Bendable Organic Solar Cells

The new organic cells are made from pentacene, which are sheets made of rings of hydrogen and carbon that occur naturally. Since engineers do not have to chemically manufacture them in the complicated process required for silicon panels, the organic cells are less expensive.

Live Science

Castro Announces Crude Oil Discovery

Castro said the deposit was located off the coast of Santa Cruz del Norte, east of Havana, during an exploratory drilling. He said production at the site could begin during 2006.

Cuba currently produces 75,000 barrels daily, about half of what it needs. It imports most of the rest, much of it on favorable terms from political ally Venezuela.

Oil specialists believe Cuba’s waters in the Gulf of Mexico could contain large quantities of crude, just as those of Mexico and the United States do. Earlier explorations turned up only modest discoveries.

AP

Saudi Arabia to Keep Spare Oil Capacity at 2 Mln Barrels a Day

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is maintaining spare oil production capacity of about 2 million barrels a day to help avert shortages and control prices, the country’s oil minister said. “The kingdom has a surplus production of around 2 million barrels, which can be used when needed,” Oil Minister Ali al- Naimi said […]

Energy co-op between Venezuela, China

Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias said in Beijing Friday that Venezuela and China will have a bright future for their energy cooperation as the two countries enjoy sound political relations and China’s economy is developing rapidly. The two countries have made significant progress in energy cooperation since the two nations vowed to establish […]

Talks on gas pipeline project likely: Kharazai arrives tomorrow

Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazai who is due here on Monday on a two-day official visit will hold talks with President Gen Pervez Musharraf , Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri on important matters, including the gas pipeline project. Mr Kharazai, who last visited Pakistan in August 2003, will be accompanied by […]

China pursues oil reserves in Canada

China’s thirst for oil has brought it to the doorstep of the United States. Chinese energy companies are on the verge of striking ambitious deals in Canada in efforts to win access to some of the most prized oil reserves in North America. The deals may create unease for the first time since the 1970s […]

Oil market steady after January: Expert

Following the OPEC decision to cut down production by one million barrels, the oil market is at last on its way to experience balanced and steady prices, an expert in the international oil market noted. http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/26/2004&Cat=9&Num=3

New coal plants bury Kyoto Treaty

So much for Kyoto. By 2012, nearly 850 new coal-fired plants planned by China, India, and the US would be pumping up to five times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce.The magnitude of that imbalance is staggering. Environmentalists have long called the treaty a symbolic rather than […]

Evidence of Leading Edge of Olduvai Cliff?

The power outage of last year might have been a fluke. Excrement occurs. Especially stressed systems, operating near capacity.
Now only about a year later, I just heard on the radio that 280,000 electric power customers in Ohio are without electricity, during some of the worst weather for this time of year in recent memory.
I searched the major news sites, and can’t find an URL, even on NPR, where I just heard the story. Here’s an earlier story on the winter conditions of the area.

Venezuela and China sign oil deal

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has offered China wide-ranging access to the country’s oil reserves. The offer, made as part of a trade deal between the two countries, will allow China to operate oil fields in Venezuela and invest in new refineries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4123465.stm

Oil imports fall 9% in Nov

India’s crude oil imports fell 9.7 per cent to 6.8 million tonnes in November on the back of slowdown in petroleum product consumption. Crude oil imports at 6.802 million tonnes were lower than imports of 7.531 million tonnes in November of last year, according to latest data released here. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/969008.cms

India seeks pact with Malaysia to develop oil and gas fields in Iran, Russia

India proposed Wednesday a wide-ranging partnership with Malaysia to explore and develop oil and gas fields in Iran, Russia and elsewhere as part of its aim to build an Asian alliance on energy security. Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said he discussed several areas of cooperation with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is […]

Coal production rises by 1 mt

NEW DELHI: The country produced 31.01 million tonne of coal in November 2004 as against 30.05 million tonne recorded for the same month of last year. The 477 working mines of public-sector Coal India Ltd (CIL) produced 28.09 mt and 67 mines of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) produced 2.92 mt, an official press release […]

Shell boss admits job on line

The chief executive of Royal Dutch/Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, has admitted his “head is on the block” unless the Anglo-Dutch oil giant can sort out its energy reserves accounting problem, the Financial Times reported. Van der Veer said he would “only sleep well” after Shell had made sure it was fully compliant with reserves […]

U.S. offshore gas estimate increased 12% to 406 tcf

Offshore areas of the United States hold about 12 percent more undiscovered natural gas reserves than last estimated by the federal government in 2000, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. Based on information gleaned from new exploration activities in the Gulf of Mexico and Canada’s Scotian basin, MMS now estimates a mean 406 trillion […]

China says Bohai Bay Basin may hold 20.5b tons of oil

BEIJING : Exploration teams believe the Bohai Bay Basin in northern China may hold 20.5 billion tons of oil reserves, enough to sustain the country’s energy needs for a “considerable” time, state press said Friday. So far, nine billion tons have been proven with the remaining 11.5 billion still needing to be further explored, the […]

Canada: Oil and natural gas reserves drop

CALGARY — Reserves of oil and natural gas dropped last year as a sharp increase in capital spending failed to counter declines from conventional sources. In its annual review, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said reserves of conventional oil and natural gas declined, while those of mining and in-situ oil sands projects rose. Still, […]

US economic strength open to doubt

As President George Bush appeared at his own economic summit in Washington, questions are still being asked about the true strength of the world’s biggest economy.
—
If that happens, the asset-based cash bonanza – people taking out cash from the increased value of their housing – may finish. The fear is that this would in turn stifle US consumption and lead to a global economic downturn.

Al Jazeera

A Midwinter’s Nightmare

If we’re careful we can bridge this shortfall until we find a solution and keep ourselves afloat. But are we that smart? Are we willing to give up our SUV’s, air conditioning, and winter grapefruit, right now, so that we can have the barest essentials for a few decades? Or will we bury our heads […]

Russia acquires Yukos’ Yugansk from Baikal

Russia’s state-owned Rosneft has purchased Yugansk,Yukos’ production unit, from Baikal Financial. Baikal bought Yugansk last week at auction, and there is much speculation about who is behind the mystery firm. As a result of this purchase, the state now controls 11% of Russia’s oil output. Meanwhile, a legal battle over the sale continues in the USA.

Guardian

The lever principle

As so-called environmentalists jump on the technofix bandwagon, realists who believe we must begin reducing energy consumption continue to be marginalized. Fittingly, we received an email with a visual metaphor demonstrating the folly of relying on technology to try to fix the problems caused by earlier technologies. As Albert Einstein noted, “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

GlobalPublicMedia

Peak Oil – Peak Technology

As the energy crisis intensifies, a myriad of technical solutions are being proposed. Most were investigated in depth during the first two energy crisis of the 1970s. There is a wealth of information available from that period. Nor did research stop in the ensuing 25 years. A serious societal problem is the lack of understanding […]

China after Canadian Oil

More news about how China is seeking to meet its oil needs: http://tinyurl.com/5egak (a New York Times article, needs subscription)

Oil wields a big stick in 2004

Oil, a primary commodity reaching every corner of the world economy, handed in a dominant performance in 2004, with soaring demand and fears about supply sending energy prices and profits to record highs.

And while most forecasters see prices and earnings retreating next year, many of the factors that lifted them in the first place remain very much in play.

CBS Marketwatch

Washington, DC Renewable Energy Standard Passes

Power provided to one of the most politically charged geographic entities in the United States is going to be partly supplied with energy from renewable sources. The District Council of the District of Columbia (DC), where a majority of the national political action is based, has joined the state-based march toward mandatory use of renewable energy.

more at http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=20215

IEA sees potential in fuel cells but fuel cell car still costs $650,000-1,000,00

Although commercial maturity and significant market penetration remain decades away, hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies represent high-potential options for a secure energy future with diminished emissions of carbon dioxide.

Oil and Gas Journal

Global Relocalization — A Call to Action

Biosphere destruction due to human activities threatens life on the planet, human and otherwise. The problem is systemic: business as usual presages catastrophic climate change, extreme species extinction, fishery depletion, untenable body burdens of toxics, not to mention largely unhealthy disconnected lives along the way. Human civilization is egregiously far from a steady state and […]

Peak Oil Economics & Money – What Underwrites our Dollar?

A topic that is surprisingly never linked and analysed these days is that of the monetary & economic impact of peak oil. Most gold bugs would be well aware of the classic arguments of inflationists and deflationists as they relate to the fate of our fiat monetary systems, but none I have read have really […]

Market edges closer to breaking points

When I went to work for Mobil Oil in 1966, M. King Hubbert’s prediction that Lower 48 crude oil production would peak in 1970 was controversial. Debate over the timing of the peak in global oil production can be taken as an indicator that it is getting close. Two years ago, Iraq was the emerging […]

Managing the US gas supply/demand crunch

Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ (CERA) Dr. Daniel Yergin, said “The US is facing a critical five-year period in which, unless new steps are taken by consumers, industry and government, there is significantly increased risk of higher, more volatile natural gas and electric power prices, job […]

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