Rising Oil Prices Could Spark Recession

If history is any guide, the U.S. economy should be sliding into a recession right now, after being hit with one of the biggest jumps in oil prices since the 1970s. Since the end of World War II, every major spike in oil prices – until now – has led to steep increases in inflation, […]

Iran Oil Min: Expect High Prices For Next Few Yrs -Report

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Sunday that high oil prices will continue to afflict major oil-consuming countries, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Sunday. The minister, referring to sanctions placed on producers, including Iran, said politics should be divorced from the oil sector in a bid to help oil-producing countries develop spare capacity. […]

How high-pressure politics threatens action on climate

Last week a leaked G8 communiquThe Guardian

New US move to spoil climate accord

Extraordinary efforts by the White House to scupper Britain’s attempts to tackle global warming have been revealed in leaked US government documents obtained by The Observer. These papers – part of the Bush administration’s submission to the G8 action plan for Gleneagles next month – show how the United States, over the past two months, […]

Europe fails to cut greenhouse gas emissions

Europe is failing to tackle climate change, putting further pressure on Tony Blair to come up with a fresh initiative at the G8 summit and embarrassing the European commission, which is floundering over budget cuts and the constitution treaty. The latest figures for Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, seen by the Guardian but not due to […]

Oil hits high as US drivers fuel demand

The price of oil hit a record yesterday in London as drivers in the United States began to clamour for gasoline. A barrel of Brent crude rose $1.54 to close at $57.84. In New York, oil was trading at $58.10 a barrel, a rise of $1.52 The Telegraph

Farmers ‘terrified out of their homes’ to sue BP for

BP is facing a The Independent

Has oil production peaked?

“We’ve concluded that we’re roughly at peak and the turning point,” said Groppe, founding partner of Groppe, Long & Littell in Houston, an independent firm that analyzes the oil and gas business and forecasts prices. Groppe, 79, an oil analyst for 50 years, has been right before and other analysts have been wrong. In 1980, […]

Ohio was once oil king, but production peaked in 1896

Between 1895 and 1903, Ohio was the leading producer of crude oil in the country. But Ohio’s reign as oil king was short-lived. Production could not keep up with demand. Plus, major oil fields found in Texas and Oklahoma would quickly surpass Ohio’s. Ohio’s petroleum industry did not know it at the time, but it’s […]

“The Deal” — A Peak Oil “Day After Tomorrow”?

Last summer, The Day After Tomorrow added some momentum to a growing conversation about the effects of global warming. While the science of the movie was, at best, murky, many of its themes (of human-caused climate disasters, the intransigence of politicians, and the heroic role of scientists) were sufficiently on-target that quite a few environmentally-focused […]

Prices Spark Oil-Sands Heyday

Along Highway 63 here the rolling hills give way to massive open pits, huge waste ponds and tangles of pipes and refining equipment that spew smoke into the air. In the pits, shovel trucks load dirt into dump trucks so gigantic that a driver has to climb a ladder attached to the front grille to […]

Moving Beyond Oil

Saudi Arabia is still widely seen as the classic oil state, with all the dysfunction that label implies. So it may come as a surprise that today it flourishes mostly outside the oil patch. In 2005, non-oil activity should grow by 6 percent, three times faster than the oil industry and its fastest clip in […]

‘We Have No Time To Lose’, Says Shell Chairman

The lighting rigs creaked with the strain, and pictures of Hay, projected on to screens behind the performers, bucked and swayed; it was a glimpse of how it must feel to sail a boat into a storm, and an almost too appropriate backdrop to chief government scientist David King’s calm laying out of the basic […]

Bush: Pulling Out of Iraq Not an Option

President Bush said Saturday that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and many people asked in polls to start bringing U.S. troops home. “The terrorists and insurgents are trying to get us to retreat. Their goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a […]

Blame for High Oil Prices Shifts to the Refineries

Traders said the most eye-catching gain this year had been US heating oil futures, which were trading at a premium to gasoline futures – the first time this has ever occurred in June, which is near the peak in demand for gasoline and the trough for heating oil demand. “We have not had heating oil […]

Oil, CO2, Environment, Climate, War

This year there are real, physical issues for the humans on Planet Earth. We hear hints of them when our mainstream media can tear itself away from runaway brides and the gong-show in Rome, where old men in red dresses and lacy rochets fiddle around with edicts about sex and sin while AIDS smolders, populations […]

High Oil Prices are Here to Stay

A new book, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, by Matthew Simmons, argues that production in Saudi Arabia, the worldTimes Online

Crude Oil Jumps to a Record as Demand May Exceed Production

Global oil use will rise to 86.4 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter, 200,000 barrels more than forecast a month earlier, an International Energy Agency report showed this week. World oil production averaged 83.8 million barrels a day in the first quarter. U.S. crude-oil supplies fell 4.9 million barrels in the last two […]

Neocon Nightmare – Oil, Socialism, And Chutzpah In Venezuela

Treading in deep water in Iraq, America’s Oligarchs do not have the resources to deal with Chavez in their usual ways. He has fostered a close relationship with long-time “enemy of the state” Fidel Castro. Venezuela is the fifth largest oil producer in the world and accounts for 15% of US oil imports. Chavez has […]

Iraq-Iran: Border Tension Rising, Says General

Skirmishes along the Iran-Iraq border have soared in recent weeks, to such an extent that the two sides are now trading threats of military action, a senior member of Iraq’s security forces said in an newspaper interview. General Nazim Mohammad, chief of the Iraqi border police in the border town Muntheria, told Dubai-based daily Gulf […]

Venezuela to Sell Fuel Oil to China

Venezuela has signed a deal to supply China with 30,000 barrels per day of fuel oil as part of the OPEC nation’s efforts to expand trade with the Asian economic giant, state oil firm PDVSA said on Saturday. “The first shipment of 1.8 million barrels sailed for China on Friday, June 17,” PDVSA said in […]

Over a Barrel: Low Oil Pressure Warning

A world without oil is a breeding ground for alarmists, some say, blithely confident that it canAIN Online

Seeing End of Fuelish Lifestyle

On a bookshelf in his living room, above a row of books by his favorite author, Tom McGuane, Jim Kunstler has placed a sticker that reads: “Me & My SUV. Consuming your future to feed my ego.” In the back yard of his house on the city’s north side sits Kunstler’s Trek 720 mountain bike. […]

Rising Oil Prices to Shock? Not Likely

Oil prices of $50 a barrel had a surprisingly small effect on the overall economy. What will happen if the oil price hits $60? Americans may be on the verge of finding out. Yesterday, crude oil soared $1.89 to a record $58.47 per barrel, and many analysts said it could soon break the $60 barrier. […]

California to Add One Million Barrels of Crude Oil Storage

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says the state’s “fragile gasoline market” will be strengthened by the addition of almost one million barrels of crude oil storage capacity under an enforcement settlement that resolves antitrust objections to Valero’s $2.8 billion acquisition of Kaneb. Today, Valero and Kaneb directly compete in the Northern California terminal services market. […]

Impressions of The Deal

The Deal is an independent movie that tries to address some of the issues surrounding our country’s dependence on oil. As advertised, there’s a love story plot, as well as some boardroom drama and violence to keep people interested.

Here’s a summary of the movie in a nutshell. At the start, we learn that the US is at war with the “Confederation of Arab States”–which I guess is supposed to be like OPEC, but apparently can also wage war. Gas prices are at $6/gallon because the US can no longer import gas from the region. Christian Slater plays an investment banker who’s approached by an American oil company who needs his help to close a deal with a Russian oil company that has some wells in Kazakhstan. We soon learn that something about the deal is not quite right, and Slater’s character faces a dilemma that puts his company–and his life–at risk.

(Note: The remainder of the post contains mild spoilers.)

more after the jump at The Oil Drum…

China

China first became involved in Africa during the cold war, when it made friends and did business in parts of the world overlooked by the West and the Soviet Union. Its investment is paying off now in oil and raw material imports and markets for manufactured goods. Le Monde Diplomatique -English edition.

Oil Prices Seen Headed for $60 – And Beyond

With a nod from OPEC, oil prices have climbed nearly 6% in the last three days and are widely expected to top $60 a barrel. Not that the group wanted to see them rise. In fact, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Wednesday to a largely symbolic rise in its official output limits to […]

Budget Dispute Casts Ominous Pall Over European Union

The leaders of 25 European countries failed Friday to agree on how to spend billions of dollars in their annual budget, dealing a final, devastating blow to a troubled summit and casting the continental alliance into a murky future. The summit deadlocked in bitter dispute over subsidies, rebates and financial aid. An afternoon of arm-twisting […]

As Toyota Goes…

So I have a question: If I am rooting for General Motors to go bankrupt and be bought out by Toyota, does that make me a bad person? It is not that I want any autoworker to lose his or her job, but I certainly would not put on a black tie if the entire […]

« 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