The Oil Drum: The Behavioral Aspects of Peak Oil: Basic Contingencies

In behavioral terms, peak oil is an aversive consequence. The Hirsch report’s crash program is an avoidance response that will prevent the worst of the aversive consequence from occurring. Meeting the challenge of peak oil is therefore a problem of engaging in successful avoidance responding. Peak oil is an especially difficult problem due to (a) […]

Peak Oil: Punctuated Power

Our power, water and communications utilities are now heavily interdependent and are particularly energy hungry In almost all countries the production and distribution of electrical power is via a high voltage national grid that allows the combining of many generators to spread the demand and improve resilience under maintenance and fault conditions. This configuration allows […]

Iran says won’t rule out using oil as a weapon

Iran will not rule out using oil as a weapon if the United States resorts to military action against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, an Iranian oil official said in remarks published on Tuesday. “When the Americans say that military action in regard to the nuclear issue has not been put aside, Iran […]

Deepwater Oil Exploration Fuels Composite Production

As the price of oil on the world market continues to climb, and as untapped land and shallow offshore oil reserves become a rarity, oil exploration companies are striking out into deepwater, developing reserves beneath the ocean floor a mile or more below the waterCompositeWorld

IEA Studies Safety Net for Natural-Gas Supply, Official Says

The International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 oil-consuming nations, may build a “safety net” of natural-gas stockpiles to buttress supply, said the agency’s executive director, Claude Mandil. “The safety net for natural gas is to be studied and considered,” Mandil said today at the Financial Times Global Energy Leaders Summit in London. Bloomberg

The Strait of Hormuz, Iran and the risk to oil

Iran said on Tuesday it will not rule out using oil as a weapon if the United States resorts to military action against the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme. Iran’s OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, told Iran’s Sharq newspaper it could use oil as a “tool” and stop its exports to world markets that […]

National Iranian Oil Company extends bids deadline for 17 blocks

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has extended its deadline by 40 days for the submission of bids by international and Iranian oil companies for 17 exploration and development blocks. DailyIndia

Oil hits 10-month high on Nigerian strike threat

Oil surged above US$72 a barrel Monday to a 10-month high as a general strike loomed in Nigeria and attacks on oil installations cut more supply from the world’s eighth largest exporter. Low U.S. gasoline inventories at a time of peak summer demand also is boosting the market, analysts said, along with a possible oil […]

Iraqi union leader urges opposition to oil law

A proposed law regulating Iraq’s oil industry would foster U.S. “hegemony” over the world’s third largest oil reserves and Iraqi oil workers are determined to oppose it, an Iraqi union leader said on Monday. Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Southern Oil Company Union and the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers’ Unions, was speaking […]

Quenching China’s thirst for oil

In the first five months this year, China’s net oil import roared to 65.83 million tons, an increase of 11.5 percent from the same period last year. At the same time, China produced 77.51 million tons of oil, a 1.7 percent rise year-on-year. Customs statistics show that from January to May, China imported 67.43 million […]

Transneft to develop existing oil terminal bypassing Belarus

The head of Russia’s Transneft said Monday the pipeline monopoly would develop the existing terminal of an oil pipeline that helps Russian crude reach world markets without passing through transit countries. BBJ

Senator: Halt Expansion of Oil Reserves

A Senate Democrat is aiming to halt expansion of the country’s oil reserves for one year, saying it makes no sense when oil prices are high. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan said he will include the proposal as part of an energy and water spending bill to be considered next week. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve […]

Oiling our drive for growth (Ghana)

Finally after decades of exploration Ghana has yielded a major oil discovery. This should in a few years to come play a significant role in oiling our nation’s drive for economic growth. The find, dubbed Mahogany-1 by its American and British owners, is considered internationally significant. Ghana too holds a stake in Mahogany-1 but before […]

Algeria Plans to Develop Solar Power for Export

Algeria plans to make use of its hot southern desert to develop solar power for export and domestic consumption, the OPEC member country said on Monday. The scheme is due to be completed by 2015 in Africa’s second-largest country, where most of the 33 million peopele live in the northern coastal strip. Temperatures in the […]

Russia’s Thermal Coal Demand Seen Tripling by 2020

Demand for thermal coal in Russia, the world’s fifth-largest coal miner, could more than triple by 2020 as the country invests billions of dollars to expand its power network, industry officials said on Monday. Thermal coal supply would rise by more than 50 percent and the proportion of exports in overall output from the world’s […]

China Slows Coal-Liquids, Ethanol Push on Water Fear

Beijing is trying to slow the push on water-intensive alternative energy on mounting signs that China might face a serious water shortage in the future. This may stymie the second-largest energy consumer’s plans to turn its huge coal reserves and agricultural land into transport fuel, and lead it to continue relying on greater imports to […]

India to push green energy

India`s renewable energy sector is garnering attention as global and domestic power utilities are showing interest in investing in green energy following government directives and a proposed renewable energy portfolio standard. Realizing that a change of mindset is needed at the policymaker level to promote green energy, the Indian government — in line with rich […]

Argentine industry with no energy for fourth day running

Argentina’s main natural gas and electricity distributors interrupted this Monday for the fourth day running their provision to industry and big consumers to ensure supply to homes following a consumption peak attributed to the polar weather spell covering most of central and south Argentina. Last Friday the President Nestor Kirchner administration requested gas and electricity […]

Herd mentality threatens China’s renewable energy sector

Herd mentality and behavior, propelled by deficiencies in market information and regulation, may be derailing China’s newly launched renewable energy sector. According to Bai Yi, vice-president of China’s National Petroleum & Chemical Planning Institute,, the bio-ethanol sector saw an irrational and unjustified swell in attention from investors following the introduction of subsidies.Besides, the government’s move […]

Chavez Announces New Stage of Energy Revolution in Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Sunday the beginning of a new stage of the Energy Revolution that is taking place in his country. During the inauguration of a combined-cycle plant at the Termozulia electric plant in the western state of Zulia, the Venezuelan leader said that the main goal of this new stage is […]

Geopolitics, gold and the oil price

Instability in Nigeria is the present driving force behind oil prices, now back at a nine-month high, while gold seems to have turned a corner with the highly significant changes in the US bond market. But let us not forget that a real spike in both the oil and gold price is very likely to […]

Eastern Mediterranean Oil Politics

Oil drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean Sea has emerged as an issue over the past few months following an initiative enacted by the Cypriot government to hand out research and drilling rights for oil reservoirs that might be found deep under the sea, and worth some $500 billion. Cyprus proceeded to cooperate with interested […]

Saving Holland: The Netherlands deals with climate change.

Pinpointing weaknesses in existing water barriers is just a first step toward understanding the Netherlands’ flood risk. Rising sea level is, of course, the elephant in the room. But for the moment, the elephant is moving slowly enough to rank lower on the list of Dutch concerns than certain near-term threats. One is that the […]

Superconducting Turbojet

An all-electric aircraft could soon appear over the horizon thanks to high-flying scientific research published today in the Institute of Physics’ journal, Superconductor Science and Technology. The new type of aircraft, currently on the drawing board, could be far more efficient than conventional aircraft, produce less greenhouse emissions, and be quieter. physorg

The Promise of the Blue Revolution

There is another approach. Global public policies and market institutions can promote new technologies that raise living standards yet reduce human impact on the environment. A crucial group of such technologies is aquaculture, the farming of marine animals, which can support growing human consumption of fish and other aquatic species while relieving intense pressures on […]

Solar-Hydrogen Fuel Cell Residential Power System to be Built on Grand Cayman

Renewable Energy International, Inc. (REI), a leading integrator of renewable energy technologies, announced today that it will design and install a groundbreaking renewable solar-hydrogen fuel cell energy system in a residential environment in the Cayman Islands renewableenergyaccess

The Renewable Energy Centre Adds New Sections to Website

The Renewable Energy Centre website has been heralded as the first of its kind in the UK and is leading the way as a primary source of information and reference for the industry. Launched at the beginning of 2007, The Renewable Energy Centre has already established itself as an authority website in the sector through […]

Chinese challenger aims for top spot in solar tech

Low-tech as it sounds, the approach has led to a Moore’s Law-like growth rate for the Shanghai-based company. Suntech, which makes both solar cells and completed panels, was an asterisk in overall market share in 2002. By 2005, it was the eighth largest solar cell maker in the world, according to statistics from Photon International. […]

Huge oilfield discovered in Ghana

UK firm Tullow Oil has announced the discovery of 600 million barrels of light oil offshore from Ghana. BBC

China welcome to explore Iraqi oil resources

China is welcome to explore oil resources in Iraq as a new law is set to open its oilfields to international companies, the Iraqi ambassador to China said yesterday. Ismail said Iraq’s ambition is to exploit about 80 new oilfields in the coming years and produce 6.5 million barrels of oil per day by 2015. […]

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