Oil below $99 as Japan quake, tsunami cripple economy, cut crude demand
By Alex Kennedy, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 11 minutes ago
SINGAPORE - Oil prices dropped below $99 a barrel Monday in Asia after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, likely denting demand for crude from the world's third-largest economy.
Benchmark crude for April delivery was down $2.28 at $98.88 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.54 to $101.16 on Friday.
In London, Brent crude was down $1.63 at $112.21 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.
Officials estimate a 10-meter (33-foot) wall of seawater triggered by an 8.9 magnitude quake off the coast of northern Japan on Friday killed at least 10,000 people and severely damaged the country's energy infrastructure. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average fell more than 6 per cent Monday.
"This disaster has in effect temporarily frozen the world's third largest economy," said Richard Soultanian of NUS Consulting. "It seems clear that Japan's appetite for crude oil may be diminished in the near-term which should provide previously unforeseen slack in international oil markets."
Three of Japan's five largest refineries have been shut down, which will immediately crimp demand for crude. Japan is the world's third-largest crude consumer at 4.5 million barrel a day, the second-largest net oil importer and the biggest importer of liquefied natural gas and coal.
Traders were also selling Monday on disappointing U.S. February retail sales data released Friday, which suggest the recent jump in crude prices is beginning to hurt demand for gasoline.
"Put simply, demand destruction is taking place, whether that's in Japan or in the U.S. at the pump," energy consultant The Schork Report said. "A very bearish picture for crude oil."
Investors had been concerned about possible unrest in OPEC leader Saudi Arabia but police prevented a protest organized by pro-democracy activists on Friday in the capital, Riyadh.
In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil was down 1.9 cents at $3.01 a gallon and gasoline dropped 3.1 cents to $2.96 a gallon. Natural gas rose 5.3 cents to $3.94 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Volcano in southern Japan resumes eruptions, as north struggles with earthquake disaster
By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Sun, 13 Mar, 2011 11:16 AM EDT
TOKYO - The weather agency says a volcano in southern Japan is spewing ash and rock again as the country struggles with the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in the north.
The Meteorological Agency issued a warning Sunday saying that Shinmoedake volcano resumed activity after a couple of quiet weeks.
The mountain is on Kyushu island, 950 miles (1,500 kilometres) from the epicenter of Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake and resulting tsunami, which devastated much of the country's northeastern coast.
It was unclear if the eruptions were linked to quake. Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of seismically active zones where earthquake and volcanic eruptions are common.
WHY MILLIONS OF DEAD SARDINES FOUND FLOATING IN CALIFORNIA MARINA
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Researchers say the millions of sardines that were found floating dead in a Southern California marina this week tested positive for a powerful neurotoxin.
University of Southern California biologist David Caron said Friday that high levels of domoic acid were found in the fish scooped from the Redondo Beach marina.
He said critically low oxygen levels in the water caused the sardines to suffocate, but it's possible the toxin distressed them off the coastline and caused them to crowd into the marina.
Domoic acid is often found in the stomach of fish that have been feeding on plankton during toxic algae blooms. Caron's lab is working to determine if the poisoning was caused by a toxic algae bloom spotted off Redondo Beach on Wednesday.
SPECIAL BULLETIN:
Sardines, Blackbirds, and Mass Suicide Friday, March 11th, 2011
King Harbor, or more precisely the Redondo Beach marina, has experienced a massive kill off of sardines. Sardines are packed in there, like – sardines – TONS of Sardines. The world news expresses shock that this has happened, and many laymen are connecting this major kill off with the concentrated blackbird deaths reported on New Year's Eve. The two incidents may actually be related, but in such a way that it knocks a few conspiracy theories in the head.
What is so amazing about this sardine event is that so many died at the same time.
There are a few key facts to deal with..
1. Some fishermen reported waves coming over the harbor breakwaters during the night. It is claimed that would have washed bird excrement off the rocks and into the marina, and this could have caused the water to be depleted of oxygen. But no, common sense says that carry off from the shore occurs often — and with no sardines dying off. If there any chance of this theory explaining a sudden depletion of oxygen in so large an area then we would see the Army, Navy and Marines stampeding into the arena so as to seal the area off until that secret weapon capable of producing such an event was discovered. We would also see doubleteen rows of spies with itching eyes standing on the shore.
2 Researchers measured critically low oxygen levels in King Harbor after the massive die-off. I want you to remember that AFTER part because that condition was not there before. As David Caron, a biological sciences professor, said, "What we're trying to tease apart is whether it's a consequence of algal buildup, a fish buildup or something toxic in the water," Similar but not nearly as massive, fish kills also struck King Harbor in 2003 and 2005.
Both times it was found that algae blooms robbed the harbor waters of life-enriching oxygen, causing the fish to suffocate and die. Such fish kills have been popping up around the world in what one Louisiana scientist calls "dead zones."
She has spent a career studying America's largest one, which strikes nearly ever year in an expanse of the Gulf of Mexico about the size of the state of New Jersey.
Robert Diaz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science — and other scientists around the world have identified hundreds of these areas around the world, that are choking the life out of harbors, bays and estuaries. Writing up a report to Congress last September, Diaz found that nearly half of U.S. bays, estuaries and other waterways surveyed have suffered from low-oxygen dead zones. "These episodes do not necessarily happen ever year. They strike when the conditions are just right."
Yep, Once more it is Global Warming being nudged forward to take the rap.
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