Fog halts Houston Ship Channel traffic

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Ships were halted from moving along the 53-mile (85.3 kilometer) Houston Ship Channel to the busiest U.S. petrochemical port on Thursday due to dense fog, said the U.S. Coast Guard. Ship pilots in Texas City, Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico entrance to the channel, and Houston stopped guiding vessels shortly after […]

The Great Green Leap Forward

Energy-Hungry China and India Leapfrog to the Front of the Global Green Building MovementThe green building movement has reached the developing world not a moment too soon for the booming, energy-hungry economies of China and India. With China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) still surging at nine percent, and India’s nipping at its heels with projected […]

Sakhalin gas: Shell loses, whales win

There are three opponents of Russia’s strategy to become a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter – the western gray whale, the US government and Gazprom. Until this week, and for quite different reasons, all three, including the LNG producer itself, Gazprom, have succeeded in delaying and redirecting plans to start shipments from the first […]

Harvesters gather energy from the ether, power lightweight systems

There’s no free lunch, right? Your mom and dad probably told you as much. So surely we can’t extract energy from thin air. Or can we? Actually, the human body, factory machines, radios of various types, and many other things emit energy in the form of heat, vibration, or RF waves. And it’s looking increasingly […]

Russia, Germany and European energy policy

This conflict between national and European approaches towards Russia and Gazprom will come to a head in 2007. Germany then has the twin presidencies of the European Union and the G8. Germany will preside over the commission’s liberalisation plans, including possibly the proposal for ownership unbundling of networks within companies such as Ruhrgas, the development […]

France agrees to cooperate with Gulf states to develop nuclear energy

France agreed in principle to work with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the peaceful development of nuclear energy, said a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday. The statement came after the six member states of the GCC — Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman — decided to […]

Parliament wants clear targets for future EU energy policy

By 2020, the EU should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and produce 25% of its primary energy through renewables, according to a report adopted by the European Parliament on 14 December.Parliament also recognises the role that nuclear energy can play in the energy mix of some member states, but leaves it up to […]

Venezuela’s and Canada’s Very Different Approaches to Oil

With the recent surge in oil prices, long-standing debates about Canadian and Albertan oil policy have been infused with new vigour. Is Canada getting the most out of this precious natural resource? What are we doing with our wealth? Canada and Venezuela represent the most important sources of oil outside the Middle East—and as heavy […]

African oil ministers call for establishment of African oil fund

The first conference of African oil and gas ministers concluded on Thursday in Cairo with adoption of a Cairo Declaration which calls for the establishment of an African oil fund to deal with the unexpected emergency, Egypt’s official news agency MENA reported. MENA quoted the declaration as saying that the fund is urgently needed to […]

Belarus criticizes Russian hike of oil export duties

Belarus’ Foreign Ministry on Thursday slammed Russia’s decision to hike customs duties on oil exports to Belarus, saying it violated bilateral agreements. The decision Tuesday by the Russian Cabinet will sharply increase the price Belarus pays for Russian crude deliveries and comes amid a parallel effort by Moscow to sharply hike natural gas prices amid […]

Iraqi oil law stalled by dispute over division of powers

Iraqi politicians are split along ethnic and sectarian lines in negotiations to resolve the final sticking point in a draft of the national oil law, the oil minister says. The issue involves the division of powers between the central government and regional governments in negotiating oil contracts.It is unclear whether foreign oil companies would tolerate […]

Canadian Oil Sands Could Fill Rising U.S. Demand for Energy

Between growing unrest in the Middle East and OPEC’s determination to cut production rather than increase it, Canada’s oil sands are becoming a more viable resource to the United States. Recently two energy companies announced strategic developments that could in the coming years help reduce America’s dependence on OPEC. axcessnews

Oceans may rise over 4 1/2 feet by 2100

The world’s oceans may rise up to 140 cms (4 ft 7 in) by 2100 due to global warming, a faster than expected increase that could threaten low-lying coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a researcher said on Thursday. yahoo

Indonesia to Drill 200 Oil, Gas Wells by 2009, Regulator Says

Indonesia, the second-smallest member of OPEC, plans to drill 200 exploration wells by 2009 to find new oil and gas areas and replace aging fields, a government official said. The country aims to discover 3.8 billion barrels in oil reserves and 17 trillion cubic feet in gas reserves, Trijana Kartoatmodjo, deputy chairman of oil and […]

80 Members of Congress Pen Letter to President Bush to Fund Renewable Energy

In particular, the letter calls for full funding of the advanced hydropower program and geothermal power programs as well as the biomass/biofuels, wind, and solar programs in addition to the buildings, industry, and vehicles efficiency programs. renewableenergyaccess

Spare Power Sufficient to Fuel Switch from Gas to Electric Cars

Existing U.S. power plants could provide enough juice to switch 84 percent of the 220 million American vehicles on the road from gasoline to electricity. sciam

OPEC to cut 500,000 bpd in Feb.

OPEC has agreed an oil output cut of 500,000 barrels per day, or 2 percent, delayed until Feb.1 when the northern winter is ending, a delegate said on Thursday, sending oil prices more than a dollar higher. cnn

Asia’s Vehicular CO2 Emissions To Triple In 25 Yrs – ADB

Asia’s carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector is likely to increase threefold in the next 25 years, based on an expected rise in vehicle ownership in the region, the Asian Development Bank said in a report Thursday. nasdaq

China to Invest $128 Billion to Develop Coal-Based Synthetic Fuels

China will invest more than one trillion yuan (US$128 billion) to develop alternative coal-based synthetic fuels to ease the country greencarcongress

Germany Sees Big Potential in Green Biomass Fuel

Large-scale production in Germany of green fuels using new generation biomass-to-liquid (BTL) technology is feasible and may fill around 20 percent of national fuel needs, the Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday. planetark

Indonesia set to unlock jatropha shrub as biofuel

Indonesia may be the first country in the world to commercially use biofuel produced from jatropha, a hardy drought-resistant shrub that produces an oil convertible into fuel, a Dutch expert said on Thursday. alertnet

Angola to join Opec on January 1

Abuja – Angola has won the backing of existing Opec members to join the organisation and will become a member on January 1, Opec said on Thursday. “The conference unanimously admitted the Republic of Angola as the twelfth full member of the organisation, with effect from the January 1 2007,” the statement said. Ministers had […]

Blast halts some output at Imperial Oil refinery

CALGARY, Alberta – Imperial Oil Ltd. said on Thursday an early morning explosion has halted production at one of its hydrocracking units at the 121,000 barrel a day refinery in Sarnia, Ontario. The unit, part of its refining and chemical complex in the Ontario city on the southern tip of Lake Huron, upgrades about 18,000 […]

Looking for Iraq’s oil windfall

The country, which has one of the largest reserves in the world, could pump 6 million barrels a day or more. But that sure isn’t happening now. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Iraqi oil revenue was supposed to cover nearly all the costs of reconstruction. The county’s reserves are on the order of 115 billion barrels […]

The Oil Drum: Peak Oil Update – December 2006 Production Forecasts and Charts

An update on the last production numbers from the EIA along with different oil production forecasts.Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

An Interview with James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler has written four books on Urban Design and Suburbia including the ground-breaking “Geography of Nowhere” in 1993. He has also written nine novels, the newest of which is entitled “Maggie Darling” and it’s a doozy. He is a passionate author, a painter, an insightful social critic, and a sharp-witted observer. His latest […]

Suburbia: Running on Empty?

Robert Bruegmann argues in his new book that urban sprawl will continue because people like it, but reviewer James Howard Kunstler counters that the petro-dependent suburban era is just about finished. There is a species of fatuous thinking these days in America which states, in so many words, that suburbia is fine and dandy because […]

Review – New Peak Oil Film

Last week I watched the new peak oil film, Crude Impact, produced by Vista Clara films, which has just emerged on DVD. It describes itself as Crude Impact is a very useful addition to the peak oil DVD library, exploring areas that previous films have not yet gone into. Having said that, I did feel […]

Days are numbered for ‘cheap oil fiesta’

Diminishing fuel supplies will change the face of the world, and we’re not ready for it, author says James Howard Kunstler is surprisingly cheerful for a man who has predicted the future and knows it will not be pretty. “I certainly sleep well at night,” Kunstler quipped in an interview from his home in Saratoga […]

Nonfiction: The Green Wean

Richard Heinburg, The Oil Depletion Protocol (New Society Publishers, 2006) So we are addicted to oil, but what are the larger consequences? Maybe our dealings abroad lead you to think war. And why not? A struggle for control of oil resources has been going on since industrialized nations set up the infrastructure to utilize fossil […]

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