U.S. oil imports down 7.4 percent, production up even more
Washington (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
U.S. crude oil imports for the first full week in October were down by more than 7 percent from one year ago, the U.S. Department of Energy found.
The department's Energy Information Administration released weekly data on the domestic energy sector. For imports, EIA found the United States imported around 7.4 million barrels of oil for the week ending Oct. 10, down 7.4 percent from the ...
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Kurdish government praises latest regional oil discovery
London (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
A new oil discovery in northern Iraq moves the region closer to a 1 million barrel per day production goal, a Kurdish government official said Friday.
British energy company Gas Plus Khalakan Ltd. announced an oil discovery in the Shewashan reserve area of the Kurdish north of Iraq had commercial prospects.
"We are pleased with this new light oil discovery which will contribute t ...
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Kinder wants to expand pipeline system for more shale gas
Houston (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
Expanding a gas system in the U.S. Midwest will facilitate the utilization of shale gas from the Utica and Marcellus plays, pipeline company Kinder Morgan said.
Kinder Morgan operates and owns a 20 percent interest in systems for Natural Gas Pipeline Co. It said it was soliciting industry interest in the possible expansion of a pipeline system in Illinois to carry another 430 million cu ...
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WTI, Brent prices rebounding, but stay suppressed
New York (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil prices each climbed toward the $85 per barrel mark, trading data Friday show.
WTI, the U.S. benchmark, for November delivery was up $1.43 to $84.14 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The benchmark climbed more than 90 cents Thursday, marking its first gain in four days.
For Brent, prices were up from $85.82 to $86.76 in ear ...
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EU examining ways to counter Russian gas shortage
Brussels (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
If members of the European Union show some solidarity, they'll be able to cope with a potential Russian gas shortage, the European energy commissioner said.
The European Commission unveiled a report Friday highlighting the short-term recommendations needed to stave off a possible winter gas shortage.
"For the very first time, we have a complete picture of the risks and possible s ...
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Inpex expecting 105,000 bpd from oil field off Emirati coast
Tokyo (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
Japanese energy company Inpex Corp. disclosed Friday it started producing oil for the first time at a field off the coast of Abu Dhabi.
Subsidiary Japan Oil Development Co. said production started from the Umm Lulu oil field off the Emirati coast. The company said it expected the field will eventually produce at a peak rate of around 105,000 barrels per day.
Parent company Inpex ...
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More gas talks between EU, Russia and Ukraine scheduled
Brussels (UPI) Oct 20, 2014 -
The European Commission said Monday it scheduled another round of talks with its Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to settle a lingering gas issue.
"The next trilateral gas meeting between Commission Vice-President Gunther Oettinger, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan will take place on Tuesday in Brussels," the commission said in a statem ...
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Scotland wants more control over U.K. energy policies
Edinburgh, Scotland (UPI) Oct 17, 2014 -
The Scottish government needs the authority to decide how to manage its resources in order to exploit its true potential, First Minister Alex Salmond said.
Salmond addressed a report from a former British regulator who said Scotland's renewable power sector was helping ensure adequate electricity supplies across all of the United Kingdom. Some management mechanisms, particularly those o ...
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New tracers can identify frack fluids in the environment
Durham NC (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Scientists have developed new geochemical tracers that can identify hydraulic fracturing flowback fluids that have been spilled or released into the environment. The tracers, which were created by a team of U.S. and French researchers, have been field-tested at a spill site in West Virginia and downstream from an oil and gas brine wastewater treatment plant in Pennsylvania.
"This gives us ...
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Dongfeng, Huawei partner for Internet-enabled cars
Wuhan (XNA) Oct 21, 2014 -
Telecommunications giant Huawei and Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor Corporation have launched a project to develop Internet-enabled cars, beginning with the installation of mobile Internet devices into vehicles.
Under an agreement signed between the two companies on Friday, Huawei will develop a product that can provide Internet access for five cell phones in the car. The "Windlink" termin ...
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Electric charge along microbial nanowires imaged
Amherst MA (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
The claim by microbiologist Derek Lovley and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst that the microbe Geobacter produces tiny electrical wires, called microbial nanowires, has been mired in controversy for a decade, but the researchers say a new collaborative study provides stronger evidence than ever to support their claims.
UMass Amherst physicists working with Lovley and c ...
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Wild molecular interactions in a new hydrogen mixture
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Hydrogen-the most abundant element in the cosmos-responds to extremes of pressure and temperature differently. Under ambient conditions hydrogen is a gaseous two-atom molecule. As confinement pressure increases, the molecules adopt different states of matter-like when water ice melts to liquid and then heats to steam.
Thus far, at extreme pressures hydrogen has four known solid phases. Now ...
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Better lectricity access has little impact on climate
Laxenburg, Austria (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Improving household electricity access in India over the last 30 years contributed only marginally to the nation's total carbon emissions growth during that time, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
"Energy access is fundamental to development: it brings improvements to all aspects of life, including education, communication, and health," says IIASA res ...
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Goldilocks principle wrong for particle assembly
New York NY (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Microscopic particles that bind under low temperatures will melt as temperatures rise to moderate levels, but re-connect under hotter conditions, a team of New York University scientists has found. Their discovery points to new ways to create "smart materials," cutting-edge materials that adapt to their environment by taking new forms, and to sharpen the detail of 3D printing.
"These findi ...
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Social trust eroded in Chinese product-tampering incident
Urbana IL (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
For about a decade, Chinese consumers weren't getting what they paid for when they purchased Wuchang, a special brand of gourmet rice that has a peculiar scent. The quality was being diluted when less expensive rice was aromatized, added to the packages of the high-quality rice, and sold at the premium price. Researchers at the University of Illinois studied how the tampering scandal affected th ...
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Catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells cab be synthesized in microwave oven
Umea, Sweden (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
Swedish and Chinese researchers show how a unique nano-alloy composed of palladium nano-islands embedded in tungsten nanoparticles creates a new type of catalysts for highly efficient oxygen reduction, the most important reaction in hydrogen fuel cells.
Their results are published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The world's rapidly growing demand for energy and the r ...
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Brighter energy-saving flat panels using carbon nanotubes
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 17, 2014 -
Even as the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has enshrined light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the single most significant and disruptive energy-efficient lighting solution of today, scientists around the world continue unabated to search for the even-better-bulbs of tomorrow.
Enter carbon electronics.
Electronics based on carbon, especially carbon nanotubes (CNTs), are emerging as successors ...
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Superconducting circuits, simplified
Boston MA (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Computer chips with superconducting circuits - circuits with zero electrical resistance - would be 50 to 100 times as energy-efficient as today's chips, an attractive trait given the increasing power consumption of the massive data centers that power the Internet's most popular sites.
Superconducting chips also promise greater processing power: Superconducting circuits that use so-called J ...
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Physicists build reversible laser tractor beam
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Oct 21, 2014 -
Laser physicists have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam that is bright around the edges and dark in its centre.
It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam and moved particles one fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 centimetres, around 100 times further than previous experiments.
"Demonstration of a large sc ...
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