Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Washington Post -- "...the public is very misinformed on the issue, with the average American believing that scientists are split 50/50 on the cause of global warming."
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Guardian Newspapers Limited -- Bankers’ accusations of trader price-rigging are fuelled by revenge — the real fixers are in OPEC

The bankers have finally got their revenge. Oil traders claim that influential bankers, furious that that their sector has been squeezed by regulators since the 2008 crash, have persuaded Brussels that oil traders should no longer be able to operate without the same rigorous rules. According to the bankers, oil traders behave worse than money brokers. And so the Eurocrats raided the offices of BP, Shell and Platts, comparing their investigation into oil price-rigging with the one into the bankers’ Libor scandal.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- The Coast Guard will kick off hearings Monday on how a Royal Dutch Shell PLC drill barge used for Arctic Ocean exploratory drilling ended up aground off a remote Alaska island.

The Kulluk was under tow and bound from the Aleutian Islands' Dutch Harbor to a Seattle shipyard when it ran into rough Gulf of Alaska water. It broke from its towing vessel, and after four days of futile attempted hookups, ran aground New Year's Eve in shallow water off Sitkalidak Island, near Kodiak Island.
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Associated Press -- Authorities believe the driver who plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Virginia mountain town parade suffered from a medical condition and did not cause the crash intentionally, an emergency official said Sunday.

Officials did not have a formal confirmation or any specifics on the condition, but based on the accounts of authorities and witnesses on the scene, they are confident the issue was medical, according to Pokey Harris, Washington County's director of emergency management. "There is no reason to believe this was intentional," she said.
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motley fool -- Most people don't realize how much GM actually took from taxpayers, and how little it's given back. If I told you GM has repaid only $6.7 billion out of the $49.5 billion in loans it was given, would you be surprised? If I told you the expected loss to the U.S. Treasury of roughly $12 billion isn't even a fraction of the real cost, would you believe me? If not, you might be in for a nasty surprise.

Consider that the only true loan GM received from the U.S. government was for $6.7 billion at 7% interest, which it has since repaid. The majority of the nearly $50 billion was in stock purchases by the U.S. Treasury at a price that GM didn't lose money when recently rebuying shares.

Also consider that GM was "gifted" tax losses from the "Old GM" corporation in amounts of $45 billion.  (go to article)

The Motley Fool -- The gushing oil well at Spindletop Dome in Beaumont, Texas, is one of the most iconic images in the history of oil. When the well hit paydirt, oil spewed 150 feet into the air at a staggering rate of 100,000 barrels per day.

We've come a long way since that Spindletop gusher 112 years ago, and today's industry faces greater challenges finding new sources that can be sold at a reasonable rate of return.

On a recent conference call, Core Laboratories CEO David Demshur stated that outside some of the best spots in the U.S., oil producers in the U.S. will slow down exploration if oil prices are to remain below $90 for a sustained amount of time. Let's look at a few factors that might give some credence to Demshur's claim...  (go to article)

Smitsonian -- Visions of driverless cars zipping around on the highways of the future are nothing new. Visions of automated highways date back to at least the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and the push-button driverless car was a common dream depicted in such midcentury utopian artifacts as 1958's Disneyland TV episode “Magic Highway, U.S.A.” But here in the 21st century there’s a growing sense that the driverless car might actually (fingers crossed, hope to die) be closer than we think. And thanks to the progress being made by companies like Google (not to mention just about every major car company), some even believe that driverless vehicles could become a mainstream reality within just five years.  (go to article)

Business Insider -- Canada's oil sand mines will eventually produce up to 2 trillion barrels of oil and what that could mean for the environment has been debated for years. What's often overlooked though is a coke byproduct that results from refining the tar-like bitumen of the oil sands into oil.

Coke is a low-quality type of coal and the Marathon Petroleum plant in Detroit has made overlooking its role in the oil sands debate impossible to ignore. The refinery was built on the Detroit River more than 70 years ago but began refining Canadian oil sand deliveries just last November.

The coke waste started accumulating then. The New York Times writes that now the mound of coke towers three stories above the street, covers an entire city block, and is owned by Koch Carbon controlled by David and Charles Koch.  (go to article)

http://www.fivecentnickel.com -- Don’t ride your brakes. Driving with your foot on the brake not only wears out your brakes, but can also reduce fuel efficiency by 35%. Take your foot off the brake, and you can save the equivalent of $1.35/gallon.

Drive more smoothly. By accelerating and decelerating smoothly, you can improve your mileage by 33% on the highway and 5% around town. This works out to an equivalent of $0.68/gallon. See “Hack Your MPG” for my experience with driving smarter to save gas.

(tie) Check your air filter. Having a clean air filter can improve mileage by as much as 10%, or an equivalent of $0.39/gallon.
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Dallas Morning News -- Flower Mound resident Jay Squyres is passionate about going green.

He’s a proud owner of one of the first Tesla electric vehicles in the Dallas area. The car has “NO OPEC” emblazoned on the license plate.

But his strong — some might say extreme — commitment to solar energy has put him at odds with his homeowners association. It’s also prompted some officials to consider whether new regulations are needed to govern solar panels in residential areas.

Squyres is unapologetic about his quest to wean himself from fossil fuels.

“The state law says we can put [solar panels] on roofs and yards and they can’t stop them,” said the 44-year-old businessman, who was sued last year by the Wellington of Flower Mound Residential Association.

A mediated settlement was recently reached in the case.  (go to article)

Washington Post -- The Web site Insurance.com has created a tool that allows drivers to estimate the percentage rate increase for 14 common violations. It’s called the “Uh-Oh! Calculator.”

A ticket for not wearing your seat belt could increase your insurance rate by about 3 percent, according to Insurance.com, which provides consumer insurance information and quotes.

“We decided to develop the calculator because average rate increases for common traffic violations were not widely known or reported, yet everyone is curious about it,” said Michelle Megna, managing editor of Insurance.com. “Naturally, you know how much the ticket costs and you realize your car insurance rates are likely to go up, but after that, it’s a bit of a black hole. No one really knows what to expect in specific dollar amounts.”  (go to article)

kentucky.com -- The push for mass coal exports from Washington state, already facing a huge environmental battle, also could get hit with slowing Chinese demand for coal shipments.

The American coal industry, stung by a drop in U.S. demand, hopes to revive its fortunes by sending Rocky Mountain coal to Asia from proposed terminals near Bellingham and Longview, Wash.

But a recent report by Wall Street colossus Goldman Sachs says this will be a transformational year for China, with its seaborne coal imports dropping for the first time since the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and continuing to decline in the coming years. China’s own coal production has spiked, Goldman Sachs said, along with investment in Chinese railroads to move its coal.

China, with its cities shrouded in smog, also is  (go to article)

cnbc.com -- The Obama administration's plan to expand exports of natural gas makes sense, and the price for the commodity shouldn't be kept artificially low, T. Boone Pickens said Wednesday on CNBC.

"The producers have gone out and drilled for the natural gas. They should be entitled to get the best markets in the world, so let them have it," the chairman of BP Capital Management and proponent of natural gas told "Squawk on the Street."

"Why would you try to keep natural gas prices down to favor other industries?" Pickens asked. "It doesn't make sense. When you export that natural gas, you're going to create a lot of jobs.

When asked about the response of U.S. companies, such as the private firm Koch Industries, to the prospect of rising natural gas prices, Pickens said they had already benef  (go to article)

Post-Gazette -- You've heard of house flipping. Now, lease flipping has come to Pennsylvania's natural gas fields.

A wave of investment firms hoping to cash in on drilling in the Marcellus Shale is appearing in deed books across the region. They operate much like traditional land agents, negotiating with landowners to secure rights to the lucrative shale gas underneath the acreage.

The difference? The landowners have already leased access to the land to gas drillers, and signing away the rights now can mean forfeiting any future royalties that may come with gas production.

"It's a gamble," said Martin Schardt, executive vice president of the American Association of Professional Landmen. "The landowner can get the money right now, or the company could drill on that land and it could be a real barn-burne  (go to article)

AP -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department on Friday conditionally approved a Texas company's proposal to export liquefied natural gas, only the second such project allowed to move forward amid a production boom that has led to glut of domestic natural gas.

The action would allow Freeport LNG Expansion L.P. to export up to 1.4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day from its terminal near Freeport, Texas, south of Houston. The DOE said granting such a permit for shipments to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the U.S. was in the public interest.

Freeport is the second export project to win Energy Department authorization, following the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Cameron Parish, La.

Energy companies are seeking federal permits for more than 20 export projects  (go to article)

WSJ --
Energy Firms Showcase Natural Gas Cars
North American energy producers are showcasing natural gas powered vehicles next month in an effort to drum up interest in using the fuel for mass-market passenger cars. Photo: BMW
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Bradenton Herald -- The oil industry is primed for resurgence in Southwest Florida.

Fueled by lofty oil prices, more efficient drilling techniques and the promise of untapped but also largely unproven reservoirs, at least a half-dozen companies plan to expand exploration across the region.

They've quietly spent between $10 million and $20 million over the last few years, by the estimate of one industry executive, to buy mineral rights covering massive swaths of Collier, Lee and Hendry counties.

Now, drilling is picking up, with companies reviving long-abandoned fields and low-producing wells in and bordering the Big Cypress National Preserve, the historic heart of oil operations that go back 70 years. They also aim to poke prospecting "wildcat" wells into new areas like a tomato farm in Immokalee and...  (go to article)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- As a paid engineering intern the last two summers at Exxon Mobil's Joliet Refinery in Channahon, Ill., Megan DeGraaf worked on projects that her full-time colleagues considered low priority. But the results she produced on equipment and pipe designs were solid enough that the oil giant offered her a permanent position.

In August, the recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh will join Exxon Mobil as a mechanical contact engineer at the Joliet downstream refinery where oil is processed for retail consumption.

Though she didn't set her sights on a career in energy when she enrolled at Pitt, Ms. DeGraaf joins a steadily growing number of women landing jobs in the burgeoning oil and gas industry.

Of 3,900 positions added in oil and gas nationwide in the first quarter of 2013, almost..  (go to article)

The Telegraph -- Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa and in the desert region to its east that are now in rebel hands - in particular Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda off-shoot which is the strongest faction in this part of the country.

Now the violently anti-Western jihadist group, which has been steadily extending its control in the region, is selling the crude oil to local entrepreneurs, who use home-made refineries to produce low-grade petrol and other fuels for Syrians facing acute shortages.

The ability of Jabhat al-Nusra to profit from the oil locally, despite international sanctions which have hindered its sale abroad, will be particularly worrying to the European Union, which has voted to ease the embargo but at the same time wants to...  (go to article)

National Post -- Last Friday, a bizarre object fell from the skies above Vernon, B.C., and lodged itself in the trees on the edge of an elementary school field. When the dust settled, curious students found themselves gazing at the smashed remains of a Maverick, an experimental flying car resembling a miniature vintage roadster. Even stranger than its appearance, however, are the Maverick’s origins: Developed by Steve Saint, the son of an famed American Evangelical missionary who was killed by Ecuadorian tribesmen, the car was conceived in part as a high-tech way to conduct missionary work in some of the most remote corners of the world.

It’s a road-worthy, street-legal vehicle styled after a PT Cruiser or a Dodge Prowler; they were going for a 1950s look. And when we want to fly, we basically need to f  (go to article)

NewsOK HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) -- A Hastings ethanol plant that announced in February that it would temporarily shut down will not reopen.
The Ag Processing Inc. cooperative said Friday that it is permanently shutting down the 55-million-gallon-a-year plant, citing the plant's age and high utility costs associated with running it.

Officials had cited a slowdown in the economy, high corn prices and low oil prices for the temporary shutdown.
Matt Caswell, vice president of corporate relations with AGP in Omaha, said the company didn't see "any turn-around in the industry anytime soon."
Most of the plant's 43 employees found jobs within AGP's other operations in Hastings. AGP also operates a soybean processing plant, vegetable oil refinery and an AminoPlus production facility in the city.
APG says none of those facilities...  (go to article)

USA Today -- Making 1 million of anything is quite an achievement. But 1 million Jeeps is truly special.

It happened Friday at Chrysler Group's Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio. As soon as the 2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 10th Anniversary Edition rolled off the line, there was a big celebration.

Symbolizing the cooperation that made it happen, the black Jeep was driven by a Chrysler Group vice president, Mauro Pino, and the United Auto Worker's Jeep Unit chairman, Local 12, Dan Henneman.

After all, the Jeep Wrangler is a symbol of America. Its forerunner having played a crucial role in winning World War II, today's Wrangler stands for blazing new trails and rugged American know-how. It's a product of the heartland.

"Every Jeep Wrangler sold to customers around the world is born in Toledo, Ohio," ...  (go to article)

Quad-City Times -- Lea Kaskadden of Davenport pulled up to the pump at the Sara Mini Mart at River Drive and Myrtle Street in Davenport in one of two SUVs she and her husband drive. Attached to this SUV was the couple’s boat.

The cheap gasoline was $3.89 a gallon.

“We’re filling up the SUV before gas goes any higher,” Kaskadden said, adding that she could not believe how fast fuel has risen in the past couple of weeks.

But it was the boat they wanted filled, she said, “before we put it in the water. On the river, gasoline is 50 to 60 cents a gallon higher.”

Sara Mini Mart store manager Aban Baral said the price of gasoline at his store has gone up about 60 cents in 10 days.

“We’re having trouble keeping stocks of gasoline because people are trying to buy it before it goes up even more,” Baral said....  (go to article)

Motley Fool -- First up are exploration and production companies, or E&Ps, which are tasked with actually finding the shale oil and getting it out of the ground. While they're in the riskiest part of the business, they can offer considerable upside, provided commodity prices don't collapse.

Over the past few years, many E&Ps have seen continuous efficiency improvements through pad drilling and other techniques, which has helped them lower costs while maintaining strong rates of production growth. In North Dakota's Bakken shale, for instance, Continental Resources, the leading producer in the play, reported a $1 million decline in its average well costs and 58% growth in production last year, while Kodiak Oil & Gas, an oil and gas junior that also has a major presence in the Bakken, said its well ...  (go to article)

CS Monitor -- The US Department of Energy approved Friday the country's first liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminal since 2011.

It's a shift in policy that opens up America's newfound – and vast – natural gas resources to world markets. Advocates say they will improve the US trade balance and provide a boost for the natural gas industry, creating more jobs. The announcement is also a boost to key US allies, especially Japan, which has been lobbying the Obama administration to allow LNG exports as it transitions away from nuclear power.

But US consumers and manufacturers have benefited from the oversupply in the form of lower energy costs. Natural gas prices, which in March 2012 reached a 13-year low, will soar with the increase in foreign demand, critics warn. There are environmental concerns, a  (go to article)

Orlando Sentinel -- Motorists soon may find it harder — and more expensive — to fight tickets issued when red-light cameras snap their photos.

The red-light-camera changes would take effect in July if Gov. Rick Scott signs a massive transportation bill that includes the new regulations. A spokesman said Scott is reviewing the measure (HB 7125) but would not comment further.

Proponents of the changes are primarily state, city and county officials who have set up at least 400 cameras operating statewide so far. They say the revisions would streamline the process and do away with some of what they believe are unfair objections used to rescind tickets.

"Courts were doing all kinds of different things with this," said Jodi Litchford, Orlando's deputy city attorney.

But John Bowman of the National Motorists Ass  (go to article)

CNBC -- The shale is booming. Citigroup has already dubbed the U.S. "The new Middle East," as the country enters the era of energy independence. Shale will serve as a boon to the broader economy: Citi projects that shale oil and gas finds will add millions of jobs over the next decade and provide as much as a 3% boost to GDP.

Shale finds have already caused an unprecedented drop in natural gas prices, buoying its use as a source in power generation. But renewable energy growth hasn't slowed. 2012 was a record year for U.S. solar installations, the nation's fastest-growing energy source. Solar now produces enough electricity to power 1.2 million homes, and with the price of solar panels going through its own unprecedented slide in the past few years, the economic case for solar has improved as we  (go to article)

The Detroit Bureau -- The “driving boom is over,” or so says a new study of American attitudes towards the automobile.
After decades of adding more cars to their household fleet while moving further and further out into the suburbs, Americans are waiting longer to get licensed, driving less and increasingly turning to alternatives such as mass transit or car-sharing programs, according to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG.  (go to article)

Miami Herald -- RACCOON POINT -- Winding into Big Cypress National Preserve, 11 Mile Road isn’t much wider than an old swamp buggy trail and can handle only one-way traffic. Safety rules on the private road limit the speed of Ricky Stechmann’s pickup and require him to radio his location every half mile. “Marker 7, incoming.’’ Two minutes later. “Marker 8, incoming.” And so on. It’s a long, slow, invitation-only drive to the largest oil drilling operation in South Florida. For decades, isolation has helped keep the small oil industry largely out of sight and mind. Neighbors are typically surprised when Stechmann, who manages several drilling fields in the sprawling preserve for BreitBurn Energy Partners, tells them what he does for a living. “They usually say, ‘You do what where?’ ” he says in the soft  (go to article)

Christian Science Monitor -- A decade ago I would have said that ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) was the best-managed oil company among the international oil companies. Today, I believe that distinction goes to Chevron (NYSE: CVX). Qhile ExxonMobil may be considered the pace-setter in the integrated oil and gas business, Chevron has outperformed its larger rival over the past five years. Chevron pays a slightly higher dividend than XOM (3.3 percent versus 2.8 percent), and its share price has appreciated 22 percent over the past five years, versus 2 percent for ExxonMobil. (Keep in mind that this includes the oil price crash of 2008). Over the last 10 years, Chevron is up an impressive 265 percent, versus 156% for ExxonMobil. During the oil price plunge in the second half of 2008, Chevron's share price only fell 10 percent  (go to article)

Bismarck Tribune -- BISMARCK, N.D. _ North Dakota’s top oil regulator says his office does enough to regulate fracking in the state.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is proposing a rule to require oil companies drilling on federal lands to publish chemicals used in fracking fluids and meet other permitting requirements that Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms said are already required by the state.

“This rule is not needed and should be withdrawn completely,” he said.

In North Dakota, every well drilled requires a state permit and already must publish chemicals used during fracking on the website the federal rule would require, FracFocus.org.  (go to article)

oilprice.com -- When thinking about where the next big oil discoveries will be made, Ireland is probably not up there on the list, however it may be time to add it.

Oil exploration in Irish waters tends to focus around the North Celtic Basin, a shallow stretch of water just off the coast of county Cork, where Providence Resources last year discovered 1.6 billion barrels of oil.

Providence has now begun to drill the Dunquin exploratory well with its partner ExxonMobil, in the deepwater Porcupine basin, some 200km off Ireland’s west coast. Hopes are high for the potential of Porcupine because it bears geological similarities to huge oil bearing fields off West Africa and French Guiana, where huge discoveries, such as the Jubilee field off Ghana, have been made in recent years.

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Downstream Today -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will allow Tesoro Inc. to go through with its plans to buy a BP Plc. owned refinery in southern California, bringing the two companies one step closer to sealing the deal sometime this quarter.

The FTC determined that Tesoro's purchase of the 266,000 bpd plant was unlikely to result in a meaningful reduction in competition or higher gasoline prices for California consumers.

Tesoro will spend about $2.38 billion to buy BP's southern California assets, including the Carson refinery in Los Angeles county...The deal will more than double Tesoro's refining capacity in California.

Tesoro plans to combine the Carson plant with its other Los Angeles area refinery in a move that it says will help bring manufacturing costs down by about $250 million.  (go to article)

CNN Money -- Some of the world's biggest oil companies may have a new mess on their hands.
The European Commission raided the offices of Shell, BP and Norway's Statoil this week as part of an investigation into suspected attempts to manipulate global oil prices spanning more than a decade.
None of the companies have been accused of wrongdoing, but the controversy has brought back memories of the Libor rate-rigging scandal that rocked the financial world last year.
UBS (UBS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays (BCS) have already reached settlements with regulators in the U.S. and U.K. over Libor-rigging, paying over $2.5 billion in fines after admitting to attempts to manipulate interest rates to appear more credit-worthy and to benefit trading positions.  (go to article)

Financial Post -- Albertans hurt by deep budget cuts due to shrinking provincial revenue from discounted bitumen prices may question the province’s bold buildup of its international presence.

To the extent that the new strategy, announced Friday in Calgary, helps AB deal with concerns about whether it’s a responsible oil producer, it is a necessity.

Without new export pipelines and new oil customers, the future of AB’s economy, and as a consequence the government’s ability to support its programs, is grim. The energy sector has dialed down growth plans while waiting for pipeline decisions to be made.

As oil sands critics continue to aggressively campaign in the U.S., Europe, across Canada and elsewhere against the use of AB’s oil, AB Premier Redford is deploying more Albertans abroad to ensure those making important decisions get a full view of the province’s major industry.

“Alberta has an export economy. We have plentiful natural resources. But the truth is  (go to article)

18 March 2013 By Jim Bentein .. -- "If it bleeds, it leads."

That's the mantra used often to describe the news media's penchant for giving violent crime, disasters and other bad news preference over good news.

So let's start with what we already know about the state of Canada's natural gas production sector—the bad news.

Gas prices are low, and they're not likely to rise much anytime soon.

The Alberta Natural Gas Reference Price, a monthly weighted average field price of all Alberta gas sales—as determined by the Alberta Department of Energy—shows that prices were under $2 per gigajoule for much of last year, plummeting to a low of $1.58 per gigajoule last May and never rising above $3 in any month in 2012.

And it won't get any better anytime soon, according to Bill Gwozd, senior vice-president of gas service  (go to article)

The Dally Record (A Gannet Company) -- The chief impetus for the changing world oil picture is the increase in production in the U.S. The U.S. created the world oil market more than a century ago and is the world’s biggest consumer, but domestic production was thought to be in permanent decline. Then drillers, inspired by high prices and armed with improving technology, learned how to produce oil from previously inaccessible rock under several U.S. states.

U.S. production reached 7.4 million barrels per day early this month, 48 percent higher than the average production in 2008 and the highest it’s been since February of 1992. The IEA expects U.S. production to reach 9.1 million barrels per day by 2018. The U.S. last produced that much oil in 1972.  (go to article)

The Motley Fool -- Americans spent more money on gasoline in 2012 than in any other year... ever. Meanwhile, here in 2013, retail gasoline prices spiked to $3.60 a gallon on average -- $3.94 on the West Coast -- the sharpest rise in prices seen in the past three months. And Iran is happy to hear it.

In fact, if the Islamic Republic has anything to say about it, Americans could wind up paying even more for gas than we already do. Right now, a barrel of benchmark crude costs about $95. But over the weekend, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi was quoted arguing that "the price of crude oil [should] remain at about $100." Ghasemi thinks that price "is fair, and Iran supports it."
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May 14, 2013 8:30 AM | By Ian Dickson for MSN Autos -- From the Jetsons to Blade Runner, the idea of the flying car has captivated commuters dreaming of congestion-free journeys and complete travel freedom.

Last week, aircar builder Terrafugia announced the TF-X, a new model that can take off vertically. The company is also planning a car called the Transition that will go on sale in 2015.

Is the reality of aircar travel finally here? We look back over nearly 100 years of man’s attempt to create a flying car and ponder if the idea of a car-plane will ever leave the ground?
.  (go to article)

Fuelfix.com -- Texas on Friday joined other Gulf Coast states suing BP for environmental damage caused by the 2010 oil spill.  (go to article)

New York Times -- Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.  (go to article)

Washington Post -- Late last year, Ford owners made headlines when they sued the automaker over inaccurate fuel economy claims for the Fusion Hybrid and C-Max Hybrid. According to the Detroit News, Ford now has another lawsuit on its hands -- this time, over its acclaimed EcoBoost engine.
The suit has been filed by three Ford owners from Ohio, who say that the company's six-cylinder EcoBoost engine is defective. The three claim that the engine has caused their vehicles to shudder and lose power during acceleration.  (go to article)

OilPrice.com -- An article by a contributing editor to The Atlantic, Charles C. Mann, is among those believing in the economic significance of fossil fuels. He claims that "Americans will be less likely to spend trillions on fancy no-oil cars if cheap petroleum is in abundant supply," which is debatable for two reasons:

First, new oil is harder to find, takes longer to develop and requires a lot more capital. We are not running out of oil. Although supply is indisputably important, the amount of oil that can be extracted at a reasonable cost should be more of a concern. Oil must be in the range of $50 per barrel to sustain economic growth, far below the current level of over $100 per barrel. Even when the price of oil in the U.S. (the WTI) dips, the price of gasoline does not decrease because it is ...  (go to article)

USA today -- U.S. public concern over a European probe into possible oil price manipulation escalated Friday as the head of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources urged the Justice Department to join the investigation.

The request from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., came after European Union investigators this week raided the offices of global energy giants BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil. The anti-trust probe is examining whether the companies manipulated oil prices by making false reports to Platts, an energy industry data service owned by McGraw Hill Financial.  (go to article)

MarketWatch -- The International Energy Agency said this week that a “supply shock” will essentially change the way the oil market works — and with change come opportunities, analysts said.

The supply shock the IEA referred to in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report comes from a surge in North American oil production, which the Paris-based agency said will “be as transformative to the market over the next five years as was the rise of Chinese demand over the last 15.”

That sounds pretty impressive — and it is. It just wasn’t that much of a surprise for many.

“Is it spectacular? Yes, but not a surprise,” said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics. “It’s like the 4th of July. You know the fireworks are coming but the display is still spectacular.”
 (go to article)

Journal Star -- Thanks to multiple refinery shutdowns, gasoline prices are soaring and could be headed toward a record.

As of Friday morning, AAA said the average price of regular unleaded in Nebraska was $3.89 a gallon, 11 cents more than on Thursday, 28 cents more than a week ago and 45 cents more than a month ago. The average in Lincoln also was $3.89 a gallon.

Rose White, a spokeswoman for AAA Nebraska, said prices were expected to keep climbing. Prices for regular unleaded are likely to top $4 in the next few days and could go as high as $4.18, White said.

That would break the all-time record average price for the state, which is $4.10, as well as Lincoln's all-time high of $4.16. Both records were reached in July 2008.

Minnesota already has hit a record high, and Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota an  (go to article)

NY Times -- WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.

Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.

And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- Have you gotten a ticket for running a red light? If you think the 'warning' time of your yellow light ran out a bit too fast, you may be right. And you might be able to make that case in court.

Apparently, when state DOTs reduce the yellow light time, that fraction of a second produces more money for the state. Imagine that. In Florida the state raked in an extra $50 million in 2012 just by reducing yellow light times by less than half a second.

How did they do it? According to WTSP-TV's Noah Pransky, the FDOT quietly changed the state's policy on yellow intervals in 2011, reducing the minimum below federal recommendations. The rule change was followed by engineers, both from FDOT and local municipalities, collaborating...  (go to article)

usnews.com -- Reports have debunked claims that fracking contaminates drinking water, but a new study says a lack of monitoring equipment may mask problems

Is hydraulic fracturing..bad for the environment?

..we don't really know what the impact of hydraulic fracturing has on the environment, according to a new paper, published in Science magazine Thursday that examines the potential effects..of the massive ramp up in production..

..density of monitoring sites in Pennsylvania is much lower than the density of wells, which raises the question of our ability to actually pick up [evidence of contamination] with our current monitoring network.

If somebody spills millions of gallons [of fracking wastewater], by the time you get down to where you have a gauge, you may not have picked it up at all  (go to article)

WKYT -- PIKEVILLE - Officials say around 250 coal jobs are coming to eastern KY.

High Ridge Mining plans to develop seven deep mines in Pike County which will employ 36 miners each.

"We are probably still a month off from doing our major majority of our hiring," said Kyle Smith.

He says the prep plant has been idled for about 10 years, and they are working to get it ready. Right now, the seven mines are also idled.

“Every time our coal industry hits rock bottom, it’s not the big national companies that bring it back, it’s the local companies,” Carlton said.(Smith) is taking advantage of the need for coal in foreign markets. This won’t be the last we hear about our coal being exported to Asia and Europe because the market for our coal is no longer domestic. Washington has killed our domestic  (go to article)

Reuters -- LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A European probe into possible oil price manipulation expanded with the investigation of a small niche trading house in the Netherlands, while a key U.S. senator on Friday called for the Justice Department to join the investigation.

Dutch trading house Argos Energies, a mid-sized trading company that deals in physical oil products and owns storage facilities, was visited by inspectors from the European Commission on Tuesday, a source familiar with the investigation said on Friday.

The visit occurred on the same day that authorities raided the London bureau of pricing agency Platts, and the offices of Statoil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP in the biggest cross-border action since the probe into rigging of Libor benchmark interest rates.
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