Archive for January, 2010
The “sOccket” Is Both Soccer Ball and Portable Electric Generator
Instead of burning kerosene, play soccer. That’s the plan four students from Harvard have for the sOccket, a soccer ball that generates electricity during normal game play and stores it for later use, reports the Green Inc. blog of the New York Times. The sOccket could have an especially large impact in developing nations where [...]
Read More »Flywheels Show Promise for Storage of Renewable Energy
One of the big challenges for solar or wind power is that they are intermittent, not constant. The sun only shines half the hours at best (not even counting clouds or rain), and similarly, the wind does not blow continuously. To make these energy sources more practical, efficient power storage is necessary; you need to [...]
Read More »Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Cyberattacks, States Go Green, and Energy Star Homes
Hackers in China made headlines recently when Google was hit, but the search engine giant isn’t the only company being targeted. Mark Clayton of the Christian Science Monitor reported on cyberattacks on three US oil companies—Marathon Oil, ExxonMobil, and ConocoPhillips. Like the attack on Google, the hackers seem to be based in China. What Exxon [...]
Read More »This Week in Heating Oil, January 29, 2010: Biofuels and the State of the Union
On Wednesday night, President Obama delivered a State of the Union address that included numerous references to energy issues. In describing his vision of the US energy industry’s bright future, the president urged the nation to continue to strive toward energy independence and touted American development of green energy technologies as a sound strategy [...]
Read More »Afternoon Price Check, January 29: Oil Prices Fall On Oil Industry’s Poor Earnings Reports
Oil prices rallied this morning on news that US GDP had grown at its fastest pace in six years, but weak demand—demonstrated most dramatically by Chevron’s 37 percent drop in earnings—dragged oil prices down by the end of the day. A strong dollar contributed to falling crude and heating oil prices, since the dollar’s strength [...]
Read More »Oil Producers Urge Realism, not Rhetoric
A day after Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, in which the president somberly admonished the United States for its dependence on Middle Eastern crude, an assortment of oil executives convened at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to pronounce their own thoughts on the matter of energy policy and, with thumbs to [...]
Read More »Opinion: Titman’s Analogy of Oil Speculation as Betting on Football Has Some Holes
In time for Superbowl season, finance professor Sheridan Titman comes up with an analogy that he feels shows that speculation in commodities futures is not responsible for oil price volatility or spikes: betting on futures is like betting on football games.
The professor’s argument rests on two different core concepts:
1) Financial investors in commodities, such as commodity [...]
HeatingOil.com Weather Report: January 29, 2010
Today’s Northeast Weather: A low-pressure system arrived in the Northeast last night in full-force, bringing with it freezing temperatures and lower wind-chill factors that will continue into the weekend. Northern Maine and Western New York will see snow, up to a foot in some places. Temperatures will be in the single digits and teens across [...]
Read More »Texas Oil Shipping Lane Re-Opens After Spill Clean-Up
Oil refineries operated by Motiva, ExxonMobil, Valero, and Total prepared to receive three million barrels of crude oil on Thursday via the Sabine Neches Waterway at Port Arthur, which was damaged by an oil spill on Saturday, Bloomberg reported. The facilities each received at least one crude vessel and had at least 500,000 barrels of [...]
Read More »Energy Issues in Obama’s State of the Union Speech
In his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Obama urged the U.S. Senate to pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation, and turned away from any discussion of cap and trade or putting a price on carbon to focus on job creation and energy independence. Such legislation can put Americans work today, “building the [...]
Read More »Heating Oil Price Trend for January 29: +1¢
Oil prices fluctuated with the stock market on Thursday, but an impending cold spell in the US Northeast gave the price of heating oil enough of a bump for it to end one penny higher on the day. The strength of the dollar continued to weigh on oil prices, as did concern about weak fuel [...]
Read More »Russia and Belarus Resolve Oil Dispute
The stalemate between Russia and Belarus over Russian oil flowing to Europe through the Druzhba pipeline has come to an end. Reuters carried the news on Wednesday of a new agreement between the neighboring ex-Soviet states, at least temporarily ending a dispute that threatened to disrupt oil supplies to much of Eastern Europe. Belarussian Vice [...]
Read More »Afternoon Price Check, January 28: Oil Prices Are Unchanged
After fluctuating throughout the day, oil prices ended virtually unchanged. The Federal Reserve’s statement that it would leave interest rates low combined with President Obama’s heavy emphasis on jobs in his State of the Union address gave oil prices a lift this morning. However, a stronger dollar and concerns about demand weighed prevented oil prices [...]
Read More »After Months of Stability, Traders Betting a Big Oil Price Swing Will Come Soon
Since October, the crude oil options market has appeared curiously calm. Prices have settled nicely between $70 and $80 per barrel and, early last week, the CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index (the seismograph of the oil market) fell to its lowest point in more than two years. Unimpressed by the relative placidity of the New [...]
Read More »Iranian Troops Leave Iraq Oilfield
A conflict between Iran and Iraq that erupted in late 2009 over a seized Iraqi oil well has finally ended peacefully. Reuters reported Wednesday that the small contingent of Iranian troops has fully withdrawn from the disputed and inactive oil field inside Iraqi territory. Foreign ministers from both countries agreed to “maintain friendly relations and [...]
Read More »HeatingOil.com Profiles: Hart Petroleum
For the second installment of our Profiles series, we are pleased to introduce you to Hart Petroleum of New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York.
Hart Petroleum and its President, Ray Hart, stand out in the heating oil industry as one of a handful of pioneers in the adoption of biofuel as a component of home [...]
HeatingOil.com Weather Report: January 28, 2010
Today’s Northeast Weather: A cold front is moving through the region today, resulting in snow showers in northern New York State and throughout New England. Most snowfall will be light, except for those regions downwind of Lakes Erie and Ontario, where several inches of lake-effect snow are expected by Friday. Coastal temperatures are currently in [...]
Read More »IEA to Meet with Speculators and Regulators to Discuss Curbing Oil Price Volatility
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the International Energy Agency intends to meet with OPEC, banks, and regulators to discuss ways to curb speculation’s impact on oil prices. The proposed meeting, called for next month in Tokyo, was instigated by the IEA’s Executive Director, Nobuo Tanaka. Among other attendees, Tanaka has specifically invited CFTC head Gary Gensler, [...]
Read More »Heating Oil Price Trend for January 28: -3¢
The EIA inventory report showed that demand for oil remained low, as stockpiles of refined oil products rose last week. Distillate inventories, a category of fuel that includes heating oil and diesel, rose by 400,000 barrels—an increase that went against expectations for a significant drawdown of distillates. Gasoline supplies rose as well, climbing by 2 [...]
Read More »Afternoon Price Check, January 27: Oil Prices Fall on Rising Inventories of Oil Products
Increases of distillate inventories, which include heating oil and diesel, and of gasoline inventories showed that demand for refined oil products remained weak, and oil prices tumbled as a result. The EIA did find a drop-off in crude oil supplies, but the builds in stockpiles of refined products overwhelmed the figures for crude; some analysts [...]
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