Microbes May Lead to Low Cost Ethanol

U.S. scientists say a tiny microbe may hold the key to simpler, lower-cost production of ethanol from biomass sources such as trees, grasses and cornstalks. redorbit

US Natural Gas Drilling Hits All Time High

WASHINGTON In 2006, natural gas remains the main driver of the US E&P industry. An estimated all-time high of 29,356 natural gas wells were completed in 2006─an estimated 7,482 of those in the fourth quarter, an all-time quarter high for natural gas drilling activity in the U.S. API

The Oil Drum: Horizontal and Vertical Well Production

This is the first time that I have seen a comparison of relative production rates between horizontal and vertical wells that were relatively close…so let’s talk about it. Much more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

Ritter, Democrats outline renewable-energy economy plan

Gov. Bill Ritter and Democratic lawmakers outlined their plans Wednesday to build an eco-nomic engine around renewable energy, including new transmission lines, more electricity from alternate sources and rewards for households and businesses that produce more energy than they consume. coloradoan

Resilience and Civilization

Below is a conversation between Thomas Homer-Dixon and Ron Dembo. Dr. Dembo is a risk expert and founder and CEO of Zerofootprint, a not-for-profit dedicated to reducing our ecological footprint. Dr. Homer-Dixon is Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of […]

Crude Oil: A Long Term Forecast

…Trying to predict anything 23 years out is a foolhardy exercise The EIA

Energy demand remains huge and growing

With the manufacturing and housing outlooks softening, analysts may have to lower energy demand expectations this year,

The Peak Oil Crisis: Congressional Hearings – Round #2

The first congressional hearings on peak oil were held in December 2005 when a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a half-day session devoted to the topic. At the hearing several luminaries of the peak oil community testified that indeed the world was about to start running short of cheap, easy to […]

Geothermal Exploration Makes Neighbors Tremble

Using the earth’s natural heat as an energy resource is a fine idea. But not necessarily for those who live near drilling sites, as people along the border between Germany, Switzerland and France are finding out. Emergency services in and around the northern Swiss city of Basel were flooded with calls on Tuesday, as tremors […]

One Shell Nigeria Flow Station Down After Staff Evacuated

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said today that one of two flow stations in Nigeria from which it pulled workers at the weekend following inter-community clashes has gone down, reducing the company’s crude oil output by 12,000 barrels per day. The flow stations are in Ekulama, a small town in the southern state of Rivers that […]

Pelosi may create global warming panel

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), intent on putting global warming atop the Democratic agenda, is shaking up traditional committee fiefdoms dominated by some of Congress’ oldest and most powerful members. She’s moving to create a special committee to recommend legislation for cutting greenhouse gases, most likely to be chaired by […]

Saudis to increase oil output capacity

NEW DELHI – Saudi Arabia plans to increase its crude oil production capacity nearly 40 percent by 2009 and double its refining size over the next five years to keep pace with growing global demand, the country’s oil minister said Thursday. Ali Naimi said the plans are part of a $80-billion-commitment that Saudi Arabia Naimi […]

Democrats drying up oil industry tax breaks

WASHINGTON That will be underscored Thursday when the House is expected to approve a bill that would repeal billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks passed by the GOP-controlled Congress. The measure would raise about $14 billion over 10 years by repealing the tax breaks and by closing a loophole that allowed royalty-free offshore […]

Burying UK CO2 Needs More Cash

A much bigger financial carrot is needed to get companies to spend billions on catching carbon dioxide, a gas widely thought to cause climate change, and bury it under the seas around Britain. The untested technology is likely to cost at least around 25 pounds (or 38 euros) per tonne of CO2 captured and stored, […]

Warming could cut China grain crops by over a third

Rising temperatures in China could slash grain production in the world’s most populous country by over a third in the second half of this century, imperilling food security, the official Xinhua agency reported on Wednesday. China will be 2 to 3 degrees Celsius hotter on average within the next 50 to 80 years, it said, […]

Too Little for Global Warming

Oil and gas will run out too fast for doomsday global warming scenarios to materialize, according to a controversial new analysis presented this week at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. The authors warn that all the fuel will be burnt before there is enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to realize predictions of melting […]

Central Asia’s coming energy power struggle

A dictator’s sudden death usually triggers political instability. But it is doubly dangerous when it poses a risk of regional destabilization and a scramble for influence among the world’s greatest military powers. The sudden death last month of Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s authoritarian president-for-life who declared himself “Turkmenbashi” (Leader of all Turkmens), jeopardizes stability in an […]

Chile torn over using Patagonia to create energy

Environmentalists are fiercely opposed to a scheme for four hydroelectric dams to power growth, claiming that large dams are not the answer, and that they will ruin the area’s tourism potential.Chile has had a problem since Argentina’s energy shortages forced it in 2004 to start cutting natural gas exports to its neighbour, which relies on […]

Higher energy prices ‘inevitable’, says Piebalgs

Speaking exclusively to EurActiv, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs says that new energy and climate-change proposals should lead to higher prices for consumers. But paying 5% more now will avoid much steeper price hikes in the future, he argues.“Then, what is the common incentive to invest inside the Union? It is the carbon price. I could […]

China to invest blns in energy-saving buildings

China will invest 1.5 trillion yuan ($193 billion) to make existing buildings more energy efficient by 2020 in a bid to save millions of tonnes of polluting coal, an official said on Thursday. Warning that energy waste was hurting economic growth, Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing said 350 million tonnes of coal could be […]

Oil supply outside OPEC set to disappoint – IEA

Oil producers outside OPEC will pump less oil than expected this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, increasing the burden on OPEC just as the exporter group is trimming supply. In its latest monthly report, the adviser to 26 industrialised countries forecast oil supply from non-OPEC will rise by 1.4 million barrels per […]

Rogers Says Oil Will Rise to $100 After `Correction’

Oil will resume its march toward $100 a barrel after a “correction,” said Jim Rogers, who predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999. “I’m just not smart enough to know how far down it will go and how long it will stay, but I do know that within the context of the bull […]

Venezuela, Saudi Arabia eye Indian oil sector

Oil exporters Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are interested in building refineries in India, where energy demand is soaring on the back of a robust economy, and participate in exploration, the Economic Times said on Thursday. Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petroleos De Venezuela SA (PDVSA), is exploring options to build a greenfield refinery in India and […]

The Oil Drum: Revenge of the Shia?

The geopolitical situation in the Middle East is becoming more complicated and riskier all the time. This article primarily discusses Iran’s geopolitical strategy, energy policies and energy predicament. In the final analysis sections, Saudi Arabia’s reactions, in the context of the Iraqi civil war, are discussed. The outcomes are not known but it is not […]

Era of cheap oil over: Venezuela company official

The era of cheap oil is over and prices will not go back to $30-40 a barrel again, according to Mr Luis F. Vierma, Vice-President (E&P) of Petroleos De Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s national oil company. “Oil prices will stay where they are now and may head to $60 in the near future,” he said […]

New Fed fear: Lower oil

Falling oil prices may not curb inflation but could spur growth, taking Fed rate cuts off the table. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The drop in oil prices to the lowest level in 20 months has boosted some investors’ hopes that a key ingredient of inflation is out the door, which has helped open the back […]

Sweden’s tree line moving at fastest rate for 7,000 years

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Climate change over the past two decades has caused Sweden’s tree line to move north at a faster rate than at any time in the past 7,000 years, Swedish researchers have said. “The tree line has moved by up to 200 metres (656 feet) in some places. Trees have not grown at […]

Nukes, climate push ‘Doomsday Clock’ forward

LONDON – The caretakers of the well-known Doomsday Clock on Wednesday moved its symbolic hands two minutes closer to midnight The clock’s sponsor, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, added that the

Report on BP refinery blast cites safety failures

Panel says lapses lead to Texas City explosion that killed 15 workers HOUSTON – British oil company BP failed to emphasize safety at its U.S. refineries before the 2005 Texas City explosion that killed 15, according to a report released Tuesday by an independent panel led by former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker […]

The Warming of Greenland

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