HYDROCARBONS
OPEC to eye economic stimulus, not just oil supply
OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna this week were expected to keep supply targets intact and instead rely on hoped-for economic growth to sustain oil prices.
OPEC will keep current output target at Sep 9 meet
Oil producer club OPEC will maintain its current 24.845 million b/d crude production ceiling at Wednesday’s ministerial meeting in Vienna, Iran’s OPEC governor said Monday, quoted by the Mehr news agency.
Natural gas glut expected to test US storage system this fall
With US natural gas storage supplies comfortably above 3.3 Tcf, and with even more gas trying to push its way in, many in the industry are bracing for a very real capacity test of the storage system in the coming weeks. Despite a gas rig count that, according to Baker Hughes, is about 50% below last year, supplies have been kept flush by a relatively mild summer in most of the US and weak economic conditions. “We have a recession, so there’s no demand,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist with Deutsche Bank. … the plain fact is that “there’s just not enough storage for the gas that’s trying to get in,” Sieminski said. “There’s a physical limit.”
Trinidad and Tobago gas reserves revised
Trinidad and Tobago has proved gas reserves of 15.4 tcf and another 30 tcf in unrisked exploration potential, according to recent findings of Ryder Scott Consultants. Herman Acuna, Ryder Scott managing senior vice-president, told a news conference in the Caribbean twin-island nation’s capital of Port of Spain that while there was a reduction in the country’s proved reserves, its probable and possible reserves had increased. The study was conducted for 2008 and showed that the largest exporter of LNG to the US had 8.5 tcf of probable reserves, 6.3 tcf of possible reserves, and 29.6 tcf of unrisked exploration potential.
NUCLEAR
Iran rules out talks on its nuclear “rights”
Iran’s president on Monday snubbed U.S. President Barack Obama’s end-September deadline to talk to world powers on its disputed nuclear program, saying in his opinion discussion on the issue is “finished.”
GEOPOLITICS
China Oil Deal Is New Source of Strife Among Iraqis
… [T]he China National Petroleum Corporation has struck oil at the Ahdab field in Wasit Province, southeast of Baghdad. And while the relationship between the company and the Iraqi government has gone smoothly, the presence of a foreign company with vast resources drilling for oil in this poor, rural corner of Iraq has awakened a wave of discontent here.
Medvedev puts his foot down
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev today ordered Gazprom to stop advance payments to Ukraine for transit of natural gas across its territory.
Moscow ‘may lend Kiev $2bn’
Russia could lend Ukraine $2 billion to support the former Soviet republic’s economy ahead of next year’s election, according to local media reports. Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti, citing an unidentified Russian government official, said gas supplies and the possibility of lending money to Ukraine would be discussed at an October meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.
On star-studded world tour, Chavez seeks to create gas cartel
According to Philippe Moreau Defarges, senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Chavez is hoping to rally energy-producing countries such as Turkmenistan, Iran, and Russia against the United States. “The OPEC is in a bad way, so a new cartel around gas, which is considered to be a clean energy, is a good way to recreate an anti-Western front,” Moreau Defarges said in an interview with FRANCE 24 on Tuesday. On Monday, Chavez called on Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to join a gas forum of natural gas exporters.
Iran and Venezuela seal $760m deal
Venezuela and Iran will both invest $760 million in each other’s energy sectors under deals signed during a visit to Tehran by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, according to local media reports.
CLIMATE and ENVIRONMENT
Rigs going green
As oil and gas operators venture into deeper waters to feed the global hunger for energy, a greater challenge exists to balance cost control with environmental concerns. Environmentalists often blame the noise from seismic acquisition and drilling operations for the beaching of whales and other disruptions to marine life. … Industry players have developed new technology in attempt to resolve these issues, although, as yet, no one approach can offer a complete solution.
Friendlier Arctic seas bring opportunity — and risk
Arctic trade experts say that natural resource development and regional trade will open up marine shipping through the Arctic over the next decade and that many non-Arctic nations will be participating.
U.S. climate change bill to compete with healthcare
Environmentalists hope the push in Congress for climate change legislation is not overwhelmed by the debate dominating Capitol Hill over changing the U.S. healthcare system. But it might be.
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