INSIDE CARBON - July 20, 2010

    LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - European Union carbon permit prices fell slightly on Tuesday after a technicals driven rebound the previous day, traders said.

    EU Allowance futures for December delivery <CFI2Zc1> were trading down 11 cents or 0.8 percent at 14.45 euros ($18.75) at 0800 GMT. The benchmark contracts are now 6 percent above last week's lows, after gaining 2.3 percent on Monday.

    "It was a technical rebound, quite a strong bounce," said one trader of Monday's gains, which he did not expect to signify further rises. "With the ferocity that gas has traded down there isn't much fundamentally bullish. Keeping an eye on the coal, gas differentials is the most important thing at the moment."

 

 

** BRIEF - Barclays says Tricorona offer unconditional

   LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - Barclays PLC <BARC.L>: * Announces offer for Tricorona unconditional in all respects

 

 

** China refutes IEA report that it is largest energy user

   BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official on Tuesday refuted the International Energy Agency's report that China had overtaken the United States as the world's largest energy consumer. [ID:nTOE66J00B]

   The IEA has had a relatively high estimate of China's energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, said Zhou Xian, spokesperson for China's top energy agency, but declined to give alternative estimates.

 

 

** Oil sands producers must cut emissions -U.S. envoy

   CALGARY, Alberta, July 19 (Reuters) - Oil sands producers must do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. ambassador to Canada said on Monday, as the two countries move to harmonize rules on carbon dioxide cuts.

   Canada's oil sands, the largest crude reserve outside the Middle East, offer secure energy supplies for the United States. But David Jacobson, appointed as President Barack Obama's envoy to Canada in 2009, said the companies exploiting the resource must take further steps to reduce their environmental impact.

   "I understand (the oil sands) importance to your country and to mine," Jacobson said in speech to the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region Summit in Calgary. "I'm aware of the significant steps that have been taken by the industry to the effects of the oil sands operations on the land, the water and the air, but I do not think I'm alone in saying that more needs to be done," he said.

   Canada is the largest supplier of oil to the United States, responsible for about 20 percent of U.S. imports, and the bulk of that oil comes from the oil sands.