BEWARE OF FLU SHOTS!!!

Natural gas spikes!!!!

Natural gas prices spiked to a three-and-a-half year high on Friday as a surge in demand for the heating fuel and extent of the extreme cold spell across much of the country has led to concerns about whether there will be ample U.S. supplies to last through this winter.

NYMEX natural gas futures for February delivery skyrocketed nearly 10 percent to $5.182 per million British Thermal Units, the highest settlement price since June 2010. The price continued to gain in after-hours electronic trading.

Natural gas futures have now rallied more than 5 percent in each of the past three trading days and have gained nearly 20 percent so far this year. Meanwhile, cash prices for natural gas in the Northeast hit record levels this week - topping $135 in the New York and New Jersey area -- due to pipeline issues.

Weather forecasts indicate that the severe cold that is blanketing much of the country will stretch into the first part of next month. Heating demand is already as much as five times higher than normal for this time of year, according to some reports. Traders say production "freeze-offs" at drilling sites, pipeline disruptions, delivery issues and a resulting "panic" in the cash market has provided a considerable boost to natural gas futures.

NEW NUCLEAR GOING SMALL!!!

Nuclear power plant.

The fortunes of the battered nuclear power sector may hinge on the development of small- and medium-sized reactors (SMRs), now being heralded by some as industry as the next wave in the industry. 

Ten countries, including the United States, are exploring plans to construct SMRs, and that could have broad implications for electricity generation.

As coal plants across the country are decommissioned, an opportunity rises for alternative energy sources, especially natural gas and nuclear power. Five SMR-style facilities, including one in the Tennessee Valley, are in the planning stages, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissionsaid.

A new white paper by the Nuclear Energy Institute highlights the opportunity for SMRs, saying that as many as 73 nuclear reactors will be retired within the next 10-20 years.

That could pave the way for more efficient SMRs, which can be a source of both clean energy and economic growth, says Paul Genoa, the institute's senior director of policy development.

(Read more: Japan's nuclear plant leaks 300 tons of radioactive water)

"If we develop clean energy technology the world wants, we can transfer that … and build relationships with these developing countries that can last 100 years," Genoa said in an interview. With fears about nuclear power still percolating nearly three years after Japan's disaster at Fukushima, Genoa said the new generation of atomic reactors were designed with those fears in mind.

"Small reactors were designed with Fukushima's lessons learned," he said. In addition to being what he called "environmentally benign," SMRs are built "to completely avoid the kind of meltdown [you get] when you lose offsite power."

But a recent report by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research cast doubt on the idea that SMRs could help revive the nuclear industry.

The think tank said small reactors "still present enormous financial risks," citing the sector's tendency to overrun on costs. It said the four reactors under construction were in part subsidized by taxpayers. The report said the mass production of SMRs could require $90 billion, and migrating from reactors to smaller modules "is a financial risk shell game, not a reduction in risk."

USA IS A HEAD IN THE ENERGY GAME!!

One of the biggest themes at Davos this year — and one that was not there last year — was "competitiveness." You encountered it whether in the public sessions in the Congress Center, or in the private sessions, and at the various dinners in the hotels strung along the Davos Platz.

This particular rivalry pits the United States head-on against Europe. And, no question — at Davos this year, the United States was judged the clear winner, much to the dispirit of the Europeans trudging back along the icy, snowy streets of this mountain village.

This concern, however, was hardly limited to the annual conclave in the Swiss Alps. It reverberated with simultaneous developments in both Brussels and Berlin that point to the beginning of a major, if difficult, rethink of Europe's energy policies.

A rig hand removes drill pipe from a natural gas well owned by EQT Corp. at a hydraulic fracturing site located atop the Marcellus shale rock formation in Washington Township, Pennsylvania.

MEXICO ENEL DEAL!!!

Enel of Italy has signed the first energy deal with Mexico since a landmark reform last month to open up the country’s hydrocarbons resources and power sectors.

Fulvio Conti, Enel chief executive, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican Institute of Electrical Investigation to co-operate on geothermal generation and smart grids, two areas that Mexico is keen!!

“Enel has over a century of experience in the geothermal industry and is running projects with this clean resource in many countries,” said Mr Conti, who was leading a business delegation accompanying Enrico Letta, the Italian prime minister.

The two sides will share information and knowhow via pilot projects, training programmes and technology transfers, but there was no immediate word on how much Enel planned to invest under the deal.

The Mexican government wants to implement smart grids to boost efficiency and to increase the proportion of renewables in the country’s power generation mix.

The energy reform, passed in December and due to be implemented early this year, is designed to attract investment into Mexico’s energy and power sectors, and the government says it will lead to a cut in the country’s high electricity prices.

While investor focus has been trained on the vast opportunities in Mexico’s hydrocarbons sector, including rich deep water and shale resources, experts say the opening up of the electricity sector will have a swifter impact.

Though some private generation has been permitted since 1992, and more than three-quarters of new installed capacity in the past 16 years has come from the private sector, private companies in Mexico including Spain’s Iberdrola and Unión Fenosa, and Japan’s Mitsubishi, have been limited to selling via the state electricity company CFE.

Enel, Italy’s largest power company and Europe’s second-biggest listed utility by installed capacity, has a broad presence in Latin America where its Endesa unit and subsidiaries are the biggest private sector operator. It has already invested some $800m in Mexico through its Enel Green Power unit, which runs renewable energy plants in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Chile and Brazil, including hydroelectric plants and wind farms in Mexico.

Enel describes its presence in Mexico as “still small but interested in growing”.

Mr Conti said Mexico’s energy reform was “an important step forward for Mexico towards modernity. It introduces more efficiency in the use of energy and envisages a better use of the country’s resources”.

FORD CMAX SOLAR CAR!!

Electric cars offer freedom from the gas pump, but they tie drivers to the task of charging up. To truly cut the power cord, it would help if you could carry your generator on board, and the fuel would be free.

That's the allure of the solar car, in many ways the holy grail of clean energy transport. It came one step closer to reality this week with Ford Motor debuting its C-MAX Solar Energi Concept car at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 in Las Vegas. (Related Quiz: What You Don't Know About Cars and Fuel)

Ford used the biggest consumer electronics show of the year to showcase not-yet-ready-for-mass-production technology and the possibilities for renewable energy transportation. (See related, "Pictures: Cars That Fired Our Love-Hate Relationship With Fuel.")

The solar plug-in hybrid crossover, based on Ford's C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrid, has 16 square feet (1.5 square meters) of photovoltaic panels built into the roof.

Even with a full day of blazing sunlight, the eight-kilowatt-capacity panels wouldn't capture enough energy to fully charge the car's lithium-ion battery. So Ford, along with the Georgia Institute of Technology, developed a flat acrylic lens to stand over the car in a canopy that can marshal sunlight from a larger area. The lens would act like a magnifying glass and concentrate sunlight onto the car, boosting solar uptake eightfold. It would take about seven hours of sunlight to fully charge the battery, which could then power the car for an estimated 21 miles (33.8 kilometers) before a gas engine kicks in. (See related, "Pictures: A Rare Look Inside Carmakers' Drive for 55 MPG.")

That means the C-MAX Solar Energi is still tethered to conventional fuel, but integrating solar energy into vehicles poses special challenges. Engineers—both professional and student—have been grappling for years with the issues of capacity, aerodynamics, and energy storage, in their zeal to design and build vehicles that run on the sun. (See related, "Wireless Power May Cut the Cord for Plug-In Devices, Including Cars. ")

Water struggle on the Nile

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia rejected a proposal that would guarantee Egypt the rights to most of the Nile River’s water, as disagreements cast doubt over future talks about Africa’s biggest hydropower project.

The 6,000-megawatt Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on Ethiopia’s Blue Nile River, set to be completed in 2017, has raised concern in Cairo that it will reduce the flow of the Nile, which provides almost all of Egypt’s water. The Blue Nile is the main tributary of the Nile.

The $4.2 billion dam 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Sudan’s border will benefit agricultural and powerinterests in the region and not cause water losses downstream, Ethiopia says. Sudan supports thehydropower project designed to produce electricity for much of East Africa that began in April 2011.

Egyptian officials at a Jan. 4-Jan. 5 meeting that also included representatives from Sudan, introduced a “principles of confidence-building” document asking Ethiopia to “respect” Sudan and Egypt’s water security, said Fekahmed Negash, the head of the Ethiopian Water and Energy Ministry’s Boundary and Transboundary Rivers Affairs Directorate. Discussing the issue would contravene an agreement signed by six Nile countries, he said in a phone interview on Jan. 6.

“We will not negotiate on this issue with any country,” Fekahmed said from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. “That is why we say take it to the right platform” that includes other members of the Nile Basin, he said.

1959 Accord

Egypt argues its 1959 agreement with Sudan that gave Egypt the rights to 55.5 billion cubic meters out of a total of 84 billion cubic meters is the governing document on the Nile’s water. The rest of the river’s flow was for Sudan or lost to evaporation. Ethiopia and other upstream nations reject the accord they were not signatories to and say Egypt’s domination of the Nile has unfairly deprived them of a vital resource.

Ethiopia also rejected an Egyptian suggestion to immediately form a panel of neutral experts to adjudicate any disputes arising from planned studies of the dam’s hydrological and environmental impact, Ethiopian Water and Energy Minister Alemayehu Tegenu said. Experts can be hired if they’re needed, he said in an interview Jan. 5 in Khartoum.

Egypt won’t send a delegation to Addis Ababa unless Ethiopia’s government signals its intent to resolve the areas of dispute, Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel-Moteleb as saying on Jan. 6.

Talks Impasse

“We have exhausted all opportunities to negotiate with Ethiopia because of the intransigence of Addis Ababa,” Abdel- Moteleb said.

CON ED BRINGS WIND POWER TO HONDA

NEW YORK CITY -- ConEdison Solutions, the energy services unit of Consolidated Edison Inc., is providing electricity from two wind turbines to a Honda Motor Co. factory in Ohio, reducing the site’s demand from local power companies.

The 1.6-megawatt General Electric Co. turbines went into operation today at the Russells Point, Ohio, auto factory, according to a statement. ConEdison Solutions owns and operates them and Honda is buying the electricity under a long-term contract.

The plant is the first major automotive factory in the U.S. to get a “substantial” amount of its energyfrom on-site wind turbines, according to the statement. A growing number of industrial and commercial customers are using electricity generated locally and buying less from utilities.

The turbines are installed “behind the meter, so all the power goes directly to the facility,” Jorge Lopez, chief executive officer of ConEdison Solutions, said in an interview. “We’ve seen a resurgence in distributed generation.” Distributed-generation systems, including rooftop solar panels and industrial fuel cells, are installed on-site and provide power directly to users.

Honda estimates the turbines will supply about 10 percent of the factory’s power and will help the company reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. Excess electricity from the turbines will be provided to the auto plant’s neighbors.

The turbines were developed by Pipestone, Minnesota-based Juhl Energy Inc.

Consolidated Edison rose 0.3 percent to $53.58 at the close in New York.

Tesla motors upgrade!!

A Tesla car on display at the 2014 International CES on January 7, 2014 in Las Vegas.

Tesla Motors said Friday it will upgrade its wall charger adapters amid reports they are overheating in garages.

Tesla said the upgraded adapter will be provided to all existing and new customers starting in a few weeks.

In December, the electric-car maker issued a software upgrade to potentially avoid fires from Model S owners who plug into under-capacity or faulty electrical circuits. 

"We believe (the software update provided in December) fully addresses the problem," the company said, in a statement. "However, to provide additional protection for Model S customers, we have designed a new wall adapter with a thermal fuse...Although we do not believe the improved adapter is required to address the issue, we are taking this step as part of our commitment to full customer satisfaction."

PRAXAIR CO2 purification facility

Praxair, Inc has announced the start-up of its new carbon dioxide (CO2) purification facility at the Honeywell Resins & Chemicals site in Hopewell, Virgina.

Under a long-term agreement, Praxair will purchase CO2 from Honeywell Resins & Chemicals, one of the world’s largest producers of nylon resin and caprolactam, a critical feedstock used for nylon production. The agreement expands Praxair’s business relationship with Honeywell.

Praxair’s new facility purifies and liquefies up to 450 tonnes per day of CO2, a byproduct of the production process at Honeywell’s caprolactam facility. The CO2 supply will help Praxair serve customers in a variety of industries, including food and beverage, where it is used to freeze, chill, preserve and package food and carbonate beverages. It is also used in the healthcare, oil recovery, metal fabrication, chemicals and wastewater segments. 

“This world-class CO2 facility is further expanding Praxair’s capacity in the region and creating growth opportunities across the Mid-Atlantic States, including beverage carbonation,” said Kevin Foti, vice president of Carbon Dioxide for the US industrial gases business and president of NuCO2.

“Praxair’s shared focus on improving operational performance makes this initiative a perfect fit for our operations,” said Qamar Bhatia, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Resins and Chemicals. “This new plant and our long-term agreement is a win for both companies.”

Global carbon market statistics

New statistics have revealed that the global carbon market contracted 38% in 2013 as prices and volumes dropped. There is, however, strong growth in the North American emission markets.

The Chinese pilot trading schemes show substantial progress with Europe continuing to decline – but still dominates the global market. 

Global carbon markets traded a total €38.4 bn worth of allowances and credits during 2013, a 38% decrease from the €62bn the previous year, in a continuation of the decline that started after the market peaked at €96bn in 2011. Since then, the key European reference price of emissions has fallen from €18 to €5 per tonne of carbon dioxide.

Last year also saw a decrease in terms of volumes – from 10.7 billion to 9.2 billion emission units – the first drop in traded volumes since 2010, according to analysis published today by Thomson Reuters Point Carbon.

The decline is most dramatic for the UN-led ‘flexible mechanisms’ that were created to incentivise emission abatement investments such as renewable energy in developing countries. Until recently, these markets – known as CDM and JI – accounted for roughly 20% of the volume and 10% of the value of the world’s carbon markets. After prices collapsed from 2012 to 2013, they now represent only 7% of volume and 1% of value.

“The main explanation for the falling prices in carbon markets around the world is the very modest emission reduction targets adopted for the period up to 2020. Without ambitious climate targets there is no need for deep emission reductions and carbon prices will remain at low levels. However, if the goal to limit global warming to two degrees shall be met, more dramatic cuts are needed over the next decades. The international negotiations towards a new climate agreement scheduled to be adopted in Paris in 2015 will be a litmus test on the political willingness among large emitters to make the required emission reductions”, says Anders Nordeng, Senior Carbon Analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon and co-editor of the report.

USA gets Burckhardt gas compressor

Burckhardt Compression has been awarded an order to deliver one Process Gas Compressor API 618 for acid gas injection in North America.

The customer chose Burckhardt Compression because of the company’s extensive material know-how and good reputation for reliable Process Gas Compressors, which are crucial in this highly demanding application. Burckhardt Compression will supply the compressor system completely modularised and ready to bolt up at the site.

The highly corrosive and extremely toxic gases handled in this application require highest quality standards in material and equipment design as well as extensive engineering know-how. Burckhardt Compression has thorough in-house expertise in the field of material design and plant engineering due to many references of demanding applications. The Process Gas Compressor of Burckhardt Compression allows a safe handling of corrosive gases at high pressures and will replace an existing compressor unit.

Seattle set too save millions on energy!!

The Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment has issued a newreport that shows Seattle building owners are poised to save tens of millions of dollars on energy annually by improving their building’s energy efficiency. Seattle also recently released its Resource Conservation Management Plan, which sets guidelines for reducing energy use in City-owned buildings 20 percent by 2020.

The report, Seattle 2011/2012 Building Energy Benchmarking Analysis summarizes the benchmarking results of more than 2,600 private-sector buildings representing nearly 228 million sq. ft., including offices, hotels, apartment buildings, retail stores, religious and educational institutions. Building owners provided energy use information to the City as required under the City of Seattle’s Building Energy Benchmarking and Reporting Ordinance.

The analysis established performance ranges for 13 different building types based on their reported 2012 energy use. For example:

• An office building reporting an energy use intensity (EUI or energy use per square foot annually) of 60 kbtu/sf is about average for Seattle.
• Multifamily (apartment and condo) buildings, which tend to use less energy than offices, had an average EUI of about 32 kbtu/sf.
• If all the highest energy users improved to the average level of efficiency for their building type, owners would save a combined $55 million on utility bills each year and lower annual energy use by an average of 25 percent across all buildings.
• If these same buildings improved to match the energy efficiency levels of the best performing buildings in their class, utility bill savings would surpass $90 million each year and annual energy use would decline by an average of 42 percent.

To date about 93 percent of buildings have had 2012 data reported to the City—the highest compliance rate in the nation for benchmarking laws. Seattle is one of nine U.S. cities with benchmarking ordinances.

USA POOR JOB NUMBERS SPIKE UP OIL PRICES!!?

Brent crude rose above $107 a barrel on Friday amid worries about supply from North Africa, and boosted by speculation that weak U.S. jobs data could prompt the Federal Reserve to keep its stimulus flowing.

Oil markets offered a muted reaction to mixed Chinese trade data released on Friday, with traders now waiting for a key report on U.S. jobs that are forecast to have risen by a solid 196,000 in December.

Brent crude was up 80 cents over $107 per barrel, after settling 76 cents lower in a volatile session that saw the contract swinging by more than $2. 

The benchmark was on track to end the week flat, as investors weighed rising production in Libya with increased tension in the country and elsewhere in the region.

U.S. oil was up more $1 under $93 per barrel, after touching an eight-month low of $91.24 on Thursday and on course to end lower for the second straight week.

Oil prices were helped by data showing the U.S. economy created a slim 74,000 jobs, far less than estimates. The data prompted new speculation that the Fed would likely continue to jolt the economy with its bond buying.

Baker Hughes Incorporated announced today that the international rig count for December 2013 was 1,335, up 24 from the 1,311 counted in November 2013, and up 82 from the 1,253 counted in December 2012.

 

The international offshore rig count for December 2013 was 306, down 10 from the 316 counted in November 2013, and up 7 from the 299 counted in December 2012.

The average U.S. rig count for December 2013 was 1,771, up 15 from the 1,756 counted in November 2013, and down 13 from the 1,784 counted in December 2012. The average Canadian rig count for December 2013 was 372, down 13 from the 385 counted in November 2013, and up 19 from the 353 counted in December 2012.

The worldwide rig count for December 2013 was 3,478, up 26 from the 3,452 counted in November 2013, and up 88 from the 3,390 counted in December 2012.

USA ENEGRY BOOM

America's energy boom will continue for decades, and natural gas will replace coal as the largest source of U.S. electricity by 2035, the Department of Energy forecast today.U.S. production of crude oil will increase through 2016, when it will approach the record set in 1970, before leveling off and then slowly declining after 2020. Natural gas production will grow steadily, jumping 56% from 2012 to 2040, according to an early release of an annual report by DOE's Energy Information Administration.

"Advanced technologies for crude oil and natural gas production are continuing to increase domestic supply and reshape the U.S. energy economy as well as expand the potential for U.S. natural gas exports," Adam Sieminski, EIA Administrator, said in releasing theAnnual Energy Outlook 2014.

OBAMA WAR ON COAL

With 2013 now at an end, coal industry participants are beginning to take stock of how the fuel fared this past year. Unfortunately, as Resource Investing News recently pointed out, the answer is: not well.

That's especially true in the United States, where President Barack Obama is waging what coal enthusiasts are calling a "war on coal." Perhaps most notably, this past year saw both the US Environmental Protection Agency propose new rulesaimed at decreasing carbon pollution from future power plants, and the Department of the Treasury declare that the US will no longer support new coal-fired power plants worldwide, as per The New York Times.

It's thus not too surprising that coal production in the US was lower in the third quarter of 2013 than it was in the year-ago period. Specifically, it came in at 256.7 million stone, a 0.9-percent decrease from Q3 2013, Platts recently quoted the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) as saying. The EIA's forecast for the entirety of 2013 is similar — based on the first three quarters of the year, it estimates that the US produced about 993.1 million stone of coal last year, around 2.3 percent less than the 2012 total.

The cost chart for solar enegry!!

U.s . Crude on the rise!!!

U.S. crude futures rose in early Asian trading on Thursday, recovering from a six week-low in the previous session when a large build in crude stockpiles at the contract's delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma, weighed on the market.

U.S crude for February delivery was up 21 cents at $92.54 per barrel by 0037 GMT, after settling $1.34 lower on Wednesday.

Crude stocks at the oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose 1.1 million barrels in the week to Jan. 3, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday.

MIXED ENEGRY PRICES IN 2013

Change in energy prices mixed in 2013 as prices of nonenergy commodities fell

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration based on Bloomberg, L.P.
Note: Price changes are derived by taking the difference in annual average prompt contract price for each commodity for all trading days in 2012 and 2013. This method allows for comparisons of different commodity classes on a consistent basis. PRB Coal is Powder River Basin Coal. CAPP Coal is Central Appalachia Coal. WTI is West Texas Intermediate, a benchmark for both physical and financial crude oil pricing located in Cushing, Oklahoma. RBOB Gasoline is a kind of gasoline based on a reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending (RBOB).

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During 2013, the prices of various energy commodities increased from 2012 levels or were down modestly as prices of nonenergy commodities generally fell significantly. Prices for natural gas, western coal, electricity, and WTI crude were all higher (on average) in 2013 than in 2012, while the price of North Sea Brent crude oil, various petroleum products, and eastern coal all dropped!

Wholesale prices

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on SNL Energy

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Wholesale, on-peak electricity prices were up across the nation from 2012 to 2013, driven largely by increases in spot natural gas prices. Percentage increases in power prices were highest in the Pacific Northwest and New England, based on regional supply and demand issues in those markets!!!