Worlds biggest Solar Power station to be built in Portugal

A plan to build the world’s biggest solar energy power station, covering about 250 hectares and capable of sustaining 130,000 households, has been unveiled in Portugal. The park would be visible from space, according to a spokesman for the owners of the site at an abandoned pyrite mine near the town of Beja, in the […]

Peak Oil: A Global Economy in Crisis

The end of our oil-based economy will be the single most critical event in the long history of human civilization, and each of us will live to see it and be responsible for dealing with it. Human development has been propelled by revolutions in technology powered by revolutions in energy acquisition: the agricultural (solar energy) revolution of a few millennia ago, the industrial (coal/oil) revolution of a few centuries ago, and the recent electrical revolution. The lack of oil will send us reeling back to a pre-industrial economy.

Left Hook

In Search of Libyan Oil Again

U.S. oil companies are wading back into Libya’s oil sector after a long hiatus. But Libya’s top diplomat in the United States says the Bush administration’s reluctance to remove all sanctions is hampering this relationship.HoustonChronicle.com

Price Drop Concerns Ethanol Makers

The president and Congress are promoting ethanol to reduce pump prices and foreign oil imports as producers are being squeezed by dropping sale prices, causing an Ohio company to delay plans to make the version blended with gasoline.GlobeGazette.com

Apocalypse Soon

Robert McNamara is worried. He knows how close weForeign Policy

Brimming U.S. Crude Supplies Fail to Dampen Price

U.S. crude oil supplies have bloated to the highest levels in six years — but in the face of an 8 percent jump in U.S. demand since 1999, don’t expect oil prices to fall to the $20 per barrel seen back then, experts said on Friday. Since March, the United States has received bountiful boatloads […]

Consumer Confidence Sank in April on Fears about Oil, Inflation

Consumer confidence sank over the past month as surging energy bills and higher borrowing costs led people to worry about inflation and the condition of the economy generally. The AP-Ipsos consumer confidence index came in at 78.2 in May, according to figures released Friday. That was down sharply from the showing of 84.5 registered in […]

Florida City Considers Prepay Gasoline Law

A prepay fuel law under consideration by Myrtle Beach City Council would make the city among the first in the nation to address what industry experts say is a growing problem because of increasing gas prices. Myrtle Beach City Council will discuss today a law that would force stores to require prepayment of fuel in […]

Global Oil Depletion Concerns to be Aired at International Workshop in Lisbon

Thirty-six experts from 17 countries will take part in a two-day international workshop on oil and gas depletion at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon on 19-20 May 2005. Amid mounting concerns about rising oil prices and the ability to expand production capacity to meet rampant demand, the speakers will assess the prospects for future […]

Now for an Even Newer World Order

Election: the future – world views. Michael Meacher on oil and the rise of China A new power configuration across the world is being silently fashioned to counter, or at least limit, American supremacy. The newly elected British government will need to refashion its approach to the US to take account of this highly significant […]

China Rejected U.S. Suggestion to Cut Off Oil to Pressure North Korea

A senior U.S. envoy asked Chinese officials last week to cut off North Korea’s supply of oil as a way of pressuring the government to return to disarmament talks. But the Chinese rebuffed the idea, saying it would damage their pipeline, according to U.S. officials briefed on the talks. After Assistant Secretary of State Christopher […]

Chavez: Venezuela May Charge Oil Companies Back Taxes

Venezuela may charge private oil firms a retroactive tax on some fields in the latest attempt to squeeze more money from the oil industry, President Hugo Chavez said Friday evening. Last month Venezuela adjusted the income tax rate on 32 operating agreements to 50% from 34%, saying the oil firms were paying a cheap industrial […]

As Gas Prices Rise, GM Keeps Making Wrong Vehicles

Back then, the Energy Department partnered with GM, Ford and Chrysler to speed the introduction of hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. Ironically, the main result was to motivate the Japanese car companies to develop and introduce their own hybrids. GM walked away from hybrids as soon as it could?Journal Gazette-FortWayne.com

Bush Says No Right Price for Oil, Lower is Better

President Bush said on Friday he had no specific target for where he wanted to see oil prices but added that “the lower the better” would be helpful to the economy. “I don’t know what the right price is. Obviously, the lower the better, for our economy, because every time the money ABC News

The U.S. Economy Is Bigger and Stronger Than GM (not!)

In the statement following its Tuesday meeting, the Fed reiterated that accommodative monetary policy “coupled with robust underlying growth in productivity, is providing ongoing support to economic activity.” Using year-over-year changes to smooth out the noise, non- farm business productivity rose 2.5 percent in the first quarter, down from 5.5 percent a year ago and […]

Watching how Russia plays the oil card.

When President George W. Bush visits Moscow to take part in the Kremlin’s massive celebration of the 60th anniversary of V-E Day on Monday, U.S.-Russian energy cooperation is likely to be high on his agenda with Russian President Vladimir Putin.But the two leaders seem unlikely to make much progress – and Russia’s growing oil wealth […]

$50 oil brings exploration surge to Irish shores

Millions of visitors come to Ireland every year looking for the “black stuff” but now, with oil prices above $50 a barrel, an increasing number are exploring for more than just Guinness. Irish oil men report a surge of interest in drilling for oil and gas in the waters off Ireland’s south and west coasts […]

‘High oil prices’ are greatest danger facing Asia says Asian Development Bank

Continued high oil prices over the next couple of years are the greatest potential danger facing Asian economies, including oil exporters such as Malaysia, the president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned today. ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda was speaking at the close of the ADB annual conference in Istanbul, following discussions on Asia’s robust […]

Drought-hit Sydney Tackles Water Crisis

More than 200 years after the first English settlers dropped anchor in Sydney Harbour to take on drinking water, Australia’s largest city is running out of the stuff. As one of the country’s worst droughts drags on with little hope of relief, capacity at Sydney’s main dam is at a record low, with fresh water […]

Not-so-natural gas? Texas firm seeks OK to drill in area that nukes left radioac

The state will consider a proposal to drill for natural gas in an area where an underground nuclear test in 1969 left much of the gas radioactive. The nonmilitary explosion by the government in Rulison Field, eight miles southwest of Rifle in Garfield County, was intended to break shale and release natural gas trapped in […]

Bank predicts oil will stay above $50 for year

Merrill Lynch said it expected US crude futures to remain above $50 a barrel through the end of the year because a lack of investment had left the industry without spare capacity. The bank forecast WTI crude to average $52.50 a barrel in the second quarter, $51.25 in the third quarter and $53.50 in the […]

N America and Europe ‘Face Power Cuts’

Europe and North America face the risk of renewed power blackouts this summer because utility groups have failed to invest enough in electricity generation and transmission capacity, the International Energy Agency, the developed world’s energy monitor, has warned.FT.com

The People and the Political Class are at One: Neither Wants to Face the Future

Election: the future – the big picture Declining world oil production, the huge private debts of Britons and Americans, the lack of an exit strategy in Iraq, and irreversible global warming: these are the big challenges of the next four years. For all of them, Britain will be gloriously unprepared.New Statesman

Law puts brakes on fleeting gas price war

A gasoline price war erupted in St. Mary’s County last week after one station slashed its price for regular to $1.999 a gallon and spurred three others to follow suit, giving drivers some hope of relief at the pump. But the price dip proved fleeting. Maryland regulators quickly stepped in and told the stations that […]

Energy (thinking) crisis

Those who allege that the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis share — apart from historical amnesia — two basic misconceptions: They lack an appreciation of the nature and subtle power of extended markets, and they cherish a naive and/or self-interested faith in the ability of governments to put things straight.

Canada.com

Ghost of Past Oil Crises Haunts the World Economy

Oil crisis? What oil crisis? Prices are sky high, China is fast becoming as big a consumer as the United States, conflict in the Middle East threatens deliveries and some experts say there’s not much oil left in the ground. Yet, the International Monetary Fund says the world economy is a more efficient machine these […]

The Alarming Cost of Gasoline

As fuel prices rise at the pump, quite predictably the news media has begun to ask questions about why this is taking place and what, if anything, can be done about it? There are some hard truths that we have to face, and some of this has a direct impact on the foreign policy pursued […]

Venezeula Oil Output to Go Back to 3.3 Mln Bpd in 4 Months – Minister

Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said that production in the western part of the country will be sorted within four months, enabling Venezuela’s oil output to go back to the 3.4 mln barrel per day level. Problems at production sites in the western part of Venezuela have led to an output shortfall of 100,000 […]

IEA: Oil Companies Need More Realistic Break-Even Point

Oil companies should scrap lowball price forecasts that are keeping them from investing in new oil fields, the head of the International Energy Agency said Wednesday. Years of underinvestment from when oil prices bottomed out has whittled down global oil spare production capacity to under 2%, supporting economically damaging higher prices.

International oil companies use conservative estimates of $20-$25 a barrel of oil as the break-even point for assessing new projects – when oil’s trading at double that and not likely to fall again, Claude Mandil told Dow Jones Newswires.

Rigzone.com

Oil Rises a Third Day as OPEC May Fail to Meet 2nd-Half Demand

The extra oil that producers can pump has “decreased to dangerously low levels,” Merrill Lynch & Co. strategist Francisco Blanch said in a report this week. OPEC’s crude-oil production in April rose 0.9 percent to 30.07 million barrels a day, close to a 26-year high, a Bloomberg survey showed. “Asking the Saudis to pump more […]

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