The NEI Morning Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI this morning.

Oil prices are still slipping (down to $65.83 a barrel), but experts warn us not to be fooled by this:

"There is no particular reason why prices should go down significantly any time soon," said Deborah White, energy analyst at SG Securities in Paris.

"If they (prices) will near $60 a barrel, people will start buying immediately," pushing prices back up, White said.

In fact, the Asia Times posits, "the idea of oil hitting $75 a barrel is no longer so farfetched."

Oil's isn't the only price skyrocketing lately -- experts point out in today's Billings Gazette that "natural gas prices are very high and ugly on the futures board."

The amount of natural gas going into storage for use during the heating season - November through March - is sharply below normal for this time of year.

... The price culprit now is the hot weather and the use of natural gas to produce electricity for air conditioning. Much of the country has suffered searing heat this summer, from the Southwest through the Midwest on to the Eastern Seaboard. Crude oil prices at $65 a barrel also are pulling the natural gas market higher. Petroleum industry analysts figure a 6-to-1 ratio between oil and natural gas prices, which means $10 per dekatherm might not be a ceiling later this year.

The use of natural gas to produce base-load electricity "is expensive and makes the price volatile," said Dan Sharp, public relations manager at Montana-Dakota Utilities.

In other news, China has picked a possible site in the Guangdong province for a new nuclear power plant:

China is suffering severe power shortages due to its booming economic growth. The problem is especially severe in Guangdong, the country's most populous province with more than 100 million people and the center for its export-driven manufacturing industries.

Power demand in Guangdong last year is believed to have outstripped generating capacity by about 10 percent, the China Daily said.

"We hope that increasing nuclear electricity output will help ease Guangdong's energy crisis," China Daily quoted Hu Guangyao, a Guangdong Nuclear Power executive, as saying.

Come back this afternoon for more news from the NEI Clip File.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy Environment Energy Politics Technology Economics