Bloomberg: Shell Wants Biden to Reverse Methane Emissions Rollback

David Wethe: Tue, November 10, 2020, 9:08 PM GMT

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc will push for the reversal of President Donald Trump’s rollback of methane emissions rules and the introduction of carbon pricing when Joe Biden moves into the White House next year.

“Some of the regulatory rollbacks that we’ve seen under the current administration haven’t actually benefited our industry,” Shell U.S. President Gretchen Watkins said Tuesday on a webcast hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership. read more

Shortly before President Trump visited the Royal Dutch Shell plant in Pennsylvania on Aug. 13, thousands of workers received a memo from Shell about the company’s expectations of the event. The memo informed them that their attendance at the speech was “not mandatory,” but that if they did not scan in to work that morning, they would not receive their pay for the day. They also would lose eligibility to receive the 16 hours of overtime pay built into their workweek.

Although some workers chose not to attend, Trump spoke before a warehouse packed with Shell employees. At one point, the president turned to the union leaders and demanded that they support his reelection campaign. Trump told the workers that if the leaders refused to back him, they should “vote them the hell out of office because they’re not doing their job.” read more

By Maggie Haberman: Aug. 17, 2019

Thousands of union workers at a multibillion-dollar petrochemical plant being built outside Pittsburgh were given the choice of attending a speech by President Trump on Tuesday or staying away — and losing some of their pay for the week.

“Your attendance is not mandatory,” one of the construction site’s contractors wrote in rules for the speech that were shared with its employees, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which first reported on the matter. But the rules said that only those who arrived at 7 a.m., had their work IDs scanned and then stood waiting for the president for several hours would get paid for the time. read more

An aerial view of the Shell ethylene cracker plant being built in Potter in June. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

JONAH S. BERGER: AUG 8, 2019

President Donald Trump has rescheduled a visit to a cracker plant in Beaver County to Tuesday after  postponing the trip — originally scheduled for this week — in the wake of two mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

Mr. Trump will tour Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical complex in Potter Township and is expected to tout his efforts to boost employment in the manufacturing and energy sectors. read more

Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Trump to tour cracker plant in Beaver County next week

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: AUG 3, 2019

President Donald Trump next week will travel to Beaver County where he will tour the Shell Chemicals ethane cracker plant and tout his administration’s economic agenda for expanding the country’s domestic manufacturing and energy production.

Mr. Trump is scheduled to visit the $6 billion plant, which remains under construction in Potter Township, on Thursday. It will be his first trip to Pennsylvania since May. 

The president’s “economic policies, including tax cuts and aggressive deregulatory agenda, has enabled America to expand manufacturing, energy production, new capital and technology investments, and create jobs,” the White House said in a news release. “The policies make it possible for multibillion-dollar investments such as the Shell complex, which highlights the potential for the Appalachian region to become a second center of U.S. petrochemical manufacturing.” read more

Ron Bousso: MARCH 12, 2019

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell urged U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday to tighten restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas production, instead of weakening them as planned.

Breaking from a decades-old tradition of avoiding criticism of U.S. government policies, Shell’s U.S. Country Chair Gretchen Watkins called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten rules to plug methane leaks, a potent greenhouse gas. read more

Mar. 12, 2019 2:58 PM ET|About: Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A +0.4%) urges the Trump administration to tighten restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas production, instead of weakening them as planned.

In unusually frank terms, Shell’s U.S. chief Gretchen Watkins told the CERAWeek conference today that the Environmental Protection Agency needs to tighten rules to plug methane leaks, saying “We don’t usually tell governments how to do their job but we’re ready to break with that and say, ‘Actually, we want to tell you how to do your job.'” read more

Along with Royal Dutch Shell, Total was among the first energy companies to halt crude oil purchases from the Islamic Republic, fearing repercussions if they failed to do so.

By Scott Belinksi – Sep 01, 2018, 10:00 AM CDT

As Iran is turning to the UN’s International Court of Justice to have the US-imposed sanctions against its oil suspended, the EU is preparing for the hit its economies will have to absorb once the full weight of Washington’s punitive measures comes into effect in the fourth quarter of this year. With these latest moves, American intentions are clear: cut off Iranian oil from the market entirely and reduce Tehran’s financial power. As oil prices rise, however, the White House’s policy looks set to hurt more countries than just Iran. Will Europe’s economies take the hit – or will they fight back? read more

Russia’s Gazprom PJSC owns the project, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and four other investors including Germany’s Uniper SE and Wintershall AG providing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($11 billion) in cost.

By Elena Mazneva and Anna Shiryaevskaya | Bloomberg
August 27 at 12:00 AM

A planned new natural-gas pipeline into Europe from Russia is shaking up geopolitics. Nord Stream 2, as it’s called, worries leaders in Eastern Europe, has stirred the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump and has put German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the hot seat.

1. What is Nord Stream 2?

It’s a planned new 1,230-kilometer (764-mile) undersea pipeline that will carry natural gas from fields in Russia to the EU network at Germany’s Baltic coast. It will double the capacity of an existing undersea route — the original Nord Stream — that opened in 2011. Russia’s Gazprom PJSC owns the project, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and four other investors including Germany’s Uniper SE and Wintershall AG providing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($11 billion) in cost. read more

Mr Trump last year signed a law giving him the right to impose sanctions on companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Royal Dutch Shell, BASF’s Wintershall unit, Uniper, OMV and Engie have agreed to provide Russia’s Gazprom with financing for the €9.5bn pipeline and could be at risk of penalties.

Elena Mazneva, Margaret Talev and Naureen S Malik: 18 July 2018

US President Donald Trump eased his tone about a Russian natural gas pipeline to Germany after a one-on-one meeting with President Vladimir Putin, shifting from the harsh criticism of Germany he’d levied in Europe last week.

“We are going to be selling LNG and will have to be competing with the pipeline and I think we’ll compete successfully, although there is a little advantage locationally” because Russia is closer to buyers in Europe, Mr Trump told reporters at a news conference with Mr Putin after their meeting in Helsinki on Monday. read more

Jul. 12, 2018 11:42 AM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor: 12 July 2018

By Elena Mazneva and Laurence Arnold: 11 July 2018

A planned natural-gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, is the latest point of friction between U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. At a summit meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, Trump said the pipeline risks making Germany “a captive of Russia.” He’s not the first American leader to criticize the pipeline project, and the U.S. isn’t alone in its disapproval.

1. What is Nord Stream 2?

It’s a planned new 1,230 kilometer (764-mile) undersea pipeline that will carry natural gas from fields in Russia to the EU network at Germany’s Baltic coast. It will double the capacity of an existing undersea route and cut Russia’s reliance on gas transit through Ukraine. (Russia has been locked in conflict with Ukraine since 2014, when a pro-Russian president there was forced from power and Russia seized the country’s Crimean Peninsula.) Russia’s Gazprom PJSC is overseeing the project with funding from five investors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Engie SA, which are providing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) in cost. read more

…the EU may protect the companies financing Nord Stream 2. Those include Royal Dutch Shell Plc…

By William Wilkes and Ewa Krukowska
4 June 2018, 05:00 BST

As Donald Trump’s trade policy risk worsening economic conflict with Europe Union, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is strengthening ties with the region.

Putin will mark 50 years of gas exports to Europe at an event in Vienna on Tuesday. A controversial 9.5 billion-euro ($11 billion) pipeline to feed more supplies from Siberia directly into Germany is progressing despite a U.S. sanctions threat. And Moscow-based Gazprom PJSC last month settled a seven-year-old pricing dispute with the European Union, enabling it to expand its market share. read more

By Jeremy Hodges, Lauren Leatherby and Kartikay Mehrotra
May 24, 2018

In the global fight against climate change, one tool is proving increasingly popular: litigation.

From California to the Philippines, activists, governments and concerned citizens are suing the biggest polluters and national governments over the effects of climate change at a break-neck pace.

“The courts are our last, best hope at this moment of irreversible harm to our planet and life on it,” said Julia Olson, an attorney for Our Children’s Trust, a legal challenge center in the U.S. that is involved in climate change litigation across 13 countries, including the U.S., Pakistan and Uganda. read more

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS: MARCH 21, 2018

HOUSTON — In a setback to Trump administration efforts to increase offshore oil production, the industry responded with only modest interest on Wednesday in a federal auction covering a record 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.

Companies bid on only 1 percent of the acreage, and the winning bids yielded a mere $125 million for the government.

The results reflected broad uncertainty among oil executives that global oil prices can remain at current levels over $60 a barrel, as well as a general preference for drilling in onshore shale fields that require smaller investments and are less risky. read more

FILE PHOTO – Wael Sawan, Executive Vice President for Shell’s deepwater division, poses for a picture before an interview for Reuters during an oil conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

Ron Bousso: 7 MARCH 2018

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A potential tariff on U.S. steel imports could affect Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) plans to go ahead with a major oil field development in the Gulf of Mexico, a company executive said on Wednesday.

Wael Sawan, who heads Shell’s deepwater operations, said President Donald Trump’s intention to slap up to 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminium could materially impact the value of the Vito development off the Louisiana coast, one of a handful of projects Shell is planning to greenlight this year. read more

Profits at Royal Dutch Shell more than doubled in the fourth quarter of last year, despite the group taking a $2bn charge related to President Donald Trump’s US tax reforms. The recovery in oil prices coupled with steep cost cuts after a three-year downturn are fuelling a resurgence in cash flow and profitability at Shell and the world’s other largest oil and gas groups. FULL FT ARTICLE

Ron Bousso: JAN 11, 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – It may prove to be Royal Dutch Shell’s hardest sell. The Anglo-Dutch group is struggling to find a buyer for its gas field off the Gaza Strip, even among energy companies long used to dealing with projects fraught with political and security risks.

At least one European company has shown interest in the undeveloped Gaza Marine field following a reconciliation deal in October between the two rival Palestinian factions, a source involved in the talks said. read more

…these are also the same waters unsuccessfully explored by Royal Dutch Shell in 2015, after which the company halted Arctic operations for the foreseeable future.

Sam Ori , Contributor: JAN 8, 2018 @ 09:58 AM

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke released the Trump Administration’s long-awaited offshore drilling proposal last week. Once enacted, the plan will replace the existing leasing schedule, which was designed by the previous administration and had been set to run through 2022. New administrations are free to scrap the hold-over plans of prior administrations, and anyone who followed the 2016 presidential campaign knew that President Trump had a dramatically different view of offshore energy development than his predecessor. read more

For Big Oil, the U.S. tax overhaul is turning out to be a mixed bag, especially for companies that drill overseas.

Two weeks after President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans passed a sweeping rewrite of the tax code that cuts corporate rates, drillers are finding other changes that are less of a boon. BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc offered a preview recently, saying they may write off as much as $4 billion in tax assets as a result.

Caps on debt-interest payments and cuts to deductions from previous years’ losses may hurt companies building capital-intensive projects with borrowed money. And other provisions, including time limits on expensing exploration, could hem in drillers with long-term projects, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. That may also give an edge to domestic shale production. read more

Ernest Sheyder and Valerie Volcovici

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed opening up nearly all of America’s offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, but the industry says it is mainly interested in one part of it, now cordoned off by the Pentagon: the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The industry’s focus on an area located near a sprawling network of existing platforms, pipes and ports could ease the path to new reserves, and assuage the drilling opponents near other places offered under the Interior Department’s proposed drilling plan issued last week, like California’s Pacific, the Atlantic and Arctic. read more

The current abundance has erased memories of 1973 gas lines, which raised pump prices dramatically, traumatizing the United States and reordering its economy. In the decades since, presidents and politicians have made pronouncements calling for U.S. energy independence.

President Jimmy Carter in a televised speech compared the energy crisis of 1977 to “the moral equivalent of war.”

“It’s a total turnaround from where we were in the ’70s,” said Frank Verrastro, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. read more

In 2015, Shell abandoned its exploration activities in offshore Alaska, citing high costs and stringent regulations. However, in April this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing offshore drilling in  the Arctic. This week, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued a statement highlighting the importance of U.S. energy dominance and the Administration’s national energy strategy. It also noted that two BSEE personnel were on-hand at the spudding operation on Monday to ensure compliance with approved permits, federal regulations and safety standards. read more

The group said it will provide details of the impact of the new US tax changes in its full-year results in February

• Holly Williams
• Wednesday 27 December 2017 10:18 GMT

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has said President Donald Trump’s US tax reforms are set to boost the group and its US business thanks to next month’s cut in corporation tax.

The group said the 1 January changes – largely the move to slash US corporation tax from 35 per cent to 21 per cent- are expected to be “favourable” for the group but will impact its fourth-quarter results.

It will announce the full impact as part of its fourth-quarter and full-year results on 1 February. read more

Tristan R. Brown: 18 Dec 2017

Summary

• Royal Dutch Shell doubled down on its previously-announced investments in clean energy earlier this month when its CEO told investors that it has raised this to $2 billion next year.
• The company also announced its intention to reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% through 2050.
• While the success of Shell’s proposed energy transition remains uncertain, its plans reflect recent developments in the energy markets and multinational policymaking.

Last July the multinational petroleum and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A)(RDS.B) announced its intention to spend $1 billion a year on clean energy investments through its New Energy division. As I highlighted the following month, this decision was set against a busy backdrop of involvement by the company in the Climate Leadership Council, which (unsuccessfully) urged the Trump administration to keep the U.S. in the Paris Climate Accord, and investments in renewable electricity capacity. Those maneuvers, it turns out, were just the opening moves. As reported by The New York Times last week, Shell’s transition from a fossil fuel producer to a broader energy provider is rapidly accelerating. read more

By Chris Tomlinson: November 30, 2017

Major European oil companies are making major efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to fight climate change. American majors are dragging their behinds.

Royal Dutch Shell pledged Tuesday to slash carbon emission by 50 percent and boost investment in clean, renewable energy. CEO Ben van Beurden promised to spend at least $2 billion on on wind power, biofuels and electric cars, about the same amount it will spend on shale oil.

“It is making sure that the products within society have an overall lower carbon footprint,” Beurden told investors, according to the Guardian newspaper. “That is the long-term way of making sure our business remains a relevant business in the face of the energy transition.” read more

By Elizabeth Harball, Alaska’s Energy Desk – Anchorage – November 28, 2017

The federal government has given an Italian company the go-ahead to explore for oil in Arctic waters this winter.

It’s the first oil exploration in Arctic federal waters since Shell abandoned its campaign in 2015.

The company, Eni, aims to begin drilling in December. It will operate from an existing man-made gravel island called Spy Island. Spy Island is about three miles offshore, in state waters west of Prudhoe Bay.

The prospect is about four miles away from the island, so Eni plans to use extended-reach drilling. According to the company, it will be be the longest extended-reach well in Alaska. read more

Mark Dixon discussed the hazards of having an ethane cracker plant close to Pittsburgh during a talk in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room Wednesday evening. (Photo by Issi Glatts | Staff Photographer)

Remy Samuels: Staff Writer: November 16, 2017

When Mark Dixon found out Shell Oil Company planned to build a petrochemical plant in nearby Beaver County, he immediately thought of the pollution and environmental devastation that would soon take place there.

“It really pissed me off,” Dixon said. read more

Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle: OCTOBER 3, 2017

OSLO (Reuters) – Forty Roman Catholic groups said on Tuesday they were shunning investments in fossil fuels and urged others to follow suit.

The coalition was the largest number of Catholic institutions, in countries including Australia, South Africa, Britain and the United States, to team up for a shift to greener energies, the Global Catholic Climate Movement said.

Among those taking part was Assisi’s Sacro Convento and other Catholic institutions in the Italian town, birthplace of Saint Francis, who inspired Pope Francis. read more

It’s no secret that oil majors are among the biggest corporate emitters of pollution. What may be surprising is that they’re reducing their greenhouse-gas footprints every year, actively participating in a trend that’s swept up most corporate behemoths.

Sixty-two of the world’s 100 largest companies consistently cut their emissions on an annual basis between 2010 and 2015, with an overall 12 percent decline during that period, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance released ahead of its conference in London on Monday. read more

By Sophie Yeo September 12 at 12:01 AM

More than 1,200 global businesses, including U.S. companies such as Disney, Shell and General Motors, are moving to embrace a carbon price — even if President Trump isn’t, according to a new report by a Washington climate think tank.

While the president has suggested that tackling climate change will undermine the economy and hamstring  businesses, chief executives have been busy voluntarily putting a price on their own carbon dioxide emissions. read more

08/09/2017 07:17 am ET

In 2015, the Union of Concerned Scientists published its landmark exposé“The Climate Deception Dossiers,” which show that not only Exxon, but also Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and coal giant Peabody Energy were aware of the climate change reality since the 70s. Even so, through special interest groups, they invested tens of millions “to sow doubt and promote contrarian arguments they knew to be wrong.”

The fuel that powers this planetary sabotage is called greed. The fossil fuel industry worldwide has accumulated stratospheric levels of wealth over the decades. Moreover, according to a report just published by World Development, in 2015, fossil fuels received a staggering $5.3 trillion in subsidies around the world. This includes not only taxpayer money but also the costs of deaths caused by pollution and these fuels’ contribution to the climate crisis. read more

By: Henry Foy in Moscow and Andrew Ward in London

International energy investments in Russia will suffer from new US sanctions imposed on Moscow, executives have warned… A senior executive at a western oil group with a large presence in Russia told the Financial Times that the new sanctions “could be a disaster” given its current business in the country. Mr van Beurden said Shell had authorisation from Dutch authorities to press ahead with financing of Nord Stream 2, but was waiting to see how the US situation “evolves.” read more

Karolin Schaps and Susanna Twidale: AUGUST 1, 2017 / 10:34 AM

LONDON (Reuters) – Some European oil majors have made inroads into the emerging U.S. offshore wind energy market, aiming to leverage their experience of deepwater development and the crowded offshore wind arena at home.

Late entrants to the offshore wind game in Europe, which began with a project off Denmark 25 years ago and is now approaching maturity, they are looking across the Atlantic at what they view as a huge and potentially lucrative new market. read more

By Darryl Fears June 29 at 6:23 PM

The White House is making a bid to overturn the Obama administration’s five-year plan forbidding oil and gas exploration in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and will examine opportunities to drill almost anywhere off the U.S. coast.

Interior Department officials said Thursday that opening most of the outer continental shelf to leasing is part of President Trump’s strategy to make the United States a global leader in energy production, stimulate coastal activity and create thousands of jobs. But as onshore oil and natural gas production has surged from horizontal drilling, helping to lower the price of petroleum, interest in offshore drilling has fallen. read more

By Jared Stonesifer [email protected]: Saturday 3 June 2017

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement Thursday, but one of the largest companies in the world said it will still do its part to provide clean energy.

Shell Chemicals, which is building a $6 billion ethane cracker plant along the Ohio River in Potter Township, said Thursday that the company’s “position on climate change and the importance of the Paris agreement is well known.” read more

By Janene Pieters on May 22, 2017 – 11:05

American companies will face detrimental consequences if U.S. president Donald Trump decides to withdraw his country from the Paris climate agreement, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden warned in an interview with British newspaper Financial Times. Van Beurden is one of the first to criticize Trump’s decisions from the business community, which is set to benefit from Trump’s promises of tax cuts and relaxed rules, RTL Nieuws reports. read more

by Jennifer A Dlouhy 17 April 2017, 19:30 BST

As President Donald Trump contemplates whether to make good on his campaign promise to yank the United States out of the Paris climate accord, an unlikely lobbying force is hoping to talk him out of it: oil and coal producers.

A pro-Paris bloc within the administration has recruited energy companies to lend their support ahead of a high-level White House meeting Tuesday to discuss the global pact to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions, according to two people familiar with the effort who asked not to be identified. read more

 Tom DiChristopher: 30 March 2017

President Donald Trump‘s effort to roll back Obama-era climate change policies will not do much to improve demand for coal at America’s power plants, Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Chad Holliday said Thursday.

Coal’s use in U.S. power plants has been falling for years in the face of stiff competition from natural gas. Former President Barack Obama‘s initiatives to rein in the impacts of climate change have hastened the retirement of old, inefficient coal-fired plants and the switch to cleaner-burning natural gas. read more

Mar. 22, 2017 6:35 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) led the way in today’s federal offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which drew $275M in high bids following years of declining offshore interest that dates back before the downturn in oil and gas prices.

Shell made 20 bids totaling $55.9M, including the single highest apparent bid of $24.1M on Atwater Valley Block 64; Statoil (NYSE:STO) counted 13 apparent high bids totaling $44.5M, and Hess (NYSE:HES) ranked third with 12 apparent high bids totaling $43.9M. read more

By Dmitry Zhdannikov | LONDON

Royal Dutch Shell has bought only three cargoes of Iranian oil since sanctions were eased a year ago, a small fraction of what it used to buy and an indication of the legal difficulties and high prices that still hamper the trade.

The Anglo-Dutch firm did not give a reason for the drop in purchases, which were disclosed in its annual report, and the company declined to comment further.

But oil trading sources say Iranian oil is often too expensive and in any case remaining sanctions make dealing with the Islamic Republic a legal minefield. read more

The Huffington Post: Boss Of Royal Dutch Shell In The UK Describes Trump’s Clean Energy Stance As ‘Disappointing’

George Bowden: Reporter, The Huffington Post UK

The boss of Shell in the UK has labelled President Donald Trump’s stance on new, cleaner forms of energy as “disappointing”.

Asked whether Trump had cast doubt the need for a global transition to green energy, Sinead Lynch, country chair of Shell in Britain, told The Huffington Post UK: “It’s disappointing. Obviously what we really want is a collaboration and alignment across all governments internationally, regionally, locally.”

As part of a renewed on focus on fossil fuels Trump’s administration has promised to open new coal mines, deleted references to climate change from White House websites, and pledged to scrap Barack Obama’s 2013 climate pact. read more

By Ed Crooks of the Finacial Times: January 13, 2017

In the 1930s many newspapers carried impressively detailed diagrams showing France’s defences along the German border, described by Popular Mechanix and Inventions magazine as the “world’s greatest underground fortifications”. By the end of May 1940, Hitler had demonstrated that while the Maginot Line might indeed be an engineering marvel, it was also irrelevant, as his panzer divisions swept past it through Belgium and into France. Last year’s agreement between leading oil-producing countries to curb their output had something of the same feel about it this week. read more

Extracts from a weekly briefing by Ed Crooks: January 6, 2017

In our predictions for 2016, we were right that oil would end the year over $50 – modesty forbids me from mentioning which writer made that forecast – but missed that an agreement between Opec and non-Opec producers would be one of the factors underpinning the price. For 2017 Anjli Raval made the call, arguing that crude was again likely to end the year above $50, on the grounds that a lower price would still be too low to enable sufficient investment in production to meet demand. read more

By Chris Tomlinson, Business Columnist: Dec 22, 2016

Count on politicians to be political.

President Barack Obama banned oil drilling along the Arctic coast and in the Atlantic from Virginia to Maine on Tuesday. Citing questionable authority under an obscure 1953 law, he means to keep any oil found in either of these coastal areas in the ground.

Environmentalists cheered and oil lobbyists jeered. Both will certainly waste a lot of time and electrons writing long tracts of praising and condemning Obama. And then they’ll waste donor funds fighting it out in court. read more

David Blackmon: Contributor. Dec 21, 2016

The hits just keep on coming from our outgoing President. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama took one more of many parting shots at the domestic oil and gas industry at the behest of his supporters in the anti-development lobby, setting aside much of the northeastern Atlantic coast, all U.S. waters off the North Slope of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea and almost all of the federal waters in the adjacent Chukchi Sea “indefinitely off-limits for future oil and gas leasing.” read more

By CORAL DAVENPORT

President Obama announced on Tuesday what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard as he tried to nail down an environmental legacy that cannot quickly be reversed by Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Obama invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which he said gives him the authority to act unilaterally. While some presidents have used that law to temporarily protect smaller portions of federal waters, Mr. Obama’s declaration of a permanent drilling ban on portions of the ocean floor from Virginia to Maine and along much of Alaska’s coast is breaking new ground. The declaration’s fate will almost certainly be decided by the federal courts. read more

By Ed Crooks, December 2, 2016

In 451 CE, the great Roman general Flavius Aetius rallied a motley army of imperial troops and barbarian allies, and halted the advance of Attila’s Huns at the Catalaunian Plains in Gaul, buying the empire some time and temporarily interrupting its long-term decline. This week’s Opec meeting in Vienna had something of the same feel about it.

Opec’s power peaked in the 1970s, and the US shale oil revolution of the past half-decade has threatened to consign the cartel’s influence to history. But by agreeing a deal to cut production on Wednesday, the Opec ministers showed that if they all acted together they could still bend the oil markets to their will, at least for a while. read more