The week in energy
All eyes are on OPEC
Oil prices stabilized as investors and energy companies looked for signs of how OPEC will respond to the recent plunge in oil price when the cartel meets in Vienna this week with allies including Russia. Market conditions — rising production, growing stockpiles and slipping prices — have recalled the fateful meeting of four years ago, when OPEC members decided against curbing production, triggering a free fall in prices that became the worst oil bust in generation. U.S. crude inventories, by the way, rose for the 10th consecutive week.
Dire climate assessment
A dire government report on the far-reaching impact of climate change could increase pressure on the energy industry to curb greenhouse gas emissions and political leaders to act more decisively to reduce the use of fossil fuels, analysts said. President Donald Trump dismissed the report — produced by his own administration — telling reporters, “I don’t believe it.” But the uncompromising findings that the pace of global warming is accelerating could make it harder for the administration to roll back Obama-era restrictions aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
U.S. reserves at a record
The United States has surpassed the 1970 record for proven oil and gas reserves, roughly doubling the amount of discovered petroleum in the ground in the past decade, the federal government said. The U.S. shale boom has unlocked large volumes of oil and gas, currently driven by drilling for crude oil in West Texas' booming Permian Basin and for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica plays in Pennsylvania and neighboring states. Proven reserves of crude oil reached 39.2 billion barrels by the end of 2017, surpassing the previous record of 39 billion barrels.
$2 gasoline is back all over
Several stations in the Houston area are selling gasoline for $1.99 a gallon or less, according to the price-tracking web site GasBuddy.com, and more could be on the way as crude prices hang near $50 a barrel. Prices were reported as low as $1.87 a gallon in Houston and $1.79 gallon in Texas. Texas is one of 18 states in which drivers can find gasoline for less than $2 a gallon, according to GasBuddy. While that’s not such good news for Houston’s energy companies, it’s break for U.S. consumers, who are pocketing an estimated $125 million a day in savings from October prices.
Venezuela keeps Citgo for now
A payment on a $1.4 billion arbitration award to a Canadian gold mining company is allowing Venezuela to keep ownership of Citgo Petroleum’s three U.S. refineries. The Venezuelan government recently paid Crystallex International Corp. $425 million as part of a settlement to resolve a legal dispute over gold mines seized by the South American nation’s late President Hugo Chavez in November 2008. Other creditors seeking to collect from crisis-wracked Venezuela are circling Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company. Citgo is headquartered in Houston.
Nomination advances
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee sent the nomination Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to the full Senate for confirmation, despite protests from Democrats that he was a cheerleader for the fossil fuel industry. McNamee, the policy director at the Department of Energy, formerly worked as a lawyer in the Texas Attorney Generals office and a staffer the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin.