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.

Bio Diesels making a comeback?

Are bio diesels making a comeback? The recent initiatives around energy efficiency are leading to a renewed focus on rail transportation of goods (see Berkshire Hathaway's recent investment) and diesel in general.
At least one company thinks so: Valero has just made a big investment in jatropha. We had heard of this plant a few years ago when it was going to the solution to the world's fuel problems followed by a couple of years of silence and unkept promises.

This plant is also partly causing the issue of land grabbing in Africa for both cultivable land as well as waste lands. Other reasons being dearth of cultivable land in the Middle East, desperate measures to support burgeoning populations in developing countries and opportunism.

Wind and Corruption

A recent article from the NY Times explores the growing risk of corruption and fraud in the highly subsidized but lightly regulated wind business:

NY Times | With Wind Energy, Opportunity for Corruption

European Gas : End of the Summer-Winter Cycle ?

An interesting article on Platts.com talks about how there is a perception of a glut in supply in the European gas markets, which is leading to almost no difference between summer and winter gas prices for 2010. The low gas prices (coupled with the low carbon prices) also mean that owners of gas-fired power plants are laughing all the way to the bank.

A large contributor to the glut is the emergence of shale gas as a viable option in the US and ,in the future, in Europe.

Seems a far cry from last year's fears of European dependence on Russian gas and being held hostage by a great angry bear.

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