Poll: 6 in 10 Americans expect major war

Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified. Those findings come six decades after the United States dropped atomic bombs […]

Generators turn to coal as cost of natural gas soars

THE high cost of natural gas is forcing electricity generators to burn more coal in an attempt to keep a lid on power prices. A doubling of the price of summer gas over the past two years has encouraged generators to switch back to cheaper coal, but the cost savings come at an environmental price. […]

Iran gas pipeline ‘a risky proposal’

India’s oil minister said yesterday a proposed gas pipeline from Iran across rival Pakistan was a risky venture that would be difficult to finance, but added talks on the $7 billion project should continue. “The pipeline proposal is, as the prime minister stated, fraught with terrible risks,” Mani Shankar Aiyar told a news conference.

Tehran to raise oil output

Iran announced yesterday that its oil production will officially rise to 4.2 million barrels per day (mbpd) in the next few days once production begins in three new oil fields. “With the official entry of the Darkhovein field (in southwestern Iran) and the two other offshore oil fields of Soroush and Norouz, located in the […]

Fast Solar Cars and Slow Oil

Heading Out writes: Well as the solar cars race West along the Trans-Canada, travelling at the speed limit, there are a couple of struggles taking place including the leadership, that are fun to watch via the gps link. It is amazing to me that I can watch the race, almost in real time, from this far away. The lead car (Michigan may have passed Minnesota) reached Regina it appears about half an hour earlier than anticipated – what was that about keeping to the speed limit?

On the oil energy front today there is a different story. Ah, peak oil.

The United States is a relatively mature part of the world in terms of having seen a lot of the immediately available oil extracted. The oil that remains comes in many cases, from stripper wells, where the flow is small, but can remain steady for many years. Oil here has to be pumped out of the ground. The LA Times has a story on such an operation today on Cano Petroleum.

More after the jump at The Oil Drum.

Peak Oil Principal Savages Oil Majors’

Dr. Colin Campbell, founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO), has criticised the amount of profits made by the oil majors. The mauling comes, as the majors look set to stun markets with record revenues. Resource Investor

Book: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

The invasion of Iraq may well be remembered as the first oil currency war. Far from being a response to 9-11 terrorism or Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, Petrodollar Warfare argues that the invasion was precipitated by two converging phenomena: the imminent peak in global oil production, and the ascendance of the euro currency. […]

Russia Revises Up Oil Production, Export Estimates for 2005

Russia’s economy ministry revised upward its 2005 estimates for oil production to 474 million tonnes and for oil export to 269 million tonnes, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Previous estimates for oil production and export were 470 million tonnes and 263 million tonnes, respectively, RIA Novosti quoted Andrei Klepach, an official from Russia’s ministry for […]

In China’s Dash to Develop, Environment Suffers Severely

China’s environmental woes are so large that they’ve begun to generate social instability.

Choking on vile air, sickened by toxic water, citizens in some corners of this vast nation are rising up to protest the high environmental cost of China’s economic boom.

In one recent incident, villagers in this hilly coastal region grew so exasperated by contamination from nearby chemical plants that they overturned and smashed dozens of vehicles and beat up police officers who arrived to quell what was essentially an environmental riot.

“We had to do it. We can’t grow our vegetables here anymore,” said Li Sanye, a 60-year-old farmer. “Young women are giving birth to stillborn babies.”

Across China, entire rivers run foul or have dried up altogether. Nearly a third of cities don’t treat their sewage, flushing it into waterways. Some 300 million of China’s 1.3 billion people drink water that is too contaminated to be consumed safely. In rural China, sooty air depresses crop yields, and desert quickly encroaches on grasslands to the west. Filth and grime cover all but a few corners of the country.

ENN

Rover sold to Nanjing Automobile

Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automotive has secured ownership of MG Rover for an unknown sum, after a three-way bidding battle spread over three months.

It was one of two Chinese companies trying to buy the assets of MG Rover, the other being Shanghai Automotive.

Although Nanjing was the smaller firm it secured a deal with administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on Friday.

BBC

Melting Greenland glacier may hasten rise in sea level

Scientists monitoring a glacier in Greenland have found it is moving into the sea three times faster than a decade ago.

Satellite measurements of the Kangerdlugssuaq glacier show that, as well as moving more rapidly, the glacier’s boundary is shrinking dramatically – probably because of melting brought about by climate change.

The Kangerdlugssuaq glacier on Greenland’s east coast is one of several that drains the huge Greenland ice sheet. The glacier’s movements are considered critical in understanding the rate at which the ice sheet is melting.

The Independent

GM crops created superweed, say scientists

Modified genes from crops in a GM crop trial have transferred into local wild plants, creating a form of herbicide-resistant “superweed”, the Guardian can reveal. The cross-fertilisation between GM oilseed rape, a brassica, and a distantly related plant, charlock, had been discounted as virtually impossible by scientists with the environment department. It was found during […]

Resale Value of SUVs Tumbles

SUV and pickup owners USA Today

Gazprom: No Shortlist for Shtokman

Gas monopoly Gazprom denied a report on Friday that it had drawn up a shortlist of five candidates to help it develop the vast Shtokman gas field, one of the world’s biggest.

At least nine energy firms are eager to get a share of Shtokman, which is expected to supply the North American market with liquefied natural gas for half a century or more, making it one of the most sought-after prizes in the energy sector.

Gazprom has previously said it would name two or three partners in the second half of this year, but might whittle down the number of hopefuls in a shortlist during July.

The Moscow Times

Activist and Her Son Shot Dead in Komi

A Vorkuta activist who campaigned against cuts in social benefits for miners and higher utility charges was shot dead along with her son Thursday in what a prominent human rights organization said could be a politically motivated slaying.

Lyudmila Zhorovlya, 55, had publicly clashed with the city’s mayor last year over hikes in utility bills and had reportedly been threatened recently after saying she would sue city authorities over compulsory charges for television antennas.

The Moscow Times

Iraq seeks electricity from neighbours

Iraq is seeking its neighbours’ help to boost electricity supply to face serious shortages largely due to continuous sabotage, Iraqi Electricity Minister Mihsen Shalash has said.

“I have negotiated with all neighbouring countries, mainly Syria, Turkey and Iran and there are negotiations under way with Kuwait to complete the electricity linkup,” Shalash told reporters on Sunday in Jordan, the last stop in a tour that included the United States, Germany and Iran.

He said it was unlikely that Iraq would join an electricity line linking Egypt with Jordan because of “technical problems, mainly the long distance and the economic factor, which is insufficient funds”.

Al Jazeera

New weapon in fight against smog

From catalytic converters to alternative fuels, the fight against big-city smog has for years been fought inside combustion engines and exhaust pipes.

Now, scientists are taking the fight to the streets by developing “smart” building materials designed to clean the air with a little help from the elements.

Using technology already available for self-cleaning windows and bathroom tiles, scientists hope to paint up cities with materials that dissolve and wash away pollutants when exposed to sun and rain.

CNN

Time to Act

After three years of studies climate scientists have come to the conclusion that Europe is going to experience an extreme climate change within the next decades. More dryness in summer, prolonged droughts in the south, shut downs of power plants due to overheating, more rain in winter, greater flood risk and water pollution, a forced change […]

Here’s Mud In Yer Eye! (or, more on how exactly an oil will is drilled…)

Heading Out writes: Today I thought I would again take a little time off from which country is producing what, and talk again about drilling oilwells. Last time, I wrote about physically breaking the rock. In most cases, this is carried by pressing a series of small teeth set in rings around the perimeter of three cones that rotate around the bottom of the borehole, and that are attached to the bottom of the drill string. (picture here and as a timeline development picture here).

The cones are mounted with their largest diameter running around the outside of the hole, and thus each cone will have the greatest number of teeth along that edge. We call the outside edge of the hole the gage, and the three cones, bearings and mounts combine to form the drill bit.

Now if we just turned the bit round and round in the hole, it would start to drill into the rock, but after a short while the chips and crushed rock would fill up all the space between the bit and the solid rock, and the bit could go no further. We have to get the crushed rock out of the way, and preferably before it is crushed by the following bit tooth since that would waste energy.

(A lot more rock geek speak after the jump at The Oil Drum.

Kansas Will Need Infrastructure to Transmit Wind Energy

Kansas has the wind needed to produce electricity, but officials say more transmission lines will be needed to deliver the power to other parts of the country. To address that concern, the Legislature this year established the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority, which can plan, finance, develop and maintain electric transmission lines. “The state needs transmission […]

Iran Oil Min: OPEC Oil Price To Stay Above $40/Bbl

Iran expects OPEC’s reference basket oil price to ” definitely” stay above $40 a barrel, its oil minister said Sunday. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told state-run TV that oil prices will remain high “for some time”, and may even stay above $50/bbl. He didn’t specify a time frame. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ reference basket […]

Mexico Shuts Key Oil Port as Tropical Storm Gert Nears

Mexico shut a key oil exporting port in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday as tropical storm Gert moved toward its southeastern coast, the transportation ministry said. The port of Pajaritos at Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state was closed on Sunday morning amid high seas and strengthening winds. But further east, Dos Bocas in Tabasco state […]

China’s automakers eye exports

It was one of those awkward moments for an up-and-coming automaker: as an alarm sounded, workers in bright blue uniforms rushed to rebalance an auto body that had gone awry on the assembly line.

It may be still close to its humble beginnings, but Geely Group, a privately owned Chinese car manufacturer, has global ambitions.

Geely and fellow Chinese upstart Chery Automotive are gearing up for expansion overseas, having seen sales of their compact cars soar in China at a time of slowing growth for bigger automakers like Volkswagen and Toyota.

CNN

Scarce, Degraded Land is Spark for Africa Conflict

On a continent where a man’s worth is often measured by his cattle, rivalry for the beasts and the degraded land they graze on is sparking lethal conflicts across Africa. Observers say the violence is rooted in increasingly parched soil which has been battered by overgrazing, erosion, population growth and global warming, exacerbating struggles among […]

Oil Moves by China, India Challenge U.S.

Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, Syria AP via Houston Chronicle

Avian influenza

H5N1 is real. It lives amoung us. Now.
This months Avian flu update, number 25 from the World Health Organization. Check it out.

Did you realize that Polio still has outbreaks?

The Big Chill

It may have been glorious summer in Whitehall last Wednesday, but when a bunch of manufacturers met Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, they were all bellyaching about what the coming winter will do to their companies. The businessmen, led by Kevin Farrell, the chairman of the Energy Intensive Users Group, that represents industries such as […]

Schlumberger CEO Sees Tight Oil, Gas Supply Continuing

In a bullish appraisal of commodity prices, Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Chief Executive Andrew Gould Friday faulted the market for giving too much weight to falling Chinese oil demand and not enough to the weakness of non- OPEC oil supply. Gould, responding to a question on a conference call with analysts, said the demand drop in […]

Iran Oil Production to Reach 4.2 Million Barrels a Day

Iran announced that its oil production will officially rise to 4.2 million barrels per day in the next few days once production begins in three new oil fields. “With the official entry of the Darkhovein field (in southwestern Iran) and the two other offshore oil fields of Soroush and Norouz, located in the Persian Gulf, […]

Malaysia May Become Net Oil Importer

Malaysia might no longer have crude oil exports as a revenue source by the end of this decade because the country’s reserves are dwindling, the government said Saturday. “Malaysia is an oil exporter, but if we do not find new oil reserves, then by 2009, we will become a net importer,” said Deputy Prime Minister […]

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