The panel, moderated by Dr. Raymond L. Orbach, former Under Secretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy, addressed concerns related to the role of hydraulic fracturing in shale gas production, which has at once been heralded as a game-changer for North American energy supplies and a threat to drinking water and air quality.

Hydraulic fracturing involves the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals into a shale seam, which causes the rock to shatter, releasing natural gas. The process is conducted after a well bore has been drilled and lined with concrete to prevent communication between the deep, gas-bearing shale and shallow freshwater aquifers.

The practice, often used in tandem with horizontal drilling, has been in use for decades, but has come under scrutiny from environmentalists and others who fear it poses a threat to public health.

Orbach, now Director of the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin, decried the divisive tone of public discourse over hydraulic fracturing, which he characterized as "driven largely by fear and emotion, rather than by science and facts."

Dr. Charles "Chip" Groat, a geology professor at The University of Texas at Austin and an associate director at the Energy Institute, presented findings from a new study of shale gas development in the Barnett, Marcellus and Haynesville Shales.

The study, which the Institute funded, found no evidence of a direct link between hydraulic fracturing and groundwater contamination.

"Many reports of groundwater contamination occur in conventional oil and gas operations, often caused by poor well-bore casing or cement construction," Groat said. "These problems are not unique to hydraulic fracturing."

Researchers also determined that natural gas found in water wells often can be traced to natural sources, and likely was present before the onset of shale gas operations, Groat added.

Other participants in Friday's AAAS symposium included Dr. John Clague, a professor at Simon Fraser University who studies earthquakes and other natural hazards; Dr. David Layzell, Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy (ISEEE) at the University of Calgary; and Dr. Danny Reible, an engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin who studies the fate of contaminants and devises risk mitigation measures.

While panelists acknowledged numerous concerns related to hydraulic fracturing, and agreed that additional scientific research on the practice is warranted, the consensus view was that none of the problems identified thus far are insurmountable.

"Certainly, there are some trouble spots, especially with respect to surface issues, such as the handling of flow-back water," said Reible. "But most of these problems are manageable."

Dr. John Clague, from Simon Fraser University, said the re-injection of waste water produced from hydraulic fracturing likely triggered seismic activity in the Horn River area in northeastern British Columbia, but that the threat to Vancouver and other populated areas was "negligible."

Still, Clague said he supports a temporary suspension of shale gas operations until scientists complete additional research on hydraulic fracturing's effect on the environment.

The University of Calgary's Layzell said the public debate over shale gas development "raises the bar" about the impact of hydraulic fracturing on the environment.

"We need to ask ourselves, 'What is required to get hydraulic fracturing right?' " Layzell said.

Moreover, the issue presents an opportunity to share knowledge and build consensus on how to achieve a more sustainable energy future, he added.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Tehran (UPI) Feb 20, 2012 - Last week's spike in oil prices is what's in store for Europe if it follows through on moves to ban Iranian imports, a senior Tehran lawmaker says.

Hossein Ebrahimi, vice chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told state-owned media Saturday the jump in benchmark Brent crude oil prices seen Thursday showed Europe will suffer economically if the EU embargo is fully deployed.

The benchmark level rose to more than $120 per barrel after Iranian news outlets announced Tehran had suspended exports to Italy, Spain, Netherlands, France, Greece and Portugal in a pre-emptive move against the sanctions.

That marked an 8-month high for Brent crude and created uncertainty as traders and analysts tried to assess Iran's intentions and their possible consequences.

"Upon cutting Iranian oil exports to the West, they will definitely face difficulties and we hope they will open their eyes to the move and stop taking illogical measures (against Iran)," Ebrahimi told the Fars News Agency.

At particular risk are European refineries, the lawmaker asserted, noting that 80 such facilities on the continent depend on Iranian supplies. Idling them, he said, would be "the best response" to the EU's energy and banking penalties against his country.

Iran has long predicted spiking oil prices would be result of the EU's sanctions, through which Western nations are hoping to slow Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Despite frequently voiced Western misgivings, Tehran says its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes and has offered to have talks with the United States and the European Union, only "without preconditions."

The EU oil import ban is to fully come into effect July 1. In the meantime, EU members seeking to replace Iran's 500,000-barrel-per-day supplies are facing higher prices on the world market, Tehran says.

"The hurried decision by EU states to use oil as a political tool will have a negative impact on the world economy and especially on the recovering European economies which are fighting to overcome the global financial crisis," the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement last month.

Iranian lawmakers said the country will quickly find other customers to replace Europe. For instance, China, which Friday renewed its contract with Tehran to import more than 500,000 barrels per day after a lengthy negotiation process.

The deal between state-owned Unipec, one of China's top importers, and the National Iranian Oil Co. showed China isn't going to cave in to the demands of the West to honor the sanctions, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Europe's crude oil stocks are already significantly low, analysts say.

Stocks in December were at a 15-year low, with overall crude stocks for developed countries falling 21.4 million barrels to 913 million barrels -- a sixth consecutive month of below average readings, The Financial Times reported.

The low supplies are partly the result of import disruptions due to turmoil in Yemen, Syria and South Sudan, Barclays Capital analyst Amrita Sen told the newspaper.

Those conflicts have cut Europe's supplies to the tune of 1 million barrels per day -- roughly the equivalent to the daily consumption of the Netherlands, she said.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Baghdad (AFP) Feb 20, 2012 - Iraq's oil exports dropped slightly in January but its income from oil sales was up due to higher prices per barrel, oil ministry figures published on Monday showed.

Iraq exported 65.3 million barrels of crude in January, down from 66.5 million barrels the month before, according to the figures.

But Iraq's income from oil sales was $7.123 billion last month, up from $7.061 billion in December.

Average prices per barrel were up in January, at $109.081, versus an average of $106.18 in December.

Oil sales account for the vast majority of the Iraqi government's income and around two-thirds of gross domestic product.

Iraq currently produces about 2.9 million barrels per day, and exported an around 2.1 million bpd in 2011.

Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi has said Iraq plans on increasing production and exports this year to 3.4 million bpd and 2.6 million bpd, respectively.

Iraq last week began pumping oil to the first of five floating terminals in the Gulf in a move that will increase its export capacity by 850,000 bpd.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Tokyo (AFP) Feb 20, 2012 - Japanese coastguards were ordered by a Chinese ship to stop a marine survey in disputed waters at the weekend, officials said Monday, the latest territorial row between the regional giants.

The Japanese ship was conducting Sunday a two-day survey in waters about 170 kilometres (105 miles) north of Kumejima, part of Japan's southernmost Okinawa prefecture, when Chinese authorities demanded they stop, the coastguard said.

Beijing and Tokyo claim exclusive excavation rights of the Shirakaba or Chunxiao gas field which lies in the disputed area in the East China Sea, where both sides' economic zones overlap.

The Chinese ship "demanded our ship by radio to stop the marine survey aimed at drawing nautical charts," a coastguard spokesman said. "We replied to them that this was a legitimate activity as we were in Japan's exclusive economic zone and we have been continuing the survey up until now."

The Chinese ship has been shadowing the Japanese vessel since the survey began on Sunday, he added.

Japan's foreign ministry on Sunday told its Chinese counterpart the demand was "unacceptable", a ministry official told AFP.

Similar incidents occurred in May and September 2010, when China demanded Japan stop marine surveys in the region, Japanese officials said.

Beijing and Tokyo also have a long-standing dispute over an uninhabited but strategically coveted island chain known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, which lies between Japan and Taiwan in the East China Sea.

A Japanese government-backed report earlier this month warned that Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea could soon be replicated in neighbouring waters, adding to growing regional fears about China's territorial aspirations.

Beijing and Tokyo came to diplomatic blows in 2010 when a Chinese trawler collided with Japanese coastguards, sparking the captain's arrest and detention.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Evanston, Ill. (UPI) Feb 17, 2012 - Adding fuel-cell technology to power plants can nearly double a plant's efficiency and cut greenhouse-gas emissions, a U.S. materials-science professor says.

This technology can be a key to optimizing electricity production until natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal power come of age, Northwestern University materials-science and engineering Professor Scott Barnett says.

"Fossil fuels like coal are going to be in use for a long time to come, until renewable-energy sources take over, and fuel cells provide a means for using them more efficiently and reducing our production of CO2," Barnett, of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, tells the school's McCormick Magazine.

To create electricity, power plants typically burn fossil fuels to create heat. The heat runs engines that drive turbines that generate electric power, the magazine says in an article titled "Energizing Research."

The multistep process has an efficiency rate of about 30 percent, the magazine says.

But fuel cells improve that efficiency by converting a fuel's chemical energy into electricity directly by exploiting the reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. The energy generated by combining fossil-fuel hydrogen with oxygen creates electricity at a 40 percent to 60 percent efficiency rate, nearly twice that of conventional power plants.

Fuel cells also have a much lower rate of carbon-dioxide emissions, the magazine says.

"The technology has come a long way," Barnett says.

It is currently used for primary and backup power for commercial, industrial and residential buildings and in remote or inaccessible areas. But several major automakers have committed in recent months to fuel-cell car production by 2015.

The cells are still expensive, but the technology is improving, making them increasingly market-worthy, Barnett says.

"People worry about cost, availability of materials, efficiency, and long-term durability," he tells the magazine. "We have predictions that look good but have to be fleshed out in practice."

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Juba, South Sudan (UPI) Feb 17, 2012 - South Sudan's 3-week-old shutdown of its oil industry in a dispute over oil revenues with the fledgling state's former leaders in Khartoum is likely to drag on and push up global oil prices.

"Investors trying to understand why oil prices are so high have long been focused on Iran," the Financial Times observed. "But rather than looking at supply disruptions stemming from the Strait of Hormuz, they need to turn their eyes to South Sudan."

Until the Jan. 25 shutdown, South Sudan, which became independent last July 9 after decades of civil war, was producing only 260,000 barrels per day, a mere 0.3 percent of global production last year.

But that tally is deceptive, the Financial Times said.

"South Sudan produces a particular kind of crude sought by Asian importers due to its low sulfur and high waxy content," the newspaper reported.

"The loss could not have come at a worse time as the demand for the African nation's two crude oil export grades -- known as Dar Blend and Nile Blend -- is stronger than ever this year due to power shortages in Japan, which are forcing utilities to burn unrefined crude, and a strong fuel oil market in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The loss of South Sudanese oil has forces China and Japan, traditionally big consumers of the country's oil, to shop elsewhere, pushing up the premiums of the physical market."

Oil prices hit a 6-month high of $120 per barrel Wednesday over concerns that Iranian crude exports may be cut off. Iran is the world's third largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia.

With Iran's oil supplies being steadily eroded by U.S. and European economic sanctions, tightening U.N. measures against Tehran over its refusal to abandon its contentious nuclear program, the Chinese have concentrated on seeking alternative crude suppliers. So have the Japanese and Indians.

Iran has threatened to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the gateway to the Persian Gulf, thus threatening to cut one-fifth of the world's oil supplies and to cut off supplies to European customers.

But, as with South Sudan, an insignificant producer, political instability in Nigeria, which included an attack on oil facilities in the southern Niger Delta region, and even in Yemen, another minor producer whose output is threatened by political upheaval, has caused global jitters about oil supplies.

Meantime, Libya's production is well below the level of 1.6 million barrels per day it was producing before the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi erupted Feb. 17, 2011, although it's recovering steadily.

Libya's low sulfur crude is also highly prized at refineries in Europe, Libya's main oil customer. That's added to the growing shortage of this category.

China has secured supplies of low-sulfur crude from Angola, Africa's top producer, while Japan has gone to Vietnam for its Su Tu Den crude, adding to the upward pressure on prices.

"The market is bracing for a long-lasting disruption" in South Sudan, the Financial Times noted.

Even if South Sudan and Khartoum do manage to reach an agreement on revenue-sharing following the south's secession, and given the hostility between them that's a distant prospect, it will take weeks to get the pipeline system that carries southern crude northward to the Port Sudan terminal on the Red Sea functioning again.

South Sudan's national oil company says it could restart production in a few days but reinstating the 1,000-mile pipeline is a more complicated process.

"Oil traders involved in South Sudanese crude say the country would need between three and five months to restart production, as at a cost of $300 million," Financial Times Commodities Editor Javier Blas reported Monday.

The International Energy Agency, the Western consumers' watchdog, estimates that South Sudan's pre-shutdown won't recover until the fourth quarter of 2012 at the earliest.

"Traders fear a more lasting disruption, with South Sudan production running at zero for the remainder of the year," Blas reported.

Saudi Arabia, which has pretty much all the spare global production capacity, has said its maximum output is 12.5 million bpd, enough to cover any shortfall. But the IEA said in its latest monthly report for February that the kingdom's maximum output was 11.88 million bpd because of declining oilfield production.

That may not seem much of a difference but it will be if a major supply crisis occurs.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Austin, Texas (UPI) Feb 17, 2012 - The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing used to release underground reserves of natural gas has no direct connection to groundwater contamination, a new study says.

Hydraulic fracturing -- colloquially called "fracking" -- involves massive amounts of water, sand and chemicals injected at high pressures to fracture rock and release the stored gas.

Critics say the practice leaves groundwater supplies vulnerable to harmful chemicals in fracking fluid.

The study, "Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in Shale Gas Development," by the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin says that many problems attributed to fracking have other causes, such as "casing failures or poor cement jobs."

Study authors say the report stems from a self-funded initiative at the Energy Institute and no industry funds paid for the study.

"Our goal was to provide policymakers a foundation for developing sensible regulations that ensure responsible shale-gas development," Charles Groat, an Energy Institute associate director who led the research, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"What we've tried to do is separate fact from fiction."

The research team looked at reports of groundwater contamination in three shale plays: the Barnett Shale in north Texas, Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana and eastern Texas.

A lack of baseline studies in areas of shale gas development, the study says, makes it difficult to evaluate long-term, cumulative effects and risks associated with fracking.

Still, the study said that "natural gas found in water wells within some shale-gas areas ... can be traced to natural sources and probably was present before the onset of shale-gas operations."

Surface spills in gas development pose greater risks to groundwater than fracking itself, the study says.

Justin Furnace, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, welcomed the study, telling the Houston Chronicle that it "echoes what we as an association have been saying: The process is very safe and has been in place for 60 years."

Scott Anderson, a senior policy adviser for the Environmental Defense Fund, in a posting on his blog said the study "does not mean such contamination is impossible or that hydraulic fracturing chemicals can't get loose in the environment in other ways (such as through spills of produced water)."

EDF helped develop the scope of work and methodology for the study.

"In fact," Anderson continued, "the study shines a light on the fact that there are a number of aspects of natural gas development that can pose (a) significant environmental risk."

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Moscow (UPI) Feb 17, 2012 - Russian gas monopoly Gazprom says the company will make a "final" determination on whether to proceed with its long-planned South Stream pipeline in November.

Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said in a statement issued Wednesday the decision will determine whether or not the utility will move ahead with plans for the project, which is envisioned to carry natural gas across the Black Sea to Europe.

Miller made the comments at a South Stream implementation meeting in Moscow with Marcel Kramer, chief executive of South Stream, and other pipeline officials.

Saying the brutally cold winter in Europe highlights the importance of new gas routes directly connecting European customers with Russian supplies, Miller clarified Gazprom's timetable for the South Stream project.

"We have brought South Stream to the actual construction stage," he said. "It is no exaggeration to say that Gazprom is busy with the project 24 hours a day.

"This abnormally cold winter, which caused a spike in demand for Russian gas in Europe, is another proof that South Stream has to be and will be built. Europe is in need for the new corridors delivering Russian gas with no transiters," Miller said.

While previously only saying a final investment decision on the project would be made sometime late in the year, Miller declared Wednesday officials had decided the call would be made in November.

Gazprom officials said they also talked about a decision made in December to speed up the pipeline plans.

The move as a brutal winter that has seen European natural gas supplies stretched to their limits and stored underground reserves tapped.

A construction launch could happen as early as December, in line with a request from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, with commercial deliveries to begin in 2015.

Partners in the pipeline's offshore section include Gazprom (50 percent) Italy's Eni (20 percent), along with Germany's Wintershall Holding and France's EDF at 15 percent each. Its capacity would be up to 63 billion cubic meters per year.

The pipeline would run under Turkish territorial waters of the Black Sea and include onshore sections in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria -- all of which have set up national joint ventures.

Gazprom this month it has also begun discussions with Montenegro to join the South Stream project.

Earlier this month U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Bulgaria the United States supports efforts by that country to diversify its energy supplies -- interpreted to mean lessening its dependence on Russian gas and exploring shale gas reserves within its borders.

After Clinton's visit, Bulgarian Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov told national television Sofia is still fully committed to implementing the South Stream pipeline, the Brussels weekly New Europe reported.

"We remain in South Stream, it is a very promising project," he said.

Opponents, however, say the Bulgarian government's decision to align with Russia on the project is compromising its chances for energy independence.

A coalition of energy experts calling themselves the Movement for Energy Independence told reporters Tuesday the government has become fixated on the "uncertain" South Stream for reasons that economically benefit them while average Bulgarians' energy costs soar, the Sofia News Agency reported.

More promising energy projects, such as a gas grid interconnection between Turkey and Bulgaria, Danube River hydro-potential and shale gas exploration, have been neglected in favor of "kleptomanic schemes that benefit certain parties," the group said.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Washington (AFP) Feb 17, 2012 - An arbitration panel in The Hague backed Chevron's bid for temporary protection from a $9.5 billion Ecuador court judgment against the oil giant, documents showed Friday.

The panel's order Thursday buys Chevron time to fight the judgment set against it one year ago for environmental damage in the Ecuadoran jungle allegedly caused by Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001.

The panel ordered the Ecuadoran government to "take all measures necessary to suspend or cause to be suspended the enforcement and recognition within and without Ecuador" of the February 14, 2011, judgment.

The decision will allow Chevron to pursue its case against the "Lago Agrio" judgment in the tribunal set up under the US-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).

Chevron argues that Ecuador violated the treaty by taking the case to its domestic court.

"Both Chevron and the Republic of Ecuador benefit from today's award, which upholds the rule of law and prevents enforcement of the fraudulent Lago Agrio judgment," the company said in a statement.

"We will continue to seek opportunities for constructive discussion with the Republic of Ecuador to resolve this pending BIT arbitration."

Washington-based group Public Citizen, which campaigns to limit the power of corporations, said the tribunal's decision effectively "ordered the Ecuadoran government to interfere in the operations of Ecuador's independent court system on behalf of the oil giant."

After having lost the case, the group said, "Chevron turned to an ad hoc 'investor-state' tribunal of three private lawyers as the last chance to help the company avoid paying to clean up contamination in the Amazonian rainforest."

The group did not acknowledge however that Quito took part in the tribunal and had nominated one of its members.

The lawsuit on behalf of Ecuadoran Amazon communities in the Lago Agrio region dates back to the first complaint filed in New York in 1993.

It sought $27 billion for water and soil damage, as well as for illnesses suffered by local resident which they say resulted from Texaco's alleged dumping of billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon between 1964 and 1990.

But the case has been tainted by claims and counterclaims of misconduct and corruption on both sides.

In 2009, Chevron posted videos online purporting to show a bribery scheme implicating the judge presiding over the lawsuit. The judge recused himself days after the videos were released.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Madrid, Spain (SPX) Feb 17, 2012 - As a result of a joint intensive work of several groups from five different countries, including Basque Country, a new wide class of topological insulators - materials that are insulators in the bulk but conductors at the surface - with technologically very promising properties has been discovered.

Topological insulators, first observed in 2007, are materials that, while being an insulator inside or in the bulk, behave as metals at the surface.

Their unique properties can be used for new applications in spintronics and quantum computation as well. Physicists from Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and Centro de Fisica de Materiales (CFM) - joint center CSIC-UPV/EHU - have participated in this research project. The results have been just published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

The surface metallic character of these only-bulk-insulators is due to a special electronic state confined at the surface. However, to take advantage of this singular phenomenon, a tuning of this conducting state is often required.

The international research team has demonstrated that most of the ordered ternary compounds (Germanium, Tin, Lead, Bismuth, Antimony, Tellurium and Selenium complexes) are actual three dimensional topological insulators showing properties distinct from those found in other binary compounds.

In particular, their metallic state is buried 1-2 nm in depth, making it more stable and more protected against any surface modification, while its spin characteristics allow magnetic modifications of the material.

The existence of these exotic topological insulators was first theoretically predicted by scientists from Tomsk (Russia), Halle (Germany) and Donostia. Following this prediction, chemists from Baku (Azerbajan) grew a single crystal sample of one of those compounds. The sample was then studied by experimentalists in Zurich (Switzerland) and Hamburg (Germany), confirming all theoretical predictions.

The finding provides a promising pathway to tune both electronic and spin (that is, magnetic) properties by using different compounds and confirms the possibility to grow topological insulators with deep-laying, self-protecting and, thus, technologically relevant conducting states.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:49:06 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D