The Oil Drum

Record coal prices hammer power generators

Record high coal prices and tight supply are piling the pressure on electricity generators already hit by soaring oil markets and high gas prices, industry players say.

..."I do believe that before the end of the year it's possible that some generators in Asia will have to look at turning off their plants because they won't have enough coal," said a coal producer.

Oil futures jump $2 after report

Oil futures jumped more than $2 a barrel Wednesday, pulling gasoline futures higher after the government reported that inventories of crude oil at a key Oklahoma terminal fell last week. Gas prices at the pump, meanwhile, extended their decline.

Coffeyville refinery shut to Sept, debt rating cut

Independent U.S. refiner Coffeyville Resources' debt ratings were cut on Monday as an industry source said the company's flooded Kansas refinery was unlikely to restart until early September.

Moody's Investors Service pushed Coffeyville's corporate family rating deeper into speculative territory, cutting it from B2 to B3 amid uncertainty over the losses Coffeyville faces from the shutdown of the refinery and an associated oil spill.

"Accumulating risks" to world energy supply: NPC

When Bodman called for the study in October 2005, he asked the council to study the concept of "peak oil," whether the globe was running out of hydrocarbons.

"Perspectives vary widely on the ability of supply to keep pace with growing world demand for oil and natural gas," Bodman wrote at the time.

In a draft letter to Bodman outlining its findings, the group says, "The world is not running out of energy resources, but there are accumulating risks to continuing expansion of oil and natural gas production from the conventional sources relied upon historically."

The group calls for "a new assessment of the global oil and natural gas endowment and resources to provide more current data for the continuing debate."

US consumers pay highest energy bills in decades

The summer heat is sweltering, so you turn up the air conditioning. The kids need a trip to the beach, but first you need to fill up the family car. And your freelance business requires that you spend a few hours on the computer tonight.

Kilowatts, gallons — they all add up. Energy is now sucking money out of Americans' bank accounts at a record level — hitting $612 billion at an annual rate in the month of April, the last month of data. Over the past two years, energy bills as a share of income have risen and are now at their highest point since 1987, but still below the levels of the 1970s and early 1980s. For low-income households, some economists estimate energy consumption as a percentage of income is closing in on 10 percent.

BP's number-cruncher bows out with harsh words for Whitehall

Most of us have a vague idea that North Sea oil production has lately been slowing down. But by how much?

I looked up the answer in BP's annual Statistical Review of World Energy, published earlier this month. Packed full of information about global energy markets, it is a highly authoritative data source in a notoriously murky area.

Well, the UK's ability to extract the black gold is declining at an alarming rate. This country pumped an average of 1.63m barrels a day during 2006 - 10 per cent less than the year before.

Complicated Symmetry Between Oil and Politics

The major issue here is "that you go from 79 million barrels a day in 2002 to 84.5 million in 2004. You're leaping by two to three million barrels a day" each year. That's like a whole new Saudi Arabia every couple of years. It can't be done indefinitely," former senior Aramco executive Al-Huseini commented.

Pentagon Forming 'Africom' Amid Threats to Resources

The Pentagon is to reorganize its military command structure in response to growing fears that the United States is seriously ill-equipped to fight the war against terrorism in Africa.

It is a dramatic move, and an admission that the US must reshape its whole military policy if it is to maintain control of Africa for the duration of what Donald Rumsfeld has called "the long war." Suddenly the world's most neglected continent is assuming an increasing global importance as the international oil industry begins to exploit more and more of the west coast of Africa's abundant reserves.

Gazprom bid to cut off China gas

Russian energy giant Gazprom has asked the government to cancel an agreement to pipe large quantities of gas to China from fields in Siberia.

Alexander Ananenkov, the group's deputy chief executive, said plans to deliver 80bn cubic metres of gas a year to China would leave Russia short.

Oil prices up on Nigerian strike threat

Nigerian oil unions called a general nationwide strike to begin Wednesday in protest of a government price hike on automobile fuel. Also supporting energy prices were attacks on two Nigerian oil facilities by angry villagers and gunmen, which cut oil output.

"You've got kind of a double-whammy out of Nigeria," said Kevin Saville, managing editor for the Americas energy desk at Platts, the energy research arm of the McGraw-Hill Cos.

Oil Nears $70 for First Time in 9 Months on Nigeria Strike Plan

Oil production is likely to be affected during the strike as Nigeria's two main oil unions plan to participate, a labor leader said. Nigeria produces low-sulfur, or sweet, crude oil, prized by U.S. refiners because of the high proportion of gasoline it yields.