Booming nations ‘threaten Earth’

Earth lacks the water, energy and agricultural land to allow China and India to attain Western living standards, a US think-tank has warned. The Worldwatch Institute said the booming economies of China and India are “planetary powers that are shaping the global biosphere”. Its State of the World 2006 report said the two countries’ high […]

Energy gap: Crisis for humanity?

It is perhaps too early to talk of an energy “crisis”. But take your pick from terms like “serious concern” and “major issue” and you will not be far from the positions which analysts are increasingly adopting. The reason for their concern can be found in a set of factors which are pulling in glaringly […]

The next generation of nuclear power?

Climate change is just one of the problems linked to carbon-based fuels that have sparked a renewed interest in nuclear power. While stakeholders debate the merits of this approach, the nuclear industry and its supporters are exploring next-generation reactors that might be safer and less expensive than the ones used today. The pebble bed modular […]

Run your car on chardonnay

LEADED or unleaded petrol could be laced with ethanol produced from excess chardonnay or pinot noir, according to Granite Belt wine grower Angelo Puglisi. A worldwide glut of wine is forcing prices down and Australian grape growers need alternative markets such as distilleries producing greenhouse-friendly fuel, he says. In France, the worldwide wine glut forced […]

US nuke energy plan to use spent fuel: report

Reversing decades of policy, the Bush administration is said to be getting ready to expand civilian nuclear energy at home and abroad taking spent fuel from foreign countries and reprocessing it. financialexpress msnbc

Oil, gas could give boost to clean energy

Senate and House lawmakers are pushing legislation that would set aside $10 million in oil and gas revenue to fund renewable energy, recreation and farming projects within the state. “New Mexico is a place of unparalleled beauty,” said House Majority leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, who has sponsored a bill in the House that would set […]

Big oil and gas field found in Caspian Sea

Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil operator, has said it discovered a major oil and natural gas field in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea. “This year is unique in terms of reserve growth,” Leonid Fedoun, a Lukoil vice president, said Wednesday at a news conference in London, where the stock is traded, noting that […]

Iraq

Sabotage and storms have demolished Iraqi hopes of lifting oil exports from their lowest level since the US led invasion and highlighted the scale of the challenge facing a new government and oil minister. Foreign oil firms biding time: Oil multinationals are waiting until a new investment code is in place before pumping cash into […]

Renewables vs. nuclear: surveys offer contrasting picture

Close to 80% of EU citizens back renewable energies as their preferred alternative to high-priced oil and gas imports, according to a public opinion survey. Nuclear power scores poorly with 12%. Solar power ranked first (48%) among citizen’s preferred alternative to imported energy sources while wind (31%) ranked third, totalling almost 80% for renewable energy […]

Nightmare vision of a world 200 years on

ONE of Britain’s leading environmentalists will today sound a doomsday warning to the world: humanity’s very existence is under threat from climate change and, even if we survive, the population will crash to about a third of its current level. Sir Crispin Tickell, the man who convinced former prime minister Margaret Thatcher that global warming […]

Sacramento on empty

The world is approaching the Like all the food-distribution points and the warehouses, the port has a large police presence. Once oil went above $200 a barrel, food became the major expense for most households. Without oil, there were no pesticides, no fancy fertilizers, no central distribution system, and no trucks pulling up at Safeway […]

Heat costs likely to stay

Apparently having received numerous appeals to do something about heating costs, the Kentucky Public Service Commission this week issued a statement saying, in effect, there was little the board could do to curb heating costs. In fact, the board said it is

GM:

GM, continuing its new push on E85 and flexible-fuel vehicles (earlier post), today launched a national advertising and marketing campaign to build awareness and market acceptance for E85 vehicles. The campaign, greencarcongress

UC Berkeley Study: Corn Ethanol is Better than Gasoline

A new analysis by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley concludes that the production of ethanol from corn uses less petroleum energy than the production of gasoline. However, they also conclude that the reduction in greenhouse gases derived by using corn ethanol as a fuel is smaller than some thoughtgreencarcongress The UC Berkeley team […]

The 4 biggest oil fields in the world are in decline

Remember this from this week end? Only around 50 super-giant oilfields have ever been found, and the most recent, in 2000, was the first in 25 years: the problematically acidic 9-12 billion barrel Kashagan field in Kazakhstan. …In 2000 there were 16 discoveries of 500 million barrels of oil equivalent or bigger. In 2001 there […]

Global warming may cause sea levels to rise 34 cms by 2100

Global warming will cause sea levels to rise up to 34 centimeters (11 inches) by the end of the century, causing increased flooding and coastal erosion, according to a new study by Australian researchers. The study, published in this month’s issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, said global warming was expected to further heat […]

Sugar and Corn:The New Oil of the Future

While the precious metals and energy sectors have garnered most of the media and investor

Asian crude market pins 2006 hopes on China demand

A rise in China’s refining capacity in the second half of 2006 should give a boost to the Asian crude market which is facing a bearish year as Japan and South Korea demand holds steady and global output rises. Crude oil traders are hoping that a rebound in Chinese imports together with moderate Indian growth […]

‘IEA will release stock if oil supply is disrupted’

The International Energy Agency is ready to coordinate a release of emergency oil stocks, as it did in September, if the political situation in Nigeria or Iran leads to supply disruptions, the head of the IEA said on Wednesday. Claude Mandil, executive director of the IEA, advisor to 26 industrialized nations, also urged Russia to […]

Branson fears oil will cause biggest recession

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur, has warned that any conflict with Iran could push oil prices over $100 a barrel and trigger “the biggest recession we have ever seen”. Iran is the world

OPEC chief sees no halt in Iran oil exports

OPEC producer Iran is unlikely to halt oil supplies to world markets in response to mounting Western pressure over its nuclear program, OPEC President Edmund Daukoru told Reuters on Thursday. The mere threat of a disruption in Iran’s daily sales of 2.4 million barrels has pushed prices toward $70 and is likely to prevent the […]

UK oil production continues to decline – report

British oil production continues to highlight the increasing maturity and depletion of North Sea fields in its sector by maintaining its rapid decline, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland. In its latest monthly index, the bank reported Thursday that the combined daily average output for oil and gas production in November was down 7 […]

Mideast energy reserves surge

The Middle East

Carmakers urged to develop plug-in hybrids

A coalition of US cities and utilities companies has started a campaign to get carmakers to speed up the development of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). PHEVs, essentially a gas-electric hybrid with bigger batteries, target an electric-only operating range of 25-35 miles. Recharging from a domestic 110V socket at current electricity rates would mean consumers […]

America’s Oil Future: A Question of Access

Last fall the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary, Samuel Bodman, asked his National Petroleum Council (NPC) to help answer the basic question as to whether world oil production can meet rising demand. David J. Lynch, in a USA Today article November 11, 2005, correctly noted the key language in a reference to the “peak oil” […]

Repsol to Write Down Oil, Gas Reserves 25 Percent

Repsol YPF SA, Europe’s fifth-biggest oil company, will write off about 25 percent of its oil and gas reserves, mostly in Bolivia and Argentina. Repsol will eliminate 1.25 billion barrels of oil and gas equivalent, after carrying out an audit of all its reserves, the Madrid-based company said in a statement to regulators. Repsol had […]

The Oil Drum: Some Tanker Arithmetic wrt LNG

I’d like to follow up a little on Dave’s excellent post the other day on LNG supplies. He pointed out there, that US production will likely see a shortfall relative to demand of 5 billion cubic feet/day (Bcf/d) by 2010, and around 26 Bcf/d by 2020, against current US production numbers of around 75 Bcf/d. […]

China and Iran Warm to Russian Nuclear Proposal

China and Iran expressed support on Thursday for a Russian proposal to resolve Tehran’s standoff with Western governments which suspect it of secretly planning to build a nuclear bomb. Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, on a one-day trip to Beijing to seek China’s support, said the Russian proposal — that Iran’s uranium fuel be […]

Russia Gas Line Explosions Scare Europe

MOSCOW, Jan. 25 That would be bad news for Western Europe, which gets a quarter of its natural gas from Russia. European leaders were already jittery after supplies were disrupted twice this month, once during a Russian dispute with Ukraine

The great Alberta oil rush

Canada is a modest and unassuming place when compared with its great big neighbour to the south. But now it has plenty to boast about: world-beating oil reserves in Alberta which are finally being brought into production after decades of talk. A recent recalculation has revealed that the amount of oil buried underneath the ground […]

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