Pemex Misses Oil Goal as November Output Drops 8.2% (Update1)

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned Mexican oil monopoly, said daily crude oil production fell 8.2 percent in November from a year earlier as the company struggled with a three-year decline at its largest oil field. Output fell to 2.9 million barrels a day from 3.16 million barrels a year earlier, Mexico City-based […]

Running just to stand still

CANTARELL, in the Gulf of Mexico, was once the world’s biggest offshore oilfield, holding over 35 billion barrels of the black stuff. Now, after nearly three decades, it is running out. At its peak in 2004 it produced 2.1m barrels of oil per day (b/d), making up 60% of Mexico’s total output. That figure has […]

Biodiesel partners sue Chevron

GALVESTON The lawsuit, filed in County Court at Law No. 3, argues that Chevron used its involvement in the project to green wash its image in the media, then withheld promised financial and technical support from the 4828 Port Industrial Road plant. Chevron, which added stature to the startup after announcing a 22 percent stake […]

It’s lights out for traditional light bulbs

Turn out the lights on traditional incandescent bulbs. A little-noticed provision of the energy bill, which is expected to become law, phases out the 125-year-old bulb in the next four to 12 years in favor of a new generation of energy-efficient lights that will cost consumers more but return their investment in a few months. […]

Daddy, will the lights be on at Christmas?

… or is Europe running low on natural gas? OECD Europe gas imports may grow by 295 BCM per annum by 2020. In the same time period, global LNG production is set to grow by 350 BCM per annum. So we Europeans should be OK, so long as the USA, Japan, China, South Korea, India […]

Food prices soar in America

Higher food prices, led by milk, are hitting consumers where it hurts – in the stomach. …”A lot of basic foodstuffs seem to be going up and dairy products are going through the roof,” said John Norris, director of wealth management for Oakworth Capital Bank and food price guru. Norris said he’s cut back his […]

The beer crisis: Trouble brewing

JUST as the festive season gets going, drinkers in America are finding their favourite beer suddenly more expensive or even Without their supply of hops, some smaller producers are going out of business, bringing to a halt the fastest-growing segment of the industry. Other craft brewers and brewpubs are experimenting with new recipes, hoping their […]

UK: Motorists urged not to panic buy fuel

Motorists were last night warned not to panic buy fuel before Christmas after it emerged that shortages were forcing sporadic closures on some forecourts. Yesterday Sainsburys in Pound Lane, on the outskirts of Norwich was shut because supplies of unleaded and diesel had dried up and the supermarket giant had also closed its forecourt at […]

Canada: Holiday spirit’s running out of gas

The gas Grinch was giving people the grumps yesterday, and he’ll be back today with an increase. Just days before Christmas — the most travelled holiday of the year — a mini fuel shortage is plaguing the city. At an Esso station at Eglinton Ave. E. and Don Mills Rd. yesterday, just down the street […]

IT leaders share green-tech predictions for 2008

Green tech has flourished in the past year as vendors and customers alike have invested plenty of resources in making their products and practices more energy efficient, less wasteful, and eco-friendlier. But is this sustainable-tech trend a mere green flash in the pan? Hardly. The flourishing world of green technology is driven by true need. […]

A Viable Rail System Trumps Widening the Freeway

Hardly a day goes by that Californians don While the ship is going down, the politicians make a big show of rearranging the deck chairs. There is a lot of hot air being expended in Sacramento talking about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the real money continues to be spent widening freeways and building new […]

Stranded oil tanker blocks Suez traffic

ISMAILIYA, Egypt (Thomson Financial) – Traffic in Egypt’s Suez Canal was disrupted today after an oil tanker broke down in the waterway, a canal authority official told Agence France-Presse. The 150,000-tonne tanker, flying the Maltese flag and travelling from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, rammed the east bank of the canal after its navigation […]

EPA rejects states’ greenhouse-gas limits on cars

The Bush administration Wednesday derailed an attempt by California and 12 other states to enact the nation’s first greenhouse gas-limits on new vehicles. The efforts by states to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions that are considered a prime cause of climate change are not necessary in light of the energy bill just signed into law by President […]

Part III: The Price of Biofuels

While chemical engineers, microbiologists, agronomists, and others struggle to find ways of making cellulosic ethanol commercially competitive, a few synthetic biologists and metabolic engineers are focusing on an entirely different strategy. More than fifteen hundred miles away from the Midwest’s corn belt, several California-based, venture-backed startups founded by pioneers in the fledging field of synthetic […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Issues

As 2007 winds down, it is good time to review some of the major issues that those of us following the peak oil story are watching closely. Depletion vs. Production is, of course, the heart of the peak oil story. Every year production from the world The prospects for an economic recession or worse increased […]

The Dreaded

…What makes the mortgage crisis particularly interesting is its conjuncture with the unfolding energy crisis. It All the parameters of the

Sustainable holidays

…With the advent of global climate change and peak oil, rampant consumerism takes on a more threatening aspect. Buying lots of stuff means more and more goods being manufactured and transported around the world, using more and more fuel and producing more and more greenhouse gases. So the gifts we give to loved ones not […]

Population Growth: The Crisis That Dares Not Speak Its Name

ELECTRIC POLITICS recently featured a low keyed discussion of an extremely hot button subject: population growth. The guest was Al Bartlett, professor of physics emeritus at the University of Colorado, who has been working on sustainability issues for decades. It is an issue that we raise from time to time, get a few letters accusing […]

57 mpg? That’s so 20 years ago

Want to drive a cheap car that gets eye-popping mileage? In 1987 you could – and it wasn’t even a hybrid. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Car makers are confident they can meet new government rules calling for a national fleet average of 35 miles per gallon. But it will take a big technological push, they […]

Some gas stations in Toronto area run out of fuel: weekend storm partly to blame

Toronto – Some “out of gas” signs have been appearing at service stations across the city, while others have stopped selling regular gas entirely. At least two stations in the Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue area were out of gas and have been awaiting shipments, Rogers’ Citytv reported, Wednesday morning. Liberal MP Dan McTeague […]

One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll. Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 […]

Honda boss sceptical about plug-in hybrids

TOKYO (AFP) “Until now, the hybrid vehicle business has been about creating impressions and images among potential buyers, and not about producing profitable vehicles at affordable prices,” he told the group’s annual year-end press conference. He acknowledged that rival Toyota Motor Corp. had made headway with its popular Prius hybrid, but added that the “real […]

Fire, explosion rock oil jetty in Niger Delta

Lagos, Nigeria – A huge explosion triggered by a dawn fire Wednesday ro cked a jetty operated by the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) at Okrika in South-eastern Rivers state, partially destroying the facility and some vessels that were being loaded with crude oil , and leaving several people injured, the police said. Rivers […]

Zimbabwe elephants shot for food

Harare – There is such an acute food shortage in Zimbabwe that people are resorting to shooting elephants to stave off the hunger. A recent report noted that 900 elephant carcasses had been seen from the air over Chisarira Park in the northwestern region of Zimbabwe. …The carcasses had been stripped to the bone. …The […]

BP delays crude unit restart at Texas City-trade

NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) – BP has delayed the restart of a crude unit at its Texas City, Texas, refinery by about a month until mid-February, trade sources said on Wednesday. The refinery, which was shut ahead of Hurricane Rita in September 2005, has a nameplate capacity of 460,000 barrels per day. In a […]

Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels

Transparent electrodes created from atom-thick carbon sheets could make solar cells and LCDs without depleting precious mineral resources, say researchers in Germany. Solar cells, LCDs, and some other devices, must have transparent electrodes in parts of their designs to let light in or out. These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but […]

Nanowire battery holds 10 X the charge of existing ones

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, […]

Alaska oil spill may signal wider problems

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Alaska officials are investigating the cause of a pipeline rupture on the North Slope earlier this week that they say could be a sign of more widespread corrosion problems at the state’s aging fields. The 4,284-gallon spill from the ConocoPhillips line on the Kuparuk field was caused by rare […]

Oilfield Hacks and Future Oil Prices

Hack: A modification of a program or device to give the user access to features that were otherwise unavailable to them. While a cult of Peak Oil adherents fret about the end of the hydrocarbon age, we’ve been focusing on trends that will provide buffering to the upcoming declines in oil production. Don’t get me […]

China proposes 10% tax on crude, urges fuel tax

BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) – China’s Finance Ministry said on Tuesday it has proposed introducing a 10 percent tax on crude oil production, which would be phased in at a 5 percent rate initially. This tax would help compensate local governments for the extraction of crude oil and would benefit the environment, Vice Minister Zhu […]

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