Petroleum

09 August 2007 -- Iraq's oil minister says international companies that want to develop Iraqi oil fields will have to compete for bids in the open market.

Husayn al-Shahristani says no company will get special treatment from the government in Baghdad. He was speaking Thursday in Moscow after talks with executives from Russian oil giant, Lukoil.

Lukoil won a contract from Saddam Hussein's government to drill at West Qurna, one of Iraq's largest oil fields. Saddam's authorities later scrapped the deal, but Lukoil is hoping to revive it with Iraq's current elected leaders.    » read more »

August 8, 2007 -- Much has happened in the last week in Major League Baseball. Not only did Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run last night, but this past Sunday, Tom Glavine became the 23rd player to win 300 games, while just a day before that, Alex Rodriguez was the 22nd player to reach the 500 career home run milestone. While baseball analysts see many other players on their way to hitting 500 home runs during their careers, some wonder if Tom Glavine will be the last pitcher to win 300 games.    » read more »

August 3, 2007, Juneau, Alaska - Saying Alaskans must have confidence in the integrity of the state’s oil tax structure, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today announced her intention to call the Legislature into special session starting October 18, 2007, to reconsider the Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT) it passed last year.

Due in part to the public corruption probe, Governor Palin directed the Department of Revenue to review the performance of PPT. The department has completed a Status Report on the Implementation of PPT, released today. The report concludes:    » read more »

July 11, 2007 -- The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which was played last night, occurs every year at the midpoint of the baseball season. After the “Midsummer Classic,” pennant races heat up in the second half of the summer to determine playoff berths. Much in the same way, the second half of the year determines petroleum market conditions over the winter. In the United States, the end of the summer is the time when gasoline demand reaches its peak and distillate stocks are usually building ahead of winter.    » read more »

July 5, 2007 -- For some, the only time we use propane is to grill hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and other foods, as many of us did yesterday when we celebrated Independence Day. But for others, propane is also a source of heat in the winter, and this is the time of year when propane inventories are built for use in the upcoming winter period. So far this spring and summer, there has been a rather lackluster replenishment of the Nation’s primary propane supply since the end of winter.    » read more »

Magic?

From Houdini to David Copperfield to David Blaine, magicians have always fascinated the public by making the seemingly impossible appear before our eyes. Whether it is making things disappear or floating in the air, magicians test the limits of what we think we understand. In U.S. oil markets, some analysts are wondering if magic might be the explanation for the near-record production of gasoline, even as refinery utilization dropped to the lowest percentage since at least 1991 for this time of year during the week ending June 15.    » read more »

Winter in June?

June 20, 2007 -- The 4.7-million-barrel (13 percent) drop in high-sulfur distillate fuel inventories between May 11 and June 15, could have some oil analysts wondering if the world has shifted such that we are now in the southern hemisphere, where it is winter time!    » read more »

Winter in June?    » read more »

How Does It End?

This was the question on the lips of fans of the television show “The Sopranos” before the final episode was aired this past Sunday evening. Afterwards, fans are still asking the same question. The final scene ended without a clear conclusion, infuriating some fans, while others thought leaving the ending up to individual interpretation made for an interesting finale.    » read more »

What Lies Ahead

June 6, 2007 -- Perhaps one of the most often asked questions of EIA is, “So, what do you expect to happen next?” Each year, EIA publishes a projection, currently to 2030, for U.S. energy markets (the Annual Energy Outlook) and global energy markets (the International Energy Outlook). Every month, EIA publishes a projection for U.S. energy markets for the remainder of the current year and the next year (the Short-Term Energy Outlook), with the next issue to be published next Tuesday, June 12.    » read more »

May 31, 2007 -- Summer Breeze    » read more »

May 23, 2007 -- In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare wrote the following passage:

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;    » read more »

Chasing Records

Yesterday, Barry Bonds hit another home run and now stands just 10 home runs shy of Hank Aaron’s career home run mark of 755. With Barry Bonds chasing this revered record in Major League Baseball, he makes news every time he hits another home run, even if he does so in a loss, as was the case yesterday. One of the most visible records in gasoline markets is the U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline.    » read more »