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While the low price of gasoline has many in the United States considering a return to fuel-hungry vehicles, the price actually has been rising in the country’s car capital, California, for the past month. The average pump price of gasoline soared by about 25 cents a gallon last week, from $2.98 for regular gas on Feb. 23 to $3.23 on Feb. 27. And the rise has been greater since Jan. 30, when refineries began shifting to a costlier premium fuel – mandated only in California and only to limit emissions in warmer months, according to Tom Robinson, the chief of…
Russia has reversed its long-held opposition to selling foreign investors majority stakes in its strategic oil and gas fields, saying there would now be “no political obstacles” to allowing Chinese stockholders to hold more than 50 percent of the properties. In the past, Moscow has formed alliances with some companies in the West to obtain the knowledge and technology it needs to tap sources of oil and gas that are difficult to reach using conventional drilling. Still, it was careful to maintain financial control all its energy fields, which make up the core of the Russian economy. Now, though, Western…
Iberdrola, Spain’s largest electric utility, will buy UIL Holdings Corp. of New Haven, Conn., for about $3 billion in cash and shares to expand its presence in the United States by owning a utility with 3.1 million consumers in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The Spanish company said the sale will provide a 25 percent premium to UIL’s stock value. Specifically, it will pay shareholders in UIL $52.75 per share, including $10.50 in cash and the remainder in stock in the new company. Iberdrola will own 81.5 percent of Iberdrola USA while UIL shareholders will own 18.5 percent. Iberdrola will combine its…
Russia’s recent defiance of the United States and NATO has convinced some analysts that we now live in a multipolar world. Sunil Dasgupta, however, isn’t so sure. For such a world to exist, India and China must side with Russia in its confrontation with the West. That’s something they remain reluctant to do, at least openly. One of the lasting questions in post-Cold War international relations has been the enduring preponderance of the United States as the sole remaining superpower. The Realist School of thought, which was predicated in significant measure on the idea of the balance of power, failed…
Another North American energy company has taken a significant financial hit from the 8-month-old plunge in oil prices. This time it’s Encana Corp., the largest gas producer in Canada, which suffered an 84.5 percent drop in fourth-quarter operating profits in 2014. For at least the past year, Encana, based in Calgary, had shifted much of its spending to extracting oil and away from gas production because of the unpredictability of the price of gas. But while the company’s oil production increased, its profits shrank as crude prices dropped. Encana had even acquired Athlon Energy of Fort Worth, Texas, for $5.93…
President Obama’s veto of legislation that would have allowed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline was directed only at the bill itself and doesn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t eventually authorize construction of the project itself. Obama told Congress on Feb. 24 that his final decision on the pipeline will rely entirely on a review by the State Department, and that any effort by lawmakers to accelerate the process “conflicts with established executive branch procedures.” In other words, because the pipeline would cross an international border, only his office, not Congress, has the jurisdiction to approve it or scrap it. Given…
Estimates show that Lebanon has significant offshore energy reserves, including more than 120 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. International firms have lined up to begin exploration into these energy fields, but political deadlock continues to stymie progress. Initial 3-D seismic surveys off the coast of Lebanon suggest a high probability that there are vast natural fields of oil and gas supplies. These resources could gross over $100 billion in revenues over the next 20 years for the country. International companies have lined up and are waiting to explore the underwater energy reserves, but they continue to wait with frustration…
Duke Energy Corp. will pay $102.2 million in penalties and damages to settle criminal charges that it violated the federal Clean Water Act by spilling tons of sludgy coal ash into North Carolina’s scenic Dan River last year. The electric utility, based in Charlotte, N.C., was charged Feb. 20 with nine criminal misdemeanor counts, four of them involving Duke’s Dan River power plant in Eden, N.C. The remaining counts include violations at power plants near Asheville, Charlotte, Goldsboro and Moncure. Duke was prepared to resolve the charges as soon as they were filed. The settlement included $68.2 million in fines…
Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom is threatening to cut off supplies to Ukraine entirely as early as February 26, a move the Russian company says could result in a suspension of supplies to Europe. Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller said in a February 24 statement that "Ukraine has not made a new prepayment for gas on time." Miller added if no new prepayments are made, once the 114 million cubic meters (mcm) of prepaid gas is delivered to Ukraine there will be a "complete cessation of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine...which creates serious risks for gas transit to Europe." Miller's statement comes…
The energy industry has been quick to criticize the Obama Administration’s proposed regulations for exploratory drilling in the US Arctic Ocean, calling them “unnecessarily burdensome.” The Interior Department proposed Feb. 20 its first regulations ever for the US regions of the Arctic Ocean that would require energy companies to have contingency plans and spare equipment to contain any spills in the region. They would apply to the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska and the Chukchi Sea over the Bearing Strait between Alaska and Russia. An Interior Department report said in 2011 that an estimated 22 billion barrels…
