Petroleum

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin There is a narrative that I hear from time to time that President Biden made billions of dollars for the country by selling oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) last year at high prices and buying it back at low prices. The only problem is that the story is only half true. The Biden Administration did indeed sell a lot of oil from the SPR last year. Further, oil prices in 2022 were the highest they had been in years, averaging nearly $95 a barrel — the highest level since 2013. However, the Biden Administration hasn’t bought back any of the 266 million barrels of oil that have been removed from the SPR since his inauguration. If Biden wants to legitimately receive credit for successfully playing as an oil speculator, then he needs to put the oil back. Right now, all he has done is deplete oil reserves that were built up under several previous administrations (Democratic and Republican). Previously, the … [Read more...] about Isn’t It Time To Refill The Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Refilling the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve may take years, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said this week, reversing plans the Biden administration announced late last year to repurchase at lower prices oil it sold from the reserve in 2022. However, the relatively limited size of the planned repurchases in proportion to global oil demand makes assessing the impact on U.S. crude oil markets somewhat difficult—especially amid current global economic trends and geopolitical challenges. KEY TAKEAWAYS U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said this week it may take years for the government to replenish its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's a reversal of plans the government announced last year to repurchase oil it sold from the reserve at lower prices. Current global economic concerns and geopolitical conditions, however, present challenges in assessing the market impact of the decision. Granholm told a House panel Thursday that the U.S. likely would not … [Read more...] about US to Take Years to Refill Its Strategic Petroleum Reserve

PHUKET: Anyone who travels around Phuket will have witnessed the infiltration of the oil palm as the area devoted to this species has increased three-fold since 2000. Moreover, it is the avowed aim of the government to add 400,000 rai of oil palm plantations every year to our island landscape. By 2028, the authorities anticipate that 10 million rai of these man-made forests will dominate the scenery of Southern Thailand . To a significant extent, the oil palm will replace the para rubber tree, another monoculture crop, since the profits that accrue from its oil are both more substantial and less subject to wild fluctuations than those made from cultivating hevea brasiliensis . Why and wherefore? Well, we all know that the world, at least until the recent rash of fracking, was paranoid about the fast-depleting resources of fossil fuel and especially petroleum. How much longer could we drill and delve into the earth before the supply of this precious stuff petered out? … [Read more...] about Keep it Green: Haunted by silence of the leaves

Several advocacy groups are urging Malacañang to amend an existing executive order granting import incentives to include electric motorcycles as an affordable alternative for Filipinos to shift to zero emission commuting. Think tank Stratbase ADR Institute president Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit in a posted statement said “EO 12 as it is now , excludes motorcycles from import tax exemptions but covers vehicles with four wheels – which are afforded only by higher-income individuals.” “Millions of working Filipinos opt for two and three-wheel vehicles because of their income limitations. They are the most vulnerable to the increase in prices of fuel and other basic commodities. Making electric motorcycles more affordable means no more worries on spiking petroleum prices and pollution free transportation for the masses,” Manhit said. According to Philippine Business for Environmental Stewardship (PBEST) secretary general Felix Vitangcol,   Executive Order 12, which grants tax … [Read more...] about EO 12 coverage expansion to include electric motorcycles pushed

Oil prices fell more than $1 on Tuesday, extending the previous day’s slide, as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled equities markets and sparked fear about a fresh financial crisis. Brent crude futures were down 87 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $79.90 a barrel at 0345 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) dropped 85 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $73.93 a barrel. On Monday, Brent fell to its lowest since early January, while WTI dropped to its lowest since December. The sudden shutdown of SVB Financial triggered concerns about risks to other banks resulting from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s sharp interest rate hikes over the last year. It also spurred speculation about whether the central bank could slow the pace of its monetary tightening. U.S. authorities launched emergency measures on Sunday to shore up confidence in the banking system after fears of contagion from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank led to a sell-off in U.S. assets at the end of last week and … [Read more...] about Oil prices fall $1 as SVB collapse spooks financial markets

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin As modern society becomes more focused on climate action and the goal of reduced dependence on fossil carbon, one concept that has gained ground is a shift towards more of a “plant-based” economy. Arguably all food is already plant-based – for some things there is also an animal involved along the way. There are also already many important plant-based fiber products from paper to fabric to building materials. Plant-based fuels are becoming a huge category. Plant-based materials could also be an alternative for various other products that are now made with plastics. This would be a way to reduce our overall carbon footprint and begin to address some of the environmental issues ranging from microplastics pollution to the giant plastic island in the ocean. The purpose of this article is to highlight three interesting companies that have introduced plant-based consumer items that can reduce the use of plastic. All three of these … [Read more...] about Here Are 3 Women Creating Plant-Based Consumer Items That Can Reduce The Use Of Plastic

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Despite ongoing conflicting signals coming from President Joe Biden and some of his senior officials, ExxonMobil XOM announced Thursday that it has successfully started up a large expansion of its Beaumont Refinery. The expansion will add 250,000 barrels of oil per day of new refining capacity, the equivalent of starting up a large greenfield refinery. “ExxonMobil maintained its commitment to the Beaumont expansion even through the lows of the pandemic, knowing consumer demand would return and new capacity would be critical in the post-pandemic economic recovery,” Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions, said in a release. “The new crude unit enables us to produce even more transportation fuels at a time when demand is surging. This expansion is the equivalent of a medium-sized refinery and is a key part of our plans to provide society with reliable, affordable energy products.” The new capacity would … [Read more...] about ExxonMobil Adds Big New Refining Capacity In Beaumont

A change in tone is not a change in tactics — and President Joe Biden’s recent approval of the Willow project , which will allow ConocoPhillips to drill for oil and gas on lands in Alaska leased from the federal government, isn’t a deviation from his openly declared goal. During his campaign, Biden said, “ I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuels .” And even as the administration announced that Willow would move forward, it’s continuing to prevent or limit drilling in 16 million acres of Alaskan land. Let’s start with the $8 billion Willow project. Though President Biden acknowledged during his State of the Union address that “ we’re going to need oil for a decade, and beyond that ,” his commitment to a Net Zero future is unabated. As the New York Times pointed out , “The distance between Mr. Biden’s campaign pledge and his blessing on that plan, known as the Willow project, is explained by a global energy crisis, intense pressure from Alaska lawmakers (including the … [Read more...] about HENNEKE: No, Biden’s Approval Of Willow Project Isn’t A Change Of Heart On American Energy

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Last week, in the first installment of the series of which the present column is second, I showed how strikingly similar the state of American industry is now to the state of American industry when the Second World War broke out. The Roosevelt Administration, in close collaboration with the leaders of the most important manufacturing industries of the day, converted us virtually overnight from a country with negligible aircraft, naval and cargo vessel, tank and other military vehicle, munitions, and strategic materials industries into the world’s great ‘Arsenal of Democracy.’ What had enabled this, I indicated, was a unique institutional pairing that we had also used during the First World War, not to mention the nation’s early industrialization along Hamiltonian lines. This pairing has always involved an interagency coordination board comprising Cabinet-level executive agencies and private sector industry leaders on … [Read more...] about War On Inflation, Part 2: Restoring Leadership In Semiconductor Production

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin When Nazi Germany successfully conquered all of northern Europe and then France in the late spring of 1940, many people in the US as elsewhere were taken by ominous surprise. Germany had failed in the same effort 25 years earlier, after all, and now had not only succeeded, but succeeded in mere weeks. Like many countries that had hoped to avoid entanglement in the then-new Second World War, the US now came realize that it too was vulnerable. At the War’s commencement in late 1939, the US army and air force stood 16 th in size worldwide, smaller than Spain’s and barely larger than Bulgaria’s. Our aviation industry, in turn, ranked 36 th in size nationally where the number of people it employed was concerned – just behind the candy and confections industry. In terms of value-added, it ranked forty-fourth. In all of 1940 it produced barely 3,000 militarily usable planes, 2,300 of which it produced for foreign governments … [Read more...] about War On Inflation, Part 1: The Lesson Of World War II