An Almost Friendly Update on World Oil

Perhaps the best way to begin is to say that I find it difficult to accept that there are still serious students of the oil markets who believe that the crust of the earth is flush with oil, and a global output peak will not take place for many decades, if ever. Other observers aggressively […]

Oil. The fast-vanishing drug the world can’t yet live without

Production may peak within a decade, causing massive withdrawal symptoms to the world and its economy Say what you like about Dick Cheney, but you can’t accuse him of not giving us fair warning. A year, almost to the day, before he was dubiously elected Vice-President of the United States – while still chairman of […]

Car Boom Puts Europe on Road to a Smoggy Future

Vehicular emissions are rising in nearly every European country, and across the globe. Because of increasing car and truck use, greenhouse-gas emissions are increasing even where pollution from industry is waning. The 23 percent growth in vehicular emissions in Europe since 1990 has “offset” the effect of cleaner factories, according to a recent report by […]

Tropical diseases back as Europe warms up

Scientists have uncovered the first evidence that diseases such as malaria, long thought beaten in Europe, are making a comeback because of climate change. Holidaymakers could be at risk this summer because the disease has already re-emerged in Italy, where Mussolini once drained marshes to try to eradicate it.Sunday Times

Venture capitalists look at alternative energy

Investors in start-ups are expected to pump even more money into energy ventures in 2007 after doubling their bets last year amid shifting politics and global-warming worries. Venture-capital firms poured $536 million into biofuel and other energy ventures in the first three quarters last year vs. $224 million in all of 2005, said industry tracker […]

Report: U.K. Army Guarding Energy Plants

Britain’s army will be deployed at oil, gas and electricity facilities in the country to defend them from potential terrorist attacks, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The News of the World cited an unnamed security source as confirming security will be increased around the facilities after intelligence suggested terrorists may target the country’s infrastructure. The […]

Belarus, Russia entrenched in a bitter energy row

Belarus, feuding over energy with chief ally Russia, on Saturday subpoenaed the head of Moscow’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft to appear in court over administrative charges of illegal oil transits to third states. Russia’s Economy Ministry meanwhile handed a note to the Belarussian ambassador to Moscow, urging Minsk to scrap transit fees on Russian crude […]

Tanzania: `Alternative energy sources are many`

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) experts on energy generation from biomass have cited Tanzania as being among countries with rich energy generation alternative potential, ranging from coal, hydro to biomass resources.Tanzania, like many other developing countries, is facing a significant power crisis which is adversely affecting activities and subsequent economic growth, a Dar […]

Ireland: Private power plant needed to prevent an energy crisis

The Irish government has told the energy regulator that he should get a private operator to build a new electricity power plant to prevent blackouts that would cripple Irish industry. The new plant would guarantee security of power supply and increase the level of competition facing the state-owned ESB in the electricity market.Sunday Times

Russian oil deliveries to Kazakhstan may be checked to counter re-export

The Russian government may order checks into the volumes of oil delivered to Kazakhstan in an effort to combat so-called re-export, a source in a relevant government agency told Interfax. “Such checks have already begun, but only at the expert level,” he said. Re-export causes considerable financial losses to Russia, because oil export taxes are […]

Predicting global health trends: why peak oil matters

Just a few weeks earlier at the American Public Health Association meetings in Boston, DB had discussed how the leadership of public health was conceptually blind to the unprecedented population-level health threats posed by peak oil. And here was yet another example purporting to be a guide to health policy-making for the next three decades. […]

War and Cheap Oil: A Second Look

For years, many conservationists argued that the government was subsidizing gasoline by spending billions of tax dollars to keep ships in the Persian Gulf and troops on the ground to assure the flow of oil. But some oil experts say the picture may be more complicated now that war is raging in the Middle East: […]

How the West will profit from Iraq’s most precious commodity

The Independent on Sunday today reveals a draft for a new law that would give Western oil companies a massive share in the third largest reserves in the world. To the victors, the oil? That is how some experts view this unprecedented arrangement with a major Middle East oil producer that guarantees investors huge profits […]

10% oil price fall is a bad omen for 2007

The unexpected 10 per cent fall in global oil prices since the start of the New Year casts a shadow over the outlook for 2007 with the crucial technical support of the 200-day moving average price broken. For the Middle East oil producers this is the equivalent of a sudden pay cut, although savings from […]

The Oil Drum: Using NATO to fight peak gas?

As many of you have probably noticed, there has been an increasingly confrontational relationship between the West and Russia on the issue of gas deliveries to Europe. Over the past year, I have traced this increase in tensions not to Russia’s behaviour, but to a clear policy choice made by the UK and the USA […]

Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic […]

Bartlett will introduce 15 bills to Congress

U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett will introduce the following bills in the new congressional term: Peak Oil Resolution — Reintroduction of H. Res 507 that expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States, in collaboration with other international allies, should establish an energy project with the magnitude, creativity, and sense of urgency […]

Bolivia Gas Exports Spike in 2006, But Party May Be Over

Bolivia’s natural gas export sales rose spectacularly in 2006, but the party may soon be over. While the thirst for gas in neighboring Brazil and Argentina continues unabated, virtually no fresh investment is being made in new production as companies lick their wounds after last year’s oil and gas nationalization. “I think the companies will […]

Saudi raises crude selling price for February

Saudi Arabia has hiked the official selling prices of its heavier crude oil grades for February term supply to Asia, possibly setting the stage for further term supply cuts. Higher prices of heavier grades, which comprise the bulk of exports to Asia, in theory would help Saudi Arabia offset any losses from reduced sales. Saudi […]

Lukashenko’s Lost Cause

The attempt by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to fight a hike in the price of natural gas from Russia has German newspapers predicting a quick end to his resistance — or his country’s independence. When Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko slapped a transit duty on Russian oil crossing his country to the west, he knew he […]

India’s PM Says West is Environmentally Wasteful

CHIDAMBARAM, India — Slamming the West for its “environmentally wasteful lifestyle”, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called on Wednesday for industrialised nations to look at alterative energy sources to save the environment. “We, in the developing world, cannot afford to ape the West in terms of its environmentally wasteful lifestyle,” Singh said at a science […]

Pakistan: Import parity pricing to increase LPG production

KARACHI: The decision to take up the cost of locally produced liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to import parity price (IPP) will encourage investment for its production and allow consumers to choose between different fuels, an Ogra official told The News on Friday. Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Wednesday announced the base stock price […]

Local action: a new initiative aims to deglobalize the Bay Area’s economy

In what some experts are hailing as a first for sustainability movements in the United States, a coalition of policy organizations has unveiled a comprehensive campaign to reduce the Bay Area’s reliance on global markets in favor of a more locally based economy. If the plan is embraced by local government agencies and brought to […]

Big Oil profits in danger as price of crude slides

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Energy stocks have taken a beating as crude oil prices plummeted this week, but oil producers will really feel the pain on the bottom line, threatening to wipe out billions of dollars in profits. If this week’s $5.50 oil price drop is sustained over the year, Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM – […]

Australia and China ratify nuclear fuel deal

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia and China have ratified a nuclear agreement clearing the way for the export of uranium to feed Beijing’s giant nuclear power programme, Canberra has said. The agreement providing a legal framework for shipments of the nuclear fuel to the Asian powerhouse will come into force in 30 days, Foreign Minister Alexander […]

Alternative-Energy Spending Fizzles Out

Congress ends without funding research programs, as the United States falls behind in alternative technologies. Despite the hype and numerous promises that began 2006, including President Bush’s declared plans to curb the United States’ addiction to oil, the 109th Congress ended the year without allocating funding for proposed increases in research spending for alternative energy. […]

Norwegian Gold

The Barents sea could become Europe’s natural-gas Klondike That’s not patriotism; it’s a handy means of illustrating some new realities. Back during the cold war, the Barents

Planning for a Post Carbon Era

…It doesn Whatever the cause, the effect is the same: lots of General Unhappiness in the states. Having said all that, what does the state of a PCE actually comprise? What events will come to pass before we can truly say, “Yes, okay, now we are living in the Post Carbon Era?” Below are some […]

Pentagon to train a sharper eye on Africa

Strife, oil, and Al Qaeda are leading the US to create a new Africa Command.Africa, long beset by war, famine, disease, and ethnic tensions, has generally taken a backseat in Pentagon planning – but US officials say that is about to change. One of Donald Rumsfeld’s last acts before Robert Gates replaced him last month […]

India: Who gives a dam?

The completion last week of a significant milestone in the construction of one of India’s largest hydroelectric projects, the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River, was greeted largely with indifference in the country and abroad, even though it puts an end to one of the longest-running controversies in the country’s modern history. The contrast […]

« 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