Botched Doha deal undermines OPEC credibility, oil prices tumble

Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel.
Read more at Yahoo News Read More......

After 40-year ban, U.S. starts exporting crude oil

America is wasting little time getting back into the oil exporting business. Just weeks after Congress lifted a 40-year ban on exporting oil, the first shipments of the black stuff left U.S. ports for Europe. The first freely-traded shipments of U.S. crude are symbolic of the country's newfound role as a leading producer of oil.
Read more at CNN Read More......

Who’s afraid of cheap oil? Low energy prices ought to be a shot in the arm for the economy.

ALONG with bank runs and market crashes, oil shocks have rare power to set monsters loose. Starting with the Arab oil embargo of 1973, people have learnt that sudden surges in the price of oil cause economic havoc. Conversely, when the price slumps because of a glut, as in 1986, it has done the world a power of good. The rule of thumb is that a 10% fall in oil prices boosts growth by 0.1-0.5 percentage points.
Read more at the Economist Read More......

Big banks brace for oil loans to implode

Big banks are cringing as crude oil is crumbling.

Firms on Wall Street helped bankroll America's energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects that ended up flooding the world with oil.
Read more at CNN Money Read More......

Iran sanctions: Middle East stock markets crash as Tehran enters oil war

Stock markets across the Middle East collapsed as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply. Read more at the UK Telegraph Read More......

Ship of Turkish President's Son Implicated in ISIS Oil Trade

According to the Independent, oil tankers owned by Bilal Erdogan, son President Erdogan, has involved in the illicit oil trade with Islamic State (ISIS). The ships are registered in Malta and all fly the Maltese flag.


Read more at Marine Link Read More......

Dow falls 300 points, Nasdaq plunges 2% as Street eyes Fed, oil

U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent on Thursday, pressured by continued uncertainty over the timing of a rate hike and low oil prices.
"The market has really taken a pessimistic stance vis-a-vis the Fed," said Dave Schiegoleit, a senior portfolio manager with The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank in Los Angeles.


Read more at CNBC Read More......

Barack Obama’s quiet war on oil

President Barack Obama’s enemies have long accused him of waging a “war on coal.” But a very different war on oil and gas is coming next. The newest phase of Obama’s environmental agenda has the oil and natural gas industry in its crosshairs, with plans to curb greenhouse gas pollution from rigs and refineries, tighten oversight of drilling on public lands and impose a strict ozone limit that industry lobbyists slam as “the most expensive regulation ever.”


Read more at Politico Read More......

Shell’s Arctic Ambitions Held Up In Seattle

Shell’s ambitious plans to finally return to the Arctic face yet another hurdle, one that could delay drilling once again.
Shell is using the port of Seattle as its base for some of its vessels that it will use in the Arctic. Seattle has been a launching point for Shell in the past (and has hosted Alaskan drilling equipment for decades), but a new greener municipal government is taking a harder look at Shell’s operations. Spurred on by Shell’s error-ridden 2012 campaign in the Arctic that culminated in the grounding of the Kulluk, environmental groups have mustered up some political power over Shell’s Arctic program. While not necessarily having the upper hand – much of the decision-making happens at the federal level – Seattle environmental groups have a powerful ally in City Hall.


Read more at Oilprice.com Read More......

Vivian Krause: New U.S. funding for the war on Canadian oil

For more than a decade, there has been a complex international effort to stymie the oil industry in Canada. It’s called the Tar Sands Campaign and the main sources of funding for this campaign are the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Sea Change Foundation, the Tides Foundation and other charitable foundations, most of which are based in California. By my calculations, these foundations have provided at least $75-million for campaigns and land use planning initiatives that thwart the development and export of Canadian oil. Until now, little information has been available about the specific activities that have been funded. Not anymore.

Read more at the Financial Post Read More......

Agency Confirms: Obama Has Blocked Oil Production

Empty Boast: As we have noted before in our Issues & Insights pages, President Obama has taken credit for an energy boom he had nothing to do with. A government agency now confirms what many have known to be true.

The Congressional Research Service has released a report, "U.S. Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production in Federal and Non-Federal Areas," that corroborates what we've said.

"All of the increase (in oil and natural gas production) from FY2007 to FY2012 took place on non-federal lands, and the federal share of total U.S. crude oil production fell by about seven percentage points," writes Marc Humphries, the government specialist in energy policy who authored the report.

Read more at Investor's Business Daily Read More......

Venezuela’s Amuay Refinery Explosion Shows Why Hugo Chavez's Socialism Is A Powder Keg

Energy: Oil is rising sharply from two disasters in the Caribbean region — one, a fierce storm, and the other a massive blast at the world's second-largest refinery in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. Only one was perfectly preventable.

When the strongman cracked the whip on Venezuela's oil industry in 2003, firing 20,000 experienced oil managers from state-owned Petroleo de Venezuela (PDVSA) to break a strike he admitted he had provoked, he insisted that merit didn't matter anymore, only political loyalty. "There will be no more meritocracy," he told his cheering red-shirts.

Read more at Investor's Business Daily Read More......

Days after damaging video surfaces, EPA regional chief Armendariz resigns

Al Armendariz said Monday morning that he had submitted a letter of resignation on Sunday.

Armendariz was already a lightning rod for conservative critics of the EPA in Texas before last week, when a video became public in which Armendariz spoke of "crucifying" oil and gas companies that broke the law.

Members of Congress and Texas officials jumped on Armendariz's words as proof that he had run the EPA's regional office as an anti-industry zealot.

Read more at Dallas News Read More......

You have been fed a load of crap!

You're not supposed to be this well informed! If you agree, don't read this...
2012: The Progressive Elite vs. the American Hard Hat by By Larry Leonard, published by Oregon Magazine

April 21, 2012 — You have been fed a load of crap. It comes to you in two types. The first is in the form of a lie. Something is this, and the liars tell you that it is that. The second type of lie is more subtle, and is created by omitting information from a story. These are known as lies of co-mission and lies of omission. Used simultaneously, they throw a blanket of fantasy over reality. ✧ We’ll use energy as a model for this essay, but remember that the process works in education, campaign speeches, the presentation of history, economics — you name the topic and somewhere in each information pot you will find deception of the type described above.  

Energy and the American Economy - All this week, from all the news sources in America, you have been misinformed by both the liberal MSM and fair and balanced FOX. The MSM did it intentionally. FOX did it unintentionally. To set up this section, here’s something you’ve heard for weeks: “The president says that if he opened up government energy locations, it would not lower the price of gasoline.” ✧ That is a beautiful attempt to sidestep the key political issue today by way of what sounds like a reasonable lie about another, related subject. I’ve been waiting for weeks for FOX to pick it up. They haven’t, so it’s time Oregon Magazine did. Read more at OregonMag.com...

I particularly like Mr. Leonard's summation, "...Euro-socialism or a dynamic economic revival. It’s up to you." --bc Read More......

Samuelson: Rejecting the Keystone pipeline is an act of insanity

WASHINGTON POST, 1/19/2012 by Robert J. Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.

Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.

Now consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters... Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......

Federal judge throws out Obama drilling rules

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A judge on Friday threw out Obama administration rules that sought to slow down expedited environmental review of oil and gas drilling on federal land. ✧ U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of a petroleum industry group, the Western Energy Alliance, in its lawsuit against the federal government, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. ✧ The ruling reinstates Bush-era expedited oil and gas drilling under provisions called categorical exclusions on federal lands nationwide, Freudenthal said. Read more: Seattle PI

Note: Judge Freudenthal was appointed by President Obama.

Read More......

AEI: Big Oil has Little to do with Pump Prices

6/9/2011 - "Big Oil" is not to blame for the skyrocketing price of oil. Rather, domestic energy policy and international instability are to blame for rising prices. Read more at American Enterprise Institute (AEI)... Read More......

Barone: Free Market, Not Government Policy, Drives Energy Boom

MICHAEL BARONE: In contrast to the marginal effects of much ballyhooed public policies, there has been a huge breakthrough in energy production in the past couple of years. Read more at Townhall...

There is a lesson here for public policy generally, including health care. No centralized government expert predicted the vast expansion in energy supply from hydraulic fracking. It was produced by decentralized specialists in firms subject to market competition.

Learn a little about "hydraulic fracking" in this article. --bc Read More......

Air Force gets order to help with oil spill

BRIETBART NEWS, 4/20/2010 - WASHINGTON (AP): The Pentagon has approved the use of two Air Force planes to dump chemicals on the oil spill threatening the Gulf Coast. ∴ Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the operation by two C-130 Hercules cargo planes. ∴ The planes were sent from Ohio to Mississippi Thursday to await orders. A number of civilian planes have already been doing the same job—using chemicals to try to break up the oil. ∴ The federal government is working to determine how large a role the military should play in the cleanup. Read more at Brietbart... Read More......

The demise of the dollar

THE INDEPENDENT (UK), 10/6/2009 by Robert Fisk *Hat tip: Glenn Beck) - In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading. ∴ In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. ∴ Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. ∴ The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years. Read more at The Independent... Read More......