Tanzania: Dar Sets Two-Year Deadline On Power

President Jakaya Kikwete has said his government has embarked on short, medium and long-term measures to solve the power problem once and for all. Kikwete has as good as set a two-year minimum within which to have the situation under control. The president said last week in Dar es Salaam that his government was exploring […]

Uganda: Fuel Prices Become More Sensitive

Ugandans will now more than ever begin to monitor the price of oil at the world market given that it is becoming the biggest factor in the country’s energy equation. Last week, the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), the sector regulator, announced big increases in the power tariff across the five classes of electricity users in […]

SA: Measures to Ease Power Shortages in the Western Cape

Measures to mitigate electricity shortages are continuing in the Western Cape in light of expected power shortages next week. This is part of the demand side management strategy, government and Eskom launched last month, to encourage people to save electricity in the midst of power problems in the province.All Africa

Arctic town booms on oil and gas hopes

House prices in one of the world’s most northerly towns are rocketing thanks to hopes for an Arctic oil and gas boom, and the local council can finally afford a fence to keep out reindeer. “A new era is coming,” Alf Jakobsen, mayor of the Norwegian port of Hammerfest, said in his office where the […]

Blessed borrower, the oil-shock absorber

WHO is afraid of an oil shock? Almost no one, seems to be the answer. For this state of bliss, there are several reasons. But among the most significant is that the US, not relatively fragile developing countries, is the large-scale borrower this time. That has made it far easier for the world economy to […]

Global oil production: Has it peaked?

– Since Henry Ford rolled out the first Model T almost a century ago, the world has been riding a hydrocarbon bubble that transformed America’s landscapes and lifestyles. But some oil experts and economists warn global oil production is peaking. Oil production isn’t going to drop off a cliff, they say, but the future is […]

Russian Finance Minister Says Soaring Oil Prices Push Up Inflation

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday, May 17, that Russian inflation is closely tied to global oil prices and expressed hope that annual inflation in 2006 will stay within 9 percent limit as long as the price of Russian crude does not rise above $65 per barrel. Giving an interview to the Russian […]

”Venezuela Moves to Nationalize its Oil Industry”

Latin America’s shift from the Western sphere of influence and toward an independent path is a major current of the recent years. Venezuela, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, has spearheaded this change by exploiting soaring global oil prices in order to pursue a “Bolivarian” economic model detached from the Washington Consensus. Venezuelan President Hugo […]

Ecuador seizes control of US oil company

Ecuador yesterday joined the wave of Latin American governments targeting foreign-owned industries when it fulfilled its threat against an American oil company and took “full technical control” of its operations. The offices and installations of Occidental Petroleum were occupied by soldiers earlier this week, provoking a furious response by Washington. But yesterday, a Petroecuador official […]

Making gold into lead

Popular alternative fuel sources amount to little more than empty promise For the past 100 years, oil has given us the illusion of a free ride, an endless source of energy. Of course we know better, but the idea is so tempting that we fell for it anyway. The peak in oil production, whether it […]

Renewable Energy Homes Still A Dream of the Future

Built under the Department of Energy’s Building America Program, “The house features superinsulated walls, floors, and ceilings; efficient appliances; a solar water heating system; heat-recovery ventilation system to assure indoor air quality; compact fluorescent lighting; and windows coated with thin layers of metallic oxide to help keep heat in during the winter and out during […]

House Approves Proposal to Recover $10 Bln From Oil Producers

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a Democratic plan to renegotiate Gulf of Mexico oil leases and take back $10 billion in incentives granted to Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and other producers. The measure, amended to an Interior Department spending bill, addresses leases from 1998 and 1999 that exempted energy companies from fees for pumping […]

New Super-Efficient Plug-in Hybrid Unveiled

“Trinity,” a highly fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid vehicle, was unveiled today by engineering students at the University of California, Davis. The vehicle is the team’s entry in the national Challenge X competition, sponsored by General Motors Corp. and the U.S. Department of Energy. Field trials for the competition will take place in Phoenix next month. Trinity […]

Canadian Oil Sands

The Canadian oil sands represent one of the most lucrative investment opportunities to oil and gas investors. With a reserve life of 35 thewatt

The Scourge of Oil Terrorism

As long as the war on terrorism continues, oil terrorism will continue to be an important tenet of the jihadists? strategy. With two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves concentrated in the Middle East and with most of the world?s oil shipments passing through areas where radical Islamists are known to operate, the world energy system […]

Pumped-up pandering

Political campaigns and high gas prices are a prescription for pandering. When prices spike at the pump, politicians fill us up with fiscally irresponsible appeals that won’t solve anything. Yes, oil company profits are too high, but the hard truth is high demand is what’s driving up gas prices. The best way to cut costs, […]

U.S. is restricted, not addicted, to oil

Our strategy of letting free-market forces determine the most cost-effective sources of energy is seriously flawed. The oil market is not a free market. It’s dominated by cartels that manipulate supply. They cleverly raise and lower supply to ensure maximum profits while at the same time taking care that the price of gasoline doesn’t go […]

An improbable cure for oil addiction

Instead of supporting politically cynical palliatives, Mr Bush should take the opportunity created by high oil prices to ask Congress to impose a “price floor” on a barrel of oil. The mechanism would be very simple. The government would announce that, as part of a comprehensive energy strategy, it will henceforth not allow the price […]

House Votes to Keep Offshore Drilling Ban

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected an attempt late Thursday to end a quarter-century ban on oil and natural gas drilling in 85 percent of the country’s coastal waters despite arguments that the new supplies are needed to lower energy costs. Lawmakers from Florida and California led the fight to maintain the long-standing drilling moratorium, […]

China’s Biggest Oil Producer Slashes Exports to Ease Domestic Short Supply

People’s Daily Online – China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the nation’s biggest oil producer, has cut its exports by 62 percent so as to help ease domestic short supply. CNPC’s domestic supply has been increased by 9.2 percent, said the statement. Currently, the output capacity of CNPC’s refineries has reached 99 percent, the highest level […]

I like driving in my car

The Observer – I could not tell if the look on the woman’s face was disdain or pity. But either way she did not understand that I wanted to rent a small car, not a big one. ‘Are you sure you don’t want an upgrade, honey?’ she said, eyeing me suspiciously ‘The car you’ve booked […]

Kremlin threatens to block US role in giant gas project

THE rift between Moscow and Washington widened yesterday when the Kremlin threatened to block US participation in a giant liquefied natural gas project if America continued to oppose RussiaTimes Online

FERC Sees Summertime Rolling Blackouts in California and Connecticut

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warned today that growing demand and tight energy supplies could cause rolling blackouts in Southern California and Southwest Connecticut this summer if power plant outages reduce power on their grids during a heat wave. The Commission also warned that tight supplies in Ontario could have spillover effects in the […]

House Debates Lifting Drilling Bans

ABC News – The House on Thursday debated whether to end a quarter-century ban on offshore oil and gas development in coastal waters outside the western Gulf of Mexico, weighing arguments that new supplies are needed to lower energy prices. The drilling ban was removed from a $25.9 billion Interior Department spending bill in committee […]

Brazil May Substitute Bolivian Gas With Ethanol

Rigzone – Gas-fired thermoelectric power plants in Brazil could be switched to run on sugarcane-based ethanol to lessen the dependence on natural gas supplies from Bolivia, the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper reported Thursday. Tests in recent months by state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, to substitute gas with ethanol in the power […]

China Plans to Sub Biofuels for 10 Mln Tons of Refined Oil Products in 2020

(Xinhua via COMTEX) — China will be able to substitute bio-liquid fuel for 10 million tons of refined oil products in 2020, said a Chinese energy think tank on Tuesday. Han Wenke, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the ongoing forum on decentralized sustainable […]

Japan Warned Over Its Energy Security

Financial Times – JapanFinancial Times

OPEC Production Capacity Expected to Increase by 3 Million Barrels in 2006

MENAFN – OPEC predicted its oil reserve production capacity to reach three million barrels towards the end of 2006. OPEC Secretariat said in Wednesday’s monthly report, its spare production capacity is high enough to calm the oil market’s worries. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said member nations have over 100 projects underway or in […]

Mad market for used fuel-sippers

High gas prices are driving prices of pre-owned hybrids and compact cars. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – In an atmosphere of high fuel prices, the market for used cars with high fuel mileage has gotten red hot. Gas prices can cause greater fluctuations in used-car prices than in new cars for two reasons: used-car prices are […]

The Oil Drum: May IEA Oil Market Report

Holy Monkeyboards Oilman! What’s that gentle upward tilt doing on our hitherto pristine plateau? According to the IEA Oil Market Report (which I am late in getting too – apologies but real life has called insistently of late), the oil industry has had a good couple of months: World oil supply in April rose by […]

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