Why Abundant Oil Hasn’t Cut Gasoline Prices

Without realizing it, U.S. drivers are competing for American-made gasoline with consumers in Latin America and Asia, where demand is rising. “Americans don’t think about their prices being impacted by a global market,” says Morse. “The American public just thinks about the rising price at the pump.”

For the first time since 1995, the U.S. will likely produce more oil than it imports. That’s great for the country’s trade balance, but the benefits of all that cheap domestic crude still haven’t shown up at the one place it matters most: the gas station.

Read the rest of Why Abundant Oil Hasn’t Cut Gasoline Prices » » »

Shale gas blasts open world energy market

Unconventional treasure: Shale gas is trapped deep inside rock formations.

Shale gas is a new and abundant source of natural gas, trapped in rock formations. Oil companies have known about it for decades but always dismissed it because it was too expensive and difficult to extract.

In the past few years new technologies that pump water underground to fracture the rock and free the gas have been perfected. The breakthrough has opened a new frontier for the energy industry and turned long-held assumptions about the world’s dwindling supplies on their head.
via Shale gas blasts open world energy market on Propurchaser

Gazprom: contract shake up could herald change in gas market pricing

In an unprecedented move for the Russian energy giant, Gazprom has agreed to incorporate spot market prices in some of its long-term European export contracts. More significantly, the move potentially represents a structural change in gas market pricing mechanisms away from oil-linked contracts and toward a system that is more reflective of supply and demand fundamentals.

At the height of last year’s European  gas row, in which Gazprom and utilities battled about the liability for billions of cubic meters of gas, Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller staunchly refused to renegotiate with the likes of E.ON, GDF Suez or Eni on long-term gas contracts. The energy giant insisted that gas prices remained linked to the prevailing oil prices. However, after a few months and a $2.5 billion loss in sales , the world’s biggest gas producer has announced that it had indeed agreed to contractual changes with several European utilities. According to Gazprom’s director general of exports, Alexander Medvedev, “[The company] took into account the trends in the European market and the crisis.”

Read the rest of Gazprom: contract shake up could herald change in gas market pricing » » »

Natural Gas Entering Golden Age – WSJ.com

Under a scenario set out by the International Energy Agency (IEA), global consumption of natural gas could rise by more than 50% over the next 25 years, with it accounting for more than a quarter of global energy demand by 2035, up from 21% now.

The increasing abundance of cheap natural gas, coupled with rising demand for the fuel from China and the fall-out from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, may have set the stage for a “golden age of gas,” the IEA said Monday.

via Natural Gas Entering Golden Age – WSJ.com.