Clinton Talks Up Clean Coal: Revitalize Coal Country lweb.es/f1200 9.08.2016
Hillary Clinton is promising to revitalize Pennsylvania communities hurt by a downturn in the coal and steel industries. With regard to the coal industry she asked whether there was a technology that could create clean energy from coal, and stated that she would revitalize the coal producing areas. Earlier in the primaries, Donald Trump made his position clear on the coal industry saying that he wanted clean coal and that the country would, in his words, have an amazing mining business.
OEF REVIEW:Oil investors are buying contracts that will only pay out if crude oil rises well above US$100 a barrel over the next four years – a clear sign some believe today’s bust is sowing the seeds of the next boom. The options deals, which brokers said bear the hallmarks of trades made by hedge funds, appear to be based on the belief that current low prices will generate a supply crunch. Over the last month, investors have bought call options for late 2018, 2019 and 2020 at strike prices of US$80, US$100 and US$110 a barrel. Previously, some investors had already built super-bullish positions. The options deals suggest a concern about shortages as demand begins to outstrip production – the traditional boom and bust commodities cycle.
OEF REVIEW:Coal is cheap but the challenge is how to harness coal as clean energy. The main technology being used is coal gasification where the coal is chemically transformed into synthetic natural gas, but its overall carbon intensity is worse than coal mining. Other methods are the coal-bed methane process and underground coal gasification. Underground coal gasification is now a feasible way of accessing the vast resources of coal that are too deep to mine, thus potentially increasing world clean energy supply.
OEF REVIEW:A Chinese group led by a private company is planning to build a $15 billion petrochemical complex and refinery on an island near Shanghai. This would be the country’s first and largest energy installation to be built by a non-state investor and is one of the first concrete signs of Beijing’s stated desire to experiment with mixed-ownership in its massive state-controlled energy sector. The complex would include a 400,000 barrels per day refinery and a 1.4 million tonnes a year ethylene plant.
OEF REVIEW:Barclays has revised downwards its global exploration and production spending outlook for 2016, now saying such spending could fall 27% this year, down from 15% back in January. Spending in North America is now trending down 40% versus 27% in January, and international spending is down 21% year-over-year. Since the Barclays Upstream Spending Survey published in January, operators representing 71% of total spending have revised budgets to reflect reduced 2016 spending plans amid a sustained lower oil-price outlook.
OEF REVIEW:The AIIB and NDB are both headquartered in China and there is a strong relationship between these two institutions. Within the infrastructure space, there is such a huge funding gap that all of these institutions can work together. All of us contribute to filling that funding gap. What sets the AIIB and NDB apart is that we are focused on the five BRICS countries, while the AIIB is focused on Asia, so we have a geographical difference. But for big regional projects in Asia, we very much welcome the opportunity to partner with the AIIB to co-finance some projects. Rather than setting up a rival institution, we consider the NDB as being complementary to the existing financial architecture…
OEF REVIEW:U.S. crude oil production from the Lower 48 states from new wells (drilled since the start of 2014) made up 48% of total U.S. crude oil production in 2015, up from 22% in 2007. Production from new wells has grown as advances in horizontal drilling and completion techniques led to growth in oil production from low-permeability tight reservoirs. In 2015, production from tight formations – which include, but are not limited to, shale plays – accounted for more than 4 million barrels per day, or 50% of total U.S. oil production.
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: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: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: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.