Wildrose blasts NDP over climate plan advertising, Calgary Herald

… per-capita greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate warming and to help the province win outside support for stalled pipeline projects …

NGP Readers: be aware that as the enviro-industrial-governmental cabal continues (i.e. via protests, confrontation, litigation, statute and regulation) to vilify and outlaw OCS activity, oil, pipelines, coal and nuclear energy projects, more reliance will fall on natural gas power generation.  Now, the cabal is targeting nuclear but also natural gas.  So when the inevitable market and political winds place roadblocks in the way of natural gas proliferation (i.e. particularly shale), the cabal will have achieved its purpose–placing more dependence on socialized government to address energy crises.  The sure result of that progression of events is to place Venezuelan-like control over wealth-producing natural resources along with their transportation and distribution.  -dh

Robert Bryce.  Over the past eight months, utilities from New York to Nebraska have announced plans to shutter six nuclear reactors by 2019. These closures will come on the heels of earlier ones – five reactors have been shuttered over the past three years alone. The latest closure announcement came earlier this month when Exelon Corp., the country’s largest nuclear-energy producer, said it would close  three reactors at two sites in Illinois by 2018.

Fairbanks News Miner.  The Fairbanks Fire Department received a call at about 1:30 a.m. that an excavator had cut into a gas line near the state trooper headquarters, said Assistant Fire Chief Ernie Misewicz. Gas began leaking from the pipe, so the road was closed as a precaution. Natural gas is hazardous because, like propane, it’s flammable. Staff from Fairbanks Natural Gas responded and shut off the gas line.

Calgary Herald.  More downtown Calgary retail businesses closing as layoffs, oil prices take their toll.

Calgary Herald.  As Canada oil fires fade, the industry’s real problem re-emerges

TODAY’S Consumer Energy Alliance clips, relevant to our readers:

UPI: U.S. gas prices relatively low and stable.
With short-term supply disruptions easing, U.S. commuters this summer can expect some of the lowest gas prices in more than a decade, AAA said. The motor club reports a national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at $2.33 for Tuesday, about 2 percent lower than last week. Tuesday marks the 10th consecutive day for declines in retail gasoline prices.

E&E News: GOP panel to question McCarthy on scientific basis for rules
In what’s likely to be a contentious matchup, U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy this week will face congressional critics over her agency’s use of science. The hearingWednesday in the House Science, Space and Technology Committee could cover a broad range of topics, as GOP critics on the committee have expressed concerns about the scientific underpinning of a number of agency rules.

Bloomberg: U.S. gas hits 9-month high as power demand jumps to 2016 peak
U.S. natural gas futures climbed to the highest level since September as unusually hot weather drove demand from power plants to a record for the year. The Southwest will see record heat early this week while above-normal readings sweep most of the lower 48 states through June 29, according to MDA Weather Services. Gas deliveries to electricity producers Monday will be 34.3 billion cubic feet, the most for 2016 and a record for the time of year, PointLogic Energy data show. Government projections forecast power-plant demand for gas will be at an all-time high later this summer.

The Wall Street Journal: Natural Gas Gains as Temperature Forecasts Rise
Natural gas prices rose Monday as temperature forecasts heated up for the coming weeks, raising expectations for power generation demand to meet air conditioning needs.

Reuters: Oil slips after rally as market turns cautious
Oil prices fell on Tuesday after a two-day rally abated and trade remained volatile, due in part to a vote later this week in Britain that will determine whether the country leaves the European Union. A one-month ceasefire between the government and Nigerian militants whose attacks have curtailed the country’s crude oil exports also added a bearish signal to a market that had firmed on the back of supply disruptions.

The Fiscal Times: How U.S. Shale Producers Survived the Oil Price Wars
Two years into the worst oil price rout in a generation, large and mid-sized U.S. independent producers are surviving and eyeing growth again as oil nears $50 a barrel, confounding OPEC and Saudi Arabia with their resiliency. That shale giants Hess Corp., Apache Corp and more than 25 other companies have beaten back OPEC’s attempt to sideline them would have been unthinkable just months ago, when oil plumbed $26 a barrel and collapses were feared.

The Wall Street Journal: Canada Launches Review of Its Environmental-Assessment Processes
Canada’s government launched a formal review Monday of the country’s environmental-assessment laws, in yet another signal that it plans to toughen oversight of proposed pipelines and energy projects.

The Daily Caller: Anti-Keystone XL Pipeline Activist Becomes Nebraska’s Dem Party Chair
A well-known anti-Keystone XL activist was elected Saturday to the head of Nebraska’s Democratic Party with help from Bernie Sanders.

Reuters: California power grid prepares for heatwave, possible natgas shortage
California will have its first test of plans to keep the lights on this summer following the shutdown of the key Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility as temperatures in the Los Angeles area are forecast to hit triple digits this week.

Las Vegas Review Journal: PUC general counsel out after tweet under pseudonym
The general counsel to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission is no longer employed by the agency after it was pointed out at a meeting last week that she commented on the net metering policy under review by the panel using a pseudonym on social media.

The Salt Lake Tribune: BLM reviewing Utah utility corridor for what could be nation’s first commercial oil shale mine
A proposed oil-shale mine and processing plant would generate up to 23 million tons of spent shale, yet Enefit American Oil has not revealed how it intends to safely manage this waste, which would be in a chemically unstable state, liable to shed heavy metals and other contaminants. That’s one of many claims leveled at the Bureau of Land Management as it reviews Enefit’s proposed utility corridor across public land in eastern Uintah County for moving power, oil, natural gas and water between a strip mine on private land south of the White River to existing lines several miles north.

Associated Press: New data will help Colorado study health effects of fracking
New data on air pollution from fracking wells in Colorado will be a big help in assessing whether the emissions are harmful to human health, state officials say. A recent three-year study measured methane — a greenhouse gas — and ozone-causing compounds that were released from new natural gas wells in western Colorado.

The Daily Sentinel: Economists see ‘weakness’ in state economy
State economists are concerned that a recession might be hitting Colorado and the nation soon, but they’re not quite ready to say that. Instead, economists for the Colorado Legislature and the governor’s office said Monday there are signs of “weakness” in the economy that could lead the economy that way, saying that they can’t say for sure because the information they have is “fuzzy.”

Farmington Daily Times: Report: San Juan Basin 1st in per capita methane
The San Juan Basin was ranked first in the U.S. for per capita methane pollution, according to a Center for American Progress report. Called “The Who’s Who of Methane Pollution in the Onshore Oil and Gas Production Sector,” the report looked at which onshore operations were responsible for the most methane emissions and where in the U.S. methane pollution is highest.

The Dallas Morning News: Are crude oil prices high enough for new drilling? Dallas Fed has some answers
Oil customers and oil field workers got a bit of mixed news today from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas: Many regional oil and gas exploration companies say crude oil prices are high enough for new drilling in some parts of the major Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana oil fields. On the other hand, there are some parts that won’t open back up until the prices get a lot higher. And more companies say they’ll be shedding employees this year than say they’ll be adding jobs.

Houston Chronicle: Marine sanctuary expansion plan is at center of controversy
A plans that would vastly expand a marine sanctuary off the Texas coast to protect undersea life faces fierce opposition from the commercial fishing and oil and gas industries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has announced five options for expanding the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. They range from no expansion to expanding the 56-square-mile sanctuary to 935 square miles or 17 times its current size.

The Oklahoman: Oil profits a frequent target, but they’re hardly out of line
THE Obama administration wants to raise taxes and fees on the oil and natural gas industry by more than $90 billion over the next decade. Similar tax-hiking proposals have been advocated even here in Oklahoma. That such proposals are being touted in the midst of an oil bust is astounding. And, as a recent report by the American Petroleum Institute makes clear, energy companies already have relatively low profit margins while being among the nation’s most heavily taxed industries.

Reuters: Marathon Oil deal latest big Oklahoma bet by U.S. drillers
Oil and gas producer Marathon Oil Corp’s plans to buy a small Oklahoma producer is the latest signal U.S. shale companies are pouncing on properties in the state’s high margin STACK basin as the price of oil rebounds. Marathon Oil said Monday it would purchase PayRock Energy Holdings LLC for $888 million from venture capital firm EnCap Investments. PayRock currently produces about 9,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in the Anadarko Basin STACK play in Oklahoma.

Natural Gas Intelligence: Southwest Research Institute Initiatives to Aid Producers in Permian, Austin Chalk
The San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute (SRI) is developing research initiatives to help oil and gas producers get the most out of the Permian Basin and the Austin Chalk. The Permian Basin Joint Industry Project follows a similar SRI research initiative launched in 2011 for the Eagle Ford Shale. SRI said it will help producers “use mechanical stratigraphic and structural geologic data to improve productivity amid low oil prices.”

The Des Moines Register: Bakken pipeline will run under sacred tribal site
State officials have lifted a stop-work order on the Bakken oil pipeline in northwest Iowa where tribal officials had objected to disrupting sacred American Indian land that includes burial grounds. Texas-based Dakota Access LLC, which is building the pipeline, has been granted an amendment to its sovereign lands construction permit by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, DNR spokesperson Kevin Baskins confirmed.

Associated Press: Concerns raised over Indiana plan to adopt coal ash rules
Environmental groups are raising concerns about Indiana’s plan to adopt new federal standards for the ponds and landfills where utilities store vast amounts of coal ash waste produced by coal-fired power plants.

Akron Beacon Journal: Belmont, Monroe counties are Ohio’s natural gas hot spots
Natural gas production in Ohio’s Utica Shale remains centered in Belmont and Monroe counties. Belmont County is No. 1 with 99.2 billion cubic feet, according to Ohio Department of Natural Resources records for the first quarter 2016. Monroe is No. 2 with 63.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Wheeling News-Register: Belmont County Leads the Way as Ohio Gas Production Reaches Record Level
With hundreds of productive wells in Eastern Ohio, the Rice Energy “Mohawk Warrior” well in central Belmont County continues leading the way as the Buckeye State reached record Marcellus and Utica shale natural gas yields from January through March.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Pa. House returns to session facing fiscal-year deadline
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives returned to session Monday as the fiscal-year deadline ticked down and a vote on the state’s largest expansion of gambling in a decade loomed while lawmakers scrounged for money to prop up spending. House Republicans were trying to assemble support for gambling legislation that could come up for a vote this week, said House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana.

Insight on Commodities, Shale, LNG and prices from our anonymous Aussie O&G energy analyst friend: 

Commodity prices

Happy days are here again in Brent-land (unless you are a pessimist subscribing to the US$50 is the anti-goldilocks oil price theory) – it broke through this pricing barrier again last night to close at US$50.37.  WTI also went up by a similar amount (~3%) to close at US$49.37.

Opinion polls (and possibly more accurate betting markets) have recently been reducing the odds on a Brexit vote in the UK this week and asset markets generally have responded very positively to this.  The hyperbole behind the following quote from US market commentators Thinkforex shows why:

“This [Brexit] is a scenario which could potentially be fivefold worse than Lehman Brothers. Therefore, any relief on this front is uplifting the sentiment among trades.” 

Henry Hub continues on its white hot streak, racing up 5% to close at US$2.75 last night.  A very hot summer period is forecast to hit the US shortly, driving gas-fired electricity for air conditioning.

LNG and international gas

Last week we noted Shell was hoping to work with current partner Gazprom to expand their Sakhalin Island LNG plant.  The only problem they have is that the best source of gas for this expansion off Sakhalin is owned by Rosneft and Exxon.  Result – even less chance of cooperation than seen on the LNG island in the Southern hemisphere called Curtis Island.

Russia’s Energy Minister said on Friday (as the ink was drying on Shell’s MOU with Tsar Putin over Baltic LNG – and hopefully Sakhalin LNG in Shell’s mind) that the country might allow Rosneft/Exxon to take Sakhalin gas through Gazprom owned pipe to Vladivostok – presumably with a view to then on-shipping it to China.

From an Australian perspective – how “delicious” (thanks, Bruce!) to see others completely stuffing up on the LNG cooperation front – even when a strong Government should be in a position to arbitrate a sensible outcome.

Governments, fracking, etc

A somewhat disturbing media story yesterday in the otherwise most sensible oil and gas jurisdiction in the land (and ranking highly in the World) – South Australia.  This was an opinion poll that showed large opposition to fracking (which has supplied the citizens of that State with gas for many decades) – and of course calls for the usual “moratorium” to review the science, etc.

Quote of the day

In light of the fracking story above (and also when tough decisions might be deferred to referendums) – lets hope the politicians remember their job as defined by 18th Century British politician, Edmund Burke:

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”