A thirst for liquids is driving capital into the Alberta Montney at a surprising rate these days.In the last two months, 7 private equity firms have come to Calgary to open up shop, and giants like Encana [ECA.TO] are starting to refocus their efforts into developing their liquid Montney assets.What’s causing this surge?It appears there are three drivers that are causing this movement:LNG is becoming a reality soon, and the market knows it.Large scale oil sands development should stretch condensate supplies. a.   Demand for condensate…Read more…

At least, it appears. The much-touted Chinese coal import ban.News last week out of China suggests this elusive regulation is close to becoming reality. With the government perhaps having already enacted the legislation.What we know is that the Chinese parliament has approved a new set of environmental laws. The first such rule change in over two decades in the country.That’s been officially announced. What we don’t know yet is the exact content of the new rules. But sources told market analysts Platts that new rules on coal shipments into China…Read more…

The Mexican government has released its much-anticipated new rules on its oil sector, putting some meat on the bones of major energy reforms it announced last year. The rules appear to be crafted with the intention of attracting quick investment from international oil companies, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has made energy reform a centerpiece of his agenda for a reason: Mexico’s economy is dependent on oil. Its oil industry accounted for 32 percent of government revenues in 2013. But in the last…Read more…

The Russian economy may not be able to finance the Kremlin’s ambitions in Eastern Europe for much longer because the country’s oil and gas output is no longer a strong support of growth. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on May 2 that gas supplies through Ukraine might be severed unless Kiev pays in advance for its June deliveries. Russian energy company Gazprom cut gas supplies through Ukraine in 2009 because of contractual disputes. The deal that ended the impasse left Kiev with some of the highest gas debt obligations in…Read more…

China — one of the few countries to invest in Iran despite international sanctions against it over its nuclear program — has had its contract to develop Iran’s Azadegan oil field terminated. On April 29, the National Iranian Oil Co.’s legal department informed state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China’s biggest oil and natural gas company, that Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had issued a decree canceling its contract to develop North Azadegan, citing unacceptable delays. In February, Zanganeh had voiced…Read more…

The man-made earthquakes that have been shaking up the southern United States only stand to get stronger and more dangerous as the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, increases, scientists warned at a Thursday conference.According to multiple reports, scientists attending the Seismological Society of America annual meeting agreed that fracking can change the state of stress on existing faults to the point of failure, causing earthquakes. That stress is generally not caused by fuel extraction itself, but by a process called…Read more…

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on May 2 that it plans to build an oil storage facility in the northeast to prepare for future emergencies. The storage reserve will hold approximately 1 million barrels of gasoline, and DOE estimates it will cost $215 million to build. The decision to build gasoline storage infrastructure is part of the government’s response to the widespread damage caused by 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. In the super storm’s aftermath, people in New Jersey and New York suffered through periods of blackouts and…Read more…

Prices for WTI and Brent oil reversed declines as positive employment numbers and geopolitical tension put upward pressure on prices. For June delivery, WTI was up 10 cents per barrel and Brent jumped 60 cents on May 2. The two benchmarks regained some lost ground after hitting a five-week low earlier this week. The U.S. Labor Department reported that employers added 288,000 jobs in the month of April, suggesting that the U.S. economy is picking up steam. The unemployment rate also dropped to 6.3 percent, the lowest it has been since 2008. The…Read more…

In Rotterdam on April 1, Dutch police raided a Greenpeace ship intended to block the delivery of oil coming from the Russian Arctic. The tanker was set to deliver the first shipment of oil from Russia’s newly operational Arctic oil platform. Greenpeace activists draped a “No Arctic Oil” banner from the Russian ship, and were detained by Dutch police. The Greenpeace group included some of the same activists who were arrested in Russia in 2013 and held for more than two months, becoming known as the “Arctic 30.” The…Read more…

I’ve been warning readers about 1st quarter energy results in the Exploration and Production companies – believing that the results would be overhyped and lead to disappointments.  But nothing like that has happened.  In fact, the E+P’s have been killing it, if not from increased realizations, then by the strong prices in natural gas during the winter of 2013.  And, if that weren’t enough, the wide differentials in domestic crude benchmarks led to some incredible results from the refiners and in the downstream…Read more…

On April 30, a U.S. House congressional committee passed a bill that would streamline the approval process for exporting liquefied natural gas from the United States. Sponsored by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO), the bill would require the Department of Energy to make a decision on LNG export applications within 90 days after the close of the public comment period. The bill has a long way to go before becoming law, but its ultimate fate may not be that important. It appears that the Obama administration is keen to allow LNG exports to move forward, albeit…Read more…

The US oil and gas industry has been in transition over the last decade or so. It is not that long ago that offshore oil and international exploration were the way forward. Conventional wisdom had it that in order to survive a company had to go deeper and further. As the technology for releasing oil and gas from rock improved, however, vast reserves of oil were opened up and the future shifted back to US soil. In any industry, that complete change of direction would cause major disruption. Oil and gas exploration is no exception, but the flexibility…Read more…

Libya lifts force majeure at ZueitinaThe Libyan National Oil Corp. announced it lifted a legal clause that absolved it from meeting contractual obligations at the eastern oil terminal because of what it said was an “improvement of the circumstances” in the country. NOC said the first barrels from the 70,000 bpd facility could leave the eastern port at some point this week. The port’s re-opening is a response to a deal brokered with eastern rebel leaders last month and Libyan Justice Minister Salah al-Merghani said protracted conflict could drag…Read more…

More North American energy companies are turning to rail transport as an option to get crude oil to refineries because there isn’t enough pipeline infrastructure in place to keep pace with the boom. Though cross-border options like Keystone XL are stuck in bureaucratic limbo, the intra-continent midstream sector is emerging as a good opportunity for energy players keen on nibbling at the margins of the region’s oil bonanza.Genesis Energy (NYSE: GEL) this week said it was looking to take advantage of the best of both worlds by exploring options…Read more…