As the US studies the question of whether it should be able to export surplus gas as LNG, the battle is already fully engaged in Australia. Unlike the US, Australia’s LNG export facilities are in place and operating. What’s going on there is a pitted battle between gas producers and the country’s gas users, as Christine Forster discusses in this week’s Oilgram News column, Petrodollars.
Archive for 2012
Petrodollars: Australia’s domestic tension between domestic and export LNG prices
By News Desk | December 31, 2012 12:15 AM Comments (0)
EIA/API analysis: a bearish build in distillate stocks
By News Desk | December 28, 2012 04:55 PM Comments (0)
A weak demand picture in the last week hit the market with an unexpectedly high build in US distillate stocks, according to the most recent report of the Energy Information Administration. It clearly was the most significant aspect of the latest summary. Read Platts’ analysis.
What the price of gold is telling us about the price of oil, 2012 edition
By John Kingston | December 28, 2012 04:31 PM Comments (3)
It’s time to ask, as we sometimes do: is the price of gold too high relative to oil, or is it the other way around?
The answer: it may depend on the Brent/WTI spread.
Europe’s high sulfur gasoil: reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated
By Tim Worledge | December 28, 2012 03:04 AM Comments (0)
Scouring through the official stock and consumption data published by European governments is one of the glamour aspects of the job. While it might present the average oil analyst, trader, refiner etc. with an invaluable insight into the state of demand for the various oil products, every now and then sifting through the data throws up an interesting conundrum.
Data released by the German Mineralölwirtschaftsverbrand (MWV) has thrown an interesting light (no, really) on the health of an oil product that has been under some threat: the high sulfur 0.1% gasoil that has been the mainstay of German domestic heating oil. In fact, 2012 was something of a bumper year for the out-of-fashion grade, so have reports of its death been greatly exaggerated?
The InterContinental Exchange — the mouse that roared — takes on the Big Board
By Melanie Wold | December 27, 2012 09:43 AM Comments (1)
In the year 2000, a tiny upstart energy exchange was born in Atlanta, Georgia. It began by building an electronic trading system for electricity and natural gas, something that was a popular idea at the time.
But it was – perhaps – before its time.
When US tax reform talks arrives, expect some energy issues to follow
By Brian Scheid | December 26, 2012 12:15 AM Comments (0)
President Obama has identified it as a priority, House Speaker John Boehner has mentioned it as a potential solution to the national debt and some time next year, the 113th Congress is expected to take the first meaningful stab at federal tax reform in nearly three decades.
And energy companies and energy market players could factor into the likely contentious, marathon reform debate more than expected as lawmakers eye industry tax breaks, production incentives and even treatment of oil and gas trades.
Whether they’ll be swept into the larger reform debate or dealt with separately, here’s a look at five tax changes the energy sector expects to at least get broached during the tax debate:
We found an oil poem for Christmas
By News Desk | December 25, 2012 12:15 AM Comments (0)
Chinese oil demand set a new record in November
By News Desk | December 24, 2012 02:40 PM Comments (0)
It does appear that the falloff in year-to-year growth in Chinese oil demand may have been a temporary situation. The country recorded record demand in November, and the level of growth compared to 2011 is now nearing double digits. This is a fairly stunning turnaround that clearly has implications for markets. You can see Platts’ analysis of the numbers here.
New Frontiers: the rail boom makes its way to the Eagle Ford
By News Desk | December 24, 2012 12:15 AM Comments (0)
There’s been a great deal of attention paid to using rail to move oil out of the Bakken, a mode of transportation that is now accounting for the movement of as much as 40% or more of the crude coming out of that region. But the rail boom isn’t restricted solely to North Dakota. In this week’s Oilgram News column, New Frontiers, Bridget Hunsucker catches up on how big a factor trains have become in south Texas’ Eagle Ford development.
The man who drove the Trainer acquisition has left Delta Airlines
By John Kingston | December 22, 2012 05:07 PM Comments (2)
If there was ever a “think out of the box” deal in 2012, it was Delta Airlines’ purchase of the Trainer refinery, near Philadelphia, from Phillips 66.
The man who from all accounts was central to that deal getting done was Jon Ruggles, a former trader who headed Delta’s jet purchasing. At the Philadelphia press conference announcing the deal, Ruggles was up at the front, along with the political dignitaries from the city and state, along with the the airline’s senior management.
And now he’s gone.