Animated Oil Imports Map

From RMI, an animated map of how our oil imports have changed over time.  Pretty neat, check it out.

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TAPS Shutdown – High Winds in Valdez

Bad weather (high winds) interfering with tanker loading at the Valdez terminal, combined with full storage tanks at Valdez, forced a shutdown of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline Monday.  There is a standing Coast Guard order that loading and transit through the narrows be curtailed when winds exceed 50 knots.
Alyeska stopped pumps along the 800-mile pipeline [...]

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Oil Demand Fall Largest in Last 25 Years

From Guardian/The Observer, by Tim Webb:

Global demand for oil in 2009 will fall by the largest amount for 25 years, according to the chief energy economist of Deutsche Bank.
Adam Sieminski said oil prices could hit a low of $30 a barrel next year, a fall of a quarter from today’s price, because of the sickly [...]

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U.S. Retail Gasoline Prices at 58-Month Low

From the Tulsa World:
U.S. retail gasoline prices tumbled Friday to the lowest level in nearly five years. And while crude futures rose, analysts believed it was a temporary pause in an extended, downward arc as the recession spreads.
“We’re paying about $1 billion per day less than we were in July” for gasoline, said Tom Kloza, [...]

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ExxonMobil Continues to Act Above the Law

ExxonMobil continues to thumb its nose at Alaska over the Pt. Thompson prospect.  After sitting on the Pt. Thompson leases for over 30 years and submitting twenty-some-odd revised exploration plans that they never followed through on, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources yanked ExxonMobil’s leases for non-performance with the lease terms.
After they lost the leases, [...]

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Global Recession Continues to Drive Down Oil Price

From various wire services, compiled by Upstream Online:
Oil prices slipped below $40 a barrel today, weakened by evidence of falling oil demand as the world economy slows. The third-quarter US gross domestic product data is likely to underscore the ailing economy as a series of stimulus measures and policy moves – including China’s fifth interest [...]

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Declining Oil Revenues

From Petroleum News (Alan Bailey):
… Patrick Galvin, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Revenue, emphasized the challenges resulting from oil price uncertainty when he introduced DOR’s fall 2008 revenue forecast on Dec. 9.
“This year is a challenge entirely unique in our recent experience,” Galvin said. “Oil prices have experienced unprecedented … volatility over the past [...]

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Oil Keeps Dropping – Global Economic Woes

Oil demand continues to drop.  From Upstream Online:
Oil fell below $43 today after the US government predicted world oil consumption would shrink this year and next, marking the longest demand contraction in more than 30 years. US crude was down 84 cents at $42.87 a barrel at 1636 GMT, off a session low [...]

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Weekly Alaska Oil Report

From the Alaska Department of Revenue, the latest numbers:
ANS crude prices continue to fall, making it ever more unlikely that the state will make its target forecast of $83.04/bbl.  The Dept. of Revenue is still forecasting an average price of $87.04/bbl for the year, but I doubt they’ll make it.
Production remains above predicted average.  If [...]

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Distribution of Income Amongst the Rich

Interesting graph.  Basically, it looks like much of the growth in personal wealth in the last 15 years has been concentrated in the top 1% of the incomes.  These are probably the same folks who are looking for government bailouts today.

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