Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Dayton Daily News -- The U.S. Department of Labor is suing an operator of 12 Ohio gas stations for allegedly breaking federal laws on paying overtime, minimum wage and record-keeping.

The owner, R&R Takhar Operations Inc., has stations under the Sunoco, Marathon and Shell Oil brands in Anna, Beavercreek, Franklin, Sidney, Springfield and elsewhere. The government is suing to recover back wages and “liquidated damages” that it argues are due to 80 employees.  (go to article)

Bank rate -- When you pull up to a restaurant, toss the valet your keys and wander off to enjoy your evening, you probably never give another thought to the misfortunes that could befall your vehicle while it's in the custody of uniformed strangers.

But rest assured that most parking and valet companies are keenly aware of the potential lawsuit-worthy risks of their trade, including physical damage due to valet negligence, personal injury from an accident involving a customer or valet, and vandalism or even theft of a vehicle.

Any operator who hopes to be in business for longer than a weekend wedding carries valet parking insurance or a parking operator's policy designed by insurers that specialize in this custom coverage.

"The majority of parking operators follow the rules," says Kathy Phillips,  (go to article)

ap -- Norway's Parliament has opened up a new area on the fringe of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling despite protests from opponents who fear catastrophic oil spills in the remote and icy region.

Most of the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea, which the Nordic country shares with Russia, is already open to petroleum activities.

But environmentalists and some opposition lawmakers say the risk to Arctic sea ice is higher in a Switzerland-sized area straddling the Russian maritime border, and wanted to make parts of it off limits to oil and gas drilling.

Parliament sided with the government in a vote late Wednesday and opened the entire area to drilling, with the caveat that no activity can take place within 31 miles (50 kilometers) of the ice edge.

"This is a clear break in  (go to article)

Columbus Dispatch -- Don’t fill up just yet.

This week’s drop in gasoline prices, already well below the $4 mark hit earlier this month, is expected to continue in the coming days, one oil analyst says.

“People are going to be surprised in the next couple of weeks. It will be drastic,” said Tom Kloza, Gasbuddy.com’s chief oil analyst. “People will say, ‘Wow, they really do go down.’?”

By yesterday afternoon, prices already had dropped to as low as $3.39 per gallon at several stations in Columbus, according to Gasbuddy’s website, and Kloza said prices could fall as far as to $3 or $3.25 per gallon for a short period.

The average retail price in Columbus yesterday was $3.69 per gallon, down 21 cents over the past week, according to AAA.  (go to article)

Reuters -- * Gold plunges to lowest in 33 months

* Oil slips more than $2, biggest daily drop in more than a month

* China June flash HSBC PMI hits 9-month low

* Coming up: U.S. existing home sales May; 1400 GMT

By Lewa Pardomuan

SINGAPORE, June 20 (Reuters) - Commodities fell sharply on Thursday as further evidence of slowing growth in economic powerhouse China added to a selloff triggered by the U.S. Federal Reserve's explicit signal it will start scaling back its stimulus later this year.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- West Texas Intermediate crude fell for a second day following slower-than-expected economic data from China and Chairman Ben S. Bernanke saying the Federal Reserve may start reducing bond purchases later this year.

Futures slid as much as 2.2 percent. A preliminary reading of China’s Purchasing Manager’s Index for June dropped to 48.3, compared with the 49.1 median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 economists. The Fed may begin tapering bond purchases this year and end them in 2014 should the economy continue to improve, Bernanke said in Washington. U.S. crude inventories rose by 313,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said yesterday.  (go to article)

Detroit News -- When the tires on their Dodge Caravan had worn so thin that the steel belts were showing through, Don and Florence Cherry couldn’t afford to buy a new set. So they decided to rent instead. The Rich Square, N.C., couple last September agreed to pay Rent-N-Roll $54.60 a month for 18 months in exchange for four basic Hankook tires. Over the life of the deal, that works out to $982, almost triple what the radials would have cost at Wal-Mart. “I know you have to pay a lot more this way,” said Florence Cherry, a 57-year-old nurse who drives the 15-year-old van when her husband, a Vietnam veteran, isn’t using it to get to his job as a prison guard. “But we didn’t really have a choice.” Socked by soaring tire prices and short on funds, growing numbers of Americans are renting the rubber to kee  (go to article)

CBS News -- The new Secretary of Energy has been on the job only four weeks, but he made a beeline Wednesday to see his biggest headache for himself. Ernest Moniz went to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state.

Hanford made the plutonium for American nuclear weapons from the Manhattan Project in World War II until 1987. Now, highly radioactive waste is leaking, and a project to clean it up has stalled.

The clean-up at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation costs U.S. taxpayers $2 billion every year. This winter, engineers discovered six new leaks of radioactive material from underground tanks.

"There's something on the order of 1,000 gallons a year that are leaking now from these six tanks," says Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The government's clean-up plan involves pumping 56 million...  (go to article)

Detroit News -- I drove one of my cars for about six years straight with the little orange “Check engine” signal flickering at me from the control panel. Familiarity, as they say, breeds contempt and after a while I hardly thought about it, except to hope occasionally that it really was “a gas-cap issue” as most people advised. Even if you aren’t quite as laissez faire about your vehicle’s health (and neither am I, any more), these days with increasingly computerized cars, it’s hard to do any mechanical investigating when warnings flash or things just don’t feel quite right from behind the wheel. Instead of tinkering under the hood, however, you can plug in under the dashboard to get a readout on what’s paining your powertrain. A number of consumer gadgets on the market will emulate much of what auto re  (go to article)

OilPrice.com -- The US may be the only country undergoing a shale revolution, but it doesn’t have the biggest shale oil and gas reserves in the world.

The global shale oil and gas potential is a staggering 345 billion barrels of oil and 7.2 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a new report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Topping the list for shale oil is Russia, with 75 billion barrels—compared to the US’ 48 billion—and China with 32 billion barrels, trailed by Argentina in third with 27 billion barrels and Libya.

For shale gas, outside of the US, the line-up has China on top, followed by Argentina, Algeria, Canada and Mexico. The US comes in fourth, after Algeria, for shale gas resources.

But in terms of developing shale resources, no one comes close to the US, ...  (go to article)

MarketWatch -- U.S. crude-oil futures slid on Thursday, as the market grappled with weak manufacturing-activity figures from China, an increase in U.S. oil supply and signals from the Federal Reserve that a reduction in monetary stimulus is in sight.

Crude for July delivery lost $2.16, or 2.2%, to $96.08 a barrel.

Oil prices had been down 0.7% just before the release of an HSBC report showing further slowing in China’s manufacturing sector in June.

The “flash” version of HSBC manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to a nine-month low of 48.3, down from May’s final reading of 49.2. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

The “disappointing flash reading” for June and the Chinese government’s “priority attention on structural reform rather than near-term weakness, suggest that the economic ...  (go to article)

NY Times -- WASHINGTON — President Obama is preparing regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants, senior officials said Wednesday. The move would be the most consequential climate policy step he could take and one likely to provoke legal challenges from Republicans and some industries.

Electric power plants are the largest single source of global warming pollution in the country, responsible for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is in the news a lot lately. The Houston-based company is one of the leading pipeline and energy storage companies in the U.S. The company has a combined enterprise value of approximately $115 billion. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Understandably, many analysts follow it closely. They’re curious to see where this company is going, both figuratively and literally.

In April Kinder Morgan had proposed a 277,000 barrel per day ‘Freedom’ pipeline that would transport light sweet crude from the West Texas Permian Basin to refiners supplying Los Angeles and southern California. But, strangely, they had no takers.

DownstreamToday...  (go to article)

UPI.com -- A pipeline company said it was examining shipper interest for a proposed pipeline to carry 250,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota.

Koch Pipeline Co., which has headquarters in Kansas, said it was in the early stages of examining interest for its proposed Dakota Express pipeline.

The pipeline would stretch from the Bakken oil deposit in North Dakota to Illinois and possibly connect to a network that would facilitate delivery to southern U.S. refineries. If built, the pipeline would start operations in 2016 with an initial capacity of 250,000 bpd.

The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources said this week it was documenting increased oil production from its Bakken and Three Forks reserve areas. The U.S. Geological survey estimates the area contains more than 7 billion...  (go to article)

AOL news -- Imagine this grisly scenario: You're driving down the interstate with the cruise control set at the speed limit. Without warning, your car accelerates. The speedometer pushes past 100 miles per hour. Suddenly, the car turns left and crashes into the concrete median.  (go to article)

Real Clear Energy -- Domestic crude oil production surpassed imports during the week ending May 31, according to an Energy Information Administration report. That’s a milestone that hasn’t been reached in 16 years and underscores the conviction that North American energy security can be realized – if we resolve to achieve it.

In recent years, technological advances that combine safe hydraulic fracturing and innovative horizontal drilling have allowed the United States to take over as the world leader in natural gas production. North America’s total recoverable reserve of natural gas is capable of providing America with 575 years worth of electricity needs at current consumption rates, according to the North American Energy Inventory released by the Institute for Energy Research.
Of course, not everyone wants  (go to article)

Forbes -- In my previous post about the outlandish rhetoric that has sprung up around the Keystone XL pipeline project, one of the comments included this often-repeated claim: “The problem is none of the oil will stay in the U.S. It will be sold to the highest bidder.”

First of all, the statement is simply wrong on its face. Exports of crude oil from the U.S. have been banned by Congress for more than 30 years. (The one exception is a small amount of crude that can be exported from Alaska to Canada.) So under the current law, none of the crude from Keystone will be leaving the U.S.

There have been some murmurings in Congress recently that rising domestic crude production might warrant lifting the ban on exports, but that’s a long way from becoming reality.
The anti-Keystone rhetoric appears to be  (go to article)

The Free Oilprice.com -- Hydraulic fracking has been studied with a published paper showing the energy return on investment (aka EROI) with a total input energy compared with the energy in natural gas expected to be made available to end users is similar to or better than coal.  (go to article)

Platts -- Production of light, sweet crudes from unconventional oil fields in the US is ramping up so fast that at some point it will outpace the country's refining capacity and -- at least for the Gulf Coast -- this could occur within two years, a top analyst for Standard & Poor's said.

While producers in the Midcontinent are using all available means to deliver their crudes to refineries from plays such as the Bakken in North Dakota, the Eagle Ford in South Texas and Permian in West Texas, "not all crude types will fare the same under all these new dynamics," Mark Habib, S&P director, utilities and infrastructure, said during a Wednesday webcast on emerging tight oil plays.  (go to article)

Bloomberg News -- Heavy oil from Alberta will be developed with or without the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, though the fuel will be delivered to market using less efficient means, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. said, speaking at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington Wednesday

Oil will get to market. It gets to market with pipelines. It will get to market by trains, by trucks, to India, to China, and continue to have the opportunity to go to U.S. refineries, which create a lot of jobs for the U.S. for the manufacturing sector on the Gulf Coast

Environmentalists argue that developing the oil sands will be slowed if Obama’s administration rejects Keystone, and cite lobbying by TransCanada and Canadian officials

Canadian officials are pressing the point that the oil will be developed regardless  (go to article)

Yahoo Finance / WSJ -- LONDON—The European Union says it is searching for evidence that oil traders manipulate prices. If oil trader Halis Bektas is correct, it shouldn't be hard to find.

Mr. Bektas describes one strategy he has used himself: Offer to sell a small amount at a loss to drive down published oil prices, then snap up shiploads at the lower price.
The European Union is investigating whether oil traders manipulate the benchmarks posted daily by oil index publisher Platts in order to affect energy prices. WSJ's Jenny Gross reports.

He says such a trading strategy works this way: He might be scheduled to buy perhaps 80,000 metric tons of fuel oil, its price pegged to the daily benchmark published by Platts, a division of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. In the days before the purchase, he could offer to s  (go to article)

Imperial Oil -- Following a comprehensive evaluation of alternatives, Imperial Oil will continue to serve east coast Canadian markets by converting its Dartmouth refinery into a terminal operation.

Despite interest in the refinery assets over the past year, Imperial was unable to attract a buyer to continue operating the refinery.

“The results of the marketing effort illustrate the challenges of operating a refinery of Dartmouth’s scale in the competitive conditions of the Atlantic Basin market,” said Rich Kruger, Imperial Oil chairman and CEO.

“We recognize that closing the refinery is a difficult decision for our employees and the local community. We will make every reasonable effort to minimize the impact.”

The refinery began production in 1918 and has throughput capacity of approximately 88,000 ba  (go to article)

Car and Driver -- The next-generation Ford Mustang, buried under enough camouflage, cladding, and vinyl to make Lady Gaga jealous  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), the electric-car maker whose stock has more than tripled this year, is recalling 1,228 Model S sedans in the U.S. for a manufacturing flaw that could put back-seat passengers at risk in a crash.

Tesla announced the recall on its company blog. The recall affected Model S sedans made from May 10 to June 8, with the number of vehicles specified on the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website.
 (go to article)

MLIVE -- GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Mayor George Heartwell is among the country's first local government leaders to sign a pledge to protect their communities from climate change.

Heartwell’s photo appears alongside some of the other 50 signatories on the Resilient Communities for America campaign Web site. One other Michigan mayor, John Hieftje of Ann Arbor, also has signed.  (go to article)

Nation of Change -- A massive toxic waste spill from an oil and gas operation in northern Alberta is being called one of the largest recent environmental disasters in North America. First reported on June 1, the Texas-based Apache Corp. didn’t reveal the size of the spill until June 12, which is said to cover more than 1,000 acres.

The leak follows a pair of other major spills in the region, including 800,000 litres of an oil-water mixture from Pace Oil and Gas Ltd., and nearly 3.5 million litres of oil from a pipeline run by Plains Midstream Canada.  (go to article)

Science Daily -- June 17, 2013 — German motorists are willing to accept longer journey times and even detours if it means helping to ease the general traffic situation.Of 120 motorists who agreed to provide information about their driving habits and attitudes towards road traffic, two-thirds said they would rather have a stress-free trip even if it meant adding over three minutes to their journey, and 75 percent said they would even be willing to take a detour. In order to put this willingness to cooperate to good use, researchers at FOKUS are developing automotive communication technologies that will guide motorists around streets in a manner that evens out traffic flows and produces environmentally friendly traffic patterns.  (go to article)

Associated Press -- Organizers behind an effort to repeal Alaska's oil tax overhaul say their efforts to gather signatures in Anchorage have been disrupted.

Pat Lavin, campaign coordinator for "Vote Yes! Repeal the Giveaway," has written to Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew, seeking a meeting. Lavin, in his letter, says two people over the weekend harassed a petition circulator on the Park Strip, while one of the same people, a woman, grabbed people signing booklets in front of a bookstore Monday. He says managers then asked the circulators to leave.

 (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has launched a research project with the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, which will use a section of Interstate 66 in Fairfax County as a test bed for connected-vehicle and connected-infrastructure technology. The four-square-mile test bed is located on I-66 between the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) and Nutley Street, and on parallel U.S. 50 and U.S. 29.

McDonnell said: "This test bed will allow Virginia researchers to develop a range of applications that will result in faster infrastructure repair and maintenance, better emergency-response times and incident and congestion management. Most importantly, this research seeks to save drivers in Virginia both time and money by offering technological...  (go to article)

CNN Money -- Surging U.S. oil production and greater energy conservation are helping keep a lid on oil prices worldwide and may be limiting the sway OPEC holds over world markets.
U.S. oil output rose by 14% in 2012, BP reported last week in its annual statistical review. The million barrel-per-day jump in output was the largest increase for any country in 2012, and the fastest single year increase in U.S. history. "The tidal wave of oil coming out of the United States helped to [quench] the market's thirst," said Blake Clayton, a Fellow for Energy and National Security at Council on Foreign Relations. "Tremendous increases in energy efficiency in the United States and Europe are helping to soften the market." Though currently teetering close to the $100-a-barrel mark, oil prices have not crossed the  (go to article)

MLIVE -- GRAND RAPIDS, MI — West Michigan prices should continue their precipitous decline from their formerly eye-popping levels, a fuel price analyst said Wednesday.

Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said the Grand Rapids area could see prices as low as the $3.40s within a week as market prices keep dropping.

Multiple refinery issues and supply shortages throughout the Midwest earlier this month caused a domino effect of painful spikes, with gas as high as $4.30 in West Michigan.  (go to article)

Wall Street Journal -- U.S. crude futures edged lower Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration's weekly report said oil inventories rose slightly, bucking analyst expectations of a decline. Light, sweet crude for July delivery recently traded down 14 cents, or 0.1%, lower at $98.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange for August delivery traded 4 cents higher at $106.06 a barrel. Crude-oil inventories in the U.S. rose 300,000 barrels to 394.1 million barrels for the week ended June 14, the EIA said. Its weekly report said that gasoline stockpiles rose by 200,000 barrels and stocks of distillate, which include heating oil and diesel, fell by 500,000 barrels. U.S. oil stockpiles have been near record levels for much of the year due to surging domestic  (go to article)

USAToday -- GM brands ace qaulity survey, Porsche in first and Scion is dead last.  (go to article)

Bloomberg --
Gasoline Pares Gains as U.S. Supplies and Refinery Inputs Rise
By Barbara Powell - Jun 19, 2013 9:50 AM PT

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Gasoline pared gains after a report that U.S. refiners processed the most crude in six months, implying production of the motor fuel will increase. Crack spreads widened.

Futures narrowed gains to 0.2 percent from 0.7 percent after the Energy Information Administration said refinery crude inputs climbed 1.9 percent to 15.5 million barrels a day, the most since Dec. 14. Supplies rose 183,000 barrels to 221.7 million, a nine-week high. Total inventories of crude and products are the highest since October 2010.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed after a government report showed U.S. inventories rose last week and as investors awaited the outcome of a Federal Reserve meeting.

Prices traded in a 98-cent range after the Energy Information Administration said supplies increased 313,000 barrels. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a slide of 500,000 barrels. Traders are looking for signs about when the Fed plans to scale back stimulus measures. The central bank ends a two-day policy meeting today.  (go to article)

Lubbock Avalanche Journal // AP -- By JOANN LOVIGLIO
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA — After decades of near silence, a passive voice is making itself heard in American architecture.

So-called passive houses, which have been around in Europe but never really caught on in the United States, are basically built around the idea of making houses airtight, super-insulated and energy efficient.

The goal: a house that creates nearly as much energy as it consumes. Think of being able to keep your house warm without a traditional big furnace, cool with no air conditioning unit.

“At this point there’s no reason why any developer can’t now build this way,” said Tim McDonald, whose firm has designed and built energy-efficient buildings with eco-friendly materials for more than a decade in Philadelphia, and recently entered the  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- The Energy Information Administration released its weekly report on the status of petroleum inventories in the United States today.

Here are some highlights:

CRUDE INVENTORIES:
Crude oil inventories increased by 0.3 million barrels to a total of 394.1 million barrels. At 394.1 million barrels, inventories are 6.8 million barrels above last year (1.8%) and are well above the upper limit of the average range.

GASOLINE INVENTORIES:
Gasoline inventories increased by 0.2 million barrels to 221.7 million barrels. At 221.7 million barrels, inventories are up 19.0 million barrels, or 9.4% more than last year. Here's how individual regions and their gasoline inventory fared last week: East Coast (-1.5mb); Midwest...  (go to article)

CNNMoney -- Chrysler Group reversed course and agreed to a recall of 2.7 million Jeeps Tuesday, giving in to the government's request in the final hours before a deadline.
Chrysler stated last week that it would not comply with the recall demand, arguing that the vehicles do not have a high risk of catching fire when struck from behind. It continued to claim Tuesday that the vehicles -- 1993 to 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2002 to 2007 Jeep Libertys -- are safe.

Its statement said it will recall the vehicles for inspection and, in "some cases," will "provide an upgrade to the rear structure of the vehicle to better manage crash forces in low-speed impacts."

"Chrysler Group recognizes that this matter has raised concerns for its customers and wants to take further steps, in coordination with  (go to article)

By Jeffrey Rissman, Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology | LiveScience.com -- Fossil fuels are formed from the remains of plants and animals that died hundreds of millions of years ago, buried and transformed by heat and pressure. Since these fuels require millions of years to form, for human purposes, the supply of fossil fuels on Earth is effectively fixed.  (go to article)

Bangor Daily News -- A resolve to ensure continued legislative oversight of the planning, creation and operation of an east-west highway in Maine caused dissention in the state Senate Tuesday night, where Democrats sought to control the process and Republicans said it’s a private venture that should be left alone.

The possibility of building an east-west highway in Maine has been debated for years, but gained traction when Cianbro Corp. CEO Peter Vigue started planning for it. Vigue, who proposes to pay for the more than $2 billion, 220-mile project with revenues from tolls, has said he hopes to have a detailed route proposed by the end of this year. The highway would run from Calais to Coburn Gore and provide a trucking route from the Canadian Maritimes to points west of Maine.

 (go to article)

Raleigh News & Observer -- A favorable House committee vote Tuesday moved North Carolina a step closer to setting highway speed limits as high as 75 mph, but some legislators worried that drivers really would get away with driving as fast as 85 mph.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Republican from Cary, called it an “unwritten rule."

“Everybody knows the reality is that on a 70, you go 80,” Dollar said at a House Transportation Committee meeting. “You can pretty well set your cruise control at 78 or so, and you’re not going to get a ticket."

 (go to article)

CNN Money -- Surging U.S. oil production and greater energy conservation are helping keep a lid on oil prices worldwide and may be limiting the sway OPEC holds over world markets.
U.S. oil output rose by 14% in 2012, BP reported last week in its annual statistical review. The million barrel-per-day jump in output was the largest increase for any country in 2012, and the fastest single year increase in U.S. history.

The tidal wave of oil coming out of the United States helped to [quench] the market's thirst," said Blake Clayton, a Fellow for Energy and National Security at Council on Foreign Relations. "Tremendous increases in energy efficiency in the United States and Europe are helping to soften the market."
Though currently teetering close to the $100-a-barrel mark, oil prices have not crossed ...  (go to article)

Science Daily -- June 17, 2013 — The vehicle looks like an electric scooter and zooms by almost without a sound. Its driver masters tight corners first and then safely brakes to a halt. He doesn't need to put his feet on the ground because the two rear wheels provide plenty of stability. Daniel Borrmann is satisfied with the first test drive of the Electromobile City Scooter. The new three-wheeled electric vehicle from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO in Stuttgart is designed to open up new possibilities for the urban transportation of tomorrow.

Although electric scooters offer many advantages, a lot of motorists either cannot or do not want to make the switch for trips into town. They simply lack the experience of traveling on two wheels," says Borrmann. This is exactly where the  (go to article)

Rig Zone -- While the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will likely be unable to defend its position on both market share and prices in the wake of growing U.S. tight oil supply, growth in non-OPEC supply does not mean the United States will be immune from a disruption of Saudi Arabian oil exports, a policy expert told attendees at a June 12 forum at Rice University.

The U.S. shale boom changed the perception that Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) would dominate the global oil supply, shifting the center of the energy world back to America, said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director for energy and sustainability at the University of California at Davis, at the Energy Market Globalization: Investment and Commodity Price Cycles and the Role of Geopolitic  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Natural gas rose for a third day in New York on forecasts for rising temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest that may boost demand from power plants.

Gas for July delivery gained as much as 0.6 percent to $3.929 per million British thermal units in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $3.926 per million Btu at 2:03 p.m. Singapore time. The contract jumped 0.8 percent yesterday to $3.905.  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- One of China’s most polluted cities will limit vehicle ownership through a lottery, becoming the latest locality to do so in the world’s largest auto market as air quality and traffic congestion worsen.

Shijiazhuang, the capital of steel-producing Hebei province surrounding Beijing, will restrict the number of new vehicles to 100,000 this year and limit households to owning two cars, according to a Shijiazhuang Daily report posted on the local government’s website today. That quota will be cut to 90,000 in 2015, with a lottery being used to determine who can buy cars, the report said.  (go to article)

AP via USA Today -- European car sales had their worst May in 20 years as the region's recession drags on, the European automakers' association said Tuesday.

Passenger car demand for May dropped by 5.9% on the same month last year in the 27-country European Union to 1.042 million units, the lowest level for that month since 1993 when sales dropped below 1 million, according to new figures released by ACEA. For the first five months of the year, sales dropped 6.8% to 5.07 million.

After hitting a 17-year low in 2012 with a little over 12 million new registrations, European passenger car sales have continued to sag as the European economy struggles to recover from its debt crisis.

The economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro shrank by 0.2% in the first quarter of this year — the sixth ...  (go to article)

MarketWatch -- U.S. crude-oil futures rose on Wednesday after the release of data showing oil stockpiles declined, and ahead of expected comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve about the outlook for its stimulus efforts.

Crude for July delivery added 52 cents, or 0.5%, to $98.96 a barrel but had darted between small gains and losses earlier in the session.

Crude futures added to gains from late Tuesday, when they reached the highest settlement price in 2013 after the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude supplies dropped by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended June 14. A Platts survey of analysts had forecast a decline of 1 million barrels.

The API data were “supportive overall, with crude stocks falling more than expected on a combination of lower imports and higher refinery runs than ...  (go to article)

Financial Post -- In changes announced Tuesday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said companies operating in the Atlantic would be on the hook for a maximum of $1-B in the event of a spill, up from $30-M previously

Arctic drillers, who face high costs and harsh operating conditions in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, would also be responsible for a $1-B limit, up from $40-M under existing rules

The changes come amid renewed interest from BP, Shell, Imperial Oil and Chevron in tapping offshore Atlantic and Arctic crude, and with new seismic work uncovering 3 large highly prospective oil fields in the Labrador Sea

There still will be unlimited liability in the event the operator is negligent or at fault, Oliver said, but we need to have a larger absolute amount so that there is no issue about responsibility  (go to article)

investing.com -- Investing.com - Oil futures nudged lower in Asian trading Wednesday following the release of weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute as traders turned their heads to the end of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting later Wednesday.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for August delivery inched down 0.01% to USD98.67 per barrel in Asian trading Wednesday after settling up 0.37% at USD98.40 a barrel on Tuesday in the U.S. Crude continues to flirt with its highest levels of 2013 as well as nine-month highs.

After the close of U.S. markets Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. oil inventories dropped by 4.3 million barrels for the week ended June 14. Analysts expected a decline of 1 million barrels.  (go to article)

THE BLAZE -- Although it has been said the NSA’s programs collecting communication data is targeting foreigners to thwart potential terrorist activity, the Washington Post has an in-depth feature on a database that hits much closer to home for many Americans. In fact, many can look into their wallet and find the card that entered them into it in the first place — their state-issued photo ID.

The Post reports that 37 states use facial recognition in drivers license registrations. Twenty-six of these states also allow law enforcement — local, state and federal — to search or request searches of the database as photos could pertain to investigations.

Although some like Scott McCallum with the facial-recognition unit in Pinellas County, Florida, say the technology is meant to “benefit law enforcement...  (go to article)