Energy

• US Energy Infrastructure Fails to Keep Pace with Boom

  America’s energy infrastructure is in dire straits and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has given it a D+ in a “report card” that measures everything from the electricity grid’s transmissions capacity to oil and gas distribution channels. The whole premise of the report is that there is progress, but we’re only half way there. While technological advancements are rapidly evolving, transmission and distribution systems that would allow us to actually take advantage of these advancements have not been put in place, according to the report. And the specter of cybersecurity threats that arises from these “smart” bounds is…

• Polish Shale Gas Hopes Hit Major Roadblock

  Since the December 1991 fragmentation of the Soviet Union, no issue has divided the post-Soviet states and its former Eastern and Central European colonies than energy issues. As the post-Soviet space slowly lurches from a centrally planned economy to something somewhat resembling capitalism, energy exports have remained a critical support of the Russian Federation’s economy. In the U.S. government’s Energy Information Agency’s authoritative “Country Analysis Brief Overview,” of the Russian Federation’s hydrocarbons, the following salient bullet points are made:“Russia holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second-largest coal reserves, and the ninth-largest crude oil reserves.Russia was the largest producer…

• LNG Exports: Obama Sides with the Oil & Gas Industry

  It was announced Friday afternoon, when no one was supposed to pay attention: after years of controversy, heated rhetoric, intense lobbying, and stiff opposition from some unlikely bedfellows, with multinational industrial and chemical companies weighing down one side of the bed, and environmentalists tossing and turning on the other, the Obama Administration decided in favor of the US oil and gas industry. With geopolitical ramifications.The Department of Energy “conditionally authorized” Freeport LNG Expansion LP and FLNG Liquefaction LCC (Freeport) to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas to countries with which the US does not have Free Trade Agreements (PDF, 132…

• How Reliable is the IEA’s Oil Market Forecast?

  The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once humorously observed, "Predictions are very difficult, especially about the future." And so, as the world considers yet another rosy oil supply forecast, this time from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), it is worth reviewing the agency's record.Back in the year 2000, the IEA divined that by 2010, liquid fuel production worldwide would reach 95.8 million barrels per day (mbpd). The actual 2010 number was 87.1 mbpd. The agency further forecast an average daily oil price of $28.25 per barrel (adjusted for inflation). The actual average daily price of oil traded on the…

• “Hard sell?” Canada Doubles PR Budget to Promote Tar Sands in U.S.

  Canada is, according to the U.S. Energy Administration, the leading source of United States crude oil imports, which average 9.033 million barrels per day (mbpd), with Canada sending 2.666 mbpd southwards to the U.S. Mexico is second with 1.319 mbpd and Saudi Arabia third with 1.107 mbpd.The EIA notes, “Canada is one of the world's five largest energy producers and is the principal source of U.S. energy imports. … Just as the United States depends on Canada for much of its energy needs, so is Canada profoundly dependent on the United States as an export market.”The EIA continues, “Canada is…

• For Fracking, Much Regulatory Ado about Nothing

  The U.S. Energy Department last week said it gave conditional authority for a facility in Texas to eventually export liquefied natural gas. New drilling technologies mean the United States could become a natural gas export leader, though opponents of LNG say that's likely to lead to more hydraulic fracturing.  Last week, the government published more than 100 pages of documents that spell out what it sees as the way forward for hydraulic fracturing. The Interior Department said it took a "common sense" approach to the debate, though both sides of the argument have expressed concern.So far only one company in…

• Natural Gas – The “Slow Process that's Gathering Speed”

  The U.S. dollar hasn't had the same impact on the natural gas price like it has for oil, copper, and other commodity prices.What's different, says technical analyst and newsletter writer Donald Dony, is the North American natural gas price. Instead, it’s more fundamentals that are driving price actions, compared to other mainstream commodities. And here’s what his charts are telling him on where natural gas prices are headed:“Natural gas is still trading within a range. It has gone right up to top of range, at US$4-$4.50 (per thousand cubic feet, or mcf). There is a lot of price resistance there.…

• Using Water Pressure at the Bottom of the Ocean to Store Energy

  Norwegian research scientists are now working on the concept of storing electricity at the bottom of the sea. The energy will be stored with the help of high water pressure. It’s a new idea invented by a German engineer who has spent much of his professional life working in aerospace technology.Rainer Schramm, inventor and founder of the company Subhydro AS said, “Imagine opening a hatch in a submarine under water. The water will flow into the submarine with enormous force. It is precisely this energy potential we want to utilize. Many people have launched the idea of storing energy by…

• A Perfectly Positioned Company Set to Benefit from North America’s Oil Boom

  The most compelling news of the week in the energy world was the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) mid-term report, calling for a ‘supply shock’ from North America’s increasing oil supply.For those of us in the daily trading game, these ‘revelations’ are hardly that, we’ve been well aware of the hyperbolic growth of supply from tight oil in the US from the Eagle Ford, the Bakken and elsewhere, the growing supply from Canadian oil sands in the Athabasca, and the new and stunning deepwater finds in the Gulf of Mexico.  So, it has been hard to translate those IEA findings into…

• US LNG Exports … Who We Like

  This is it … the US Department of Energy is expected to decide on US natural gas exports this summer, and President Barack Obama has already suggested that the US could become a net exporter by 2020. At stake immediately are over 24 applications for natural gas exports to companies in countries that do not enjoy free-trade agreements with the US. America now enjoys record gas supplies with prices only 25% of those in Europe and Asia, and as it stands we’re probably looking at 25% growth in US gas supplies by 2035. The European spot price is around $10…