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In order to create political influence among countries in the Central American and Caribbean region, Hugo Chavez, the late President of Venezuela, created an energy alliance called Petrocaribe in 2005.
Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe, continues to be at risk of a Russian cutback in natural gas deliveries. Washington, D.C., legislators optimistically claim that U.S. natural gas exports will reduce European dependence on Russian natural gas. A Brookings Energy Security Institute study suggests this is unlikely.
As the U.S. increases its production of crude oil, pressure continues to build to allow crude exports. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has been asked to study the economic impacts of potentially lifting the ban and those studies are expected to be released in the late 2014/early 2015 timeframe.
Arctic exploration and production is heating up: Shell plans to resume drilling in the arctic offshore Alaska in 2015, and in the spring of 2015 the U.S. is assuming the leadership of the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental forum created to address the concerns to Arctic nations and the region’s indigenous peoples. Undiscovered Arctic oil and gas resources are huge, as are producing onshore fields. There are only a few producing fields in the offshore arctic, but that number could expand with planned drilling offshore Russia and Alaska.
In developed countries such as the United States, energy subsidies are usually discussed in terms of tax preferences for renewable or fossil energy sources, or energy efficiency. In other parts of the world, led by Uzbekistan, subsidies take the form of government-funded reductions in retail prices for fossil fuels.
There may be job openings on Capitol Hill as some Senators and Representatives, and their staffs are replaced after the election. If you want to apply for one of those staff jobs check out HillZoo.com.
Those of us in the petroleum industry have been tracking the rapid expansion of oil and gas production from shales and in the process we may not have noticed the rapid expansion of renewable energy, especially wind. Read the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) statistics.
China plans to significantly increase its natural gas consumption to help cut its appalling air pollution. But natural gas is still a small part of its energy mix. In addition, and to confound environmentalists, a significant part of China’s gas supply comes from Coal-to-Gas technology, which generates large volumes of greenhouse gas and other pollutants, but does allow China to deliver clean-burning gas to locations with severe air pollution.
The Department of Transportation is taking steps to address concerns about the safety of transporting oil by rail. The concern is fueled by several severe accidents in 2012 that caused deaths and damage as rail cars carrying oil, especially Bakken oil that seems to be especially volatile, exploded or burned. Recent information about the large number of oil cars that move through highly populated areas has raised additional concerns.
Induced seismicity frequently is in the news, especially in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio, where an increase in the number of earthquakes may be tied to injection wells.
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