The Oil Drum: Refining 101: Summer Gasoline (and Why Gas Prices Go Up)

Just what is summer gasoline? Twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, you hear about the seasonal gasoline transition. However, most people probably donMuch more after the jump to The Oil Drum.

Prepare for next gas crisis

…Cars and trucks tend to reflect the mentality of their manufacturer’s homelands. The United States has the mind-set of unlimited resources, cheap gas, big is better. The Japanese and German mentality is shaped by scarce resources, $5-a-gallon gas and the need for efficiency. The Big Three were not prepared for any previous gas crises and […]

Peak Oil and Beyond – Q&A with Heinberg, Campbell and Leggett – Part 1

At January…Good morning everybody and welcome to this morning

Shell Oil exec urges policy change

Oil companies need the gov For example, Hofmeister said, the federal government restricts oil exploration in much of the Gulf of Mexico. Local govern

NPR: Would More Biofuel Use Threaten Food Supplies?

President Bush promoted the benefits of ethanol during a recent Latin American tour. But the fuel has drawbacks, including the possibility that significant use of corn-based ethanol could mean higher costs for a food staple in many poor nations. Rob Routs, an executive director at Shell Oil, talks with Steve Inskeep. (Streaming audio) NPR

ASPO 6: Time to React?

The organising committee join me in inviting you to join us in Cork, Ireland, this September for the 6th Annual International ASPO Conference entitled ‘Time to React?’ This years Annual International ASPO conference, the 6th, is shaping up to be a truly significant event and for a number of reasons. Not least of which is […]

What it’ll take to sink oil prices

Subprime woes, slowing economic growth, even a recession – will anything bring prices back down to $30 a barrel? NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Could oil prices soon sink? A strong economy equals strong demand, which equals higher prices. So when stock markets tumbled earlier this week on fears that woes in the subprime housing lending […]

OPEC raises forecast for world oil demand growth

OPEC on Thursday predicted world oil demand growth would edge up to 1.3 million barrels per day, or 1.5 per cent, in 2007, up 0.1 million bpd from its previous estimate. OPEC, source of more than a third of the world’s oil, expected demand for its crude to average 30.4 million bpd this year, up […]

Brazil’s Petrobras to start ethanol production from bagasse

Brazil’s state-owned oil and gas company Petrobras announced on Thursday that it will start producing ethanol from bagasse in its research center in Rio de Janeiro. A pioneering plant will start operating in May 2007, and another plant to produce ethanol from bagasse on industrial scale is expected to be inaugurated in 2008, said Silas […]

Sinopec discovers major gas field in S.W. China

Oil giant Sinopec has announced its discovery of a huge gas field in southwest China’s Sichuan province, China Securities Journal reported on Friday. Since the gas field is still under exploration, the company will not reveal its estimated gas reserves, the newspaper said. However, according to local media reports, the natural gas reserve of the […]

Oil companies running hard to stand still

DURING a previous oil price crisis in the United States, a jovial service station attendant may have remarked to customers that “We’ve run out of $2 gas, but we’ve got plenty of $5 gas”. Attendants on the trading floors might today observe that we’ve got plenty of $80 (US) barrels, but we’re running short of […]

GALP Energia invests

Portuguese oil company Galp Energia has outlined its biofuels strategy for the coming years and announced a Biopact

Carbon footprint of products to be displayed on label package

The Carbon Trust is launching a green equivalent to the Fairtrade label – a consumer label which details the carbon footprint of a product and a commitment by its producer to reduce it. Several major brand products, including Walkers crisps (carbon footprint: 75g), Boots Organics shampoo (148g) and Innocent smoothies (294g), will test the use […]

Biofuels and the Green Resistance

Now that Al Gore has his “green” Oscar and George W. Bush has closed a deal in Brazil by which American will burn up the cane fields in the name of environmental salvation, it is time to get serious about the realities of biofuel. Clearly research into biofuels is necessary, but few people are aware […]

World May Get Greener, Then Wilt, Due Warming

Global warming is expected to turn the planet a bit greener by spurring plant growth but crops and forests may wilt beyond mid-century if temperatures keep rising, according to a draft UN report.“Global agricultural production potential is likely to increase with increases in global average temperature up to about 3 Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit), but above […]

Coal still a hot topic for South Africa – Chamber of Mines

With debates on energy supply constantly heating up, South Africa’s predominant energy source cannot be ignored. Contributing to more than 80% of power generation in the country, coal production and mining is a hot topic. “Overall, the market for coal at present looks very buoyant, where demand somewhat exceeds supply,” Chamber of Mines (CoM) assistant […]

In China’s toxic air, winds of change

LINFEN, China – Here in one of the world’s most polluted cities, where coal dust blackens apples still on the branch, something new is in the air. It’s not the brown smoke chugging out of coke plants and iron smelters day and night. The stranger is talk of an ultimatum. Three years after China first […]

Scotland set to be a world leader with first subsea tide energy farm

Scotland is set to lead the world in harnessing a new form of green energy by developing the first commercial tidal stream energy plant on the planet. Lunar Energy, a leading Scottish renewables company, has joined forces with E.ON UK, the company which runs Powergen, to announce pioneering plans to develop a subsea tidal stream […]

Putin Confirms the Energy Map

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement yesterday in Athens with the prime minister of Greece and Bulgaria on the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline. The Greek prime minister characterized the event as the appearance of new countries, Greece and Bulgaria, in the energy map of the world. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov thought […]

OPEC to keep production steady

Ignoring concerns of slowing economic growth, testy stock markets and signs of a melting housing market, OPEC ministers on Thursday decided to keep oil production restrained despite calls to pump more supplies into an increasingly tight market. OPEC’s decision to keep oil output at their current levels could send oil prices soaring this spring as […]

OPEC slowly understands the impact of deflation

OPEC is trying its best to halt the oil price from collapsing due to softening of demand across the globe. The stealth deflation is the killer. In Japan it is manifesting itself over almost two decades. The same affects the U.S. economy since year 2000. The emerging market economies arte just getting introduced to the […]

Elections could further destabilise the violent, oil-rich Delta region

The seedy drinking-holes frequented by burly foreign oilmen in Nigeria’s main oil city of Port Harcourt are pretty empty these days. Kidnappings and killings of expatriate workers, car-bombs and violent robberies have persuaded many to stay behind the high walls and barbed wire of their own homes, as armed groups wreak havoc ahead of national […]

The Oil Drum EU: The Big Crew Change: Turnover in the Oil Workforce

The mainstay of the oil- and gas industry workforce will retire in the coming ten years. While there is a fair amount of thinking about how to fix this huge problem in the oil- and gas industry, this factor is being ignored in the energy scenarios of the International Energy Agency and Energy Information Administration. […]

Micro power revolution set to blow in

Micro-turbine inventor Lucien Gambarota said Thursday the new compact designs, with a rotor diameter of 25 centimeters, were more effective than conventional wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 50 meters, such as Hong Kong Electric’s monolith wind turbine on Lamma Island. The miniature windmills will allow users from all sectors to reduce energy costs […]

Chinese coal-fired capacity nears 699,700 MW

The total capacity of Chinese fossil-fired power plants in operation or under construction as displayed in the new McIlvaine Chinese Utility Plans database is 699,700 MW. The database displays data on 1,255 plants (or multiple units) comprising more than 2500 individual boilers. Coal accounts for 646,000 MW, gas 8,100 MW, and oil 2,145 MW. The […]

Could crazy technology save the planet?

“Of course it’s desperation,” said Stanford University professor Stephen Schneider. “It’s planetary methadone for our planetary heroin addiction. It does come out of the pessimism of any realist that says this planet can’t be trusted to do the right thing.” NASA is putting the finishing touches on a report summing up some of these ideas […]

OPEC Chief: Members Have Upstream Projects Worth $100B

Members of the Organization of Exporting Countries have invested $100 billion in upstream oil projects, the OPEC President said at a press briefing following the organization’s meeting in Vienna Thursday. Mohammed al-Hamli, who is also oil minister for the United Arab Emirates, said there are currently around 100 projects, further proof OPEC members are continuing […]

Raymond James Answers the 10 Most Common Ethanol Questions

Raymond James issued a very interesting report on Ethanol recently. In it they provide their answers to the ten questions they most frequently receive on the topic. The report is well worth the read, but we summarize their points below: 1. Will there be an oversupply of ethanol in the U.S. market? Not for the […]

Nanotech will let us wear batteries and get 150 m.p.g.

Enter the nanotechnological battery, the new lightweight and powerful engine of high-tech dreams, making everything possible from Ball’s rope ascender to hybrid vehicles capable of getting 150 miles per gallon to battery-powered fabrics that will let soldiers plug electronic devices into their uniforms. The change lengthened the life of a lithium-ion battery from 750 recharges […]

Researchers Propose Hydrogen-Augmented Fischer-Tropsch Processes

Purdue University chemical engineers have proposed a modification to the conventional biomass- or coal-to-liquids Fischer-Tropsch process that could, by their calculations, produce sufficient fuel for the entire US transportation sector. greencarcongress

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