Offshore Oil Expansion Passes U.S. House as Obama Considers Veto

How To Position Yourself for a 10 Year Pattern Breakout

The Republican led U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation opening the California and Virginia coasts for offshore oil drilling, defying a presidential veto threat.

The measure, if approved by the Senate, would replace President Barack Obama’s 2012-2017 leasing plan, almost doubling total sales to 29 from 15 and speeding auctions off the north coast of Alaska.

“We can do better than the president’s proposed plan, and our nation deserves better,” said Representative Doc Hastings, a Washington Republican and bill sponsor. “By passing this bill, we are standing up for American energy and American jobs and moving our country forward.”

Republicans and the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the energy industry, criticized Obama for limiting access to offshore resources after the record 2010 spill at a BP Plc (BP) well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The administration “strongly opposes” the measure and senior Obama advisers would recommend a veto, according to a July 23 statement of administration policy. The Senate, where Democrats have a majority, doesn’t plan to take up similar legislation.

The Interior Department has held two auctions for drilling leases since BP’s Macondo well blow out, killing 11 workers and spewing about 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

In an auction last month, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) offered $406.6 million, or 24 percent of all winning bids, to drill in the central Gulf of Mexico, followed by Statoil ASA (STO) with $333.3 million, the Interior Department said June 20.

Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Apache Corp., LLOG Exploration Offshore LLC, Stone Energy Corp., Noble Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips were among companies submitting winning bids, according to a list posted June 20 on the Interior Department website.

The bill is H.R. 6082.

Posted courtesy of Bloomberg News and Katarzyna Klimasinska. Katarzyna can be reached at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net

Monthly Long Term Chart Analysis & Thoughts

Pipeline Reversal Of Fortune

Don't think of it as crude oil prices rallying, think of it as Brent crude prices falling. Oil prices surge above $100 a barrel for the first time since last July as the "broken" global oil market gets fixed in a big way. Conoco Phillips had a big payday by selling its interest in Gulf Coast Seaway pipeline in Cushing, Oklahoma to Enbridge Corporation which will reverse the flow of oil out of instead of into the NYMEX delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma. This is a big step to ending the bottleneck in Cushing and allow the bonanza of Canadian oil sands crude and shale crude to be sent to Gulf Coast refiners that have too often had to rely on foreign imports of crude.

Followers of crude imports realize the cost of imported crude was rising as evidenced by what became a record differential between the Brent Crude versus West Texas Intermediate spread. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which historically Brent Crude traded at a premium to, reversed on a host of challenges. In Oklahoma the influx of crude exceeded refiners ability, or at least desire, to run crude at those rates that would use the influx of new sources of oil. In the Gulf Coast where supplies were tight the infrastructure did not exist to transport the oil in sufficient amount. The US pipelines remain the most popular transport option, carrying about two-thirds of U.S. oil.....Read the entire article.


A Good Trading Education = a Good Trader = Good Profits….Watch INO TV

Conoco Says Australia Could Be Biggest LNG Exporter

Australia could become the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, by 2020, the head of ConocoPhillips' (COP) Australian unit said Thursday. The comments came as Chevron Corp. (CVX) said it has signed three binding sales agreements to supply nearly three million tons a year of LNG from the proposed Gorgon project in Western Australia state to Japanese and Korean energy companies. ConocoPhillips Australia President Joseph Marushack said that a final investment decision is still expected to be made for its massive Gladstone LNG joint venture in Queensland state with Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG.AU) by the end of 2010, with first gas to be shipped in 2014.....Read the entire article

Marathon Oil Profit Falls 47% as Energy Prices Drop

Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth largest U.S. energy company, said second quarter profit fell 47 percent after the recession sapped fuel demand, spurring a collapse in petroleum prices. Net income dropped to $413 million, or 58 cents a share, from $774 million, or $1.08, a year earlier, Houston based Marathon said today in a statement. Excluding such items as gains on asset sales, per share profit was 35 cents, 18 cents below the average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Marathon was paid an average of $55.49 per barrel of oil, down by more than half from a year earlier, and its average natural gas price tumbled 57 percent. Marathon follows Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, the biggest U.S. oil companies, in reporting declines in second-quarter profits.....Complete Story

FREE Trend Analysis for your favorite stock!

Investors Focus On Exxon, Unemployment

Perhaps the biggest earnings announcement Thursday will come from oil giant Exxon Mobil and investors want to know how energy companies are deploying their money in a time of wildly volatile oil prices. So far it's been a rocky earnings season for oil firms. Last year oil was at $125 a barrel around this time, twice what it is today. On Wednesday Hess and ConocoPhillips both posted steep drops in quarterly profits. Analysts expect Exxon to announce earnings of $1.02 a share before the bell Thursday, down from $2.27 last year.....Complete Story

A Good Trading Education = a Good Trader = Good Profits….Watch INO TV

ConocoPhillips Profit Drops 76% After Oil and Gas Plunge

ConocoPhillips, the third biggest U.S. oil company, said second quarter profit fell 76 percent after the recession spurred a collapse in energy prices. Net income dropped to $1.3 billion, or 87 cents a share, from $5.44 billion, or $3.50, a year earlier, Houston based ConocoPhillips said today in a statement. Excluding such one time items as a $192 million gain on the company’s Lukoil investment, profit was about 85 cents share, 1 cent higher than the average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. oil futures plunged by more than half, averaging $59.79 a barrel, and gas prices fell 67 percent. ConocoPhillips is cutting its capital spending 37 percent this year and said in January that it would reduce its workforce by 4 percent.....Complete Story

Today’s Stock Market Club Trading Triangles