Concerns regarding security of supply have driven Brent crude prices up 3% and US crude up 2% in the wake of recent developments. Crude oil prices have risen sharply due to the uncertainty in Iraq. Prices for Brent crude futures have risen to over $113 per barrel, the highest price for almost a year. Iraq is the second-largest oil producing … Read More
Centrica plans oil and shale gas exploration
The parent company of British Gas is seeking to generate more of its own energy, due to its increasing reliance on foreign imports. Centrica, owner of British Gas, has announced a new 2 year partnership with Cuadrilla Resources to extract shale gas at 7 wells across Lancashire. Fracking will take place at 6 new wells, as well as the one … Read More
Has the oil market been rigged to raise prices?
BP, Shell & Statoil suspected of deliberately manipulating markets and exacerbating the recession. Three energy giants may have “colluded in reporting distorted prices to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products”. If these allegations are true, it could have had an impact on not just petrol. Everything is linked to the price of oil somehow … Read More
A 2013 UK Shale Gas Revolution? Unlikely.
Natural gas prices in the US have dropped by almost two thirds since they started ‘fracking’ for shale gas. Could we see a similar boost to the UK economy any time soon? Shale Gas – probably the only hope we have of producing a significant amount of useful, home-grown energy in the next decade or two. Some say it is … Read More
Budget 2012: New carbon taxes for businesses?
In the budget today, the Chancellor George Osborne announced plans for a new “alternative environmental tax”, as a result of reforming or scrapping the Carbon Reduction Commitment. The Carbon Reduction Commitment, also known as the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, is designed to reduce the energy consumptions of the largest businesses in the UK, by placing them in a league table … Read More
Shell announces 54pc profits rise
Oil giant Shell has announced bumper profits from 2011, up 54pc from the previous year. The company’s formula for success is astonishingly simple – it sold oil at much higher prices, compensating for losses in its other businesses. Oil prices at an average of $109 per barrel, up from $88 per barrel the previous year, led to Shell to announce … Read More
North sea oil and gas outputs decrease
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has released new figures showing that imported coal is replacing gas and oil from the North sea in the UK fuel mix. The newly released data shows that North sea oil and gas production fell by 16% and 25% respectively in the second quarter of 2011, while coal imports rose 36% in the … Read More
Libyan oil production already on the increase
Libyan rebel leaders have already called workers back into oil refineries and said pre-conflict levels of production could be reached as early as next year. The country’s Transitional National Council (TNC), recently recognised by the United States as the nation’s legitimate governing body, said damage to its oil infrastructure is not as bad as previously feared. The Libyan TNC stated … Read More
North Sea oil leak “substantial” says DECC
Shell gas has announced a ruptured pipeline has spilt a substantial amount of oil into the North Sea The spill, coming from the pipeline leading to the Gannet Alpha oil platform 113 miles (180 km) off Aberdeen, is said to have been releasing oil into the North Sea since last week. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said: … Read More
Oil price down after IEA open reserves
The price of oil has dropped by $6 per barrel today after The International Energy Agency (IEA) opened up oil reserves. The IEA are to release an extra 60m barrels from emergency crude supplies. The UK is contributing 3m barrels, and half of it is coming from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve.