Crude prices at two week high
Prices rise after another spate of interest rate cut by Federal Reserve
Crude prices ended higher for the fifth consecutive day today, Wednesday, 30 January, 2008. Another spate of interest rate cut by Federal Reserve pushed crude prices to two week high. A lower interest rate has chances of helping the US economy warding off recession and thus boosts energy demand.
Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for February delivery today closed at $92.33/barrel (higher by $0.69/barrel or 0.8%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are 62% higher than a year ago. The contract traded between the range of $92.71 and $91.05.
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates 0.5% point to 3% today. This was after the 75 bps rate cut to 3.5% that Fed did last week. The interest rate cuts are to avoid the US economy from plunging into recession.
In the currency markets today, the dollar weakened against most of its major counterparts after the Fed rate cut. The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback against six other major currencies, declined 0.6% at 75.125.
EIA also reported the weekly inventory report today. U.S. crude inventories rose for a third week, up 3.6 million barrels to 293 million barrels in the week ended 25 January. Crude imports averaged about 10.1 million barrels per day last week, down 100,000 barrels per day from the previous week.
EIA also reported that U.S. gasoline supplies rose by 3.6 million barrels to 223.9 million in the week under review, while distillate supplies, which include heating oil and diesel, fell by 1.5 million barrels to 127 million. U.S. refineries operated at 85% of their operable capacity, down from the previous week’s 86.5%.
Crude had ended FY 2007 substantially higher by $35 or 57%. It was crude’s biggest yearly gain in five years.
Natural gas, gasoline and heating oil – all rise
Brent crude oil for March settlement today rose $0.53 (0.6%) to $92.53 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The London benchmark rose 54% in FY 2007, the most since 1999 when prices more than doubled.
Natural gas in New York rose on expectations that an interest-rate reduction by the Federal Reserve would boost the U.S. economy and lift demand for energy. Gas for March delivery rose 10.2 cents (1.3%) to settle at $8.045 per million British thermal units.
Against this backdrop, March reformulated gasoline rose 0.55 cents to $2.377 a gallon and March heating oil gained 1.12 cents to $2.544 a gallon.
Members of the OPEC left production targets unchanged at the 5 December meeting in Abu Dhabi. The group, which produces 40% of the world’s oil, will review output at a 1 February, 2008 meeting in Vienna. The cartel is expected to increase production.
At the MCX, crude oil for February delivery closed at Rs 3,608/barrel, higher by Rs 33 (0.92%) against previous day’s close. Natural gas for January delivery closed at Rs 315.4/mmtbu, higher by Rs 5.1/mmtbu (1.6%).
Tomorrow, EIA will report the inventory status of natural gas.
Sourse: Crude prices at two week high
Propane tank explosion
Was reading CSB’s email bulletin on the propane tank explosion at West Virginia (http://www.csb.gov/index.cfm?folder=news_releases&page=news&NEWS_ID=411) and I found this video of an propane tank explosion at Tacoma (don’t it’s the same accident). http://www.break.com/index/tacoma-propane-tank-explosion.html really powerful explosion…
Sourse: Propane tank explosion
Presidential Debates Brought to You By Coal
Watching the GOP debate tonight and the Democratic party debates tomorrow? Just a reminder that as in other debates so far and noted earlier by Jeremy here, they are brought to you by Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a front for the coal industry. Read our previous post and count the questions about global warming during the debates.
Sourse: Presidential Debates Brought to You By Coal
HBH Gas Systems to Install Central Propane System at Falconhead West Development Near Austin, Texas
HBH Gas Systems and Ferrellgas Partners, LP have announced the installation of a Central Propane Gas System to fuel the Falconhead West development located in Bee Cave, Texas just west of Austin. The propane system will provide propane gas utilities to all of the 453 lots that will be available at final build-out. Central Propane Systems provide propane gas utilities to developments located off the natural gas grid. The propane gas is metered and billed just like natural gas and is supplied from a single, centralized propane tank.
The Developer of Falconhead West wanted the marketing advantages of gas supplied and operated by a large, competent company that has demonstrated sufficient capacity to serve a development of this size. The team at HBH Gas Systems has unsurpassed expertise in the implementation of propane systems designed to serve off-grid developments. HBH Gas Systems will oversee the design and implementation of the propane system at Falconhead West, while Ferrellgas will own and operate the system.
Central Propane Systems offer the developer the option of steering their off-grid developments away from carbon-heavy electricity toward more sustainable development fueled by gas. These systems are economical, saving homeowners about 50% on their heating bills when compared to electric heating. A recent American Gas Association study showed that most homeowners demand the luxury of dual fuels for their cooking and heating requirements. Homeowners in Falconhead West will have the peace-of-mind associated with using an alternative green fuel as classified by the Clean Air Act and the Energy Policy Act.
Phase one of the Falconhead West development will consist of 166 lots, including 37 sixty-foot lots, 73 seventy-foot lots, 49 eighty-foot lots and 7 model lots. The expected house sizes range from 2,200 to 4,500 square feet with expected house prices ranging from $299,000 to $550,000.
Sourse: HBH Gas Systems to Install Central Propane System at Falconhead West Development Near Austin, Texas
Dr Ron Paul And the Pricey Price Of Fuel in the USA
These are revolutionary times again in the USA!
The patriot who started it all and got so many Americans out of apathy, away from their lounge chairs, and into the streets and also coordinating via the world wide web is Dr Ron Paul. His message is powerful…freedom, prosperity and peace. The expensive of fuel is something that lies across these three aspects of the movement. Certainly it pertains to prosperity and peace.
As regards to peace, Henry Kissinger and Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan have both admitted in recent months that the war in Iraq is about oil. (Since they admitted it and are known liars the real reason has to be even more tragic but let’s go forward with that for now)
As regards prosperity, the expensive price of fuel in the USA is an indicator of what is at fault with the the USA economic system.
Why is it that people in the United States are now paying twice what they paid to pump fuel into their vehicle engines in 2004?
Well the real reasons have to do with taxation and inflation. As regards rising prices, Dr Ron Paul has indicated that it is a type of tax itself, which does more harm to the middle class more than anyone.
But taxes and rising prices comprise about 25% of what we pay for a gallon of fuel. A gallon of fuel is presently about $3 and the tax and inflation portion comprise approximately 80 cents of that $3!
There is a third situation causing people in the United States to be paying more for fuel and that is because our dollar is worth so much less than it was a very short time back.
Oil, as an international commodity, is practically a currency in its own right. And the our dollar’s plunge from a very short time back has seen it’s consequences.
So when Dr Ron Paul calls for eliminating the Federal Reserve and the IRS and reinstating the gold backing for the currency, these are ideas that could avert a recession.
Dr Ron Paul has proposed legislation which is a stop gap proposal that would forbid the price of gas from rising above $3 and it also opens America up for business again in domestic oil including terminating the moratorium on offshore drilling.
Because of vested interests, Dr Ron Paul ‘s bill will never pass.
So the solution is up to free thinkers and the free market.
BRILLIANT SOLUTION TO OVERCOME SKYROCKETING EXORBITANT GASOLINE PRICES– The Hydrogen Engine!
What if you never had to buy another gallon of fuel again?
Convert your fuel engine to hydrogen.
If you do a partial (hybrid) conversion then you should see savings on your fuel consumption of up to 30% maybe more.
If you do this and also add acetone to your gas tank (which will save you another 25% or so) then you will have increased your MPG by a combined 50%! Put in about 2-3 ounces of acetone per 10 gallons of fuel and the fuel will evaporate less easily and you improve your MPG by 25% or more.
If you do a full gas to hydrogen conversion then you will have pumped your last gallon of fuel for the rest of your life. It is far easier than you might think, costs next to nothing, safeguards the environment and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to conserve resources instead of using up more than your fair share.
Sourse: Dr Ron Paul And the Pricey Price Of Fuel in the USA
House Agriculture Chair Says Cellulosic Ethanol is 10 Years Away
UK Reuters reports that the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee announced it would be at least ten years before technology is in place to commercially produce ethanol from farm and forest waste (wood chips, corn stalks, switchgrass). One huge thing we need is more pipelines to support fuel transportation for all the new ethanol facilities that are being built. Ethanol can not be transported through the same pipelines that transport petroleum.
Sourse: House Agriculture Chair Says Cellulosic Ethanol is 10 Years Away
RBS urged to pull Gazprom’s Sakhalin II loan
RUSSIA: Nineteen local and international environmental organizations have called on Sir Fred Goodwin, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to recall a controversial US$1 billion loan by ABN AMRO for the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s purchase of a controlling share of the enormous Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia.
Sakhalin II has caused many severe environmental problems and violates the Equator Principles, to which RBS has signed, claim the Pacific Environment organisation. The groups have also requested to meet with Goodwin. RBS leads a consortium of banks that purchased ABN AMRO in 2007.
Environmental groups claim they have opposed ABN AMRO financing for Sakhalin II because the project threatens the Western Gray Whale with extinction, damages hundreds of wild salmon runs, and negatively impacts local communities.
“When RBS bought ABN AMRO, it acquired the bank’s assets and liabilities, including financial and reputational, and thus the responsibility to address the wrongful financing of Sakhalin II,” said Dmitry Lisitsyn, chairman, Sakhalin Environment Watch.
Environmental groups and independent consultants of potential lenders, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have for many years documented Sakhalin II’s severe, chronic and irreversible violations of bank environmental policies.
For private banks, this includes the Equator Principles on environmental performance, which both RBS and ABN AMRO have committed to follow. EBRD eventually withdrew its consideration of Sakhalin II while many other banks suspended consideration of the project due to environmental problems.
“At the 2005 ABN AMRO Annual Meeting, Chief Executive Officer Rijkman Groenink committed to not finance Sakhalin II until it was brought into compliance with the Equator Principles,” said Paul de Clerck of Friends of the Earth International, who was at the 2005 ABN AMRO Annual Meeting where the commitment was made.
“So, it came as a complete shock when the bank circumvented the Principles by financing Sakhalin II through one of the project sponsors. RBS must now take responsibility to correct this damage.”
“The buck now stops at RBS,” said Doug Norlen, policy director, Pacific Environment.
http://www.energycurrent.com/index.php?id=2&storyid=8499
Sago Palm Bioethanol Plant Planned
A Japanese company is planning on building a bioethanol making the green fuel from a plant that is said to yield more ethanol per hectare than any other biofuel crop currently being grown.
This story posted on Checkbiotech.org says Necfer Corp. will make ethanol from sago palm trees at a testing refinery in Malaysia:
Necfer has developed its own dedicated fermentation technology to convert the resource into biofuel.The true sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) has been described as mankind’s oldest food plant with the starch contained in the trunk used as a staple food in southeast Asia. Traditionally, hunter-gatherers use a complex and labor-intensive process of felling the tree, splitting it open, removing the starch and cleaning out its poisonous substances, after which it is ready to be consumed. The carbohydrate itself is very nutritious and some of us may have even tasted it because some modern starch products (tapioca flour) are made from it. As these sago-growing hunter-gatherers migrate to the cities, they abandon their healthy starch-rich diet and choose for fat and sugar food habits that don’t differ much from ours.
Sago palm is estimated to yield between about 2,000 and 2,500 gallons of ethanol for each hectare grown… even more than sugarcane.
Sourse: Sago Palm Bioethanol Plant Planned
Wind Power in India: Preparing for Gusty Future
Right now, the country is the fourth largest generator of wind power in the world after Germany, Spain and United States. Moreover, India was one of the five countries that added more than 1,000-MW wind energy capacity during 2006-07, writes Radhakrishna Rao.
Renewable energy in the news
There was a good write-up in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News Business section about Colorado’s advantages and disadvantages in the developing renewable energy sector. Among the advantages: great location for solar, very good location for wind. It rightly recognizes Gov. Bill Ritter’s leadership on this issue by conveying his vision for possibilities in our state. More big positives: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and all the research universities in the area (Mines, CSU, CU).
Instead of just blindly moving forward without taking into account potential stumbling blocks, the article also details some disadvantages Colorado faces: financial incentives that are unable to compete with Texas, Ohio, or Michigan and cheap labor. The labor part, as first mentioned in the article, fails to acknowledge the underlying issue: lack of qualified laborers. It does go into some detail on this later in the article. The article does go into detail about an advantage areas on the coasts enjoy: large collections of big cities. Denver isn’t all that big and there’s not any big cities within hundreds of miles of it. That’s puts us at a disadvantage compared to Southern California, the Carolinas, Portland to Seattle, or Texas.
Perhaps the biggest gear in this fairly nascent machine is the political will. I don’t think the article did this part justice. Without a populace demanding investment in research and infrastructure, Colorado wouldn’t be as far along the path we’re currently on.
One quick number to demonstrate what’s at stake: Spanish companies plan to spend between $7 and $10 billion in the U.S. during the next few years. That’s just one country. I would argue that Colorado sure could use part of that kind of investment, mostly because I imagine it would act as seed money. The renewable energy sector of our economy is poised for substantial long-term growth. Money spent and invested in developing technologies and bringing them to the market will only benefit us more as time goes on.
Can Colorado make itself look attractive enough for companies to bring their resources? This sector of the economy will be built, there’s no doubt about that. It would benefit the state if we can be nearer the top of that sector than the bottom. Thank goodness we have folks like Gov. Ritter and thousands of hard-working citizens who recognize this.
Sourse: Renewable energy in the news
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