Recent Gas News/GasBuddy Blog

Fuelfix.com -- ..... projects, representing about C$11.4 billion ($11.1 billion) in investments, are on the drawing boards. British Columbia, with its mountainous forests, national parks and salmon streams standing between the crude and the sea, wants no part of those pipelines — nor does it want its scenic bays to be turned into supertanker terminals.  (go to article)

Consumer report -- It’s the busy summer travel season and with gas prices dropping around the country, it’s a great time to head out on a road trip. Whether you’re driving a short distance or across the country, here are some tips to ensure that your car and your family are prepared for your next adventure.
1.Schedule a checkup. Perform basic maintenance on your vehicle before you head out such as checking wipers and fluid levels. Also, schedule any necessary service such as oil changes or tune ups. A vehicle in top shape will have a better chance of staying reliable and efficient. See our guide to car maintenance.
2.Stay charged. Check your battery to make sure it’s strong and has clean terminals: A little baking soda and water will do the job. A road trip is no fun if your car won’t start. Learn more  (go to article)

BBC -- Our pick of the week’s science and tech stories, including all-electric cars, a fiendish maths problem solved and extreme cancer blogging. ...

Remember when Toyota’s Prius hybrid was launched? It was “too expensive”, “elitist”, “only for greenies”. Now it’s the third best-selling car in the world. Looks like the same story for Tesla’s all-electric cars. Remember: new ideas take time to spread. Skeptics laugh, rivals get complacent. Then the idea finds its business model, breaks out of its niche, demand soars. It’s an S-curve, and Tesla has hit the first bend.  (go to article)

Science Daily -- May 23, 2013 — A newly synthesized material might provide a dramatically improved method for separating the highest-octane components of gasoline. Measurements at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have clarified why.

The research team, which included scientists from NIST and several other universities, has published its findings in the journal Science.

Created in the laboratory of Jeffrey Long, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the material is a metal-organic framework, or MOF, which can be imagined as a sponge with microscopic holes. The innumerable interior walls of the MOF form triangular channels that selectively trap only the lower-octane components based on their shape, separating them easily from the higher-octane molecules  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- When it comes to taking a vacation, Americans may be feeling better about it than we did a year ago...

Eight-five percent of Americans taking vacations this summer will be traveling by car — and more than four in five (82 percent) will be stopping at convenience stores along the way, according to consumer responses captured in the May 2013 National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Consumer Fuels Survey.

According to NACS, vacationers plan to spend a fair amount of time on the road this summer. Nearly half (45 percent) of all consumers say that they plan to take trips outside of their state, and 63 percent will take at least 6 days of vacation this summer — including 10 percent who plan to travel at least 21 days...  (go to article)

The Guardian -- Some of Britain's biggest energy suppliers were holding back gas in storage tanks at a time when the market ran into an acute shortage two months ago, triggering a doubling of wholesale prices.

The revelations came after claims the UK was within six hours of running out of gas completely on 22 March and will feed rising public and political anger over soaring power bills and previous allegations of market manipulation. ...

The revelation also comes as the industry faces allegations of manipulation in both oil and gas markets, triggering dawn raids by the European commission and reviews by Ofgem and the FCA.
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The Edmond Sun -- In response to the tornado that hit Moore, many Oklahoma companies are donating to support relief efforts. Companies have given money and supplies in the aftermath of the tornado. Many local and national companies have a history in helping with relief efforts such as Bass Pro Shop and BP. The companies are helping various organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to support the survivors of the May 19 and May 20 tornadoes in their time of need.

• Devon Energy and Continental Resources Inc. each pledged donations of $2.5 million.

• Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge $100,000 donation

• BP America Inc. will donate $300,000

• Home Depot Foundation pledged $1 million

• The American Legion pledged $1 million

• Noble Energy Inc. donated $500,000

More...  (go to article)

sgvtribune -- WHITTIER -- As travelers hit the road Friday for the Memorial Day weekend, some lucky Honda drivers received free gas courtesy of the Helpful Honda Guys in Blue.

They surprised unsuspecting drivers at the pumps at gas stations in more than 20 Southern California cities, including Whittier.

As part of the Honda's popular Guys in Blue campaign, the promotion shows how Honda lends a hand in the communities, officials said.

"It's awesome," said Patricia Ochoa, who pulled up to the gas pump at the Chevron at Greenleaf Avenue and Whittier Boulevard.

She was going to buy $10 of gas for her 2000 Honda Prelude.

Instead, one of the Honda employees filled up the tank with $46.03 worth of gas.

"I just started working again, and this is a great help," Ochoa said.
 (go to article)

Daily Globe -- WORTHINGTON — After a winter of fairly steady prices, the cost of a gallon of gas has jumped as the Memorial Day holiday nears.

General Manager at Bob and Steve’s Shell Jesse Raudenbush said Friday that prices rose “close to 50 cents in less than a week.”

“It sounds like its affected a lot of people’s travel plans,” he said. “A lot of people are staying around home when maybe they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

The Casey’s General Store location on U.S. 59 near Interstate 90 has seen a steady stream of customers, assistant manager Carrie Helms said. But while people are still completing their necessary travel they need to, they seem to be reducing the extra road time that tends to increase as summer approaches.

“They aren’t really extending very much,” she said. “They are doing  (go to article)

CNN -- The United States is investigating "a string of malicious" cyber incidents that appear to be focused on probing energy infrastructure, a U.S. official familiar with the latest intelligence tells CNN.

The official, who spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity of the information, said the suspected hacking did not appear to be intended to steal trade secrets or exploit technology for commercial reasons. It appeared to be aimed at identifying weaknesses in fuel and electrical systems in the United States.

While the official did not identify any suspected origins of the apparent hacking, a U.S. lawmaker raised suspicions about Iran.

The United States has over the past year become more concerned about Iran and cyber security.

American officials said last October that cyber attacks on U.S ..  (go to article)

USA Today -- Six years after a Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people called attention to the state of the nation's bridges, there has been minimal improvement and insufficient funding to repair and replace aging spans.

The collapse Thursday of the Interstate Highway 5 in Washington state shined the spotlight once again on troubled bridges.

In 2012, the Federal Highway Administration said 67,000 — 11% — of the nation's 607,000 bridges were structurally deficient. That means the bridges are not unsafe but must be closely monitored and inspected or repaired.

That percentage is little changed since 2007 when 12% of the nation's bridges were listed as structurally deficient and the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis.  (go to article)

The Globe and Mail -- Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said on Wednesday it has repaired and reopened a rail line near Jansen, Sask., and continues to clean up after a derailment that spilled 575 barrels of crude oil on Tuesday.

CP, the country’s second-largest rail carrier, said the line reopened late Tuesday night following repairs and inspections. It said an investigation continues into the cause of the accident, the largest of three oil spills for the company in two months.

The spill may again prompt concerns about the environmental risks of shipping crude on railways...  (go to article)

Reuters -- (Reuters) - Attackers blew up Yemen's main oil export pipeline on Friday, halting the flow of crude, the government and industry sources said.  (go to article)

Financial Post -- The State Department says it received 1.2 M letters during its 45-day public comment period after releasing the draft of Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the Keystone XL.

On March 1, the Department sought public opinion over a 45-day period to help make its mind up whether to approve the US$5.3-B AB-to-Gulf-Coast project.

TransCanada proposed the 830,000-bpd project 5 years ago, but the project remains entangled in a web of U.S. state and federal regulations with green groups labeling the project as “game over” for the climate. Pipeline proponents dismiss the claims, citing energy security and jobs as key reasons for the approval.

The first batch of comments reveals the same green groups and oil and gas advocates, recycling their arguments and finding another avenue  (go to article)

afp -- EU leaders agreed Wednesday to face up to the challenge posed by the shale oil and gas revolution which has slashed US energy prices, undercutting Europe’s competitive edge.

“All leaders are aware that sustainable and affordable energy is key to keeping factories and jobs in Europe,” European President Herman Van Rompuy said.

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Reuters -- Phillips 66 said it would use more domestic shale oil at its New Jersey Bayway refinery and could consider exporting gasoline from the facility thanks to lower costs and as U.S. fuel demand wanes.

The 238,000 bpd Bayway refinery is one of several on the East Coast emerging from years of poor margins as they have depended on higher-priced oil from Europe and Africa due to a lack of access to cheaper domestic crude.

Bayway already receives Bakken crude, transported by rail to Albany in New York State and then by barge to the refinery, which is located by a narrow body of water between Staten Island and New Jersey.

"There's 80,000 to 90,000 barrels coming by rail from North Dakota versus zero a year ago. It processes well," Bayway refinery manager David Erfert said.
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EurekAlert! -- Talking on a hands-free device while behind the wheel can lead to a sharp increase in errors that could imperil other drivers on the road, according to new research from the University of Alberta.

A pilot study showed that drivers who talk using a hands-free cellular device made significantly more driving errors—such as crossing the centre line, speeding and changing lanes without signalling—compared with just driving alone. The jump in errors also corresponded with a spike in heart rate and brain activity.

"It is commonplace knowledge, but for some reason it is not getting into the public conscience that the safest thing to do while driving is to focus on the road."  (go to article)

PC World -- Commuting is tough. Working out of your car all day is tougher. From traveling salesmen to offsite service professionals to couriers, millions of people worldwide spend their nine-to-five hours behind the wheel. And they need to stay in touch—online, dialed in, and powered up—all day. That’s not easy to do when you’re constantly on the move.

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The Charleston Gazette -- Members of a state panel agreed Wednesday on the price tag to fully build and maintain West Virginia's road system -- an additional $1.13 billion to $1.28 billion a year -- but not on ways to pay that tab.

Ultimately, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Highways voted to hold six statewide public hearings in June, with all funding options -- ranging from a 1 percent increase in sales taxes to a $200 registration fee for alternative-fuel vehicles -- on the table.

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GasBuddy Blog -- As Memorial Day rolls around, GasBuddy receives dozens of inquiries from the press asking how motorists can save money at the pump. Sure there are things that can make minor differences, but every one wants to know- what's the easiest way to save?

Enter GasBuddy.com. GasBuddy, as you may well know, has been around since 2000, powered by millions of volunteer spotters who report prices and help each other save. ABC Nightline recently approached GasBuddy for several tips they could tell motorists about, and loved the GasBuddy app so much, did an entire story!

Remember to follow local laws and ordinances when using the app, and don't drive distracted! Gas prices matter to us too, but your life is more important!

go to article)

Downstream Today -- A $2 billion pipeline project intended to ship oil from West Texas's booming oil fields to California has failed to pique the interest of several big refiners in the Golden State. The culprit: the growing popularity of railroads.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners 277,000-bpd Freedom pipeline, proposed in April, would be the first to bring light, sweet oil produced in Texas's Permian Basin to the fuel-hungry Los Angeles market.

That would give refiners in California, which now partly supplement the state's declining oil production with expensive crude imports from Alaska, Ecuador and other far-flung nations, a direct shot at the relatively cheap crude squeezed out of shale formations through hydraulic fracturing. Access to that bountiful crude has already boosted the profi  (go to article)

NBCNews.com -- The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge was built in 1955, and was carrying an average daily traffic of 71,000 vehicles.

The bridge was of a "fracture critical" design, as are 18,000 bridges nationwide, meaning it could collapse if even one part failed.

Even after the bridge collapse that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007, a haphazard system of inspections continued, with federal authorities choosing not to require re-inspection of all the fracture-critical bridges.

In a survey of every state by msnbc.com in 2008, only six states and the District of Columbia said they began to recheck all their fracture-critical bridges.  (go to article)

USA Today -- Toyota has passed BMW in a ranking of the world's most valuable brands.

The list was put together by a keeper of such scores called Brandz.

But it's no time for celebration if you're in the auto industry. Auto brands lag far behind other sectors, especially technology, on the Brandz Top 100 list. For instance, the top three places on the list belong to tech companies -- Apple, Google and IBM. How auto brands fared:  (go to article)

Science Daily -- A new analysis shows that the nation's land and water resources could likely support the growth of enough algae to produce up to 25 billion gallons of algae-based fuel a year in the United States, one-twelfth of the country's yearly needs.

The findings come from an in-depth look at the water resources that would be needed to grow significant amounts of algae in large, specially built shallow ponds. The results were published in the May 7 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society.
"While there are many details still to be worked out, we don't see water issues as a deal breaker for the development of an algae biofuels industry in many areas of the country," said first author Erik Venteris of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Nationa  (go to article)

Akron Beacon Journal -- A 70-year-old Cuyahoga Falls man was sentenced to eight years in prison following a conviction on his 12th drunken driving offense, authorities said.

Edward A. South, of Highpoint Lane, was sentenced by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O’Brien.

Last year, on the night after Christmas, South crashed into a pole in the Falls and walked away from the scene. No one was injured, but South was driving on a suspended license at the time and subsequently was tracked by police to a family member’s home.

Prosecutors said he registered 0.087 percent on a blood-alcohol breath test after his apprehension.

 (go to article)

fox -- It's official: Cars really are getting more efficient.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/05/24/gasoline-diesel-hybrids-and-plug-ins-efficiency-leaders/#ixzz2UE0Ifsaz  (go to article)

marketwatch.com -- As Americans takes to the road this summer, drivers in the Midwest face the biggest shock at the pump. Gasoline prices in their part of the country have shot up well above the national average.

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Cleveland.com -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gas prices have taken a big jump in Ohio and the U.S.

A gallon of regular gas in Ohio was listed at an average of about $3.84 in Monday's survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That's up 27 cents from last Monday's average.  (go to article)

Detriot Free Press -- The Detroit Three did well on Strategic Vision's 2013 quality study with the Dodge Dart, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Volt getting the best scores in their respective segments.

For the first time in more than a decade, cars and trucks made by domestic automakers finished first in a a majority of the segments as they won or tied competitors in 12 of 21 categories.

 (go to article)

The Virginian-Pilot -- Virginia's two U.S. senators on Wednesday joined a renewed effort to lift a federal moratorium on gas and oil drilling in the commonwealth's coastal waters.

They also vowed that they wouldn't support the drilling unless Virginia got a significant share of future government oil and gas revenue that, under current law, would all go to Washington.

 (go to article)

The State -- A deal to spend up to $500 million to repair S.C. roads and bridges was approved Thursday by the state Senate.

The deal was made when the Senate voted to spend $50 million a year to repair state roads and bridges. The money would go to the State Infrastructure Bank, which would use it to borrow up to $500 million.

 (go to article)

Bloomberg -- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep crude shipments little changed into early next month as abundant inventories cap demand, tanker tracker Oil Movements said.
The group that supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil will ship 23.8 million barrels a day in the four weeks to June 8, compared with 23.9 million in the previous period to May 11, the researcher said in an e-mailed report. The figures exclude two of OPEC’s 12 members, Angola and Ecuador.
“Stock levels in the west are bound to be having an effect,” Roy Mason, the company’s founder said today by telephone from Halifax, England. “So much of the global stockpile build is showing up in the U.S.”
Middle Eastern shipments will slip by 0.6 percent to 17.47 million barrels a day, compared with 17.58 million  (go to article)

24/7 Wall Street via MarketWatch -- To determine the 10 car brands with the most complaints, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed sales figures and information on complaint submissions to the NHTSA published by Edmunds.com for the year 2012, and calculated the complaints made in 2012 per 100,000 vehicles sold by brand between 2005 and 2012. Makes were excluded from the list if complaints figures were not available or if the car brand was no longer actively manufactured and sold in the U.S.—eliminating makers such as Mercury and Saturn. References to the most complained about model are only in reference to complaints made in February 2013.

10. Hyundai (Complaints per 100,000: 27.96)
9. Ford (33.95)
8. Volkswagen (34.52)
7. BMW (36.78)
6. Nissan (38.89)
5. Dodge (39.21)
4. Chrysler (40.78)
3. Smart (56.59)
2. Jeep (69.48)
1. Mini (123.60)  (go to article)

AP via Yahoo! Finance -- The price of oil was knocked lower Friday by a combination of ample supplies and lukewarm demand.

Benchmark oil for July delivery was down 40 cents to $93.85 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract fell 3 cents to close at $94.25 a barrel in New York on Thursday. The price sank as low as $92.21 in the morning after weak manufacturing data from China raised questions about the strength of oil demand in the world's No. 2 economy.

The prices of West Texas Intermediate and Brent continue to shift downward "as economic data continues to point to reduced demand against a backdrop of high inventories," said Michael Hewson of CMC Markets.

The American Petroleum Institute had said in a statement Wednesday that U.S. ...  (go to article)

GasBuddy Blog -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given its approval to Tesoro Corp. to buy the BP Refinery in Carson, CA, and the state Attorney General and the California Energy Commission have given the green light too.

According to the AG, the Energy Commission will monitor gas prices, volume and refinery capacity and "a deal" with the company, Reuters reports is said to "provide for safeguards against price spikes."

Tesoro is spending $2.38 billion to buy the BP refinery and its southern California assets. The BP Carson refinery capacity is 266,000 bpd.

With the acquisition the deal will more than double Tesoro's refining capacity in California.

"We are pleased the FTC has concluded its review and we can...  (go to article)

Reuters -- Magellan said on Thursday that the company was "exploring the feasibility" of building a new pipeline to connect its network to its terminals in Little Rock, Arkansas, to move up to 75,000 barrels per day of refined products into the area.

Magellan's announcement comes five weeks before Enterprise Products Partners plans to shut down its 230,000 bpd TE Products distillate pipeline that runs through Little Rock. The line, which carries ultra-low sulfur diesel and jet fuel from Texas through Indiana, will be converted to move ethane from Pennsylvania to Texas to feed petrochemical demand.

Enterprise says flows on the line are too low to justify spending $50 million to modify a parallel gasoline and natural gas liquids pipeline to also carry distillates.

But the Arkansas Attorney General's  (go to article)

Downstream Today -- Canadian and Asian energy companies have begun looking to move oil to the West Coast by rail as new pipeline projects struggle against broad opposition.

Interested traders have approached Canadian National Railway about using trains to get oil to British Columbia ports such as Prince Rupert, Kitimat or Vancouver--or perhaps even the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Such a project could not be done overnight. Exports would need to flow through a terminal to move oil from tank cars to tankers, and a terminal could only be built if authorized by federal and provincial authorities. CN has no interest in building an oil-port facility, although other companies, including Cnooc Ltd.-owned Nexen Inc., have pursued such plans.

CN expects its oil shipments to reach 110,000 barrels per day this year, and b  (go to article)

The Star Online -- A commodities trader filed suit against BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil in a U.S. federal court, accusing the companies of colluding to fix prices in North Sea Brent crude oil.

Prime International Trading Ltd, in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in the courthouse in White Plains, New York on Wednesday, accused the oil companies of misreporting prices of trades in the North Sea benchmark, which sets the price of about 70 percent of the world's oil.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a European Commission probe into potential market abuse involving the reporting of false prices to price-setting agency Platts, a unit of McGraw-Hill. Authorities last week raided the London bureau of Platts and the offices of the three oil majors named in the lawsuit.  (go to article)

San Jose Mercury News -- This may come as a shocker to many Californians, but fewer motorists appear to be using hand-held cellphones as they drive along state highways and city streets.

In a survey released Wednesday by the Office of Traffic Safety, the percentage of drivers using cellphones -- hand-held or hands free -- has fallen from 10.8 percent in 2012 to 7.4 percent this year. The largest drop, 33 percent, was from those holding a cellphone to their ear in violation of state law.

But at the same time, the number of motorists who take their eyes off the road when texting rose to 2.5 percent from 1.7 percent. While that may not seem like a lot, safety officials warn it is a troubling trend especially since it is harder to detect a texting driver who often will hold their phone in their lap and out of sight.  (go to article)

nbcnews.com -- Shirley Bowman noticed the smell after 8 a.m. on June 14, 2012, her 61st birthday. In Baton Rouge, where the petrochemical industry dominates the landscape, foul odors resembling burnt rubber or propane are perennial. But this odor, caustic and potent, seemed especially foul — “like some sort of chemical,” she recalls.

..She soon suspected the cause: A leak of “steam-cracked” naphtha, a liquid mixture of volatile petrochemicals, occurring at the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge petrochemical complex a half mile away.

The leaky valve dumped 411 barrels into the underground system, company records filed with the state show. The liquid traveled a mile before pouring into a separator pit, vaporizing along the way, and releasing tens of thousands of pounds of benzene and other toxic chemicals into the  (go to article)

bloomberg.com -- British Columbia, the Canadian province whose official slogan to its own beauty is “Super, Natural,” is invoking another saying: “No more supertankers.”

That’s potentially big trouble in a nation where oil exports amount to $73 billion annually and the industry employs more than 550,000 workers. It’s also a bad omen for nations, notably China, that have invested billions in Canadian oil projects with expectations that they will one day be able to buy vast quantities of heavy Canadian crude.

To do that means not just pumping it from the vast tar sands -- thought to hold as many as 170 billion barrels -- lying mainly to the east in the neighboring province of Alberta. It also means building pipelines to carry that heavy oil, known as bitumen, west to the coast. From there, fleets of super  (go to article)

Eu observer -- EU energy policy must shift towards diversifying supply, with natural shale gas likely to be part of the mix, EU leaders said at a summit in Brussels on Wednesday (22 May).

UK Prime Minister David Cameron offered robust support for European exploitation of shale gas, telling journalists: "No regulation must get in the way."

"Europe has 75 percent as much shale gas as the US, yet the Americans are drilling 10,000 wells per year while we in Europe are drilling less than 100," he noted.

He added it is "no surprise that over the last decade Americans have increased their energy from shale from just 1 percent to 30 percent, and here in Europe we are now paying twice what the US pays for wholesale gas."

For his part, European Council President Herman van Rompuy said the summit was the "right  (go to article)

AP -- The Detroit automakers are largely forgoing the traditional two-week summer break at their factories and speeding up production to meet buyers' growing demand for new cars and trucks.

Ford Motor said Wednesday that 21 of its North American factories will shut for only one week this summer. That includes the Chicago plant that makes the Ford Explorer SUV and the Mexican plant that makes the Fusion sedan.

General Motors won't idle its factories at all, while Chrysler plans a two-week break at just four of its ten North American assembly plants. Both GM and Chrysler are rolling out critical new models.

The three Detroit car makers traditionally shut factories for 14 days around July 4 to do maintenance and change the machinery for new models. But they don't have that luxury this year.

U.  (go to article)

goskagit.com -- Three rescue boats and several private vessels are on the Skagit River between Burlington and Mount Vernon, attempting to help people who are sitting on their cars in the water after the north-most section of the Skagit River Bridge collapsed this evening.
A reporter at the scene says that the north section of the bridge is entirely in the water.
Rescue crews are at the scene to redirect traffic around the site and look for people still in the river. Traffic is reportedly backed up at several roadways and authorities are in the area attempting to help people out of the water.
Witnesses said they saw three people pulled from the river, and they were taken by ambulance from the scene on stretchers.
When rescuers pulled one man from the roof of his car to dry land, people watching applauded.
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Bloomberg BusinessWeek -- German brewers called on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to block the tapping of shale gas by means of hydraulic fracturing, citing industry concerns that fracking could taint the purity of the country’s beer.

The Association of German Breweries, which represents companies including Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI) (ABI) and Bitburger Braugruppe GmbH, rejected the government’s planned legislation on fracking until groundwater contamination can be safely excluded. They said the current proposals are inadequate to protect drinking water and hence risk infringing the country’s 500-year-old law on beer purity.  (go to article)

By Ros Krasny | Reuters – Wed, 22 May, 2013 -- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives approved a bill as expected on Wednesday declaring that a presidential permit was not needed to approve the Canada-to-Nebraska leg of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a move that would take a decision on the project away from the Obama administration  (go to article)

Bloomberg -- Marathon Oil Corp. ended talks to sell part of its stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project as Canadian oil sands deals languish in the face of low heavy crude prices and competing U.S. shale investments.

The announcement comes after ConocoPhillips said last month its effort to sell stakes in Canadian oil-sands assets may stretch into 2014.

A lack of pipelines from Alberta’s oil sands is depressing prices for Canadian heavy crude, which today were $20 a barrel less than West Texas Intermediate.

Prospective buyers of oil-sands assets aren’t worried about “short-term” issues such as lower prices for Canadian heavy oil, Andre De Leebeeck, vice president of investor relations for Calgary-based Athabasca, said in a phone interview today. “Long term, oil sands are competitive.  (go to article)

Financial Post -- AB’s bitumen growth prospects could slow on shortages of a much lighter product as companies opt to send crude directly to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Asia rather than process the stuff at home.

Demand for diluent, industry slang for super-light oil that is blended with bitumen so it can flow in pipelines, is poised to skyrocket as companies such as Imperial Oil and Suncor balk at building hugely expensive upgrading plants that convert raw production into a refinery-ready oil.

The reluctance to invest in costly processing comes with oil sands output projected to double to 3.8 M bpd by 2022. That could push demand for diluent from about 330,000 bpd last year to roughly 935,000.

Bitumen is too thick to flow by itself. It must be blended with a lighter hydrocarbon in 3 to 1  (go to article)

Reuters -- The Portland-Montreal pipeline - principally owned by top Canadian oil refiners Suncor Energy, Imperial Oil, and Royal Dutch Shell - has already spent about $6.5 million to prepare for a reversal of the line so it can carry heavy oil sands crude from Quebec to Maine's biggest city, according to regulatory filings from 2011. The pipeline now mainly carries imported crude to Canadian refineries.

"...we are currently operating under capacity, and looking for every opportunity to maximize use of our assets, including reversal," he said of the pipe, which was designed to move as much as 240,000 barrels per day.

Canadian pipeline company Enbridge... has proposed reversing its 'Line 9' pipeline between Sarnia, Ontario, and Montreal, to get Alberta oil sands crude into Quebec.  (go to article)

Common Dreams -- Internal ExxonMobil documents obtained through an Freedom of Information Act request by Greenpeace shows that the oil giant misled the public about the degree to which the spill of more than 200,000 galllons of tar sands oil in Arkansas had contaminated local waterways.

Following the rupture of the Pegasus pipeline in the town of Mayflower on March 29, area residents were increasingly concerned that Lake Conway had been contaminated. Despite overwhelming evidence that tar sands oil was in the lake, ExxonMobil publicly said this was not the case.  (go to article)

The Fool -- Last week the Energy Department announced that it has conditionally authorized the Freeport LNG project to export natural gas to countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the U.S. This marked the second such authorization, and it also likely paves the way for additional approvals in the future. As we ramp up our export capacity over the next few years I see the following five natural gas stocks as those likely to be the biggest winners.  (go to article)