Oil Prices Fall in Asian Trade After Hurricane Misses US Refineries

Oil prices dropped below 59 usd a barrel in Asian trade after Hurricane Dennis, which wreaked havoc in the United States, missed Gulf of Mexico refining facilities, dealers said. At midday (0400 GMT), the benchmark New York contract, for light sweet crude in August, was at 58.87 usd a barrel, down 76 cents from its […]

Indonesia Min Plans 50% Cut in Oil Use by 2015

As global oil prices hover around record $60 per barrel levels, Indonesia plans to halve costly domestic crude oil consumption and double liquefied natural gas and coal output by 2015, the country’s economic planning czar said recently. Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Aburizal Bakrie, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview that the government’s ambitious […]

Firms Report ‘Dramatic’ Sales Slump (UK)

Firms have reported a “dramatic” slump in sales and profits and warned that confidence was at its lowest level for years. A third of companies said sales and orders had fallen in the past six months, while spending on investment was at its worst level in two years.This is London

Gov’t Expands Energy Conservation Program

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the impetus for the program was in part due to rising energy costs. “In this time of high energy costs it’s important that the federal government help Americans find ways to reduce home energy use and save money on their energy bills,” he said in prepared remarks. HUD Secretary Alphonso […]

Speculators May be Playing Lesser Role in Oil Price Hikes

They’re a tempting target for your rage as you stand at the gas pump, filling up at an infuriating $2.27 a gallon. And multimillionaire hedge fund managers and oil speculators are certainly active playing the oil market. Through futures contracts they can buy up the right to all the oil they want without actually having […]

Life of Chinese People Under Soaring Oil Price

Driving home and to work everyday, Chen Yi has been attaching more and more attention to the soaring oil price in the international market during the past year. Working at a media company, Chen earns about 5,000 yuan (604 US dollars) a month, an income ensuring him a not bad life in the capital of […]

Gas Prices Rise to Record of $2.31 – Survey

U.S. average retail gasoline prices surged over the past two weeks to a record high, boosted by high crude oil prices and healthy demand, and prices could rise further should U.S. production be hurt by Hurricane Dennis, an industry analyst said on Sunday. The national average for self-serve regular unleaded gas was nearly $2.31 a […]

Exxon Mobil Eyes Chinese Refinery

Exxon Mobil Corp. has started work with China’s third-biggest state oil company and a Saudi partner on a $3.5 billion project to expand a refinery in southern China. The project comes amid efforts by energy companies to tap China’s market for fuel to drive its booming economy, already one of the world’s biggest oil consumers, […]

Thai Demand for Ethanol-Mixed Gasoline Rising Fast

Ethanol-mixed gasoline now accounts for a quarter of premium gasoline consumption in Thailand, two years after its commercial launch, Energy Minister Viset Choopiban said on Friday. Viset told a seminar on renewable energy the biofuel, also known as gasohol, was now selling 1.4 million litres a day, a five-fold increase from January. “We are on […]

Japan Delays Biofuel Introduction, Scarcity Seen

The introduction of environmentally friendly biofuel for cars has been delayed in Kyoto protocol leader Japan despite a decade-long government effort aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Scarce availability of domestically produced ethanol made from grains and possible heavy dependance on imports are blocking gasoline blended with bioethanol from hitting the market, analysts said.Planet Ark

China 1st Half Crude Oil Imports 63.4 Million Tons;+3.9% On Year -Xinhua

China’s crude oil imports totaled 63.42 million tons in the first half of this year, up 3.9% from a year earlier, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. But oil product imports in the January-June period fell 21% on year to 15.7 million tons, the report said, citing data from China’s customs.NASDAQ

Parsing the Latest Demand and Supply Figures…

Heading Out writes: In other words we are seeing the same sort of growth figures in demand that we saw last year, and slightly above the numbers that had been predicted earlier in the year. The price increases have not had any impact so far on demand over here. In the poorer countries such as Indonesia this is not the case. In those places, where the government has been subsidizing fuel costs the impact can only be expected to worsen as the year draws on.

More after the jump at The Oil Drum.

If It’s Civilization vs. Oil, We Need to Apply Elbow Grease

It is oil’s fault. The London bombings are almost surely al-Qaida’s work, which means oil paid for them. Oil keeps the Mideast backward. It funds the madrassas that fill heads with anti-West poison. And it pays the terrorists who plant bombs on European trains and drive airplanes into American buildings. It is time we did […]

Singapore Airlines CEO Urges Consolidation

Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Chew Choon Seng said Sunday the global airline industry needs to consolidate as soaring oil prices damage profits. He noted Singapore Airlines and Qantas are discussing sharing maintenance facilities for the new Airbus 380 super jumbo, which both carriers plan to fly. “It makes sense that neither of us duplicate facilities […]

Oil Producers Wait Out Dennis

With at least 2,100 workers evacuated from shut offshore rigs and platforms, oil and natural gas producers watched Hurricane Dennis charge near production areas in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. At least 42 percent of daily oil production and 27 percent of daily natural gas output were shut by the storm. The Gulf […]

Oil Industry Refines Strategy

Soon after Holly Corp. finished expanding its oil refinery here a year ago, the company’s engineers realized they could push their limits even further than planned. By next summer, five years of incremental upgrades to the refinery’s vast complex of pipes, boilers and storage tanks will have stretched its ability to produce gasoline and other […]

Memo: US, UK Plan to Reduce Troops in Iraq – Paper

A leaked document from Britain’s Defense Ministry says the British and U.S. governments are planning to reduce their troop levels in Iraq by more than half by mid-2006, the Mail on Sunday reported. The memo, reported to have been written by Defense Minister John Reid, said Britain would reduce its troop numbers to 3,000 from […]

Russia Prioritizes China over Japan for Oil

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will prioritize China over Japan as the recipient of oil supplies from a pipeline project linking eastern Siberia with the Russian Far East, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported yesterday. Putin made the remarks during a news conference after the three-day summit of the Group of Eight powers in […]

Freedom or Oil? The Truth About Conflict in Iraq

After four years of a so-called War on Terror, the jihadists showed they could execute a sophisticated, multifront attack in the financial heart of one of the safest cities, in a nation with one of the most capable intelligence services. Critics say that the war in Iraq has been a costly distraction from hunting down […]

The threat from hurricanes

Heading Out writes: As the path of Hurricane Dennis becomes clearer it is interesting to contrast this with the location of the major new fields that are currently being developed in the Gulf. A detailed map of their location can be found at Rigzone but for the sake of simple reference I have put a couple of dots on the map that I took from the NOAA site showing the projected path for Dennis.

The black dot on the edge of the green and yellow zones south of New Orleans, represents the Thunder Horse platform which is scheduled to ramp up until it is producing 250,000 bd of oil at a water depth of about 6,000 ft…

More after the jump at The Oil Drum.

2005 Sets Mark with 4 Named Storms So Far

Arlene, Bret, Cindy and now Dennis. Storm hunters don’t expect to be hunched over their radar screens and dispatching chase aircraft until Labor Day. But 2005 is no normal year. Martin Nelson, the lead forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, says this is the first time the Atlantic hurricane season had four named […]

Fossil Fuels Are Not Yet Extinct, Says Shell

Leewin added: Sunday Herald

Global Warming Expected to Worsen Hurricanes

In Florida, they know just how powerful hurricanes can be: Over the last year, they have been reminded more than they care to count. But it could get even worse. According to a recent study, hurricanes will become even more intense because of global warming ABC News

Peak Oil: The Next Big Thing. (Part One)

In between shark attacks, missing persons, Michael Jackson, and who knows what else, you might have missed a few important stories. On the 4th of July, a power plant in Grati, on Indonesia’s island of Java, was shut down after it just plain ran out of its stored fuel oil. Another power plant on the […]

With Oil Priced in Dollars, Who’s Sorry Now?

Oil prices are up a lot this year, but the pain in the United States may be less than almost anywhere else. The dollar revival arrived just in time to blunt the impact. By the time oil futures topped $61 on Wednesday, the price in dollars had risen 41 percent since the end of 2004. […]

Storm May Affect US Gulf Oil, Gas Ops

Oil and natural gas production shut by the passage of Dennis through the eastern Gulf of Mexico may not be fully restored through the early part of next week due to the time it takes to inspect, reboard and restart platforms and rigs after a storm. The Gulf, which is home to 25 percent of […]

Canada Fin Min: More Global Crude Market Transparency Needed

Responding to a question on how the North American market was reacting to $60- a-barrel crude, Goodale said that he was satisfied with the way it was functioning, but he thought that other countries needed to do more. “We think it’s important for other countries to respond as well. There needs to be transparency in […]

The Race for Mayor: A Look at Jim Bell

He believes San Diegans are pining for a long-term plan in addition to the city’s immediate fiscal woes when they elect their next mayor. Bell contends that his plan to make the region self-sustaining, while not the urgent matter on the minds of city voters, will help the local economy over the long haul. “The […]

Preparing for a Hard Landing

As the projector goes dark, the audience, made up of people of all ages, shifts forward on butt-chilling metal chairs. “This is nothing less than the collapse of the American Dream,” posits moderator Alison Pernell. Smart and savvy, with long blond hair and an athletic build, Pernell would be recognizably American anywhere. “We’re going to […]

Low Spare Capacity Seen Keeping Oil Markets Volatile for Years

“Volatility in the oil market is not the result of terror attacks, climatic conditions and security uncertainty only. It is more because of low spare capacity that has dropped sharply,” Gulf oil analyst Hajjaj Bukhdour said Saturday. Before 2004, worldwide spare capacity exceeded six million barrels per day (bpd) or eight to 10 percent of […]

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