Thursday, July 11, 2013

Hi-Crush Partners completes $125 million deal

Hi-Crush Partners operates two sand facilities in Wisconsin, and just acquired a third in Pennsylvania. (Hi-Crush Partners)

Hi-Crush Partners, a Houston-based proppant company,  Tuesday announced that it has completed the acquisition of a Pennsylvania sand company, extending its geographic reach.

The $125 million deal for D&I Silica includes $95 million in cash and 1.579 million units priced at $19, according to the company.

Hi-Crush launched in July 2011 with the operation of a 600-acre sand mining facility in Wisconsin, producing Northern White monocrystalline sand for use in hydraulic fracturing. It launched an initial public offering a year later.

It acquired a 1,000-acre sand facility in Wisconsin earlier this year.

The acquisition of D&I Silica, based in Sheffield, Pa., will strengthen the company’s logistics capabilities, company officials said.

“With the acquisition now complete, we have extended our geographic footprint and asset base and now own and operate the largest distribution network in the Marcellus and Utica shales,” co-chief executive officer Jim Whipkey said in a statement.


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Customer Service and Shipping (Downtown Los Angeles)

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Petronas to spend $16 billion on Canadian facility

Pipelines run from the offshore docking station to four liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks at the Dominion Resources Inc. Liquefied Natural Gas facility in Cove Point, Md. A domestic natural gas boom already has lowered U.S. energy prices while stoking fears of environmental disaster. Now U.S. producers are poised to ship vast quantities of gas overseas as energy companies seek permits for proposed export projects that could set off a renewed frenzy of fracking. (AP Photo/Matt Houston, File)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian national oil company Petronas says it expects to spend up to $16 billion to build a liquefied natural gas export facility in western Canada.

Arif Mahmood, Petronas vice president of corporate planning, says the company will invest between $9 billion and $11 billion to construct two LNG liquefaction plants.

Another $5 billion will be invested in a 750 kilometer-long pipeline, to be built by TransCanada Corp., to supply gas to the two plants, he said Tuesday in an email to The Associated Press.

The Pacific Northwest LNG project, located on Lelu Island in the Port Edward district, will liquefy and export natural gas produced by Progress Energy Canada. Both companies are owned by Petronas, which secured its first LNG buyer, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co.


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Pei Wei - Wok / Saute Cooks & Cashier / Busser / Runner - Now Open! (Beverly Hills)

Posting ID: 3635505473

Posted: 2013-02-22, 7:02AM PST

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Strauss-Kahn vice charge may be dropped

French prosecutor cites insufficient evidence in recommending the dropping of potential charges of pimping against the former IMF head

Read more from Financial Times


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Accounting Assistant in Admin. Dept for Home Remodeling Co. (Torrance)

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Fracking Energy Mess: Deconstructing the Green Agenda

Fracking Energy Mess: Deconstructing the Green Agenda

By Michael J. Economides and Peter C Glover

It has the power to ruin economies, impoverish countless millions and leave many of us, quite literally, in the dark and cold. We are not talking about alarmist theories of what the future climate may do. We are talking about what the current and ubiquitous green agenda is doing.

Other than food no commodity is as important to the world as energy. Yet, because of angst-ridden theoretical speculation – note: not empirical science – the modern green agenda has affected an intellectual disconnect. It is a disconnect that has seen eco-theories eclipse energy realities such that national leaders, industry executives and even reasonable people are not engaging in rational debate let alone action.

Pitted against each other in what can only be considered as almost war-like entrenchments are environmentalists or “greens” on one side and economically-driven pragmatists on the other. There is no contest from an economic point of view. Solar, wind and other “alternatives” favoured by the greens are not and will never be viable. From a thermodynamic point of view they will never amount to much more than one percent of world energy demand without massive and unsustainable government subsidies.

Fossil fuels, headed by the recent emergence of shale hydrocarbons, arguably the biggest energy story in decades, have offered an imposing argument for the world dependency on them in the foreseeable future. The future of oil and gas is not solar and wind; the future of oil and gas is oil and gas.

There is no contest between the impact on a nation’s or region’s economy between fossil and alternative energies. Just as an example, since just last year Texas’ Eagle Ford oil and gas shale deposits, one of the largest shale discoveries in the US, have generated some $61 billion in economic impact on the South Texas economy, more than doubling its impact from 2011. Better yet for Texas, and indeed the entire country, it’s supporting more than 116,000 new jobs, with room for more.

What the other side is left with is the boogeyman of global climate change and emissions. But this is a non-starter today. First, there is an apparent and inexplicable holding to theoretical climate orthodoxy because, for almost two decades, there has been no warming in spite of the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Second, and this is almost whimsical, the success of shale gas and its significant increased use in US power generation has resulted in a dramatic reduction in emissions compared to the growing use of coal-burning in Europe and other countries around the world.

Given the global impact of the US shale gas and oil industries, Europe has been jolted into an appreciation of the huge economic benefits of shale hydrocarbons. But while European leaders may currently be reassessing their attitude towards shale developments, particularly, the fracking technique (hydraulic fracturing) that made it possible, one key barrier to success remains: naive cultural notions of what it means to be “green”.

The US energy market suddenly finds itself approaching what was, just a few years ago, unthinkable: energy independence. Europe, on the other hand, remains in the thrall of Russian gas dependency, expensive imports and domestic heavy industries, including power stations, that – an irony of ironies – has turned to cheap US coal imports as their chief affordable fuel. As a consequence US natural gas prices have fallen to one half of that being paid across the Atlantic. And a US coal industry which has found its product dislodged by domestic industry’s switch to natural gas has found itself a lucrative overseas market. No one suggests that developing shale industries would be a silver bullet for the European economies. But it is abundantly clear that the shale gas and oil industries have thrived in the US – despite an anti-fossil fuel president in the White House – because Americans own the mineral rights beneath their properties, unlike in much of Europe. Even so, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that developing domestic shale reserves still offers a major economic opportunity for many EU states. But here’s the problem. Europe’s energy strategy is still, primarily driven by its anti-carbon addiction and, in consequence, incompatible and competing priorities in its whole energy strategy.

This, even though climate alarmists are becoming increasingly desperate to find a credible explanation for the contradiction that the global average temperature has long flat-lined while CO2 levels have risen. The European carbon market has all but collapsed. Grasping that EU energy policies threaten an exodus of its leading heavy and chemical industries if prices are not brought down, European politicians have belatedly ‘seen the shale light’.

electricity prices

Figure 1: The graph which is opening the door to an EU re-appraisal on shale gas

In May, European President Herman Van Pompuy cited the need for Europe to face up to the challenge posed by the success of US shale gas and oil which has slashed its domestic prices and undercut European competitiveness.  “All leaders are aware that sustainable and affordable energy is key to keeping factories and jobs in Europe,” Van Pompuy told the media. He acknowledged that, “Industry finds it hard to compete with foreign firms who pay half the price for electricity, like in the United States.” That may be so. But the reality remains that, as a Washington Post correspondent astutely observed, Europe “has become a green-energy basket case. Instead of a model for the world to emulate, Europe has become a model of what not to do.”

Europe’s green agenda is undoubtedly the single greatest factor driving up the continent’s energy bills, up 40 percent since 2005. Now, however, shale development is perceived as the new way of bringing down, or at least stabilizing, gas prices, industry costs and domestic bills. Political and media observers have duly rushed to characterize Europe’s volte face on shale and fracking extraction as “rolling back its climate policy”. The well-funded green lobbies have expressed mass panic. But the reality is, however, that Brussels’ energy strategy remains as shambolic as ever with an anti-intellectual “green agenda” still dominating strategy.

At an energy summit in late May, European leaders persisted in re-affirming Brussels’ core commitment to high-cost, high-subsidy dependent renewable energy projects driven by an increasingly pointless war on carbon emissions. Yet it is this very renewables commitment, remember, that is singularly responsible for propelling Europe’s heavy industry and power sector to import increasing amounts of high CO2 emitting (albeit, high quality) American coal in a bid to remain competitive. Thus the “green agenda” levies and taxes that will always be necessary to ‘fuel’ the renewable energy projects can, in fact, never be abandoned. Europe’s politicians must continue to be caught between a rock – rising energy bills – and a hard place – the twin tyranny of a self-imposed carbon jihad and a renewable energy fantasy.

But Europe’s energy confusion is indicative of a more deep-seated cultural malaise: an abject failure to grasp that even a “green agenda” must be subject to economic realism. Unless we re-visit our understanding of what we value, economically and morally, “green” government energy policies will remain, as they are in Europe, contradictory, incoherent and unsustainably uneconomic. Governments love green taxes and levies. They provide a windfall of non-earmarked cash; but at a massive social cost. They render industries uncompetitive and unable to hire. They mire increasing millions in fuel poverty. They doom energy costs to remain artificially high – and all for no discernible environmental benefit.

As it stands, today’s cultural “green agenda” is nothing less than a case of anti-intellectualism, costing the earth, in pursuit of the illusory.


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Front of House staff needed (Monterey Park)

Posting ID: 3635137585

Posted: 2013-02-22, 12:00AM PST

Edited: 2013-02-22, 12:00AM PST

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RWE said to struggle to find buyers for Dea oil, gas unit

Hannelore Failing to sell Dea would represent a fresh blow to RWE’s divestment efforts after the company was forced to scrap a sale of gas fields in Egypt last year amid tepid interest and the country’s political unrest. Foerster/Bloomberg

RWE AG (RWE), Germany’s second-largest utility, is struggling to find buyers for its Dea oil-and-gas unit, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

So far, only BASF SE (BAS)’s energy unit Wintershall has expressed serious interest in buying all of Dea, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. RWE may have to accept a lower price than the 4.5 billion euros to 5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) it initially sought if it proceeds with a sale of the entire unit, the people said. RWE spokeswoman Annett Urbaczka declined to comment on the process.

Failing to sell Dea would represent a fresh blow to RWE’s divestment efforts after the company was forced to scrap a sale of gas fields in Egypt last year amid tepid interest and the country’s political unrest. In March, it also abandoned a target of 7 billion euros in disposals by the end of the year after prices fell short.

“We do not want to divest at just any price,” Peter Terium, chief executive officer at RWE, said in March when he announced plans to sell the unit.

RWE shares have dropped 17 percent in Frankfurt this year, the third-worst performance in Germany’s benchmark DAX index, as a surplus of wind and solar production forces power prices to a record low. The reduced revenue from generation comes as utilities seek to shoulder the cost of closing nuclear power stations as part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shift to alternative energy.

Under Pressure

“For the negotiation of prices it is problematic if potential buyers know that RWE is under pressure to sell,” Sven Diermeier, an analyst at Independent Research GmbH, said by phone from Frankfurt. “A sale in 2013 is improbable.”
RWE declined as much as 1.3 percent to 25.85 euros, the lowest since April, and was down 1 percent at 9:44 a.m. in Frankfurt trading. Larger competitor EON SE was little changed.

German utilities are seeking to reduce debt after Merkel ordered them to close their nuclear plants by 2022 in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011. EON is selling assets valued at as much as 20 billion euros.

“We continually check possible acquisitions,” said Stefan Leunig, a spokesman for Wintershall, declining to comment further. Rainer Seele, CEO of Wintershall, expressed interest in acquiring RWE Dea at a press conference in Kassel on March 12, Handelsblatt reported.

Expressed Interest

While other buyers have expressed interest in parts of Dea and RWE would be open to selling them, the unit’s management is pushing for it to be sold as a whole, two of the people said. RWE has attracted interest in its Norwegian and North Sea assets, while buyers are more reluctant to purchase the Egyptian segment, which requires investments and is exposed to a less politically stable region, people familiar with the matter said last year.

“I can’t imagine that RWE will sell Dea in parts,” Diermeier said. “They will achieve a higher price for the package than for the parts.”


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Executive Assistant Needed for Growing Real Estate Team (Redondo Beach)

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Haynesville Shale alive and well for some

In a May 7, 2013 photo, Mark Burford rides through one of his pastures with his dog as a natural gas well is being installed on his land in Stonewall, La. (AP Photo/The Shreveport Times, Douglas Collier)

STONEWALL, La. — The Haynesville Shale is alive and well — at least for some property owners off Red Bluff Road near Stonewall.

Landowner Mark Burford said he, like his neighbors, was a little concerned when the natural gas development slowed to a crawl early last year. One well was drilled into a section they all share. Promises were made for more.

That promise recently came to fruition as Exco Resources moved in three rigs to drill seven wells.

“They mean business,” said Burford, who owns the biggest portion of the drilling unit. His extended family owns about 12,000 acres scattered throughout the parish. “But a lot of the cousins are not getting what we’re getting so they’re pretty envious right now.”

Five years ago, other parts of the nation were jealous of northwest Louisiana’s spot in the heart of the Haynesville Shale. It was in late March 2008 that Chesapeake Energy announced the discovery of what was billed as the largest natural gas field in the United States.

It took about two months before the frenzy took hold. Land leases once a couple of hundred dollars an acre zoomed to $30,000 an acre by that summer.

But the shale had a hiccup last year. By March 2012, oil and gas companies began scaling back. Plunging natural gas prices and an overabundant supply were blamed.

The Haynesville Shale also gained competition from other shale plays, especially those that also included natural gas liquids or oil. Almost quietly, though, in recent months, the shale play is drawing operators back into the game.

Natural gas prices have inched upward slightly so companies such as EnCana Oil and Gas have returned rigs to the area with plans for more to come. But it’s likely the activity on the Gulf Coast that signals more long-term stability for this northwest Louisiana resource.

Abundant and less volatile-priced natural gas supplies are leading to a renaissance of manufacturing announcements and industrial activity throughout the country. This is particularly true in Louisiana where more than $62.3 billion in a variety of new capital investments has been announced over the past 12 months. Playing a factor in the projects is the proximity to one of the nation’s largest sources of supply, the Haynesville Shale, according to David Dismukes, professor and associate executive director for the LSU Center for Energy Studies

While all of the investments are not likely to be made directly in Louisiana, an estimated $20.2 billion is expected to be spent entirely within the state on developing or expanding new manufacturing or industrial sites. The announced natural gas-induced projects are estimated to generate an economic benefit of more than $29.7 billion in economic impact through 2019, a cumulative increase of some 214,670 jobs and a $9.3 billion increase in wages over the construction period.

Dismukes examined the potential economic impact in a study titled “Unconventional Resources and Louisiana’s Manufacturing Development Renaissance,” sponsored by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association and American’s Natural Gas Alliance.

Companies such as Cheniere and Sempra Energy plan to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from expanded facilities in Cameron Parish. Shell and Sasol will build gas-to-liquids facilities, with Sasol selecting Calcasieu Parish for its operations and Shell’s still to be announced. Closer to home, Benteler Steel in Caddo Parish is building a steel mill, and Sundrop Fuels is constructing a plant near Alexandria where it intends to produce “green gasoline.”

All are energy-intensive, Dismukes said, “facilitated primarily by abundant natural gas supplies.”

Additionally, Louisiana’s existing chemical industry is one of the single largest sectors in terms of employment, output value and energy usage. This sector uses natural gas to process heat and steam, to generate a considerable amount of electricity, and as a feedstock to make everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals, and as inputs for products such as cosmetics, fibers, tires, and clothing, according to Dismukes.

His report also noted 18 “project sponsors” have asked the Department of Energy to let them export up to a total of 27.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. Fourteen of them are on the Gulf Coast, with a projected total of up to 25.1 billion cubic feet a day.

ACTIVE AND RELEVANT

To date, the Haynesville Shale has had a $14 billion impact on the economy, creating more than 60,000 jobs. The new facilities will add to that and ensure long term stability here.

“They are building or investing or remaining in the stated based on the resources we have in the ground,” said Ragan Dickens, LOGA’s North Louisiana director. “Will we see immediate impact? No, it’s more of a long term investment these companies are making to our state which will make the Haynesville Shale active and relevant.”

More than 2,400 wells have been drilled into the Haynesville since 2008. But that’s only 25 percent of the resources in the ground. “So we’ve got a significant amount of natural gas left,” Dickens added.

One company expected to take advantage of it is EnCana. In November, Nucor Corp. announced a long-term agreement with EnCana for an onshore natural gas drilling program that company officials said will ensure a low cost supply of natural gas for its existing and future needs for more than 20 years. EnCana serves as operator, with Nucor paying its share of costs.

The agreement is expected to create a “sustainable competitive advantage” in natural gas costs for Nucor’s direct reduced iron facility under construction in Convent, which is on track for startup at mid-year, in addition to significantly increasing the company’s usage of natural gas, according to the announcement.

EnCana continues to partner with other companies, including Shell, in natural gas development, but spokeswoman Jerri Akers, team lead for stakeholder relations for EnCana’s Business Unit, said she was uncertain how much the Nucor deal contributed to EnCana’s return to the Haynesville Shale.

EnCana didn’t have a rig in the play during much of 2012. So far this year, three have returned and a fourth is on the way. A five-rig program is slated for the year, providing for approximately 24 gross wells and 13 net wells, Akers said.

Increased natural gas prices — listed at $4.16 MMbtu Wednesday, an increase over $2.56 MMbtu reported a year ago — has “certainly helped” spur EnCana’s return, she said.

“There was a time they were so low it couldn’t be profitable,” Akers said. “But gas has come up, and we are and continue to be a low-cost producer. We’ve become so good at what we do we’ve been able to keep supply cost low so that has really helped us.”

Aiding in that process are the longer laterals through the fracking process. The average drilled lateral was 7,100 feet, but this year it’s lengthened to 10,000 feet. “So we’re just getting better. We continue to advance our completion optimization and our resource play up,” said Akers of the company’s operations in Red River and DeSoto parishes. “We are able to capture more of the resource that we did before.”

Likewise, Exco, the company drilling in Burford’s section, boasted in its first-quarter report released in April, of its cost reduction and efficiency program delivering positive results. Improvements in drilling times, stimulation costs and overall capital efficiency puts DeSoto Parish well costs at an average of $7.8 million per well.

Exco will retain three rigs in the play, focusing on DeSoto Parish, throughout 2013. Product pricing and project economics will drive further decisions on drilling activity, but for the year, at least, plans are to drill 26 gross operated wells, and turn to sales a total of 42 gross wells using completions carried from wells drilled in late 2012, officials state in the quarterly report.

What will it take to get all of the operators back in full force in the play? “Most say $5 gas will bring them back,” Dickens said.

While it’s not reached that point yet, the rig count overall has improved from 12 in January 2012 to 38 as of last week. Of course, that’s significantly less than the 140 operating in the shale during 2010-11 when it was the major player in the nation.

Dismukes points out in his report that the unconventional natural gas developments such as the Hayneville Shale have played, and will continue to play, a significant role in North American and even global energy markets.

“While some federal and state policy makers are starting to recognize the considerable economic benefits created by ?upstream’ unconventional drilling and production activities, few recognize the impact that affordable, stable, and abundant natural gas supplies are having on recent ?downstream’ manufacturing investment announcements throughout the country,” Dismukes said.

Officials say that’s the future for the Haynesville Shale. “It’s not going to return tomorrow, but we have stability for the long term,” Dickens said.


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Medical Scheduler (Glendale, CA )

Vital Imaging, Inc., a Global Holdings, Inc. company, is an innovative medical diagnostic company with focus on state-of-the-art technology and outstanding service. The company primarily services the medical-legal (Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury) arena with not only detailed reporting of pathology, but also incorporating factors of impairment based on the AMA Guides, 5th Edition. Vital Imaging specializes in MRI scans including the Stand-Up weight-bearing/multi-positional, as well the High Field MRI.

Job Title: Medical Appointment Schedulers
Duties/Responsibilities:
Greet and schedule patients on the phone for MRI exams
Collect and verify demographic and insurance information
Enter all data into the information system and update patient files, according to Scheduling department protocols
Provide information to patients regarding financial policies, registration requirements, etc.
Ensure that patient waiting areas are clean and maintained
Ensure that patient needs are met to include transportation as necessary, interpreters, scheduling of appointments
Perform clerical duties as assigned by supervisor.
Education:
High school diploma or equivalent (GED) is required.
Experience/Skills:
At least 1 year experience in MRI imaging scheduling
MUST BE BILINGUAL SPANISH/ENGLISH

Additional Responsibilities:
Demonstrates a commitment to service, organization values and professionalism through appropriate conduct and demeanor at all times.
Maintains confidentiality and protects sensitive data at all times.
Works collaboratively and supports efforts of team members.
Demonstrates exceptional customer service and interacts effectively with physicians, patients, residents, visitors, staff and the broader health care community.

Posting ID: 3635029698

Posted: 2013-02-21, 9:34PM PST

Edited: 2013-02-21, 9:34PM PST

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Equinox Personal Trainers (Los Angeles)

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