... … … [Editor’s Note: The vaccines going out across the world to fight COVID-19 would not be possible without oil and gas, as the folks at IER thoroughly explain. The full pdf from IER is available here.] Few Americans realize that oil and natural gas are used to make plastics, glass and other materials
Read More...For commodity resins, as with many other markets, 2020 was filled with unpredictable change. The year got off to a rough start with prices declining as a result of COVID-19-related shutdowns. Demand then surged back. This higher demand combined with outages from a pair of Gulf Coast hurricanes to tighten supplies and send prices up.
Read More...Welcome to the final Kickstart of 2020. I’d love to make some proclamation here declaring that we’re leaving behind all that made 2020 so difficult, but we all know that the medical and economic trials aren’t over yet. So I’ll resist the temptation to put a tidy bow on the year that was. For the
Read More...COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the best-laid plans of everyone this year — and that includes the toy industry. “It’s been a challenging nine months,” said Aaron Muderick, founder of Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty in Norristown, Pa. On a positive note, harried parents coping with quarantined kids fueled strong growth in puzzles, games, and arts and
Read More...Mexico’s energy ministry has approved a 60-day extension for talks between state oil company Pemex and a private consortium led by U.S.-based Talos Energy Inc. over the future of a massive shared crude deposit, Talos CEO Tim Duncan told Reuters on Dec. 22. The energy ministry’s previous deadline for a deal on an initial so-called
Read More...Oil prices dropped on Dec. 23 after an industry report showed an unexpected rise in U.S. crude oil inventories, and as President Donald Trump rattled markets by threatening not to sign a long-awaited U.S. COVID-19 relief bill. Brent crude futures were down 38 cents, or 0.8%, to $49.70 a barrel at 0814 GMT, while U.S.
Read More...An Australian community group has launched a court challenge against Santos Ltd.’s A$3.6 billion (US$2.7 billion) Narrabri coal seam gas project, saying an independent panel that approved the development failed to consider its climate impacts. The action was launched by the Environmental Defenders Office, a not-for-profit legal firm, on behalf of a group of 100
Read More...Tommy Waldrip, managing director of EnCap Flatrock Midstream, is today’s featured Forty Under 40 honoree. Waldrip joined Flatrock Energy Advisors in 2006 and EnCap Flatrock Midstream upon its formation a couple of year later by a partnership between Flatrock and EnCap Investments LP. EnCap Flatrock Midstream is a venture capital firm focused on identifying, investing
Read More...Williams has received a past-due payment of $112 million from Chesapeake Energy Corp., following a court-approved resolution between the companies as part of Chesapeake’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to Natural Gas Intelligence. The Tulsa-based pipeline giant reached a global resolution last month to continue treating and moving Chesapeake’s natural gas in the Lower 48. It received the
Read More...Midstream is arguably a volume-driven business. More production means more volumes moving through pipelines, more natural gas and NGL to be processed, and more demand for new or expanded infrastructure. Growing volumes of oil, natural gas and NGL have underwritten significant growth in midstream over the last several years, prompting a massive investment in the
Read More...In the nearly three years since the City and County of Boulder and the County of San Miguel filed its climate lawsuit, the case has mostly been defined by arguments over whether it belongs in federal or state court. In fact, the most notable action around the lawsuit has been that Boulder County hired outside counsel who are operating
Read More...Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is again relying on a national network to boost his climate lawsuit by recruiting the plaintiffs’ law firm Sher Edling, one of the key players in the climate litigation campaign, to help represent the state alongside his office. When Ellison filed the lawsuit this summer, there was a noticeable lack of outside counsel present.
Read More...Nuverra Environmental Solutions (formerly Heckmann) is one of the largest companies in the United States that handles transportation and disposal of shale drilling wastewater and leftover rock and dirt from drilling (drill cuttings). The company has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Yesterday Nuverra announced its board of directors has approved the adoption of a
Read More...The Ohio Supreme Court just delivered a decision that affects one particular landowner (and former mineral rights owner), but also has implications for all Ohio landowners and rights owners. And by extension, implications for drillers that pay royalty payments. The Supremes found in Gerrity v. Chervenak that the landowners in the case (the Chervenaks) did
Read More...Anti-fossil fuelers love to protest things. Fine. Let them protest. This is (still) America. But when antis tip over into illegal acts like blocking legal activities of building pipelines or drilling wells, or when antis tip over into acts of vandalism like destroying equipment, that’s NOT okay. Antis call it “protesting.” We call it criminal
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