Oil and Gas
8/12/2008 | Oil and Gas, Presidential Issues
Pelosi indicates openness to offshore drilling vote
TheHill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House. Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.
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7/15/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas, Presidential Issues
Bush Acts on Drilling, Challenging Democrats
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Bush lifted nearly two decades of executive orders banning drilling for oil and natural gas off the country’s shoreline on Monday while challenging Congress to open up more areas for exploration to address soaring energy prices. Democrats in Congress, joined by environmentalists, criticized the step and ridiculed it as ineffectual, while most Republicans and industry representatives applauded it as long overdue. The lifting of the moratorium — first announced by Mr. Bush’s father, President George Bush, in 1990 and extended by President Bill Clinton — will have no real impact because a Congressional moratorium on drilling enacted in 1981 and renewed annually remains in force. And there appeared to be no consensus for lifting it in tandem with Mr. Bush’s action.
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7/3/2008 | Economy, Foreign Policy, Oil and Gas
Fears, Again, of Oil Supplies at Risk
New York Times
THEY are the nightmares, the worst confluence of misguided decisions and startling violence, that politicians and oil executives ponder briefly and then shoo away: That sympathizers of Osama bin Laden sink three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and choke off the narrow, bow-shaped channel that funnels 14 million barrels a day from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. That the United States attacks Iraq, and Israel launches a huge strike against the Palestinians, driving them from their camps and staking out more land -- all of which spurs the Persian Gulf states to cut off oil for the West. Or perhaps that a popular uprising, led by sympathizers of Mr. bin Laden, topples the ruling Saud family in Saudi Arabia, by far the world's largest oil producer.
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7/3/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas
Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices
CNS News.Com
(CNSNews.com) - As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles. The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.
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6/17/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas, Presidential Issues
McCain touts energy conservation and oil exploration
Yahoo News
DALLAS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain will call on Tuesday for energy conservation and the lifting of a ban on oil and natural gas exploration as two ways to help address the nation's "dangerous" dependence on foreign oil. McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's presidential nomination, has made energy independence and fighting climate change key components of his bid for the White House. Rising oil and gasoline prices have put energy concerns at the center of the contest between McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to succeed President George W. Bush after the November election.
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6/13/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas
Corn jumps to record for 6th day on Midwest floods
Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK (AP) -- Corn prices climbed further into record territory Thursday after more rain doused the Midwest, leaving flooded corn crops deeper underwater and threatening livestock owners who depend on the grain to feed their herds. Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil ending slightly higher and gold, silver and copper all declining. Heavy showers pelted parts of the Corn Belt on Wednesday, dumping a half inch to 2.5 inches of water over already-flooded parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota.
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6/9/2008 | Oil and Gas, Global Warming
BP chief Tony Hayward says lack of investment to blame for oil spike
The Telegraph
BP chief executive Tony Hayward has played down the prospect that the surge in oil may unwind anytime soon as the industry's lack of investment in production capacity catches up with it. BP chief executive Tony Hayward was speaking in Kuala Lumpur "Producers are being hampered by 25 years of low investments, because of low prices," Mr Hayward told the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur today. "The result is a supply chain being stretched to breaking point." Crude oil surged on Friday to a record $139.12 a barrel in New York, although it had eased off to trade at $137 early on Monday. Fears about the ability of the oil industry to quickly tap new reserves come on top of existing forecasts that the world will exhaust its oil supplies in the next half century.
6/3/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas, Taxes
GM to close 4 factories, may drop Hummer
MSNBC News
WILMINGTON, Del. - General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles. CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker’s annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the iconic Hummer brand will be reviewed and potentially sold or revamped.
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5/23/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas
OPEC unhappy with oil price surge: El-Badri
Breitbart.com
OPEC chief Abdala El Badri on Thursday said members were unhappy with surging prices he blamed on speculators and a weak US dollar. "We are not very happy with this increase in oil prices," said El-Badri during a visit to Ecuador. "Volatility has nothing to do with the fundamentals. It has nothing to do with world demand," he said, stressing that a dropping dollar was driving prices higher. "The price was at 130 dollars and today is at 135, so it's really a crazy market," he said. El-Badri, OPEC's secretary general, is on a week-long working visit to the two OPEC member states in Latin America, Venezuela and Ecuador. Tuesday he met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas and with Minister of Energy and Petroleum/President of PDVSA, Rafael Ramirez. In a statement released by the cartel on Wednesday, El-Badri said that OPEC remained committed "to working for the stability of the international oil market, noting that the current high oil prices are not influenced by market fundamentals, as the market is well-supplied. "OPEC will continue to monitor global oil markets regularly and is ready to act if and when necessary to ensure market stability and adequate supplies," the statement added. Crude oil prices rocketed to record highs above 135 dollars on Thursday, driven by growing concerns that energy supplies will fail to meet demand, analysts said. Prices later pulled back to just below 133 dollars owing to profit-taking.
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5/20/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas
US begins to break foreign oil ‘addiction’
Financial Times
The US is starting to break its “addiction” to foreign oil as high prices, more efficient cars, and the use of ethanol significantly cut the share of its oil imports for the first time since 1977. The country’s foreign oil dependency is expected to fall from 60 per cent to 50 per cent in 2015, before rising again slightly to 54 per cent in 2030, according to the head of the Department of Energy’s statistical arm.
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4/24/2008 | Economy, Foreign Policy, Oil and Gas, Politics
Brazil Oil Finds May End Reliance on Middle East, Zeihan Says
Bloonberg
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil's discoveries of what may be two of the world's three biggest oil finds in the past 30 years could help end the Western Hemisphere's reliance on Middle East crude, Strategic Forecasting Inc. said. Saudi Arabia's influence as the biggest oil exporter would wane if the fields are as big as advertised, and China and India would become dominant buyers of Persian Gulf oil, said Peter Zeihan, vice president of analysis at Strategic Forecasting in Austin, Texas. Zeihan's firm, which consults for companies and governments around the world, was described in a 2001 Barron's article as ``the shadow CIA.''
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4/23/2008 | Economy, Oil and Gas
Oil hits fresh high as biofuels rethink looms
Financial Times Online
Expectations rose on Tuesday that soaring food prices will provoke a rethink of support for biofuels in Europe and the US, as the price of oil hit a new high of almost $120 a barrel. Biofuels produced from crops such as corn and soya provide a small but fast-growing share of road-fuel supplies, and had been expected to make an important contribution to meeting growing demand.
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