Low on Oil: Falling Production of Alaskan Oil Fields Fuels Frantic Search

Crude-oil production in Alaska’s North Slope, once heralded as a domestic mother lode, has hit a new output low – embodying the precarious balance confronting the United States as it struggles for energy security in an era of volatility in the international oil market. The decline in Alaska is led by a slump in output […]

Five Ways To Combat Climate Change

Greater efficiency. Decarbonized electricity. Decarbonized (liquid) fuels. Fuel displacement by electricity. Methane management. Natural carbon sinks. TheWatt

The Oil Drum: Greenland, or why you might care about ice physics

I’ve been trying this week to get a grip on the science of the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s a complex and poorly understood business, but there seems to be enough meat here that I think it should be on The Oil Drum agenda.Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

Oil Wars: US Companies Against China, Russia and India

With the prospect of declining reserves, rising extraction costs, and recent poor record of exploration in their traditional fields of operation the international oil ‘majors’ need better access to untapped oil fields in the Middle East and Russia. However, easy to express in words, the actual process itself promises to be rather arduous. While under […]

US Oil Demand 21.642M B/D, Highest Ever in Week

U.S. oil demand surged 1.1 million barrels a day to 21.642 million barrels a day in the week ended Dec. 9, the highest weekly level on record, data from the Energy Information Administration show. The 5.4% gain in the latest week comes amid extremely cold temperatures across much of the U.S. The latest figure is […]

Calif. Regulators Unveil Solar Power Plan

SAN FRANCISCO – State energy regulators on Tuesday unveiled one of the nation’s most ambitious programs to expand the market for solar power, proposing to offer more than $3 billion in consumer rebates over the next decade. Environmentalists said the California Solar Initiative would help reduce the cost of solar energy, create jobs and reduce […]

Some may face choice: Whether to heat or eat

WASHINGTON State officials and advocates for the poor said the decision will make it hard for needy families to afford both heat and food. The Energy Department has forecast 25% average increases in heating bills this winter. Research shows that when utility bills rise, some poor families reduce food purchases. Robert Greenstein, director of the […]

Where are natural gas prices headed?

Rising demand, tight U.S. supplies have sent prices soaring As anyone who heats their home with natural gas knows, recent price increases are beginning to make gasoline look downright cheap. As demand shows no signs of slowing, natural gas producers are scrambling to bring more product to market. To ease the crunch, dozens of new […]

Signs Point to Prolonged Trend of High Oil Prices

OPEC ministers and the U.S. Energy Department delivered a chilling message to consumers Monday: High energy costs are here to stay. At a meeting in Kuwait, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries hinted at possible production cuts next year The combo helped roil energy futures trading and sparked fresh fears of another […]

Arctic Oil Gets an Administration Gusher

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, campaigning to win oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, had the urgency of a saleswoman falling short of her monthly quota. “ANWR would supply every drop of petroleum for Florida for 29 years,” she told a friendly audience at the Heritage Foundation yesterday, “New York for 34 years, Illinois […]

Who let the bulls out?

Who let the bulls out? The energy complex exploded on the explosion in Britain’s 5th largest oil depot. Oh sure, the cold weather played a part and the Department of Energy raised its long term oil forecast significantly. But it was the explosion in Britain that more than likely provided much of the fireworks. Traders […]

UPI Energy Watch

Sweden seeks oil independence, gets U.S. praise With the creation of the newly established National Commission on Oil, Sweden — along with a number of other European nations — hopes to find an avenue to achieve its independence from oil by 2020. The government held a hearing Tuesday to address petroleum challenges and use of […]

Dancing with the Scars

Is the world ready to waltz with nuclear again? Most of us know what torture it is to be a wallflower, so it’s hard not to feel at least a slight frisson of sympathy for the nuclear industry. Once considered “most likely to succeed,” this promising power source found itself stumbling in the 1970s. It […]

Forest Service Lifts Environmental Assessments for Oil Roads, Pipelines

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to change the environmental review process for oil and gas exploration and development projects under federal lease in national forests and grasslands. The proposal would allow local forest and grassland units to use a categorical exclusion when approving surface uses, such as road access, drill pad construction and pipeline […]

Former Dutch PM pleas for more nuclear renaissance

The Netherlands should build more nuclear Power plants. The reactors have become safer and more waste is being recycled. “Looking from a technical point, we are ready for it.” This is said by Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of the Netherlands, in an interview with newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. At present, Lubbers is chairman of Energie […]

The US Auto Industry Crisis

In the era of cheap and abundant oil GM and Ford dominated the top industries in both the US and the world. There are various reasons why these two companies are now in crisis, but here I will focus on how difficult it will be for them to recover. First, over half of the automobiles […]

Havel against lifting of brown coal mining limits

Former President Vaclav Havel opposes the planned lifting of brown coal mining limits in north Bohemia as it would have a negative impact on the landscape and liquidate some local municipalities, Havel wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek yesterday. Havel has thereby joined environmentalists who protested against the lifting of coal-mining limits […]

SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE: Waiting for the oil boom

“When the oil money comes in we are going to build a bridge here.” .. Once the big inflow of oil revenues to government coffers does start – probably sometime between 2015 and 2017 – Sao Tome may well receive several hundred million dollars per year. That would turn it overnight into one of the […]

Energy Sector To Witness Boom

The Ghanese Minister of Energy, Professor Mike Ocquaye, has hinted that the energy sector will witness a boom by the end of December, 2006. He said the sector had initiated many projects and programmes which would be completed by the end of next year to improve the lives of the people. The Graphic Ghana

Exxon Mobil: Energy consumption to soar

Global energy consumption will soar 60 percent over the next 25 years, Exxon Mobil Corp. forecast Tuesday in its annual energy outlook. Energy demand will grow to 334 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2030, up from 205 million in 2000, Jaime Spellings, head of Houston-based Exxon Mobil’s corporate planning, said during a […]

Regional leaders sign accord on building Central American oil refinery

Regional leaders on Tuesday in Cancun aproved a far-reaching initiative which will allow oil and gas-rich Mexico and Colombia to bring low-cost energy to Central America. ..Central America, plagued with poverty and gang violence, has been hit in recent years by the surging price of crude oil it imports, mainly from Venezuela and Colombia. People’s […]

The Big Chill

A winter fuel crisis of high prices and shortages could darken homes and factories Falling gasoline prices make it easy to believe the nation has seen the last of the energy woes that swept in behind this year’s Gulf Coast hurricanes. But they don’t fool an unemployed woman on the Crow Indian Reservation, using the […]

Russia to Cut Off Gas Supplies to Ukraine

Russia will cut off natural-gas supplies to Ukraine if no compromise is reached by Jan. 1 in a dispute over prices, officials with Russia’s state-run gas monopoly said Tuesday, markedly raising the stakes in the increasingly acrimonious dispute. Gas giant Gazprom also gave a tough rebuttal to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s proposal that price hikes […]

Supply of Gold is Bottoming Out, Analysts Predict

As gold soars past $530 an ounce, the same talk of peak oil that accompanied this year’s energy price boom is starting to resurface, only this time its about how much gold is left to mine and how quickly producers can mine it. The industry is reeling from high production costs. Currency fluctuations and rising […]

Fund Managers See Oil Hurting Growth at $69/bbl

There would be serious consequences for the world economy if the oil price averaged $69 a barrel in 2006, according to fund managers questioned by Merrill Lynch in December. The survey, which questioned 295 funds managers, provided each with a range of between $40 a barrel and $100 a barrel or higher – rising in […]

Grab Alberta

Ralph Klein is not up to the coming storm over Alberta resources. … Only Iraq and Alberta show any known potential for greater oil production with more investment. You can see what the attention that fact has brought to Iraq, and what suffering it has brought to the Iraqi people. Alberta will inevitably draw the […]

The Rainwater Prophecy

Richard Rainwater doesn’t want to sound like a kook. But he’s about as worried as a happily married guy with more than $2 billion and a home in Pebble Beach can get. Americans are “in the kind of trouble people shouldn’t find themselves in,” he says. He’s just wary about being the one to sound […]

High Anxiety Over Energy Prices

Consumers and companies grapple with the discouraging prospect that fuel costs may stay high for a while WASHINGTON — Terry Grandchamp’s Virginia home-remodeling business is booked through spring, and he’s planning to bump up his prices to help cover the high cost of gasoline and building materials. But when it comes to his own finances, […]

Energy industry’s biggest shortage? Future executives.

With half the workforce expected to retire in the next decade and thinning ranks at the top, program targets young leaders. HOUSTON For years, energy analysts have been warning that their industry will run out of employees faster than it runs out of oil or gas. By some estimates, half the workforce will retire in […]

Balancing On Oil’s Peak

As the realities of dwindling oil supplies become clear, we must find a way to reduce our dependence on Middle East despots and destructive oil extraction. Syriana, a film depicting the seedy world of global oil politics, opened Friday in theaters nationwide. It is Hollywood fare — at times a bit oversimplified — but comes […]

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