South Korean grid will soon boast world’s largest energy storage system lweb.es/f876 4.4.16
OEF REVIEW:On March 7, Kokam announced that it had deployed two battery energy storage systems powered by nickel manganese cobalt oxide in South Korea. The company said that the 24-MW / 9-MWh system is the largest capacity Lithium NMC ESS used for frequency regulation in the world. Kokam said that its batteries provide ultra high power technology, which is designed for high-power energy storage applications, such as frequency regulation, wind or large solar power system ramp rate control, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) and voltage support.
OEF REVIEW:South Africa will give the green light in the next 12 months to companies looking to explore for shale gas under the semi-arid Karoo basin. Royal Dutch Shell, Falcon Oil & Gas and Bundu Gas & Oil are among five companies which have applied for exploration licenses being reviewed by South Africa’s Petroleum Agency.
OEF REVIEW:Traders were quick to hit their sell buttons as official figures released in Beijing today showed exports in February were down a whopping 25.4 percent from the previous year – equal to the worst performance since May 2009, when the world was in the grips of a global recession. Imports were down by 13.8 percent, the 16th consecutive decline.
OEF REVIEW:U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) crude oil production is estimated to increase to record high levels in 2017, even as oil prices remain low. EIA projects GOM production will average 1.63 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2016 and 1.79 million b/d in 2017, reaching 1.91 million b/d in December 2017. GOM production is expected to account for 18% and 21% of total forecast U.S. crude oil production in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
OEF REVIEW:Saudi Arabia and Russia have taken the first step to stem the slide in oil prices. There’s just one problem: If they are successful — and that’s a big if — the wildcatters of Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota are waiting to pounce. With 4,000 wells drilled and just waiting for better prices to be brought on stream, the so-called fracklog could act as a cap to any oil rally, industry executives, traders and OPEC officials said. Worse, a price recovery could effectively bail out dozens of shale companies now struggling with $30-a-barrel oil, allowing them to return to the capital market.
OEF REVIEW:Drilling activity in the deepest parts of the world’s waters can yield tremendous oil volumes, but exploring thousands of feet below sea level is also the most expensive of energy’s high tech endeavors. And in an environment of $30 oil, investment in deepwater production is pouring out. Beyond a rebound in oil prices, recovery of the deepwater sector could take an additional two years, Sajjad Alam, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service told Rigzone. 
OEF REVIEW:Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto said his nation’s energy reform stemmed from an intense, collective effort early in his administration. Mexico’s energy reform legislation was passed in 2014 and will continue to be implemented on a timely basis. “With this reform, the Mexican state retains ownership of the underground hydrocarbons,” and opens up the hydrocarbon value chain to outside investors, Peña Nieto said. “It is being implemented with success and faster than expected.”
OEF REVIEW:The current crash in oil prices is sowing the seeds of a powerful rebound and a potential supply crunch by the end of the decade, but the prize may go to the US shale industry rather Opec, the world’s energy watchdog has predicted. America’s shale oil producers and Canada’s oil sands will come roaring back from late 2017 onward once the current brutal purge is over, a cycle it described as the “rise, fall and rise again” of the fracking industry. “Anybody who believes the US revolution has stalled should think again. We have been very surprised at how resilient it is,” said Neil Atkinson, head of oil markets at the International Energy Agency.
OEF REVIEW:“In this post we first confirm the positive correlation between stocks and oil prices, noting that it is not just a recent phenomenon. We then investigate the hypothesis that underlying changes in aggregate demand explain the oil-stocks relationship. We find that an underlying demand factor does account for much of the positive relationship, and that if, in addition, we account for shifts in market risk preferences, we can explain still more. However, even with these two factors included, a significant part of the oil-stocks correlation remains unexplained.”
OEF REVIEW:This report points the way to a cleaner transportation future by describing key ways we can clean up our transportation fuels. This report builds on the Union of Concerned Scientists Half the Oil plan by explaining how our major transportation fuels are changing and what we can do to reduce emissions from fuel production. Our clean fuels—electricity and biofuels—are already cutting oil use and emissions from transportation, but more work is required to deliver on their potential. Oil is getting steadily more polluting, but by holding oil companies accountable to reduce avoidable emissions and avoid the dirtiest sources, we can check that mounting climate damage and make sure that the oil we continue to use has the lowest global warming emissions possible.
OEF REVIEW:Total has started up production at the offshore Vega Pleyade gas and condensate field in the Tierra del Fuego region of Argentina. Operated by Total, the project will have a production capacity of 10 million cubic meters of gas per day (70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day). 
OEF REVIEW:The Nikkei spoke with Takashi Tsukioka, CEO at Idemitsu Kosan, a major Japanese oil refiner, about the future direction of crude prices, the outlook for shale oil players and industry realignments in Japan.
OEF REVIEW:With a rainy day “reserve fund” of only 4.5 percent of GDP and scant access to international financial markets, Russia urgently needs a fiscal Plan B. In January, the authorities announced additional cuts amounting to about 1 percent of GDP. More important, the government will try to raise another 1.5 percent of GDP — 1 trillion rubles ($13 billion) — by privatizing state-owned firms, including “crown jewels” such as Rosneft (Russia’s largest oil company), the diamond monopoly Alrosa and the flagship airline Aeroflot.
OEF REVIEW:The jump in imports, if realised, could see China overtaking the United States as the world’s largest crude importer after China’s average crude imports hit a record 6.71 million barrels per day in 2015, up 8.8 percent from a year ago. China is expected to import 860,000 barrels per day more crude this year, Yao Li, chief executive of SIA Energy said at a Platts conference.
OEF REVIEW:“2016 State of American Energy report details the economic, job creation, energy security and global leadership opportunities created by our nation’s 21st century energy revolution and the policy challenges we must overcome to ensure that these benefits extend for generations to come. To give a sense of the reach and scope of the industry, each chapter of this report examines the distinctive policy challenges and opportunities through highlights of these issues in seven regions that include all 50 states. The report makes clear that the economic benefits and opportunities provided by the oil and natural gas industry aren’t confined to energy producing states and that the industry could do more with the right energy policies based on market principles and sound science.” Jack N. Gerard, President and CEO, API