Free Republic

Ukraine as an energy independent country is a key task, which the Government is trying to solve, said Vice Prime Minister-Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Volodymyr Hroisman at a briefing at the Government House. He has informed that Ukraine is to reduce natural gas consumption by 5 billion cubic meters by 2020 and hereby save UAH 8.6 billion of the State budget expenditures for compensation allocating to Naftogaz of Ukraine in order to cover the difference between the purchase price of imported natural gas and the price of natural gas supplied by heat-generating enterprises for the production...

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law a bill ending the Tarheel State’s moratorium on energy production via hydraulic fracturing. Fracking to Begin in 2015 The governor’s action ends a 2012 moratorium on hydraulic fracturing—also known as fracking—that was imposed to provide time for fracking-specific regulations to be drafted. It also terminates a decade-old fracking ban. The North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission continues to work on fracking regulations, which are scheduled to be finalized by January 1, 2015. They would go into effect in March 2015, with the first drilling permits becoming available on July 1, 2015....

Some climate change proponents are saying the huge amounts of methane gas, stored under the Arctic ice is a potential "ticking time bomb." They claim that we must stop extracting fossil fuels that put more CO2 into our atmosphere or face disaster. Methane is only one of a number of gases called greenhouse gases (GHG) that can absorb and emit infrared radiation, or in other words, this means they can trap and absorb heat. The most abundant GHG is water vapor, followed by carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFC's. By measuring atmospheric infrared radiation, climatologists are able to...

---snip--- Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines have been forming an alliance against China, as China has been moving to annex other countries' territories in the South and East China Seas. Relations between Vietnam and China have become particularly hostile since China deployed an oil rig in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). (See "China's neighbors react to new South China Sea claims" from last week.) Now Australia is signaling that it is also joining this alliance. The change in policy was indicated in a statement by Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, during a visit by Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe to...

Dwindling revenue from North Sea oil will increase the pressure on government finances over the coming decades, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR has cut its estimate of tax income from the North Sea between 2020 and 2041 by a quarter, to £40bn. The fall is down to lower production forecasts over the next few years. But its assessment was dismissed as "stuff and nonsense" by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. The Scottish government has argued that the OBR figures are based on a "very low estimate of future total production", which resulted in them being...

Fuel costs, which depend on vehicle fuel economy, miles driven, and fuel price, are an important factor in vehicle purchasing decisions. However, fuel economy improvement exhibits diminishing returns in fuel savings. For example, switching from a 10-mile-per-gallon (mpg) vehicle to a 15-mpg vehicle saves more fuel and results in greater fuel cost savings than switching from a 25-mpg vehicle to a 75-mpg vehicle. The fuel and cost savings of improving fuel economy from 12 mpg to 15 mpg are the same as increasing from 30 mpg to 60 mpg. Much of the reduction in fuel consumption and fuel cost comes...

Houston outpaced every city in the nation in annual wage growth during the second quarter, thanks largely to a bump in oil and gas-industry pay, according to PayScale. The Seattle-based pay tracker said the city’s 3 percent rise in annual wages beat the national average of 1.8 percent from April to June. That’s the second consecutive quarter that Houston wage-earners beat the national average, after a sluggish 2013 that saw pay in the energy capital flatten. (Average wage earners weren’t the only ones who had flat paydays last year: Some compensation packages for the chief executives of oil and gas...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Obama administration's attempt to assuage farmers' and ranchers' fears about a major Clean Water Act proposal has drawn flak from all corners, forcing the U.S. EPA administrator herself to concede yesterday that there are "legitimate concerns" with the effort. At issue is the interpretive rule for agriculture that the Obama administration released in March in tandem with a major proposal to increase the number of streams and wetlands that receive automatic Clean Water Act protection following years of regulatory uncertainty. Administrator Gina McCarthy said on a call with reporters yesterday that the interpretive rule was intended...

The fate of a chicken-size bird carries huge economic and political stakes across the West. The sage grouse, long a threat to the thriving energy sector, is also a threat to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The ground-dwelling bird, which has habitat across Nevada and 10 other states, could be listed as a threatened or endangered species as soon as next year. Such a designation would place burdensome restrictions on the use of tens of millions of acres by ranchers, farmers, and oil and natural gas producers. Environmental organizations that want a halt to ranching and fossil fuel development are...

At a recent town hall meeting in Edmond, Oklahoma, local citizens gathered to discuss the possible connection between fracking and increased seismic activity in their area. According to one published report, members of the audience left “disappointed” that no consensus had been reached linking fracking and seismic activity. According to the same report, many in the audience appeared to be “hostile to the oil and gas industry.” Even in this most oil-friendly of states, it seems, there is a rush to judgment linking fracking to every conceivable sort of damage.

The EU wants the US to lift its restrictions on exporting gas and crude oil as part of ongoing trade talks, according to a leaked European Commission document. The strategy paper by the EU executive, obtained by the Washington Post, calls for “a legally binding commitment … guaranteeing the free export of crude oil and gas resources”. EU and US trade officials will hold their sixth round of talks on an ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in Brussels next week, which officials argue could be worth €100 billion per year, equivalent to an additional 0.5 percent of EU...

The Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico is the nation's most prolific oil producing area. Six formations within the basin have provided the bulk of Permian's 60% increase in oil output since 2007. Crude oil production in the Permian Basin has increased from a low point of 850,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2007 to 1,350,000 bbl/d in 2013. Largely as a result of this growth, crude oil production from Permian Basin counties has exceeded production from the federal offshore Gulf of Mexico region since March 2013, making the Permian the largest crude oil producing region in the United...

Call it a double whammy for the planet or simply irony with a capital “I.” As the invaluable Michael Klare, TomDispatch regular and author of The Race for What’s Left, points out today, if you scan the planet for conflict, what you’ll find from Syria and Iraq to the South China Sea are a series of energy wars -- fossil-fuel conflicts to be exact. At present, despite some hopeful signs, this crazed planet of ours is still a ravenous beast that only fossil fuels can sate. No question that conflicts and wars are terrible things. Just consider the million new...

A wave of gas-to-liquids investments and other U.S. industrial projects will likely boost demand for natural gas by 19 to 31 percent through the end of the decade, a new study shows. After shale gas flooded U.S. markets, chemical makers and other firms planned enough gas-intensive industrial projects – now under construction or obtaining permits – to boost daily industrial gas demand from 19.6 to 23.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2020, according to the University of Texas’ Center for Energy Economics. All told, that’s an $83 billion venture. If all 144 proposed industrial projects are built,...

Michigan's 51st Circuit Court has ruled that Mason County was justified in determining that wind turbines at the Lake Winds Industrial Wind Plant near Ludington are too noisy. In his June 16 decision, Judge Richard Cooper denied Consumer Energy's appeal to have the court overturn the county's finding that the wind plant was exceeding the county's established decibel level limits. In a highly technical explanation, Judge Cooper said it was reasonable for the county to take into account the impact of maximum wind speeds that are not outside the norm. He also rejected the argument that excessive noise levels occurring...

Royal Dutch Shell is ending investments in a gas development project in Saudi Arabia. The emergence of the shale gas industry has opened up more lucrative opportunities for energy companies elsewhere. Shell has decided to end further investment in the Kidan area of the Empty Quarter, the sea of sand dunes that cover south-east Saudi Arabia. Italy's ENI, Spain's Repsol and France's Total - have already abandoned the search for commercially viable gas deposits in that part of Saudi Arabia. Kidan, rich in sour gas...

Energy companies invested hundreds of millions of dollars when they started extracting oil from shale formations in south Texas a few years ago to make the volatile crude was safer to handle, but the failure to do so at the Bakken shale is coming back to haunt the oil industry as the U.S. government seeks to prevent fiery accidents of trains containing North Dakota oil. Only one stabilizer, which can remove the most volatile gases before transport, has been built in North Dakota and it hasn't begun operation, according to a WSJ review; if the government mandates the use of...

Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations By Hailey Branson-Potts [skip to the last paragraph if you want to skip the nonsense.] Oklahoma ... boom ... recent years: oil and gas production and earthquakes. To many residents, the timing .... Before the oil and gas industry started drilling... rare to feel an earthquake. Today, Oklahoma... second-most seismically active state .... Now ... fresh scientific evidence .... Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Colorado say a large swarm of earthquakes ... caused by ... disposal wells, ... wastewater from drilling operations ... hydraulic fracturing ... deep geological formations.......

The chart above helps to illustrate how significantly US oil production has been impacted by the revolutionary drilling technologies of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, which have unlocked a bonanza of shale oil in the states of Texas and North Dakota. A decade ago, the combined conventional crude oil production in the states of Texas and North Dakota was only 1.165 million barrels per day (bpd), and represented less than 21% of total US crude oil output. By 2008, in the very early days of the US shale oil revolution, the newly tapped oil from deep shale rock formations...

Washington needs more money and if it doesn’t get it, your morning commute will become: a) more expensive b) more unpleasant c) both The problem, you see, is that the Highway Trust Fund is "going broke,” by the Beltway’s curious definition of the phrase. It is sort of the way that after a round of painful “cuts,” spending somehow still goes up. The Highway Trust Fund takes in more than 18 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold in this country, so there is plenty of revenue. Just not enough to meet Washington’s needs and desires. People are driving more...