolific shale fields of the United States, the cost is close to $50 a barrel. An increasing number of market watchers, including the International Energy Agency (IEA), are concerned oil demand around the world could start to shrink as soon as 2025. It would make sense for Saudi to try to increase its share of the global market before a slowdown arrives. The kingdom currently provides about 10 percent of the 100 million barrels a day global oil demand. It could quickly increase its slice of the pie by dumping lower-cost oil on the market if it thought those resources might become stranded in a fossil-free future.
Saudi Arabia Arrests At Least 9 'High-Profile' People Despite Jittery IPO Push -- Apparently feeling emboldened by the fact that Saudi Arabia suffered zero repercussions over the Oct.3, 2018 state-ordered murder of Jamal Khashoggi, other than crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) briefly being shunned by international elites for a few months, it's business as usual again in the kingdom of horrors. In a new breaking report, The Wall Street Journal reveals that "Saudi authorities have arrested several high-profile people in recent days, extending an effort to sideline Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s perceived opponents, despite a push to repair the kingdom’s international image to attract investment." The WSJ counts nine people total arrested in a span of a little more than the past week who are not particularly known for being dissidents or any level of explicitly anti-government activists. They include journalists, intellectuals and businessmen detained since Nov. 16. What additionally makes these detentions particularly brazen on the part of Riyadh authorities is that it comes just in the final stages of the kingdom preparing for the launch of what most see as the biggest listing in history, Saudi Aramco IPO. The damning WSJ report hit the same day that Aramco executives met with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) officials in the UAE to discuss investment options and possibilities in the oil giant's debut share sale, and at a moment the kingdom is desperate to attract a major anchor investor to ensure success. It appears MbS — no doubt further emboldened by continued support from President Trump even after the Khashoggi affair — realizes a pesky little issue like human rights abuses, including torture of dissidents and continued record pace beheadings and crucifixions, can't stand in the way.
Saudi-led coalition says to free 200 Yemen rebels amid peace push — The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels said Tuesday it will release 200 insurgents, as efforts pick up pace to end the conflict in the impoverished country. Patients needing medical care will also be allowed to be flown out of Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2016, coalition spokesman Turki Al Maliki said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA). The coalition had decided "to release 200 prisoners of the Houthi militia" and to facilitate "in cooperation with the World Health Organisation flights carrying people in need of medical care from Sanaa". The initiative coincides with a lull in Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and after a senior official in Riyadh said the kingdom had established an "open channel" with the rebels. "We have had an open channel with the Houthis since 2016. We are continuing these communications to support peace in Yemen," the official told reporters in the Saudi capital. "We don't close our doors with the Houthis," he said. The official declined to be identified and did not elaborate, but the development came after a lull in recent weeks following a spike in rebel missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities over the summer. The comment came after Saudi Arabia separately brokered a power-sharing agreement between the Yemeni government and southern separatists.
Despite threats, Iraq’s medical volunteers keep protests alive - A bloodstained letter warning Reham Feras not to return to Baghdad's Tahrir Square was not enough to keep the 21-year-old medical volunteer from lending her help to Iraq's anti-government protesters. Fearful that her parents would discover the threatening message left anonymously on the doorstep of their family home, Feras hid the piece of paper before slipping out the front door and going to one of the makeshift clinics at the heart of Baghdad's uprising. Last month, protests against Iraq's ruling elite kicked off violent clashes between the demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles, and the heavily-armed security forces. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been taking to streets to demand the removal of a government they perceive as deeply corrupt and an end to foreign interference in the country's affairs. More than 330 people have been killed since the uprising began on October 1, a toll that could have been higher were it not for the volunteer medics offering first aid and logistical support. Doctors, medical students and even people without prior medical experience have been key in treating the victims of the security forces' excessive use of violence and relocating the critically wounded to nearby hospitals. "The main groups [that are] giving medical aid and treatment to the protesters are volunteer teams," Ali Al Bayati, a member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), told Al Jazeera. Feras, a medical analysis student from Baghdad, was among the approximately 500 volunteers that descended upon Tahrir Square to offer help when the second wave of protests began on October 25. Since then, the number of medics has dwindled to approximately 150, according to the IHCHR. The drop, said Al Bayati, is a direct result of intimidation. "There are some threats towards the medical staff working there from unknown sides," said Al Bayati. Threats, arrests and abductions have fuelled a collective sense of paranoia among the volunteers. Medics from two makeshift clinics recently took down their tents and left, while others spoke softly, worried that the government's supporters or staff had infiltrated their protests.
Death toll rises as anti-government protests grip Iraq - Six people were killed and dozens wounded in Iraq's southern cities of Basra and Nasiriya as a result of clashes with security forces, according to the Iraqi human rights council. Meanwhile in Baghdad, street battles between security sources and protesters continued as demonstrators demanding basic services, employment opportunities, and an end to corruption gathered in Tahrir Square on Sunday. "Three protesters were killed in violent clashes with security forces in Umm Qasr, south of Basra, and 78 others were injured. Meanwhile, three protesters were killed in Nasiriya and 71 people were injured," the council said in a statement. "We call on the government to act immediately to put an end to the excessive use of violence against protesters." At least 330 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations in decades. The death toll in Baghdad, Nasiriya, and Basra over the past 24 hours reached 12, according to security and medical sources. The deaths since Saturday were a result of security forces' use of live ammunition and tear gas against the protesters, the sources told Al Jazeera. Khaled al-Mahanna, a spokesman for the ministry of interior, said on Saturday night three protesters were killed in Baghdad alone over the past 24 hours. More than 100 others were injured, including 30 members of the security forces in clashes with protesters on Ahrar Bridge.
Iraq Orders Closure of 12 News Outlets - - (Iraq Business News) Iraq's media regulator should reverse its decision to order the closure of 12 broadcasters over a licensing dispute and should allow media outlets to freely cover protests in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Monday. On November 12, the Communications and Media Commission (CMC) , Iraq's media regulator, ordered the closure of eight television broadcasters and four radio stations for three months for allegedly violating media licensing rules, and issued a warning against five more broadcasters over their coverage of protests, according to a copy of the closure decision, which CPJ reviewed, and reports by localnews organizationsandpress freedom groups . According to the decision, the commission also renewed the closure of U.S.-funded broadcaster Al-Hurra for an additional three months. The outlet was shuttered on September 2 after it aired a report on alleged state corruption, asCPJ reportedat the time. The decision includes a recommendation to the prime minister's office to send security forces to the outlets to force them to close. According to CPJ's review of the outlets' broadcasts, and an official with the media regulator who spoke to news websiteArab News , none of the outlets have been closed as of November 25. The outlets have critically covered theproteststhat have taken place throughout Iraq since October over a lack of basic services, unemployment, and government corruption, according to CPJ's review of their broadcasts. 'Iraqi authorities are using all the means at their disposal, legal and otherwise, to intimidate outlets in an effort to prevent them from covering the ongoing protests in the country,' said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado. 'We call on the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission to reverse this order and to allow TV broadcasters, radio stations, and journalists to do their jobs.
Iraqi forces kill 45 protesters after Iranian consulate torched - (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces shot dead at least 45 protesters on Thursday after demonstrators stormed and torched an Iranian consulate overnight, in what could mark a turning point in the uprising against the Tehran-backed authorities. At least 29 people died in the southern city of Nassiriya when troops opened fire on demonstrators who blocked a bridge before dawn on Thursday and later gathered outside a police station. Police and medical sources said dozens of others were wounded. Four people were killed in Baghdad, where security forces opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets against protesters near a bridge over the Tigris river, the sources said, and twelve died in clashes in Najaf. In Nassiriya thousands of mourners took to the streets, defying a curfew to bury their dead after the mass shooting. Video of protesters cheering in the night as flames billowed from the consulate were a stunning image after years in which Tehran’s influence among Shi’ite Muslims in Arab states has been a defining factor in Middle East politics. The bloodshed that followed was one of the most violent days since the uprising began at the start of October, with anti-corruption demonstrations that swelled into a revolt against authorities seen by young demonstrators as stooges of Tehran.
Iraq's deadly unrest closes roads, schools across south - Iraqi anti-government protesters blocked roads in the country's south with burning tyres on Wednesday, as schools and public offices stayed shut a day after deadly clashes with security forces. The country has been rocked by the biggest wave of protests since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, leaving more than 350 people dead and around 15,000 wounded since early October. Violence had erupted in the southern holy city of Karbala on Tuesday, with one protester killed as riot police fired live rounds both into the air and directly into crowds of teenagers pelting them with rocks. Fearing more bloodshed, Karbala's religious authorities ordered their network of private schools in the city, as well as in nearby Babylon and the second holy city of Najaf, kept shut for two days starting Wednesday. Thick columns of black smoke could still be seen rising from Karbala, which is visited every year by millions of Shiite pilgrims from around the world, as demonstrators torched tyres around and inside the city. In Nasiriyah, further south, local authorities ordered all public offices closed for two days, although they had been largely shut already by ongoing sit-ins and marches. Iraq's street violence has left many thousands wounded. Another 100 protesters suffered injuries in two days of rallies in Al-Hillah, just south of Baghdad, when security forces began using tear gas against protesters. In the protest hot spots of Diwaniyah, Kut and Najaf, activists also cut roads with flaming tyres to keep government employees from reaching their offices. And outside the oil-rich port city of Basra, picketers sealed off the entrance to the Nasiriyah oil field, a contributor to Iraq's exports of some 3.6 million bpd. The country is OPEC's second-largest crude producer, and oil exports fund more than 90 percent of the government's budget.
Iraq PM Announces Resignation After 40 Protesters Killed On Single Deadliest Day -After two months of anti-corruption and anti-government protests have rocked Iraq, resulting in a death toll into the hundreds as the unrest turns increasingly sectarian and which has included the burning of two Iranian consulates, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi says he will resign.He announced in an official statement put out by his office that he will submit his resignation to parliament after the country's top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, suddenly pulled support, telling the nation in a Friday sermon that parliament should "reconsider its options" after putting Mahdi in power in the first place.The subsequent statement signed by Abdul Mahdi indicated the following: "In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand (to accept) my resignation from the leadership of the current government." Local authorities estimate the death toll since protests erupted on Oct. 1 has soared to over 400 people, with thousands wounded, amid reports of 'live fire' used by police. This includes security forces reportedly shooting some 40 people dead in Baghdad and in southern provinces in what was possibly the deadliest single day on Thursday. At least on top provincial police chief was removed over shooting deaths this week, after Iraqi clerics had previously urged government forces to refrain from using deadly force. Iraq remains a sectarian powder keg waiting to erupt further, given anti-corruption protests have quickly turned to target neighboring Iran's influence; however Mahdi's stepping down may relieve some of that pressure, given he had the close backing of Iran.
Using Iraq and Lebanon uprisings to attack Iran will lead to disaster - The wave of protests shaking the world resembles a global uprising against neoliberalism. This could be a sign of the insoluble crisis of the Western model, and of its inexorable decline. As usual, the picture in the Middle East region is far more complex. In Algeria and Sudan, protests have led to leadership changes; in Libya, Syria and Yemen, the fighting continues with terrible human costs. In the Gulf, fears are rising over a confrontation with Iran, with some attempting a detente. Meanwhile Turkey has launched a dangerous and bloody military operation in Syria’s Kurdish region. Iran now faces its own protests sparked by a 50 percent rise in fuel prices that have angered a population already suffering the severe impact of US sanctions. At the same time, Tehran continues to slowly reduce its commitments to the nuclear deal in response to US "maximum pressure" and EU passivity and bias. The protests in Iraq and Lebanon, while domestic in origin, could yet have dire geopolitical consequences in the framework of an enduring confrontation between the so-called "Arab NATO" and "the Axis of Resistance" led by Iran and comprising Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, which is shaping regional dynamics.It is no secret that the current political structure in Iraq centres on a political majority based largely on Shia-inspired parties sensitive to neighbouring Iran, while in Lebanon, pro-Iranian Hezbollah is a major power broker. This represents a thorn in the side of the US, Israel and the Arab countries affiliated with them (Arab NATO). The Axis of Resistance has systematicallyopposed the Pax Americana in the the Middle East. Along with Iran, both Iraqi pro-Iranian political forces and militias and Hezbollah have pointed to a plot behind the protests. Even the highest Shia religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement hinting at a possible plot.There is no conclusive evidence to sustain such claims, but there has been a great deal of media spinning in an attempt to portray these protests as an anti-Iranian, anti-Hezbollah revolt especially in Saudi-funded media outlets. Spinning and manipulation might be intellectually dishonest, but they are not a crime. Using deliberate acts and resources to drive a popular protest towards civilian warfare is, however - and unfortunately, Lebanon and Iraq are not immune from such a risk.
Iran Equipping Destroyers With Vertical Launching System (VLS) Missile Cells - (FNA)- Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said on Saturday that similar to Damavand, another Iranian destroyer, Dena, is also being equipped with vertical launching system (VLS) missile cells, adding that the two are marking a new chapter in the country’s naval combat capabilities. "In line with directives of the Commander in Chief, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who has called for higher level of immunity for sailing units, Iran’s Navy is devising plans for equipping its vessels with VLS missile cells," Rear Admiral Khanzadi said today. “That’s why we are working on missiles for vertical launching systems; and it is not just limited to Damavand [destroyer]. A similar project is underway in the Southern [HQ of the navy],” the commander added. Khanzadi added that Iran will soon fire tests missiles from the VLS, highlighting that all vessels of Iran’s Navy will be equipped with the new system. Early in August, he had announced that Damavand destroyer, which has been under overhaul for the past 21 months, was enjoying many new features and would be equipped with VLS missile cells. He went on recounting that over the course of the past 18 months of overhaul, the destroyer has been completely resuscitated with all previous edition’s bugs resolved and may new features added. Damavand destroyer has been equipped with advanced radar systems with long-range radars to detect targets in long distances, the commander highlighted. Khanzadi went on adding that the same process of overhaul and improving the features of the vessels is underway in the Northern fleet of the navy.
Iran says 200,000 took to streets in anti-government protests - (Reuters) - Iran gave a glimpse on Wednesday into the scale of what may have been the biggest anti-government protests in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, with an official saying 200,000 people had taken part and a lawmaker saying 7,000 were arrested. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his strongest remarks since the unrest peaked, described the two weeks of violence as the work of a “very dangerous conspiracy”. He also said the unrest, initially sparked by fuel price hikes but which then spiraled, had been completely quelled. Iran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International said this week it had documented the deaths of at least 143 protesters. Tehran has rejected this figure. A number anywhere close to that would make it the deadliest anti-government unrest at least since the authorities put down “Green Revolution” protests that surrounded the disputed 2009 presidential election, and probably since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah and swept clerics to power. Details of the unrest have been difficult to report from outside Iran, especially after the authorities shut down the internet for a week. Residents and state media said mobile Internet was restored in the capital Tehran and several other areas on Wednesday, after fixed-line internet was partially reconnected on Monday. The Intelligence Ministry said at least eight people linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had been arrested during the unrest.
Iran Says Over 700 Banks Were Torched In Vast Protest 'Conspiracy' -- After early in the week Iran's top elite Guard commander gave a fiery 'victory' speech declaring the mainstay of anti-government protests which gripped major cities across Iran since Nov. 15 had been quelled, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has followed up with denouncing the unrest as a “very dangerous conspiracy”. This as according to Reuters Iranian authorities "reported about 731 banks and 140 government sites had been torched in the disturbances." Given the over week-long and government ordered total internet shutdown which had ensued, this claim can't be independently verified. However, during the opening days of widespread unrest which had been triggered by a sudden fuel price hike by as much as 300% in some places when government subsidies were slashed, initial videos posted online showed dramatic scenes of banks and gas stations being torched. “A deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy that a lot of money had been spent on... was destroyed by the people,” Khamenei said while addressing members of the paramilitary Basij force. The Basij were among the elite security forces which spearheaded the crackdown against protests. Over the past days sizable pro-government demonstrations have largely supplanted the anti-government unrest, which state media has touted as proof the "conspiracy" against the Islamic Republic has failed. On Monday Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Gen. Hossein Salami blamed the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel for fueling the unrest as part of continued covert war against Iran. “If you cross our red lines, we will destroy you,” he threatened.
Iran Says at Least 8 CIA Assets Arrested, Blames US for Torching Hundreds of Banks — Major protests in Iran about the increase in gas prices may be over, but Iranian officials are saying that they believe a US-orchestrated conspiracy was involved in violence seen during the rallies, which involved attacks on Iranian banks. Hundreds of banks were attacked, and Iranian authorities say 7,000 protesters were arrested. Iranian intelligence officials say at least eight CIA assets were among those arrested in connection with the violence.The eight people had been given CIA-funded training, nominally to become “citizen journalists.” Six were arrested at the rallies, while the other two were trying to send information abroad.Some 200,000 are estimated to have been involved in protests, and they were overwhelmingly peaceful. The violence appears to have mostly hit southern Iran, and it is believed a lot of it was centered on banks.
UAE To Host European-Led Naval Mission To Secure Gulf Waters - France announced Sunday that a proposed European-led mission to patrol the Persian Gulf will be based out of a recently established French naval base in Abu Dhabi, and that the naval patrol will soon go "operational" amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington. Paris has spearheaded efforts to get the European maritime security mission off the ground, in competition with US efforts at establishing an American-led mission, which Iran and some European allies fear could lead to war, given Iranian leaders have condemned any US efforts to "police" the vital Strait of Hormuz. “This morning we formalized that the command post will be based on Emirati territory,” Defence Minister Florence Parly told reporters in the UAE capital. “We hope ... to contribute to a navigation that is as safe as possible in a zone which we know is disputed and where there has already been a certain number of serious incidents,” she explained of the French-led mission.The maritime patrol is expected to start early next year and will involve some ten European and non-European nations.Parly further condemned the latest Iranian announcements confirming that it is blowing past uranium enrichment limits previously agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal. The maritime initiative since being first proposed in July has received broad support in Europe, including the UK, following the summer-long 'tanker wars' which had resulted in the months-long capture of a British-flagged vessel, later released.
Trump Officials Meet With 'Strongman' Haftar's Political Team In Major Libya Shift -- Starting last April President Trump caught many in his own administration off guard when he unexpectedly thanked renegade General Khalifa Haftar for "securing Libya's oil resources" at a moment the rebel leader assaulted the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. The public praise and phone call between Trump and the former CIA-backed warlord was a shock at the time given the US has maintained a policy of only recognizing the GNA in line with UN allies.But now that continued recognition appears to be shifting fast after this week Trump admin officials held multiple meetings with an official representing Haftar's political team named Aref al-Nayed, expected to hold a top leadership position once Tripoli is 'liberated' by Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA). Revelation of the high level meetings has renewed speculation and confusion over the future of Washington policy in Libya, and if its priorities will shift to more open support of Haftar's LNA, responsible for a renewed grinding civil war of the past two years which by this past summer had killed at least 1,000.Details of the meetings were first revealed by Defense One as follows:In two meetings with National Security Council officials in Washington this fall, Aref al Nayed, an Islamic scholar and former ambassador to the UAE, has pitched himself as a transitional political leader for Libya after Hifter, the military commander, “liberates” Tripoli, according to documents provided by Nayed and multiple sources with knowledge of the meetings. And the report offers more on Nayed:Nayed, who has previously announced that he is running for president of Libya, fiercely condemns the UN-backed GNA and portrays himself as a consensus choice who will be able to bring together Libya’s tribal factions under a so-called “National Unity Government.” NSC officials were “noncommittal” to Nayed’s proposal, according to a former senior U.S. official familiar with the meetings. Despite the NSC saying's it remains "noncommittal" it's highly unusual for such a meeting to take place, tantamount to meeting with a rebel "opposition" group at a moment it's trying to topple a US-recognized government.The UAE's front men in Libya are laying siege to the capital of Tripoli.
US Forces Attack Boats Caught Smuggling Oil To Syrian Government - The U.S. military reportedly attacked four tanker ferries on Saturday that were attempting to smuggle oil from the SDF-held areas in eastern Syria to the Syrian government territories. According to local reports, the U.S. warplanes targeted these ferries while they were traveling through the southern region of Syria’s Euphrates River Valley. The reports said the U.S. military managed to destroy the four ferries before they could reach their intended destination, resulting in a number of explosions that were heard in the Euphrates River Valley. The total number of casualties are still unknown at this time.While the ferries did not belong to the Syrian government, they were believed to have been transporting the oil to their territories, which is something that many people in Syria have been forced to do as the U.S. currently occupies some of the Levantine nation’s biggest oil fields. Neither the Syrian government nor the U.S. Armed Forces have reported on this attack that took place on Saturday. It should be noted that the U.S. Armed Forces have carried out similar attacks in the past, especially in the Deir Ezzor Governorate.
‘Filled with hatred and lust for blood’: Turkey’s proxy army in northern Syria accused of abusing civilians - In the month since Turkey intervened to drive US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters from a broad swath of northern Syria, proxy forces backed by Ankara have been blamed for a growing ledger of abuses against the local population, residents say, undermining Turkey’s stated goal of creating a “safe zone” for civilians.More than 200,000 people have been internally displaced by the Turkish-led offensive, according to the United Nations.Families that have been scattered across eastern Syria say that Turkey’s Syrian Arab proxies have carried out summary executions and beatings, kidnapped or detained their relatives and looted their houses, businesses and belongings.The result, refugees say, is a form of ethnic cleansing – an operation they see as designed in part to force out Kurdish residents and their sympathisers and replace them with Arabs loyal to Turkey. Turkey launched a cross-border military offensive into neighbouring Syria on 9 October with the aim of pushing the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an amalgam of Kurdish-led militias, away from its border.The SDF had spearheaded a US-led campaign against the Isis militant group in northeastern Syria. But Turkey had long viewed the SDF’s presence near the border as a threat because of ties to a Kurdish separatist group in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which the Turkish and US governments have designated a terrorist organisation. Turkey essentially delegated the ground offensive to a proxy force, the Syrian National Army, an umbrella group in northern Syria consisting of an assortment of rebel forces opposed to the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Many of the group’s factions, made up largely of Syrian Arab fighters, had already fought at Turkey’s behest in two previous military operations over the past three years.
Turkey to test Russian S-400 systems despite U.S. pressure: media - (Reuters) - Turkish F-16 warplanes will fly over the country’s capital Ankara on Monday to test its new Russian S-400 missile defenses, Turkish media said, despite pressure from Washington for Turkey to drop the system. Ankara’s purchase of the S-400s has been a major factor souring relations with the United States, which says the system is not compatible with NATO defenses and poses a threat to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jets. The provincial governor’s office announced on Sunday that the Turkish Air Force F-16s and other aircraft will conduct low- and high-altitude flights over Ankara on Monday and Tuesday to test an air defense system project. Broadcaster CNN Turk and other media said specifically that the flights were to test the S-400 radar system. Ankara began receiving the S-400s last July but they are not yet operational. Dealers said the reports had a negative impact on the lira, which weakened to 5.7380 against the dollar from a close of 5.7140 on Friday. Tensions in U.S.-Turkish relations played a major role in a near 30% slide in the lira’s value last year. As recently as last Thursday, a senior State Department official told reporters Turkey needed to “get rid of” the system. Those comments came after President Tayyip Erdogan met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
OPCW Caught Manipulating Syrian Chemical Attack Report to Blame Assad — WikiLeaks published an email sent by a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), who accused the organization of manipulating their report on an alleged chemical attack that was said to have taken place in the Syrian city of Douma on April 7th 2018. In response to the alleged attack, the US, UK, and France carried out airstrikes on the Syrian government on April 14th 2018. The author of the email was a member of a fact-finding team the OPCW sent to Douma to investigate the attack. The author accuses the OPCW of selectively omitting certain facts. The email, dated June 22nd 2018, reads, “Many of the facts and observations outlined in the full version are inextricably interconnected and, by selectively omitting certain ones, an unintended bias has been introduced into the report, undermining its credibility.” The OPCW team analyzed cylinders at two different locations in Douma. The OPCW report said they had “sufficient evidence” to determine chlorine was “likely released from cylinders.” The author of the email called this claim “highly misleading and not supported by facts.”The email’s author says the samples they analyzed were in contact with a chemical that contained a chlorine atom, which could have been a number of chemicals, and “purposely singling one of chlorine gas as one of the possibilities is disingenuous.”
Leaked email on alleged chemical attack shows 2018 strikes against Syria based on lies --On Saturday, WikiLeaks published an internal email written by a member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission to Syria that exposes the far-reaching effort to suppress and distort evidence in order to claim that the government of Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the alleged April 7, 2018, gas attack in Douma, a suburb of Damascus then held by CIA-backed Islamist “rebel” forces. The revelation once again makes clear the lying character of the campaign to justify the US regime-change operation in Syria, which has turned large sections of the country into a wasteland, killing hundreds of thousands of people and turning millions more into refugees.The alleged attack in which as many as 49 people were reportedly killed was seized on by the governments of the United States, Britain and France to justify the launching of air and missile strikes just one week later against Syrian government forces. The attacks took place just hours before an OPCW fact-finding team was due to arrive in Syria to begin an investigation. The assault brought the US and its allies to the brink of open war not just against Syria, but also against the Assad government’s allies Iran and Russia.The alleged attack in Douma came as Assad was consolidating control of the areas around Damascus and shortly after Trump had announced that US troops deployed to control the eastern half of Syria would soon be leaving. The purported Syrian government gas attack was seized on as a casus belli. On April 8, one day after the alleged chemical attack and before any investigation had been carried out, Trump tweeted that there had been a “mindless CHEMICAL attack” by the “Animal Assad” backed by Russia and Iran, and that there would be a “big price to pay.” Under the guidance of Trump’s newly appointed national security advisor, John Bolton, military options were drawn up to attack Syria. The air and missile strikes were launched on April 13, US time. Saturday’s WikiLeaks release makes clear that the OPCW report published in July 2018 was shaped to conform with the public allegations made by the US, UK and France. British Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, in an article based on the WikiLeaks release, noted that the doctoring of the OPCW fact-finders’ report “appears to be the worst instance of ‘sexing-up’ in support of war since the invasion of Iraq and Tony Blair’s doctored dossiers.”
New sexed-up dossier furore: Explosive leaked email claims that UN watchdog’s report into alleged poison gas attack by Assad was doctored – so was it to justify British and American missile strikes on Syria? - A leaked email last night dramatically indicated that the UN’s poison gas watchdog had butchered and censored a critical report on an alleged chemical attack in Syria. If substantiated, the revelations will be severely embarrassing for Britain, France and America, which launched a massive military strike in retaliation without waiting for proof that chemical weapons had actually been used. Unconfirmed reports and videos, showing the corpses of adults and children foaming at the mouth in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, shocked the world in April 2018 and led to a joint Western attack on the supposed culprit, Syria, in which more than 100 missiles, including nearly 70 Tomahawk cruise missiles, were fired. Although the reports and films could not be independently verified, as the alleged events took place in a war zone then under the control of brutal Islamist militants, Western governments, and many Western media, took them at face value. President Donald Trump tweeted at the time: ‘Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!’Britain’s then Premier, Theresa May, was equally confident of her facts, saying after the missile launch: ‘Last Saturday up to 75 people, including young children, were killed in a despicable and barbaric attack in Douma, with as many as 500 further casualties. We have worked with our allies to establish what happened. 'And all the indications are that this was a chemical weapons attack … We are also clear about who was responsible for this atrocity. A significant body of information including intelligence indicates the Syrian regime is responsible for this latest attack.’ But a dissenting scientist, employed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says in a leaked email that investigations on the ground at Douma have produced no hard evidence that the alleged gas attack took place. It appears that these facts were deliberately suppressed in published OPCW reports.
Syria's Assad Says Jeffrey Epstein Did Not Kill Himself - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad waded into the conspiracy theories around Jeffery Epstein's suicide, saying the financier and convicted sex offender was murdered as part of a Western plot to eliminate high-profile people who knew too much. Speaking to Russia's state-run Rossiya-24 station Thursday, Assad commented on the death of Syria Civil Defense co-founder James Le Mesurier, who died Monday after an apparent fall from his Istanbul apartment. Assad and his supporters have repeatedly alleged that Le Mesurier's organization, commonly known as the White Helmets, were not a rescue group but militant operatives working on behalf of his foes, including the United States and the United Kingdom, which he speculated—without providing evidence—may have been behind a spat of apparent assassinations. "American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was killed several weeks ago, they said he had committed suicide in jail. However, he was killed because he knew a lot of vital secrets connected with very important people in the British and American regimes, and possibly in other countries as well," Assad told the outlet, as translated by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. "And now the main founder of the White Helmets has been killed, he was an officer and he had worked his whole life with NATO in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and Lebanon," he added. "Both of us know that they [representatives of the White Helmets] are naturally part of Al-Qaeda. I believe that these people, as well as the previously liquidated [Osama] bin Laden and [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi had been killed chiefly because they knew major secrets. They turned into a burden once they had played out their roles. A dire need to do away with them surfaced after they had fulfilled their roles."
Israeli Army Will No Longer Release the Bodies of Palestinians They’ve Killed -— Israel’s newly appointed defence minister, Naftali Bennett, said on Wednesday that the Israeli army will no longer release the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, regardless of their political affiliations. Bennett spoke to Israeli security heads, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the matter will be discussed for the government’s approval. Israel’s policy of withholding the bodies of Palestinians started since its occupation of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. One such case is Mashhour Arouri, a Palestinian killed in 1976 whose body was released 34 years later. He was one of 317 Palestinians and other Arab nationals whose bodies were withheld by Israeli authorities. Mohammed Abu Sneineh, a lawyer working for Jerusalem Legal Aid Center’s legal campaign, told Middle East Eye that Israel has retained the bodies of at least 50 Palestinians killed since September 2015 when a wave of attacks on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem began. Abu Sneineh said that Bennett’s announcement will legalise the Israeli security forces’ practice. Some of the cases had already been ruled on at the Israeli Supreme Court in September.
Israel expels Human Rights Watch country director Omar Shakir - Omar Shakir, the local director for Human Rights Watch, left Israel for Germany on Monday after being expelled from the Middle Eastern country.The Israeli government has accused Shakir, a 35-year-old American citizen and the rights group's director for Israel and the Palestinian territories since October 2016, of backing a boycott of the Jewish state. He has denied the claim. Before departing from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Shakir said his deportation was "an attack on the human rights movement" and an Israeli attempt to "muzzle Human Rights Watch.""We will not stop until the day comes in which all people, Israelis and Palestinians, will be treated equally and have their whole human rights protected," he said.Shakir was accused in April of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel for its military occupation of the West Bank and its building of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.Israel has formally banned entry of BDS supporters and has pressured Western countries to stunt the movement's influence. The case against Shakir was based on comments he made before he joined Human Rights Watch, some going back to his student days nearly a decade ago. Shakir appealed his deportation, but Israel's Supreme Court backed his expulsion earlier this month.
Leaked Chinese documents show how hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims are brainwashed in concentration camps - Nearly 500 prisons and camps have been established in the western China region known as Xinjiang, or East Turkestan as many Uighurs call it.Former detainees have described experiencing torture, medical experiments, rape, forced abortions, and other horrors in the Xinjiang concentration camps.And a round of newly-leaked documents, dubbed The China Cables, is the first official look at the extensive efforts to detain and brainwash the Uighur population.Data obtained by the BBC, as well as other media outlets, includes instructions to the officials that run these camps to "never allow escapes," to "increase discipline and punishment," and to maintain secrecy. Daily activities for prisoners are heavily monitored, and only when they are confined for at least a year and show that their behavior, beliefs, and language are changed will they be released, according to the new documents.Among other insights, the documents also show how the Chinese government has been surveilling Uighurs and monitoring their personal data.The newly-revealed documents contradict the government's claim that these labor, or "re-education," camps are a means to voluntarily re-educate members of the Muslim Uighur community to counteract extremism and terrorism.Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, considered the documents fake news, according to the BBC.Leaked documents published by The New York Times a week ago show officials were instructed to inform Uighur students that their relatives had been imprisoned in these camps "because they have come under a degree of harmful influence in religious extremism and violent terrorist thoughts."
The China Cables: Leaked Classified Chinese Documents Confirm China Running Massive Concentration Camps to “Re-educate” Uighurs - Yves Smith - Oddly, a blockbuster leak based on classified Chinese government documents confirm charges that large-scale prison camps in the Xinjiang region use extreme regimentation and torture to turn its Muslim population, the Uighur, into the functional equivalent of Han Chinese, is not getting prominent play in most Western newspapers even though the number incarcerated may exceed one million. Nevertheless “most viewed” tallies show these China Cable revelations are getting traction. The leaked official documents, of which the centerpiece is a nine-page operating manual from 2017, when the prison camps were opening, were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which in turn shared them with 17 partners, many of whom did further digging. . The main document plus four shorter, later “bulletins” describe the policies for the prison camps. From the ICIJ overview: The China Cables,…include a classified list of guidelines, personally approved by the region’s top security chief, that effectively serves as a manual for operating the camps now holding hundreds of thousands of Muslim Uighurs and other minorities. The leak also features previously undisclosed intelligence briefings that reveal, in the government’s own words, how Chinese police are guided by a massive data collection and analysis system that uses artificial intelligence to select entire categories of Xinjiang residents for detention…. The China Cables reveal how the system is able to amass vast amounts of intimate personal data through warrantless manual searches, facial recognition cameras, and other means to identify candidates for detention, flagging for investigation hundreds of thousands merely for using certain popular mobile phone apps. The documents detail explicit directives to arrest Uighurs with foreign citizenship and to track Xinjiang Uighurs living abroad, some of whom have been deported back to China by authoritarian governments. Former inmates now living abroad also state that Chinese officials would interrogate Uighur family members separately and intensively, including children, and would require the families accept “relatives” that would participate in family activities as well as take the children away for hours at a time. Refusing these “relatives” would lead to incarceration. Escapees also report torture, daily sexual abuse of women, and forced surgeries and drug use.
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