Container Derivatives

Interesting trade done in container derivatives - http://www.risk.net/energy-risk/news/1636814/first-container-derivatives-trade-herald-booming-market

Though one could argue that this kind of innovation in derivatives may be what led to the credit crunch in the first place :)

Tax probe in to Emissions Trading - arrests made

Germany’s probe into possible tax evasion linked to trading of emissions allowances has led to law enforcement action in at least nine other European countries, including arrests in the U.K.

Link to Bloomberg article

Could this result in more wide sweeping changes to the way VAT is treated; perhaps similar to the recent developments in Norway for domestically traded emission allowances?

Gazprom losing ground

A very interesting analysis of an FT article written recently about Gazprom’s apparent drop from the “untouchable” status they’ve held in Russia as well as some of their gas woes.

Gazprom Running Out of Gas | Seeking Alpha

SolArc wins Eco-Energy

Eco-Energy – one of the biggest mid-stream bio-fuel companies in North America – has recently chosen SolArc’s RightAngle product to support their growing business.

Article: Eco-Energy Selects SolArc RightAngle to Support Alternative Energy Supply Chain

Daylight Savings Time is an energy hog

If you thought that DST was a waste of time and a huge pain, here's some new research that bolsters that view, at least from the energy-saving perspective - a new study shows that DST actually uses more energy than it saves.

http://www.physorg.com/news187946326.html?xid=rss-fullcontent

OpenLink scores highly in the 2010 Energy Risk awards

OpenLink has scored first place in 11 different categories – including best ETRM package – in this years Energy Risk awards. For a summary article see:

OpenLink Sweeps the Boards in Energy Risk Survey 2010 | bobsguide, 16 March 2010

Wind Politics

An interesting article in Scientific American about how competing interests in the North American power market are contributing to a variety of legislation to curtail wind power:

Will Politics Slow the Wind? | Scientific American, March 2010

China seen overtaking US as biggest oil importer in 2-3 years

According to Platts data, the difference between US and Chinese crude oil imports is now 3 million barrels per day. This figure has fallen by half, from 6 million b/d, over the past year.
“In two to three years, China will be the largest global importer of crude oil,” Jorge Montepeque, global director of market reports for Platts, said at today’s Global Outlook for Oil event during IP Week.
This prediction threatens to redraw global crude imports trends sooner than many are expecting.

ETRM Vendors on the Move

There have been a number of press releases in recent days with regards to ETRM/CTRM product vendors:

• OpenLink | Acquires SMARTsoftware for Agricultural, Soft, and Biofuel solutions. This is another illustration of vendors wanting to extend focus beyond just an “energy” footprint into the larger “commodities space” and it appears that the physical characteristics of these products means acquisition is the fastest mechanism to improve footprint as well as establish a customer base and storyline with that customer segment.
• CTRM Vendors | CTRM vendors look to M&A for functional growth. Another article that looks at the overall trend of using M&A to achieve growth in the product vendor space.
• SolArc | Inks big deal with SHV. SolArc is continuing to have great success with business whose business has a lot of physical movement.
• TPT | Acquires Enerbility Software for easy integration of back office STP. Operational effectiveness has been a push for many years in the Credit and Equities markets and the desire to achieve lower operational risk and refocus human resources to more leveraged areas is clearly making its way into Commodities now too. The interest in “documentation solutions” (e.g., storage, workflow, generation, and confirmation) is showing up as a strong goal across all asset classes in 2010 and Commodities specific solutions – like Enerbility – are starting to gain focus.

Hedge Funds Are Placing Record Bullish Bets On Oil

Unlike small speculators, who lack the firepower to move prices and have generally been on the wrong side of trades, large speculators tend to be the market movers.

Gensler calls for tighter regulation of dealers

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler refused to detail a timetable for imposing position limits on energy traders today, but called for tighter regulation of dealers in over-the-counter derivatives.