Clipmarks | BobbyDelray's 'oil' clips

Mission Accomplished? Iraq to award oil contracts to foreign firms

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:26:37 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday.

They cover Kirkuk field (Shell), Rumaila (BP), Al-Zubair (ExxonMobil), West Qurna Phase I (Chevron and Total), Maysan province development (Shell and BHP Billiton) and the Subba and Luhais fields (Anadarko, Vitol and the UAE's Dome), according to a previous media report.

Emerging Market Oil Use Exceeds U.S. as Prices Rise

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:50:26 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

China, India, Russia and the Middle East for the first time will consume more crude oil than the U.S., burning 20.67 million barrels a day this year, an increase of 4.4 percent, according to the International Energy Agency in Paris. U.S. demand will contract 2 percent to 20.38 million barrels daily, the IEA says.

Economic growth of more than 8 percent in China and India, coupled with increasing car ownership among the countries' combined populations of 2.45 billion people, will more than compensate for falling U.S. demand

U.S. pump prices have followed crude oil higher. Regular gasoline, averaged nationwide, rose 2.7 cents to a record $3.445 on April 18, according to AAA, the nation's largest motorist organization. In the U.K. a gallon of gasoline cost $7.99 on average on March 31, according the Automotive Association.

Where is Iraq's oil money going?

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:55:58 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Two senators are asking congressional investigators to look at Iraq's oil revenues and see if the war-ravaged nation can pay for its own reconstruction, an effort that has been bankrolled to this point mostly by U.S. taxpayers.

Government Accountability Office that Iraq has "tremendous resources" in banks worldwide but is doing little to improve security and reconstruction efforts.

We believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue

Using numbers from the U.S. State Department and Iraqi Oil Ministry, the senators said Iraq hopes to produce 2.2 million barrels of oil a day this year. Weekly averages suggest that the number has climbed as high as 2.51 million barrels a day.

That kind of oil production could earn Iraq a projected $56.4 billion this year

we believe that Iraq will accrue at least $100.0 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008

Tags: oil, iraq, revenue, reconstruction

Anti-Alzheimer's Mechanism In Omega-3 Fatty Acids Found

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:58:07 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why.

Greg Cole

associate director of UCLA's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and his colleagues report that the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in fish oil increases the production of LR11, a protein that is found at reduced levels in Alzheimer's patients and which is known to destroy the protein that forms the "plaques" associated with the disease.

We found that even low doses of DHA increased the levels of LR11 in rat neurons

Based on the positive results, the National Institutes of Health is currently conducting a large-scale clinical trial with DHA in patients with established Alzheimer's disease.

This research is reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, now online.

Tags: alzheimer's, omega 3, fish, oil, fatty, acid

Oil Hits $100 a Barrel for the First Time

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:17:24 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: $102 equals all time inflation adjusted price.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Oil prices rose above the symbolic level of $100 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, a long-awaited milestone in an era of rapidly escalating energy demand.

The rise in oil prices in recent years has been driven by an unprecedented surge in demand from the United States, China and other Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Booming economies have led to more consumption of oil-derived products such as gasoline, jet-fuel and diesel. Meanwhile, new oil supplies have struggled to catch up.

Oil is now within reach of its historic inflation-adjusted high reached in April 1980 in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution when oil prices jumped to the equivalent of $102 a barrel in today’s money.

Unlike the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, which were caused by sudden interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, today’s surge is fundamentally different.

Prices have risen steadily over several years because of a rise in demand for oil and gasoline

Tags: oil, price, record, inflation

Environmental disaster, oil, corpses wash ashore

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:01:24 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: news.aol.com

Russian rescue helicopters searched for five missing seamen on Monday after a storm in the northern mouth of the Black Sea , while a slick of oil from a sunken tanker began washing onto beaches.

A crew member evacuates the Vera Voloshina, a Russian cargo ship, during a storm Sunday in the Black Sea off Ukraine. The storm sank several ships, stranded others and spilled 1.3 million gallons of oil.

The dead sailors wearing life vests washed up near Tuzla on the western side of the strait, said Emergency Situations spokesman Sergei Kozhemyaka.

Birds seeking shelter on the shore near the center of the storm were covered in a treacly mixture of oil and seaweed -- the first evidence of what one Russian official called an "environmental disaster."

A flock of about 1,000 rails, a species of wetland bird, were huddled on the beach, unable to fly because their feathers were coated with oil. Some were unable to stand.

The polluted area is at the heart of the migration route from central Siberia i

Tags: environmental disaster, oil, corpses wash ashore, azov sea, slick, ilyich, russia, black sea

Go-Go Gold (and Oil)

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:37:31 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

A few years ago, $100-a-barrel crude oil and $1,000 gold would have seemed completely ridiculous. But the markets are on the cusp of grasping the former, and at this rate, the latter isn’t too far off. (Many will say, “c’mon, $1,000 gold is ridiculous,” but admit it - you hesitated before saying that this time.)

“The dollar is falling and is making dollar-denominated assets cheaper so you get gold and crude going up and that’s probably going to keep going for a while,”

Buying in at $100 oil seems a bit foolhardy, but then again, people said that at $70 and $80 as well

So, yeah, this inflation thing is nothing to worry about. Which is why investors continue to plunk money down in hard assets and buy up dollar-denominated products like oil and gold, both of which surged again to finish another day with those “highest price since Columbus” headlines.

Tags: gold, oil, inflation

Expect $60 oil soon?

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:44:06 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: members.forbes.com

Here's how Littell sees it. Last year Saudi petrocrats thought demand would slacken at the same time that oil production rose from sources outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations. They cut back Saudi production from 9.5 million barrels a day in March 2006 to 8.5 million a year later in order to keep supply and demand balanced and crude prices hovering around $60 per barrel.

But the Saudis overestimated non-opec production.

Check out the relationship between prices and production in the accompanying chart. The Saudis hold the key to long-term oil prices since they are one of the few exporters--Kuwait and Abu Dhabi are the others--with the ability to increase production significantly.

How long before we get some relief?

Littell expects the impact of all that additional oil to hit U.S. markets in a couple of months or so. The Saudis "didn't plan on $80 oil," he says. "They wanted to keep it around $60 and did the wrong thing."

Tags: littell, saudi petrocrats, oil, price, production, estimates

Oil surges to new record $100 next

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:35:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

Worries over supplies and conflict in the Mideast sent oil futures to another record close — $90.46 a barrel.

"It was an explosive day. They've blown the top off this market," oil analyst Phil Flynn told MarketWatch. "Another bullish perfect storm. You had the Iranian sanctions that caused nervousness, doubts about OPEC's ability to increase production. You had another weak dollar today and strong commodities across the board."

"It's not a question of when we'll hit $100 but how quickly,'' said Nauman Barakat, an executive at Macquarie Futures, interviewed by Bloomberg. "There are no bearish factors in the market right now.''

Today's Wall Street Journal quotes an OPEC official saying the cartel won't announce new output quotas — beyond an additional 500,000 barrels a day for November — at next month's meeting. That comes in the wake of an unexpected drop in U.S. stockpiles.

Tags: oil, price, futures, opec, production, nauman barakat, phil flynn, marketwatch

2007 Christmas Stamp Unveiled, it's Beautiful

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:18:13 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.usps.com

“Madonna of the Carnation” featured on 2007 Christmas Stamp

Details:
Formerly know as Holiday Traditional stamps, the Christmas stamps adorn millions of letters, greeting cards and packages each year. Since 1978, the theme of these stamps has been the Madonna and Child, and the stamps have attracted a devoted following over the years. The 2007 design features Bernardino Luini’s oil-on-panel, “The Madonna of the Carnation”, which dates to around 1515 and is now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The stamp art is a detail of the work, as the image was slightly cropped on all four sides to fit the stamp format.

A viewing of the Bernardino Luini’s “The Madonna of the Carnation” oil-on-panel will be part of the stamp unveiling ceremony. Stamps will be available for purchase and a special pictorial postmark will be offered.

Tags: 2007, christmas, stamp, unveiled, national, gallery, art, madonna, carnation

Winter heating costs seen rising 22 percent

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:08:37 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Government: Cold winter is predicted; seasonal cost for heating fuel to soar

NEW YORK - It’s going to be a much more expensive winter for households that depend on heating oil, the government predicted Tuesday, while those that use natural gas should experience only moderate price increases.

Heating oil customers will pay an average of $319, or 22 percent, more this winter than last in large part because of soaring crude oil prices, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration estimated. Natural gas customers are forecast to pay $78, or 10 percent, more for heat between October and March.

Tags: cold winter, hating, costs, heating oil, crude oil, energy department

Gassy Bugs

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:35:17 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Kleiner Perkins, BASF Ventures, Oxford Bioscience, interesting, very interesting. Maybe put on future radar screen for good IPO.

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

Who knew that tiny bugs deep underground are burping out natural gas, even at this very moment? Three years ago, Luca Technologies, a start-up in Golden, Colo., discovered that microorganisms in U.S. coal fields are converting--in real time--large hydrocarbon molecules into methane, a natural gas. The obvious entrepreneurial reaction? Harness those "bugs" and put them to work producing natural gas in underutilized oil and coal fields, decided Luca Technologies Chief Executive Robert Pfeiffer. Now some big backers are betting that Luca’s technology will pay off. In late September, Pfeiffer raised a combined $20 million in venture funding in a Series B round led by superstar Silicon Valley venture firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with participation from Oxford Bioscience Partners and BASF Venture Capital America,

Tags: bugs, orgainc fuels, natural gas, oil, coal, fields, kleiner perkins, oxford bioscience

New Nuclear Plants Abounding?

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:59:59 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Nukes? No Nukes?

Clip Source: www.google.com

Sep 19, 2007 (2 days ago)

Plans move forward for new nuclear plants

from MSNBC.com: Oil & Energy

The current turmoil in credit markets is unlikely to derail plans by power companies to begin ordering the first new nuclear plants since cost overruns and public opposition virtually killed the industry three decades ago.

Tags: oil, energy, credit markets, nuclear plants

Goldman Sachs calls for $95 oil

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:54:15 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.google.com

Goldman Sachs, which in 2005 famously suggested crude oil could spike to $105 a barrel before demand destruction kicked in, on Sunday raised its target for Nymex crude-oil prices for year-end 2007 and 2008, saying crude could end that two-year run as high as $95.

Goldman’s thesis is that oil is in a “cyclical” bull market caused by tight supply and OPEC production cuts, at the same time it’s in a longer-term, “structural” bull market caused by inadequate production capacity — a “bull-bull” market, or double-bull market, which is sort of like being on double-secret probation, only with fewer togas.

Tags: oil, energy, goldman

Greenspan Bashes Bush Over Spending

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:37:14 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Fact or Fiction?

Clip Source: smartclips.blogspot.com

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his new book, bashes President Bush for not responsibly handling the nation's spending and racking up big budget deficits. A self-described "libertarian Republican," Greenspan takes his own party to task for forsaking conservative principles that favor small government. "My biggest frustration remained the president's unwillingness to wield his veto against out-of-control spending," Greenspan wrote. And he weighed in briefly but pointedly on the Iraq war: "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

Tags: alan greenspan, bashes, bush, fed, global warming, irag, oil, reserve, the age of turbulence: adventures in a new world