Oil ministers tackle problem of missing barrels

Every so often after Venezuela publishes its official oil production data, someone from the countryBut it also underlines a serious problem. Most of the world, with the exception of a few developed countries, is unable to collect sufficiently accurate demand and supply data to forecast the price of oil. Had oil companies had a better […]

Opec set to lift secrecy about oil production

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel that controls 40 per cent of world oil exports, will on Saturday lift a four-decade veil of secrecy and begin regularly to reveal how much oil it is actually pumping. China and India, the fastest growing major oil consumers, will also supply consumption and storage data […]

Time to discard fifty years of energy myths

OPINION BY MATTHEW R. SIMMONS AND STEWART UDALL This summer’s hurricanes have triggered the most serious energy emergency in the nation’s history. With gasoline, natural gas and heating oil at near-record highs, many families face the chilly prospect of much higher energy bills in the future. The entire economy is at risk, but airlines, tourism, […]

The Saudis Slip In Silently

There is no record that the United States or others even tried to use the WTO negotiators to loosen the OPEC cartel’s stronghold on oil. Nov. 28, 2005 issue – The big news is often in the silence. That was certainly true in the case of Saudi Arabia’s quiet entry into the World Trade Organization. […]

Whiskey and Gunpowder

Byron King and I, plus two other strapping twenty-something Agora Financial editors and Byron’s two children, recently traveled to Titusville, Pa., at the kind invitation of one of our Whiskey readers. Byron is an old oil field hand, been there – done that. But the rest of us wanted to see the Pennsylvania oil patch […]

Peak Oil, Energy Futures and Violent Conflict

What is Peak Oil? The term “peak oil” refers to the phenomenon of oil production reaching a maximum output at some point in time. Once peak production is reached, the number of barrels of this non-renewable resource extracted yearly will decline forever thereafter. Several nations have already reached peak oil for their domestic wells. The […]

Plans to build a 500kph rail link between London and Scotland were outlined on Friday at a meeting of business leaders attended by Tony Blair. The proposed railway would use magnetic levitation technology, which was invented in the UK but developed in Germany, that allows a train to run in near-silence almost twice as fast […]

The greening of 10mph suburbia

A BLUEPRINT for a These include an elaborate system of

Relief for Brown as soaring oil prices fuel surge in tax receipts

Gordon Brown received an early Christmas present yesterday from public finance figures showing that the surge in oil prices had triggered a flood of corporation tax receipts. The Office for National Statistics said there was a public sector net cash repayment – a surplus – of The Independent

Don’t Beat Up Big Oil. It’s Just Doing Its Job

INSANITY,” the old saying goes, “is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” That adage came to mind as I watched the Congressional hearings into accusations of gasoline price gouging and windfall profits for the oil companies. Real “men in white coats with straitjackets” insanity came to mind as I read about Republicans in […]

OPEC Secy Gen: $60 Oil Too High, But Likes $40-$50

Crude oil prices in the $60 range or higher are excessive and have been potentially damaging to the world economy, but OPEC will defend prices in the $40-$50 a barrel range, the group’s secretary general reportedly said. In its Monday edition, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, an industry newsletter, quotes Adnan Shihab-Eldin as saying the reasons for […]

New Global Oil Data Reports to Start

New monthly oil data intended to ease oil price volatility with better transparency from countries such as China and Saudi Arabia are to be released beginning Saturday. The International Energy Forum, underwritten by Saudi Arabia, said Friday that the Joint Oil Database Initiative it administers will be made public on or around the 15th of […]

Saudi Arabia Asks for ‘Road Map’ of Oil Demand

Oil giant Saudi Arabia asked consuming nations for a “road map” of future oil demand on Saturday in response to repeated calls for Riyadh to ramp up its production capacity and curb record prices. Oil minister Ali al-Naimi, speaking after a day of talks between global consumer and producer nations, said his country is spending […]

Jeremy Warner’s Outlook: A wholly predictable energy crisis looms

Crisis, what crisis? The Government can hardly be blamed for the weather but it is responsible for the country’s energy policy. Having denied for months that we are in danger of running out of gas this winter, there is a sudden sense of panic in the Downing Street air now that the temperature has begun […]

Storing power could blow away intermittent inefficiency allegations

Storing the electricity generated from renewable sources and releasing it to the grid as and when it is needed could revolutionise renewable sector business models and blow away allegations of intermittency that often dog the wind power sector in particular, a Canadian energy management company has claimed. At present, most electricity generated by both the […]

Renewables market seen leaping by 70% by 2008

The global market for renewable energy technology is expected to soar by 70% over the next three years, according to a new report by McIlvaine. The US-based specialist industry analysis company estimates the market is currently worth $27 billion and expects this to reach $46 billion in 2008. Low or non-existent fuel costs, pressure to […]

Jungle Rot: the Future of Ethanol?

Researchers at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy lab (EERE) and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have been working for years on making ethanol out of cellulose–straw, corn stalks, and other agricultural waste leftover from growing food crops. This would mean ethanol would finally make sense as a fuel, because its Energy Return On Energy […]

China’s oil import growth continues to fall in 2006

China will import less oil and oil products in 2006 than previous years, an official with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said recently. Lu Jianhua, Director of Foreign Trade Department of the MOC, told the Asian Business Forum held recently, that it is unfair to blame China for rising international oil prices. According to statistics, […]

U.S. Senate Adopts Tax-Cut That Retains Oil Levy

The U.S. Senate approved a $60 billion tax-cut measure that spares about 14 million Americans from paying higher rates under the alternative minimum tax. Lawmakers defied a demand by the White House to delete a $4.3 billion tax increase on oil companies in the measure, which passed on a vote of 64-33 shortly after midnight. […]

DaimlerChrysler vows to push biofuel technology

DaimlerChrysler, the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker, pledged on Thursday to help promote the use of biofuels by developing engines that can run on higher mixtures of the alternative energy sources. “DaimlerChrysler is committed to creating the technologies that will ensure vehicles can run on fuels with up to 10 percent admixtures of biodiesel or bioethanol,” it […]

Electric cars get another jolt of interest

If at first you don’t succeed, and electric cars didn’t succeed the first time around, is it worth trying again? General Motors brought out a battery-powered car that it leased between 1996 and 2000. Because only 800 motorists signed up for one, GM scrapped that venture into an alternative-fuel, nonpolluting machine. While the industry has […]

Students prove solar-powered utopia does exist

If you designed and built a house with all the creature comforts of 21st century living and powered everything with solar energy, what would it look like? Judging by the 18 houses entered in the Solar Decathlon, a student competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and […]

UPDATE 1-US offshore oil, gas output improves slightly

The recovery of oil and natural gas production from the storm-battered Gulf of Mexico made headway on Friday, a report from the U.S. Minerals Management Service showed. Some 702,556 barrels per day, or 46.84 percent of the Gulf’s 1.5 million bpd of crude production, remained shut, along with 3.617 billion cubic feet per day, or […]

Supply fears amid gas price surge

Prices of wholesale gas have almost doubled during the past week, prompting fears about winter supplies to the UK. Prices hit an eight month high of 80p a therm, sharply higher than last week’s price of 43p, before dipping slightly. BBC

Qatar, US launch huge LNG project in strategic alliance

DOHA (AFP) – Qatar and Washington have launched a joint project to build the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) refinery mostly for export to the United States, in a 14-billion-dollar strategic alliance between the two countries. Qatar Petroleum has a 70-percent stake in the project and ExxonMobil Ras Laffan III Limited, a subsidiary of […]

RWE to invest 1.3 bln euros in new coal-fired power plant

ESSEN, Germany (AFP) – RWE, the leading German power supplier, said it intended to invest 1.3 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) in the construction of a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant. The plant, to be built in Hamm in western Germany, was scheduled to begin operation in 2011 or 2012, RWE said in a statement.AFP

Death by Climate Change

“Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health,” a new report in the latest edition of Nature, makes for sobering reading. A combined effort from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the World Health Organization, the report reviews the evidence connecting changes to climate conditions and threats to human health. The study looked at both […]

Alert: Peak Oil on Australian Pop-Science show – 24-11-05

Catalyst feature story: Real Oil Crisis – ABC TV Thursday, November 24 – 8:00pm

What would happen if the world were to start running out of oil? Conventional wisdom says we’ve got 30 years, but there’s a growing fear amongst petroleum experts it’s happening much sooner than we thought – that we are hitting the beginning of the end of oil now. So how soon will the oil run out, and can we stop our economy collapsing when it does? How prepared are we for the real oil crisis?

World at tipping point; oil peak arrives

The American empire is an energy junkie in its death throes, punching for new veins and final fixes, knowing that the supplies of its drug of choice — cheap oil — are virtually depleted. According to geologist Kenneth Deffeyes, author of Beyond Oil: The View from Beyond HubbertConfirmation of Peak Oil crisis is everywhere. Oil […]

Ozoning Out

Q. Dear Umbra, Any chance that the most extreme of the peak-oil folks are correct, and that in spite of our thoughtlessness, we just won’t have enough oil to totally destroy the ozone layer?A. Oil has very little to do with the ozone layer, but it does have to do with global warming. Global warming […]

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