Energy In-depth: USDA To Invest $100 Million To Boost State-Led Renewable Fuel Programs

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USDA TO INVEST $100 MILLION TO BOOST STATE-LED RENEWABLE FUEL PROGRAMS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced plans to invest up to $100 million in a Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership to make more renewable fuel options available to American consumers.

Specifically, USDA will administer competitive grants to match funding for state-led efforts to test and evaluate innovative and comprehensive approaches to market higher blends of renewable fuel, such as E15 and E85. States that are able to provide greater than a one-to-one ratio in funding will receive higher consideration.

“American-made, clean energy sources support the environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and sustain the economy in rural communities across the country. We are fortunate that our farmers are producing record amounts of feedstock for these fuels,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

This new USDA partnership will help support the installation of fuel pumps capable of supplying higher blends of renewable fuel by partnering with states to fund innovative, public-private partnerships to test more comprehensive approaches to marketing such blends.

BLOOMBERG: OPEC TO MAINTAIN CURRENT OIL OUTPUT
Bloomberg reports that OPEC again agreed to cede no ground to rival producers, keeping its faith that U.S. shale drillers and other higher-cost competitors will capitulate first.

“The 12 nations kept their combined daily production target at 30 million barrels after meeting in Vienna on Friday, in line with what all but one of 34 traders and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted. Crude oil rose 1 percent, reversing an earlier decline,” Bloomberg reported.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) set its Saudi-conceived strategy of defending market share rather than prices in November. Since then, it has pumped ever more crude into global markets. While that’s driven down energy costs for consumers and helped keep inflation in check, it’s also spurred a record slump in the number of active U.S. oil rigs and forced rival producers to cut billions from spending plans.

MURPHY OIL CEO: COMPANY HAS NOT BEEN APPROACHED BY SUITOR
Murphy Oil Corp. President and CEO Roger Jenkins shared in a recent interview with a Wall Street analyst that the El Dorado-based Fortune 500 company has not been approached by a larger integrated oil conglomerate or suitor as market rumors persist that the Arkansas oil giant is a takeover target.

Read more of Jenkins’ interview at this link.

NATURAL GAS PRICES LOSE GROUND ON OVERSUPPLY WORRIES
Natural gas prices fell to a four-week low on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration report that U.S. natural gas inventories ended at 132 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending May 29, the largest implied weekly net injection ever reported in EIA’s Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report.

The record natural gas storage raises stocks to 2,233 Bcf, 22 Bcf (1%) above the five-year average and 751 Bcf (51%) above this same week last year. Analysts expected a storage injection (increase) of between 110 billion and 123 billion cubic feet.

Earlier this year, on February 13, inventories exceeded the five-year average by 2.8%, or 58 Bcf, because of milder temperatures and reduced demand. In Thursday’s session on the New York Mercantile Exchange, July natural gas futures were 0.8 cent lower at $2.626 per one million British Thermal Units. To see the weekly EIA natural gas report, click here.

APOLLO SHOOTS FOR THE MOON WITH $150 BILLION RENEWABLE ENERGY INITIATIVE
Scientists and economists including BP Plc’s former CEO, John Browne, are inviting governments to join a $150 billion program that aims to make clean energy cheaper than coal, according to a Bloomberg report.

The 10-year plan, known as the Global Apollo Programme to Combat Climate Change, will fund research into renewables, power storage and smart-grid technologies to make them cheaper than fossil fuels. It aims to create an international task force of scientists, entrepreneurs and policymakers.

“There is a looming catastrophe that can be avoided,” David King, an Apollo founder and former chief scientific adviser to the U.K. government, said in London. “What we need to do is create clean energy that is less costly than fossil energy, and once we get to that point, we’re winning all battles.”

Apollo already has attracted considerable interest from countries including India, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, King said. The project plans to make public its members by November, ahead of the United Nations climate change talks in Paris the following month.