World Bank says oil prices to fall gradually through 2009 to $75

The World Bank entered the increasingly-divided debate on where oil prices are headed Wednesday by announcing in its Global Economic Prospects 2008 report that oil prices will fall gradually through 2009 to about $75, then fall toward $50 per barrel, in the longer-term. “In the longer term, the oil market balance is expected to loosen […]

Korea’s Fight Against Record Oil Prices and Weak Dollar

If no one can stop the oil prices’ rally and the dollar’s slide, it is well expected that the Korean economy will undergo unusually high inflationary pressures, a bearish stock market, a sluggish domestic consumption, a slowdown in exports, and an economic recession. In order to overcome this crisis and avert a depression, a series […]

Japan Sees Temperatures Up 4.7 C on Global Warming

The average temperature in Japan could rise by up to 4.7 degrees Celsius (8.5 Fahrenheit) this century unless steps are taken to combat global warming, the Environment Ministry said on Wednesday. Japan, the world’s second-biggest economy, could face a rise in the average temperature of 1.3-4.7 C (2.3-8.5 F) in the 2070-2099 period from levels […]

AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW SIMMONS

Peak Oil & Beyond The start of 2008 has brought with it the first official sighting of $100 oil. I say ”first” because the age of cheap oil is coming to a close. While no one can say with absolute certainty where prices will go from here, the odds are in favor of them moving […]

Peak oil confusion

Google news searches often turn up editorials, opinion pieces and analysis written by people who don’t buy into this “peak oil” theory. Most of these writers don’t understand what “peak oil” means. Preparing for ASPO-USA’s Houston conference held last October, the author wrote an Introduction to Peak Oil (Word document, click to open) that was […]

Disruption of LPG unit at Iraq’s Baiji refinery worsens power supply

The blaze at Iraq But the blaze is reported to have damaged the unit exacerbating the already acute shortages of gas in the country. An Electricity Ministry source told the newspaper that northern Iraq, comprising the three Kurdish provinces of Dahouk, Arbil and Sulaimaniay as well as Mosul and Kirkuk, has plunged into darkness as […]

UK: Watchdog criticises misleading Malaysian palm oil advert

A TV advert claiming that Malaysian palm oil is “sustainable” The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint from Friends of the Earth International and Friends of the Earth Europe that the advert was misleading because much palm oil was produced in a way that was not socially or environmentally sustainable. Guardian

Investors take BP to task after broker downgrades sink shares

BP Despite record global crude prices of around $100, Merrill cut its estimate from $5.9 billion to $4.4 billion, triggering the biggest one-day fall in BP

UK: The new generation of nuclear power stations

The Government will formally give the green light for a new generation of nuclear power stations and announce that it will underwrite private companies’ liabilities for disposing of nuclear waste. It is expected to sugar the announcement, which is expected to spark a fresh row about cost and safety and risk fresh legal action from […]

Search for Middle East cash to rescue Northern Rock

The frantic search for a private sector solution to the Northern Rock crisis has been widened to include cash-rich governments in the Middle East. There is no current indication that a deal has been clinched but the Treasury believes it is sensible for the sovereign wealth funds to be approached, given that they have accumulated […]

Turn the Tap Off

WE ARE LIVING with crises. Poverty in the Third World is, to use the words of Michael Rowbotham, the greatest economic, cultural and humanitarian disaster, outstripping the two great wars for the sheer scale and depth of unrelenting tragedy. We now face runaway global warming which, if it reaches a tipping point, will be unstoppable. […]

Planet Earth 2007: Top 10 Science Revelations

#10: Impending Oil Peak With the price of oil climbing and the world’s heavy dependency on this fossil fuel, estimates of just how much oil we have left are critical knowledge for governments and policy makers. A new study this year predicted that global oil production could peak as soon as 2008, and would likely […]

Oil ’supermajors’ ten years on

Only ten years after “supermajor” entered the oil industry’s lexicon, the term is already showing its age. At the start of this decade, once the industry’s mega-mergers were completed, the combined market capitalisation of ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP was around $700bn – nearly two-thirds of the global sector’s total. These days, the supermajors […]

Pdvsa cuts payment time for foreign clients

Venezuelan state-run oil firm Pdvsa’s Marketing and Supply Division issued a communique announcing it cut the time foreign clients are given to pay for oil from 30 days to eight day, in order to protect Venezuelan interests in the world hydrocarbons markets. “A number of companies use this eight-day payment period to consolidate the benefits […]

Gunmen attack ships near Nigerian oil/gas complex

LAGOS, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Unknown gunmen attacked four oil service ships on the channel leading to Nigeria’s largest oil and gas export complex on Bonny Island on Wednesday, oil company security sources said. Two people were injured, but none of the vessels were boarded, the sources said. Bonny Island is the export point for […]

World Bank: Oil prices to fall gradually

SINGAPORE – Oil prices are likely to decline gradually this year and next as record crude prices weaken demand, the World Bank projected Wednesday. “If you look at the fundamentals, there is scope for lower oil prices,” said Hans Timmer, co-author of the bank’s annual “Global Economic Prospects” report, at its launch in Singapore. “We […]

Iran Minister Expects Oil Price `Well Beyond’ $100, IRNA Says

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) — Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said he expects oil prices to go “well beyond” $100 a barrel, the state-run news service IRNA reported. The oil market is well supplied, Nozari said in Tehran today, blaming fluctuating prices on the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, speculators and “climatic conditions,” IRNA reported. Iran […]

Fighting Inflation, China Freezes Energy Prices

BEIJING The edict also called for stabilizing prices on medical services and for certain agricultural fertilizers. It ordered local governments to monitor prices closely and warned that punishments would be strengthened for those who violate government price-control policies. Ben Simpfendorfer, an economist with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong, said the announcement underscored […]

A quantitative assessment of future net oil exports by the top 5 oil exporters

There is increasing concern worldwide about global oil supplies, especially in the context of a global oil production peak. However, what really matters to oil importing countries is world net oil export capacity, and we are deeply concerned that the top five net oil exporting countries, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Norway, Iran and the UAE (United […]

Nigerian oil refineries to restart after 2 years

LAGOS, Jan 9 (Reuters) – A pipeline carrying crude oil to two Nigerian refineries has been fixed two years after it was blown up by militants and the plants will restart by the end of January, a state oil company official said on Wednesday. The resumption of the Warri and Kaduna refineries, with a combined […]

Systemic Risk, Energy, and the Financial Markets: 15 Things to Watch for in 2008

At this time of year, we read many financial forecasts for the year ahead. Nearly all of these are written with the “filter” assumption of infinite growth. “Oil production problems are a temporary issue; after a short dip, the economy is likely to continue growing rapidly again. We may have a short recession, but we […]

Richard Heinberg on The Reality Report

The Reality Report hosts Richard Heinberg, faculty member of New College of California, fellow of Post Carbon Institute, author of the books The Party’s Over, Powerdown, The Oil Depletion Protocol, and most recently Peak Everything. This program covers many of the topics in his latest book, which more than others considers the social implications of […]

ANALYSIS – China set for 400,000-bpd oil refinery output rise

BEIJING, Jan 9 (Reuters) – China’s top oil refineries and major new plants will supply an additional 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of fuel to the world’s second-biggest consumer this year, more than double last year’s rise, a Reuters survey found. While that growth is nearly equal to the forecast increase in demand, China may […]

OPEC’s Ability to Tame Oil Prices Is Limited

OPEC’s ability to tame oil prices that hit a record high above $100 a barrel last week is curbed by limited unused production capacity, officials from the exporter group and analysts say. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries says it holds around 3 million barrels per day of production in reserve. Since many members […]

Norwegian oil output falls to 2.209 mln barrels a day in December

OSLO (Thomson Financial) – The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Wednesday that Norway’s oil output in December dropped to a preliminary 2.209 mln barrels per day on average compared with 2.212 mln in November. …It gave no reasons for the decline in the December number. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate in December said that crude oil […]

Statoil forecasts energy production gain

Norway’s state-controlled oil company StatoilHydro ASA on Wednesday said it expects oil and natural gas production to increase 16 percent by 2012 after declining in recent years. StatoilHydro also announced an agreement to sell its subsidiary IS Partner AS to the Norwegian group EDB Business Partner ASA for nearly 1.2 billion kroner ($223 million) as […]

Tough to pump more oil, even at $100

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil at $100 a barrel should give exporters every incentive to pump more, but their difficulty in doing so shows the world is struggling to sustain production. A growing number of leading industry figures — the CEOs of Total and ConocoPhillips among them — now question mainstream forecasts for supply, suggesting the […]

Gloom spreads to easyJet as clouds roll in for holidaymakers

Shares in easyJet, the British budget airline, plunged almost 14 per cent yesterday as the slowdown in consumer spending spread to the travel sector, casting doubt on the company …EasyJet said in November that it was targeting a 20 per cent increase in profits for the 12 months to December 31. In the past full […]

Transport emissions study ‘misleading’ say experts

Experts are calling “misleading” a study which suggests that emissions from the shipping industry cool the world and will continue to do so for centuries. The study was published in a leading scientific journal on Monday. “The conclusions may be misleading to policymakers if they take this paper to be an assessment of the future […]

Biofuels and banquets put pressure on stocks of palm oil

The Malaysian Government has been forced to release emergency stocks of palm oil to break a wave of panic-buying after cooking oil prices soared. The crisis has prompted palm oil rationing in a country that is one of the world Inventories are already low: the ethnic diversity of Malaysia means that Christmas, the Islamic festival […]

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