Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Believe it or Not; #India Cooks at Unbelievable 45.8 Degrees Celsius

CLIMATE NEWS

Temporary relief in Bhubaneswar from the deadly heat

Forcing Odisha government to shut down its grievance cell and schools till April 20, the heatwave in Bhubaneswar has given temporary relief to the residents. The day temperature has witnessed a drop -marginal though- only to be accompanied by high humidity.

Owing to comparatively cool and moist southerly winds, the city has seen a drop of 3 degrees in its day temperature. Though the temperature has come down to 42.9°C from the all-time highest 45.8°C, heatwave is still persisting in the area as the temperature is still 6 degrees above normal.

This temporary relief is likely to be maintained till tomorrow after which, temperatures will rise again. As per latest reports by Skymet Weather, heatwave will continue to prevail in the region as dry weather is likely to persist till the weekend.

Halliburton Fires One Third Of Global Staff: “What We Are Experiencing Today Is Far Beyond Headwinds”

In a brutally frank and painfully honest first quarter operational update, Halliburton president Jeff Miller poured freezing cold water all over the “oil is stabilizing, and everything is going to be awesome” narrative. After explaining that the firm has laid off one-third of its global employees, and pointing to the collapse in sequential revenues across every business unit, Miller exclaimed: “What we are experiencing today is far beyond headwinds; it is unsustainable.” Due to the deadline of its merger agreement with Baker Hughes Halliburtion has delayed its earnings conference call until May 3rd and so gave an operational update. The healdlines were horrific: HAL SEES OVER 30% DROP IN YR GLOBAL DRILLING, COMPLETION SPEND HALLIBURTON CUT ABOUT 1/3 OF STAFF GLOBALLY HALLIBURTON CUT OVER 6,000 JOBS DURING 1Q HALLIBURTON SEES ADDITIONAL 50% DECLINE IN NORTH AMERICA SPEND ’16 HALLIBURTON SAYS WORLDWIDE RIG COUNT LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1999 HALLIBURTON SEES […]
zerohedge.com

Offshore rig operators reel from oil price rout

In the depths of the ocean off the coast of Uruguay, more than two miles below sea level, the oil industry is continuing to push back the frontier. Last month a drillship operated by AP Møller-Maersk of Denmark began the Raya 1 well in 3,411 metres of water, breaking the record for sea depth previously set in 2013. Drilling in such extreme conditions is a remarkable feat, but wells such as Raya 1 are becoming increasingly rare. Technology makes them possible, but economics militates against them. For the companies that operate offshore rigs on behalf of oil producers — including Transocean, Seadrill, Ensco and Noble Corp — the slump in crude prices since the summer of 2014 has been brutal. They have been reporting large losses, and have cut or scrapped their dividends. Their share prices have plunged.

The impact of low oil prices is often depicted as a battle between Saudi Arabia and the onshore shale producers of the US. But other relatively high-cost sources of supply around the world have also been hit, and for offshore oil the effect is likely to last longer. The latest data for offshore oil and gas production still look healthy. Last year output from the UK sector of the North Sea rose 7 to 8 per cent, while crude production in the US waters of the Gulf of Mexico rose 10 per cent.

ft.com

IMF expects $500B revenue loss for Mideast oil exporters

Oil exporting countries in the Middle East lost a staggering $390 billion in revenue due to lower oil prices last year, and should brace for even deeper losses of more than $500 billion this year, the International Monetary Fund said Monday. The fund had projected in October that oil exporting countries in the region would see revenue losses of $360 billion in 2015, but oil prices took a tumble by year’s end and the drop in revenue amounted to $30 billion more. In a revised economic outlook report released Monday, the IMF said these countries will see revenues from oil exports drop even more in 2016, to between $490 billion to $540 billion compared to 2014, when oil prices were higher. Oil prices plunged to around $30 a barrel in January compared to $115 in mid-2014. IMF Director for Middle […]

hosted.ap.org

Middle East Economies Facing Oil Revenue Falls, IMF Says

The International Monetary Fund estimates the Middle East’s oil-dependent economies have missed out on $390 billion in oil revenues last year alone and face up to $150 billion in income losses this year as a result of cheap oil prices. The drop in revenues stemming from the export of oil is the direct result of the plunge in crude prices from around $115 a barrel in the middle of 2014 to below $30 at the start of the year and now above $40, the IMF said. The loss in potential revenues has put an enormous strain on the economies of major oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who have posted massive budget deficits in the past year. The IMF had previously calculated that the declining energy prices would erase around $360 billion […]

wsj.com

Tesla’s Elon Musk simplifies how dumb our oil dependency is

Both recyclable Now compare how much gasoline is needed for an average car: say 15000 miles / year, 25 mpg, that’s about 600 gallons, or about 3600 pounds of gas per year, which in turn generates about 11000 pounds of CO2 per year. That’s well over twice the weight of the posited automobile, and we’re back to Musk’s original point about burning fossil fuels. [new] Please explain how burning 3600 lbs of fuel What never gets mentioned in this discussion is that once we burn up all the petroleum for fuel, what are we going to use for lubricants? Even electric cars (as well as every other machine on the face of the Earth) need lubrication, and petroleum-based ones are far and away the best, most cost-effective, and long-lasting. Burning it as fuel is stupid and wasteful on this point alone, not to mention all […]

dailykos.com

Just Awful: "Beautiful Cambodian Tigers Functionally Extinct"

CLIMATE NEWS

Image result for cute tiger cubs wallpaper hd

Tigers Are Now Extinct In A Country Where They Used To Thrive

Six years after 13 countries pledged to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2020, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) declared tigers “functionally extinct” in Cambodia on Wednesday.

According to WWF, the last wild tiger in the country was observed in 2007 thanks to a hidden camera in the Mondulkiri Protected Forest. Cambodia, one of the 13 countries in the world where tigers live, has approved a plan to reintroduce tigers into the Mondulkiri protected forest in eastern Cambodia, the Guardian reports. “We want two male tigers and five to six females tigers for the start,” said Keo Omaliss, director of the department of wildlife and biodiversity at the Forestry Administration, according to the Guardian. “This is a huge task.”

Though it may be a huge task, the announcement comes a week after researchers said in a studythat forest loss has been lower than expected in tiger habitats, so there is enough space for tigers to come back from the brink of extinction, if habitats are preserved. Habitats are critical for any species, said Anup Joshi, one of the study’s authors, “and especially so with tigers, which need large areas to survive.”

Tigers are solitary animals apart from the connection between mother and cub. They traverse large territories and their size is determined mostly by the availability of prey. Joshi, a conservation biologist at the University of Minnesota, told ThinkProgress that out of the 76 conserved landscapes where tigers live, 29 were recognized as areas where tiger populations could double.

Today's ENERGY News - 25 April 2016

Saudi Aramco IPO Could Be 5% of Value

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the largest energy firm in the world, is considering listing up to 5% of its value on a stock exchange in New York within the next year, a top Saudi oil official said Thursday. By listing even a tiny fraction of the company, known as Saudi Aramco, the offering would create one of the world’s most valuable energy firms. Estimates of Saudi Aramco’s value have varied, but using a conservative number of $2.5 trillion , a 5% listing would give it a potential value of $125 billion—bigger than BP BP -0.38 % PLC and French oil titan Total SA TOT -0.49 % . The Saudis are considering listing Aramco at a time when the kingdom is trying to raise cash during a period of sharply lower oil prices and transition […]

wsj.com

The $2 Trillion Project to Get Saudi Arabia’s Economy Off Oil

Eight unprecedented hours with “Mr. Everything,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Prince Mohammed Early last year, at a royal encampment in the oasis of Rawdat Khuraim, Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia visited his uncle, King Abdullah, in the monarch’s final days before entering a hospital. Unbeknown to anyone outside the House of Saud, the two men, separated in age by 59 years, had a rocky history together. King Abdullah once banned his brash nephew, all of 26 at the time, from setting foot in the Ministry of Defense after rumors reached the royal court that the prince was disruptive and power-hungry. Later, the pair grew close, bound by a shared belief that Saudi Arabia must fundamentally change, or else face ruin in a world that is trying to leave oil behind. For two years, encouraged by the king, the prince had been quietly planning a major restructuring of […]

bloomberg.com

Eni Hopes To Develop Supergiant Gas Field By 2017

Egypt offers a bright spot for natural gas development, a lone bright spot in an energy world undergoing harsh austerity. The friendly business environment in Egypt right now stems, in part, from a painful shortage in energy. Egypt has suffered blackouts due to shortages in natural gas, and has been scrambling to make up for the shortfall. Natural gas prices are regulated, and the state gas company, EGAS, has offered generous prices for gas in order to attract investment. The Financial Times reports that the blackouts have eased a bit since 2015. But a more enduring solution could soon arrive as Italian oil giant Eni develops the gigantic Zohr natural gas discovery in the Mediterranean Sea. The field could hold 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to make it the largest gas discovery ever recorded in the Mediterranean. Eni announced the discovery in the summer of 2015, […]

oilprice.com

Police Patrol Gas Stations as Nigeria Gripped by Fuel Crisis

Nigeria deployed police and soldiers to gasoline stations to maintain order as fuel shortages grip Africa’s biggest oil producer. The most severe fuel scarcity in a year in Africa’s most populous nation has left motorists paying more than double the government’s official price for gasoline and put increasing pressure on a stagnating economy that’s been hit by tumbling oil prices. The national statistics office blames the shortages, which have been on and off since May and have peaked again in the last month, for contributing to an 8 percent drop in labor productivity in the fourth quarter. “The fuel industry is holding the whole economy to ransom,” Nema Ramkhelawan-Bhana, an analyst at Rand Merchant Bank in Johannesburg, said by phone. “Nigeria is already suffering from low oil prices, and now fuel shortages are exacerbating […]

bloomberg.com

Death Toll in Mexico Petrochemical Plant Blast Rises to 13

The death toll from an explosion at a petrochemical plant owned by chemicals company Mexichem SAB and state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos has risen to 13, Pemex Chief Executive José Antonio González Anaya said Thursday. The explosion Wednesday afternoon at the plant at Coatzacoalcos, in Veracruz state, also injured 136, of whom 88 remained hospitalized, Mr. González Anaya said in an interview on Mexico’s Televisa network. A number are in serious condition and the number of casualties could increase as work continues at the site, he added. The fire was under late Wednesday, and there was no danger to communities in the area, officials said. The plant produces vinyl chloride used for making PVC plastic. The apparent cause of the blast was a leak at the plant, where raw materials include chlorine and […]

wsj.com

Venezuela Plans Electricity Outages to Save Energy

President Nicolás Maduro’s government said on Thursday that it would cut electrical power by four hours a day for 40 days across much of Venezuela to save energy, even though the country is already reeling from frequent blackouts. The rationing will begin Monday in 10 of Venezuela’s 23 states, said Electricity Minister Luis Motta Dominguez. The move would cover many of the country’s largest cities, including the capital. Mr. Motta said the cuts were necessary to reduce electricity consumption in homes, as the government awaits rain needed to power the turbines at El Guri, a massive hydroelectric dam in eastern Venezuela that provides 65% of the country’s power supply. “With God’s help, the rains will come,” said Mr. Motta, who called the sacrifice patriotic and asked Venezuelans to show solidarity. The announcement comes […]

wsj.com

Sunday, 24 April 2016

Goldman Sachs Pegs $20-40 as New #Oil Order Range

THE NEW OIL ORDER" AND THE COMMODITY CYCLE

After a decade-long “investment phase” that helped unleash the shale revolution, oil is seeking a new equilibrium between supply and demand. Jeff Currie, head of Commodities Research for Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs, describes how the market has entered an “exploitation phase” that puts downward pressure on prices.

PUTTING SENSE TO AN INDUSTRY'S TRANSFORMATION

MAKING SENSE OF OIL VOLATILITY

“Our outlook going forward…is that prices will likely remain trendless, with significant volatility between operational stress at $20 a barrel and financial stress at $40 a barrel.”

– Jeff Currie

2016 GLOBAL OIL INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

"The position that we are likely to be in by the end of 2016 is a more balanced physical market, but a supply chain that is still highly deflationary and the full equilibrium price over time will keep shifting lower."

– Michele Della Vigna