OilPrice.com Daily News Update

The Energy Industry, Lacking in Public Trust

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:20:55 GMT

Yesterday's panel discussion in Washington, DC on "The Trust Factor" in energy couldn't have been more timely. The stakes for lost trust seemed especially apparent against the backdrop of an EU probe into allegations of price fixing in the spot oil market, involving some of the industry's largest players, and coverage of the IRS and Associated Press wiretapping scandals. The session was hosted by The Energy Collective and communications firm Edelman, which presented the energy-related findings from its latest annual Trust Barometer. …

Geothermal Energy: More Exciting than Media Thinks

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:44:39 GMT

Geothermal energy is hands down THE best renewable energy avenue out there: The Earth is always generating heat, and there won’t be any “peak heat”, nor could we ever extract this energy at the same pace with which the Earth generates it. The process has a carbon footprint that is negligible compared to other fossil fuel and renewable energy processes. Yet geothermal power gets decidedly little press. The idea of geothermal power has been around for ages: Italy built the world’s first power plant that generated electricity…

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

admin@oilprice.com (Dan Dicker) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:31:58 GMT

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…

US LNG Exports … Who We Like

admin@oilprice.com (James Stafford) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:29:41 GMT

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…

Oil Market Forecast & Review 17th May 2013

admin@oilprice.com (Jim Hyerczyk) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:20:55 GMT

After falling from $97.38 on May 6 to $92.40 on May 15, July crude oil rebounded on May 16 to regain almost 50% of its recent break. This turnaround was expected, but most traders were looking for a test of the retracement zone at $91.77 to $90.45 before the rebound began. Despite showing strength on the daily chart, the market is still having trouble with a pair of main tops at $98.22 and $99.77 as well as a downtrending resistance line at $97.71. Until these resistance areas are penetrated with conviction, expectations are for the market to remain…

BRAZIL: Round 11 in Rio, Hot and Getting Hotter

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:16:11 GMT

Bottom Line: Rio’s 11th round of bidding for new concessions went down in an atmosphere of heavy competition, with Brazilian offshore acreage fast becoming some of the hottest oil and gas blocks out there thanks to some impressive pre-salt finds and developments. Analysis: The National Petroleum Agency hosted the 11th round of oil concession bids in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 14 and 15 May. There was some very stiff competition for blocks in the Foz do Amazonas basin off the coast of Amapá state in northeastern Brazil. One deep-water…

US: Mexico-TAP and the Dodd Frank Act

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:12:09 GMT

Bottom Line: US Congress is reviewing House and Senate legislation that could see US companies working under the Mexico-TAP exempted from Dodd-Frank Section 1504 SEC disclosures about payments to foreign governments. Analysis: The Dodd Frank Act Section 1504 requires US companies to disclose payments to foreign governments, subnational governments and the federal government. Opponents of the act, which is pretty much everyone making money on government contracts, say it harms the competitiveness of US companies in the face of foreign companies…

URUGUAY: Regasification Plant Heralds Major LNG Ambitions

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:08:54 GMT

Bottom line: With final plans for a regasification plant in the Montevideo Bay approved, Uruguay is aggressively working to position itself as an energy hub despite a lack of conventional resources.Analysis: On 14 May, France’s GDF Suez won a contract to build a liquid natural gas (LNG) regasification plant off the Montevideo shore. The plant should be operational by March 2015, with an expected processing capacity of 10 million cubic meters of LNG per day and storage for 267 million cubic meters. Uruguay itself uses just 300,000 cubic meters…

KURDISTAN: Understanding the Power Brokers

admin@oilprice.com (Editorial Dept) — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:06:00 GMT

Bottom Line: Kurdistan is a good place to be right now for E&P companies, but navigating the playing field of power brokers and gatekeepers is a challenging necessity if you want to break into this market—and it’s changing by the day. Analysis: ISA Intel is deep inside Kurdistan and our intelligence paints an interesting picture of the power broker/gatekeeper scene, and it’s a dynamic one. What is most important to understand in Kurdistan is that contrary to popular media stories, the two key political parties—the Kurdistan…

This Week in Energy: The Natural Gas Games Begin

admin@oilprice.com (James Stafford) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:46:05 GMT

Let the natural gas export games begin; acronymic US oil and gas forecasts intended to shock and awe; a decisively bad turn for the petro-politics conflict in Syria; and a peak at this week’s Premium Newsletter line-up, and a special report for readers that looks at the coming boom in geothermal power generation …Before we start with today’s roundup I just wanted to take a few moments to mention that there are only 2 weeks left of our special introductory offer for Oilprice.com Premium. The current price is $497 – but this…