For oil companies, the good old (bad old) days are over

ROME — It used to be so easy. A North American or European energy company eager to ramp up foreign production would traipse into a bankrupt, yet oil-rich, country – anywhere in North or West Africa would do – make nice with the local strongmen, promise jobs, technology and export sales, and walk away with […]

Refinery work could stoke heating oil bills

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumers may face high heating bills this winter if refinery outages prevent companies from rebuilding inventories before the cold sets in. A large number of problems with the nation’s aging refining system this summer has drawn down fuel inventories and kept plants struggling to keep up with seasonal gasoline demand. In […]

Oil Industry Flares $40 Billion in Gas a Year

Up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas are “flared” by the world’s oil producers every year. The economic value amounts to $40 billion, but the burden on the earth’s atmosphere — in warming emissions like methane and carbon dioxide — is enormous. In spite of all the recent talk about climate change, the […]

Buzz builds for plug-in cars

Even though the $10 million-plus Automotive X Prize hasn …The Automotive X Prize aims to promote the development super-efficient motor vehicles that would cut greenhouse-gas emissions and get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon. “That is exactly Visionary Vehicles’ goal, and that is exactly what we’re planning on doing,” Bricklin said. “So entering this […]

Despite rising prices, OPEC in no rush to raise its output targets

VIENNA, Austria (AP) – Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Global economic turbulence. Fears of a chilly winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Despite the wide range of factors buffeting world oil markets and keeping crude prices hovering around $75 a barrel, analysts say OPEC will maintain its current output targets when oil ministers meet in […]

Kazakhstan waiting for Eni proposal in oilfield row

ASTANA His comments came a day after Prime Minister Karim Masimov demanded a leading role for its state energy company KazMunaiGas in running Kashagan. The government is also seeking more than $10 billion in compensation for the delays. The dispute has dealt a blow to investor confidence in Kazakhstan but Karimov denied the government had […]

The Oil Drum: The Compost Post

One of my interests, dating back 25 years to when I was a member of my local FFA land judging team, is soil conservation. I have long been interested in things like terra preta and composting because of their ability to build topsoil. But I never thought much about how difficult it can be to […]

Shell Argentina declares service station force majeure

BUENOS AIRES (MarketWatch) — The Argentine unit of Royal Dutch Shell plans to send letters Thursday to its service stations declaring a force majeure, citing a government order to shut down its refinery, Shell Argentina President Juan Jose Aranguren said. Shell Argentina began shutting down its Doc Sud refinery in Buenos Aires after receiving an […]

Nippon Oil to buy Iran oil in yen

Japanese firm Nippon Oil is to start paying for Iranian oil in yen, rather than in US dollars. The first payments to be made in the new currency for crude oil contracts will take place in October. Iran has been increasingly selling oil in currencies other than the US dollar, which has fallen in value. […]

OPEC walks a tightrope as oil prices near a record

… “The market is currently well supplied with crude oil,” said Thomas Hartmann, an analyst at Altavest Worldwide Trading. He pointed out that the U.S. entered the summer with a 15-year high in crude supplies. …So why are oil prices near record levels again? “What we’re experiencing is a restructuring of pricing for this valuable […]

Fuel-economy rules could kill US auto industry: union chief

DETROIT, United States (AFP) – Tough new fuel-economy standards now pending in Congress could lead to the dismantling of what remains of the US domestic car industry, the president of the United Auto Workers union warned Thursday. “We’re being told that we must choose between protecting our environment versus protecting our jobs,” said UAW president […]

Statoil Sees OECD Peak

CALGARY – Production of conventional oil in OECD countries will peak as soon as in 2010, increasing the world’s dependence on the OPEC cartel and Russia, and continuing the rush to non-conventional deposits such as Alberta’s oilsands, the chief executive of Norway’s Statoil ASA predicted yesterday. Helge Lund, in Calgary to talk about Statoil’s oilsands […]

UN warns of food price unrest

Developing countries face serious social unrest as they struggle to cope with soaring food prices, inflation that shows no signs of abating, the United Nations’ top agriculture official has warned. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, said surging prices for basic food imports such as wheat, corn and milk had the […]

Biofuel costs draining the field

The enthusiasm for biofuel production has cooled significantly — and the great irony for producers is that it is the very drive for alternative fuels that has pushed raw material costs out of sight. “We can’t even come close to our capacity, and it isn’t because there’s not demand for biodiesel,” said Ken Arnold, president […]

More nuclear and more uranium more likely

The World Nuclear Association’s Market Report for 2007 does not substantially revise its growth scenarios for nuclear power, but authors said the higher scenarios have grown more likely.The Upper Scenario represents a ’substantial revival’ – 382 GWe in 2010; 520 GWe in 2020; and 720 GWe in 2030. That would gradually bring nuclear power’s share […]

Coal-to-Liquid Is a Boondoggle

“We are simply running out of time to avoid catastrophic warming, and we no longer have the luxury of grossly misallocating capital and fuels to expensive boondoggles like coal to liquid,” Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Joe Romm told the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment yesterday. Proponents claim that coal-to-liquid […]

Global demand lights fire under coal

After years of stagnant demand, coal has come back to life as producers worldwide respond to rising demand from developing countries. A tipping point came this year when China, one of the world’s leading producers, for the first time became a net importer of coal.“China’s export inflection combined with continued supply problems looks very promising,” […]

UK: New nuclear row as green groups pull out

Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF describe consultation as sham Britain’s leading environmental groups are poised to formally withdraw from a government consultation today that will determine whether ministers will be able to push ahead with plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.The coalition which was asked to provide evidence to […]

Solar energy hopes to shine with less silicon

Solar energy specialists are forecasting a bright future by focusing on technology that uses less silicon as they move toward cost-per-kilowatt hour parity with traditional power generating firms. Meeting with about 150 prospective investors at the Cowen and Company’s Clean Tech Conference at the Le Parker Meridian Hotel, solar players said Thursday their business also […]

OPEC May Reject Calls for More Oil as Crude Rises Above $76

OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world’s oil, may reject consumer calls to increase supplies and lower prices from $76 a barrel on concern energy demand will falter as U.S. economic growth slows. Oil ministers for Algeria, Iran, Libya, Qatar and Venezuela said in the past week they support keeping the quota at […]

‘Acceptability’ is Total’s growth model

Over the past couple of years, as oil has gone from $50 a barrel towards $80, the shares of the European oil majors have significantly underperformed the market. The flare-up on Thursday of the government of Kazakhstan’s unhappiness over the Kashagan field, in which Total has a more than 18 per cent stake, is a […]

Oil price boom brings some gloom to majors

For years, international oil majors blamed low prices for their inability to invest in hunting for new oil sources. Oil prices near record highs now should have meant an end to their complaints, but oil majors are finding that high prices are no less of a curse.Strange as it may sound, oil companies find themselves […]

Total cuts oil output targets

Total’s ability to resist the pressures on production facing its international rivals was called into question on Wednesday as the French oil major cut output targets by 20 per cent for the four years to 2010. Christophe de Margerie, the new chief executive who took over in February, said on Wednesday that Total expected only […]

Ethanol and the Tortilla Tax

America

IEA Head Says Global Oil Market Supply Is Tightening

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — Supply in the world’s oil market is tightening, the new head of the International Energy Agency said in an interview, one day after he met with the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “The market situation is tightening, we know that,” Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the agency […]

Green Acres

Gail Carson would like you to know something about the EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI): it is not a commune. “It’s the first question people ask when they visit,” says Carson, a pleasant, shy woman who runs a bed-and-breakfast at the upstate New York village. But you could be forgiven for not believing her. At the […]

Smart ForTwo among cheapest cars in America

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Smart ForTwo, a wild-looking two-seat economy car produced by DaimlerChrysler, will go on sale in the United States at a starting price just under $12,000. When the ForTwo goes on sale in the first quarter of next year, it will be the smallest new car you can buy in the […]

Argentina Faces Fuel Shortage On Shell Refinery Shutdown

BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- A day after the Argentine government ordered Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) to shut down its Doc Sud refinery, it was unclear how a potentially large gap in fuel supplies would be covered. A government energy official told Dow Jones Newswires that Shell had begun to shut down the refinery after Energy […]

The Oil Drum: This Week in Petroleum

Another week, another all-time low on gasoline inventories. …Looking at my records, there haven’t been too many weeks on record where gasoline inventories have been lower on an absolute basis (and never on a days of supply basis). In fact, the last time gasoline inventories were this low on an absolute basis was the week […]

Putin’s ambition: A northern land grab

A Danish ambassador to Peter the Great was asked by the czar to point out his country on the map. Embarrassed at the size of his homeland compared to the vast Russian expanse, the ambassador evaded the question, and rather than point to the Lilliputian Scandinavian country from which he hailed, he put his finger […]

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