Australia: Festive fuel hike in firing line

THE nation’s competition watchdog is investigating major petrol companies and retailers over recent price hikes that did not match world oil prices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has written to the heads of the oil companies and the two major supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, asking them to justify the price jumps. Commission chairman […]

A Solar Grand Plan

By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions ● A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S. ● Large solar concentrator power plants would be built as well. ● A new direct-current […]

The Post-Oil Economy: After The Techno-Fix

The path beyond petroleum begins by considering five principles: that alternative sources of energy are insufficient; that hydrocarbons, metals, and electricity are inseparable; that advanced technology is part of the problem, not part of the solution; that post-oil agriculture means a smaller population; and that the basis of the problem is psychological, not technological. Everything […]

Russia likely to delay oil pipeline to China

Moscow: Russia may delay the launch of its first oil pipeline to China for a year to September 2009, Interfax news agency quoted a source as saying on Friday. “Transneft suggests putting off the launch by a year,” Interfax quoted what it said was a government source as saying. “There is a certain construction technology: […]

Saudis plan $900b sovereign fund

Dubai: The Saudi Arabian government plans to establish a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) that may exceed $900 billion, which would likely be the largest in the world, the Financial Times reported on Satuday without naming the sources of its information. The effort is likely to be spearheaded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has […]

Venezuela looks for help to triple Orinoco output

CARACAS, Dec 22 (Reuters) – Venezuela aims to more than triple output from its Orinoco heavy crude reserve in five years and will start looking for companies that can help achieve that goal from January, the national oil company said on Saturday. State-owned oil company PDVSA said it would develop new projects to produce 2 […]

Russia

Putin wields gas as a weapon. But the reality is that Russia can barely meet its own growing demand. Gazprom, the Russian natural-gas giant, is often portrayed as the 1,000-pound gorilla of the energy world. Over the past few years, the company has had huge success in locking in lucrative European markets. It has also […]

Is this the world we want to leave to our children?

Slowing climate change is not as simple as turning off a tap. The CO2 we emit today stays in the atmosphere for 100 years. Its warming effect continues. Heat accumulates long after we have closed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions faucet. …The next few years are key: 2015 is only seven years away. Yet Canada […]

Fewer divers put oil industry deep in crisis

MUMBAI: Make a splash to see a missing link in the country But according to Satpal Singh, joint managing director, Dolphin Offshore, the only firm that provides diving services to oil companies,

Strategic diesel stocks mostly consumed: Crisis forces purchase at higher rates

ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: Pakistan Sources in the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) said the total diesel stocks on Dec 17 stood at 129,000 tons, enough for six days

Climate change poses challenge to preventive medicine

…Unmitigated global warming will cause death and disease on a vast scale. The dramatic images of melting glaciers and polar ice translate into flooded cities, rising temperatures, drought, crop failure, famine and epidemics of dengue, malaria and other diseases. An increase in the number and intensity of severe storms conjures images of suffering in New […]

Analysis: U.S. military & Iran — Part 6

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (UPI) — What would be the consequences of a U.S. military attack against Iran’s nuclear program? Likely one of the first would be another blow to the international credibility of the United States. Absent authorization from the U.N. Security Council, such an attack would not only be a violation of international law, […]

Little Surprise: Oil Prices Will Rise

Oil-price prognosticators, bruised after an unusually volatile spell in the oil patch, have reached a rough consensus on next year: Oil will be even costlier, even if the economy cools. Consumers are likely to pay a lot more at the pump, too. The Energy Department predicts that far higher average oil prices will force gasoline […]

Good News About Methane Bubbling Up From the Ocean Floor Near Santa Barbara

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) Their results will soon be published as the cover story in Volume 34 of Geophysical Research Letters. This research effort is the first time that the gas that dissolves and moves away from COP, the plume, has been studied. The amount of methane release from COP seeps is around two million cubic […]

Mexico Says No to Private Energy

Mexico, Dec 21 (Prensa Latina) The Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) demanded that President Felipe Calderon’s Government lay off a privatizing project of energy or they will bring the nation to a halt. If we do not receive a viable response to the demand, the sectors opposed to privatization of petroleum and electricity will get […]

UK: Ministers ordered to assess climate cost of all decisions

Government says new ‘carbon price’ will favour eco-friendly policy choices Coal-fired power stations, airport expansions and new road schemes could all be put on hold following a decision by Gordon Brown that ministers must in future take account of the true economic cost of climate change damage. Ministers have been instructed to factor into their […]

One Nation, One Energy Plan — but It’s the Wrong One

…Thus, it came as a surprise to me that anyone in the federal power structure — perhaps with the exception of Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-Md.), a man who repeatedly has warned us about our refusal to take peak oil theories seriously and who voted against the bill for that and other reasons — had […]

Shell finance chief sees continuing high oil prices

GENEVA (Reuters) – Energy prices will remain high next year, driven by demand from developing countries, but energy companies face massive cost pressures, Royal Dutch Shell chief financial officer Peter Voser was quoted as saying on Saturday. …”Energy prices will remain high … Our concern is the development of costs. Financial spending for modernising our […]

Iran increases petrol ration

Iran on Saturday started to allow motorists an extra 20 litres (5.2 gallons) of petrol a month under a rationing scheme aimed at cutting back on frenzied consumption, state television said. “Private cars have a monthly quota of 120 litres (31.2 gallons) for the next four months,” the television said. It added that the average […]

Analysis: China’s fuel oil reserves

North Korea no longer has the capability to initiate a large-scale invasion of South Korea; in fact it lost this ability in the mid-1990s. This assessment is based on the calculation of the fuel oil the mechanized battle groups of the North Korean People’s Army would need to launch an invasion and the actual oil […]

Stargazing on the wild side

Denmark-based Saxo Bank’s tradition of annual “Outrageous Predictions” has had a high rate of bull’s-eyes in the past. The bank’s analysts said in 2006 they’re oil bulls “given the raft of alarming geopolitical scenarios with alarming implications for global supply”. Crude this year tested an all-time high of more than $99 per barrel and looks […]

China Needs to Cool Growth, Energy Consumption – Planner

China should take measures to cool economic growth and reduce energy consumption, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission said. “Current economic growth, 11.5 percent or above 11 percent, is too fast and at too high a cost” Han Yongwen, the planning agency’s secretary general, said at a conference in Beijing today. The […]

Uranium mines discovered in southern, central Iran: AEOI official

Rich uranium mines have been discovered in Iran’s southern and central areas, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Deputy Director Mohammad Saeedi said here on Monday. A vast layer of uranium extends across the country’s central desert to the south, Saeedi told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.Currently only the regions of Saghand and Bandar […]

Big powers in race for oil

The world’s big powers are in growing competition to buy oil from top exporters and develop projects in energy-producing states, eager to secure supplies to propel economic growth. China has agreed to boost oil imports from Saudi Arabia by over a third next year, trade sources said this week. The deal comes days after confirmation […]

India: Mandatory use of biofuel in State-owned vehicles recommended

The draft biofuel policy of Karnataka has suggested enacting legislation for mandatory use of biofuel. The draft policy, which was prepared by a subcommittee of experts, constituted by the Agriculture Department, has proposed the mandatory use of biofuel in all State-owned vehicles, including those of public sector undertakings. It has recommended that use of biofuel […]

Boeing to Test Aviation Biofuels

The Boeing Co., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of commercial airliners, will begin testing jet fuel derived from algae and other biomass and says biofuels could become a feasible alternative within five years. Faced with soaring fuel costs and the threat of tighter emissions regulations on both sides of the Atlantic, the airline industry […]

Global warming causing China’s glaciers to melt quickly

BEIJING (AFP) – Global warming has caused some of China’s glaciers — a source for many of Asia’s greatest rivers — to have melted by more than 18 percent over the past five years, state media reported Friday. A survey of nearly 20,000 square kilometres (8,000 square miles) of China’s glaciers showed they were on […]

Forecasters Converging On 100 Million B/D

While predictions by Total Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie and others that world oil production is facing a limit of 100 million barrels per day or less have received a lot of attention lately, new long-term energy forecasts from major oil companies and government organizations seem to be quietly converging with that stark assessment. While […]

Sakhalin Energy postpones LNG exports to Asia

MOSCOW: Sakhalin Energy, one of the world’s top liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, will delay first exports to Asia by six months to spring 2009 due to problems with pipelines, the governor of Sakhalin said. The comment confirms a report that the project leader, Russia’s Gazprom, and its partner Royal Dutch Shell will effectively delay […]

A Likely Strike of Iran

Two days ago, an international meeting to discuss imposing harsher sanctions on Iran was canceled. It was due to conflicts around Tehran’s nuclear file between the US and Europe on the one hand and between Russia and China on the other. Despite the fact that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dubbed these conflicts as “tactical” […]

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