The Morning Briefing: Oil - rising price, an endless search
"The Morning Briefing" is SmartPlanet's daily roundup of must-reads around the web. This morning we're reading about crude oil pricing and the current search for the energy resource.
1.) Crude oil barrel price climbs close to $100 amid political tension. Political tensions with Iran, a weak U.S. dollar and the expectations of Europe to find alternative sources for importing has kept the price of oil rising. The benchmark price for March deliveries rose 30 cents to $99.70 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday. Currently, about 18 percent of Iran's oil sales are accounted for by European nations, and the political situation is due to Iran's secretive nuclear program.
2.) Ahmadinejad warns sanctions cannot stop his country's progress, and oil does not need to be sold to Europe. The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that no matter the sanction, it will not stop Iranian development -- following a fresh round of censure by the European Union and central bank on Monday. The president dismissed the actions as "efforts in vain."
3.) Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline, but is that the end of the matter? Potentially, TransCanada Corp. will be taking the pipeline in to their own hands. The company that originally proposed the $7 billion, 830,000 barrels a day project is not yet throwing in the towel. There are talks of building a pipeline that does not cross international borders -- therefore removing the need for President Obama's approval.
4.) Charges planned against Chevron Corp? According to Reuters, a Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against the company in an $11 billion civil lawsuit in relation to the November offshore oil spill.
5.) Energy market study suggests dependence on oil decreasing for the U.S. The Annual Energy Outlook 2012, released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, predicts changes in the energy market through 2035. The projections show renewables gaining a larger share of electric power generation, domestic crude oil and natural gas production rising, and reliance on imported oil stocks shrinking. Domestic crude oil production is expected to surge 20 percent over the coming decade.
6.) U.S. oil producer finds traces of oil at offshore well in Brazil. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), a Texas-based U.S. company, has found traces of the energy source in the country’s most productive basin. According to Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency, APC found oil at the C-M-202 block in Brazil's Campos Basin. Last year, the company mentioned it plans to sell off Brazilian assets to lower its debt.
7.) Falkland Islands oil search 'disappointing'. According to the UK's Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, recent oil exploration around the islands -- which became the catalyst for Argentina to try and reinstate their ownership of the islands -- have yielded little result.
Image credit: Steve Snodgrass
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com