5/22: Russia and China Seal $400-Billion-Dollar Gas Deal
The biggest buzz in energy news this week is the long-awaited energy agreement between Russia and China that was signed May 21, 2014. The deal, linking Russia’s Gazprom with China’s CNPC, was 10 years in the making, and aims to provide China with enough natural gas to meet the country’s growing consumer demand for the next three decades. (Read more)
5/20: Oil & Gas Wary of “Uninformed” Government Regulations
While everyone agrees that hydraulic fracturing needs to be done safely, oil & gas producers are raising red flags in regard to the federal government enacting more fracking regulations, while manufacturers fear the feds don’t hold a tight enough rein on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. These issues, and more, were hot topics of conversation at an oversight hearing held on May 20, 2014 by the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. (Read more)
5/18: New Technology Means Cleaner Fracking
A feature in today’s Wall Street Journal reports that in response to pubic concerns, the energy industry is pioneering a host of new methods to alleviate fracking’s potential for negative impact on the enviroment. According to the report: “They’re coming up with ways to cut methane seepage from their equipment, use excess gas that previously had been burned as waste to fuel drilling rigs, and put huge volumes of wastewater from fracking to work on new wells.” (Read more)
5/18: Foreign Oil Finally Invites the West to the Party
Some formidable players in global oil — Mexico, Iran, Iraq, Algeria, and Libya — who’ve been historically unwilling to share the wealth, have recently relaxed restrictions on Western oil companies looking to set up shop in their countries. Seems the shale gas boom has brought on a change of heart to several petrostates that are now hoping to tap internal reserves, and realizing they’ll need outside help to make it happen. (Read more)
5/17: Is Western Energy Behind Ukraine Violence?
In a story for RT News, foreign policy expert Nebojsa Malic has implied that “economic interests, such as untapped shale gas resources (in the Dnieper-Donets basin) — already sliced and diced by Western energy giants” — is the driving force “behind the Kiev government’s ‘anti-terrorist’ operation against the pro-federalist regions.” Factions in Eastern Ukraine believe Kiev is forcing war over potential shale profits. (Read more)
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