PetroChina Ltd., China’s biggest oil and gas company, saw its third-quarter profit jump 7.8 percent as higher crude oil prices and output helped to offset losses in its refining business.
The Beijing-based company reported Thursday a profit of 37.4 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) in July-September, compared with 34.7 billion yuan a year earlier.
PetroChina reported a refining loss of 41.5 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) as higher costs for imported crude oil outpaced the gains in prices for its products.
But weakness in the refining sector was offset by a 45 percent increase in crude oil prices over the same period a year earlier, to $103.78 per barrel. The company’s output in the first nine months of the year rose 5.1 percent, to 959 free credit score.3 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Like other Chinese energy and resource companies, it has actively sought access to resources overseas to help diversify its risks and ensure a steady supply of oil and gas needed to power China’s fast-growing economy.
PetroChina increased its refining by 10 percent in January-September, or about 2.7 million barrels a day. But it derives a larger share of its revenues from oil and gas production than rival Sinopec, which is mainly a refiner, helping to shield it from losses due to government controls on fuel prices.
As President Obama prepared to announce new measures Wednesday to help ease the burden of student loan debt, new figures painted a demoralizing picture of college costs for students and parents: Average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose an additional $631 this fall, or 8.3 percent, compared with a year ago.
Nationally, the cost of a full credit load has passed $8,000, an all-time high. Throw in room and board, and the average list price for a state school now runs more than $17,000 a year, according to the twin annual reports on college costs and student aid published Wednesday by the College Board.
The large increase in federal grants and tax credits for students, on top of stimulus dollars that prevented greater state cuts, helped keep the average tuition-and-fees that families actually pay much lower: about $2,490, or just $170 more than five years ago. But the days of states and families relying on budget relief from Washington appear numbered. And some argue that while Washington’s largesse may have helped some students, it did little to hold down prices.
“The states cut budgets, the price goes up, and the (federal) money goes to that,” said Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “For 25 years we’ve been putting more and more money into financial aid, and tuition keeps going up. We’re on a national treadmill.”
Nonetheless, President Obama planned to announce a series of steps to help with one of the consequences of rising college prices: student debt. This year total outstanding student loan debt has passed $1 trillion, now exceeding credit card debt. And concerns about student loan debt have been front and center with many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Obama will use executive authority for two loan-relief measures. First, he will move up the start date _ from 2014 to 2012 _ of a plan Congress already passed that reduces the maximum repayment on federal student loans from 15 percent of discretionary incomes to 10 percent. The White House says about 1.6 million borrowers could be affected, and that remaining debt would be forgiven after 20 years, instead of 25.
The administration also will allow 5.8 million borrowers with outstanding loans from two federal programs _ direct lending the Family Education Loan Program _ to consolidate into a direct loan, potentially saving some borrowers hundreds of dollars per month.
Those changes may not help new borrowers much, but they could put cash in the pockets of millions still paying back their loans. They also could encourage more borrowers to take advantage of the income repayment options that are already in place, but not widely known. Finally, by consolidating into direct lending, more could qualify for that program’s public service loan forgiveness, which can forgive debts after just 10 years of repayments for people working in nonprofit or public service jobs.
In the College Board’s latest price report, some of the increase was driven by huge increases at public universities in California, which enrolls 10 percent of public four-year college students and whose 21 percent tuition increase this year was the largest of any state.
But even without California, prices would have increased 7 percent on average nationally _ an exceptional burden at a time of high unemployment and stagnant family incomes.
Terry Hartle, senior vice president at the American Council on Education, which represents colleges in Washington, said the cause of the price increases for the 80 percent of college students who attend public institutions is clear. State appropriations to higher education declined 18 percent per student over the last three years, the College Board found, the sharpest fall on record.
“To see increases of 20 percent, as we saw in California, to see gains of 15 percent in other states, is simply unprecedented,” Hartle said. “Tuition is simply being used as a revenue substitute in many states.”
The College Board reports roughly 56 percent of 2009-2010 bachelor’s degree recipients at public four-years graduated with debt, averaging about $22,000. At private nonprofit universities, the figures were higher _ 65 percent and around $28,000. Those figures are likely to rise, though private borrowing _ usually more dangerous than government loans _ has been falling.
“Psychologically, practically, it’s a big number, and it will inform important choices, like when and whether you buy a home, start a family, save for retirement or take the risk of starting a new business,” said Lauren Asher, president of The Institute for College Access and Success, who also applauded the Obama announcement.
And Asher and other experts emphasize that the types of loans students take out can be as important as the amount. In general, a college degree remains a good investment.
Other slivers of what passes for good news: While several states had double-digit percentage increases, there were wide variations, and Connecticut and South Carolina held under 3 percent. Roughly half of students are enrolled in nonprofit colleges attend institutions charging under $10,000, and fewer than 1 in 10 attend institutions listing prices over $36,000.
Meanwhile, both community colleges and private four-year colleges reported lower tuition inflation than public universities.
At nonprofit private four-year colleges, tuition and fees were up 4.5 percent to $28,500. Factoring in aid, the average total net cost, including room and board, was about $22,970 _ lower than five years ago. At community colleges, where list prices rose 8.7 percent nationally to just under $3,000, net costs also are lower than five years ago, and aid generally covers the whole price.
Still, while net costs are important to note, they don’t tell the whole story. They don’t cover living costs, which for many students are a higher obstacle than tuition, especially if they can’t work as much while enrolled.
And the aid dollars that help lower the average net price don’t always go to the neediest students.
Colleges award merit scholarships. Federal Pell Grants do support the neediest, and spending on them has nearly doubled in the last two years to around $35 billion (9.1 million students got grants averaging $3,828).
But the latest College Board figures highlight a rapid recent increase in indirect government support through tuition and other tax credits, which have reached almost $15 billion. Around 12 million people are now taking advantage of tax benefits averaging more than $1,200. And while recent changes make low-income families better able to take advantage of those credits, a growing proportion of the benefit goes to families earning more than $100,000.
The tax credit program, dramatically expanded in 2009, “really changes the story of how the federal government subsidizes students,” said Sandy Baum, the economist who directs the College Board’s reports. The credit is “not so much a middle-income benefit as we’re used to thinking about it.”
Some states are not only cutting their appropriations but not even paying what they’ve promised. Illinois is late on payments worth $500 million to nine campuses this year.
The percentage increases in California, once widely considered to have the best-value public universities in the world, are so high in part because the base prices of past years were low. Prices there still aren’t high by national standards, but this year for the first time, California’s tuition and fee rates were above the national average. That in 2011 California’s public universities would be cost more than the national average would have been unimaginable to most experts a decade ago.
Hartle and others say this year’s sharp increases came despite the last chunks of stimulus dollars from Washington used to plug holes in education spending. Looking forward, state budgets remain broken and there’s little indication Washington will come riding to the rescue.
“I’m not exactly sure where higher education in the United States is going,” he said. “But I have a feeling California is going to get there first.”
Also, on Tuesday, an Education Department official testified to a House subcommittee that personal details of as many as 5,000 college students were temporarily visible to other students on the departments’ direct loan web site earlier this month.
The episode lasted six or seven minutes on Oct. 12 and happened during a reconfiguration of data on 11.5 million borrowers to improve website performance times, said James Runcie, the Education Department’s federal student aid chief operating officer. Students who logged on during that window saw other students’ personal details. Those who were exposed were notified and offered credit monitoring services. The department said it had no reason to believe any students’ information was misused.
Renewable energy advocates, dissatisfied with how the state’s 2008 clean power law was implemented, want voters to help strengthen the measure.
P.J. Wilson, director of Columbia-based Renew Missouri, plans to file papers with the secretary of state’s office today as the first official step toward getting a revised a new renewable energy standard on the ballot next fall, he said.
The proposed rewrite of the state’s existing clean energy standard would require investor-owned utilities to get 25 percent of their electric generation from the wind, sun and other renewable resources by 2025. The current law requires 15 percent by 2021.
Just as importantly, it would clarify certain parts of the existing law that have been a source of sharp disagreements between Missouri’s small-but-growing renewable energy industry and the state’s biggest utilities.
In an emailed statement, Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri’s vice president of regulatory and legislative affairs, said the utility was still reviewing a copy of the ballot initiative it received late Wednesday. “It is premature for us to offer an opinion on the impact of this ballot initiative on our customers’ rates,” he said.
Renew Missouri and other supporters must collect almost 100,000 valid signatures from across the state by early May to get the measure on the ballot next fall. First, language for the petition must be approved by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.
Two-thirds of Missouri voters approved the renewable energy measure three years ago. Polling conducted by Renew Missouri this summer suggested similarly strong voter interest in a law to aid renewable energy development. But not for the same reason, Wilson said.
“I wouldn’t be filing this if I didn’t think it had strong public support,” he said. “But I think the reason for voter support has shifted.”
The selling point then was energy security, he said. Today, it’s jobs.
The 2008 ballot measure drew no organized opposition. But months of contentious debate followed during the administrative rulemaking process at the Public Service Commission. In the end, a little-known legislative committee stripped a controversial provision from rules advanced by the commission.
The change allowed utilities to meet the green power mandate by purchasing so-called renewable energy certificates instead of building wind or solar farms in Missouri or contracting to buy renewable energy from neighboring states my credit score. Utilities can purchase the certificates from out-of-state renewable energy producers and count each of them as 100 kilowatt hours toward their mandated goals.
Renewable energy backers, including solar and wind companies that would have benefited from the rules as originally written by the PSC, balked at the change. Their dissatisfaction jump-started effort to rewrite the law and implement a stronger renewable energy standard.
The renewable standard being proposed by Renew Missouri would require utilities to develop renewable energy in or purchase it from Missouri or at least within the regional power grid.
It would also clarify ambiguity concerning the impact on electric rates. The existing law caps the impact on electric rates at 1 percent. The proposed ballot initiative would prohibit utilities from spending more for green power than they would spend to purchase or generate fossil fuel-based energy.
The rewrite of the law would also eliminate the legislative review of PSC administrative rules and prohibit Ameren Missouri from counting its century-old Keokuk, Iowa, hydroelectric plant toward the green power mandate.
Nationwide, 32 states and the District of Columbia have renewable energy mandates, according to the Department of Energy. Missouri is one of few states with a voter-approved law.
The current law requires utilities to gradually increase renewable energy sales until they reach the 15 percent target in 2021. The proposed goal of 25 percent by 2025 equals the renewable energy target in Illinois.
“It’s pretty middle of the pack,” Wilson, said.
Renew Missouri is recruiting and training volunteers to help collect petition signatures and soliciting donations to support the effort. The has conducted held training sessions around the state in recent weeks, including one at the St. Louis County Public Library in Frontenac on Thursday night.
Bank of America’s homepage and online banking service are experiencing problems.
A message on the home page said the site was temporarily unavailable. Some visitors who tried to sign onto their accounts were greeted with the message that the site was “operating slower than usual” and that the bank was working to restore service.
A company spokeswoman said the problems began around 9:15 a unsecured personal loans.m. Friday, but that customers can still bank via text message and at ATMs. She said problems weren’t the result of hacking.
The outage came a day after the bank said it would start charging a $5 monthly fee for debit card purchases.
The city’s board of aldermen had their first opportunity to hear a request by Ralcorp Holdings for public subsidies to help fund its headquarters expansion project.
Alderwoman Phyllis Young introduced the bill for Ralcorp’s request for the city to offer $20 million in bond financing and property tax breaks on new equipment at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s meeting today.
It was the bill’s first reading at the board, and no vote was taken on the measure. The request will next be heard by the board’s housing and urban development committee next month.
Ralcorp, a publicly held company that makes cereal, pasta and other foods, wants to expand its leased space downtown and spend $6.9 million on improvements.
The company has more than 400 local employees and says it expects to hire an additional 100 employees and needs to expand its office space.
Keeping the jobs downtown is the impetus behind the incentives, Young said. “It stabilizes our income stream because we keep those employees, it increases the value of the building and the real estate taxes with it, and the employees that will be added will bring revenue,” she said. ”All of those are very important.”
In a statement, Ralcorp said it conducted a regional search for its office space needs and is negotiating with its landlord to expand in the Bank of America Plaza at 800 Market Street.
Bionic ear maker Cochlear has been forced to begin a global recall of the world’s thinnest hearing implants after some stopped working.
The Sydney-based company, which dominates the world’s bionic ear market, said on Monday it was mystified as to why some of its award-winning Nucleus CI500 devices were suddenly shutting down.
The company has begun recalling its entire Nucleus CI500 range, which makes up the bulk of its sales, from shelves after a rise in the number of faults with the CI512 model.
Shares in Cochlear fell 14.68 Australian dollars ($15.21), or 20 percent, to close at AU$57.50 ($59.58), the lowest in over two years.
The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Nate has weakened somewhat as it heads toward expected landfall later today in southern Mexico.
The Miami-based center said at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) Sunday that Nate was centered 60 miles (95 kilometers) northeast of Veracruz. It said Mexican authorities have replaced a hurricane warning from Tuxpan to Veracruz with a tropical storm warning. Nate has top sustained winds of 60 mph (95 kph) and is moving west at 7 mph (11 kph) low fee payday loans.
Meanwhile, U.S. forecasters say Tropical Storm Maria had 60-mph (95-kph) winds early Sunday, intensifying slightly while moving northwest at 13 mph (20 kph) on a gradual course away from the northeast Caribbean toward the open Atlantic. Maria’s center was 95 miles (150 kilometers) east-northeast of St. Thomas early Sunday.
JACKSON HOLE, WYO.
Delta Air Lines on Thursday confirmed its plan to buy 100 Boeing 737 jets as part of a fleet upgrade, with delivery set for 2013 to 2018.
The order announced Thursday is valued at $8.5 billion at list prices, although airlines commonly get discounts. The newer planes offer perks for travelers including a roomier cabin, less engine noise and more room in overhead bins. But they also have huge benefits for airlines because they are more efficient, require less maintenance and burn less fuel.
The 737-900 extended-range aircraft from Boeing Co. have a single aisle and up to 180 seats when set up with economy and first class. They have the range to fly on any of Delta’s current domestic routes. The 737-900 is the newest of Boeing’s popular 737 model.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which is based in Atlanta, said in January it was considering an order for as many as 200 jets _ possibly with options for 200 more _ to replace the aging fleet it uses for domestic flying. It said the timing of its delivery plan announced Thursday will allow it to keep its capital spending plan on target for this year. Keeping its costs under control is critical to its goal of reducing its debt over the next two years.
The new planes will replace Delta workhorses such as the DC-9-50s and Airbus A320s that it got when it bought Northwest Airlines in 2008, as well as Boeing 757-200s, which both airlines have operated paydayloans. The average age of Delta’s planes is 16 years. It has some Boeing planes that are less than two years old. But its DC-9s date back to the 1970s. They are the oldest commercial passenger planes flown today by a U.S. airline. Delta is the world’s second-largest airline, behind United Continental Holdings Inc. It has a total fleet of more than 700 planes.
Delta estimates that it will save between 15 and 20 percent in fuel and maintenance costs when it takes on the new planes. It is now more than halfway through a three-year, $2 billion plan to upgrade its fleet, facilities and technology.
The purchase is good news for Chicago-based Boeing, which lost its exclusive hold on American Airlines’ fleet last month. The airline, which is owned by AMR Corp., announced plans to split a massive order between Boeing and rival Airbus. It was the biggest plane order in history: 460 aircraft (260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing) with options to buy 465 more.
In morning trading, Delta shares fell 39 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $6.86. Boeing shares shed 64 cents to $61.05.
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Samantha Bomkamp can be reached at http://twitter.com/SamWillTravel
Oil rose above $85 per barrel Tuesday on encouraging economic news from Asia and Europe. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.02 to finish at $85.44 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price oil produced abroad, increased $1.08 to $109.44 per barrel in London.
Prices rose following reports of better-than-expected manufacturing activity in China and Europe. And stocks rose in the U.S. ahead of an expected announcement from the Federal Reserve on Friday to further stimulate the nation’s economy.
The positive news was offset by reports of more unrest in Libya’s capitol as the Gadhafi regime appeared near collapse.
An end to the country’s six-month rebellion would clear the way for oil exports to resume, but analysts cautioned that it will likely take more than a year for oil to begin flowing at levels that would affect prices.
“Crude from Libya is going to be a story for 2012 or 2013. Not today,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service fast cash loans.
Fighting during the last six months has all but stopped activity in Libya’s oil fields. The country previously supplied about 1.5 million barrels per day for world markets. That’s roughly 2 percent of daily global oil demand.
Meanwhile, U.S. gas pump prices rose Tuesday to a national average $3.572 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 86.4 cents more expensive than the same time last year.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 3.18 cents to end at $2.9425 per gallon and gasoline futures added 4.15 cents to finish at $2.8766 per gallon. Natural gas rose 10.4 cents to end the day at $3.993 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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