Tag: oil

Saudi man gets 10 years, 2,000 lashes over atheist tweets

This is what our staunch ally does to people expressing their freedom of speech. Will Obama hold a press conference to condemn this treatment? Will anyone in the political establishment call Saudi Arabia out for their atrocious human rights violations?

The hypocrisy of Obama and his liberal minions is breathtaking to behold, as they pretend to support free speech, woman’s rights, and gay rights, while remaining completely silent regarding the Islamic leaders of Saudi Arabia torturing, brutalizing and killing anyone who supports free speech, woman’s rights, or gay rights. They reveal themselves to be cowards and liars.

Our politician leaders don’t say a peep as they purposefully destroy the US shale oil industry. Saudi Arabia is our enemy. I’d get 5,000 lashes for that statement if I lived in Saudi Arabia.

 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism in hundreds of Twitter posts.

Al-Watan online daily said Saturday that religious police in charge of monitoring social networks found more than 600 tweets denying the existence of God, ridiculing Quranic verses, accusing all prophets of lies and saying their teachings fueled hostilities.

It says the 28-year-old man admitted to being an atheist and refused to repent, saying that what he wrote reflected his own beliefs and that he had the right to express them. The report did not name the man.

The court also fined him 20,000 riyals, about $5,300.

 


A Market Collapse Is On The Horizon

Guest Post by Gail Tverberg

 

What is Ahead for 2016?

1. Problems with a slowing world economy are likely to become more pronounced, as China’s growth problems continue, and as other commodity-producing countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and Australia experience recession. There may be rapid shifts in currencies, as countries attempt to devalue their currencies, to try to gain an advantage in world markets. Saudi Arabia may decide to devalue its currency, to get more benefit from the oil it sells.

2. Oil storage seems likely to become a problem sometime in 2016. In fact, if the run-up in oil supply is heavily front-ended to the December to April period, similar to what happened a year ago, lack of crude oil storage space could become a problem within the next three months. Oil prices could fall to $10 or below. We know that for natural gas and electricity, prices often fall below zero when the ability of the system to absorb more supply disappears. It is not clear the oil prices can fall below zero, but they can certainly fall very low. Even if we can somehow manage to escape the problem of running out of crude oil storage capacity in 2016, we could encounter storage problems of some type in 2017 or 2018.

3. Falling oil prices are likely to cause numerous problems. One is debt defaults, both for oil companies and for companies making products used by the oil industry. Another is layoffs in the oil industry. Another problem is negative inflation rates, making debt harder to repay. Still another issue is falling asset prices, such as stock prices and prices of land used to produce commodities. Part of the reason for the fall in price has to do with the falling price of the commodities produced. Also, sovereign wealth funds will need to sell securities, to have money to keep their economies going. The sale of these securities will put downward pressure on stock and bond prices.

4. Debt defaults are likely to cause major problems in 2016. As noted in the introduction, we seem to be approaching the unwinding of a debt supercycle. We can expect one company after another to fail because of low commodity prices. The problems of these failing companies can be expected to spread to the economy as a whole. Failing companies will lay off workers, reducing the quantity of wages available to buy goods made with commodities. Debt will not be fully repaid, causing problems for banks, insurance companies, and pension funds. Even electricity companies may be affected, if their suppliers go bankrupt and their customers become less able to pay their bills.

Continue reading “A Market Collapse Is On The Horizon”

Falling Oil Prices Not the Reason for U.S.’s Economic Woes

Guest Post by Antonius Aquinas

The dramatic fall in the global price of oil is being cited by the financial press, government officials, and academia as the catalyst for the recent abysmal U.S. economic data which shows that the economy is, in all likelihood, sliding into a recession or worse.

While falling oil prices sound like a plausible explanation for the abysmal financial numbers, anyone with a modicum of economic sense (which excludes much of the financial Establishment) can see that it is merely a smokescreen to obfuscate the real culprit.

The fall in oil prices, while detrimental to many oil producers, should actually be a boon for the rest of the economy, especially those industries that are heavily reliant on energy. Lower fuel prices mean lower production costs leading to, ceteris paribus, greater output.

For consumers, lower oil prices mean lower utility bills and cheaper gasoline, both of which mean more disposable income for either savings or more consumption. Why would greater disposable income lead to a recession?

Continue reading “Falling Oil Prices Not the Reason for U.S.’s Economic Woes”

One Map That Explains the Dangerous Saudi-Iranian Conflict

Guest Post by Jon Schwarz

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday. Hours later, Iranian protestors set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran. On Sunday, the Saudi government, which considers itself the guardian of Sunni Islam, cut diplomatic ties with Iran, which is a Shiite Muslim theocracy.

To explain what’s going on, the New York Times provided a primer on the difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam, informing us that “a schism emerged after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632” — i.e., 1,383 years ago.

But to the degree that the current crisis has anything to do with religion, it’s much less about whether Abu Bakr or Ali was Muhammad’s rightful successor and much more about who’s going to control something more concrete right now: oil.

In fact, much of the conflict can be explained by a fascinating map created by M.R. Izady, a cartographer and adjunct master professor at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School/Joint Special Operations University in Florida.

What the map shows is that, due to a peculiar correlation of religious history and anaerobic decomposition of plankton, almost all the Persian Gulf’s fossil fuels are located underneath Shiites. This is true even in Sunni Saudi Arabia, where the major oil fields are in the Eastern Province, which has a majority Shiite population.

As a result, one of the Saudi royal family’s deepest fears is that one day Saudi Shiites will secede, with their oil, and ally with Shiite Iran.

This fear has only grown since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq overturned Saddam Hussein’s minority Sunni regime, and empowered the pro-Iranian Shiite majority. Nimr himself said in 2009 that Saudi Shiites would call for secession if the Saudi government didn’t improve its treatment of them.

shia-oil-cropped-2

The map shows religious populations in the Middle East and proven developed oil and gas reserves. Click to view the full map of the wider region. The dark green areas are predominantly Shiite; light green predominantly Sunni; and purple predominantly Wahhabi/Salafi, a branch of Sunnis. The black and red areas represent oil and gas deposits, respectively.

Source: Dr. Michael Izady at Columbia University, Gulf2000, New York

Continue reading “One Map That Explains the Dangerous Saudi-Iranian Conflict”

Putin Accuses US Of ISIS Oil Coverup

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/05/2015 22:00 -0500

Last Wednesday, the Russian MoD delivered a lengthy presentation which contained compelling visual evidence of a connection between Islamic State’s illegal and highly profitable trade in stolen Iraqi and Syrian crude and Turkey. Here are some highlights:

After loading up with oil, a truck convoy in east Syria heads toward Turkey in direction Al-Qamishli:

October 18: in the Drer-ez-zor region a satellite imagte reveals 1772 oil trucks:

Continue reading “Putin Accuses US Of ISIS Oil Coverup”

Russia Presents Detailed Evidence Of ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/02/2015 09:01 -0500

On Monday, Turkey’s sultan President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said something funny. In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s contention that Russia has additional proof of Turkey’s participation in Islamic State’s illicit crude trade, Erdogan said he would resign if anyone could prove the accusations.

Now obviously, conclusive evidence that Ankara is knowingly facilitating the sale of ISIS crude will probably be hard to come by, at least in the short-term, but the silly thing about Erdogan’s pronouncement is that we’re talking about a man who was willing to plunge his country into civil war over a few lost seats in Parliament. The idea that he would ever “step down” is patently absurd.

But that’s not what’s important. What’s critical is that the world gets the truth about who’s financing and facilitating “Raqqa’s Rockefellers.” If a NATO member is supporting this, and if the US has refrained from bombing ISIS oil trucks for 14 months as part of an understanding with Erdogan, well then we have a problem. For those who need a review, see the following four pieces:

Unfortunately for Ankara, The Kremlin is on a mission to blow this story wide open now that Turkey has apparently decided it’s ok to shoot down Russian fighter jets. On Wednesday, we get the latest from Russia, where the Defense Ministry has just finished a briefing on the Islamic State oil trade. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Turkey may be in trouble.

First, here’s the bullet point summary via Reuters:

  • RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS RUSSIA’S AIR STRIKES IN SYRIA HELPED TO ALMOST HALVE ILLEGAL OIL TURNOVER
  • RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS TURKISH PRESIDENT AND FAMILY INVOLVED IN BUSINESS WITH ISLAMIC STATE OIL
  • RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS WILL CONTINUE STRIKES IN SYRIA ON ISLAMIC STATE OIL INFRASTRUCTURE
  • RUSSIA’S DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS KNOWS OF THREE ROUTES BY WHICH ISLAMIC STATE OIL IS DIRECTED TO TURKEY
  • RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY SAYS TO PRESENT NEXT WEEK INFORMATION SHOWING TURKEY HELPING ISLAMIC STATE

That’s the Cliff’s Notes version and the full statement from Deputy Minister of Defence Anatoly Antonov is below. Let us be the first to tell you, Antonov did not hold back.

In the opening address, the Deputy says the ISIS oil trade reaches the highest levels of Turkey’s government. He also says Erdogan wouldn’t resign if his face was smeared with stolen Syrian oil.

Continue reading “Russia Presents Detailed Evidence Of ISIS-Turkey Oil Trade”

The “Bloodbath” in Canada Is Far From Over

The “Bloodbath” in Canada Is Far From Over

 

By Justin Spittler

The oil price crash continues to claim victims…and many of them are in Canada.

The price of oil hovered around $100 for most of last summer. Today, it’s trading for less than $45.

Weak oil prices have pummeled huge oil companies. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP), which tracks the performance of major U.S. oil producers, has declined 36% over the past year. The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH), which tracks U.S. oil services companies, has declined 30% since last November.

Weak oil prices have even pushed entire countries to the brink. Saudi Arabia, which produces more oil than any country in the world, is on track to post its first budget deficit since 2009 this year. If oil prices stay low, the country could burn through its massive $650 million pile of foreign reserves within five years.

•  Oil’s collapse is also creating big problems for Canada’s economy…

Canada is the world’s sixth largest oil producer. Oil makes up 25% of its exports.

Last month, The Conference Board of Canada said it expects sales for Canada’s energy sector to fall 22% this year. It also expects the industry to record a net loss of about C$2.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2015. That’s a drastic change from last year, when the industry booked a C$6 billion ($4.5 billion) profit.

Major oil firms are slashing spending to cope with low prices. Last month, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A) said it would stop construction on an 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) project in western Canada. The company had already abandoned another 200,000 bpd project in northern Canada earlier this year.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers estimates that Canadian oil and gas companies have laid off 36,000 workers since last summer. Most of these layoffs happened in the province of Alberta…

• For the past decade, Alberta was Canada’s fastest growing province…

Its economy exploded, thanks to the booming market for Canadian tar sands.

Tar sand is a gooey sand and oil mixture that melts down with heat from burning natural gas. More than half of Canada’s oil production comes from tar sands. In Alberta, they account for 75% of oil production.

Tar sand is generally more expensive to produce than conventional crude oil. Canadian tar sand projects made sense when oil hovered around $100. But many of these projects can’t make money when oil trades for $45/barrel. Last year, Scotiabank (BNS) said the average breakeven point for new Canadian oil sand projects was around $65/barrel.

This is why giant oil companies are walking away from projects they’ve spent years and billions of dollars developing.

Continue reading “The “Bloodbath” in Canada Is Far From Over”

THE NO INFLATION MEME

The government, Fed and MSM continue to beat the no inflation drum. Except everywhere I turn, I see inflation. It’s almost as if they are lying to us.

A few months ago the package of almonds I would buy regularly at Wal-Mart suddenly shrunk in size, while the price stayed exactly the same. A 15 ounce bag of nuts was now a 12 ounce bag of nuts for the same price. Wal-Mart had just stealthily made a 25% price increase. A few weeks ago, I noticed the Slim Jim package that always included 28 sticks, now only included 26 sticks, for the same price. Doesn’t seem like much, but that was a 7% price increase.

Retailers and manufacturers are doing this with potato chips, detergent, candy, condiments, shampoo, vitamins, and anything else they get away with. I can assure you the BLS is not picking this up in their monthly bullshit report, and Janet Yellen doesn’t give fuck all about how many Slim Jims are in a box. She doesn’t worry about it as she eats caviar and drinks champagne at swanky Washington DC dinner parties for the elite. She knows when she steps down as Fed Chairwoman, she will reap $300,000 speaking fees at luncheons given by the Wall Street banks to pay her off for doing their bidding. The hoi poloi  earning 0.15% on their life savings don’t pay as well.

I’m experiencing another example of non-existent inflation today, as I received my monthly PECO Energy bill. It captures my natural gas and electric usage. Here are the known facts:

Oil was priced at $80 a barrel last October. This October it is priced around $45 per barrel. That is a 44% decrease.

Natural gas was priced at $4 last October. This October it is priced around $2.29. That is a 43% decrease.

The BLS factors these decreases into the CPI and tells me my home energy costs are falling. I keep all my expenditure data in Quicken, so it is easy for me to find last year’s October bill. It was $164. The bill I just got was for $154. Wow – a decrease!!! But wait one second. My consumption of both gas and electric was down 15% over last year.

Last year I used 20 Ccf of gas versus 17 Ccf this year. Last year I used 905 kWh versus 782 kWh this year.

On an apples to apples basis, even without the 44% decrease in oil and gas factored in, my bill should have been 15% less than last year at $139. But instead it was $154, almost 11% higher than last year.

So, even though the price of energy has plunged by over 40% and I used 15% less energy than last year, my inflation rate was almost 11%. I wonder how the BLS will pick this up in their data.

The lies, disinformation, and propaganda will continue until morale improves.

Beware of significant shrinkage.


The Decline Of Oil: Head-Fake Or New Normal?

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

When production does finally collapse, that will set up the “nobody saw this coming” ramp in the price of oil.

In May 2008 I proposed the Oil “Head-Fake” Scenario in which global recession pushes oil demand down as oil exporters pump their maximum production in a futile attempt to fund their vast welfare states and thus retain their precarious political power.

Oil: One Last Head-Fake? (May 9, 2008)

The terrible irony of the head-fake, of course, is that the exporters’ efforts to pump more oil exacerbates the oversupply, further depressing prices. As exporters receive fewer dollars for their production, they attempt to compensate by pumping even more oil. Perniciously, this suppresses prices even more, setting up a positive feedback loop which pushes prices to the point that exporters are no longer able to fund their welfare states and Elites.

Something has to give, and that something is the existing power structure in oil exporting nations.

Another factor deepens the eventual crisis triggered by drastically lower oil revenues. The majority of exporting nations under-invest in their oil production and exploration infrastructures, essentially guaranteeing declining production once the easy oil has been extracted.

This cycle of spending the fruits of current production while starving investment for the future is part of what is known as the resource curse: nations with an abundance of resources rely on the income generated by the sale of their resources which effectively stunts the development of a diverse economy and the institutions which such a diverse economy requires as a foundation.

Continue reading “The Decline Of Oil: Head-Fake Or New Normal?”

How I was personally affected by Chavez-Maduro socialism in Venezuela

Via Vineyard of the Saker

First, let me clarify that I am an average citizen – working class, born in the 70s when my country Venezuela was called “Little Arabia”, for the flow of money at that time came through oil. Unfortunately this has changed in the last 15 years.

My family are people who work for a living and sacrifice what little they have to achieve home ownership (acquired in those years before the socialists came to power) and even though today we are employed professionals, there is no possibility of getting credit to purchase property.

I was 23 when Chavez arrived in power and already had an independent life and a degree in marketing. I worked, was independent in almost all my needs, had credit cards and I was able to buy vehicle – a 1998 Opel Corsa. In those days if you had a good job you could go to a credit agency and would have credit or cash in 72 hours maximum. After choosing the model, colour, equipment and going through a short administrative formality you could enjoy your vehicle.

To remember that a guy like me with a salary as an editor at a TV channel (I’m a publicist) could have the “luxury” to have new car is now ridiculous. In 1998 the cost of the car was about the same as my yearly salary, with bonuses in December. I cannot dream of buying a car now, because the prices are exorbitant and the currency devaluations of recent years have ended our purchasing power.

There is no market for new vehicles except trucks and a couple of brands that still survive the onslaught of socialism (Toyota which has plant in Venezuela and make lucrative contracts with the government and Ford also has a plant which has crippled its operations on several occasions due to the crisis). Other brands only exist to sell spare parts (what few are available).

Equally, it is almost impossible to travel abroad, one because of the price, two because the Venezuelan government owes foreign airlines at least US$4 billion (here I leave a link to a Venezuelan newspaper to understand this situation regarding air tickets in Venezuela. Sorry if you don’t read Spanish)

Continue reading “How I was personally affected by Chavez-Maduro socialism in Venezuela”

Mapping Every Power Plant in the United States

Via Visual Capitalist

The Washington Post has put together an extraordinary data visualization that shows how the United States has generated its electricity so far this year. Using data from the Energy Information Administration, they have mapped every power source and categorized it by type and size.

Related Topic: What it Takes to Power New York (Slideshow)

I will recap the most interesting parts of their project here, but we highly recommend that you visit their online interactive version of this visualization to get the most out of their work.

Plant Capacity by Megawatt

Plant Capacity by Megawatt

This above visualization is a little overwhelming, as it includes every power source in America. However, later on we will show various visualizations by power type, which make it easier to make sense of.

Power Generated by Source: Coal

Coal-fired power

Data visualized like this shows there is still a large reliance on specific energy types such as coal, hydro, and nuclear. For example, 28 states still rely on coal in 2015 to produce at least 25% of their electricity.

Meanwhile, the following chart on solar shows how far photovoltaics still have to go to make a significant impact in the overall energy mix.

Power Generated by Source: Solar

Solar power

While community solar farms are starting to take off in the United States, solar technology as a whole still does not provide substantial amounts of electricity. It is clear that California is the leader in solar capacity, but it actually only accounts for 8% of total electricity generation in the state.

Coal Power Map

Coal power plants map

The United States has 511 coal-fired power plants that generate 34% of the nation’s electricity. Coal produces the majority of energy in 14 sates.

Continue reading “Mapping Every Power Plant in the United States”