US court halts construction of Keystone XL oil pipeline

Decision time again [image credit: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez]

It’s a temporary ban that can be appealed. The circus continues.

A federal judge on Thursday halted construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration had failed to adequately explain why it had lifted a ban on the project, reports Phys.org.

The ruling by Judge Brian Morris of the US District Court for the District of Montana dealt a stinging setback to Trump and the oil industry and served up a big win for conservationists and indigenous groups.

IEA: Petrochemicals set to be the largest driver of world oil demand

Oil extraction [image credit: ewg.org]

A recent energy conference was told: “The world will attain the 100 million barrels a day mark of [oil] consumption later this year, much sooner than we all earlier projected.” This report notes that petrochemicals ‘are required to manufacture many parts of the modern energy system, including solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, thermal insulation and electric vehicles’.

Petrochemicals are set to account for more than a third of the growth in world oil demand to 2030, and nearly half the growth to 2050, adding nearly 7 million barrels of oil a day by then, reports Green Car Congress.

They are also poised to consume an additional 56 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas by 2030, and 83 bcm by 2050.

Saudis push back as IPCC talks head into overtime

Another climate meeting, another heavyweight clash of opinions as committing national economic self-harm struggles to catch on. Ho-hum.

International talks on how to present the science around 1.5C of global warming just ran into overtime in Incheon, South Korea, reports Climate Weekly.

National delegates are expected to argue well into Saturday about the feasibility of holding temperature rise to 1.5C – the stretch goal of the Paris Agreement – and its implications for sustainable development.

Life Without Oil Is Not As Simple As You May Think

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A reminder that some people should be careful what they wish for. For example, buried in ‘other products made with Oil’ we find fertilizers, which have greatly boosted world food production.

American Elephants

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The Texas well that started a revolution and changed the world forever

Permian shale, Texas [image credit: fulcrium.com]

Not a bad idea from someone who admitted “I was just trying to keep my job”.
H/T The GWPF

Two decades ago, an engineer tried a new way to get gas out of the ground. Energy markets and global politics would never be the same, writes Russell Gold @ The Wall Street Journal.

DISH, Texas – Twenty years ago this month, a well was drilled here that changed the world.

Nothing at the time suggested the unassuming well in this rural town north of Fort Worth would hobble OPEC, the powerful oil cartel that had governed prices of the world’s most important commodity for more than a generation. Or that it would help turn the U.S. into a global energy exporter, or shuffle the geopolitical deck.

But it did all of that – and more.

WSJ: The Climate-Change Tort Racket

Oil extraction [image credit: ewg.org]

The sub-heading to this is: ‘Liberal cities attempt a climate shake down of oil firms’. These cities run fuel-powered vehicles by the hundreds but still want massive compensation from oil companies. Success would likely make fuel prices rise to recover any losses.
H/T Climate Depot

San Francisco, Oakland, New York and Seattle have sued five global oil giants—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell —for billions in future damages from climate change, reports the WSJ.

Brass-knuckled plaintiff firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has been shopping around the lawsuit to other cities desperate for cash.

The new shale tech that terrifies OPEC

Credit: mining.com

Trying to write off shale drilling as a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad isn’t working out too well, it seems. The WSJ investigates.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger says The Wall Street Journal @ the GWPF.

Two years ago, it looked like Saudi Arabia was winning its fight against the U.S. shale oil industry by furiously pumping crude to drive down prices.

Some drillers went bust and many more flirted with bankruptcy while oil drilling in places like West Texas and North Dakota collapsed.

The Saudi effort backfired.

Historic energy milestone: US oil output surges to new record highs

The US Permian Basin has massive oil and gas reserves [credit: theamericanenergynews.com]

No sign of demand for oil fading any time soon, despite all the climate propaganda from wishful thinkers. Even web searches for ‘peak oil’ have declined as US production has soared. Everyone knows, or ought to, that turning the oil tap off would collapse any industrial economy in days.
H/T The GWPF

US crude oil output surges to new all-time record highs in January. It’s a great day for the US energy industry, a great day for the frackers, and a great day for American-style capitalism, says Mark J. Perry of AEIdeas.

I haven’t used the Drudge Report siren in a long time, but thought it was appropriate today to announce a monumental and historic US energy milestone: US crude oil production set a monthly record in January of 10.2 million barrels per day (bpd), based on the EIA’s most recent monthly forecast that was released yesterday (see top chart above).

January’s crude oil production topped the previous record of 10.04 million bpd established back in November 1970, more than 47 years ago.

Environmentalists lose climate lawsuit over Arctic oil drilling

Norway’s Goliat oil platform [image credit: T3n60 @ Wikipedia]

Another attempt to use the law to get a court to take on the role of government over supposed climate issues bites the dust, assuming no appeal. The green groups were ordered to pay the state’s $94,000 legal costs.

Oslo District Court on Thursday ruled that Norway’s drilling for oil in the Barents Sea does not violate a constitutional right to a healthy environment, reports The Barents Observer.

The government acts in accordance with the law when awarding new petroleum exploration licenses for the Barents Sea, the ruling by Oslo District Court reads. Greenpeace, one of the three organizations which filed the lawsuit, has published the court’s 49-pages comprehensive ruling.

The lawsuit was challenging Norway’s 23rd oil licensing round arguing that opening up the Arctic continental shelf would violate the country’s Paris agreement commitments to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Electricity is “the new oil” says IEA

Credit: Entek Corp.

This overlooks the fact that ‘the majority of petroleum is converted to petroleum products, which includes several classes of fuels’. It also includes ‘conventional fertilizers [which] are commonly derived from petroleum. In fact, a single 40-pound bag contains the equivalent of 2.5 gallons of gasoline.’ Electricity is only a manufactured power source, as far as national networks are concerned.

Electricity is “the new oil” and the effect of increasing global electrification is having a “very deep rippling effect for the power sector”.

That was one of the highlights this morning at the launch of the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook, reports PEI.

Laura Cozzi, head of the IEA’s Energy Demand Outlook Division, said: “We are seeing growing electrification happening throughout the energy sector – electricity going into sectors that were confined to other fuels before: most notably, cars, but also heating and cooling.”

Oil change? Fossil fuel advocate to run State department

Rex Tillerson

After years of being persecuted by climate alarmists, the oil giant Exxon now finds its CEO nominated for a top post
in the next US government. What’s he like? Tough at times, as this BBC report notes: ‘At the Exxon AGM, journalists from the Guardian were barred from the meeting in Dallas – Exxon argued that the newspaper was not “objective” in their reporting.’

Good news for environmental campaigners: President-elect Trump has finally nominated someone to his cabinet who actually believes in climate change science.

The bad news for those same campaigners is that this true believer happens to be CEO of Exxon Mobil, and also sees fossil fuels as critical to humanity’s survival.

US rejects Keystone XL pipeline from Canada

Pipeline cancelled [image credit: americaherald.com]

The political ducking and weaving is over. After years of indecision, there will be no new oil pipeline from Canada to the US, as BBC News reports.

US President Barack Obama has announced he is rejecting an application to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada. Speaking from the White House, he said it would not have served the “national interests” of the US.

Its construction has been hotly disputed for seven years, with environmentalists saying it would do irreparable damage. But the president said the pipeline had taken on an “overinflated role” in the climate change debate.

The proposed pipeline would have run 1,179-miles (1,897km) taking 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska. But Mr Obama said it would not have: lowered petrol prices, created long-term jobs, or affected energy dependence. “The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy,” he said.

Republican presidential candidates condemned the news, with Jeb Bush calling it an attack on the US economy.

Full report: US rejects Keystone XL pipeline from Canada – BBC News

They will just have to keep sending the oil by rail.

No Keystone, No Problem: The Oil Industry Is Making Other Plans

Decision time [image credit: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez]

After all the political argy-bargy, the final decision on the controversial oil pipeline plan is due as The New Republic explains. But the oil producers are already moving their product in other ways. Whether it’s still worth it with oil down near $40 a barrel is another matter.

Environmentalists have been waiting since 2008 for President Barack Obama’s decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. That decision may come any day now. But Canada’s tar sands industry hasn’t been waiting around.

Saudi Britannia?

Nodding donkey, or pump jack [credit: Wikipedia]

Is this North Sea oil and gas – part 2, or will British politicians shy away from the wealth under our feet, citing nebulous climate theories that don’t work in the real world?

Huw Jenkins of Shale Energy Insider reports:
Following reports that the Jurassic Kimmeridge formation in England could contain more oil than Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar – the world’s largest oil reserve – the conversation about oil and gas drilling in England is heating up, once again.

Chris Faulkner, CEO of Breitling Energy Corporation based in Dallas, Texas, known by the media as the ‘Frack Master’, thinks that the reports are a “game changer” for England and that shale exploration will still be viable in the UK, despite oil and gas prices.

“We knew about this potential long before it became news and now UKOG has proven what the geology showed.  This is actually an extension of the same formation that was being extracted in the North Sea. It just comes on land, and ironically is not far from Gatwick Airport,” Faulkner said.

“This is a game changer for England, and they will now have to shift their entire focus on how to approach oil and gas production.  There’s too much at stake now for them not to,” he added.