Cheney’s Trip to Kazakhstan Takes Him to Oil’s `Final Frontier’

Vice President Dick Cheney’s trip to Kazakhstan this week takes him to a land at the crossroads of the Bush administration’s most pressing foreign-policy challenges: Russia, China, Iran and the global clamor for oil. ..Cheney’s talks Friday with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, between stops in Lithuania and Croatia, come at a critical time. Americans are […]

Peak Oil to Prematurely Prevent the Perilous Pursuit of a Precarious Paradise

The Independent on Sunday this week had a supplement with it called “Overseas Property” full of ways that British folks can buy their ‘dream holiday house’ in Spain or Portugal. The giveaway of course was in smaller print on the cover, “produced in association with British Airways”. Yes, of course. It is the cheap air […]

Better Biofuels

Despite all their attractive benefits, biofuels have not been an economically competitive alternative to fossil fuels in the United States because the cost of the processing needed to break down plant starches is not offset by the amount of ethanol produced in the end. Now a group of researchers led by MIT’s Gregory Stephanopoulos, a […]

Increasing Oil Supply

The amount of accessible oil worldwide could eventually be increased by roughly 30 percent with the help of new drilling, imaging, and oil extraction technologies, including the use of microbes, say MIT researchers. Theoretically, this number could be even higher; in a best-case scenario, the amount of oil that could be produced would double. On […]

Presidents to meet over gas crisis in Bolivia

The presidents of Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela and Argentina are to hold talks in the Argentinian border town of Puerto Iguazu on Thursday in an effort to resolve the crisis sparked by Bolivia’s plan to nationalise its natural gas reserves. The meeting, called by President Luiz InFinancial Times

Russian govt OKs bill on oil royalty tax breaks

The Russian government has approved a bill seeking to differentiate the oil royalty tax rate, Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref told reporters Friday. The amendments to the Tax Code provide for “tax holidays” for companies that develop new oil fields and a differentiated royalty tax rate for exhausted deposits. The bill introduces […]

Readers respond to Planning for Peak Oil series

MY RECENT THREE-PART series of articles on the subject of Planning, Policy, Strategy, and Energy brought out the best in some of you, dear readers. Your many e-mails on the topic are thoughtful and offer great insight. My only critique is that a lot of you do not say from where you hail. Don’t worry, […]

Venezuela Buys Oil to Meet Contracts

A Sudden Plunge In Production? Is Venezuela’s oil production rapidly waning? One source reports that the world’s fifth largest oil producer is showing signs of a rapid decrease in production, one of the key tenets of the peak oil theory. Venezuela is buying oil from Russia in order to avoid defaulting on deliveries to clients. […]

Global Warming Differences Resolved

A nagging difference in temperature readings that had raised questions about global warming has been resolved, a panel of scientists reported Tuesday. “This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected,” researchers said in the first of 21 assessment reports planned by the U.S. Climate […]

Saudi Arabia to invest 4 bln dollars in Indonesia’s oil sector

Saudi Arabia would invest about 4 billion U.S. dollars in Indonesia for building an oil refinery with total capacity of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), said Iin Arifin, vice presidential director of Indonesian state oil firm Pertamina, in Jakarta on Tuesday.  peopledaily

How Much Oil is Really Down There?

Reprinted from the Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2006, Opinion Page The disclosure of “proved reserves” has been one of the great rituals of the reporting season for oil and gas companies, and one carefully monitored by investors. It’s recently taken on even more significance with high and jittery prices, concerns about energy security, and […]

The Russia Card

IN recent months, Iran has pursued defiance as if it were a virtue, declaring itself a member of the nuclear club, curtailing cooperation with international nuclear inspectors and rejecting calls by the United Nations to drop its nuclear enrichment program. Should the rest of the international community give up on negotiations and take another path, […]

Saudi Aramco to Use New Technology to ‘Massively Increase’ Exploration

The world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, plans to “massively increase” oil exploration and more than quadruple investment in such activities over the next five years, the chief geophysicist of Saudi Arabia’s massive state oil company said yesterday. Speaking in Washington at an energy technology conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, […]

Fueling Our Future

The new issue of Harvard Magazine has a cover article titled “Fueling Our Future”. It’s quite well written, covering the problems of expanded energy use with respect to carbon emissions. The article mostly outlines the ideas of Daniel Schrag (Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences) and sounds a lot like the way Al Gore talks […]

Long-Term Solar Tax Credits Introduced in Congress

As lawmakers in the nation’s Capitol scramble to confront record energy prices, legislation was introduced in Congress this week that could have a lasting impact on the renewable energy market in the U.S. – particularly for solar energy. The “Securing America’s Energy Independence Act,” calls for extending the solar tax credit for eight years and […]

Airbus and Boeing join to study green fuel cell-based APU

Airbus and Boeing are to link in a ground-breaking collaborative effort to accelerate the development of fuel cell technology for auxiliary power units (APU). Airbus plans to flight test fuel cells developed with GE Motors in the hold of an A320 in the middle of 2007. Boeing has been researching fuel-cell technology at its centre […]

Reducing U.S. Dependence on Middle Eastern Oil

The United States is the largest oil importer in the world, bringing in 13.5 million barrels per day (mbd), which accounts for 63.5 percent of total U.S. daily con­sumption (20.6 mbd). [1] Oil from the Middle East (spe­cifically, the Persian Gulf) accounts for 17 percent of U.S. oil imports, and this dependence is growing. There […]

US, Saudi Energy Officials See Need For Cooperation

Bodman noted that Cambridge Energy Research Associates Chairman Daniel Yergin estimates that lack of investment in Nigeria, Venezuela, and Russia as well as the Middle East has reduced oil production worldwide by 2 million b/d. “That may be conservative. There may be a limit to supply. There is a perception of concern about what’s going […]

Oil Tycoon Pickens Sees Even Higher Prices

Texas oilman Boone Pickens says the U.S. must find a way to decrease demand to gain control of rising oil and gas prices. At a fundraiser today in Oklahoma City, the founder of Mesa Petroleum Co. told an audience of energy employees that worldwide demand is nearing daily oil production levels of 85 million million […]

Gasoline Prices a ‘Crisis’: Bodman

U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Tuesday that high gasoline prices which have skyrocketed to a near record are a “crisis” for Americans. “It is a crisis in the sense of the individual,” Bodman told reporters after a meeting with Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.My Way News

Exxon CEO Urges Conservation

Exxon chief Rex Tillerson said Tuesday there is little lawmakers can do to combat rising energy costs and urged consumers to reduce demand by using less. “We just have to ask people to make sure they are using energy wisely,” Tillerson told CNN after a meeting with congressmen in Washington. “Be efficient with it, don’t […]

Tough Times Ahead for Energy – Matthew Simmons Interview Transcription

JIM: You know it was interesting after our interview last August, and having read your book and talking about the very likelihood of peak oil being upon our front door, we saw last year that KuwaitFinancial Sense Online

Saudi Aramco: Achieving At Least 100% Reserve Replacement

State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (SOI.YY) said Monday it’s achieving “at least” 100% replacement of the crude oil reserves it’s producing. “In the last ten years, we have been adding to our reserves at least the amount of crude we’ve produced in the previous years,” Saudi Aramco chief executive Abdallah Jum’ah told an audience attending […]

Iraq: On the Verge of Collapse

…Experts describe the condition of the oil wells themselves in even more dramatic terms. Saddam began a policy of overexploitation of Iraq’s oil resources in the 1980s that included neglecting to replace depleted oil with gas or water to maintain the necessary pressure in the wells. Many of the approximately 850 oil wells in southern […]

Ex-CIA chief: Oil key to U.S. security

Think gas prices are bad now? Imagine another terrorist attack — especially one on Saudi Arabian oil refineries, former CIA Director R. James Woolsey said Monday during a visit to Pittsburgh. If terrorists took out the sulfur-cleaning towers in northeastern Saudi Arabia, as described in the beginning of Robert Baer’s book, “Sleeping With the Devil,” […]

Iran Discovers New Uranium Deposits

Iran said Tuesday it had found uranium ore at three new sites in the center of the country, an announcement that appeared designed as a fresh challenge to the drive by the United States and allies to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran already has considerable uranium resources available for its nuclear program, a fact that […]

Senate GOP backs off $100 gas rebate proposal

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, under pressure from business leaders, retreated Monday from a plan that would have used a tax increase on oil companies and other businesses to pay for a $100 gasoline rebate for millions of motorists. Frist had proposed an accounting change that would have required oil companies to pay […]

The War on Terror: The Energy Front

By James Woolsey The following speech was given as part of Restoration Weekend 2006, at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Feb. 23-26, 2006 I The main point is that we should regard this war we

Rising prices sparks increase in drilling permits

BUFFALO, N.Y. Rising energy prices have boosted at least one part of upstate New York’s economy — the drilling industry. Last year, the state issued nearly 350 drilling permits in western New York — than in any other year since 1985. It’s expecting to top that number this year. The state has already received about […]

Peak oil acknowledgement a breath of fresh air

NEW ZEALAND – The Green Party is welcoming Prime Minister Helen Clark’s acknowledgement that the Earth may have already reached peak oil production or that this point is very near. “Helen Clark is the first New Zealand Prime Minister to grasp this fundamental driver of our future, and I commend her for this. Still, New […]

« 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