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

Cheap Natural Gas Drives down Costs for Chemicals and Fertilizer

Plunging prices have turned the U.S. into one of the most profitable places in the world to make chemicals and fertilizer, industries that use gas as both a feedstock and an energy source. And they have slashed costs for makers of energy-intensive products such as aluminum, steel and glass.

“The U.S. is now going to be the low-cost industrialized country for energy,” the energy economist Philip Verleger says. “This creates a base for stronger economic growth in the United States than the rest of the industrialized world.

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Gasoline Futures Tumble As Oil-Supply Fears Ebb

U.S. gasoline-futures prices have dropped 16 cents a gallon over the past eight trading days, as more U.S. crude becomes available for refining into gasoline and fears about a shortage of refining capacity fade.

Reformulated gasoline blendstock futures fell 2.8 cents Tuesday to settle at $3.1593 a gallon, and have repeatedly traded near seven-week lows in recent days. Many traders said futures prices may have hit their summer peak in late March, at near $3.42 a gallon, and see futures falling further in coming weeks, easing retail prices at the pump.

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No Relief in Sight at Gas Pump

U.S. gasoline prices jumped 6% in February, and market experts predict they will climb higher because critical refining operations in the Northeast are shutting down.
From New York to Philadelphia, refineries that turn oil into gasoline have been idled or shut permanently because their owners are losing money on them.

Sunoco Inc. is expected to close the region’s largest refinery in July, taking another 335,000 barrels per day in production capacity off the market.

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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.”

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Oil Reclaims $100, as $4-a-Gallon Gasoline Seems Likely

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $5.37, or 5.5%, to settle at $102.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled up $6.77, or 6.2%, to $115.90 a barrel.

Oil futures clawed back some of the ground lost last week, reclaiming the $100 mark after heavy flooding and problems at a Mississippi refinery triggered a surge in gasoline prices.

The rally erases a sizable portion of last week’s decline and raises the likelihood that U.S. drivers will soon be paying an average $4 a gallon at the pump.

via Oil Reclaims $100, as $4-a-Gallon Gasoline Seems Likely – WSJ.com.