IMF ‘to warn over energy prices’

The International Monetary Fund will warn that high energy prices are “exacerbating” global economic imbalances, it was reported today. A leaked draft of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, to be published next week, will say high prices are increasing the risk of a crisis, the Spanish newspaper Expansion reported. “Global economic imbalances are likely to […]

Why Russia refuses to ratify Energy Charter

The energy ministers of the European Union (EU) have called on Russia to speed up the ratification of the Energy Charter, but Russia is not in a hurry to comply. ..Russia signed the charter in the early 1990s, but has not ratified it. The EU, which is the main consumer of Russian energy resources, was […]

Chinese Interest In Canada Oil Sands On Hold – For Now

-It’s the billion-dollar question hanging over Canada’s oil sands industry: Where’s the investment from China? A year ago, Chinese companies made a big splash in the global crude market by acquiring stakes in two oil sands projects in Alberta and signing a preliminary deal to buy Canadian crude. At the time, the moves appeared to […]

Thailand: Rise in palm oil prices expected due to increased biodiesel production

Production will likely climb to 160,000 litres a day to sate demand for biodiesel, The Nation reports. The Energy Ministry said on April 5 that the local palm oil price would rise, because production of biodiesel this year was expected to reach 160,000 litres per day. The ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Pornchai Rujiprapa, said palm-oil […]

IEA Head:OPEC Plea For Demand Security Not A Serious Issue

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ plea to have in place guarantees of oil demand in order to underpin multibillion dollar investments in expansion fell on deaf ears Friday, when the head of the International Energy Agency described it as not a serious issue. At the Petrostrategies oil conference here, the IEA’s Executive Director Claude […]

OPEC Warns High Commodity Prices May Kill Oil Projects

Soaring commodity and raw material prices are increasing the cost of oil and gas projects by up to three times, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers said Friday. Although current high oil prices may be helping to drive much-needed crude investment, the rising cost of construction projects could curtail new energy production development, they warn.Schlumberger

Peak Oil Passnotes: Oil Prepares to Push On

PARIS – If you are attached to the oil markets it is a great time to be plugged in. Very little is really making sense, after all if we really factored in Iran Brent is just 50 cents off its all time closing high and pump prices in the U.K. are closing on $2.00 a […]

Pain and gain at the gas pump

With roughly a teaspoon of precious fuel left in the tank, I stopped at the gas station in Kickapoo, even though the sign said $2.59 a gallon. The little car has a little tank, but it takes bigger bucks to fill it every day. This week’s cash stash flicked down with every click the gas […]

No problemo? Rochester and the decline of cheap oil

When James Howard Kunstler’s first book, “The Geography of Nowhere,” came out in 1994, talk about running out of oil was akin to talk about that fake moon landing. Crackpots, oil executives, and every undergraduate geology student in the county knew we were approaching the peak of worldwide oil production, but most people had better […]

The Gas Forecast Calls For Higher Prices

…Many experts believe supply will continue to be a problem in the long term, such as Matt Simmons, who heads a Texas-based energy investment bank that is the world’s largest. “Today, there are only a handful of tiny countries who aren’t basically starting on a track of an unbelievable growth in their need for using […]

Russia’s Gas Crunch

Looming Shortfall Poses a Tough Choice Three months ago the Russian energy giant Gazprom forced Ukraine to pay sharply higher prices for natural gas. At the time, the story was portrayed as a political struggle for control in Kiev. But last week Gazprom announced it was tripling gas prices in Belarus, a country that is […]

Flunking the Oil Addiction Test

The muscle cars of yesteryear don’t seem quite so impressive any more. In fact, as Matthew L. Wald pointed out in The Times the other day, the most powerful 2005 Toyota Camry, the ultimate plain-vanilla family sedan, accelerates more quickly than some 1975 Pontiac Firebird models. A 2005 Nissan sports wagon can outrun a ‘65 […]

Yukos executive charged with embezzlement

Vasily Aleksanian was recently tapped to save oil giant from bankruptcy MOSCOW – An executive recently assigned to saving Yukos, Russia Earlier, the Simonovsky court had ruled that prosecutors could launch criminal proceedings against Aleksanian, who was appointed vice president at Yukos last week after heading its legal department. Russian law requires that prosecutors receive […]

Nigeria militants warn oil workers not to return

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian militants whose attacks have shut a quarter of Nigerian oil output threatened on Friday to execute anyone found on previously attacked oil platforms operated by Royal Dutch Shell.

The Anglo-Dutch company had earlier on Friday said that it hoped to return to one abandoned installation, the 115,000 barrel a day offshore EA field, within days.

Reuters

The Oil Drum: Critiquing the 2006 Megaprojects Report

The ASPO-USA folks requested me to offer my opinions on Chris Skrebowski et al’s 2006 megaproject report, and I had an interesting email debate with them today. Here are my thoughts on it, now that I’ve had a (middle of the night) chance to study it. The executive summary is that while I think this […]

Debate over offshore drilling incites passions on both sides

The federal agency that leases drilling sites and conducted a hearing was criticized for its organization of the hearing. TALLAHASSEE – Legislators, environmental advocates and tourism groups on Thursday blasted a plan to allow oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s coast. But a public hearing at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center also […]

Energy crisis forces shift from personal transport to public transport

INDIA – The Centre has given its go-ahead to Metro Rail projects for Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore and would provide viability gap funding for the projects in various states, Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy said on Friday. The choice of deciding about the nature of gauge to be adopted in the metro rail […]

Married Couple Sets Guinness World Record for Fuel Efficiency

John and Helen Taylor Complete 18,467-mile Journey, Achieve Average of 52.1 Miles per Gallon, and Teach Drivers How to Stretch Their Fuel LONDON, April 4 — After 78 days and 18,467 miles, John and Helen Taylor have set a Guinness World Record for Fuel Efficiency after successfully driving around-the globe using less than 25 tanks […]

Oil retreats as Shell says it could restart production at Nigerian oil field

LONDON – Oil prices fell, retracing this week’s strong gains, after Shell said it could soon restart production at its 120,000 bpd EA oil field in Nigeria, but falls were limited by lingering concern about US gasoline stocks. At 11.36 am, May-dated Brent contracts were down 70 cents at 67.14 usd, after settling 74 cents […]

Congo holds 2 activists who assailed oil deals

PRETORIA — Republic of Congo authorities yesterday arrested two activists — who had sharply criticized the country’s oil deals as corrupt — for allegedly stealing money from their nonprofit organizations, according to Global Witness, a London-based group that has called on African countries to be more transparent in their oil contracts. Christian Mounzeo, president of […]

Commuter rail line hit by soaring fuel costs

STAMFORD, CT – Metro-North’s fuel costs for diesel-powered locomotives have soared, nearly doubling since 2003, a spokesman for the rail commuter line said. Metro-North spent more than $12 million for diesel fuel last year, a 50 percent increase from 2004 and a 90 percent increase from 2003. The bump in operating costs has prompted the […]

Public transport lures Belgians out of their car

For the first time in 15 years, less Diesel has been sold in Belgium. The sold volume of gasoline also dropped significantly. At the same time, public transport is gaining popularity in Belgium. The Belgians bought more fuel efficient cars last year. The amount of Diesel sold at the gas station dropped 1.7 percent while […]

IMF warns high prices risk global crisis

High energy prices are http://news.ft.com/cms/s/8d37b640-c59d-11da-b675-0000779e2340.html

The Oil Drum: The Game is afoot, or another look East of the Caspian.

The story in today’s Washington Post was largely related to the problems that Gazprom, the company that, as noted earlier in the week, now produces 25% of the world’s gas, are having. The article sees “a looming decline in gas production” from Russia’s current fields, while the Russian public still sees natural gas as an […]

Apocalypse, not, A Critical Look at Peak Oil Catastrophism

The phrase “the end of the world as we know it” has been uttered so often in the last decade that some Peak Oil advocates simply use its acronym, TEOTWAWKI. This awkward shorthand was once employed by Y2k catastrophists, and that heritage alone—the most unnecessary “sky is falling” panic in my lifetime—is enough to make […]

Storms push Lloyd’s into the red

Insurance market Lloyd’s of London has reported a loss of BBC

U.S. Senators Unveil Plan to Rein in Big Oil, OPEC

Six U.S. senators on Thursday backed legislation that could spur more federal scrutiny of future mergers between oil companies, and trigger a possible price-fixing lawsuit against the OPEC oil cartel. Meanwhile, 52 Democratic lawmakers asked the White House to hold a bipartisan “energy summit” to talk about securing future U.S. energy supplies as U.S. oil […]

Pacific Ocean Grows More Acidic

Scientists recently traveled from Tahiti to Alaska, testing the waters of the Pacific Ocean and finding a considerable rise in the ocean’s acidity. The Pacific has grown more acidic over the past 15 years largely because of the water’s intake of carbon dioxide released by humans burning fossil fuels, the researchers said. The study found […]

Big Oil Buys Into Biodiesel

If you listen closely, you’ll hear a cry from the heartland of America. It’s coming from the farmers, Willie Nelson, and lobbyists for Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM). It rings out, “Biodiesel, save us from imported oil.” This week, that cry hit home with Big Oil. Motiva Enterprises — a joint venture between Royal Dutch […]

A Plan for Preserving Civilization

In Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, award-winning environmentalist and prolific author Lester R. Brown (founder of the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute) confirms Osborn’s forebodings and offers an attractive 21st-century alternative to the unacceptable business-as-usual path we have been following with regard to the environment […]

« 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