Global Warming Forces Coal Industry To Raise Estimates Of Coal Production; Refiner Gets Okay To Re-Export Canadian Oil

I can't make this stuff up.

Reuters is reporting:

Consol Energy Inc raised its coal production outlook for the year, on strong demand from power companies.

Increased demand for power after a severe winter in the United States, a dip in inventory levels at utilities and a ramp up in natural gas prices are boosting demand for thermal coal.

U.S. coal miners Alpha Natural Resources Inc and Arch Coal Inc flagged an expected recovery in thermal coal markets earlier this year.

I've heard through the grapevine that Algore lost bundles shorting coal. Or maybe he made bundles investing in coal. I forget. Actually I didn't hear anything about Algore his coal investments or non-investments. I made that up.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or anything you think you might have read. For investment advice, contact George Soros or Algore. 

And then this: Valero Energy "wins" license to re-export Canadian oil. San Antonio Business Journal is reporting (I can't make this up either):

San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp. has received a U.S. Commerce Department license to re-export Canadian crude, an option it could use if severe winter weather blocks rail shipments to its Quebec refinery, officials say.

The permit, granted last month, would allow Valero to ship light Canadian crude via rail to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it could be loaded on a ship then carried to Quebec for processing, says Bill Day, a spokesman for the world’s largest independent refiner.

“(This license) gives us the ability, but I’m not going to say we’re going to do it on a daily basis,” Day says.

The re-export permit, which lasts for a year, is the first obtained by Valero, which aims to  wean its 265,000-barrel-per-day Quebec facility off overseas crude this year.

While U.S. law largely prohibits the export of U.S. crude, the government does grant exceptions for sales of U.S. crude to Canada and for the re-export of foreign crude.

Valero won’t use the license to ship heavy crude from Canada’s tar sands — the type that would be carried in the controversial Keystone XL pipeline — according to Day.

“We’re not looking to ship heavy crude,” he says.

Smart move. One doesn't want to get on the wrong side of the Obama administration. Seriously, the US refiners need as much heavy crude as they can get. They have a relative surplus of light oil.

I've often opined that crude oil export will not happen except on a case-by-case basis. I guess this is one of the rare case-by-case cases. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.