New base 746 special 13 december 2015

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NewBase 13 December 2015 - Issue No. 746 Edited & Produced by: Khaled Al Awadi

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Landmark Climate-Change Agreement Hailed as ‘Leap for Mankind’ Bloomberg - Alex Morales

The world’s nations took the boldest steps yet to stem climate change, adopting an historic package of measures to limit fossil-fuel pollution and establish a mechanism to step up the reductions for decades.

After two weeks of intense negotiations overseen by the United Nations, envoys from 195 nations in Paris on Saturday endorsed a program that also set an ambitious goal to curb temperature increases and set up ways to measure and verify emissions everywhere.

French President Francois Hollande hailed the deal as the “first universal agreement in the history of climate negotiations” and “a major leap for mankind.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who spent days in Paris negotiating, said it the deal sends “a critical message to the global marketplace.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called it a “monumental triumph.”

French President Francois Hollande (L) shakes hands with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (C)




The landmark program applies to all nations, rich and poor. It’s broader than the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which limits greenhouse gas emissions in 37 mostly European nations. Environmentalists said that while the Paris package is a step forward, more action is required to contain temperatures that are on track to set a record in 2015.

The 31-page accord also heals a rift between industrial and developing nations over how to act on climate change that erupted in 2009 when the last big push for a deal dissolved in finger pointing over who should take the first step.

Temperature Targets

The global average temperature this year is set to be about 1 degree higher than the 1800s for the first time, a quicker shift in the climate than when last ice age ended 10,000 years ago. Researchers say current climate-change pledges would only contain rising temperatures to 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) rather than the 2 degrees backed by the envoys.

“The tightening of the temperature is a momentous achievement,” said Donald MacDonald, chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, a group of 120 funds managing $14 trillion. “Pension funds recognize their fiduciary duty to address climate risk and, where necessary, to reallocate investment away from high carbon-related activity likely to destroy shareholder value.”

The Paris deal consists of a 12-page enduring agreement that would take effect from 2020 and take in voluntary commitments from all nations, expanding on the current treaty in place sealed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. So far, 186 countries have made pledges for the Paris deal, with nine yet to submit plans. A 19-page so-called decision text completes the package, setting shorter-term legal provisions.




The new deal also sets out goals on:

TEMPERATURE -- Calling for temperature increases since the industrial revolution to be limited to 2 degrees Celsius and for the first time challenging nations to work toward a more aggressive target of 1.5 degrees.

FOSSIL FUELS -- Says nations should work toward “a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century.” That means that greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels must be equal to those absorbed by planting trees and the facilities capturing carbon for permanent underground storage.

TRANSPARENCY -- Seeks a single system for measuring the emissions of every nation, and for monitoring progress toward their voluntary targets. Every five years, starting in 2018, there would be a global assessment of whether combined efforts are sufficient. From 2020, countries must update old pledges or prepare new ones every five years.

LOSS AND DAMAGE: A key provision sought by island nations who say that changes are already occurring that they can’t adapt to. The new deal sets up a mechanism to provide expert advice, emergency preparedness and insurance. A clause in the decision text says that mechanism will not provide for liability and compensation, paying heed to a red line by the U.S., Japan and European nations.

FINANCE -- Developed countries pledged in 2009 to ramp up climate aid to vulnerable ones to an annual $100 billion by 2020. The draft agreement says that from 2020, “climate finance should represent a progression beyond previous efforts,” without mentioning a numerical target. A separate so-called decision document says industrialized nations should continue the existing goal through to 2025, when they would set a new collective goal.

Energy Shift

The goals is to send a message to investors and governments that they need to shift away from using oil, natural gas and especially coal, said Alden Meyer, who has followed the talks for more than two decades for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a U.S. advocacy group.

“It sends a very solid signal that demand for fossil fuels is going to be reduced,” Meyer said in Paris. “The industry has to transform itself. You’re seeing that now with the bankruptcies in the coal industry, and this will accelerate that trend in oil.”

Perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the deal is bringing developing countries under the umbrella of the program, something the European Union and U.S. insisted on after China and

India surged up the ranks of polluting nations.

Architects of the Paris deal want the goals to “ratchet up” over time. The ambitions are currently framed in national commitments on emissions by 2030, or in some cases 2025. The envoys asked scientists to deliver a report in 2018 about how to reach their more aggressive temperature target and put pressure on nations to deepen their greenhouse-gas reductions before 2020.




Qatargas delivers 1st commissioning LNG cargo to terminal in Poland Gulf Times

Qatargas has delivered the first commissioning liquefied natural gas cargo to Poland on its chartered Q-Flex vessel ‘Al-Nuaman’ at the Polish receiving terminal in swinoujscie. PGNiG (Polish Oil & Gas) provided its assistance as an intermediary in the LNG delivery, according to the agreement with the Polskie LNG (Polish LNG), the receiver of the resource used for commissioning of the facility.

Qatargas said the cargo was the first of the two planned that would be supplied by it for the “cool-down and commissioning of the Polish LNG Receiving Terminal. According to the current schedule, the second delivery is planned for February 2016. During the grand ceremony marking the first LNG delivery to in Swinoujscie, Qatargas chief executive officer, Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani said, “We are extremely

delighted at this historic milestone and hope that our support in commissioning of this newly constructed LNG receiving terminal will in turn help to fuel sustainable economic growth and development throughout Poland, Eastern Europe and across all nations along the Baltic Sea basin.

He said, “Poland represents a new market for Qatargas’ premium LNG and the delivery of LNG into Poland further demonstrates our commitment to provide Europe with a clean energy source, reliably and safely. This terminal will further expand LNG’s reach into Europe - first into Poland and thereafter as a gateway into the land-locked countries in central Europe as well as into the Baltic region. The Swinoujscie LNG terminal becomes the 17th LNG terminal that Qatargas provides deliveries and marks another significant milestone in Qatargas’ history. Qatargas is extremely proud to be associated with the Swinoujscie LNG terminal and with Poland.”

LNG imports will afford more flexibility in responding to market conditions, while improving Poland’s energy security. We are happy that LNG deliveries have started to arrive at the Swinoujscie terminal, hoping that the contract between PGNiG and Qatargas will mark the beginning of a long-term partnership between the two companies.”

The Swinoujscie terminal is designed to receive, regasify and deliver even 5.0 bcm of gas a year into the Polish transfer system. The project is now in the commissioning stage with commercial operation planned to take place in the second quarter of 2016. PGNiG will receive the LNG deliveries based on the 20-year contract with which Qatargas will deliver 1mn tonnes of LNG to the receiving terminal in Swinoujscie annually.




Oman: Tethys Oil announces November production update Tethys Oil reports that its share of the production, before government take, from Blocks 3 and 4onshore the Sultanate of Oman amounted in November 2015 to 331,762 barrels of oil, corresponding to 11,059 barrels of oil per day.

Tethys Oil, through its wholly owned subsidiary Tethys Oil Block 3 and 4 Ltd, has a 30 per cent interest in Blocks 3 and 4. Partners are Mitsui E&P Middle East with 20 per cent and the operator CC Energy Development (Oman branch) holding the remaining 50 per cent.




Congo (Brazzaville): Total starts up Moho Phase 1b deep offshore project..

Total has brought on stream the Moho Phase 1b project, located 75 kms off the coast of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of the Congo. The project is operated by Total and has a production capacity of 40,000 barrels oil equivalent per day (boe/d).

'Moho Phase 1b is our ninth start-up since the beginning of the year and will contribute to our strong production growth in the years to come,' commented Arnaud Breuillac, President Exploration & Production. 'The start-up of this project, in line with the original schedule,

constitutes a further success for Total’s growth strategy in deep offshore, particularly in West Africa. It follows the start-up of Dalia Phase 1A on Angola’s Block 17 in July this year and more recently, the Lianzi field which straddles the deep offshore of Congo and Angola.'

Moho Phase 1b, located in water depths ranging from 750 to 1,200 meters, involves the drilling of 11 new subsea wells and the installation of the two most powerful subsea multiphase pumps in the world. It is tied back to the existing Floating Production Unit (FPU) of the Moho Bilondo field, producing since 2008.

The nearby Moho Nord development,

launched concurrently with Moho Phase 1b in 2013, is ongoing and

will add a further 100,000 boe/d of capacity. Moho Phase 1b and Moho Nord are part of the Moho Bilondo license operated by Total E&P Congo with a 53.5% participating interest. The other partners are Chevron Overseas (Congo) Limited (31.5%) and the Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (15.0%).




Gazprom may use third party gas to fill China pipeline Reuters + Newbase

Russia’s Gazprom has held talks with a small Siberian energy firm on using its gas to fill a pipeline to China if the state-controlled giant’s own projects to produce and transport the gas are not ready in time, industry sources said.

As part of Russia’s strategic shift eastwards prompted by rows with the West, Gazprom agreed last year to start pipeline gas supplies to China in 2018-2019, raising them gradually after that to make China one of the biggest customers for Russian gas.

However, Gazprom has less money available to finance the scheme than it had expected because low world gas prices have hit its revenues, while sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine are making it hard to secure loans from the West.

One industry source told Reuters that Gazprom had asked the privately-owned Irkutsk Oil Company, which holds large gas reserves in the region and some infrastructure, to pledge up to 7bn cubic metres of gas per year for Gazprom’s future supplies to China.

“There is an agreement in principle, but we don’t know the prices yet,” the source said.

A second source, close to Gazprom, said the firm had started talks with third party suppliers due to financial constraints. “Massive investments are needed there, and it is a huge problem in the current situation.” the source said, confirming that Irkutsk was one of the companies approached by Gazprom.




Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said his firm had had contacts with Irkutsk Oil Company. But asked if the talks were about the Siberian firm supplying gas for pumping to China, he told Reuters: “That’s not confirmed.”

“The contacts were for information only on the creation of a gas balance in the east.”

Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports, is treated by the Kremlin as a national champion. Therefore, for the world’s biggest gas company to seek help from a small independent to complete such a high-profile project would raise eyebrows in the industry.

Under the Gazprom project, two large gas fields in the far-flung regions of East Siberia, Chayanda and Kovykta, are designated as the principal source for the supplies to China.

Gazprom had valued total investments for the project at $55bn, which includes the development of the fields and construction of a pipeline called The Power of Siberia which will take the gas to China.

Apart from costly investments, Gazprom has faced a problem with high helium content at Chayanda. The company will have to separate the helium from methane, the prime type of gas destined for further sales to China.

Potentially, there could be other companies able to feed their gas into Gazprom’s pipeline.




Mexican crude oil shipments to Europe and Asia are rising as U.S. imports fall

Source: U.S. EIA + Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex)

In September 2015, monthly U.S. crude oil imports from Mexico totaled 0.6 million barrels per day (b/d), the lowest level since 1990, and a decrease of about 50% since January 2011. Meanwhile, Mexico's exports of heavy crude oil to Asia and light crude oil to Europe rose, according to data from Mexico's national oil company Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

Most of Mexico's exports are of heavy crude oil, which Pemex defines as crude oil with an API gravity equal to or below 27 degrees. Heavy crude oil volumes sent to U.S. Gulf Coast (Petroleum Administration for Defense District 3) refineries have fallen as new infrastructure has allowed greater volumes of Western Canadian Select heavy crude oil to reach PADD 3 refineries. In addition, production of Maya crude oil from the offshore Cantarell field, traditionally Mexico's largest oil field, has decreased significantly.




As Mexican heavy crude oil exports to the United States have decreased, increasing volumes have been sold to Asian markets, especially India, and to a lesser extent South Korea and Japan. Greater volumes of heavy crude oil have been processed in Mexico's domestic refineries, partially offsetting a decline in processed volumes of lighter domestic crude types.

A drop in Mexican exports of light crude oil (API gravity above 38 degrees) to the United States has been largely offset by increased light crude exports to Europe, especially Spain. Smaller volumes of Mexico's light crude oil have been exported to European countries such as Italy, France, and the Netherlands.




US: Close to Oil-Export Deal Amid Tax-Break Talks BloombergBrian Wingfield bwingfield

Senate negotiators are nearing a deal to allow unfettered U.S. crude oil exports for the first time in 40 years, though differences remain on renewable-energy tax credits that Democrats are demanding in return, according to people close to the discussions.

While any agreement could still collapse in the coming days -- the deal faces opposition in the House -- lawmakers are weighing the extension of solar and wind tax credits for as long as five years in exchange for lifting the crude-export restrictions, which were established to counter the energy shortages of the 1970s.

Tax breaks are part of the discussion, though lawmakers are still negotiating the length of wind- and solar-energy tax extensions and whether they should be phased out, said a Senate Democratic leadership aide, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

If agreed to and approved by Congress, repeal of the nation’s ban on most crude oil exports would mark the most significant shift in U.S. oil policy in more than a generation. Repeal, benefiting oil producers including ConocoPhillips, Hess Corp. and Continental Resources Inc., would come at a time when the industry is cutting jobs to deal with a global glut in crude oil and the lowest prices in seven years. Talks for a deal are under way as envoys from 195 nations reached an agreement to limit fossil-fuel pollution and curb the effects of climate change.

Refinery Tax Credit

Congress is considering lifting the export ban as part of either a package to extend expiring tax provisions or to finance the government through Sept. 30 before current funding authority expires Dec. 16. Among the items being discussed are a 9 percent manufacturing tax credit for refiners and an extension of the U.S. Land Water Conservation Fund, according to at least three lobbyists close to the negotiations.




Even if such a deal is struck by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, House Democrats, who are vital to reaching an agreement, have suggested they won’t go along unless a provision for indexing the Child Tax Credit, which allows taxpayers to reduce federal income taxes for each qualifying child, is added to the mix. And it’s unclear whether House Republicans will support a deal if they assess that the price Democrats are seeking is too high.

On Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters that Republicans were refusing to include the indexing in the deal they are seeking.

“They’re not going to index it. Instead, they put ‘Big Oil’ in there,” she told reporters. “We do not want to give our imprimatur to it. We will not be an accomplice,” she said.

Social Welfare

“Imagine that they would give over $100 billion in tax credits for people who want to do business overseas, and they won’t give us the money for indexation for young people -- money that is spent immediately because people need it,” Pelosi said.

The California Democrat added that the “maybe $700 billion or more” in “permanent tax extenders” being pushed by Republicans would hurt the ability to invest in social welfare and educational programs.

The prospects for lifting the export ban are highest if there’s a separate tax-extender bill that includes medium- to long-term tax credits benefiting wind and solar producers, said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners LLC, in a research note to clients.

“We think the prospects for an end of the crude oil export ban probably depend most on the architecture of the final deal,” he said.




NewBase 13 December - 2015 Khaled Al Awadi

NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE

Brent slips below $39 for the first time since Dec. 2008 Reuters + NewBase

Crude oil prices hit fresh seven-year lows on Friday as the International Energy Agency

(IEA) warned global oversupply could worsen in the new year.

Brent slipped below $39 per barrel for the first time since December 2008 as the IEA, which advises developed nations on energy, warned that demand growth was starting to slow.

“The technicals and the fundamentals are singing from the same hymn sheet,” said Tamas Varga, oil analyst with PVM Associates. “We will not see support until we hit the lows of 2008.”

Brent crude futures were down 60 cents at $39.13 a barrel at 1058 GMT, bouncing slightly from a session low of $38.90.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude futures were at $36.26 per barrel, down 50 cents after touching $36.12, their lowest since February 2009.

Varga said there was room to fall further, with little support likely until oil reached the 2008 lows of $36.20 per barrel for Brent and $32.40 per barrel for WTI.

Prices have tumbled this month after OPEC failed to impose a ceiling on output. OPEC producers pumped more oil in November than in any month since late 2008, some 31.7 million barrels per day.

Oil price special

coverage




US oil drillers park rigs as Opec still weighs on market Bloomberg + Gulf News + Newbase

More drilling rigs were parked in US oilfields this week as OPEC’s decision to continue its pace of rising production forced crude markets to take another step down.

Rigs targeting oil in the US fell by 21 to 524, extending a five-year low and adding to the 130 that have been idled since August, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. It was the fourth straight week of declines after a brief two-rig uptick last month. Natural gas rigs were trimmed 7 to 185, bringing the total down by 28 to 709.

The Permian Basin in West Texas, home to the largest amount of US oilfield activity, fell the most, dropping 15 rigs and leaving 194 working.

“This is exactly what we thought would occur,” Matt Marietta, an analyst at Stephens Inc. in Houston, said in a phone interview. “A lot of these companies are going to have tough decisions between staying liquid and making their interest payments or trying to grow production.”

The decision last week by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to effectively scrap production targets has pushed oil prices to their lowest level since 2008. The global surplus will persist at least until late 2016 as demand growth slows and Opec shows “renewed determination” to maximise production, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The group chose not to curb output at its Dec. 4 meeting.

Market Battle

“The hits keep on coming,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. “It was bad enough that the Opec meeting ended in disarray with no quota. Now we’re seeing just how aggressively everyone is fighting for market share.”

OPEC’s full-speed-ahead strategy to force higher-cost producers out of the market showed signs of working, as slowing activity among US producers contributed to declines in domestic supplies and production.




US output fell by 38,000 barrels last week to 9.16 million barrels a day, according to weekly Energy Information Administration data. It was the third time in four weeks that US production dropped.

Crude supplies fell 3.57 million barrels last week, the EIA reported Wednesday, as refiners emptied storage tanks to minimise the taxes they pay on end-of-year inventories. Stockpiles along the Gulf Coast tumbled 7.3 million barrels, the biggest decline since December 2012.

Above Average

US crude inventories slipped to 485.9 million barrels in the week ended December 4, still about 120 million above the five- year average, according to the EIA. Stockpiles are the highest level for this time of year since 1930.

America’s oil drillers have idled more than half the country’s rigs in the past year as the world’s largest crude suppliers battle for market share. The crude being pumped out of US shale formations helped create a global glut that’s pushed prices down by more than 50 per cent since June 2014.




NewBase Special Coverage

News Agencies News Release 13 Dec.. 2015

Chemical giants Dow Chemical and DuPont announce $130bn merger Reuters + NewBase

Even in a year that will go down in history for the number of huge mergers, the $130bn combination of Dow Chemical and DuPont announced on Friday is a behemoth.

The merger would combine two companies that sell pesticides, plant foods and genetically modified crops to millions of farmers around the world, and make a variety of chemicals for consumer and industrial products ranging from electronics, automobiles as well as household goods to building materials and safety equipment.

The all-stock merger calls for the two companies to combine as Dow DuPont, then separate into three independent publicly traded companies focused on agriculture, material science and specialty products.

The merger brings to a close a record year for deal-making, surpassing a levels unseen since 2007. So Far this year more than $4trn of deals have been struck including the $103bn merger of AB Inbev’s with brewing rival SAB Miller and the $160bn merger of pharmaceutical companies Allergan and Pfizer.

The Dow-Dupont deal is a rare combination of equals, rather than a straight purchase – the stock ratio is calculated so that all shareholders of each component company will come away owning half of the new entity.

Deal between two US companies would, if approved by regulators, create chemicals giant that could then break up into different businesses




“Over the last decade our entire industry has experienced tectonic shifts as an evolving world presented complex challenges and opportunities,” said Dow’s chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris.

Liveris will be named executive chairman of the combined company while DuPont’s chairman and CEO, Edward Breen, will be CEO. The company will have dual headquarters in Michigan and Delaware, where the two companies are currently based.

Frank Mitsch of Wells Fargo Securities called the transaction “the deal of three centuries” on the companies’ call with investors on Friday morning, saying that he knew the merger had been a long time in the making. “Andrew has coveted this transaction for at least eight years by my clock.”

“I have also coveted the transaction,” said Breen. “I was looking at this very seriously as a board member since I joined the board last February.” Breen came to DuPont relatively recently, having been named CEO only last month.

In conjunction with the proposed merger, which is subject to regulatory approval, both companies are taking separate restructuring steps.

DuPont announced a companywide restructuring plan, including employee and contractor layoffs affecting about 10% of the company’s workforce, to reduce $700m in costs. It expects to record a pretax charge of about $780m, with approximately $650m of employee separation costs and about $130m of asset-related charges and contract terminations.

Dow, meanwhile, said it is taking full ownership of Dow Corning, currently a 50-50 joint venture between Dow and Corning. Dow said the move, expected to close in the first half of 2016, is expected to generate more than $1bn in additional adjusted annual earnings and will increase its product offerings in the building and construction, consumer care and automotive markets.

The companies said the proposed merger of equals, approved unanimously by their respective directors, will result in cost synergies of about $3bn that are projected to create approximately $30bn of market value.

Under the terms of the deal, Dow shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of one share of DowDuPont for each Dow share, and DuPont shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 1.282 shares in DowDuPont for each DuPont share. Dow and DuPont shareholders will own about 50%, respectively, of the combined company.

The proposed agriculture business would unite DuPont’s and Dow’s seed and crop protection businesses. The material science company would combine DuPont’s performance materials segment with Dow’s performance plastics, performance materials and chemicals, infrastructure solutions, and consumer solutions units, excluding its electronic materials business. Combined pro forma 2014 revenue for material science was about $51bn.

The specialty products company would combine DuPont’s nutrition and health, industrial biosciences, safety and protection, and electronics and communications segments with Dow’s electronic materials business. Combined pro forma 2014 revenue for specialty products was approximately $13bn.

The new company’s board is expected to have 16 directors, consisting of eight current DuPont directors and eight current Dow directors.




America's biggest gas field finally succumbs to downturn REYTERS - | BY EDWARD MCALLISTER

The drilling rigs are gone from the hills surrounding this Pennsylvania town of 30,000. The hotels and bars are quieter too, no longer packed with the workers who flocked in their thousands to America's newest and biggest gas field.

The drilling boom of the past seven years is over, even though thousands of existing wells in the Marcellus region still produce a fifth of U.S. natural gas supply. Now, exclusive data made available to Reuters points to a slump in drilling that could hit production next year, defying government and industry expectations of a further rise in output.

Preliminary figures provided by DrillingInfo, which monitors rig activity, showed drilling permits issued for the 90,000-square mile (233,100 sq km) reservoir beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, slumped to 68 in October from 76 in September. There were still 160 permits issued in June and over 600 a month at the peak in 2010.

"The fact that it is slowing and the speed at which it is slowing" sums up the state of U.S. shale gas industry, Allen Gilmer, chief executive officer of DrillingInfo, told Reuters.

Recent months are subject to revisions, DrillingInfo said, but a retreat of such magnitude, combined with falling output from older wells, would mark a turning point for the Marcellus - and the whole U.S. gas

market.

The Energy Information Administration now forecasts overall U.S. gas output to hit a record in 2016 for the sixth year in a row. A drop in Marcellus production could snap that streak and help prop up prices that have fallen by two thirds since 2010.




U.S. natural gas production has risen 30 percent since 2008 when the development of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and horizontal drilling unlocked vast shale gas reserves, swamping the market with new supply and causing a collapse in prices.

The Marcellus area makes up nearly half of those shale reserves and the government expects the region to keep producing more in the coming years, albeit at a less furious pace.

To be sure, the impact of the slump in drilling permits could be mitigated by other factors. New pipelines coming online in 2016 will allow hundreds of wells already drilled to be hooked up to the grid. A harsh winter could also boost heating demand for natural gas.

Still, the retreat could weigh on Marcellus production well into next year, said Grant Nulle, an oil and gas economist at the EIA. "Those are very low numbers," Nulle said. "It is possible that producers could wait six months to drill after obtaining a permit, which could impact production into May or June," he added.

An as yet unpublished outlook from the EIA, which does not take into account the permit numbers, anticipates lower Marcellus production only through March, and a rise for the rest of the year. The EIA does not expect a full year's decline until 2019.

CHOKING BACK

While gas keeps flowing, the drilling crews are gone and with gas prices near 14-year lows, producers have choked hundreds of wells in the region in the hope that falling supply will stem the slide.

Several gas producers, including Chesapeake Energy and Cabot Oil and Gas, have announced production cuts in the region.

Inflection Energy, a Denver-based privately-owned company with an office in Williamsport, has cut production from 50-70 percent of its wells, company spokesman Matt Henderson said.

"It is better to choke back than to sell into this market," Henderson said.

NYMEX gas futures have dropped from over $4 per million British thermal units a year ago to just above $2 this week. In the Marcellus region, prices are even lower, touching levels where drilling is uneconomic.

Local energy firms hold out little hope for a near-term rebound, bracing for a longer rough patch instead.

Justin Kastner, a manager with Global Land Partners, a company that secures leases for oil and gas companies, said his staff has halved this year from 16 to eight.

"There is just too much gas," said Kastner. "I expect to see a downturn for the next two years."

The local economy is feeling the pinch too.

Foreclosure notices filed in Lycoming County, where Williamsport is located, between January and October hit their highest since the data was first collected in 2006, according to Realty Trac.

The 200-room Holiday Inn, which was one of five new hotels opened in Williamsport after 2009 and stayed fully booked throughout the rush, had more than 70 vacant rooms last week, according to receptionist Beth Smith.




"Every day I felt overwhelmed, the phone ringing off the hook, minding everyone coming in," she said about the drilling peak time two years ago. The lobby was less hectic now and cleaner without the workers bringing mud in from the well sites, though Smith said she missed the action.

The boomtown buzz is also gone from the Old Corner Hotel bar, one of Williamsport's oldest watering holes.

"It felt like every night was a Friday night," said general manager Kate Myers. "It is back to normal now."




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Khaled Al Awadi is a UAE National with a total of 25 years of experience in the Oil & Gas sector. Currently working as Technical Affairs Specialist for Emirates General Petroleum Corp. “Emarat“ with external voluntary Energy consultation for the GCC area via Hawk Energy Service as a UAE operations base , Most of the experience were spent as the Gas Operations Manager in Emarat , responsible for Emarat Gas Pipeline Network Facility & gas compressor stations . Through the years, he has developed great experiences in the designing & constructing of gas pipelines, gas metering &

regulating stations and in the engineering of supply routes. Many years were spent drafting, & compiling gas transportation, operation & maintenance agreements along with many MOUs for the local authorities. He has become a reference for many of the Oil & Gas Conferences held in the UAE and Energy program broadcasted internationally, via GCC leading satellite Channels.

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New base 746 special 13 december 2015

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Transcript of New base 746 special 13 december 2015