Pennsylvania Political War Over Planned Tolls on I-80

BROOKVILLE, Pa.

Sinopec posts sharp rise in profit as oil prices slip

HONG KONG: China Petroleum & Chemical, the biggest Asian oil refiner, said Sunday that its profit surged 66 percent in the first half of this year on rising demand for gasoline and chemicals and falling costs for crude oil. Net income rose to 36.2 billion yuan, or $4.8 billion from 21.9 billion yuan a year […]

America’s Energy Future. Better Over a Bushel Than Over a Barrel

…Certainly one of the most effective and immediate ways to break our “oil addiction” is to legislate a cap on the nation’s gasoline consumption and to fairly distribute the available gasoline through a rationing or a voucher distribution program (see post “Capping America’s Gasoline Consumption Through a Manageable ‘Eco-Fuels Program’-…” 01.08.07). In spite of its […]

The rise and fall of great space powers

…The point may seem so basic as to not need stating, but state it one must because that moment of transition will be an epoch-making change in the development of space, one that had been expected to have arrived by the early twenty-first century in certain circles. As Robert Heinlein put it in his essay […]

The Oil Drum: A New Method of Extracting Heavy Oil: Toe to Heel Air Injection

1. What is toe to heel air injection technology? Toe to heel air injection (THAI) is a new method of extracting oil from heavy oil deposits which may have significant advantages over existing methods.The Oil Drum

Protesters defy junta crackdown in Myanmar town

YANGON (Reuters) – Around 50 members of Myanmar’s main opposition party staged a protest march in a provincial town on Monday, witnesses said, as a major junta crackdown failed to stifle rare displays of public anger at soaring fuel prices. Gangs of men from the army’s feared Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) shadowed the […]

Kazakhstan suspends Kashagan oilfield

ASTANA (Reuters) – Kazakhstan suspended work at the huge Kashagan oilfield for at least three months on Monday, raising the stakes in the long-delayed project developed by a consortium of Western oil majors. The project’s start-up delays and cost overruns have long irked Kazakhstan. It has threatened to revoke a permit held by an Eni-led […]

Toyota wary of real consumer demand in U.S. for plug-in cars

LOS ANGELES: Toyota Motor, maker of the best-selling gasoline-electric car in the world, has said that extensive U.S. consumer tests are needed before it offers hybrids that can be recharged at household outlets for limited all-electric driving. “There is a consumer market at some price-point for plug-ins,” Bill Reinert, national manager for advanced vehicle technology […]

UAE: Fire triggers blasts in major port

Blasts ripped through a chemical storage depot at Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates on Monday after the second fire in two weeks at a cargo port in the country, officials said. There were no casualties and the fire had not disrupted shipping because it broke out near the entrance to Jebel Ali, […]

Practical Fuel Cells for Electronics

A new scheme for creating a compact device that efficiently converts methanol into hydrogen could make it practical to incorporate fuel cells into laptop computers and other portable electronics. Such a device could allow a laptop to run for 50 hours and be recharged instantly by swapping in a small fuel pack. Fuel cells powered […]

Kenya: Virgin bid to use biofuel could boost energy sector

Virgin Atlantic’s quest to become the first commercial airline to use biofuels to power its aircraft could be the catalyst needed to realise the potential in Kenya’s alternative energy sector. The airline has scheduled a test flight on biofuel early in 2008, less than a year since June when Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson committed […]

The agonies of agflation: Fuel for the body and the car

Demand for grain is accelerating not to feed humans or livestock but to fill petrol tanks. Compared with 2000, three-times more corn is used to make ethanol in America; distilleries that produce biofuels hoover up a fifth of the country’s corn supplies. Demand for cleaner energy in turn keeps demand for corn growing. Farmers are […]

Turkey measures wind energy amid shortage concerns

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources is turning to alternative energy sources as a means of combating electricity shortages expected to hit the country in a few years, provided sufficient resources to satisfy the booming demand cannot be found. A new regulation from the ministry was recently announced to collect opinions and critiques for […]

Vietnam to tap new energy source of gas hydrates

Vietnam will probe into gas hydrates, a new source of energy, found on seabed and continental shelf to replace the gradual exhaustion of its oil and gas reserves. The exploitation of the solid mixture of hydro carbon, which looks like ice, will help Vietnam meet its long-term demand for gas and gas products, thus ensuring […]

China: More funds to face ‘vital situation’

The central government will pour billions of yuan into special projects to help meet the country’s energy-saving targets. Local officials are also about to come under increased pressure to toe the government line to meet the targets, otherwise their political futures could be in jeopardy.A top official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) […]

Dubai takes centerstage at Oil Barons Ball in Aberdeen

Creator of the famous Oil Barons Ball events, Dubai’s Eileen Michael of Reflex Publishing Middle East – Pipeline Magazine, was given a VIP welcome to Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe. ‘The message was loud and clear – forget Dallas, Dubai is the centre of the oil and gas world,’ said Michael, who is now […]

How low can oil go?

Fundamentals are in place to support the oil price above US$60 a barrel, says economic analyst.Commenting on the immediate prospects for the oil price, and its likely impact on inflation and the wider economy, Adrian Pankiw, an economic analyst at Henderson Global Investors notes that ‘The price of Brent crude oil is up 13 per […]

T&T: Peak Oil – less Govt revenue

Governments like ours, that depend generally on taxes from Big Oil for their revenues to support the county’s economy, then have to give more and more incentives to encourage Big Oil’s exploration. Countries with the Dutch disease are caught in a Catch 22 situation since the exploitation of and returns from the natural resource are […]

UK oil firms cheating investors, says Russia

Russia stepped up the pressure on British-listed energy and mining companies yesterday with an influential Moscow regulator alleging that some of them were “cheating” investors by exaggerating their reserves. Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, called on the London Stock Exchange and other authorities in the UK to stamp out the alleged […]

Africa: Economic Recovery by Subsiding Civil War and High Oil Prices

Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, which had once been recognized for its world’s worst living conditions, is recently regaining vitality. With the continuing trend of high oil prices, oil companies including those from France and Italy are busy expanding their investments in Congo to secure undeveloped oil fields. Meanwhile, Chinese companies are making generous investments in forest […]

Deeper than a mud puddle

The following story is told from the point of view of a farmer living in an intentional community in a post-Peak Oil world several years from now. The details change as it continues to evolve in my mind, but in all its versions it sticks to one general assumption. The gap between energy demand and […]

Crumbs all that’s left in Africa breadbasket

…A severe fuel shortage has forced commuter buses off the roads, leaving Zimbabweans living in the townships with little access to what little remains in the city center. In some parts of the country, even water is being sold on the thriving black market to desperate residents who have gone days without it. “If you […]

Argentina: Shell loses appeal

The courts turned down an appeal by Shell CAPSA yesterday which argued that there was discrimination and arbitrariness when it came down to the inspections and fines applied by the Domestic Trade Secretariat. The decision was adopted by Penal Judge Diego Zysman, who on August 22 decided that the appeal lodged by the Anglo-Dutch oil […]

Indonesia: Indigenous People in West Papua Fight Biofuel Expansion

The Indonesian government appears to be intent on a massive expansion in oil palm plantations as a source of bio-fuel. This will involve the destruction of millions of hectares of rainforest and with it the indigenous populations who have lived in and managed these forests for thousands of years. Reports of military violence and an […]

ASEAN energy ministers gear up for ASEAN power grid

SINGAPORE, Aug 24 (TNA) – To battle the global energy price crisis, Southeast Asian energy ministers have agreed to form a regional ASEAN power grid and to work closely with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to keep costs manageable. Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Energy Ministers’ Conference here, Thai […]

With coal production, cleaner skies could mean more landfills

OMAHA, Neb. – As the nation’s coal-fired power plants work to create cleaner skies, they’ll likely fill up landfills with millions more tons of potentially harmful ash. More than one-third of the ash generated at the country’s hundreds of coal-fired plants is now recycled _ mixed with cement to build highways or used to stabilize […]

Iran sees no oil project funding problems

Iran will not have problems financing energy projects, the caretaker oil minister said in recent remarks, despite US pressure and UN sanctions. Iran is enjoying windfall oil revenues because of high crude prices but foreign firms are increasingly reluctant to do business with the Islamic Republic because of sanctions imposed in a row with the […]

Solar Power

Solar power, which is much more expensive than other forms of power generation, would become more competitive if lawmakers tax or price carbon-dioxide emissions. “Electricity prices could go up 50 percent over the next 10 years. Then solar will be cheaper than the grid,” said Jesse W. Pichel, a senior analyst at Piper Jaffray, who […]

KING COAL: What It Costs Us

Underground coal miners work in the darkness, invisible to most of us, and when they die — also in the darkness, from methane explosions or rock falls or any of the hundreds of other hazards they face every day — their deaths usually merit just a few paragraphs in the local newspaper. The attempted rescue […]

Latest round of U.N. climate talks focuses on business end of global warming

VIENNA, Austria: Now that scientists have documented the potentially catastrophic consequences of global warming, experts are tackling the business end. This week’s latest round of talks on climate change, which get under way in Vienna on Monday, will focus on ensuring that the US$20 trillion (“We need to ‘climate-proof’ economic growth,” Yvo de Boer, the […]

« 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