09-18-2017, 10:47 PM
As the U.S. and its allies look to impose even stricter measures against North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un could find inspiration from oppressive regimes of yesteryear in Nazi Germany and Apartheid-era South Africa. Both managed to survive oil blockades with the help of liquefying coal, a technology that dates back to the 1920s. North Korea has ample reserves of the fuel, at one point leading the world in anthracite coal exports.
North Korea may copy Nazi Germany if total oil ban takes effect
Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey flooded the U.S. Gulf Coast, brought shipping to a halt and knocked out power to millions, the only company sending U.S. shale gas overseas is back in business. In fact, Cheniere Energy Inc.’s flagship Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana is liquefying more natural gas for export than ever.
Cheniere's Sabine Pass to "push the limits" after Gulf Coast flooding
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma demonstrate the importance of keeping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said, in a not-so-subtle rebuke to President Donald Trump. "This is a good example of why we need an SPR," Perry said at a press conference Friday morning. The reserve, run by the federal government, is a stockpile that can hold more than 700 MMbbl of crude. Trump’s budget proposal this year called for selling half the reserve, saying it was no longer useful in a time of U.S. oil surpluses.
Perry highlights need for U.S. oil reserve in rebuke of Trump's plan to sell
A dearth of new investment in oil production is stoking a risk of tighter crude supply and unstable prices, even as demand growth is expected to slow over the next five years, a senior International Energy Agency official. The worldwide cushion of spare production capacity will shrink without further investment in exploration and output, Neil Atkinson, the head of the IEA’s oil markets and industry division, said Sunday at a conference in Manama, Bahrain.
IEA sees risk of volatile oil prices on weak upstream investment