tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20033266838162035862024-03-04T23:43:13.305-08:00Energía, Petróleo y Gas.Articles about Energy.Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.comBlogger475125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-10694134292744243832023-05-08T09:00:00.001-07:002023-05-08T09:00:32.050-07:00Guyana: no debemos cometer los errores del vecino.<h2 class="subhead" itemprop="alternativeHeadline" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1; margin: 10px 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Guyana, de unos 791.000 habitantes, está a punto de convertirse en el cuarto productor de petróleo en alta mar del mundo, por delante de Qatar, Estados Unidos, México y Noruega</span></h2><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBf447EwOod7OrO-CsnKKHoNaeU5eLKZudEYAPe8E8M7UBFB0koPSBw2XT5Blfm2eCP3k8P7xT3ud-uIJCNqga2v-fr-TVi0YhaPAvZHTH5NJKoD9VzGhwf19N5uGZjxUz3P-Nn7CkRUTn_fGO43UxTaOTuDpaPMjSiGMyKfWTClvHcu8-xNZjZJuGNA/s1024/Things-to-do-Georgetown-Guyana-Intrepid-Escape-2022-17.jpg-nggid043168-ngg0dyn-0x0x100-00f0w010c010r110f110r010t010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBf447EwOod7OrO-CsnKKHoNaeU5eLKZudEYAPe8E8M7UBFB0koPSBw2XT5Blfm2eCP3k8P7xT3ud-uIJCNqga2v-fr-TVi0YhaPAvZHTH5NJKoD9VzGhwf19N5uGZjxUz3P-Nn7CkRUTn_fGO43UxTaOTuDpaPMjSiGMyKfWTClvHcu8-xNZjZJuGNA/s320/Things-to-do-Georgetown-Guyana-Intrepid-Escape-2022-17.jpg-nggid043168-ngg0dyn-0x0x100-00f0w010c010r110f110r010t010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px;">ANN’S GROVE, Guyana (AP) — Los pobladores de esta pequeña comunidad costera hicieron fila sobre la hierba empapada, se inclinaron hacia el micrófono y compartieron sus quejas mientras alguien en la multitud gritaba: "¡Di la verdad!”</span></p><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Y así lo hicieron. Uno por uno, enlistaron lo que querían: una biblioteca, alumbrado público, autobuses escolares, viviendas, una tienda de comestibles, electricidad confiable, calles más anchas y mejores puentes.</p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Por favor, ayúdennos”, dijo Evadne Pellew-Fomundam, una mujer de 70 años que vive en Ann’s Grove —una de las comunidades más pobres de Guyana— al primer ministro del país y a otros funcionarios, que organizaron la reunión para escuchar las preocupaciones de la gente e impulsar la imagen de su partido antes de las elecciones municipales.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">La lista de necesidades es larga en este país sudamericano de unos 791.000 habitantes que está a punto de convertirse en el cuarto productor de petróleo en alta mar del mundo, por delante de Qatar, Estados Unidos, México y Noruega. El auge petrolero generará miles de millones de dólares para esta nación en gran parte empobrecida. También es seguro que desatará amargas disputas sobre cómo se debería gastar la riqueza en un lugar donde la política está marcadamente dividida con base en líneas étnicas: el 29% de la población es descendiente de africanos y el 40% de las Indias Orientales, de sirvientes contratados que llegaron a Guyana tras la abolición de la esclavitud.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">El cambio ya es visible en este país, que tiene una rica cultura caribeña y alguna vez fue conocido como la “Venecia de las Indias Occidentales”. Guyana está entrelazada por canales y salpicada de pueblos llamados “Ahora o nunca” y “Desenfadado”, que ahora coexisten con comunidades cerradas con nombres como “Windsor Estates”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">En la capital, Georgetown, edificios de vidrio, acero y concreto se elevan por encima de estructuras de madera de la época colonial, con ventanas de guillotina cerradas, que se deterioran lentamente. Los agricultores plantan brócoli y otros cultivos nuevos, los restaurantes ofrecen mejores cortes de carne y el gobierno ha contratado a una empresa europea para producir salchichas locales, en un momento en que los trabajadores extranjeros transforman el perfil de consumo de Guyana.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Con 1.600 millones de dólares en ingresos petroleros hasta ahora, el gobierno ha lanzado proyectos de infraestructura que incluyen la construcción de 12 hospitales, siete hoteles, gran cantidad de escuelas, dos carreteras principales, su primer puerto de aguas profundas y un proyecto de 1.900 millones de dólares para generar electricidad a partir de gas natural que, según dijo el vicepresidente Bharrat Jagdeo a The Associated Press, duplicará la producción de energía de Guyana y reducirá a la mitad las elevadas facturas de electricidad.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Y si bien los proyectos han creado empleos, es raro que los guyaneses trabajen directamente en la industria petrolera. El trabajo de perforación en el fondo del océano es altamente técnico, y el país no ofrece esa capacitación.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">A los expertos les preocupa que Guyana no cuente con la experiencia ni el marco jurídico y regulatorio para manejar la afluencia de riqueza. Advierten que podría debilitar las instituciones democráticas y llevar al país por un camino como el de la vecina Venezuela, un petroestado sumido en un caos político y económico.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“La inestabilidad política de Guyana genera preocupaciones de que el país no está preparado para su riqueza recién hallada sin un plan para administrar los nuevos ingresos y distribuir equitativamente los beneficios financieros”, según un informe de la Agencia de Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID, por sus siglas en inglés), que reconoció las profundas rivalidades étnicas del país.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Un consorcio encabezado por ExxonMobil descubrió los primeros depósitos grandes de petróleo en mayo de 2015 a más de 190 kilómetros (100 millas) de la costa de Guyana, uno de los países más pobres de América del Sur pese a contar con grandes reservas de oro, diamantes y bauxita. Más de 40% de la población vivía con menos de 5,50 dólares al día cuando comenzó la producción en diciembre de 2019, y se prevé que la producción de unos 380.000 barriles diarios se incremente a 1,2 millones para 2027.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Un solo bloque petrolero de los más de una docena que se encuentran frente a la costa de Guyana está valuado en 41.000 millones de dólares. Junto con depósitos de crudo adicionales hallados cerca, generará un estimado de 10.000 millones anuales para el gobierno, de acuerdo con cálculos de USAID. Se prevé que esa cifra aumente a 157.000 millones de dólares para 2040, indicó Rystad Energy, una consultora de energía independiente con sede en Noruega.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Guyana, que tiene una de las tasas de emigración más altas del mundo con más de 55% de su población viviendo en el extranjero, ahora cuenta con una de las mayores participaciones de petróleo per cápita del mundo. También se calcula que tenga una de las economías de más rápido crecimiento en el planeta, según un informe del Banco Mundial.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">La transformación ha atraído de vuelta a guyaneses como Andrew Rampersaud, un orfebre de 50 años que salió de Trinidad en julio pasado con su esposa y cuatro hijas, alentado por los cambios que vio en su país.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Fabrica unos 20 pares de aretes y cuatro collares al día, la mayoría con oro de Guyana, pero donde realmente ha notado la diferencia es en los bienes raíces. Rampersaud posee siete unidades de alquiler y, antes del descubrimiento de petróleo, era consultado aproximadamente una vez al mes.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Ahora recibe llamadas de tres o cuatro personas diariamente. Y, a diferencia de antes, siempre pagan a tiempo en un país donde un apartamento de dos dormitorios ahora cuesta 900 dólares, el triple del precio de 2010, de acuerdo con datos de la Asociación de Bienes Raíces de Guyana.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Pero muchos guyaneses, incluyendo quienes viven en Ann’s Grove, se preguntan si su comunidad alguna vez verá algo de esa riqueza. Aquí, las cabras deambulan por la calle principal del pueblo, lo suficientemente ancha para el paso de un solo automóvil o la ocasional carreta tirada por caballos. Los perros corren entre casas de madera con techos de zinc, y el único mercado donde los comerciantes vendían frutas y verduras es ahora un burdel improvisado.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Esperaba una mejor vida desde que comenzó la perforación”, dijo Felasha Duncan, una madre de tres hijos de 36 años que conversaba mientras le trenzaban extensiones de color rosa brillante en el cabello en un salón de belleza al aire libre.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Calle abajo, Ron Collins, de 31 años, estaba ocupado haciendo bloques de hormigón, y dijo que ni se molestó en acudir a la reciente reunión del sábado por la mañana con los funcionarios.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“No tiene sentido”, manifestó, apoyándose en su pala.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Collins no cree que su pueblo se beneficiará de los proyectos en curso que han dado empleo a personas como Shaquiel Pereira, que ayuda en el desarrollo de una de las nuevas carreteras y gana el doble de dinero de lo que obtenía hace tres meses como electricista. El joven de 25 años compró un terreno en el oeste de Guyana el mes pasado y ahora está ahorrando para construir su primera casa y comprar un auto nuevo.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Me siento optimista”, dijo mientras veía la nueva carretera desde su automóvil, deteniéndose antes del viaje de una hora a casa.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Su jefe, el ingeniero Arif Hafeez, dijo que, si bien la gente no ve el dinero proveniente del petróleo directamente en sus bolsillos a través de aumentos en los salarios de los servidores públicos, los proyectos de construcción están generando empleos y las nuevas carreteras impulsarán la economía.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Dicen que se parecerá a Dubái, pero yo no sé nada de eso”, señaló riéndose.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">En una feria del empleo en la Universidad de Guyana, eran evidentes el entusiasmo y la curiosidad cuando los estudiantes se reunieron con compañías petroleras, empresas de apoyo y servicios, y grupos agrícolas.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Entre quienes recibían a los estudiantes estaba Sherry Thompson, de 43 años, exoperadora del conmutador de un hospital y gerente de una pensión local que se incorporó a una empresa que ofrece servicios, tales como transporte para los vicepresidentes de las principales compañías petroleras.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Sentía que mi vida no iba a ninguna parte, y quería un futuro para mí”, dijo Thompson.</p></div><div class="tncms-region hidden-print" id="tncms-region-article_instory_middle" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="tncms-block" id="tncms-block-1927447" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Trabajos como el suyo ahora abundan, pero es raro encontrar guyaneses laborando directamente en la industria petrolera.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Richie Bachan, de 47 años, es una de las excepciones. Como extrabajador de la construcción, contaba con las bases, con algo de capacitación adicional, para empezar hace dos años a trabajar como peón, ensamblando y reparando equipos en la industria petrolera en alta mar. Su salario se triplicó y su familia se ha beneficiado de ello: “Comemos mejor. Nos vestimos mejor. Podemos mantenernos al día con nuestras facturas”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Pero más allá de la lista de proyectos de infraestructura y empleos que se están creando, los expertos advierten que la enorme ganancia inesperada podría abrumar a Guyana.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“El país no se está preparando y no estaba preparado para el repentino descubrimiento de petróleo”, sostuvo Lucas Perelló, profesor de ciencias políticas en el Skidmore College de Nueva York.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Tres años después de que en 2015 se hallara petróleo estalló una crisis política en Guyana, donde predominan dos partidos principales: El Partido Progresista del Pueblo, que representa a los indoguyaneses, y el Congreso Nacional del Pueblo, representativo de los afroguyaneses, el cual formó una coalición con otros partidos.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Esa coalición se disolvió después de que una moción de censura aprobada por diferencia de un solo voto en 2018 abrió paso a las elecciones generales anticipadas en 2020. En ellas, el Partido Progresista del Pueblo ganó por un escaño en una contienda que aún se disputa en la corte.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Por eso las elecciones de 2020 fueron tan importantes. Todo el mundo sabía lo que estaba en juego”, dijo Perelló.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">El informe de USAID acusó al gobierno anterior de falta de transparencia en las negociaciones y acuerdos petroleros con los inversionistas, y añadió que la “tremenda afluencia de dinero abre muchas vías para la corrupción”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Cuando The Associated Press le preguntó al primer ministro Mark Phillips sobre las preocupaciones por corrupción, sus encargados de prensa trataron de ponerle fin a la entrevista antes de que él interviniera, indicando que su partido tenía una política de cero tolerancia: “Dondequiera que exista la corrupción, estamos comprometidos a erradicarla”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Guyana firmó el acuerdo en 2016 con el consorcio ExxonMobil, que incluye a Hess Corporation y CNOOC de China, pero no hizo público el contrato hasta 2017 a pesar de las exigencias de que fuera dado a conocer de inmediato.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">El contrato señala que Guyana recibiría 50% de las ganancias, en comparación con otros acuerdos en que Brasil obtuvo el 61% y Estados Unidos el 40%, según Rystad Energy. Pero muchos han criticado que Guyana sólo obtendrá regalías de 2%, algo que, según el vicepresidente Jagdeo, el gobierno actual procurará incrementar a 10% para acuerdos futuros.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“El contrato es anticipado, unilateral y está plagado de lagunas fiscales, de desmantelamiento de activos y otros puntos que favorecen a las compañías petroleras”, según un informe del Instituto de Economía Energética y Análisis Financiero, con sede en Ohio.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Aubrey Norton, líder del opositor Congreso Nacional Popular que formó parte de la coalición que firmó el acuerdo, dijo a la AP que se cometieron errores: “No tengo ninguna duda al respecto. Y por lo tanto, en el futuro, debemos rectificar esos errores”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Los activistas también han planteado sus preocupaciones de que el auge petrolero contribuirá al cambio climático, dado que un barril de petróleo produce un promedio de 425 kilos (940 libras) de dióxido de carbono, según la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de Estados Unidos.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">La AP contactó a Meghan Macdonald, portavoz de ExxonMobil, para que comentara sobre cómo manejó la empresa el acuerdo en Guyana y las preocupaciones ambientales, e infructuosamente intentó concretar una entrevista con el principal funcionario de ExxonMobil en el país. Macdonald indicó en un comunicado que los términos del acuerdo de la compañía con el gobierno “son competitivos con otros países que se encuentran en una etapa similar de descubrimiento de recursos”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Norton se dijo preocupado por el enfoque del gobierno actual en construir infraestructura en lugar de desarrollar personal, y agregó que teme que la riqueza petrolera intensifique las divisiones étnicas en Guyana y genere otros problemas.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Resultará en que los ricos se vuelvan más ricos y los pobres más pobres”, aseveró.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Jagdeo, el vicepresidente que alguna vez fue presidente, dijo a la AP que su partido ha creado un fondo especial para los ingresos del petróleo con garantías para prevenir la corrupción, incluyendo el nombramiento de un monitor independiente y una junta directiva para supervisar el fondo junto con el ministro de Finanzas.</p><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Se requiere también la aprobación parlamentaria para decidir cómo se utilizarán los fondos, explicó, y señaló que los ingresos del petróleo actualmente representan apenas un tercio del presupuesto de Guyana y que los aumentos en los salarios podrían darse más adelante: “En este momento, no estamos repletos de dinero”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Hemos visto los errores cometidos por otros países”, dijo. “Tenemos que ser cautelosos”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">A pesar del auge petrolero, la pobreza se profundiza para algunos a medida que el costo de la vida se dispara, con alzas marcadas en los precios de productos como el azúcar, las naranjas, el aceite para cocinar, los pimientos y los plátanos, mientras que los salarios se han estancado.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Muchos siguen sobreviviendo, como Samuel Arthur, que gana 100 dólares al mes vendiendo en Georgetown y otras áreas bolsas de plástico grandes y reforzadas, y carga unos 18 kilos (40 libras) de peso todos los días.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Todo de lo que vivimos es de promesas”, dijo sobre el auge petrolero. “Tengo que hacer esto porque no tengo otra forma de sobrevivir”.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Es el tipo de necesidad con la que muchos en Ann’s Grove están familiarizados.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Cuando terminó la reunión entre residentes y funcionarios, el primer ministro prometió que la mayoría de las peticiones serían atendidas.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">“Esperamos que cumpla su promesa”, dijo el residente Clyde Wickham. Los funcionarios asintieron y prometieron regresar con más detalles sobre cómo ayudarán a Ann’s Grove.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;">Los esperanzados residentes aplaudieron. Y al igual que Wickham, muchos dicen que trabajarán para que el gobierno cumpla su palabra.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. Todos los derechos reservados. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><br /></p></div></div><div class="tnt-ads-container text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; text-align: center !important;"><div class="tnt-ads dfp-smart-ad" data-google-query-id="CJmb_4CL5v4CFYTfhwodgcAFZQ" id="tnt-smart-ad-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/132916964,23317403/santamariatimes.com/espanol/noticias/mundo_14__container__" style="border: 0pt none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto; width: 930px;"></div></div><div class="tnt-ads dfp-smart-ad" data-google-query-id="CJmb_4CL5v4CFYTfhwodgcAFZQ" id="tnt-smart-ad-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 20px !important; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><br /></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><br /></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 30px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><br /></p></div>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-27841782850133213832023-02-27T11:59:00.001-08:002023-02-27T11:59:03.968-08:00Si me hubiera quedado en Sabana del Medio (Gustavo Coronel)<p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b> </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmup4ckcPrrzYa0bSq3Q53J5fFIC8D_bvcGLhOP9_kOhelzBoe9paA_0Xl44RDFRgc4akXxeDfBoHWLOj4-3-G7ahMtGf28O0O8m2idr5lunsaa-akSaUCM4B9Fh3fksk1R3pWkaXXSmIxKBrAutCoNyB6-TIREE3A-EfTfRsXZVW7ZhQZ15jRsMy-UQ/s1126/sabana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="839" data-original-width="1126" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmup4ckcPrrzYa0bSq3Q53J5fFIC8D_bvcGLhOP9_kOhelzBoe9paA_0Xl44RDFRgc4akXxeDfBoHWLOj4-3-G7ahMtGf28O0O8m2idr5lunsaa-akSaUCM4B9Fh3fksk1R3pWkaXXSmIxKBrAutCoNyB6-TIREE3A-EfTfRsXZVW7ZhQZ15jRsMy-UQ/w360-h268/sabana.jpg" width="360" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span></b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"> Por diez años, entre 1994 y 2003, viví en Sabana del Medio, a unos tres kilómetros del Campo de Carabobo, en una amplia casa “venezolana” que construí con ayuda de trabajadores del lugar (Barrera), con piscina y dos hectáreas de terreno donde planté alrededor de 600 árboles frutales. Mi éxito con los frutales fue moderado porque la tierra allí no es buena para la agicultura y yo no sabía mucho de eso. Recuerdo que por algún tiempo le echaba úrea a los suelos, lo cual era contraproducente. Sin embargo fueron muchos los mangos, las mandarinas, los aguacates, los nisperos, los hicacos y muchos otros frutos (hasta café coseché en la penumbra de la ribera de la laguna)) que mi esposa y yo nos comimos o regalamos a nuestros amigos y vecinos. Planté dos cotoperíes que algún día darán frutos a los hijos de quienes vivan allá. Teníamos apamates plantados por nosotros, creciendo rápido, y un venerable curarí que encontramos allá, al lado de la laguna, el cual nos regalaba cada año, por tres o cuatro días, el maravilloso espectáculo de su florecer. Espero que todavía esté de pié porque el comején lo tenía agobiado hasta que logramos hacerle un tratamiento a fondo. La laguna estaba llena de peces y de babillas y, en la tarde, me sentaba en el amplio corredor de la casa, a ver pasar centenares de cotúas (negras) y garzas(blancas) las cuales iban a dormir en árboles vecinos, no en el mismo árbol, ya que parecían practicar una segregación racial más severa que en Missisipi. Adquirí una parabólica que me permitía ver hasta las telenovelas de Hong Kong, las cuales disfrutaba mucho, precisamente porque no podia entender los diálogos. El joven ingeniero, muy agradable, quien me mantenía conectado al mundo mediante un pago importante al año, desapareció un día, se fué con la cabulla en la pata y me dejó viendo la vecindad del chavo.</span></b></span></p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Solíamos estar en la piscina en la noche, bajo las estrellas, flotando arrullados por el romántico mugido de las vacas que se comían nuestras cayenas hasta que nosotros, en justa retribución, nos comimos a una de ellas. Fui presidente por dos o tres períodos consecutivos de la Asociación de Propietarios de Sabana del Medio, un grupo de soñadores que deseaban ser campesinos civilizados, como existen en los países más desarrollados. Sin embargo, los obstáculos eran formidables, comenzando por Eleoccidente, ese monstruo inepto y sádico que es causa probable de centenares de infartos al año. En efecto, cada semana fallaba la luz eléctrica y entonces yo debía salir a Tocuyito, a las oficinas de la empresa para demandar la restitución del servicio. Generalmente ello solo era posible cuando yo llegaba a la etapa de amenazar con pegarle candela a la oficina, con todos sus “burrócratas” indiferentes y retrecheros adentro.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Del grupo de parceleros recuerdo con especial afecto a Jesus Pulido, gran idealista y trabajador por el bienestar de todos nosotros y a Raimundo Cariello y su bella familia, quienes han perseverado y están allá todavía, con su Planeta Zoo, que ofrece una de las pocas alternativas de distracción para los niños de la zona. Saludos, Raimundo, María Alexandra, Lola, muchachas, venados y boas constrictoras!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Mál que bien logramos estabilizar a Sabana del Medio hasta la entrada del nuevo siglo, el cual coincidió con la llegada de la “revolución”. Desde ese momento comenzó un movimiento de “democratización” del agro, el cual consistía en promover invasiones de los pobres a tierras privadas que tuvieran o no en producción. Ese movimiento estuvo acompañado por la puesta en duda de la propiedad de nuestras parcelas. El INTI comenzó a pedirnos los papeles de propiedad de las parcelas desde la llegada de Colón a nuestras costas. Por supuesto, más vale un bolsa preguntando que un sabio respondiendo y pronto nos dimos cuenta que lo esa gente quería era plata. Superamos ese escollo de la manera venezolana tradicional.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Poco a poco las invasiones nos rodearon. Ya podía ver los ranchos construídos de manera precaria desde mi casa. Mis aspiraciones de vivir civilizadamente se fueron evaporando rapidamente. En paralelo, a los vecinos comenzaron a asaltarlos los malandros. Un día a los Cariello los amarraron y le robaron dinero y objetos de valor. Luego le tocó el amarre a mis vecinos los Betancourt, saqueo completo a mis otros vecinos los Brunicardi y asalto a mi otro vecino, un señor quien era suegro de un alto oficial de la guardia nacional y tenía “protección”. Inclusive los malandros asesinaron a un parcelero cerca del campo de Carabobo, un hermano de una señora llamada Blanca, muy chavista ella, creo que es embajadora de Chávez en Europa pero ni de vaina visita el municipio Libertador!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">A mí me respetaron y creo que mi apellido me sirvió de escudo. Los malandros, generalmente muy ignorantes, pensaban probablemente que yo era un Coronel, no Coronel de apellido y que debía estar armado hasta los dientes. Nunca tuve un arma en la casa, hasta que le compré una escopeta a mi cuidador.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Ya para 2003, cuando regresé de un trabajo que me mantuvo dos años en Margarita (ese es otro cuento), la situación en Sabana del Medio era insoportable. La zona de Tocuyito estaba saturada de malandros y asesinos. Los servicios públicos colapsados. La gente honesta desolada, los sueños rotos. Cuando salía de mi casa, limpia y organizada por dentro, debía enfrentarme a la realidad de la zona: invasiones y ranchos por doquier, suciedad, caos, criminalidad, escasez de alimentos de calidad. Los vegetales del mercado al aire libre de Tocuyito eran muy melancólicos, prematuramente envejecidos, tantos los vegetales como quienes los vendían. Algunas veces los atraques de tránsito en el polvoriento pueblo eran desesperantes. Ir al banco en Tocuyito era como entrar a la sala de emergencias del Pérez de León: cuanta angustia, cuanto desorden. Al salir del pueblo había que enfrentarse con los lóbregos edificios de la cárcel, donde uno sabía que gente sufría y moría a diario.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">No que todo fuera desastroso. La vida rural venezolana tiene o tenía sus encantos. Aún mi esposa y yo podíamos tomar carretera y estar en Santo Domingo en unas seis horas, o seguir hasta el hotel Los Frailes y echarnos un baño de decencia que nos hacía olvidar a nuestro infierno. O nos íbamos a comprar dulces en La Carolina, a menos de una hora de camino por los bellos valles de Bejuma y Montalbán. Pero luego comenzaron los asaltos en las carreteras hasta el punto en que no nos atrevimos a viajar más.</span></b></span><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Había llegado la hora de partir. Salimos de Sabana del Medio sin mirar atrás, llenos de dulces memorias, sabiendo que había sido nuestro hogar por diez años y que habíamos compartido con buenas y amables familias un sueño de civilización rural que, al menos para nosotros, no se pudo concretar. Se nos vino encima el comején político y social.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Si me hubiera quedado en Sabana del Medio ya estaría muerto o en la cárcel de Tocuyito. Me hubieran asesinado unos desconocidos para robarme la camioneta, como casi me sucedió en La Encrucijada, mientras me comía una arepa, o estuviera preso por haberle pegado candela a las oficinas de Eleoccidente. Cuando veo las estadísticas para 2010 del crimen en el municipio Libertador (ver mapa) estoy convencido de que yo hubiera estado incluído en esa obscena cosecha de la muerte, la cual ha convertido a mi patria en un sitio no apto para la vida civilizada.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Hoy solo visito a Sabana del Medio con la imaginación, ayudado por Google Earth, programa con el que creo poder ver hasta el que era mi hogar. Lo que no puedo ver bien es si los cotoperíes han crecido!</span></b></span></div>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-654181380013784702023-02-27T11:57:00.005-08:002023-02-27T12:05:46.483-08:00Postal desde Sabana del Medio (Gustavo Coronel)<p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><br /></p><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_kaNvrnPUa7tIpmOMEWn8SGNehN28Mo6Jy2mm8jXHAG1xD6tZTVry2TRq2gmpnQUBCaAwX2MLJCockCl3tASyZg33z39kqGSplRROaB31KCavHY-x9Q1hWci2e2WEy-2MNLuu3g7uWyc1Ew4iyINelJsJMTCa0Ii52mDNaviFA8GQ1m-9bk_0r3G6w/s750/-14533871062.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="750" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_kaNvrnPUa7tIpmOMEWn8SGNehN28Mo6Jy2mm8jXHAG1xD6tZTVry2TRq2gmpnQUBCaAwX2MLJCockCl3tASyZg33z39kqGSplRROaB31KCavHY-x9Q1hWci2e2WEy-2MNLuu3g7uWyc1Ew4iyINelJsJMTCa0Ii52mDNaviFA8GQ1m-9bk_0r3G6w/w516-h197/-14533871062.jpg" width="516" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-721484786766687264" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Durante la década de los 90 me fuí con mi esposa a vivir a Sabana del Medio, una urbanización rural cercana a Valencia, la obra de un emprendedor valenciano llamado Luis Ugarte. Con el dinero de la venta de un pequeño apartamento en Cerro Verde, en Caracas, compramos dos hectáreas de terreno en Sabana del Medio e hicimos una casa de 400 metros cuadrados, con piscina, gran jardín donde sembramos 600 matas frutales y árboles de sombra y construímos caminos interiores y un parrillero. Era, así lo creo, un mini-paraíso, eso sí, caluroso y afligido por las contínuas interrupciones del servicio eléctrico de la inepta Eleoccidente. En todo caso, mi esposa y yo fuímos felices allá, aunque nos dímos cuenta rapidamente que la tierra no era fértil, aunque si lo suficientemente buena para aguacates, cítricos y algunas otras especies frutales. El caujíl rojo y amarillo se daba salvaje y teníamos un riachuelo al costado de la casa que tenía agua durante todo el año, lleno de pequeñas babas y peces variados. La comunidad era pequeña, de gente emprendedora, auqnue la mayoría de los vecinos no vivían allá sino que tenían casas de fin de semana, pués vivían en Valencia o Maracay. Algunos habitantes de Sabana del Medio hicieron extraordinarios aportes a la comunidad. Tengo un agradable recuerdo de Jesús Pulido, Raymundo Cariello y de un maravilloso señor italiano quien se ofreció, sin conocerme, como garante de mis compras para la construcción de nuestra vivienda.<br /><br />Poco a poco, sobre todo después de 2000, se fueron imponiendo las duras realidades de la zona: atracos, invasiones, ranchificación, hasta asesinatos de gente conocida. En la vecina Barrera existían siete botiquines pero no una biblioteca pública o un cine. La cercanía del Penal de Tocuyito no era tranqulizadora. Los vegetales del mercado eran cada vez más melancólicos. Nunca pudimos tener un teléfono, hasta que llegó el primer celular. El Internet llegó tarde y luego desapareció. Fracasamos en un intento de convertir una posada muy bella, propiedad de Luis Ugarte, en un centro de entrenamiento para los empleados de la General Motors. Decepcionados por la sensación de haber perdido nuestra “Shangri La”, salimos de Sabana del Medio en 2003.<br /><br />Hoy veo una noticia sobre Sabana del Medio que me entristece:<br /><br /><strong><em>“A las 4:00 pm del jueves, los juegos y las actividades recreativas que realizaban los 150 niños del plan vacacional del Banco de Venezuela fueron interrumpidas por siete hombres armados que irrumpieron de forma violenta en la agropecuaria Sabana del Medio, ubicada en el sector Barrera del Municipio Libertador del estado Carabobo. El grupo, conformado por los menores de edad y 30 adultos, se encontraba en esta finca disfrutando del receso escolar con actividades organizadas por le empresa en que trabajan sus padres. Durante una de sus actividades del jueves en la tarde fueron sometidos por los delincuentes, quienes portaban armas largas. Según fuentes extraoficiales, los visitantes provenían de Caracas y se encontraban en la agropecuaria, situada en el sector Tocuyito de Carabobo, muy cerca de la frontera con Cojedes.</em></strong><br /><strong><br /><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em>Los 7 delincuentes primero sometieron a las personas que se encontraban en la entrada, custodiando el acceso al lugar, y posteriormente amenazaron con escopetas y revólveres a los niños y sus acompañantes. Los despojaron de teléfonos celulares, dinero en efectivo y otras pertenencias, y afortunadamente ninguna de las víctimas resultó herida</em></strong>.<br /><br />Pienso que este asalto a niños es una prueba más del envilecimiento que se ha apoderado de nuestro país, enviándolo de golpe y porrazo a escalones inferiores del desarrollo y del bienestar social. Venezuela se ha convertido en un país dominado por la delincuencia, fuera y dentro del gobierno. Pienso hoy en Sabana del Medio y en el sueño que tuvimos de hacerlo un paraíso.<br />Que difícil es hacer progresar a Venezuela!</span><br /><br /></span><br /></div>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-26343355041190752262023-02-24T10:38:00.004-08:002023-02-24T10:38:52.825-08:00Stabroek block, Guyana, new oild discovery: Fangtooth (By Melisa Cavcic)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGddKvTMBe-DBgn8gMacuHBj2iZ0xum5ymK6ODkkcIrKncMxi_UfUOfS6MgmgtbBlFC2RtdFQXFbgjt98jVE_Tu-vQxnxmqgapodcyoceGrE-n4WL2Jtw2E2LjRzbH4fq0DgE-_nuTIWZnz1z5xArtJr7fDCehlqUbWOOLb5KXOVHAkYN3uLvRSHRbQ/s1134/Screenshot_351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="811" data-original-width="1134" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGddKvTMBe-DBgn8gMacuHBj2iZ0xum5ymK6ODkkcIrKncMxi_UfUOfS6MgmgtbBlFC2RtdFQXFbgjt98jVE_Tu-vQxnxmqgapodcyoceGrE-n4WL2Jtw2E2LjRzbH4fq0DgE-_nuTIWZnz1z5xArtJr7fDCehlqUbWOOLb5KXOVHAkYN3uLvRSHRbQ/w366-h262/Screenshot_351.jpg" width="366" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #140e32; font-size: 18px;">U.S.-headquartered energy giant ExxonMobil has made a significant new oil discovery at the Stabroek block, which boosts the block’s hydrocarbon resources, fortifying the oil major’s existing portfolio of extensive development opportunities offshore Guyana.</span></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b style="color: #140e32; font-family: courier; font-size: 18px;">The new oil discovery, made at the <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fangtooth SE-1 well</span> on the Stabroek block, was disclosed on Wednesday, 25 January 2023, by ExxonMobil’s partner on the block, Hess Corporation. The Stabroek block covers 6.6 million acres (26,800 square kilometres) and is operated by ExxonMobil’s affiliate Esso Exploration and Production Guyana with a 45 per cent interest. The company’s partners in the block are Hess Guyana Exploration (30 per cent), and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana (25 per cent).</b></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>According to Hess, the Fangtooth SE-1 well encountered approximately <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">200 feet </span>of oil bearing sandstone reservoirs. This well was drilled in 5,397 feet of water by the <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Stena Carron</span> drillship. ExxonMobil’s new discovery is located approximately 8 miles southeast of the original Fangtooth-1 well, which had encountered around 164 feet of oil bearing sandstone reservoirs.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Hess confirmed that further appraisal activities were underway, highlighting that Fangtooth would add to the Stabroek block’s gross discovered recoverable resource estimate of more than <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">11 billion boe</span>. The firm further underscores that this has the potential to underpin a future oil development on the block.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>The new discovery adds to the continued exploration success offshore Guyana, as ExxonMobil has made over 30 discoveries on the block since 2015. The U.S. oil major’s first two sanctioned projects off Guyana are<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Liza Phase 1</span> and <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Liza Phase 2</span>, which are producing above design capacity and are currently operating at a combined gross production capacity of more than 360,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>ExxonMobil’s third project, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Payara</span>, is on track to come online by the end of 2023 with a gross production capacity of approximately 220,000 bopd, using the <a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/watch-sbm-offshores-third-guyana-fpso-moves-to-topsides-integration-phase/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(31, 93, 166); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1f5da6; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Prosperity FPSO</a>. The U.S. player’s fourth project, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/exxonmobil-sanctions-fourth-and-largest-oil-development-on-guyanas-stabroek-block/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(31, 93, 166); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1f5da6; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Yellowtail</a></span>, is expected to be on stream in 2025 with a gross production capacity of roughly 250,000 bopd, using the <a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/watch-construction-kickoff-for-sbm-offshores-giant-new-fpso/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(31, 93, 166); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1f5da6; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">ONE GUYANA FPSO</a>.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>In addition, ExxonMobil submitted for approval a plan for a fifth development, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/contractor-selected-for-environmental-impact-studies-of-exxonmobils-fifth-guyana-project/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(31, 93, 166); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1f5da6; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Uaru</a></span>, to the government of Guyana in the fourth quarter. Pending the government’s approvals and project sanctioning, this project is expected to have a capacity of approximately 250,000 gross bopd with the first oil anticipated at the end of 2026.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #140e32; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>A few months ago, Japan’s <a href="https://www.offshore-energy.biz/modec-to-handle-feed-work-for-exxonmobils-fifth-guyana-project/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(31, 93, 166); box-sizing: border-box; color: #1f5da6; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">MODEC secured a FEED contract</a> for Uaru FPSO. The firm will design and construct this FPSO based on its M350 newbuild design, which will be able to produce<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> 250,000 barrels of oil per day</span>, will have an associated gas treatment capacity of <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">540 million cubic feet per day</span>, and a water injection capacity of <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">350,000 barrels per day</span>.</b></span><span style="font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif, -apple-system, blinkmacsystemfont, "Segoe UI", roboto, oxygen-sans, ubuntu, cantarell, "Helvetica Neue";"><i>Melisa Cavcic, Jan 2023</i>.</span></p>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-26040498999127360012022-02-14T18:35:00.003-08:002022-02-14T18:35:57.816-08:00Keystone XL pipeline is officially dead. What does this mean for Canada? By Katie Dangerfield <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKZLOn-v5fl_jHliJUnx9_672JbLDw83DAq97Rll5ErFSv3RcnzvzsNEnkqaSpYA4AkmDRcUA8rNo_FMzeKVeLGpEVEG4LLpqMJ1A-k9uAFo1jnQQejOo1yX9Bxf-9UKPEmzFX2dgotd72jBiLDqgWEBuF_-oUsivcMsgAAPD2QiEA0JytsBJ6xgd6pQ=s828" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKZLOn-v5fl_jHliJUnx9_672JbLDw83DAq97Rll5ErFSv3RcnzvzsNEnkqaSpYA4AkmDRcUA8rNo_FMzeKVeLGpEVEG4LLpqMJ1A-k9uAFo1jnQQejOo1yX9Bxf-9UKPEmzFX2dgotd72jBiLDqgWEBuF_-oUsivcMsgAAPD2QiEA0JytsBJ6xgd6pQ=s320" width="247" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>K<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">eystone XL, a US$8-billion oil pipeline that was set to flow from Alberta to Nebraska, is officially scrapped, the project’s owner, TC Energy, confirmed on Wednesday.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Although Alberta is now on the hook for more than $1 billion in lost profit after the cancellation of the expansion pipeline, there is division over the impacts of its termination. Industry experts are concerned about the waterfall effects on the Canadian economy, while environmentalists tout the cancellation as a win.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">READ MORE: TC Energy terminates Keystone XL pipeline months after Biden revokes permit</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Canada has the oil, but now we have fewer options to get the oil out,” explained Richard Masson, an executive fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Keystone would have provided more flexibility for oil producers, but without it, refineries in the Gulf Coast may turn to other producers, like Saudi Arabia or Columbia, for the product.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Keystone XL, a 1,947-kilometre pipeline, was designed to carry 830,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Hardisty, Alta., to Steele City, Neb. From there, it would connect with the company’s existing facilities to reach the U.S. Gulf Coast — one of the world’s biggest oil refining hubs.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">A route map for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.View image in full screen</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">A route map for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Courtesy: TransCanada</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">But TC Energy, the Calgary-based company, cancelled it after conducting a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the Alberta government. This comes months after U.S. President Joe Biden revoked a key permit needed for a U.S. stretch of the 1,200-mile project.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Keystone’s demise follows the cancellations of Northern Gateway and TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East, as well as a delay in Trans Mountain, which the Canadian government bought in 2019 for $4.5 billion from Kinder Morgan.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Although the cancellation is a win for environmental groups and many Indigenous communities, there’s still an impact on Canada, including a loss of revenue and jobs and a need for more reliance on rail to ship the product.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Loss of revenue</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Oil sands are a huge resource in Canada. The country is the fourth-largest producer and third-largest exporter of oil in the world, according to the federal government.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">And despite the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, the demand for Canada’s oil is still there, Masson said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">He explained that over the past few years, Canada has produced a lot of oil but because of a lack of pipelines, it meant the product was not getting it out to refineries, meaning Alberta had to cut back its production of oil.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Which means a loss of revenue because we could not get it to market,” he said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“We have a situation, where COVID is mostly done and oil sands have ramped up production and shipping 200,000 barrels a day plus a day by rail because we don’t have the pipeline capacity, which is more expensive,” Masson said. “Keystone would have provided more flexibility for oil producers.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">If all the pipelines are full, then refineries can push prices lower and producers in Alberta “don’t have a choice,” he added.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Refineries, especially in the Gulf Coast, he said, have the ability to bring in crude oil via ship, so they have the option to take someone else’s oil if they don’t like the price Alberta is charging.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“So Keystone was not needed immediately, but was part of getting back in better balance so we have options to reach different markets and we wouldn’t end up with big disruptions or too much price pressures for buyers.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Oil will still ship, but through rail</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">According to the federal government, as production of oil increased in Western Canada in 2018, it began to outpace pipeline capacity, meaning shipments of crude oil by rail increased to fill the gap, more than doubling from their 2017 levels.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">And with the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, Canada’s reliance on rail to ship oil has increased, Masson said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">But, transporting crude oil by rail is a lot riskier and costlier than using pipelines.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">READ MORE: Study says lack of pipeline capacity costing Canada billions in lost revenue</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">For example, he said the Keystone pipeline would have cost $10 to $12 a barrel to get oil to Gulf Coast from Alberta, while rail would cost $20. On top of that, Masson said with more oil shipping through rail, that means there’s more a chance of derailment and winter storms impacting supply.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“So generally it’s more expensive, which could mean less oil from Canada and more oil from other places,” he said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Many environmentalists see cutting off pipeline as cutting off oil supply, but the reality is that if you cut off oil supply from Canada, the oil will still move, but in a less efficient and less safe way.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">A win for environmentalists</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The Keystone project has been tangled in a decade-plus battle that pitted the energy industry against environmentalists and many Indigenous communities opposed to the pipeline.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">After its official cancellation on Wednesday, many environmentalists welcomed its demise, calling it a landmark moment in the fight against climate change.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“This victory is thanks to Indigenous land defenders who fought the Keystone XL pipeline for over a decade,” said Clayton Thomas Muller, Canada senior campaigns specialist at 350.org, in a statement.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“With Keystone XL cancelled, it’s time to turn our attention to the Indigenous-led resistance to the Line 3 and the Trans Mountain tarsands pipelines.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Many environmental groups, like 350.org., were fiercely opposed to the project, seeing the reliance on oil and gas as incompatible with limiting carbon emissions. The pipeline’s proposed path was also criticized for endangering wildlife and destruction of habitats.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The organization, named after the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, said its efforts were never about just one pipeline.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“The termination of this zombie pipeline sets precedent for President Biden and polluters to stop (Enbridge Inc.’s ) Line 3, Dakota Access, and all fossil fuel projects,” added ground campaign manager Kendall Mackey.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Fewer jobs</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">While some Indigenous groups opposed the pipeline, some communities see oil and gas development as a solution to poverty on reserves.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Dale Swampy, president of the National Coalition of Chiefs, had complained in January that its cancellation would mean fewer jobs for Indigenous people in constructing and supplying goods and services for it.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“It’s quite a blow to the First Nations that are involved right now in working with TC Energy to access employment training and contracting opportunities,” Swampy told the Canadian Press in January.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Within Alberta, First Nations are pretty closely entrenched with all of the activities occurring with the oil and gas industry. Any change, especially a big change like this, really affects our bands’ ability to keep our people employed.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Alberta on the hook for $1.3 billion</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced Wednesday that the province is expected to be out $1.3 billion following the decision by TC Energy Corp.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Lori Williams, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said the number may actually be higher, costing Albertans way more in taxes.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“(The government) has given us an estimate of what the cost will be. My guess is that it’s a low estimate,” she said.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">“Basically, it’s all over except for the counting of how much it’s going to cost Albertans. It’s going to hurt the government. It’s going to raise questions about Jason Kenney’s judgment — investing so much money in a project that had a significant chance of not continuing.”</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">— with files from the Canadian Press and Reuters</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.</p>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-5939609722909264322020-06-25T22:33:00.001-07:002020-06-25T22:33:51.343-07:00Mr. Ken Wetherell según José Giacopini Zárraga (Artículo del Dr. Gustavo Coronel).<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<a href="https://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2019/04/un-perfil-de-jose-giacopini-hecho-por.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;">Un perfil de José Giacopini hecho por Ken Wetherell</a></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFgjPxTU3J_3rT2JjDDyM0kWBzu83zBi94hnR7ys4sdpRnhVQAv7kd0neyPtjafqMhdzTKc7HPKDIV8ztVeXtA0OujiuJ3qkdK4LoC8Pgtd8qySPv5StPChHV6CyFeKNWlnNbraeGoIU/s1600/download+%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #888888; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="212" data-original-width="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFgjPxTU3J_3rT2JjDDyM0kWBzu83zBi94hnR7ys4sdpRnhVQAv7kd0neyPtjafqMhdzTKc7HPKDIV8ztVeXtA0OujiuJ3qkdK4LoC8Pgtd8qySPv5StPChHV6CyFeKNWlnNbraeGoIU/s1600/download+%25284%2529.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a><br />
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<span lang="ES" style="line-height: 15.18px;"><b><i>José Giacopini Zárraga</i></b></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">En 2013 visité a Kenneth Wetherell en su casa situada en Dorchester, una bella aldea cercana a Oxford, ver: </span><a href="http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2013/09/40-years-later-visiting-ken-wetherell.html" style="color: #888888; text-decoration-line: none;"><span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2013/09/40-years-later-visiting-ken-wetherell.html</span></a><span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">. Fue la última vez que nos vimos, ya que mi querido amigo murió meses después. Pasé todo el día con él, caminando por las calles de la aldea, visitando la bella capilla de la aldea y conversando sobre Venezuela. Buena parte de ese tiempo fue utilizado por Ken para hablarme de algunos de nuestros amigos comunes. En especial, sobre José Giacopini Zárraga. Me confesó que, a su partida de Venezuela, había escrito un obituario de José pensando que no viviría mucho más tiempo, pero, en efecto, José vivió unos 25 años más, hasta los 90 años (1915-2005). Las notas que siguen son parte de ese obituario que nunca tuvo ocasión de publicarse.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;"><b><i>José Antonio Giacopini Zárraga<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">José, o Giaco, como lo llamaban sus amigos, nació en Caracas en 1915 en el seno de una familia bien. Se graduó de abogado pero nunca ejerció la profesión. Sus contactos familiares le abrirían muchas puertas. A los 24 años fue secretario de la presidencia de Venezuela y me dijo que, en una ocasión, había manejado al país por varios días, casi solo, durante una transición. A los 26 años fue nombrado Gobernador del Territorio Amazonas y es todavía recordado allá por haber importado los primeros tractores.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">En su juventud José llevó la vida un tanto disipada de la Caracas de clase alta. Nunca perteneció a un partido político. Su rama paternal era muy republicana y su rama materna muy apegada a la autoridad, por lo cual desarrolló una habilidad para mantenerse entre esos dos campos. Llegó a ser visto como alguien independiente, discreto, respetado, confiable. Podía hablar con grupos extremos y conciliarlos. Se convirtió en un consejero preferido por políticos, empresarios y militares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">José sabía cómo reparar orgullos ofendidos y con quien hablar para resolver conflictos. Siempre estaba en estrecho contacto con la gente en el poder, con quienes creían estar en el poder y con quienes deseaban estar en el poder. Se convirtió en un diplomático universal, conocido por todos en todo el país, los poderosos y los humildes. En una ocasión viaje con él al estado Apure y aterrizamos en un pequeño poblado para reabastecernos de gasolina. A los pocos minutos llegaron los habitantes a saludar a su amigo José. De mí ni siquiera se ocuparon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">José carecía de malicia. Siempre simpatizaba y le daba la razón a su interlocutor, quien era tratado con extrema, casi exagerada, cortesía, no importaba su rango social. En la década de 1940 comenzó su carrera con Shell en Relaciones Públicas, era lo lógico. Siempre mantuvo una excelente relación con el dictador Pérez Jiménez y hasta fue parte de su último gabinete, por breves días antes de su caída. No sabía decir que no. José continuó en Shell, como confidente, negociador y consejero de sus presidentes. Como Ejecutivo José no tenía la menor habilidad pero siempre fue un extraordinario conciliador. Nunca escribió un Memo. En su escritorio conservaba una foto de Jacqueline Kennedy. No importaba el tema tratado, José siempre figuraba como protagonista y nos narraba anécdotas relacionadas con el tema donde él había jugado un papel importante, lo cual – además - era cierto. Era invitado a innumerables eventos sociales, en los cuales tomaba solo agua con unas gotas de amargo de angostura el llamado cóctel Giacopini Especial. En cada evento permanecía unos 30 minutos pero hablaba con todo el mundo, quienes recordaban al día siguiente que José les había dedicado mucha atención. Tenía algunos chistes listos para cada ocasión.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">Aquí, interrumpo yo, Gustavo, para recordar uno de esos chistes que ofreció a un grupo en el cual me encontraba:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">Un señor desarrolló una fuerte dispepsia y el médico le recomendó que volviese a tomar leche materna, para lo cual contrató una nodriza, muy joven y bella. Cuando el paciente comenzó a “alimentarse” la joven se fue poniendo cada vez más excitada. El paciente se le quedó mirando y le preguntó: ¿“Podría usted hacerme un favor”? Y la joven le respondió, ruborosa: “Pídame lo que usted quiera”. A lo cual el paciente respondió: ¿“Me podría buscar unas galletitas”? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">Tenía otro que involucraba una yegua y unas monjas que considero no apto para figurar aquí.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">Continuó Ken diciendo: “Cuando la nacionalización tomó lugar, José se convirtió en el asesor político y consejero del general Rafael Alfonzo Ravard, cargo que conservó desde 1976 hasta 1993. La última vez que lo vi, en Agosto 1993 fuimos a almorzar y durante el almuerzo fue objeto de muchos saludos por parte de todos los comensales en el restaurant. Cuando le comenté sobre su popularidad me dijo que se debía a que “cuando visitaba el zoológico nunca hablaba mal de los caimanes”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">José era muy eficiente y efectivo, sin tener poder, riqueza o influencias significativas. No era un gran organizador ni un gran comunicador de ideas. Quizás su gran cualidad fue la amistad, sencilla y sincera. Como resultado, no importaba el favor que él pudiera pedirle a alguien, ya sea desagradable o complicado, siempre obtenía una respuesta favorable. Todo el mundo se desvivía por complacerlo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">José fue un genio de la amistad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">Hasta aquí el perfil de José que me pintó Ken Wetherell. Ken, muy inglés, tenía una cordialidad y sencillez especial. Fue muy religioso y amó mucho a Venezuela y a Colombia. Escribió una Historia de Cartagena, la cual no he podido conseguir. Cuando lo visité en Dorchester tenía ya un Parkinson avanzado. Fuimos a tomar el té y nos sentamos el uno frente al otro. Yo comencé a tomar mi té y, de repente, vi que él no tomaba y comprendí la razón. Tomé su taza y se la acerqué sus labios, una y otra vez, hasta que ambos – conversando - tomamos nuestro té. Todo fluyó con perfecta naturalidad entre quien había sido el poderoso presidente de Shell Venezuela y quien había sido, alguna vez, uno de sus jóvenes empleados.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;">La vida nos había igualado en la amistad.</span></div>
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<span lang="ES" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 24.5333px;"><a href="https://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2019/04/un-perfil-de-jose-giacopini-hecho-por.html" target="_blank">Artículo Original del Dr. Gustavo Coronel.</a> </span></div>
<span style="color: #4d5156; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">© 2019, Gustavo Coronel. All Rights Reserved.</span><br />
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Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-88807651341523227402018-02-03T17:27:00.000-08:002018-02-03T17:27:26.819-08:00Hudson Institute - Food as a Tool of Political Domination: The Case for Intervention in Venezuela<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Gustavo Coronel (Caracas, Venezuela, 1935) was on the Board of Directors of PDVSA from 1976 to 1979. He was Chief Operations Officer (COO) and acting CEO of the Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG), the $35 billion Venezuelan government conglomerate designed to exploit and run all of Venezuela's mineral, metal and mining operations, from 1994-1995. He was President of Puerto Cabello (Venezuela's main port) from 2001 to 2002. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Coronel was author of the Cato Institute study </span><a href="http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6787" style="background-color: white; color: #6699cc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: large; text-decoration-line: none;">"Corruption, Mismanagement and Abuse of Power in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela" </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">and was the Venezuelan representative to Transparency International from 1996 to 2000. In 1994, he founded Pro Calidad de Vida, an NGO promoting anti-corruption techniques in government and civic education for children in Venezuela, Panama, Paraguay, Mexico and Nicaragua.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-32487813800736596532017-07-14T14:51:00.001-07:002017-07-14T14:51:23.656-07:00Adam Martin on Keystone XL.<div class="subscriber-preview" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
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The U.S. State Department approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline is great news for South Dakota. This modern piece of infrastructure will bring jobs to the state and boost its economy.</div>
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The Keystone XL debate is not new. For eight long years, President Barack Obama purposely kept Keystone in limbo to appease environmental activists.</div>
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President Trump wasted little time reversing course, recently issuing a federal permit for the project to continue. When completed, the Keystone XL Pipeline will carry crude oil from western Canada to refineries on America’s gulf coast. The new 875-mile segment running across South Dakota from Montana and ending in Steele City, Nebraska, will fully connect the northern section to the already completed southern section of the project.</div>
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Keystone XL will bring huge economic benefits, welcome news to South Dakotans and the place I call home. This project will be one of the most economically viable projects to impact rural communities in recent history. The pipeline will create thousands of well-paying jobs, including approximately 3,500 construction jobs in the states through which the pipeline will travel.</div>
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We all agree this influx in construction staff is temporary, but so is tearing out an old bridge on Interstate 90 and constructing a new one. That’s the nature of infrastructure-related construction projects. Every major infrastructure project from bridges to pipelines will create construction work and benefit South Dakotans for years to come.</div>
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Keystone will also benefit rural economies across the state. Due to budget shortfalls, rural communities are continually searching for funds just to maintain basic public services. Keystone XL will support urgently needed tax dollars for updating rural fire department equipment, school facilities and deteriorating county roads and bridges.</div>
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What’s more, the Keystone XL project will support opportunities for a vast amount of service-related companies in western and central South Dakota. As services are needed during construction of Keystone XL, we’ll see an increase in business at local mechanic shops, tire shops, convenience stores, and restaurants along the route.</div>
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Once construction is complete, South Dakota alone will see an additional $17.9 million annually in new property tax revenue and an increase in sales and excise tax revenue of $46.5 million over two years.</div>
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TransCanada’s willingness to communicate with stakeholders along the route, including indigenous communities has been nothing short of impressive. When this project finally comes to fruition, we will work together through effective engagement to share information on the project, gather input from leadership in indigenous communities, and ensure project safety for all South Dakotans.</div>
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South Dakota has long been sending a strong message to Washington: We want Keystone XL. Both the South Dakota House and Senate passed a resolution urging the State Department to approve the Keystone permit “in order to strengthen the United States’ energy security, provide for critical pipeline infrastructure to achieve North American energy independence, and to stimulate the economy and create jobs.”</div>
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With the State Department’s approval granted, national energy policy is once again making both our national and local economies a priority.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Adam Martin is a former councilman for the city of Sturgis with 23 years combined experience in business development and local, state and federal government relations. He is the executive director of South Dakota Oil and Gas Association, serving members throughout SD, ND, and CO.</em></div>
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Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-73843423293125166862017-01-24T21:00:00.002-08:002017-01-24T21:01:16.574-08:00Today Donald Trump cleared the way to Keystone XL (Peter Barker and Coral Davenport)<br />
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WASHINGTON — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/donald-trump" style="color: #326891;">President Trump</a> sharply changed the federal government’s approach to the environment on Tuesday as he cleared the way for two major <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891;" title="More articles about oil.">oil</a> pipelines that had been blocked, and set in motion a plan to curb regulations that slow other building projects.</div>
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In his latest moves to dismantle the legacy of his predecessor, Mr. Trump resurrected the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/keystone-xl-pipeline?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891;">Keystone XL</a> pipeline that had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/obama-expected-to-reject-construction-of-keystone-xl-oil-pipeline.html" style="color: #326891;">stirred years of debate</a>, and expedited another <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/veterans-north-dakota-standing-rock.html" style="color: #326891;">pipeline in the Dakotas</a> that had become a major flash point for Native Americans. He also signed a directive ordering an end to protracted environmental reviews.</div>
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“I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist, I believe in it,” Mr. Trump said during a meeting with auto industry executives. “But it’s out of control, and we’re going to make it a very short process. And we’re going to either give you your permits, or we’re not going to give you your permits. But you’re going to know very quickly. And generally speaking, we’re going to be giving you your permits.”</div>
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The decisions expanded an effort to unravel much of the policy structure left by former President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/barack-obama?inline=nyt-per" style="color: #326891;">Barack Obama</a>, who made fighting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/global-warming-climate-change?inline=nyt-classifier%5C" style="color: #326891;">climate change</a> a central priority. Just a day earlier, Mr. Trump formally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/us/politics/tpp-trump-trade-nafta.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news" style="color: #326891;">abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership</a>, an ambitious 12-nation trade pact negotiated by Mr. Obama.</div>
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In his opening days in office, Mr. Trump has also modified or reversed Mr. Obama’s policies on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/trump-executive-order-obamacare.html" style="color: #326891;">health care</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/world/trump-ban-foreign-aid-abortions.html" style="color: #326891;">abortion </a>and housing while ordering a freeze of any pending regulations left behind by the former administration.</div>
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The pipelines were more about symbol than substance but generated enormous passion on both sides of the debate. Mr. Obama rejected the proposed <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keystone_pipeline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891;" title="More articles about the Keystone XL pipeline.">Keystone</a> pipeline in 2015, arguing that it would undercut American leadership in curbing the reliance on carbon energy. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/04/us/federal-officials-to-explore-different-route-for-dakota-pipeline.html" style="color: #326891;">Army sidetracked</a> the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota last month in the waning days of the Obama administration.</div>
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Environmental activists quickly denounced Mr. Trump’s decisions. “Donald Trump has been in office for four days, and he’s already proving to be the dangerous threat to our climate we feared he would be,” said Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club.</div>
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Mr. Trump made clear on the campaign trail that he saw Mr. Obama’s environmental policies as a threat to the economy and dismissed <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891;" title="Recent and archival news about global warming.">climate change</a> as a hoax perpetrated by China. Myron Ebell, a climate change denier who headed Mr. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, has drafted a 50-page blueprint for how he could eliminate Mr. Obama’s climate change policies. “It is designed to implement all of the president’s campaign trail promises — every single one,” Mr. Ebell said this week in an interview.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Mr. Trump’s biggest target may be emission rules that would force the closing of hundreds of coal-fired power plants meant to be replaced by wind and </span><a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/solar-energy/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891; font-size: 1.0625rem;" title="More articles about solar power.">solar power</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">. But they are caught up in court battles that could run for months or years.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">By contrast, he could more quickly soften Mr. Obama’s rules requiring tougher vehicle emission standards. Mr. Trump met on Tuesday with executives of major American automakers, who complained that before leaving office, Mr. Obama finalized an ambitious E.P.A. rule requiring that vehicles average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2026. Mr. Trump said he would help with burdensome regulations, but offered no specifics.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Mr. Trump could lift a moratorium instituted last year by Mr. Obama on new coal mining leases on public lands. As soon as next month, the Republican-led Congress may pass legislation undoing Mr. Obama’s regulations on the practice of mountaintop-removal coal mining and on leaks of planet-warming methane emissions from oil and gas drilling rigs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">In the meantime, the Keystone and Dakota pipelines provided Mr. Trump with visible ways to demonstrate action. As proposed by TransCanada, an Alberta firm, Keystone would carry 800,000 barrels a day from the Canadian </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/oil-sands?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #326891; font-size: 1.0625rem;">oil sands</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;"> to the Gulf Coast. Republicans and some Democrats said that it would create jobs and expand energy resources, while environmentalists said it would encourage a form of oil extraction that produces more gases that warm the planet than normal petroleum.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Studies showed that the pipeline would not have a momentous effect on jobs or the environment, but both sides made it into a symbolic test case. The State Department estimated that Keystone would support 42,000 temporary jobs for two years — about 3,900 of them in construction and the rest through indirect support, like food service — but only 35 permanent jobs. Similarly, the government concluded that Keystone’s carbon emissions would equal less than 1 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">“Keystone has never been a significant issue from an environmental point of view in substance, only in symbol,” said David L. Goldwyn, an energy market analyst and a former head of the State Department’s energy bureau in the Obama administration.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">But it was a symbol Mr. Trump found important enough to seize on early in his presidency. He signed an executive memorandum inviting TransCanada “to promptly resubmit its application to the Department of State for a presidential permit” for the pipeline, although the document did not guarantee approval.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">The president told reporters he would “renegotiate some of the terms” — including possibly an insistence that the pipeline be built with American steel — but left little doubt that he wanted it approved. “We’ll see if we can get that pipeline built,” he said. “A lot of jobs.”</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">In a statement, TransCanada accepted his invitation to seek permission again. “We are currently preparing the application and intend to do so,” the company said, vowing that it would create jobs and still protect waterways and other sensitive resources.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">The Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota became the focus of protests when the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe objected to its construction less than a mile from its reservation. The tribe and its allies won victory last month when the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it would look for alternative routes for the $3.7 billion pipeline instead of allowing it to be drilled under a dammed section of the Missouri River.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Mr. Trump signed an executive memorandum directing the Army “to review and approve in an expedited manner” the pipeline, “to the extent permitted by law and as warranted.” In his session with reporters, he added, “Again, subject to terms and conditions to be negotiated by us.”</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Mr. Trump owned stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the company that is building the Dakota Access pipeline, according to his most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission. Last month, a spokesman for Mr. Trump said he sold all of his stock in June, but there is no way of verifying that sale, and Mr. Trump has not provided documentation of it.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Critics vowed to keep resisting the projects. Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for Earthjustice, an environmental law group representing the tribe, said Mr. Trump was discarding the findings of a review. “They’re just ignoring the problems that the government has already found,” he said, “and that is the kind of thing that courts need to review very closely.”</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">In Canada, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed Mr. Trump’s decision. “We have been supportive of this since the day we were sworn into government,” Jim Carr, the natural resources minister, told reporters. Mr. Carr said the American reversal will lead “to a deepening of the relationship across the border.”</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">In addition to the Keystone and Dakota directives, Mr. Trump signed three others intended to ease the way for businesses and to promote American manufacturing. One instructed the Commerce Department to develop a plan to ensure that future pipelines built in the United States be constructed of American-made materials.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Another was aimed at streamlining what he called “the incredibly cumbersome, long, horrible permitting process and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing.” The last directive was intended to expedite environmental reviews for “high-priority infrastructure projects” like highways and bridges.</span></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="535" data-total-count="2737" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 1.0625rem; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 75px; max-width: none; width: 570px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 1.0625rem;">Some news reports on Tuesday said that the E.P.A. and other departments had issued orders forbidding employees from issuing news releases or posting on social media. But longtime officials in multiple agencies said the guidance was similar to that of when Mr. Obama took office eight years ago.</span></div>
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<figure class="interactive promo layout-large" id="dakota-access-pipeline-protest-map" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 226); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 226); cursor: pointer; margin: 15px 0px 15px 75px; max-width: 945px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-top: 15px; position: relative; width: 540px;"><footer class="story-footer story-content" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: nyt-cheltenham, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 75px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 24px; max-width: none; position: relative; width: 570px;"><div class="story-meta">
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<i>Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa and </i></div>
<div style="font-family: nyt-franklin, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 1.125rem; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<i>Jack Healy from Denver.</i></div>
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</footer><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/23/us/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-map.html" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 16px;"></span><figcaption class="interactive-caption" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: nyt-cheltenham-sh, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 0.75rem; line-height: 1rem; margin-right: 15px; width: 210px;"></figcaption></a></figure></div>
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Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-51020077395616951332017-01-07T19:35:00.002-08:002017-01-07T19:35:17.086-08:00President-elect Donald Trump's plan: Keystone XL - Bloomberg.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to put a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline into a crucial decision-making position may give the controversial pipeline a leg up.</div>
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If approved as Secretary of State, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson would be in a position to approve the pipeline’s presidential permit, a requirement for energy projects that cross an international border. President Barack Obama rejected the $8 billion project in 2015, saying it wasn’t in the national interest.</div>
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“Keystone XL would do more than deliver oil from Alberta and North Dakota’s Bakken Shale to refiners on the Gulf Coast,” Tillerson said in an April 2015 speech. “It would improve U.S. competitiveness, increase North American energy security, and strengthen the relationship with one of our most important allies and trading partners.”</div>
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Trump has expressed support for infrastructure projects, including adding pipelines. He said this weekend that he will issue a decision “fairly quickly” on Keystone, in addition to saying “something will happen” on the controversial Dakota Access pipeline.</div>
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Project Writedown</h3>
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TransCanada Corp. was forced to write down $3 billion after the plan was rejected by the Obama administration. The company filed suit over the denial and began one of the largest trade appeals ever brought against the U.S., seeking to recoup $15 billion of costs and damages.</div>
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Tillerson’s potential appointment "has a meaningful impact on how we should think about Trump’s international energy policy going forward," but the revival of Keystone XL may not be in his hands, said Katie Bays, an analyst at Height Securities LLC, an advisory and investment firm based in Washington D.C.</div>
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The fastest way to approve the project may be to take the State Department out of the process, Bays said. Trying to reverse the previous decision "clearly creates an opportunity for a legal challenge" -- and Tillerson is likely to support a move that lowers the bar for infrastructure projects more broadly.</div>
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Advisers to Trump are <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-23/trump-aides-eye-reviving-keystone-by-rescinding-lbj-s-order" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(40, 0, 215); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Trump Aides Eye Reviving Keystone by Rescinding LBJ’s Order">exploring</a> a strategy to speed up the approval process that includes rescinding a 1968 executive order that put the State Department in charge of permitting border-crossing oil pipelines, according to people familiar with the transition planning.</div>
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"It’s primarily political," Bays said. Resurrecting the project is "a feather in the cap for a Republican Congress and a Republican administration."</div>
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‘Firmly Committed’</h3>
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TransCanada remains "firmly committed" to the project and "will be in a better position to provide comment on our next steps and the path forward after the transition process has been settled," spokesman Mark Cooper said in an e-mailed statement.</div>
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"TransCanada does not feel it is its place to speak to the transition process in the U.S.," he said. "We are sensitive to the enormous amount of work that is going into forming the new administration and are respectful of that."</div>
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The company’s shares rose as much as 2.6 percent to C$60.49 on Tuesday, the most intraday since Nov. 9.</div>
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If the pipeline operator did reapply for the border-crossing permit that Obama rejected, the Trump administration would approve it, but the project may get caught up in the same local fights it did the first time, said Erika Coombs, an analyst at BTU Analytics LLC.</div>
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Reapplying through the State Department may also entail updating previous environmental reviews, which would be expensive, Coombs said. "It’s not going to be easier the second time."</div>
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Project Risk</h3>
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In Canada, Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain expansion and Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 replacement were <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-01/energy-east-the-odd-pipeline-out-as-canada-approves-two-others" itemprop="StoryLink" itemscope="itemscope" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(40, 0, 215); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #3c3c3c; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Energy East the Odd Pipeline Out as Canada Approves Two Others">approved</a> earlier this month. That comes as TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline remains mired in regulatory hearings and opposition from environmentalists.</div>
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Calgary-based TransCanada may not want to grapple with two controversial projects simultaneously, Coombs said. In addition, with Kinder Morgan and Enbridge projects gaining approval, TransCanada could have a tougher time securing necessary contract volumes for Keystone.</div>
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"The economic incentive isn’t as strong as it once was," she said.</div>
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Viewed against the backdrop of Energy Transfer Partners LP’s controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, Keystone is poised to be a public-relations nightmare if TransCanada pursues it, said Height’s Bays.</div>
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"Keystone would be an easier project if it had either a lot of political support at the local level or a very strong economic argument," Bays said. "And both of those issues are kind of lukewarm."</div>
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Meenal Vamburkar.</div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-78239695485682629612016-05-22T20:50:00.000-07:002016-05-22T20:50:06.848-07:00Southeastern Barents Sea: Norway new oil and gas drilling.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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OSLO—Norway’s government awarded its first new oil and gas acreage in more than two decades Wednesday, allowing drilling in an area previously disputed with Russia and<a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/eni-starts-pumping-oil-from-worlds-northernmost-offshore-platform-1457874494" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">continuing a push into the Arctic</a> despite cost challenges and weak profitability in the sector.</div>
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“Today, we are opening a new chapter in the history of the Norwegian petroleum industry,” said Tord Lien, Norway’s minister of petroleum and energy. “For the first time in 20 years, we offer new acreage for exploration.”</div>
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Announcing the country’s 23rd <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/norway-to-award-oil-and-gas-drilling-licences-1421764096" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">licensing round in five decades</a>, the government offered 10 drilling licenses to 13 different companies, including <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/COP" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ConocoPhillips</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/COP" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CVX" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chevron</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CVX" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/STO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Statoil</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/STO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a>and DEA. Attractive acreage is key to ensure long-term drilling activity, it said.</div>
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“This is a cornerstone of the government’s petroleum policy and is particularly important in the current challenging times for the industry,” the government said.</div>
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Three out of the 10 new licenses were awarded in a previously disputed area with Russia in the southeast Barents Sea, in the wake of a 2010 delineation deal between the two countries, following four decades of disagreement.</div>
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One of the licenses in the southeast Barents Sea borders Russia, and will be operated by<a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/DETNF" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Det Norske Oljeselskap</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> AS</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/DETNF" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a>A with a 40% stake. Russia’s Lukoil was offered a 20% stake in the license, and Statoil ASA (STO) and Petoro were offered similar stakes, the government said.</div>
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Statoil, Norway’s dominant oil company and 67%-owned by the government, was awarded the operating rights on four of the new licenses. <a class="company-name" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SE/XSTO/LUPE" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lundin Petroleum</a><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SE/XSTO/LUPE" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> AB was awarded three, while Capricorn Norge, <a class="company-name" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CPYYY" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Centrica</a><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CPYYY" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> PLC and Det Norske Oljeselskap were offered one each.</div>
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“Gradually opening up new areas is crucial for us to maintain profitable and high-level production up to and beyond 2030,” said Arne Sigve Nylund, Statoil’s head of development and production in Norway.</div>
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Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum AB said it had been awarded stakes in five Barents Sea licenses, and estimated that some of the prospects in the area could have a resource potential of more than a billion barrels of oil equivalent.</div>
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“I am particularly excited about the billion-barrel prospectivity on the acreage awarded in the southeastern Barents Sea,” said Kristin Faerovik, managing director of Lundin Norway.</div>
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Norway is keen to maintain stable offshore activity as oil companies are reducing investments amid weak oil prices. The country has lost 25,000 oil-related jobs between 2013 and 2015, or 11% of its oil-related workforce, according to Statistics Norway.</div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-71320642282344995602016-04-24T18:10:00.002-07:002016-04-24T18:10:47.123-07:00MR. DAVID ROTHKOPF, EDITOR, “FOREIGN POLICY” (Interview April 2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON, PBS ANCHOR:</strong> Saudi Arabia is the world’s number two oil producer behind the U.S. and has the second-largest oil reserves after Venezuela. But a slump in global oil prices has Saudi Arabia rethinking its near-total dependence on oil revenue. Tomorrow, the monarchy’s expected to unveil a new vision for economic and possibly political reform.</div>
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Joining me here to discuss that is David Rothkopf, the editor of “Foreign Policy” magazine. Thank you so much for being here.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF, EDITOR, “FOREIGN POLICY”:</strong> My pleasure.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON:</strong> So how is it that Saudi Arabia might be planning to wean itself off its near total dependence on oil revenues? What do we expect might be unveiled tomorrow?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF:</strong> Well, I think they’re following the lead of some of their neighbors. A year ago, the United Arab Emirates announced a plan to move off of oil. They’ve been actually on this track for some time. I think they’ve gotten their economy down to less than 30 percent dependent on oil and are heading for even lower.</div>
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Why? Because when you’re dependent on oil, you’re vulnerable to oil markets. And the Saudis felt this very hard last year. It produced – falling oil prices produced huge deficit. Really squeezed the economy and reduced their leverage globally in a number of other ways.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON:</strong> Do we know anything about the specific steps they’re going to take economically?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF:</strong> We’ve seen some indications that they’re going to move away from subsidies as they’ve done for gasoline, that they’re going to move toward diversification of the economy, supporting other industries. You may also see certain kinds of political and social reforms. The son of the king, Mohammed Bin Salman, just did an interview in Bloomberg Businessweek in which he talked about how in the day of the Mohammed, women had the right to ride a camel, so why wouldn’t it be that they had the right to drive a car?</div>
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That may seem commonsensical, but it certainly is a departure from the policies that you’ve seen in the past.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON:</strong> Can you talk a little bit more about Prince Mohammed? What’s his reputation, and how do you think the reforms are going to be taken publicly?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF:</strong> His reputation is growing. You know, when his father came in, it was like, well, who’s this kid and what’s – what’s going on? But behind the scenes, he’d been a big player and had a relationship with the prior king and had really tried to voice his influence, which produced some resentment.</div>
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But now that he’s in power, he has won a great deal of respect. And in fact, one of the most reliable diplomats I know in the region said to me yesterday after having spent some time with him that he’s the real deal. That this is a serious person with a serious agenda, real influence, and the ability to get things done.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON:</strong> Has Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States affected this push for reforms?</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF:</strong> You know, you can tell when you talk to Saudi leaders that they’re looking at their watches, they’re waiting for November. They want to be done with this because they really see the primary Obama policy in the Middle East over the course of the past several years being a shift from the traditional partnership with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf towards an opening to Iran. Iran is the Saudi rival of rivals. This has been painful for them.</div>
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They don’t like the Obama policies; they hope that a new administration – perhaps a Hillary Clinton administration – may be a little bit more balanced in their views than the Obama administration has been.</div>
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But I think they’re also feeling the squeeze because both from the U.S. and from Europe, the policies that they’ve had, some of their past support for unsavory characters, their justice system as you mentioned earlier, their views toward women, have really made them an outlier. And I think that if they wish to become the leader in the region, they’re going to need to make some of these changes happen on a social level and not just on an energy policy level.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">MEGAN THOMPSON:</strong> All right David Rothkopf from “Foreign Policy” magazine, thank you so much for being here.</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">DAVID ROTHKOPF:</strong> My pleasure.</div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-68727650226608804582016-01-22T20:22:00.003-08:002016-01-22T20:22:51.357-08:00The slump in the oil price that has lasted 18 months is now the worst in post-war history, says the Daily Telegraph.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The slump in the oil price that has lasted 18 months is now the worst in post-war history, says the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/oilprices/12105170/Oil-falls-to-27-as-Opec-warns-US-cannot-withstand-price-rout.html" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Daily Telegraph</a>.</div>
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After an initial dive to well below $28 a barrel on Monday, international benchmark Brent crude rose through the afternoon and settled overnight at close to $30. This bore out predictions that removing the uncertainty over the lifting of economic sanctions on Iran would spark a modest rally.</div>
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But the prevailing advice of most observers, articulated last week by Tyche Capital Advisors in <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0US03Y20160114" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">New York</a>, is to sell "any and all rallies" as a global glut continues to dominate sentiment. Traders appear to be taking that on board: in early trading in London, the price of Brent had slipped towards $29 a barrel and was heading lower.</div>
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The imminent removal of international sanctions on Iran is about to see a new flood of oil into an already oversupplied market. The <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a528278e-bd87-11e5-9fdb-87b8d15baec2.html#axzz3xaCH6gh1" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Financial Times</a> notes the head of the country's national oil company has already ordered an increase in output of 500,000 barrels a day and that 50 million barrels that had been held in reserve were already on tankers ready to be shipped to buyers in Europe.</div>
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This ramping up of output from a country with the fourth-largest proven oil reserves in the world is one reason cited by the International Energy Agency in its latest incredibly bearish forecast for prices this year. It said this would more than counter the fall in US production and keep supply 1.5 million barrels ahead of demand throughout 2016.</div>
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In short, it predicted that the world "could drown in oversupply" and that "enormous strain" on prices would be maintained, says <a href="http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/01/19/drowning-huge-strains-on-oil-market-warns-iea/" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">FastFT</a>. Predictions are for oil to fall to between $25 and $10 a barrel this year, before recovering.</div>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Acta, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.2963em; margin: 1.03704em 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 27px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oil price could still be as low as $25 in a year's time</span></h3>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">18 January</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Oil prices fell sharply overnight and touched a near 13-year low as the US and EU prepared to lift international sanctions on dormant oil power Iran earlier than expected.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>In a market already flooded with excess supply that has pushed onshore reserves to record levels and driven prices ever lower, Iranian exports ramping up – it has pledged to add 500,000 barrels a day immediately and a million within six months – is seen as an extremely bearish signal. International benchmark Brent crude fell to $27.70 overnight, its lowest level since 2003.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>This process could begin very shortly and perhaps as soon as the end of this month. A United Nations agency tasked with overseeing Iran's compliance with its deal to curtail its nuclear programme, a precondition to removing sanctions, said yesterday the country had met all of the required terms.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, told the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35340893" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">BBC </a>Iran has "quite a large storage of oil at the moment" and can "increase supply quite quickly". Some reckon it already has buyers lined up in Europe, where a fierce price war with regional rival Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest oil producers in the world, is beginning to take shape.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>However, several analysts were arguing there might be a price rise on Monday in a "sell the rumour, buy the fact" move that would reflect the removal of uncertainty on Iran. Some others predicted prices would at least hold steady. "The Iran deal should not be a surprise to the market and has been expected for a long time," Amrita Sen, of consultancy Energy Aspects, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-nuclear-oil-idUKKCN0UV0ES" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;">said</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>After the fall overnight, Brent crude had recovered around $1 per barrel to $28.60 in London this morning.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Ultimately, though, the oversupply issue still dominates. New exports will add to global supplies that are one to two million barrels a day in excess of consumption, at a time when demand could be hit by a slowing of the global economy and oil producers in the Middle East and elsewhere are in discord on policies to stop the slump.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>This had led to predictions of a short-term fall to $25, $20 or even $10 a barrel and prices could remain at painful lows for longer.</i></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said he expected the price of oil in a year's time to have settled between a high of $40 and a low of $25 a barrel, well below currently predicted averages for the next 12 months.</i></span></div>
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Oil price: sell 'any and all rallies' as Iran prepares to pump</h3>
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15 January</div>
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The oil price fell below $30 a barrel for the third consecutive day today, as yet another rally that had taken hold on Thursday fell away.</div>
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International benchmark Brent crude was modestly below $30 as it continued a slide that set in yesterday afternoon in New York and overnight in Asia. Earlier on Thursday, the price had risen to well in excess of $31, still low by historical standards but welcome relief from the bearish run, before the prevailing negative trend set back in.</div>
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The market is still gripped by oversupply. The US's primary crude oil facility, in Cushing, Oklahoma, is stuffed with a record stockpile of 64 million barrels, <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21688446-why-oil-price-has-plunged-20-new-40" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The Economist</a> notes, while in other areas around the world - including, critically, China - storage facilities are so full that millions of barrels are floating offshore in tankers.</div>
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And then there is Iran.</div>
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The United Nations' international nuclear agency is expected to confirm on Monday that the republic has met the conditions of its deal struck with the US last year, says <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/naturalresources/article4665996.ece" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The Times</a>. This will lead to the removal of sanctions inhibiting oil exports coming perhaps as early as the end of this month and as many as a further 500,000 to one million barrels a day flooding the market within six months.</div>
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Amid a breakdown in relations with its regional rival Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the world, this is likely to undermine any hopes of a deal to limit excess output.</div>
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"We feel the Saudis will pump even more and a price war between them and the Iranians will drive us well into the $20 levels. We are sellers of any and all rallies in days and weeks to come," Tariq Zahir, at New York's Tyche Capital Advisors, told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0US03Y20160114" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</div>
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The one bright spot on the horizon is a slowing of production in Russia, another of the world's largest producers, which has also been fuelling an export war with Saudi Arabia. "The oil-pipeline monopoly Transneft said Russian companies are likely to cut crude shipments by 6.4 per cent over the course of 2016," writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12100609/Glimmers-of-hope-for-oil-as-Russia-poised-to-slash-output.html" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Daily Telegraph</a>.</div>
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As the journalist adds, the key question is "whether the production cuts are purely driven by markets or whether it is in part a political move to pave the way for a deal with Saudi Arabia".</div>
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14 January</div>
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The oil price trend has been volatile for several trading sessions, with strong intra-day rallies typically giving way to late sell-offs that are contributing to a steady, cumulative decline.</div>
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Yesterday, after hitting a high close to $33 a barrel, the international benchmark Brent crude at one point fell below $30 a barrel in New York. It has since recovered slightly but at just 20 cents above $30, the price remains around the 12-year low reached last week and almost all predictions are for further steep falls to come.</div>
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Unsurprisingly, it was new data that evidenced the stubborn global oil-supply glut that precipitated the latest slide. The international energy watchdog reported that output around the world grew by 200,000 last week, the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12098469/Oil-price-crash-means-petrol-could-become-cheaper-than-bottled-water.html" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Daily Telegraph</a> notes, even as the market is already producing one to two million more barrels a day more than is being consumed.</div>
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The International Energy Agency also revealed Russian exports reached a post-Soviet era high last year. The country is one of several major producers around the world - including the de facto leader of the powerful Opec cartel Saudi Arabia - locked in an internecine battle for market share.</div>
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Elsewhere, the US energy watchdog said the country's reserves of oil derivative products surged last week. An 8.6 million barrel rise in stockpiles of petrol in particular added to a 10.6 million barrel lift the week before, constituting what<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/13/gusher-of-supply-keeps-pounding-oil-prices.html" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">CNBC</a> describes as "an unheard of two-week build".</div>
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As important, the Energy Information Administration reported a second consecutive week of modest growth in shale oil output, taking overall US supply up to 9.23 million barrels a day. The production turf war was supposed to have clipped the wings of the sector and thus eventually prompted a rebalancing of the market.</div>
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All in all, the picture remains extremely bearish, especially when the political ructions in the Middle East, which will undermine any cohesive response to the glut, are factored in. Analysts have said prices will fall to $25, $20 or even as low as $10 a barrel in the coming months.</div>
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This will push petrol prices to ever lower levels in 2016, the RAC claims. If oil reaches $10, it expects the cheapest petrol in the UK to be sold for around 86p a litre, below the level of most supermarket bottled water.</div>
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Oil price slump: as BP cuts jobs, does North Sea oil have a future?</h3>
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13 January</div>
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BP has announced plans to shed about 600 jobs from its operations in the North Sea, part of a new set of cutbacks that will see 4,000 staff go globally.</div>
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Blaming low oil prices, the company said it was taking the step in the face of "toughening market conditions", but added it remained committed to the North Sea.</div>
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So what does the news mean about the wider sector?</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.167em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.33295em; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What is behind the move?</span></div>
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Oil prices have been hit by a combination of oversupply, weak global demand, Middle East unrest and the strong US dollar. Despite recovering from its latest slump yesterday and overnight, the international benchmark is near a 12-year low at $31.50 a barrel, a painfully unprofitable price for much North Sea production, where it costs an average of $50 to extract a barrel of oil.</div>
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This has had disastrous results for the sector, threatening an industry that employs more than 375,000 people and was, until recently, one of the richest sources of tax revenue for the Exchequer.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.167em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.33295em; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What are the current production levels in the North Sea</span></div>
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Despite "toughening market conditions", oil production in the UK Continental Shelf last year rose by 8 per cent on 2014, according to trade body Oil & Gas UK. This bucked a 15-year trend of falling oil and gas production in the North Sea, but Oil & Gas UK believes the news will do little to improve belief in the sector.</div>
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The increase is actually simply a function of investments made anywhere up to a decade ago, when prices were projected to be much higher. "The fact is, the value of our product has more than halved. Times are really tough for this industry and for the people working in it," said Deirdre Michie, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.167em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.33295em; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How long will the increase last?</span></div>
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Brendan Warn, senior oil and gas analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said the increase in production was only a result of investment decisions taken years before prices plunged and that as they have fallen, investment in new wells has been withdrawn. This lag means "North Sea oil and gas production news headlines will be horrendous in the 2017-20 time period".</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 1.167em; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.33295em; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What does this mean for the future</span></div>
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Though BP says it remains committed to North Sea oil, companies are expected to drill just six exploration wells in the area this year, the lowest number since 1964, with the result that as decades-old fields run dry, there will be fewer new projects to replace them, pushing the North Sea closer to terminal decline, say experts.</div>
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Oil price: predictions of fall to $16 - and even $10</h3>
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12 January</div>
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Oil prices have fallen sharply again – and the latest range of investment bank forecasts has them dropping as low as $10 a barrel before finally bouncing back.</div>
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Turmoil on the Chinese markets, a strong dollar and more evidence of global supply remaining high despite an already heavily overstocked market prompted oil to fall sharply yesterday to a 12-year low. International benchmark Brent crude touched a low of $30.43 a barrel before steadying - and it had pared losses to a little below $30.90 this morning in London.</div>
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At its nadir, overnight oil fell close to 8 per cent from where it had been in London earlier in the day.</div>
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Primarily to blame was the 14 per cent slump on China's markets this year, which is being driven by concerns over growth that could ultimately hit oil demand. The stronger dollar also makes oil more expensive in overseas territories.</div>
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<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0UQ02220160112" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Reuters notes</a> that another key factor was leaked data suggesting Iraq's oil output from its southern territories has increased 8 per cent and that total exports could reach a record 3.6 million barrels a day in February. The country is now the second-largest producer in the powerful Opec cartel, adding to concerns the bloc will not make cuts to support higher prices.</div>
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With reserves at record levels, investment banks are revising their already pessimistic forecasts lower. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6ef2b614-b85c-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb.html#axzz3wwY7cPly" style="border: 0px; color: #993333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The Financial Times</a> says Morgan Stanley has become the latest bank to predict prices would fall to $20, while Royal Bank of Scotland credit analysts capped an ultra-bearish forecast for markets with a call for a low of $16 – and Standard Chartered said the market could reach $10.</div>
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"We think prices could fall as low as $10 [a barrel] before most of the money managers in the market conceded that matters had gone too far," the bank said.</div>
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It is hard to see how anything more than a brief relief rally will materialise in the near future to prevent further sharp falls. One possibility is the hint by Nigerian officials that there may be an emergency meeting of Opec that, if it yielded a production cut, could prompt a major bounce as fund managers "cover" heavy bets on prices going lower. This is, however, seen as unlikely.</div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-36301975404498980832015-12-10T13:56:00.002-08:002015-12-10T13:56:14.010-08:00Oil dips below $37 as OPEC pumps most in three years (cnn money)<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #262626; font-family: CNN, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 38px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 30px;">
Oil fell below $37 a barrel on Thursday, after new data showed OPEC <u>is still pumping like there is no tomorrow.</u></h2>
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The mighty oil cartel produced 31.7 million barrels a day in November, its latest monthly report shows. That is the highest output in over three years and 1.7 million barrels a day over its former production ceiling.</div>
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OPEC production rose by 230,000 barrels a day last month, according to secondary sources that track OPEC's production levels.</div>
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The news pushed oil prices back below $37 a barrel for the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/investing/oil-prices-below-37/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1173b4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">second time this week</a>. Last time oil was cheaper than that was in the depths of the Great Recession in February 2009. It reached a peak of nearly $108 per barrel in June 2014.</div>
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<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/10/investing/oil-prices-bond-defaults/index.html?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1173b4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="inStoryHeading" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Related: Half of oil junk bonds could default</span></a></div>
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OPEC <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/04/investing/opec-meeting-oil-prices-saudi-arabia/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1173b4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">failed to agree </a>on an official output quota last week, leaving production near record highs despite the massive global glut that is keeping oil prices low.</div>
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Saudi Arabia, the most powerful member of the cartel, is refusing to cut output in order to defend its market share. It is hoping to squeeze out higher-cost producers in the U.S. and elsewhere.</div>
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Less wealthy OPEC members Algeria, Angola, Nigeria and Venezuela, have been lobbying for production cut to lift prices.</div>
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<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/04/investing/opec-saudi-arabia-war-oil-prices/?iid=EL" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1173b4; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="inStoryHeading" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; line-height: 36px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Related: OPEC is sending shockwaves around the world</span></a></div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-21867567392088080982015-11-15T19:41:00.002-08:002015-11-15T19:48:29.940-08:00Canada: Higher Carbon Taxes (WSJ)<div class="sector" id="article_sector" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; margin: 10px auto 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1280px;">
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CALGARY, Alberta—Canadian oil producers, pummeled by the prolonged slump in oil<br />
prices and a string of political setbacks, now face another challenge: higher carbon taxes.</div>
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The nation’s oil-sands developers have been hit particularly hard by lower oil prices,<br />
because they are among the most expensive oil plays in the world. Already facing<br />
<a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/canadas-alberta-province-raises-taxes-to-cope-with-oil-price-drop-1427412094" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">a corporate tax hike</a> and the possibility of <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-rich-alberta-moves-ahead-with-energy-royalty-review-1440789261" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">higher royalty payments in Alberta</a>—<br />
the province richest in oil sands—the industry was dealt another blow by<br />
<a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-to-reject-keystone-xl-pipeline-citing-climate-concerns-1446825732" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">the Obama administration’s rejection last week</a> of the Keystone XL pipeline,<br />
which was designed to transport oil-sands output to Gulf Coast refineries.</div>
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All major oil-sands operators in recent weeks <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-oil-sands-giant-suncor-posts-loss-1446079532" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">posted losses or steep declines in profit</a><br />
for the most-recent quarter, as shrinking revenue outpaced cost cuts. Some global<br />
giants are rethinking future development. Late last month <a class="company-name" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/RDS.A" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Royal Dutch Shell</a><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/RDS.A" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> PLC<br />
<a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/royal-dutch-shell-to-abandon-carmen-creek-oil-sands-project-1445987863" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">shelved an 80,000-barrel-a-day project</a>, following similar moves by<br />
<a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/total-unit-to-halt-work-on-alberta-oil-sands-project-1401399334" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self"></a><a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/TOT" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Total</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> SA</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/TOT" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> of France and <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/statoil-shelves-canadian-oil-sands-project-citing-costs-and-access-1411682167" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">Norway’s</a><a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/STO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Statoil</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> AS</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/STO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a>A.</div>
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Now, ahead of <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/paris-meeting-makes-headway-on-greenhouse-gas-issues-1447174778" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">a United Nations climate-change conference in Paris</a> starting Nov. 30,<br />
oil companies await the details of moves—including possible new taxes on carbon<br />
—pledged by new governments in Ottawa and Alberta to rein in greenhouse-gas<br />
emissions, making the oil sands a global test case for climate policy.</div>
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“Canada’s years of being a less-than-enthusiastic actor on the climate-change file<br />
are behind us,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who took office last week, said at a<br />
news conference on Oct. 20, the day after his Liberal Party won national elections.<br />
Mr. Trudeau promised to start working on a framework for regulating greenhouse-gas<br />
emissions within 90 days of the Paris summit.</div>
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Within weeks of taking power in May, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s government<br />
said it would double Alberta’s existing tax on carbon emissions by 2017, and has<br />
committed to additional measures in time for the U.N. conference in Paris. Ms. Notley<br />
is expected to release details of the proposals later this month. Alberta pioneered carbon<br />
taxes in 2007 when it introduced a levy of 15 Canadian dollars ($11.37) a metric ton.</div>
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Oil sands are among the highest-intensity greenhouse-gas producers of any oil<br />
fields in the world. Production from the oil sands has been growing at a steady clip in<br />
recent years under previous provincial and federal governments that played down<br />
climate-change risks and ignored calls from environmental groups and opposition<br />
politicians for tougher rules on carbon-dioxide emissions.</div>
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Canada’s environment ministry says the country’s CO2 emissions have continued<br />
to rise over the past five years and are expected to hit 781 million metric tons a year<br />
by 2020 if no reduction measures are taken. While oil sands account for just a fraction<br />
of that total, it is one of the fastest-growing contributors to the release of these gases.<br />
The government’s latest estimate projects oil sands-related emissions to nearly double<br />
to 103 million metric tons by 2020.</div>
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Mr. Trudeau’s stance is a direct challenge to Canada’s oil-sands industry, but the country’s<br />
oil producers are divided on how best to cope with the push for stricter environmental<br />
regulations.</div>
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Some, including the nation’s No. 1 oil producer, <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SU" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suncor Energy</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Inc.,</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/SU" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> say they accept the<br />
tougher rules as inevitable, and can use them to help burnish their environmental reputations.<br />
Others, such as <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CNQ" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Canadian Natural Resources</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ltd.</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CNQ" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a>—Canada’s biggest natural-gas producer<br />
and a major oil-sands leaseholder—are pushing back, warning the rules would make<br />
Canadian crude even less competitive.</div>
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The divide in the industry has surfaced in submissions by top energy companies to<br />
a government advisory panel of experts that will recommend new climate-policy<br />
measures in Alberta.</div>
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“The time is right for a higher level of ambition in carbon policy stringency in Alberta,”<br />
Suncor said in its submission to the provincial panel.</div>
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Suncor Chief Executive Steve Williams has publicly championed new taxes on retail sales of<br />
energy such as electricity and gasoline, in addition to levies on large industrial emitters.<br />
“Every indication is that, on the road to Paris, Canada will start to take positions” to combat<br />
climate change, Mr. Williams told reporters late last month.</div>
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Canadian Natural said in its submission that it objects to higher carbon taxes and other<br />
new government-mandated policies, and has called for allowing oil and gas producers<br />
to focus on new technology to cut emissions.</div>
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Its 34-slide Power Point presentation to the Alberta panel lays out the competitive<br />
challenges facing the industry and warns that tinkering with policies that directly<br />
affect oil and gas producers “is very difficult and more often than not has<br />
unintended consequences.” In a similar vein, oil-sands producer <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/HUSKF" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Husky Energy</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Inc.</span><br />
<a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/HUSKF" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> warns against making emission cuts deeper than in other countries such as the U.S.</div>
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“It would be politically suicidal for us to do a mea culpa and hang our neck out in a<br />
way that disadvantages the industry here,” Husky CEO Asim Ghosh said on a recent<br />
conference call.</div>
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The main industry lobby, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, is urging<br />
regulators to offset any additional cost from climate-policy changes with a cut in<br />
royalties owed to Alberta’s government from oil and gas output from provincial<br />
lands. Such a “revenue neutral” approach to reducing CO2 emissions has been<br />
backed by multinational oil giants with exposure to Canada’s oil-sands,<br />
such as <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/XOM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Exxon Mobil</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Corp.</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/XOM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a>and Shell.</div>
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—Paul Vieira contributed to this article.</div>
</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: 'Chronicle SSm', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28px; margin-bottom: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Write to </span>Chester Dawson at <a class="icon " href="mailto:chester.dawson@wsj.com" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">chester.dawson@wsj.com</a></div>
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Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-28545674933189118372015-10-10T09:58:00.000-07:002015-10-10T09:58:56.850-07:00Energy Storage: Canada<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">Canada has a chance to add a new dimension to its energy economy – one that is clean, profitable and globally groundbreaking.</span></div>
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The opportunity is electricity storage, which until now has been limited by technology to a relatively modest scale. That’s about to change. And it means that Canada – and specifically Ontario – can become an ideal seedbed for storage technology, because there are ready markets for both large- and small-scale storage systems.</div>
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First, the large scale. Ontario has a fleet of nuclear generators that operate around the clock, and come close to filling the demand for power at off-peak hours. In addition, Ontario has developed a large renewable energy sector of wind and solar generation (in addition to its traditional hydro stations.) Problems sometimes arise when the natural weather cycles that drive wind and solar production are out of synch with the market cycle. On a sunny, breezy Saturday afternoon in May, with the nuclear plants running flat out, the hydro stations churning out power with the spring runoff and solar and wind systems near peak production, Ontario may have more electricity than it needs.</div>
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Our electricity system operators have a solution, of course: Sell the excess electricity to our neighbours. But since our neighbours are often in the same boat, Ontario must cut the price close to zero – or in extreme situations, even pay neighbouring states or provinces to absorb our overproduction.</div>
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Wouldn’t it make far more sense to store that excess energy, knowing that it will be needed in a matter of days, or even hours? What’s been lacking is the technology to do the job.</div>
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That’s changing however, as Ontario’s current program to procure 50 megawatts of storage capacity demonstrates. Companies with a variety of approaches are working hard to bring their solutions to market – many of them clustered at the MaRS centre in Toronto. Some, such as Hydrogenics Corp., convert electricity into hydrogen, which can be used to supplement natural gas.</div>
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My own company, NRStor, has partnered with Temporal Power and is operating a flywheel storage system in Minto, Ont., that helps the market operator to maintain consistent voltage on the grid.</div>
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Of course, businesses around the globe are looking at the same opportunities as we are, and here lies the opportunity for Canada to rebrand its energy economy.</div>
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A recent report by Deutsche Bank calls battery storage the “holy grail of solar penetration,” and believes that with the current rate of progress in improving efficiency, mass adoption of lithium ion batteries at a commercial/utility scale could occur before 2020.</div>
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Analysis by Prof. Andrew Ford of Washington State University calculates that a 1,000-megawatt air storage system from U.S.-based General Compression Inc. could deliver $6- to $8-billion of value to Ontario – in the form of lower energy costs to local utilities – over a 20-year period. All this is of interest to large-scale electricity system operators, big utilities and their customers.</div>
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But there is another reason for us to pay attention to energy storage – a reason grounded on a much more human scale. There are still large rural areas around the globe where there is no reliable electrical grid – including Northern Canada.</div>
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There is great potential for these communities, including remote First Nations communities, to improve their standard of living by installing microscale renewable generation in combination with storage, and relying less on carbon-spewing diesel generators, powered by fuel that must be transported long distances at great expense.</div>
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Storage is the key to making renewable energy a fully competitive component of any electrical grid. It can make our grid cleaner and more efficient, for the benefit of all consumers – large and small, urban and rural. We have the chance, in Canada, to become world leaders in developing this technology. Let’s seize it.</div>
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<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Annette Verschuren is speaking at the <a href="http://www.canadianinnovationexchange.com/introducing-cix-cleantech-2015-game-changers/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="">Cleantech Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX Cleantech) conference</a> in Toronto on Oct. 15.</em></div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-37012256981716960842015-09-01T03:46:00.002-07:002015-09-01T03:49:06.588-07:00Shell on Alaska: 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil. (Elliot Hannon)<br />
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The U.S. government gave Royal Dutch Shell <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/feds-shell-drill-oil-arctic-ocean-off-alaska-33139315" style="color: #660033; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the final go-ahead</a> on Monday to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the northwest coast of Alaska. The Interior Department issued the Anglo-Dutch company a permit allowing it to explore deeper into the ocean floor after granting Shell conditional approval to drill in May. The drilling will be the first exploration in the U.S. region of the Arctic in more than two decades; the area is estimated to hold some 26 billion barrels of recoverable oil which could significantly boost U.S. domestic oil production from its current level of 9.5 million barrels per day.</div>
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Here’s more on what this means for the company <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/feds-shell-drill-oil-arctic-ocean-off-alaska-33139315" style="color: #660033; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">from the Associated Press</a>:</div>
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<i>The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement announced that it approved the permit to drill below the ocean floor after the oil giant brought in a required piece of equipment to stop a possible well blowout. The agency previously allowed Shell to begin drilling only the top sections of two wells in the Chukchi Sea because the key equipment, called a capping stack, was stuck on a vessel that needed repair in Portland, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/oregon.htm" style="color: #660033; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Oregon</a>. Because the vessel arrived last week, Shell is free to drill into oil-bearing rock, estimated at 8,000 feet below the ocean floor, for the first time since its last exploratory well was drilled in 1991 … Shell bid $2.1 billion on Chukchi Sea leases in 2008 and has spent upward of $7 billion on exploration there and in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s north coast.</i></blockquote>
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“Environmental groups condemned the decision, arguing that it goes against Mr. Obama’s stated commitment to addressing climate change and shifting away from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas toward renewable energy resources,” <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-issues-arctic-drilling-permit-to-royal-dutch-shell-1439844581" style="color: #660033; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> notes</a>. Shell will have until late September to drill before weather conditions make it too difficult. The company plans on investing $1 billion on top of the $7 billion it’s already plowed into scouring the Arctic for oil and natural gas, according to the <em>Journal</em>. So far the company has yet to discover any oil or natural gas there.</div>
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<a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" linktype="External" resizable="yes">Elliot Hannon</a> is a writer in New York City. Follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/elliothannon" style="color: rgb(102, 0, 51) !important; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</div>
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</section></footer>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-6820072599802701962015-07-29T22:35:00.000-07:002015-07-29T22:36:07.462-07:00Inti Lantauro on Lower crude prices (Total Scenery).<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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PARIS— <a class="" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/TOT" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Total</a><span class="company-name-type" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> SA</span><a class="chiclet-wrapper" href="http://quotes.wsj.com/TOT" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0080c3; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a> said <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/frances-total-plans-to-cut-jobs-sell-assets-after-big-loss-1423728368" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">aggressive cost-cutting </a>and an increase in oil output helped offset the fallout from lower crude prices on its bottom line, as its net profit fell by less than expected in the second quarter.</div>
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The French oil company’s strategy for <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/nymex-oil-futures-hit-fresh-four-month-low-1438052636" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">stubbornly low oil prices</a> has been similar to other major energy companies: extract as much oil and gas from current operations while cutting back aggressively on all costs and reducing investment in long-term projects. Along with boosted revenue from units like refineries and petrochemical plants—which do well when prices are low—Total, like other majors, has shown signs of resilience in the face of a <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-weak-after-overnight-losses-oversupply-weighs-1437617638" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">historic market collapse</a>.</div>
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Total said Wednesday its net profit fell 4% to $2.97 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier, while revenue contracted 29% to $44.72 billion. When adjusted to exclude the effect of inventories and other nonrecurring items, the company’s net profit fell to $3.09 billion from $3.15 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.</div>
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The adjusted profit data was higher than the $2.75 billion median forecast of eight analysts polled by FactSet.</div>
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Profit would have fallen much more if Total hadn’t scrambled to raise output to an average 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the second quarter, from 2.05 million barrels a day in the same period a year ago, the company said.</div>
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The company now pumps more crude than the U.K. oil giant BP PLC, which said Tuesday that it produced an average of 2.1 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the second quarter. Total’s results also compared favorably with BP, which posted a <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/bp-swings-to-second-quarter-loss-on-lower-oil-price-deepwater-horizon-charge-1438064942" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">$6.3 billion loss in the second quarter</a>, mainly because of a <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/bp-agrees-to-pay-18-7-billion-to-settle-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-claims-1435842739" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">settlement for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill</a>.</div>
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Total remains under pressure from crude prices that have fallen by more than half in the past year, down to the low $50s for a barrel of Brent crude, the global benchmark, from highs of $114 a barrel in 2014.</div>
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Total and others have responded with a regime of severe cost cuts and delays to big projects.</div>
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Known for his cost-cutting record when he was running the refining and petrochemical unit, Total’s Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné focused on slashing spending when <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/total-names-patrick-pouyanne-ceo-1413974888" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">he took over</a> in November after his predecessor <a class="icon none" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/christophe-de-margerie-ceo-of-french-oil-giant-total-dies-in-plane-crash-1413848859?tesla=y" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 30px 30px; color: #0080c3; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_self">died in a plane crash</a>.</div>
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“It is a bottom-up exercise, every manager at every level has been incentivized,” Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardière said in a conference call.</div>
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There are no small savings for Total, Mr. de la Chevardière said. The company squeezed providers from Brunei to Congo, optimized logistics and supply chains and cut unneeded spending wherever possible. In Angola, for instance, the company has ordered its boats servicing offshore oil rigs to go slower and save fuel, the CFO said.</div>
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Total has said it is on track to cut its costs by $1.2 billion this year. The firm added it expects three projects to start production later this year.</div>
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Total was also helped by its refining business, one of the largest in Europe. Refineries had been a problem child for Europe’s major oil companies, but with crude prices so low, the plants now get cheap feedstock and higher profit.</div>
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Operating profit for refining and petrochemicals jumped fourfold in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago.</div>
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“We are very happy to have the resilience that comes with being an integrated company,” Mr. de la Chevardière told investors in a conference call.</div>
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Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-81433923074065170282015-07-16T02:29:00.001-07:002015-07-16T02:29:26.934-07:00Canada energy producers scenery mid-2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Canadian energy producers are giving up hoping for a big rebound in oil prices, preparing instead to embark on a course of belated hedging if crude prices edge just a few dollars higher.</i></div>
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As crude markets collapsed during the first half of this year, Canada's oil producers held back on hedging on concern they would lock in prices at barely break-even rates.</div>
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That may be about to change. A rally in U.S. crude CLc1 from $60 (38 pounds) a barrel today to about $65 could trigger a wave of selling from Canadian companies eager to build up protection against a second price slump, according to market sources in Calgary. Many allowed their hedging activity to lapse since last year, when oil tumbled to a six-year low near $42 a barrel.</div>
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Canadian producers are between 10 percent and 20 percent underhedged compared with the same time last year, banking sources in Canada's oil capital estimated. For example, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (<span id="symbol_CNQ.TO_1"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/overview?symbol=CNQ.TO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #006e97; text-decoration: none;">CNQ.TO</a></span>) had hedged around 10 percent of its production by early May; a year earlier it had already hedged more than half its output.</div>
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It was not immediately clear which Canadian companies were gearing up for more hedging. Dozens of them routinely use derivatives contracts such as swaps or options to provide a guaranteed price on future oil production, often to appease lenders who want secure cash flow.</div>
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Some firms may also hedge simply because they fear oil prices may fall further, potentially dropping below the cost of production in the energy-intensive oil sands, where per-barrel operating costs can top $35, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie.</div>
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"A lot of guys are saying we don't want to hedge at the bottom of a commodity cycle so there's been some hesitation," said Jeremy McCrea, an analyst at AltaCorp Capital in Calgary. “Clearly everyone is wishing they had hedged last year more.”</div>
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McCrea said a number of producers were looking to hedge at around C$80 ($65) oil, and that less than half the oil companies covered by his research team have a structured hedging policy, preferring to add protection when needed.</div>
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One source at a major bank said at least one client has put in orders to transact on their behalf as soon as crude hits $65 a barrel. Another source at a separate bank said clients were holding off for levels closer to $65 before hedging for 2016.</div>
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David Leben, a director in oil products trading with BNP Paribas' in New York, said some producers were looking for even higher levels, around $70 to $80 per barrel.</div>
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That strategy has its risks, however. Global crude supply is still robust and if demand falters prices could slide again, leaving producers exposed before they have a chance to hedge.</div>
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"Some large Canadian producers have taken the stance that they will do nothing until we reach higher levels," Leben said.</div>
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GRUDGING ACCEPTANCE</div>
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Since oil prices started tumbling last June, producers have been reluctant to put on hedges in case a sudden recovery meant they missed out on potential hefty profits.</div>
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But with crude trading between $57 and $62 a barrel since early May, many companies have accepted a return to over $100 a barrel is unlikely.</div>
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Greater insurance could frustrate producer-group OPEC's aim of putting the brakes on North American crude output, part of the battle for global market share that saw oil prices more than halve over just a few months.</div>
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There's a long way to go. As of May 6, Canadian Natural, the country's No. 1 independent crude producer and until recently one of the largest hedgers in Alberta, had only hedged about 50,000 barrels a day of production for the remainder of 2015, using price collars between $80-$120.54 Brent LCOc1, according to quarterly earnings statements.</div>
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At the same time last year Canadian Natural had hedged approximately 297,000 bpd of forecasted 2014 crude oil volumes, more than half its production.</div>
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The company declined to comment on its hedging policy.</div>
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Heavy oil producer Baytex Energy Corp (<span id="symbol_BTE.TO_3"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/overview?symbol=BTE.TO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #006e97; text-decoration: none;">BTE.TO</a></span>) hedged about 62 percent of its West Texas Intermediate crude exposure at a weighted average price of US$99.47/bbl for the second quarter of 2014, but had only 33 percent of volumes hedged for the same period in 2015, mostly at a fixed price of $87.03 WTI.</div>
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Baytex did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</div>
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Many of biggest oil sands producers such as Suncor Energy Inc (<span id="symbol_SU.TO_4"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/overview?symbol=SU.TO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #006e97; text-decoration: none;">SU.TO</a></span>) and Husky Energy Inc (<span id="symbol_HSE.TO_5"><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/overview?symbol=HSE.TO" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #006e97; text-decoration: none;">HSE.TO</a></span>) do not hedge at all because their integrated refinery operations benefit from low crude oil prices.</div>
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(Reporting by Nia Williams in Calgary, editing by Jonathan Leff and John Pickering)</div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-820390219217497442015-03-12T17:36:00.000-07:002015-03-19T02:01:17.454-07:00United States crude oil storage 2015 (Bloomberg)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzA60vtfKD8p1VIknRuWFuQ-6-FaJUm4TTLHDzmB-f7IBZ-YYlO5ewm9NHiXSmTcnC0rDGUhXJXvOqGRb55f4qHsdOGiRmsuy1Dur24DiSJdpIH8P7VbXFMPj6i73QMNjl4sip3uATxw/s1600/9495651_13715584331913_1.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNzA60vtfKD8p1VIknRuWFuQ-6-FaJUm4TTLHDzmB-f7IBZ-YYlO5ewm9NHiXSmTcnC0rDGUhXJXvOqGRb55f4qHsdOGiRmsuy1Dur24DiSJdpIH8P7VbXFMPj6i73QMNjl4sip3uATxw/s400/9495651_13715584331913_1.png" height="305" width="400" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Seven months ago the giant tanks in Cushing, Okla., the largest crude oil storage hub in North America, were three-quarters empty. After spending the last few years brimming with light, sweet crude unlocked by the shale drilling revolution, the tanks held just less than 18 million barrels by late July, down from a high of 52 million in early 2013. New pipelines to refineries along the Gulf Coast had drained Cushing of more than 30 million barrels in less than a year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As quickly as it emptied out, Cushing has filled back up again. Since October, the amount of oil stored there has almost tripled, to more than 51 million barrels. As oil prices have crashed, from more than $100 a barrel last summer to below $50 now, big trading companies are storing their crude in hopes of selling it for higher prices down the road. With U.S. production continuing to expand, that’s led to the fastest increase in U.S. oil inventories on record. For most of this year, the U.S. has added almost 1 million barrels a day to its stash of crude supplies. As of March 11, nationwide stocks were at 449 million barrels, by far the most ever.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not only are the tanks at Cushing filling up, so are those across much of the U.S. Facilities in the Midwest are about 70 percent full, while the East Coast is at about 85 percent capacity. This has some analysts beginning to wonder if the U.S. has enough room to store all its oil. Ed Morse, the global head of commodities research at Citigroup, raised that concern on Feb. 23 at an oil symposium hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “The fact of the matter is, we’re running out of storage capacity in the U.S.,” he said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If oil supplies do overwhelm the ability to store them, the U.S. will likely cut back on imports and finally slow down the pace of its own production, since there won’t be anywhere to put excess supply. Prices could also fall, perhaps by a lot. Morse and his team of analysts at Citigroup have predicted that sometime this spring, as tanks reach their limits, oil prices will again nosedive, potentially all the way to $20 a barrel. With no place to store crude, producers and trading companies would likely have to sell their oil to refineries at discounted prices, which could finally persuade producers to stop pumping.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Oil investors appear to be coming around to the notion that a lack of storage capacity could lead to another price crash. In the futures market, hedge funds have spent the past few weeks cutting their bets that oil prices will rise. Instead, they’ve built up a record short position, increasing their wagers that prices will fall. During a March 11 interview on CNBC, Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn said he’s concerned the U.S. is running out of storage, particularly as refineries enter their seasonal maintenance period, to prepare for the summer driving season. Around this time they usually cut the amount of crude they buy. Cohn said prices could go as low as $30 a barrel.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The math on this can be a bit tricky. The U.S. Department of Energy measures oil storage capacity twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall. As of September 2014, the U.S. had 521 million barrels of working capacity, up from 500 million in 2013. That includes the space inside tank farms and on-site at refineries. It doesn’t, however, include the amount of oil that can be stored in pipelines or storage tanks near oil wells; nor does it include the amount of capacity in tankers off the coast, in transit from Alaska, or on trains. Of the 449 million barrels of total crude stocks, about 327 million are stored in tank farms or on-site at refineries.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. is using about 63 percent of its storage capacity, up from 48 percent a year ago. “We have more space than some people tend to believe,” says Andy Lipow, an energy consultant in Houston. The most recent estimate of storage capacity also doesn’t include tanks built since September in North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas, he says.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Still, the amount of space available in the tanks at Cushing is getting tight. The storage hub will run out of room by Memorial Day, says Stephen Schork, who runs energy consulting company Schork Group. As long as oil stays cheap, he says, traders have an incentive to store it. Cushing has room for roughly 71 million barrels of oil, up from about 50 million in 2010. One of the biggest owners of tanks there is Canadian energy distributor Enbridge. “We don’t have much room left, but we’re still answering the phones,” says Mike Moeller, who manages the company’s Cushing tank farm. “Not everybody who calls is going to get space.” He says monthly lease rates in the spot market have gone from dimes per barrel to more than a dollar in some cases.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“These producers have kept chugging away when they should have been shutting down” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Even with prices less than half what they were last summer and storage capacity growing scarcer, U.S. oil output has continued to rise. Through February, U.S. daily crude production reached 9.3 million barrels, about 1 million barrels more than a year ago. The massive storage buildup has provided oil companies with a phantom demand for their crude. Many hedged production before prices got too low, taking out futures contracts that guarantee a certain price. That’s allowed them to sell oil for a price higher than the going rate of $49 a barrel, keeping many profitable despite lower prices.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Running out of room inside the nation’s storage tanks might be the only way to keep companies from pumping more oil. “These producers have kept chugging away when they should have been shutting down,” says Dominick Chirichella, co-president of the Energy Management Institute, a New York-based advisory group. “At some point, the fact that supply is outstripping demand has to have its moment of truth.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The bottom line: A record 449 million barrels of oil are being stored in the U.S. Shrinking storage capacity might lead to another drop in prices.</span></span>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-81057009763668199352015-01-14T17:29:00.000-08:002015-01-14T17:32:38.980-08:00My friend Alberto Quiros Corradi (1931-2015) By Gustavo Coronel.<i>In memoriam</i><br />
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My friend Alberto Quiros Corradi (1931-2015)<br />
By Gustavo Coronel.<br />
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Those were different times , we were both active in the oil industry. I met him in Lagunillas , by late 1950. From then until today , the day of his death, he brought us a close friendship. It was a symmetrical friendship affection, we had a deep mutual affection , but asymmetric in talent. Alberto always saw as my superior, not only hierarchical but brainpower. I had the pleasure and privilege of sharing with him many hours of analysis of our industry, our company and our country. Always had the virtue of owning an original perspective, a fresh perspective , always mounted in their particular intellectual helicopter, from which you could see all sides of the situation. While I was scratching the surface as he walked into the depths of the problem and its ramifications. I learned a lot at his side , first with Shell, then with Maraven and Petroleos de Venezuela , where we participated in big initial decisions on Streamlining business , changing pattern Refining, the future of the Orinoco Belt plans exploration and early Conventions Technology and Marketing . Uncountable these activities but will never forget our meeting with the high command of Shell in London to negotiate the Technology Contracts and Marketing . To them we attended Alberto Jorge Zemella , Arnoldo Volkenborn and me. From an initial position of Shell 's $ 70 million per pack, we reducirl the cost to $ 42 million , aided in planning the strategy , in which they had participated in Caracas a couple of bright young people who then had extraordinary careers professionals in other fields : Moises Naim , his PhD from MIT back under his arm and Raul Arriaga.<br />
For years I sat near Albert on the Boards of Maraven and PDVSA (where he often attended because of his position as president of subsidiary ) and always felt very identified with their views . We had a similar outlook on life , seemed to think the same even if we had not put us previously agreed . This was because of , perhaps , with similar origins , both from a modest middle class but with huge desire to progress . Alberto was very poor young but was always sure not stay long in those rows. He began loading tubes in La Concepción and ended his career at the top of their companies , president of Shell Venezuela , Maraven , Lagoven and , had it not been for the intrusion of politics , had become president of PDVSA , position for which he was eminently qualified . We will have time on another occasion to expand on what was a brilliant career. Now, under the shock of his death , I can only add some other considerations about what Alberto Quirós meant in my life.<br />
By becoming friends we discovered some interests in common who joined us for the 60 years of close friendship. We met on Sunday to play billiards ( I earned more than I beat him ) at home or elsewhere . We were not reluctant to go to play in unsavory places near the Nuevo Circo or in Maracaibo , in unsafe places but we never did anything. We were big fans of boxing and traveling to Maracay , Maracaibo or USA, to see fight to Ramon Arias, Betulio and sinning optimistic , a link to Obelmejías in the Hagler fight . We were going to baseball frequently. Along with César Prato and Eduardo Serrano, the author of " Barloivento " you had taken music at home. There I remember alternated up with Pedro Vargas. Our friendship was , you might say , fraternal . Alberto had no brothers and somehow took me like a younger brother . <span style="font-family: inherit;">Our friendship was marked by generosity and selflessness. It helped me and helped both in hard times. When I had to leave the oil industry for a confrontation with the sector minister ,, on unfair terms , Alberto brought together the presidents of subsidiaries and met with the president of PDVSA , the General Rafaél Alfonzo Ravard and got a decent treatment for my output, which had been ordered to political levels just a year of my retirement. This allowed me to make an orderly transition to other activities, since I had always been in the oil industry, even before my graduation as a geologist ( Shell Fellow at the University of Tulsa )<br />
My life was closely linked to the life of Alberto Quiros Corradi and always admire his broad vision of life, his encyclopaedic culture and people skills . All his life to his childhood friends , Ramón Monzant , Albertico Moran, the ñato Carrillo and friends acquired during his career , as was manuvo faithful .<br />
Alberto touched hundreds of people with their friendship and generous treatment . I always knew how to take their partners the best they could give. Many mourn his death today. I cried, I am feeling that his departure is like take away a big chunk my life.<br />
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They were years of fraternal friendship . <br />
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Today I pay tribute to my boss, my friend , the great Alberto , who I will never forget for the remainder of my life.<br />
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-1281469482677460252015-01-09T23:37:00.000-08:002015-01-09T23:38:45.398-08:00Angel Garcia Banchs: Venezuelan Oil Economy in Emergency. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I insist on the need to alert Venezuelans about the economic emergency facing our country. The economy is in a situation characterized by chaos, disorder, confusion and widespread panic breeding ground for social upheaval that looks increasingly harder to avoid. The reason would be the lack of courage, for making basic decisions of economic policy by the national government, decisions are not taken immediately lead, according to our estimates, the widespread disappearance of inventories (general corporate disinvestment) in the month April.<br />
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It is well known that he will not, because his hands tied mobsters and corrupt. But still it must be emphasized recommend to the national government to immediately lift exchange controls and price, if indeed you want to avoid a crash. Doing it in February and would be very late, so it is suggested to do it now. Otherwise, shortages in the country today will look like child's play compared to what could be experienced in the months of March and April. In that case, it would not be specific or particular set of goods, but widespread, massive, not only in the regions, but in the capital.<br />
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To lend attention, lifting of exchange control is recommended to be primarily via a total adjustment in the exchange rate, minimizing adjustment via the real interest rate.<br />
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Anyway, controlling change and prices will explode, because that is the only way to replenish inventories and recapitalize companies, via an abrupt decrease in aggregate (ie the consumer) demand, so as to accommodate the scant offer.<br />
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There is the possibility to prevent the emergency, the economy through intensive therapy. In plain words, there is minimal chance of avoiding a shock or social unrest. Given its refusal to act, apparently, only a timely political change could be achieved.<br />
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Ángel García Banchs, PhD.<br />
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twitter.com/garciabanchs<br />
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<br />Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-81927001588478862982015-01-06T04:41:00.000-08:002015-01-06T04:42:14.803-08:00Blake Clayton Analysis on US Oil Exports. (CFR)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>By: <a href="http://www.cfr.org/experts/energy-security/blake-clayton/b17617" style="border: 0px; color: #2a69a1; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blake Clayton</a><span style="line-height: 21px;"> (Fellow for energy and national security at the Council on Foreign Relations)</span></b></div>
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Federal lawmakers should overturn the ban on exporting crude oil produced in the United States. As recently as half a decade ago, oil companies had no interest in exporting U.S. crude oil, but that has changed. Oil production has grown more in the United States over the past five years than anywhere else in the world, even as domestic oil consumption has declined. With these changes has come a widening gap among the types of oil that U.S. fields produce, the types that U.S. refiners need, the products that U.S. consumers want, and the infrastructure in place to transport the oil. Allowing companies to export U.S. crude oil as the market dictates would help solve this mismatch. Under federal law, however, it is illegal for companies to export crude oil in all but a few circumstances. Over the past year, the Department of Commerce granted licenses to several oil companies to export a small amount of U.S. crude oil. But these opaque, ad hoc exceptions are insufficient. Removing all proscriptions on crude oil exports, except in extraordinary circumstances, will strengthen the U.S. economy and promote the efficient development of the country's energy sector.</div>
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The Issue</h2>
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When Congress in the 1970s made it illegal to export domestically produced crude oil without a license, the goal of the legislation was to conserve domestic oil reserves and discourage foreign imports. In reality, the export ban did not help accomplish either of these objectives. It has now become more of a hindrance than a help. The opaqueness of the export approval process discourages would-be exporters from applying for licenses. Companies see a lack of legal clarity and fear inconsistent regulation. They are hesitant to incur negative publicity on Capitol Hill when they doubt they will be granted approval.</div>
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Two important elements of the U.S. oil export equation have changed in the past few years. First, exporting U.S. crude oil has become economically attractive to the energy industry. Crude oil exports have grown from next to nothing in 2007 to around one hundred thousand barrels per day in March 2013, all of which went to Canada. Second, the United States has become one of the world's largest gross exporters of refined oil products, such as gasoline and diesel. Unlike crude oil, which is unprocessed, oil that has been refined can be exported freely under U.S. law. Roughly three million barrels per day of refined oil products were exported in December 2012, a major increase from prior decades. Until 2011, the United States had not been a consistent net exporter of oil products since 1949.</div>
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Restrictions on crude oil exports are already beginning to undermine the efficiency of the U.S. oil economy. Much of the country's rapidly growing production of light crude oil, including lease condensates (i.e., ultra-light oil), comes from either areas where refiners are not interested in or able to process it, given that many U.S. refineries are configured to run lower-quality crude oil, or in parts of the country with inadequate transportation infrastructure. With few viable domestic buyers, producers are forced to choose between leaving oil in the ground and pumping it at depressed prices. These artificially low prices slow additional U.S. crude oil production. New refineries and pipelines currently under construction will help remedy some of these market distortions over time, but a simpler, more cost-effective solution would include allowing U.S. crude to be exported. Doing so will not raise gasoline prices. Prices at the pump will continue to be determined by the global market, regardless of whether the United States exports crude oil. Were the ban overturned today, crude exports would immediately rise by several billion dollars a year, according to industry executives, likely surpassing five hundred thousand barrels per day by 2017.</div>
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U.S. Law Governing Crude Oil Exports</h2>
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The primary laws prohibiting crude exports are the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, and the Export Administration Act of 1979. The so-called short supply controls in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an agency of the Department of Commerce, spell out these restrictions.</div>
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A few obscure types of crude oil automatically qualify for export licenses under EAR. These types include crude oil produced in Alaska's Cook Inlet or exported to Canada, as long as it is consumed there; and small amounts of heavy (or viscous) crude oil produced in California. Other niche cases do not require licenses. Crude oil transported via the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System or produced overseas and stored in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve may be exported.</div>
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Some U.S. crude oil can be exported with a presidential finding. This includes crude oil of U.S. origin transported on federal right-of-way pipelines, crude oil produced from the outer continental shelf, and crude oil produced from naval petroleum reserves that were once set apart for use by the military but that are now almost entirely commercialized.</div>
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In nearly all other cases, U.S. crude oil can only be exported if the BIS finds that proposed exports are "consistent with the national interest and the purposes of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act." The agency has the right to accept or reject applications for an export license according to its own unarticulated definition of the "national interest." The only specific case the EAR mentions as meeting these strict criteria is when the exported crude is exchanged for more or better refined oil imports, under a contract that can be terminated if U.S. oil supplies are "interrupted or seriously threatened," and could not have "reasonably [been] marketed" in the United States.</div>
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A Better Approach</h2>
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A better approach would be to allow companies to freely export oil as the market dictates, eliminating the requirement that companies obtain a license for each crude oil export transaction. The only exception to this policy should be when the president determines there is a national emergency. To make this change, Congress should repeal EAR's short-supply controls that apply to crude oil exports.</div>
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Benefits Versus Costs</h2>
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Exporting energy is good for the economy. Crude oil exports could generate upward of $15 billion a year in revenue by 2017 at today's prices, according to industry estimates. Those gains would be partially offset by displacing some refined product exports, however. Today's export restrictions run the risk of dampening U.S. crude oil production over time by forcing down prices at the wellhead in some parts of the country. Letting drillers reap extra profits from selling crude oil overseas, if the market dictates, would provide greater incentives for drilling, stimulating new supply. It would also encourage investment in oil and gas production in the United States rather than abroad. In oil-producing regions, more workers would be hired for oil exploration and production, as well as for local service industries. Greater policy certainty regarding exports would also catalyze the expansion of U.S. energy infrastructure.</div>
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As it stands, the primary beneficiaries of the export ban are a few fortunate oil refineries in the central United States—not U.S. consumers—that are able to buy crude oil at depressed prices before selling it at prevailing market rates. Current law arbitrarily works to the benefit of these companies. In several years, a wider range of refineries will benefit from the ban as pipeline capacity constraints are alleviated and more light oil flows to the U.S. Gulf Coast. These pipelines will help reduce the discount that some producers face in the domestic market, but they would be more effective at bringing domestic oil prices in line with global ones if U.S. crude oil could be freely exported and other restraints on shipping were removed.</div>
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Allowing crude oil exports will not affect U.S. energy security. Proponents of the export ban might argue that it increases national security by slowing the depletion of U.S. oil fields. Yet the ban also slows production growth, increasing the country's reliance on imported energy. Insofar as oil self-sufficiency would be economically and militarily useful in a time of crisis, removing the ban would increase U.S. security by catalyzing oil production. Were an international emergency to arise, exports could be temporarily suspended, providing extra oil for domestic needs, though such extreme measures would likely hurt U.S. trade relationships.</div>
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Liberalizing the crude oil export regime would advance U.S. foreign policy. It would demonstrate Washington's commitment to free and fair trade, even in a politically sensitive sector, bolstering its negotiating position on other trade issues. It would also avoid putting Washington at odds with allies that would like to source their oil from the United States. If the United States were to become a major crude exporter, its leverage as an oil trade partner would grow significantly.</div>
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To the extent that exports mean greater domestic production of tight oil from hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," allowing exports could bring environmental risks such as water contamination and local pollution. These risks, however, are manageable through prudent regulation. Continuing to ban crude oil exports is not an effective means of preventing harm to the environment. Environmental regulators will need to manage the risks of oil production regardless of whether the United States exports more crude oil.</div>
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Conclusion</h2>
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Without compelling reasons for continuing to restrict crude exports, and given the potential benefits, Congress should liberalize the crude oil export regime. Republicans and Democrats alike, including President Obama, express support for boosting U.S. exports in general. Crude oil should be no exception. Some observers might object to exports on the grounds that U.S. oil production could fall short of today's optimistic forecasts or that exports will cause gasoline prices to rise. These should not be major concerns. U.S. crude exports are self-limiting: if the supply gains expected do not materialize, the market will induce producers to keep the oil at home rather than to send it abroad. Though the companies that benefit from today's export restrictions might oppose any change in the status quo, the broader gains available to the United States from allowing crude exports make it the far better choice.<br />
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Mr. <a href="http://www.cfr.org/experts/energy-security/blake-clayton/b17617" style="border: 0px; color: #2a69a1; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Blake Clayton</strong></a><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px;"> is fellow for energy and national security at the Council on Foreign Relations.</span></div>
Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-20185978370770764112014-12-22T04:07:00.001-08:002014-12-22T04:07:50.554-08:00Jose Guerra - Venezuelan Dutch Disease. No savings. Its Oil-Based economic model is falling down. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>The international reserves of the Central Bank of Venezuela Center are on the threshold that should have a central bank. At the time I am writing this (December 2014) the reserves are US $ 21,300 million, of which gold are US $ 17,000 million and liquid funds are about $ 800 million and the rest are in different assets. We can have an idea of how critical the situation is: in 2012 Venezuela imports carried by 1 billion of dollars per week.</b><br />
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<b>What policymakers have made Venezuela has no name. After receiving higher oil revenues in the country's history in the period ranging from 1999 to 2014, estimated at US $ 850,000 million, today Venezuela is giving pity. </b><br />
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<b>The country owe it to everyone, its total public debt is approaching $ 200,000 million and also spared a penny of that torrent of money received. This situation is due to the failure of an economic model that would make the state, instead of Venezuelans, the center of economic activity. This led to the expropriation of a group of companies that were profitable and in government hands have become a drag on public finances and also are a source of corruption.</b><br />
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<b>The lack of dollars has popped a dysfunctional exchange system, which is based on the absurdity of having four exchange rates, a cheap overly Bs 6.30 per dollar and other excessively expensive, parallel to Bs 180 per dollar. That gap get the best and most profitable business in the world: those dollars buy cheap and then sell expensive. And so a group connected to power has made fortunes at the speed of sound. </b><br />
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<b>But the absence of dollars has created a serious problem for the functioning of the economy in the absence of essential raw materials for production and finished goods necessarily be imported and are now in shortage in stores.</b><br />
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<b>Falling oil prices stripped a reality: the extreme vulnerability of a Venezuelan economy literally monkey producer that does not export anything but oil and therefore is exposed to fluctuations in the price of this product in world markets. </b><br />
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<b>Unfortunately in 2015 the situation will not be better than in 2014, due to the fact they will receive lower oil revenues. Foreign debt payments are over US $ 11,000 million in 2015. </b><br />
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<b>When dollars are scarce, the result is obvious: the Bolivar (Venezuelan currency) is suffering a devaluation never seen before. </b><br />
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<b>Jose Guerra is a Venezuelan Associated Professor and former Director of Economics School at Central University, Caracas. </b><br />
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<b>Can be reached at: https://twitter.com/joseaguerra</b><br />
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<br />Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2003326683816203586.post-25124656325790347672014-09-29T14:16:00.002-07:002014-09-29T14:19:49.269-07:00Momentarily break. No country for no ethical people.<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">I will put the blog in pause for a time. I am moving, therefore new endeavors require all my attention. Gustavo Coronel's words are perfect to this blog break. </i><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">No Country for no ethical people.</b><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">By Gustavo Coronel (former PDVSA's board of directors member, 1976)</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">There are cases of rapid evolution and admiration. A young Japanese could have seen the ships of Admiral Perry into Tokyo Bay and towards the end of his life, could have seen the act of surrender of the Imperial Army General Douglas McArthur, aboard the USS Missouri. Perry's visit took place in 1854 and opened the doors of Japan to Western influences. The surrender of Japan in 1945, led him to integrate the modern block, similar to the western world countries. In those ninety years Japan became feudal state into a modern, industrialized country. He abolished the shogunate and restored the Meiji dynasty, about the same time when warlords prevailed in Venezuela Monagas brothers and the cruel Venezuelan Federal War (1859-1863) was in the horizon. In that same 90 years, Venezuela progressed slowly and only in 1935, entered modernity due the government of Eleazar López Contreras and sanitarians and physicians as Tejera, Gabaldon, Baldo and Garcia Maldonado, who defeated the plagues and epidemics that characterize backward peoples.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">A whole country, Japan had changed dramatically for the better, in the course of a long human life. A whole country, Venezuela, has been destroyed in just 15 years by a gang of thugs ignorant and inept. And the involution unfortunately takes place much faster than the way evolution. Build is a painful and long process, destroy a brief act of folly and wickedness.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">I reflect on this and I think the act of building requires leadership and vision persevering in time while the act of destruction is usually carried out by a massive populated guided by the lower desires. In the case of Venezuela 1999-2014, the extreme rapidity of destruction and unprecedented magnitude required a bankruptcy of the Venezuelan collective ethics as never have thought possible. In the process of national destruction have been involved: (1) members called Chavez-Castro, a group of fanatics determined to go back to the nineteenth century in the XXI century; (2) a large mass of poor people, eager to get out of poverty quickly and ready to give allegiance to whoever makes a promise, not thinking that there is no way out of poverty than by way of education and work ; (3), a business and banking class of known names but rotten body and soul has been filled the pockets of oil money at the expense of the welfare of the nation; (4), the Armed Forces, which has been prostituted with an amazing facility, including the massive inroads in drug trafficking, turning the system into a narco-state; and, (5), a bureaucracy that has taken the ineptitude and complicity of the group of fanatics in power to loot the treasury with impunity, demolishing institutions and violating constitution and laws.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">I think it's up statistically documented this great mass of accomplices, premeditated one another beset by the desire to quit taking shortcuts down, sometime constituted the majority in the country. Otherwise it can not explain the speed with which it has carried out the disaster. But rigged to this mass, we had large groups of Venezuelans who, without agreeing with the methods of the regime, have let the disaster take place for many reasons: indifference, laziness or desire to continue acting against theft of white gloves, as if we were under a democratic system. The truth is that Venezuelans who have defended democracy and freedom with vigor and determination, attached to the ethics learned in their homes and their teachers have been harassed by enemies and "neutrals", making it very difficult for the nation find its way to recovery.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">We think of ethics as a compass, a guide to action: do not steal, do no harm, to add to the collective good, carefully manage the public purse, to be good citizens. Those who take up the banner ethics are a minority in Venezuela and it is necessary to face the terrifying reality. We can not keep paying him homage to the virtues of poverty, we can not keep excluding those who wanted progress for the sake of those who remain in the most terrible backwardness. The street children are not children of the fatherland and the victims are dignified. They are our people that needs to move from category to category of dispossessed citizens. Poverty is a disease, not a virtue. Ignorance is not a nice feature of our short cut, it is a terrible affliction that causes hunger, disease and crime.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">Ethics must raise the flag held high in Venezuela, if we want to salvage the remains of this country and begin the long road to its reconstruction.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px;">Gustavo Coronel.</span>Sebastián.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16822767271995258449noreply@blogger.com0