More blood for less oil?

By Nicolas J S Davies

On Monday, April 11, the Financial Times printed a letter from Ian Rutledge, the author of “Addicted to Oil,” in which he explained that the United States government and U.S. oil companies had counted on the invasion and occupation of Iraq to quickly boost Iraqi oil production by 2 million barrels per day, easing a projected shortfall in global oil supplies. Instead the war has had the opposite effect, reducing Iraqi exports by 1 million barrels per day, and the result is now evident at gas stations from Baghdad to Boston.

In his excellent book, “Resource Wars,” Michael Klare warned in 2000 that misguided efforts to secure the world’s diminishing supply of oil and other resources by military force could have precisely this effect. Turning one of the few parts of the world that still has abundant oil reserves into a war zone just when we really need the oil certainly seems like lunacy. What led the Bush administration to take such a risk?

Article available at ONLINE JOURNAL

submitted by CombatRaccoon

First Pipeline From Caspian Sea Opened

With speeches and a letter from President Bush, officials Wednesday opened the first section of a 1,100-mile pipeline that will carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets, a project seen as an economic and political boon for the troubled Caucasus region.

Washington Post

Strike preparations at Northwest

Mechanics at Northwestern Airways are preparing for a possible strike as the management of the carrier proposes scrapping half of their jobs Northwest, which already outsources most of its Asia-Pacific aircraft maintenance, now proposes eliminating 2,031 of its remaining mechanics jobs and cutting pay 26 percent for the remaining 2,381.

China should adjust its petroleum reserve strategy, expert

China should adjust its oil reserve strategy by increasing planned oil reserves and establishing hinterland bases for future oil storage, said Associate Professor Cai Rongsheng with the Chinese People’s University in an article published in Wednesday’s Economic Daily. Due to China’s rocketing oil demand and imports, the country has found it urgent to establish its […]

Petrobras to Help Iraq Raise Oil Output Above 2 Million Barrels

Iraq, the fifth-largest oil producer in the Middle East, will seek the advice of Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, to help boost oil production, which has fallen 47 percent in the past five years. Iraq’s oil ministry plans to set up a “technical committee” with the Rio de Janeiro-based oil company, known as […]

China, Uzbekistan to ink $600 mln oil deal

China and Uzbekistan are expected to sign a deal for a $600 million oil joint venture during the visit of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, Karimov told the People’s Daily newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday. “During this visit, Uzbekneftegaz and China National Petroleum Corp will sign an agreement worth a total investment of $600 […]

Oil’s global choke points

More than 35 million barrels of oil is transported by ship and pipeline very day, and much of it passes through bottlenecks that are narrow and risky – some even known to be targeted by pirates or terrorists. It takes only one such incident to upset the balance of global oil trade, resulting in a […]

Peak-oil concept stresses urgency of dwindling oil supply

Addictions can be hard to break. The United States

A continent split by climate change: New study projects drought in southern Afri

A new analysis of Africa

Jump-starting hydrogen car dream

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will advocate that California invest $54 million in public money to help build a network of up to 100 hydrogen fueling stations statewide within five years, according to details of his “Hydrogen Highway” plan. A team of more than 200 scientists, automakers and environmentalists spent a year drafting the 144-page document, […]

Gas Pains: Summer fuel prices a portent of the crisis that’s here

There’s no better way to get the attention of Americans than tugging on their purse strings, and with the price of gasoline likely to breach the $3 per gallon mark in some areas of the country this summer, the public is clearly taking notice.

Canadian Natural Gas May Fall Amid Mild Weather, Ample Supplies

Canadian natural-gas prices may fall as mild weather pares demand for home heating and air conditioning, allowing utilities to divert supplies to winter storage. U.S. utilities probably added 90 billion cubic feet to inventories last week, the median of 17 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of analysts and traders. Gas in underground storage stood at […]

Moscow hit with widespread power outages

Widespread power outages have hit Moscow. Russia’s energy minister blames it on a fire and explosion at a substation. The Ministry of Emergency Situations says outages are reported throughout southern Moscow and as far as 120 miles away.

The real problems with $50 oil

After oil prices peaked above US$58 a barrel in early April, and stayed around their current $50 range, the White House announced that it wanted oil to go back down to $25 a barrel. There is a common misconception in life that if only things could go back to the ways they were in the […]

Pipelineistan’s biggest game begins

History may judge it as one of the capital moves of the 21st century’s New Great Game: May 25, the day high-quality Caspian light crude started flowing through the Caucasus toward the Mediterranean in Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) – conceived by the US as the ultimate Western escape route from dependence on oil from […]

Russians go against the floe

A Russian research vessel has towed a 200,000-tonne Arctic iceberg to a new location as part of a project to develop gas deposits in the Barents Sea. Russian TV reports that staff from a St Petersburg institute embarked on the unusual operation to create space for the construction of offshore drilling rigs.

Iraq Suspends Oil Exports to Turkey

Iraq has suspended oil exports to the Turkish port of Ceyhan because of a production shortage in the northern fields of Kirkuk, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. The northern pipeline and facilities regularly are sabotaged by insurgents. In the south, Iraq’s oil output has fallen by nearly 190,000 barrels a day since Monday because of […]

Mideast energy investment put at $532b in thirty years

Arab oil producers are expected to pump nearly $84 billion in investment in five years to develop their oil and gas sector and more than $500 billion over the next three decades, according to a senior Arab energy official. Abdul Aziz Al Turki, Secretary General of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), said […]

Beyond petroleum

New pipelines are not the answer to the world’s energy problemsThe formal opening today of the $4 billion pipeline to carry oil more than 1,000 miles from the Caspian to the Mediterranean is a triumph of Western engineering, a strategic coup in the competition with Russia for influence in its former republics and a tribute […]

Politics of despair

Despair is the great peril in climate change policy. Nothing can be done, we’re all doomed! Democratic politics reaches its nemesis here: who dares to stand for election on a consumption-cutting agenda? No one. What opposition will hold its tongue as a government takes tough measures? None. So who dare put unpalatable truths to voters? […]

EasyJet chief says green campaigners have a point

The no-frills carrier easyJet yesterday accepted there was legitimate public concern about the impact of flying on climate change and said it would welcome a dialogue with green campaigners.The chief executive, Ray Webster, said he would not object to a fuel tax linked to carbon emissions being imposed as long as it was fair and […]

Saudi’s Crude Calculations Don’t Add Up

Call it the 4% difference. That’s the gap between what Saudi Arabia says it pumped since March and outside estimates of what the world’s biggest and most important oil producer actually did. (…) Each month that goes by without the Saudi numbers matching up the gap widens. If it gets much bigger, it will start to look like bad faith instead of a mere margin of error. Rigzone

Prospects for Cheaper Gasoline Might be Limited

Even if high oil prices ease, prospects for cheaper gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are likely to be limited for at least several years by a growing global problem: a severe crunch in refining capacity. Previously, the shortage of plants to refine and process crude oil into usable products has been largely a problem for […]

Lecture by Michael Ruppert

Ashland, Oregon – On June 4, Michael Ruppert will offer a lecture, “Peak Oil – The Near-Term Challenges for a Petroleum Dependent Civilization” at Southern Oregon University. All oil production follows a bell curve. Right now, the world is at the all-time peak of global oil production, plus or minus one year. After that point, […]

Crude Oil Rises as Exxon Mobil Shuts Furnaces at Texas Refinery

Crude oil rose for a second day after Exxon Mobil Corp. shut furnaces at a gasoline-making unit in its Baytown, Texas, refinery, the largest in the U.S. The shutdowns at the fluid catalytic cracker began at 8 a.m. yesterday, according to a filing with the state’s Commission on Environmental Quality. Baytown can process 557,000 barrels […]

RI Records $1B Oil Trade Deficit in Q1

Despite strong gas exports helping to keep Indonesia’s overall oil and gas trade account in the black, the country is still on a trend of becoming a net oil importer, already booking more than US$1 billion oil trade deficit during this year’s first quarter. Responding to inquiries on the subject from the House of Representatives’ […]

China to Rely Heavily on Foreign Oil, Gas by 2020

China is expected to rely on foreign sources for about 50% its crude oil and natural gas needs by 2020 to bridge the growing gap between domestic demand and domestic production, state-operated Xinhua News Agency reported late Tuesday, citing an industry expert. By 2020, China is expected to be consuming 450 million metric tons of […]

Foreign Central Banks have stopped buying Treasuries

When officialdom boldly claimed that a huge increase in January 05 TIC data was in response to Caribbean Hedge Fund buying of long US Treasury obligations back in March of 05 – Why did news outlets like CNBC fail to report concerns regarding massive implied hedge fund losses in these Caribbean based funds then? If […]

Sign The Peak Oil Petition

In May, Rep Bartlett (R-MD) presented for a third time on the House floor a speech on Peak Oil which focused on our need to reduce our energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels. Peak Oil awareness groups appeal to governments to address the looming energy crisis. A Peak Oil Petition has been started online […]

Bolivian Capital Isolated by Oil Protests

Thousands of demonstrators blocked major roads in and around the Bolivian capital on Tuesday, isolating the city in a protest demanding the nationalization of the oil industry and opposing autonomy for an oil-producing region. Police used tear gas and water cannons in the narrow streets to disperse the demonstrators, mainly peasants who had marched for […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy