FuelClub Discount

Mexico must begin oil production in deep waters and its onshore Chicontepec field, as well as revive abandoned wells, in order to stop a decline in production that has cost the company $10 billion in lost revenue since 2005, according to a government study released today.

Production in waters deeper than 500 meters (1,640 feet), where state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, estimates there are 30 billion barrels of reserves, will help raise daily output by 500,000 barrels by 2021, the study said.

“To arrest the decline in production, we need to act on various fronts,” Energy Minister Georgina Kessel said at a news conference today. “Every day we wait to act, Mexico loses revenue.”

The study, ordered by President Felipe Calderon, has been presented to most political parties, Kessel said. The government will submit a bill to reform the industry, which may include allowing foreign or private companies to help explore in deep waters, when most lawmakers have agreed on its basic tenets.

Calderon has faced opposition from lawmakers who say he wants to privatize the state oil industry. Kessel and Pemex Chief Executive Officer Jesus Reyes Heroles declined to say where Pemex would get the money for the projects they proposed.

A separate government report obtained by Bloomberg News says energy reforms would boost Mexico’s economy by 1 percent annually.

Mexico began to explore in waters deeper than 500 meters too late, said Reyes Heroles. Production from Chicontepec, abandoned onshore wells and fields that are peaking will raise oil output by 1.32 million barrels a day, the report said.

Only one of the six wells Mexico has drilled in water deeper than 500 meters has enough reserves to be economically viable to begin production.

Pemex’s crude output has fallen by 13 percent since peaking in 2003 and reserves have fallen 57 percent to 14.7 billion barrels since 1998, the first year Pemex published reserves.

The study also evaluated Mexico’s refining industry. The company needs to upgrade three of its gasoline refineries and build a new one every three years during the next 20 years to avoid a tripling of imports of the fuel to 1.6 million barrels a day, the report said. Mexico currently imports 40 percent of its domestic gasoline demand.

Pemex has forecast crude output of 3 million to 3.1 million barrels a day in 2008. Mexico’s oil output may fall by 800,000 barrels a day by 2012, Kessel said today. It may fall by 1.8 million barrels a day by 2021, she said at the news conference.

Source: Bloomberg

There’s more than just chatter on the radios and cell phones of truck drivers today.
Industry sources say truckers across the nation are organizing slowdowns and shutdowns to protest the high price of diesel fuel.

And some say truckers may take action as early as Tuesday. If they do, that’s no April 1 joke.

Some owner-operators say they look at the impact of $4-per-gallon diesel fuel and think they’re not going to be able to finish out the week. Others call on the American people to understand their plight, and realize the impact high transportation costs have on food and other consumer goods.

And still others demand that the trucking industry do more to help the nation’s 3.5 million drivers.
(more…)

South Wales Police are warning petrol stations and other organisations which hold large quantities of fuel to be aware that due to increases in fuel prices many people are resorting to ciphering or stealing fuel.

Acting Inspector Steve Trigg said, “As petrol and diesel prices are increasing there has been a trend towards ciphering and stealing fuel from businesses as this has now become an expensive commodity.

“I ask all businesses which store or sell fuel to make sure that CCTV is fully operational and that barrels are hidden out of sight from the general public.

“Minimising the opportunities for theft will justifiably put people off committing the crime.”

Source: NewsWales

A ship industry proposal to switch the world’s merchant fleet to diesel fuel will send oil soaring through the $150-a-barrel mark, stoking fears of higher petrol prices and rampant inflation, an environmental technology group said on Thursday.

It will mean even higher prices at British petrol pumps, with the GBP10 gallon a distinct possibility as demand begins to outstrip supply. Consumers will also feel the knock-on effect of higher food and energy bills.

Shipping circles are debating how to reduce harmful sulphur dioxide emissions, which cause acid rain, respiratory illnesses and heart problems.

Part of the industry, led by the independent tanker owners’ organisation Intertanko, wants a total ban on high-sulphur marine fuels in favour of lower sulphur diesel fuels.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN agency responsible for preventing pollution from ships, will consider the controversial fuel proposal when its Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) meets in London Monday (31 March).

The switch to diesel at sea would be equivalent to one and a half times the annual automotive diesel consumption in Europe.
(more…)

It looks like gasoline, smells like gasoline and runs in regular gasoline engines, but it isn’t made from crude oil; it comes from crops.

It’s called “biogasoline,” and under a partnership announced Wednesday between Royal Dutch Shell and Virent Energy Systems, it could be coming to a filling station near you.

The European oil giant and the Madison, Wis.-based bioscience firm said they are working on a way to convert plant sugars found in non-food crops like switchgrass or sugarcane pulp into a synthetic gasoline that can be substituted for petroleum-based gasoline.

The fuel could be a breakthrough. Unlike ethanol, it can be used in high concentrations in conventional gasoline engines, and can be stored and transported in existing oil industry infrastructure — eliminating the need to build a whole new biofuels system, the companies said.
(more…)

Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her “Lead Foot Lorraine.” But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel.
“I used to be a speed demon, but no more,” said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. “Most drivers have cut their speed considerably.”
Dawson said she’s cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said.
“My fiance is an owner-operator and he’s been crying a lot about the price of fuel,” Dawson said. “He’s been slowing way down.”
Truckers and industry officials say slowing a tractor-trailer rig from 75 mph to 65 mph increases fuel mileage by more than a mile a gallon, a significant bump for machines that get less than 10 miles per gallon hauling thousands of pounds of freight. Even sitting still with the engine idling, a rig gulps about a gallon of diesel every hour.
“We just can’t afford it,” Dawson said of diesel as she was topping off her fuel tanks at a Bismarck truck stop.
(more…)