STUFF

Africa getting too hot for chocolate.

Big coinsurers weighing products to reduce climate change risks in poor countries.

New catalyst can break down vehicle methane emissions.

Excelon to sell 3 MD coal plants.

Solarworld, Germany's largest solar panel maker, dropped 11% after 2nd-largest Q loss - $198M. Forecasting full year loss.

See Algae Tech and Brazil's leading ethanol producer to joint develop Brazil's 1st algae biomass plant for ~$10M.

BIOF had $12.4M loss in Q2 - 150% worse than last year. Revs $123M.

Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels (NV) got $105M loan guarantee from USDA's Biorefinery Assistance Program. To convert muni solid waste to ethanol. 10M gal/y. Their 1st commercial-scale plant. Online by '15.

India considering reduction of value added tax on biofuel from 14% to 5%.

Ames Lab pioneering spectrometry to map cottonseed lipids. May hold key to understanding biosynthesis for biofuels prod. Mapping molecules at single cell level. "This tech to blossom very rapidly in next few years."

Midwest ethanol plants voluntarily shutting down. Drought. Corn crop. Down to ~800Kb/d v. ~910K in '11.

Investment in Scotland clean/renew energy up over $4B since '09. Wind farms main focus. But biofuel sector got >$400M. (Scotland has >60% of UK's forests.)

US to invest up to $5B in Indonesia infrastructure. I know. How about spending that here. 1 project for building 4 ethanol plants involves Celanese. OK, at least a US comp involved. Developing synthetic ethanol from coal. Isn't that 30's or before tech? What ev. Economics. Indonesia pushing to reduce gasoline imports by 30Mb/y.

IEA reduced world oil consumption forecast for '12 by 250Kb/d to 89.6Mb/d. Forecasting increase of 800Kb/d next year. They see global GDP growing 3.3% this year, 3.6% next. OECD 1.3% to 1.7%. Forecasts down ~.2% in past month, .4% in China. Chile, Estonia, Slovenia and Israel now added to OECD.

Prelim data for July, 1st full month for EU sanctions on Iran crude, suggests Iran exports fell to 1Mb/d from 1.74 in June. And, of course, the Hormuz collision now between Navy ship and oil tanker. S'up with that?

Sudan deal an oil transit fee of $24/bl. North asked for $36. But IEA doubts full prod can be resumed anytime soon because of damage from rapid shutdown.

Estimate that China adding ~600Kb/d to strategic crude stockpile.

N East US refining shotrfall may be only 50Kb/d.

DOA cut US corn prod forecast to 10.8B bushels, down 13% from '11 despite largest corn sowing since '37 - 96.4M acres.

Indian Oil posted record Q loss after govt failed to comp it for capping fuel prices. Singh continuing to rein in nation's finances.

Chevron's Cal refinery could be shut down up to 3 months from fire. 245Kb/d.

Cheneire moving ahead on Louisiana LNG exporting terminal.

Japan consortium took control of 40% stake in Nexen shale NG assets in Canada. I thought China bought Nexen?!

New rules for China rare earths comps. Minimum prod capac of 20K metric tons per year for mines, output of minimum 2K tons/y for smelters.

Dane N Sea oil fields' output down 4.3% in July to 172Kb/d equiv. On year, down 8.1%.

In '08, Goldman Sachs gave target of $60/sh for Petrobras. Today shares ~$20. Don't listen to Wall Street. Do your own math.

US proved reserves of both oil and NG in '10 rose by highest amounts ever recorded in 35 years of EIA estimates.

Coal India considering importing 20M metric tons of coal in current FY.

US coal prod ~20M tons last week: EIA. Down .5% from prior week, 4.4% from year ago.

China crude oil imports in July up 12.4% yoy. 21.8M metric tons (5.16Mb/d).

Germany's National Infrastructure Bank to increase investment in clean/renew energy and energy efficiency projects to 100B Euros over next 5 years.

U of AZ researchers designed solar module using curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small glass ball that spreads the light evenly across panels of high efficiency solar cells normally only used in space. Up to 2x power output of normal solar panel. Unless I'm missing something here, those space solar cells - EMKR - already prod ~2x of silicon cells with Gallium Arsenide. Maybe it takes the glass balls to get that kind of prod down here on the planet?

 Gazprom Neft signed $317M loan deal to upgrade Serbian subsid that owns oil refineries and major filling station chain.

Wash State U study: when water behind dams rapidly lowers from demand or drought, reservoirs can prod up to 20x more methane than normal from biological activity. Methane 25x worse than CO2 in atmos, 100x more potent over 20 years.

USDA making emergency meat purchases, Obama urging action on farm bill. I thought Congress was on "holiday".

DOE awarded $8M for tougher, lighter auto body materials.

IL gov blocking bill to help build clean coal plant.