Gasoline

Pressures on Fuel Ethanol Production Capacity

November 18, 2009 -- Capacity to produce fuel ethanol from corn nearly tripled between January 2006 and January 2009. However, over the past 18 months, a combination of surplus production capacity, the decline of gasoline prices from their mid-2008 peak level, and high corn prices that boosted producers’ input costs have resulted in a sharp decline in ethanol margins. The combination of economic pressures on capacity led some producers to idle plants, and in some cases, file for bankruptcy.    » read more »

Saudi Aramco Announces New U.S. Pricing Formula

November 12, 2009 -- The U.S. imported slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day from Saudi Arabia during the first 8 months of 2009. Despite a decline of more than 33 percent compared to the same period in 2008, Saudi Arabia was still the third largest source of U.S. crude oil imports during the first 8 months of this year, according to EIA import data.    » read more »

HOUSTON, October 28, 2009 --- ConocoPhillips [NYSE:COP] Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva commented, "We operated very well during the third quarter, with E&P production and R&M refinery utilization rates higher than a year ago. Through September year to date, our E&P production has increased nearly 100,000 BOE per day, or more than 5 percent, compared with the same period in 2008."    » read more »

Upstream earnings of $3.64 billion decline 41 percent on lower prices for crude oil and natural gas

SAN RAMON, Calif., October 30, 2009 - Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today reported earnings of $3.83 billion ($1.92 per share - diluted) for the third quarter 2009, compared with $7.89 billion ($3.85 per share - diluted) in the 2008 third quarter. Earnings in the 2009 period included gains of approximately $400 million ($0.20 per share) from asset sales and tax items.

Foreign-currency effects reduced earnings in the 2009 quarter by $170 million, compared with a benefit to income of $303 million a year earlier.    » read more »

IRVING, Texas --

Exxonmobil's Chairman Rex W. Tillerson commented:

“Despite ongoing global economic weakness and reduced demand for products, we continued our robust investment program and delivered strong results.

“Our third quarter earnings, excluding special items, were $4.7 billion. While continuing to be impacted by lower commodity prices and weak product margins, we maintained our focus on operational excellence and invested $19 billion through the first three quarters of the year to develop new energy supplies.

“Oil-equivalent production increased by 3% over the third quarter of 2008 with contributions from major start-ups of world-class assets including Qatargas 2, Train 5 and Ras Laffan 3, Train 6 in Qatar.    » read more »

October 15, 2009 -- World production of fossil fuels-oil, coal, and natural gas-increased 2.9 percent in 2008 to reach 27.4 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) per day, the highest ever recorded. In the first half of the 2008, producers strained to meet global demand, but by year's end the global recession left the market swamped by excess supply, causing oil prices to fall to from $144 per barrel in July to $34 per barrel in December.

According to the latest Vital Signs Update on fossil fuel production:

* Continuing a decade-long trend, most of the growth in fossil fuel production was in the Asia-Pacific region, where production grew 6.3 percent.    » read more »

Tracking Volatile Energy Prices

Energy prices are volatile. They change as market participants adjust their expectations to new information from physical energy markets and markets for energy-related financial derivatives. Futures and options markets are a valuable source of information regarding these changing expectations.    » read more »

Winter Fuels: How Inventories are Stacking Up

September 30, 2009 -- One of the critical factors energy analysts focus on each fall, ahead of the rise in demand for heating fuels, is the pre-winter build-up of fuel inventories. This year, inventories are unusually high for all winter fuels, including distillates (which includes heating oil), natural gas, propane, and coal used for electricity generation.

Current high inventories stem primarily from the recession. As the economic downturn deepened throughout 2008 and 2009, energy demand fell, but supply was relatively slow to respond. As a result, stocks of many fuels were pushed well above typical historical levels.    » read more »

September 16, 2009 -- There's a good chance you've been hearing more about biodiesel lately. This article, the first of several short discussions about biodiesel that will appear in the next few months, lays out some of the basic terminology and qualities associated with this fuel. It also begins to illustrate important factors that vary among biodiesel fuels and fuel blends with petroleum diesel - variations that require fuel suppliers to make adjustments in order to ensure that these fuels perform well.    » read more »

Sanders Warning on Speculators: ‘They’re Back!’

WASHINGTON, June 22 – Senate Republicans today blocked consideration of an amendment by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to require federal regulators to use emergency powers to curb oil price speculation.

“What are they afraid of? Who are they trying to protect?” Sanders asked.

“There is mounting evidence that the run-up in oil prices has little to do with the fundamentals of supply and demand and everything to do with excessive speculation by some of the same Wall Street firms that received the largest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world,” Sanders said. “They're back,” he warned.    » read more »

Senate Committee Adopts Sanders Proposal on Oil Price Speculation

WASHINGTON, June 9 – A Senate panel on Tuesday adopted a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to make big oil traders divulge reserves held in offshore tankers to skirt reporting requirements, distort supply records and artificially drive up prices.

As crude oil rose above $70 a barrel and gasoline climbed to an eight-month high, Sanders also announced that he will introduce legislation to require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to use emergency powers to stem oil price manipulation.    » read more »

June 5, 2009 -- BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota Governor John Hoeven today spoke with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to request that EPA expedite his previous request to raise the ethanol blended gasoline variance to 15 percent from the current 10 percent blend.

The move would help to expand the market for domestically produced biofuels, according to Hoeven. The Governor, as chairman of the Governors Biofuels Coalition, made the formal request in February to President Barack Obama.

“The nation needs greater energy independence, and domestic ethanol producers need a boost under current market conditions,” Hoeven said. “Increasing the proportion of ethanol to 15 percent would move us closer to both goals.”    » read more »

June 3, 2009 -- Every year, typically in the first quarter, EIA releases its Annual Energy Outlook, which provides projections and analyses of U.S. energy supply, demand, and prices through the next 20 to 25 years. The projections are based on results from the EIA’s National Energy Modeling System and include a reference case, plus numerous additional cases examining factors impacting energy markets, and complete documentation.

The reference case is widely used by policy analysts, decision makers, and other energy analysts as a starting point for examining proposed energy and environmental legislation.    » read more »

Renewable Fuels Changes to EIA's Petroleum Surveys

May 28, 2009 -- EIA has recently implemented expanded data collection efforts to better capture ethanol, biodiesel, and other renewable liquid fuel volumes, marking an important milestone in a multi-year effort to address the growing role of renewable fuels. Congress enacted a mandate for the increased use of renewable motor fuels in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That same law also authorized EIA to collect better data on renewable fuels.

The need for better renewable fuels data became even more important when the mandate for renewable fuel use was significantly expanded by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which sets a target of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel use by 2022.    » read more »

May 28, 2009 -- West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin today released the following statement about a decision by Marathon Oil Corp. to temporarily stop deliveries of fuel – to its Charleston distribution center -- that ordinarily would be sold to independent, non-branded gasoline stations.

“I am totally disappointed in Marathon’s decision not to provide deliveries to their independent customers, especially considering our emergency situation with the recent flooding in our state,” Manchin said. “Now is the time they should be stepping up to help their customers and our citizens through difficult times.    » read more »