High food prices: Africa shows first signs of trouble

Recent violent unrest over soaring food prices in several West African nations points to new signs of trouble on a continent where nearly half the people live on a dollar a day, experts warn. After Mauritania and Morocco, Senegal this week was the latest country hit by violent protests. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization […]

US Navy steps up fuel deliveries to Gulf forces

LONDON – The US military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the US Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say. A Gulf oil industry source said the charters suggested there would be high naval activity, possibly including a demonstration to Iran that the […]

Watch Out: A Correction in Oil is Coming

The nature of business is cyclical. No matter what. Take the oil sector for example. Despite the hype and fear being promoted by peak oil theorists, the sector is correcting. The price of crude oil is surging to new highs while many oil companies in the DJIA and S&P 500 have not experienced the same […]

Petrologistics: OPEC-12 Nov Oil Exports +0.324 Million B/D

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- November oil exports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will rise by 324,000 barrels a day, fueled by a sharp surge in Iraq’s oil production, according to data from Geneva-based Petrologistics. Data from Petrologistics showed OPEC-12 exports would reach 31.573 million barrels a day in November, up from 31.249 million barrels […]

The Peak Oil Theory

The peak oil theory has a harmful impact because it focuses on the wrong problem and in doing so it shifts attention away from more vital issues A statement of the type In short, it is not sufficient to say that an exhaustible resource will be eventually exhausted and that its production will decline until […]

Western oil companies doomed to become ‘niche players’ – IEA economist

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) – Western oil companies are doomed to become minor players in the sector, the head economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, predicted. ‘Western oil companies are going through an identity crisis,’ Birol said in the German daily Die Welt today. ‘Enormous reserves still exist but mainly in the Middle […]

Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) – An agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor, scientists have warned. South Asia and Africa would be hardest hit by the crisis, which would shift the world’s priorities away from boosting […]

Australia: Political interference in climate change research

Not content with blocking a Freedom of Information Act request by the opposition Minister for the Climate Change a few weeks ago (see This time, the political motive seems even more transparent. The Canberra Times reports that the recommendation was over-turned after pressure from the Prime Minister John Howard to support a rival bid led […]

Sweden Turns to a Promising Power Source, With Flaws

“We’ve created a new landmark,” said Mr. Floderus, the project manager of the $280 million wind park, one of the world’s largest, which was built by the Swedish power company Vattenfall.Yet Sweden’s gleaming wind park is entering service at a time when wind energy is coming under sharper scrutiny, not just from hostile neighbors, who […]

Some ‘green’ options could create more problems

Our natural support systems include forests, oceans and wetlands, and they provide many services for free, such as recycling nutrients and wastes, regulating the atmosphere and supporting biological diversity. These systems will be affected by climate change, but if they are allowed to function naturally, they can evolve and adapt, and support us in future. […]

Tapping Sakhalin’s Energy Resources

Braving a new frontier of oil exploration around Russia’s remote Sakhalin Island means conquering ice-locked seas, frequent earthquakes and muddy swamps fed by melting snow in the rapid springtime thaw. Executives at the world’s largest oil and gas project, known as Sakhalin-2, say they are nearing the finish line as they aim to open up […]

German Import Price Inflation Accelerates on Oil

German import prices, an early indicator of inflation pressures in the economy, increased the most in almost a year in October, led by a surge in oil prices. The price of imported goods rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier, the most since November 2006, after 1.3 percent in September, the Federal Statistics Office in […]

Is the palm oil industry misleading the public?

A pamphlet distributed recently by the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission (IPOC) states: “Compared to tropical forest, oil-palm plantations possesses [sic] several environmental advantages, it consumes more carbon dioxide (CO2) and releases more oxygen (O2) than tropical forest, which is beneficial to the environment.” Few serious scientists would support the claim that oil-palm plantations store more […]

Back to the well: Bypassed oil beckons

Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, announced a couple of weeks ago the discovery of a huge offshore oil field – described as the second-biggest discovery of conventional crude anywhere in the world in the past 20 years.Oddly enough, though, the biggest discovery of conventional oil this year went largely ignored – notwithstanding the fact that […]

Higher German biofuel blend will raise imports

Germany’s new plan to raise biofuel blending levels in fossil fuels will not help the country’s crisis-hit biodiesel industry and will probably increase biofuel imports, an industry leader said on Thursday. Germany’s government said on Wednesday it plans a long term increase in biofuel blending to counter global warming.By 2010 it is planned to raise […]

Japan: No lunch? Blame the oil price

Soaring oil prices are making an impact in an unlikely place – in school lunches in Japan. A school in Yokohama near Tokyo has cited the spike in oil costs as a reason to cancel lunches for two days in early January, a report and an official said.Ekoda Elementary School had allotted 40 000 yen […]

China’s fuel-supply crisis

More oil needs pouring as tensions mount at petrol pumpsEfforts to cushion China’s citizens from rising oil prices are in disarray. Low government-controlled prices have led to a fuel-supply crisis in many parts of the country. Rationing, long queues, bad tempers and violence have become commonplace at filling stations. Fears of higher inflation are preventing […]

The Age of Petroleum draws to a close

If oil is the planet’s drug, then cold turkey time is coming up way faster than we think. The moment of ‘peak oil’ – the moment when the maximum global petroleum production has been reached – could be just a few years away according to some estimates. Yet by 2030 the world is projected to […]

Peak Oil II: Global Peak Oil Production Can Only Decline Now

SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) — In the previous piece we saw that the history of oil exploration in the United States suggested that production rises steadily to a peak, at around 50 percent of total oil reserves. This peak also marks the onset of declining production. This decline occurs without any plateau, beginning the year […]

Apocalyptic vision of a post-fossil fuel world

An apocalyptic vision of how the world will look after the oil runs out has been given by a top scientist. Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s leading experts on oil reserves, warned that the lives of billions of people were threatened by a food crisis caused by our dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil […]

Canada: NDP yet to break its silence on peak oil

The federal Green party’s B.C. organizer wonders how committed the NDP is to climate change and addressing peak oil, especially when its provincial leader, Carole James, drives a crossover SUV. Ben West told the Georgia Straight he was unaware that James owns a Subaru Forester “How often does she go off-roading? I’m curious,” West said. […]

Russia stops Lithuania refinery oil supply

WARSAW, Poland, Nov. 22 Russia has announced it will stop supplying oil to a Polish-owned refinery in Lithuania because its “Friendship” pipeline link was damaged beyond repair. Poland’s PKN Orlen oil company acquired the Lithuanian Maziekiu oil refinery for $2.5 billion in 2006 when it outbid Russian contenders, the Polish News.pl Web site reported Thursday. […]

Still scrambling

SINCE the late 1990s China has been hoovering up the world’s oil and mineral deposits to sustain its rise to the top table of world manufacturing. The resource-hungry Asian country gets its raw materials from wherever it can, and asks few questions along the way. Nowhere has this been more true than in Africa; many […]

Gazprom deal with Eni drives wedge into hopes for EU unity

BERLIN: Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy behemoth, strengthened its grip on the European natural gas market Thursday after signing a contract with Eni, the Italian energy group, a move analysts said would further weaken the European Union’s chances of establishing a united energy policy. Under the The deal was signed in Moscow as President Vladimir […]

China Oct oil demand up 2.4 pct amid shortage

BEIJING, Nov 22 (Reuters) – China’s apparent oil demand rose a tepid 2.4 percent in October on a year ago, as record global crude prices led to diesel shortages, but demand should pick up further as Beijing has ordered firms to boost output and imports. The yawning gap between global oil markets (CLc1: Quote, Profile, […]

Mexico oil output falls, natural gas imports soar

MEXICO CITY, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Mexican crude oil production and exports fell in October after a storm in the Gulf of Mexico disrupted output for days, while natural gas imports soared 23 percent from September, state oil monopoly Pemex said on Thursday. Pemex said oil production last month fell to 2.995 million barrels per […]

Bad News from Canada May Raise Prices of Oil and Natural Gas

A new report from Canada This double dose of bad news could have a major impact on both the short- and long-term prices of both commodities. The U.S. is counting heavily on increased imports of Canadian oil, specifically to offset an expected decline in Mexican oil, and generally to counter the greater competition for oil […]

Bringing back the clothesline

They’re hoping the province won’t hang them out to dry. A week after Premier Dalton McGuinty said he’d consider the issue, local environmentalists are eagerly awaiting a decision about whether Ontarians, no matter where they live, will be permitted to fly clotheslines in their backyards and hang their pants, shirts, towels and unmentionables outside. Peter […]

Australia: Climate change ‘not the end of the world’

THE world isn’t about to come to an end because of climate change, Prime Minister John Howard says. “I think climate change is important. I don’t think it is as important in this election as economic management,” Mr Howard said on Southern Cross radio today. “I think a strong economy is central to everything. I […]

Oil and Gasoline Prices: The Crack Spread

When a major US refinery shuts down, why do oil prices go up? This is counterintuitive. After all, a shut-in refinery means reduced demand for oil. And less demand should mean lower price pressure, right? Wrong. Here’s an account of the strange ties between oil and gasoline prices, from a Canadian’s perspective. The Question of […]

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