Some of my work ! See more @ jpinfluence.com
Some of my work was recently published at The Atlantic Sentinel:
The post-Soviet region has begun a high stakes arms race, fueled by competition for recently discovered oil fields. Intraregional competition is intense, along with a mutual desire between Russia and Iran to keep foreigners (Europe and the United States) from interfering.
(Source: jpinfluence.com)
The two biggest sources of oil in North America produce significantly different types of oil, and the lack infrastructure to link those sources to proper refineries results in higher costs and less competitiveness on the global oil market.
A great piece from ZeroHedge, Oil Price Differentials: Caught Between The Sands And The Pipelines, will provides useful background to US energy infrastructure, and how it is impacting (impeding) the vast flow of Canadian oil. I give a brief summary of the article below, and will likely reference this post in the future.
A “range of oil qualities and a raft of infrastructure issues are creating record price differentials. And with no solution in sight, [the authors] think those differentials are here to stay.” Historically, United States oil infrastructure has been built to refine large quantities of imported oil – essentially from the perimeter of the lower 48 states, and shipping it towards the interior – but this is the opposite of present day needs, which require oil from the interior of the country to be moved to outlying refineries.
http://jpinfluence.com/2012/06/28/news-n-american-oil-caught-between-the-sands-and-the-pipelines/
Q&A: “What are the implications of a crude (oil) being sour vs sweet?” | Jesse Parent [INFLUENCE]
How does this impact North America’s energy situation? Check out my post above.
One of my posts got picked up by The Energy Collective! Check it out
The two biggest sources of oil in North America produce significantly different types of oil, and the lack of infrastructure to link those sources to proper refineries results in higher costs and less competitiveness on the global oil market.
A great piece from ZeroHedge, Oil Price Differentials: Caught Between The Sands And The Pipelines, provides a useful background to US energy infrastructure, and how it is impacting (impeding) the vast flow of Canadian oil.
A “range of oil qualities and a raft of infrastructure issues are creating record price differentials. And with no solution in sight, [the authors] think those differentials are here to stay.” Historically, United States oil infrastructure has been built to refine large quantities of imported oil – essentially from the perimeter of the lower 48 states, and shipping it towards the interior – but this is the opposite of present day needs, which require oil from the interior of the country to be moved to outlying refineries.
…
(Source: jpinfluence.com)
http://jpinfluence.com/2012/06/25/top-5-last-weeks-top-geopolitical-articles/
We’ll take a look at some of the biggest news-makers around the world, from the aftermath of elections in Greece and Egypt, a developing flashpoint in the Caspian Sea, to the ongoing struggle in Syria.
Greek elections haven’t calmed fears about Europe’s financial health.
By Anthony Faiola and Howard Schneider | 22 JUNE 2012 (Washington Post)
Summary: Greek elections wrapped up last week, with the entire Eurozone, as well as the rest of the global economy, waited on-edge for some signs of hope and stability. “But it was unclear Monday whether anything would be enough to stave off a broader crisis. Among investors, a bitter truth appeared to be sinking in: The problems in Europe are so widespread and so deep that a real solution is sure to be complex, hard-fought and anything but quick.” With new French president Francois Hollande set to battle for the future of the EU with Germany’s Angela Merkel, Greek’s role in an ever-complicated European Union saga plays on, as the country attempts to re-order its finances.
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English: Southern Caspian Energy Prospects portion of Iran Country Profile (CIA map)
The Caspian’s New Sea Monsters. Thepost-Soviet region has begun a high-stakes arms race, fueled by competition for recently discovered oil fields.
By Joshua Kucera | 22 June 2012 (Foreign Policy)
….
http://jpinfluence.com/2012/06/25/top-5-last-weeks-top-geopolitical-articles/
I was recently asked the question - and thought it deserves some unpacking. I think the underlying challenge to a having a stable and coherent grand energy strategy is the lack of coherence about what we want our future to look like, and what factors are actually influencing it. If we want a future reality, we need to be informed and have no illusions about what our current reality is – and understand the transition needed to get from ‘now’ to ‘desired future’. To this end, I again state that we need a ‘national energy dialogue’ to go along with a national energy policy. Whether it comes from grassroots or top down, the dialogue needs to take place so people understand what the choices are, and what the factors are guiding those choices – choices about where the energy we use comes from, it’s environmental and economic impact, as well as how it shapes the future of our country and world. …
http://theenergycollective.com/jesse-parent/87121/does-us-need-national-energy-policy
This is part of the INFLUENCE series “The Politicization of Energy in the US” [PEUS]. For other related topics, follow the associated tag and stay tuned for the development of this series’ page.
The article (Oil Drilling Advocates Drive Presidential Debate With Ads- Bloomberg) starts: “While polls show the economy as the top concern of voters, a review of political attack ads suggests a different issue dominates: energy” – and I think to myself, what a great way to speak about this ‘mysterious connection’ between energy and politics.
Americans for Prosperity, an organization backed by oil interests, last week began airing its third television commercial since November, a campaign worth $6.1 million, attacking Obama’s green energy policies.
The latest round brings the group’s total ad buys to $12.5 million this year, compared with a combined $5.7 million total spent on ads of all sorts by Obama and Priorities USA Action, a Washington-based super political action committee supporting him. Priorities on April 24 teamed with the League of Conservation Voters to begin a $1 million commercial run that accuses presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, of being a protector of the oil industry.
It should be no surprise that different groups are going to support different candidates based off of their affiliations. But this intense political effort and campaigning dominates most mainstream discussion of energy. Continue reading
Wow, the strongest stance against in favor of new fuels I’ve ever seen from recent administrations. I’m impressed such strong words are used.
NASHUA, N.H. — With his re-election fate increasingly tied to the price Americans are paying at the gas pump, President Obama asked Congress on Thursday to end $4 billion in subsidies for oil and gas companies and vowed to tackle the country’s long-term energy issues while shunning “phony election-year promises about lower gas prices.”
Mr. Obama, in an appearance at Nashua Community College here, took a page out of his jobs strategy of last year, calling on Americans to contact their Congressional representatives and demand a vote on the oil subsidies in the next few weeks.
“You can either stand up for the oil companies, or you can stand up for the American people,” Mr. Obama said. “You can keep subsidizing a fossil fuel that’s been getting taxpayer dollars for a century, or you can place your bets on a clean-energy future.”
The president criticized Republicans who have called for the country to increase its own oil production, declaring that “anyone who tells you we can drill our way out of this problem doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” With the United States consuming more than 20 percent of the world’s oil while having only 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves, Mr. Obama said “we can’t rely on fossil fuels from the last century.”
The trial to decide who should pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been delayed by a week, to allow BP Plc to try to cut a deal with tens of thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the disaster.
Less than 24 hours before the case was set to start in a New Orleans federal court, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier pushed back the date to March 5 from February 27.
The delay allows further talks between BP and the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC), which represents condominium owners, fishermen, hoteliers, restaurateurs and others who say their livelihoods were damaged by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill.
Eleven people were killed, and 4.9 million barrels of oil spewed from the mile-deep Macondo oil well, in by far the worst offshore U.S. oil spill.
The ever-changing fuel situation continues to develop in curious ways….
Also, note how Albany is specifically mentioned -I’m going to assume, since the link doesn’t specify otherwise, they mean Albany, NY…. specifically New York’s current deliberation about how to best allow Hydrofracking in New York.
‘Hurt Themselves’
Chevron Corp. (CVX) and ConocoPhillips, the second- and third- largest U.S. energy companies by market value, also are expected to post their largest full-year profit declines in 2012 since 2009, when worldwide fuel markets were reeling from the collapse of demand in the wake of the financial crisis.
“In a sense, they’ve hurt themselves,” Leonard Coburn, president of Washington-based Coburn International Energy Consultants LLC and a former director of Russian and Eurasian affairs at the Energy Department. “But that’s why we’re seeing them shifting away from gas toward more oil.”
Shale formations will account for 49 percent of total U.S. gas production by 2035, up from 23 percent in 2010, the Energy Department said in a Feb. 14 report. When other geologic formations such as tight sands that require the same intensive drilling techniques are added in, unconventional fields will pump 77 percent of domestic supply by 2035, the department said.
The supply bonanza of gas and oil made possible with fracking means the U.S. will become increasingly independent of foreign energy producers at the same time as burgeoning economic powers such as China grow more reliant on overseas supplies, said Jonathan Chanis, managing member of New Tide Asset Management LLC in Torrington, Connecticut. That outlook assumes lawmakers and regulators at the federal and state levels won’t place expensive restrictions on drillers, he said.
“With the right policy decisions in Washington and places like Harrisburg and Albany, the United States will be in an extremely positive position,” Chanis said.
