State to spend renewable energy funds on coal gasification plant

MINNEAPOLIS – State money originally earmarked for solar, wind and other renewable energy projects will go toward a coal gasification plant on the Iron Range, outraging environmentalists.

Twincities.com

12 Step Program For Oil Addicts

ENN: Oil Addicts Anonymous Open Chapters Across the Midwest
February 14, 2005

CHICAGO, Illinois, February 14, 2005 (ENS) – A new organization is being founded this month in cities across the Midwest – Oil Addicts Anonymous – modeled after the multitude of successful 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Organizers say, “The first step on the road to recovery is simple: admitting we have a problem. Join hundreds of patriotic citizens by taking the first step together.”

The first chapter was founded in Madison, Wisconsin on Wednesday by citizens who said they came together to admit that “we as Americans are addicted to oil” and are “ready to take responsibility for this harmful addiction.”

“My name is Austin King and I’m an oil addict,” declared Madison, Wisconsin Alderman Austin King.

Rainforest Action Network

Saudi Aramco to boost oil production

Saudi Aramco is planning to carry out two new projects by the end of the decade aimed at boosting the country’s oil production. According to the head of the state-run oil company, Saudi Arabia is producing less than 9 million barrels per day (bpd).

Drunk Oil Traders get jiggy with the beatdown

Get this:
WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail.

What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.

More here at timesonline.uk

Victory Lap

Last week, “futurist” Joel Kotkin, a fellow of the New America Foundation, wrote a column for the Washington Post titled “Rule Suburbia,” declaring that the land-use debate is now over and suburban sprawl is the undisputed winner.
“Once we acknowledge this reality, we can turn to the task of making the best of it.”Kotkin wrote.
Kotkin, a highly-paid consultant to municipalities on these matters, is apparently unaware that the world is cruising at full steam into the immovable obstacle of a permanent energy crisis. But his credulous declaration of sprawl’s triumph is only one small example of our society’s fecklessness.

The Cluster#uck Nation Chronicle

Rule, Suburbia

The battle’s over. For half a century, legions of planners, urbanists, environmentalists and big city editorialists have waged war against sprawl. Now it’s time to call it a day and declare a victor.

The winner is, yes, sprawl.

The numbers are incontestable and the trends inexorable. Since 1950, more than 90 percent of metropolitan population growth in America has taken place in the suburbs. Today, roughly two out of three people in the nation’s metro areas are suburban dwellers. “The burbs” have become the homeland of American success, with an increasing share of our national wealth and half the poverty of the urban core.

joelkotkin.com / Washington Post

The Oil Patch Is Getting Slippery

Sure, Big Oil is raking in money. But new reserves are more elusive, and governments are bargaining harder

Times could hardly seem better for big oil companies. Buoyed by high crude prices, Western oil majors are reporting outsize profits. Stock valuations? They’re stratospheric.

But if investors knew the details of a recent auction of oil plots in Libya, they might temper their enthusiasm. Libya has thrown itself open for investment, and the oil majors of Europe and the U.S. have stormed in, hungry for a piece of the country’s 25 billion barrels in reserves. At an auction on Jan. 29 for exploration rights for 15 Libyan blocks, the bidding got so heated that the winners wound up with “extremely harsh terms that will make it difficult for them to make profits,” says Craig McMahon, an analyst at oil consultant Wood Mackenzie in Edinburgh. McMahon figures that for one block, No. 106, which was bid on by 16 companies and won by Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY ), the government is likely to capture upwards of 98% of the revenues, compared with around 80% on other deals in North Africa, where governments drive hard bargains. Occidental says McMahon’s estimate is too high and that it’s happy to get a stake in an underdeveloped oil patch. “The days that people had gotten used to, where oil was inexpensive and easily available — those days are gone,” says an Occidental spokesman.

Business Week

ChevronTexaco CEO Says Era of Cheap Oil Ending

HOUSTON – Roaring demand for energy from Asia coupled with difficulties in accessing oil reserves has resulted in a new energy equation where the days of cheap oil and even cheaper natural gas are numbered, the head of ChevronTexaco Corp. said on Tuesday.

Oil prices have shot up dramatically in the past year thanks to tight supplies and rising demand, prompting a growing crowd within the energy industry to ponder whether sky-high oil prices are here to stay.

“The time when we could count on cheap oil and even cheaper natural gas is clearly ending,” Dave O’Reilly, chief executive of ChevronTexaco, told a Cambridge Energy Research Associates energy conference.

PlanetArk

Russia backs iran

Russia backs Iran in nuclear row Engineers at the facility being built in Bushehr The Bushehr reactor is being built with Russian assistance Russian President Vladimir Putin says recent moves by Iran have convinced him it is not trying to build nuclear arms. He said Moscow would continue working with Tehran in all fields, including […]

Forget U.S. energy independence – oil executives

HOUSTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Holding on to hopes of an America that will one day be free from reliance on oil from the Middle East and self-sufficient in its energy needs?

Well, stop dreaming and wake up to reality, say top oil executives, who dismiss the idea of U.S. energy independence as mere political fluff.

alternet

Shell, Exxon Tap `High Cost’ Oil Sands, Gas as Reserves Dwindle

Shell Canada Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Clive Mather says oil from his Athabasca project, where tar sands are boiled to produce crude, can cost twice as much as drilling in the North Sea. And it’s worth every cent, he says. “We’re damn close” to the peak in conventional oil production, Boone Pickens, who oversees more […]

”Twilight in the desert?” reaches a powerful audience

“Our rock star,” in an eminent publication that counts Tony Blair, Kofi Annan, and Michael Gorbachev as authors.

Link

Building the American dream…or nightmare?

Their mortgage holding trebled between 1997 and 2003 to over 1.5 trillion dollars. Financial difficulties for one of these guys is my candidate for the immediate cause precipitating the “Perfect Storm”.

The Economist

New proof that man has caused global warming

The strongest evidence yet that global warming has been triggered by human activity has emerged from a major study of rising temperatures in the world’s oceans.

Times Online

Oil Firms Fund Campaign to Deny Climate Change

British scientists warn that oil industry has turned its focus on Britain, funding efforts to raise doubts on global warming, delaying actions that will cost them money. Lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut greenhouse […]

Petro-pollution affects babies’ genes

NEW YORK Feb 15, 2005 — A study of New York City newborns suggests that prenatal exposure to air pollution may be linked to genetic changes associated with an increased risk of cancer, researchers said Tuesday. The study by Columbia University followed 60 newborns and their non-smoking mothers in low-income neighborhoods, primarily in Harlem and […]

Iran, Mexico sign oil, gas MoU

Iran and Mexico signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Mexico City on Thursday to boost oil and gas cooperation. www.ima.ir

PeakSpeak!

It’s cool… it’s hip… it will change your life & save the world.

Well… it is pretty cool anyway.

We have simplified joining the PeakSpeak channel. Just install the free client, then join the channel from our website menu.

You can just lurk & listen, or jump right in with your fellow peakers.

No microphone? No problem. PeakSpeak allows users to text message each other, or the entire channel.

This is in preparation for our first “Meet ” event which we hope to announce very soon. We will invite various peak oil personalities for scheduled PeakSpeak events.

See the PeakSpeak block on the site for details on how to install and join the channel, and I’ll see everyone inside!

Aaron

Endangered Status Sought for Polar Bears

The polar bear, an icon of the great white north, is in peril, its icy home melting beneath its paws, an environmental group argued Wednesday in formally petitioning the Bush administration to grant the animals protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity, which made the plea on the day the Kyoto […]

India looks to Kabul for better ties

Afghan President Karzai told Indian Foreign Secretary Saran in Kabul this week that New Delhi should seriously consider joining a proposed project to build a pipeline for natural gas from Turkmenistan. The proposal calls for a pipeline passing from eastern Turkmenistan through western Afghanistan and Pakistan. Energy industry analysts say the project will not be […]

India joins China in stepped-up thirst for oil

India has joined China in a ravenous thirst for oil that now has the world’s two most populous nations bidding up energy prices and racing against each other and against global energy companies in an increasingly urgent grab for oil and natural gas fields around the world. . Energy economists in the West admire the […]

Oil, Jihad and Destiny

Mr. Cooke has graciously offered to include Chapter 1 of his book, Oil Jihad and Destiny. Energy, and more specifically oil, is one of the most crucial topics for this new century. Mr. Cooke was interviewed as a guest expert on Financial Sense Newshour. It’s a great interview and a good read. www.financialsense.com

Cairn shares up on new oil find

Shares in Cairn Energy have jumped 6% after the firm said an Indian oilfield was larger than previously thought. Cairn said drilling to the north-west of its development site in Rajasthan had produced “very strong results”. The company also said it now believed the development area would be able to produce oil for more than […]

Time for a reality check, Exxon warns Europe

Let’s be realistic by all means, but regrettably, realism as far as the energy market is concerned cannot mean relying on market forces to stem consumption of fossil fuels. Climate change is a classic example of market failure. Given the choice, the consumer will always buy on price, however green he pretends to be. Nor […]

The Oil Patch Is Getting Slippery

“The days that people had gotten used to, where oil was inexpensive and easily available — those days are gone,” says an Occidental spokesman.

“The law of diminishing returns is alive and well. We’re drilling more to get the same volumes,” says Arthur L. Smith, CEO of John S. Herold Inc., a Norwalk (Conn.) energy consulting firm.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_09/b3922077_mz054.htm

Compelling evidence of man-induced ocean warming

Scientists say they have “compelling” evidence that ocean warming over the past 40 years can be linked to the industrial release of carbon dioxide. US researchers compared the rise in ocean temperatures with predictions from climate models and found human activity was the most likely cause. In coming decades, the warming will have a dramatic […]

Yukos bankruptcy not a US matter

Russian authorities do not have to abide by any US court decisions taken with regard to troubled oil giant Yukos, a Houston court has been told. Legal expert William Butler said there was no treaty between the US and Russia to recognise the other’s legal rulings. That meant Moscow would not have to adhere to […]

Peter Odell admits cheap oil is a finite resource-amazing!

Shell, Exxon Tap `High Cost’ Oil Sands, Gas as Reserves Dwindle Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Shell Canada Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Clive Mather says oil from his Athabasca project, where tar sands are boiled to produce crude, can cost twice as much as drilling in the North Sea. And it’s worth every cent, he says. […]

Shell, Exxon Tap `High Cost’ Oil Sands, Gas as Reserves Dwindle

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Shell Canada Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Clive Mather says oil from his Athabasca project, where tar sands are boiled to produce crude, can cost twice as much as drilling in the North Sea. And it’s worth every cent, he says. “We’re damn close” to the peak in conventional oil production, Boone […]

Sell Less Oil While Making More Money

…
Energy Partners triples income
N.O. firm gains despite storm woes
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
By Mary Judice
Business writer

Energy Partners Ltd. more than tripled its net income in the fourth quarter even as storms cut into the amount of oil and gas the company had expected to produce.

…

Despite a slowdown in production, both oil and gas prices were substantially higher and allowed Energy Partners to report record revenue. The company received an average $39.85 per barrel of oil, which was a 42 percent increase from a year ago, and $6.66 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas, which was 37 percent higher than a year ago.

Times-Picayune

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