What's The Buzz Archives - Page 292 of 302

Los Angeles Times: Falling gas prices may boost the U.S. economy

December 11, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

For the first time in four years, Los Angeles drivers are paying less than $3 on average for a gallon of gasoline, part of a nationwide free-fall in fuel prices that could provide a substantial boost to the economy.

Because they’re spending less at the pump, Americans are expected to shell out more on holiday gifts, parties and travel this year. Airlines are projected to pass some of their fuel savings along to consumers next year. Businesses with previously hefty fuel bills may find room now to lower prices or increase wages.

Idea emerges from Lima conference: Zero emissions by 2050

December 11, 2014/in Environment, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

An idea is gathering momentum among several governments: Reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.

As AP reports from the United Nations climate talks going on in Lima, Peru, this week:

… in a historic first, dozens of governments now embrace her prescription. The global climate pact set for adoption in Paris next year should phase out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, says the London-based environmental lawyer.

“In your lifetime, emissions have to go to zero. That’s a message people understand,” said the Pakistani-born [Farhana] Yamin, who has been instrumental in getting that ambitious, some say crucial, goal into drafts being discussed at U.N. talks in Lima this week.

As The Guardian notes, the ambitious goal is spelled out in a policy document titled “ADP 2-7 agenda item 3 Elements for a draft negotiating text.”

The guidelines being hashed out in Lima could make their way onto the agenda for the next big U.N. climate conference, in Paris next year. The Guardian writes:

While a year seems like a long time, it’s not in the world of UN climate talks.

As one Australian observer pointed out, there are only six weeks of negotiating time on the UN’s schedule between now and Paris.

But if language such as “full decarbonization by 2050” were to become a reality, it basically defines an end point for the fossil fuel energy industry as we know it.

OPEC: Oil demand next year will be lowest in a decade

December 10, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

OPEC cut its forecast for global demand Wednesday, expecting that demand in 2015 will be at the lowest level since 2004.

Reuters reports that the cartel, in its monthly report, said it expects worldwide demand for its oil to be 28.92 million barrels per day, about 1 million bpd less than the 12-nation group is producing now.

Last month OPEC’s decision to keep output the same — about 30 million bpd — sent prices falling even more precipitously. Brent crude is down about 40 percent overall since June, when it was about $110 a barrel.

If the cartel produces 28.92 bpd next year, that’ll be its lowest output since it produced 28.15 million bpd in 2004.

Saudi Arabia, the cartel’s largest producer, gave no sign it’s willing to cut production levels to try to prop up the price. As Bloomberg reports:

“Why should I cut production?” [Saudi oil minister] Ali Al-Naimi said in response to reporters’ questions today in Lima, where he’s attending United Nations climate talks. “This is a market and I’m selling in a market. Why should I cut?”

BP will cut jobs, take $1 billion in charges amid oil slump

December 10, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

The plunging price of oil has taken its toll on one of the world’s largest oil companies: Britain’s BP announced Wednesday it would cuts some of its 84,000-member worldwide workforce, as well as take $1 billion in charges over the next five quarters.

The New York Times reports that most of the financial hit will come in the form of severance pay, indicating that the number of job cuts could be significant. The company didn’t say how many positions it intended to shed.

The price of Brent crude has fallen some 40 percent since June. The price per barrel dropped another 1.5 percent Wednesday, to $65.32.

Bloomberg reports that BP’s move is the latest to come amid the price squeeze:

Europe’s third-biggest oil company by market value joins larger rivals Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA in restricting budgets and offloading operations as margins are squeezed by the 40 percent drop in prices since June. BP said in October that about $1 billion to $2 billion may be cut from the $24 billion to $26 billion of planned capital expenditure in 2015.

Brazil prepares indictments in bribery scandal involving oil giant

December 9, 2014/in What's The Buzz, World /by Fuel Freedom Staff

Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, is embroiled in what might become one of the largest corruption scandals in the nation’s history.

This week The New York Times reported that prosecutor general Rodrigo Janot had prepared indictments on at least 11 executives from Brazil’s largest construction companies.

According to the story, Janot:

is opening the way for a trial that would focus scrutiny on growing testimony about a web of illicit dealings between former executives at Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company, powerful contractors and political figures in Ms. Rousseff’s government.

“We are following the money and we will reach all of these perpetrators,” Mr. Janot said Saturday night in an interview with the Globo television network.

The scandal, which involves claims of bribes to obtain contracts with Petrobras, stunned Brazil’s business establishment in November, when police arrested the executives and transferred them to a jail in the southern city of Curitiba. If testimony already obtained in the case is proven true, the case would dwarf previous corruption scandals in Brazil.

Evidence points to vast sums of money changing hands:

Pedro Barusco, once an obscure, third-tier executive at Petrobras, has agreed to return about $100 million in bribes related to his time at the company, a disclosure that could rank him among the largest known bribery recipients in Brazil’s history. Separately, Augusto Mendonça, an executive at Toyo Setal, a shipbuilding company, testified last week that he paid more than $23 million in bribes directly to the governing Workers Party and to Petrobras executives in exchange for contracts to build oil tankers.

The scandal already affecting the popularity of President Dilma Rousseff, who was narrowly re-elected in May. Rousseff is a former energy minister who once served as chairwoman of the board at Petrobras.

A new opinion survey released on Sunday by Datafolha, a prominent Brazilian polling company, showed that 68 percent of Brazilians hold Ms. Rousseff responsible for the bribery scandal. At the same time, Ms. Rousseff, who narrowly won re-election in October, has an approval rating of 42 percent, the survey showed.

Oil falls again, bank says floor could be as low as $43

December 8, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

The price of Brent crude dropped $1.77 a barrel on Monday, to $67.30. Earlier in the day it had hit $66.77, its lowest mark since October 2009.

BBC News has coverage here, and CNBC here.

Traders reacted to a report from Morgan Stanley citing fears of a global oversupply. According to BBC:

Morgan Stanley predicted that Brent would average $70 a barrel in 2015, down $28 from a previous forecast, and be $88 a barrel in 2016.

The investment bank also said that oil prices could fall as low as $43 a barrel next year. Analyst Adam Longson said that markets risked becoming “unbalanced” unless the OPEC producers’ cartel decided to intervene.

The Economist: Benefit of cheap gas depends on ‘sheiks vs. shale’ tussle

December 5, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

Cheap gasoline provides an overall economic benefit, The Economist writes in an article titled “Sheikhs vs. shale.”

The price drop of some $40 since June (from above $110 to about $70) has shifted “some $1.3 trillion from producers to consumers. The typical American motorist, who spent $3,000 in 2013 at the pumps, might be $800 a year better off—equivalent to a 2% pay rise.”

But will oil stay cheap? That’s the big question. How long the economic benefit of depressed prices lasts depends on:

” … a continuing tussle between OPEC and the shale-drillers [in the United States]. Several members of the cartel want it to cut its output, in the hope of pushing the price back up again. But Saudi Arabia, in particular, seems mindful of the experience of the 1970s, when a big leap in the price prompted huge investments in new fields, leading to a decade-long glut. Instead, the Saudis seem to be pushing a different tactic: let the price fall and put high-cost producers out of business. That should soon crimp supply, causing prices to rise.”

In short, gasoline is cheap now. We need to ensure it stays cheap.

Read more at FuelFreedom.org and PUMPtheMovie.com.

(Photo credit: Dan Weinbaum, posted to Flickr.com)

Low prices keep shale oil in the ground, for now

December 4, 2014/in What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

A Reuters opinion piece by Mike Corones postulates that low oil prices could actually be good for the environment, as U.S. drillers are forced to hold off on new wells until the pricing structure recovers.

That, in turn, means much of the hard-to-reach shale oil that is fueling the worldwide glut of supply will stay in the ground. And that, at least, is good for the environment.

Read the whole piece here.

Oil spill causes one of Israel’s worst environmental disasters

December 4, 2014/in Environment, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

Oil gushed from a broken oil pipeline in an Israeli desert reserve Wednesday night, causing what officials said was one of the country’s worst environmental disasters.

The spill occurred in the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline near the Evrona reserve, on the Israel-Jordan border. Millions of liters of oil escaped in the rupture, which happened while workers were performing maintenance on the pipeline, Reuters and The Guardian reported.

Three people were hospitalized after inhaling fumes from the spill.

(Photo credit: Ran Lior, Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection)

Low gas prices mean Americans want bigger vehicles

December 3, 2014/in Economy, What's The Buzz /by Fuel Freedom Staff

It was inevitable: The drop in gasoline prices means Americans are buying more gas-guzzling vehicles, according to an analysis by Bloomberg.

U.S. vehicle sales rose 4.3 percent in November, on track for 17.2 million sold for the year. That’s the quickest pace for a November since 2003.