THE HOLY FATHER and other news from SEN SANDERS

“With Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell promising an open debate on the Keystone XL pipeline bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the maverick Independent from Vermont, has crafted a beauty of an amendment. He plans to offer a “sense of Congress” resolution in the debate asking each senator if he or she agrees with ‘the opinion of virtually the entire worldwide scientific community’ that climate change is a factually proven problem resulting in ‘devastating problems in the United States and around the world.’ If nothing else, the proposal should attract extra attention to the pipeline debate and Republican members’ discomfort in staking an un-hedged position on the global warming issue,” Francis X. Clines wrote for The New York Times editorial page editor’s blog.

	READ MORE OF THE TIMES EDITOR’S BLOG

REPUBLICANS TAKE SHOT AT SOCIAL SECURITY Benefits for the disabled and their children could be cut by 20 percent cut next year if House Republicans get their way. A new House rule creates a legal obstacle course that would make it much harder to shift funds from the Social Security retirement account, which has a big surplus, to the smaller disability account. The transfers were done routinely in the past under both Republican and Democratic presidencies, including four times under President Ronald Reagan. READ DYLAN SCOTT’S TALKING POINTS MEMO

JE SUIS CHARLIE More than a million people jammed the streets of Paris on Sunday, proclaiming "Je suis Charlie" to express solidarity against terrorism and pay respects to the victims of last week's deadly attacks. President François Hollande of France was joined by British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. From Vermont, Bernie tweeted: “Today, we join in spirit with the million marchers in Paris who loudly proclaim; ‘Je suis Charlie.”’ LINK TEXT

THE HOLY FATHER Bernie often quotes Pope Francis because “he actually believes his message … about the need to reform socio-economic systems,” according to Time magazine’s Elizabeth Dias. When asked about casino capitalism, Sanders points to the pope. “He’s saying the economy should serve people, not people serving the economy,” Bernie explains. READ MORE FROM TIME

Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low and other news

Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low

Jan 14th, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

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From an article by Mikael Holter published 14 Jan 2015 by Bloomberg under the headline:

“Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low”

When Statoil ASA (STL)acquired the last of three licenses off Greenland’s west coast in January 2012, oil at more than $110 a barrel made exploring the iceberg-ridden waters an attractive proposition.

Less than two years later, the price of oil had been cut by almost half and Norway’s Statoil, the world’s most active offshore Arctic explorer in 2014, relinquished its interest in all three licenses in December without drilling a single well…

“At $50, it just doesn’t make sense,” James Henderson, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said in a Jan. 12 phone interview. “Arctic exploration has almost certainly been significantly undermined for the rest of this decade.”

After spending $6 billion searching for oil off Alaska over the past eight years, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) in October asked for an extension of licenses as setbacks including a stranded oil rig and lawsuits risk delaying drilling further. Cairn Energy Plc (CNE) spent $1 billion exploring Greenland’s west coast in 2010 and 2011 without making commercial discoveries, and OAO Gazprom (OGZD) has shelved its Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea indefinitely on cost challenges.

FULL ARTICLE

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Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, Bloomberg, Environment, Gazprom, Oil Prices, Oil Spill,Pollution, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Shell, Statoil.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · Beaufort Sea · Chukchi Sea · Gazprom · Oil Prices ·Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia

Brace for $40-a-barrel oil

Jan 14th, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

FROM AN ARTICLE BY GRANT SMITH PUBLISHED BY BLOOMBERG.COM ON 14 JAN 2015 UNDER THE HEADLINE:

Oil at $40, and Below, Gaining Traction on Wall Street

Extracts

Brace for $40-a-barrel oil.

The U.S. benchmark crude price, down more than $60 since June to below $45 yesterday, is on the way to this next threshold, said Societe Generale SA and Bank of America Corp. And Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says that West TexasIntermediate needs to remain near $40 during the first half to deter investment in new supplies that would add to the glut.

“The markets are continuing to price in huge oversupply in the first half of 2015,” Mike Wittner, head of research at Societe Generale SA in New York, said by phone on Jan. 12. “We’re going to go below $40.”

The rout may continue to $35 a barrel in the “near term” because both oil supply and demand will have a delayed reaction to falling prices, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities research at Bank of America in New York, said in a report on Jan. 6.

The U.S. is pumping oil at the fastest pace in more than three decades, helped by a drilling boom that’s unlocked supplies from shale formations including the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota. U.S. output expanded to 9.14 million barrels a day in the week ended Dec. 12, the most since at least 1983, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

FULL ARTICLE

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Posted in: Bloomberg, Oil, Oil Prices.
Tagged: Oil Prices

Shell puts the brakes on

Jan 14th, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

By John Donovan

In response to the collapse in the price of oil, Shell and Qatar Petroleum have abandoned a $6.4 billion joint venture to build a petrochemical complex in the Ras Laffan Industrial City. 

Extract from a Reuters Report:,

Prices quoted by companies to build the huge complex showed the project was “commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry”, the statement said. 

REUTERS REPORT

RELATED FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLE 14 JAN 2015:

Shell scraps $6.5bn Qatar project due to oil price rout

Extract

The decision not to proceed — a significant move following thehalving of oil prices since last summer — was taken “after a careful and thorough evaluation of commercial quotations” from engineering, procurement and construction bidders, Shell said.

Under pressure to improve returns following the first profit warning in its history last year, Shell had already embarked on an intense round of cost-cutting before the slide in international crude prices to below $50 a barrel, from more than $110 last summer.

FULL FT ARTICLE

RELATED TELEGRAPH ARTICLE 14 JAN 2015

Shell ditches $6.5bn Qatar project as oil price slump deepens

Extract

Royal Dutch Shell and its partner Qatar Petroleum have ditched a $6.5bn (£4.3bn) project in the latest sign of the broadening impact of falling oil and gas prices on the hydrocarbons industry.

Shares in Shell were down 2.5pc at £30.18 in London following the announcement.

With oil prices firmly below $50 per barrel billions of dollars of projects both upstream, or in refining and petrochemicals are under threat.

Shell is due to report fourth quarter earnings at the end of the month when analysts expect more details on how the UK’s biggest oil company plans to adapt to the new price environment.

FULL ARTICLE

RELATED REUTERS ARTICLE 14 JAN 2015

Oil under pressure as World Bank cuts growth forecast

Extracts

Reuters) – Oil prices pared early losses on Wednesday but remained under pressure after the World Bank cut its economic growth forecast, doing little to end a rout that saw prices touch their lowest in nearly six years in the previous session.

“OPEC is not going to come to the rescue of the market,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, global head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas. 

FULL ARTICLE

RELATED BLOOMBERG ARTICLE 14 JAN 2015

Oil Collapse of 1986 Shows Rebound Could Be Years Away

Extracts

The last time excess supply caused a plunge in oil, it took almost five years for prices to recover.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows how West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, tumbled 69 percent from $31.82 a barrel in November 1985 to $9.75 in April 1986 when Saudi Arabia, tiring of cutting output to support prices, flooded the market. Prices didn’t claw back the losses until 1990. Oil has dropped 57 percent since June and OPEC members say they’re willing to let prices sink further.

Surging prices in the 1970s led to the development of the North Sea and Alaska oil fields. OPEC members also increased capacity, leaving the Saudis to trim output when demand softened.

FULL ARTICLE

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Posted in: Bloomberg, Daily Telegraph, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Oil Company Profits, Oil Prices, Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

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