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December 14, 2011 Energy Data Highlights Crude oil futures price 12/12/2011: $97.77/bbl down$3.22 from week earlier up$9.98 from year earlier Natural gas futures price 12/12/2011: $3.254/mmBtu down$0.207 from week earlier down$1.163 from year earlier Retail gasoline price 12/12/2011: $3.286/gal down$0.004 from week earlier up$0.306 from year earlier Retail diesel price 12/12/2011: $3.894/gal down$0.037 from week earlier up$0.663 from year earlier Weekly coal production 12/3/2011: 22.106 million tons up1.299 million tons from week earlier up0.273 million tons from year earlier

Natural Gas/ Power News

EIA Storage Release 12/8/11 (Actual): -20 Bcf Previous Week: -1 Bcf +2.7% Change from 1 Year Ago +8.7% Change 5-year Average Crestwood Midstream plans Marcellus pipeline in West Virginia Houston-based company Crestwood Midstream Partners on Tuesday said it would build a 42-mile natural gas pipeline in West Virginia to move Marcellus Shale supplies in the state to downstream markets in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/NaturalGas/6763936

Texas joins Colorado in passing rule for fracking disclosure The Texas Railroad Commission Tuesday passed a rule requiring disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals, becoming the second state regulatory body to pass similar rules on the same day. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/NaturalGas/6763951 Most generator retirements over the past decade were older natural gasfired units Older, less efficient natural gas-fired generators accounted for 64% of the total generator retirements between 2000-2010. However, natural gas-fired generators also made up the majority of new capacity additions during the decade. Volatile commodity prices coupled with an excess supply of generation in the early part of the decade contributed to significant retirements in the fleet of natural gas-fired generators. Significant retirements in coal and petroleum also occurred. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4290 Texas will require companies to disclose fracking fluids starting Feb. 1 The Texas Railroad Commission approved a rule Tuesday requiring oil and natural gas drillers to disclose most of the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing. The rules also will require companies to disclose the amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process in which chemicals, water and sand are pumped at high pressure into underground rock formations to aid the flow of oil and gas to the surface. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/12/14/texas-requires-companies-to-disclose-frackingfluids-starting-feb-1/

Green/ Alternative Energy News

Will 2012 Be The End Of The World For Renewable Energy? Its looking a lot like a white-knuckle Christmas for renewable energy companies. As the year comes to a close so do two federal tax incentives the solar and wind energy industries have relied on to power their breakneck growth of recent years. Groundhog Day may be the more apt analogy as this scenario repeats every year or two, unfolding in a ritual where green energy executives and their respective trade groups warn that the expiration of the incentive tax credit used primarily by solar and the production tax credit for wind will cost tens of thousands of jobs and slow the nations transition to carbon-free power. At the 11th hour or later, Congress invariably extends the tax incentives once again. Except this year, renewable energy industry leaders may not be so much drama queens as Cassandras. In the midst of a presidential election year with Republicans riding the bankruptcy of solar panel maker Solyndra to slam the Obama administrations green energy policies, Congress may well let the tax breaks die.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/12/13/will-2012-be-the-end-of-theworld-for-renewable-energy/

Crude Oil News

OPEC Daily Basket Price 12/13/2011- $107.65 (OPEC Daily Basket Price 12/12/2011- $107.33)

Oil Falls From One-Week High as OPEC Said to Leave Production Unchanged Oil fell from a one-week high in New York amid speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will set an output ceiling near current production levels at a meeting in Vienna today. Futures declined as much as 0.8 percent, after surging 2.4 percent yesterday in the biggest gain in almost four weeks. Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said there will be a great agreement within OPEC after some ministers said theyll endorse a production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day. U.S. crude supplies rose last week and gasoline consumption decreased, the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute said yesterday. The production cap seems quite neutral, since demand is likely to be held back by weaker growth in the first half of next year, said Filip Petersson, commodity strategist at SEB AB in Stockholm. Bullishness from yesterday is dissipating. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-14/oil-trades-near-one-week-high-innew-york-before-opec-meeting-on-output.html Oil Slips on Fed Disappointment, OPEC Awaited Oil fell on Wednesday, pressured by anxiety about the global economy after the Federal Reserve warned that turmoil in Europe threatened the U.S. economy, but failed to take any new steps to stimulate growth. Market participants were awaiting the outcome of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is expected to reset a production limit for the first time in three years and settle an argument over output levels in Saudi Arabia's favor. Brent crude fell 70 cents to $108.80 a barrel. U.S. crude slipped 56 cents to $99.58. Both contracts gained sharply on Tuesday. Some investors had speculated that the Fed might show more urgency about moving ahead with new measures to help the economy, and disappointment that it did not pushed demand-sensitive assets such as oil lower. http://www.cnbc.com/id/45660447 Iran Rumor Helps Send Oil Up 2.4% Crude-oil futures leapt more than 3% in just minutes Tuesday on a market rumor that Iran closed a major oil-shipping channel, and largely hung on to gains even as the report proved untrue. The rumor, which said the Iranian government closed the Strait of Hormuz, was picked up on financial blogs and some of news websites, and sent Nymex crude futures rocketing as high as 3.6% over Monday's settlement, to $101.25 a barrel. An Iranian official later dismissed the report, and

a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain said shipping traffic in the strait was flowing normally. The rumor appeared to be founded on a news item from Monday afternoon, in which a member of the Iranian parliament said its military was preparing to practice its ability to close the strait. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020343040457709630225140147 4.html?mod=WSJ_Commodities_LEFTTopNews Venezuela says hopes Saudi Arabia will reduce oil output soon Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramirez called on OPEC countries which had boosted output to compensate for lost Libyan supply to reduce production now that Libyan volumes were rising. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8697567 Citgo starts seventh year of heating oil donations to US households Venezuela-owned Citgo has started its seventh season of its heating oil assistance program for poor US households, though the program is now offering less heating oil than in all but the first year since operation. "This year the program is projected to donate 17.5 million gallons of heating oil, compared to last year's 25 million," Olya Leptoukh, a spokeswoman for Citgo at Levick Strategic Communications, said in an email. http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/6764169 Opec agrees to maintain output levels Opec has agreed to keep oil output broadly steady at its current level for 2012, in a show of unity by the cartel after its previous meeting in June ended in disarray. The deal will comfort oil consumers, which have urged the oil cartel to maintain supplies rather than cut them in the face of slower economic activity. Even so, analysts said that oil prices are unlikely to fall significantly from the current level of about $110 a barrel as the balance of supply and demand remains tight. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6b82755a-263e-11e1-9ed300144feabdc0.html#axzz1gKCk5rcf Russia added to oil traders risk lists After a year in which many unusual events hit oil prices including the collapse of the 42-year long regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya traders are not ruling out anything and have added Russia to their risk lists.Russia is the worlds second largest oil producer and recent demonstrations in Moscow have spooked oil investors and traders. On Saturday, tens of thousands took to the streets in the capital to demand a rerun of elections, Russias largest opposition demonstration since Boris Yeltsin took on the Supreme Soviet in 1993. Although I believe it is farfetched to think oil output could be seriously disrupted, a year ago the potential for war in Libya, and turmoil all over the Middle East was almost as unthinkable. The fear about Russia is that the political unrest could intensify both on the run up to the presidential elections on March 4, and after. Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister, is likely to become president again. But the current wave of demonstrations is rejecting the Kremlins authoritarian model of managed democracy by which Vladimir Putin has governed the country for more than a decade. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fd97700c-2568-11e1-9c7600144feabdc0.html#axzz1gVwD3kfJ Recent Rig Counts

Area U.S. Canada

Last Count 9 Dec 11 9 Dec 11

Date of Cou Change from Prior nt Prior Count Count 1987 504 -6 +20 -12 2 Dec 11 2 Dec 11 October 2011

Change from Last Year +264 +22 +55

Date of Last Year's Count 3 Dec 10 3 Dec 10 November 2010

Internatio Novemb 1185 nal er 2011

http://investor.shareholder.com/bhi/rig_counts/rc_index.cfm

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