Wednesday was a fairly placid day for the energy market, with minor gains being the main order of the day. The New York Mercantile Exchange crude future saw a small jump, gaining $0.12 or 0.12% to finish at $102.79 per barrel. The Brent price also say marginal gain, growing $0.08 or 0.07% to finish at $118.01 per barrel. The WTI Cushing price dropped slightly, losing $1.53 or 1.47% to finish at $102.67 per barrel.The NYMEX heating oil future saw a small gain, raising 0.47 cents or 0.15% to finish at 312.29 cents per gallon. The NYMEX RBOB gasoline…

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Smart grids are not clean energy themselves, but they will play a significant role in how we manage changes to renewable energy – oddly enough, smart grids are also the stuff of conspiracy theories and ominous predictions of cyber attacks and full blackouts.  “Unless we wake up and realize what we’re doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years,” is the extremely bleak prediction offered by well-known cyber security expert David Chalk in an online interview…

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The White House announced it was getting into the commodities game in an effort to protect consumers from some of the geopolitical factors spilling over into the retail gasoline market. OPEC and the IEA both said in their monthly reports that market perceptions were behind higher energy prices, not physical shortages. With most U.S. consumers still economically gun shy, gasoline consumption is down amid high retail prices. But on the business side, protection against potential oil shocks in the long-term could help push a reinvigorated U.S. economy…

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As Iran struggles to mitigate the economic and political effects of the sanctions imposed on it by the international community over its nuclear activities, Tehran is seeking allies anywhere it can. But a diplomatic spat dating back to Britain’s withdrawal from “east of Suez” has put a diplomatic chill into its relations with countries on the western side of the Persian Gulf, particularly the United Arab Emirates. At issue is Iran’s occupation of the islands of Abu Musa, Tunb al-Sughra (Lesser) and Tunb al-Kubra (Greater),…

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Countries trade crude oil and oil products back and forth. When all of these transactions are netted out, is the US close to becoming a “net” oil exporter? With the recent increase in oil production (perhaps even exceeding that of Russia on a “barrels-per-day” basis), a person might think that US oil production problems are behind us. If we look at the data, though, it is very clear that the US is still a long way from becoming a net oil exporter. There are several reasons for confusion. One is the fact that excess refinery…

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I caught Republican strategist David Frum speaking on Erin Burnett’s magazine show on CNN Tuesday evening. I looked, but I couldn’t find a transcript yet, so this is from memory. Frum was a speech writer for George W. Bush and is said to have put the phrase ‘axis of evil’ in W.’s mouth. On the other hand, Frum has tried to stand against the Tea Party and the Palinization of the GOP. Burnett was making the correct point that President Barack Obama is not responsible for the price of gasoline, which is set by world markets…

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On Monday, at the suburban residence of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the chiefexecutives of the US and Russian oil giants, ExxonMobil and Rosneft, signed a deal to collaborate in the development of oil and natural gas fields in Russia and North America. The agreement was officially announced on Wednesday and holds the potential for $500 billion to be invested in the exploration and production of oil in the Arctic and the Black Sea. The joint venture will grant Exxon access to some of the world’s richest sources of crude oil and…

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On Tuesday the Arizona based First Solar announced that it would stop all production at its German plant in Frankfurt and cut its global workforce by 30 percent, around 2000 workers, as part of a broad restructuring plan to. Mark R Widmar, the CFO of First Solar, said that “we need to resize our business to a level of demand that is highly reliable and predictable. We do not see a business case for continuing manufacturing operations in Germany.” The global solar market is struggling to adjust to several new realities; lower government…

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Each year in March we experience the annual maximum in Arctic sea ice extent; within a month we will reach the annual maximum in Arctic sea ice volume; after that, the sea ice will begin to melt until it reaches its annual minimum of both extent and volume in September.  Around about now scientists start their annual sea ice watch that includes predictions of the extent and rank of the year’s sea ice minimum, as well predictions as to when the Arctic could disappear entirely. One of the inputs into that discussion is the “PIOMAS”…

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