Oil spills on land too. Another catastrophe ?

Two oil spills between late July and last week in Michigan and Illinois are expected to significantly raise prices at Midwestern gas pumps even as they raise questions about the aging infrastructure of pipelines delivering oil and natural gas from Canada to Midwestern refineries. The two broken pipelines are owned by one company: Enbridge Energy Partners of Calgary, Alberta, a firm that is poorly regarded by environmentalists for a large, and increasing, number of spills that have dumped millions of gallons of crude into the environment over the past decade.

The oil and natural gas industry supports more than 9.2 million American jobs, and a number of proposed projects across the country could expand that figure by hundreds of thousands in the next decade. Given the industry’s record for generating jobs and government revenue, we were disappointed that the Obama administration will apparently seek to fund its transportation infrastructure development program by raising taxes on the oil and gas industry.

Crude prices are expected to move sideways on technical indicators and mixed economic data. Natural gas is likely to trade sideways on rising inventories and bearish technical indicators. This week, a host of economic data are expected mixed for the U.S., leading to range-bound trading in crude. Industrial production in the eurozone is expected to rise over the prior month.

Jude    Maritime News, News     Alberta, American jobs, broken pipelines, Calgary, Canada to Midwestern refineries, Crude prices, deep water drilling, economic sentiment, Empire Manufacturing, Enbridge Energy Partners, Germany and Europe, ichigan and Illinois, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Midwestern gas pumps, Minnesota, moratorium, Obama administration, Ohio, oil and natural gas, Oklahoma, pipelines delivering oil, Two oil spills, U.S. economy, United States, Wisconsin, ZEW survey

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!