(Wed, 10 Aug 2016) Fuel ethanol production capacity in the United States was nearly 15 billion gallons per year, or 973,000 barrels per day (b/d), at the beginning of 2016, according to EIA's most recent U.S. Fuel Ethanol Plant Production Capacity report. Total capacity of operable ethanol plants increased by more than 500 million gallons per year in January 2016 compared with January 2015.
A jury in San Francisco found that Pacific Gas & Electric violated pipeline safety laws when a blast leveled a neighborhood.
Ana-Maria Tolbaru talks on the likely impact on France of it increasing the operating costs for coal generators with the introduction of a new carbon price floor or a coal tax starting in 2017.
With speculation swirling over possible production freeze talks, OPEC on August 8 appeared to throw cold water on the idea, sounding an optimistic tone about the oil market.
(Tue, 09 Aug 2016) During the summer, when storage operators are typically injecting natural gas into storage facilities to build up inventories before the winter months, natural gas inventories in Southern California have remained nearly flat. Underground natural gas storage wells at the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon facility, by far the largest storage field in the region, are undergoing testing, following a leak that was detected in late October 2015 and stopped in February 2016.
(Tue, 09 Aug 2016) Crude oil prices broke below $45/b and out of of a two-month-long trading range in July. The front-month Brent crude oil price decreased $6.06 per barrel (b) since July 1, settling at $44.29/b on August 4 (Figure 1). The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price settled at $41.93/b, declining $7.06/b over the same time.
Episode 100 of the S&P Global Platts Capitol Crude podcast, featuring EIA chief Adam Sieminski, aims to demystify the complex world of US oil policy.
The overwhelming case for deficit spending.
In the 100th episode of Capitol Crude, Platts senior editor Brian Scheid talks with Adam Sieminski, administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, on the state of the global oil market.
(Mon, 08 Aug 2016) Working natural gas storage inventories posted a rare summer net withdrawal of 6 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending July 29, 2016, according to EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. Record-high consumption of natural gas for electric power generation drove this withdrawal. Although withdrawals in the summer are not unprecedented, and happen regularly in the South Central storage region, the last time a net withdrawal in July occurred on a national basis was in summer 2006.
