During the recent heat wave in Texas, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the operator of the electric grid covering most of the state, set a new record for electricity use when demand for electricity reached 69.8 gigawatts (GW)…
Month: August 2015 (page 2)
First offshore wind farm in the United States begins construction
In July, American offshore wind developer, Deepwater Wind, installed the first foundation for what is expected to be the first offshore wind farm in the United States. The project will be located three miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island.…
Nuclear accord creates potential for additional crude oil production from Iran
On July 14, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) and Iran announced an agreement that could result in relief from United States and European Union nuclear-related sanctions (which include some oil-related sanctions).…
Japan restarts first nuclear reactor under new safety rules
On August 11, Kyushu Electric Power Company’s 846 megawatt Sendai Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 became the first reactor to restart after nearly two years with no generation from nuclear power plants in Japan. Following the disaster at Fukushima in…
West Coast wind patterns lead to below-normal wind generation capacity factors
A drop in average wind speeds in the western United States during early 2015 led to reduced generation from wind plants in California, Oregon, and Washington. As a result, wind plant utilization rates, also known as plant capacity factors, were…
Rail helps make Midwest a net shipper of crude oil
Shipments of crude oil out of the Midwest region to other U.S. regions have steadily increased as a result of pipeline reversals and rail transport. Rail movements out of the Midwest contributed to the region becoming a net shipper of…
U.S. refineries are running at record-high levels
Gross inputs to U.S. refineries exceeded 17 million barrels per day (b/d) in each of the past four weeks, a level not previously reached since EIA began publishing weekly data in 1990. The rolling four-week average of U.S. gross refinery…
Russia is world’s largest producer of crude oil and lease condensate
Russia is the world’s largest producer of crude oil (including lease condensate) and the second-largest producer of dry natural gas, after the United States. Hydrocarbons play a large role in the Russian economy, as revenue from oil and natural gas…
Monthly power sector carbon dioxide emissions reach 27-year low in April
The electric power sector emitted 128 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MMmt CO2) in April 2015, the lowest for any month since April 1988, according to the most recent estimates in EIA’s Monthly Energy Review. …read more Source:: TODAY…
Algeria is reforming its laws to attract foreign investment in hydrocarbons
Algeria is the third-largest oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria and Angola, and the largest natural gas producer in Africa. However, production of both oil and natural gas has declined over the past decade. This declining production has led the…
