Price of Oil Doesn

Houston investment banker Matt Simmons likes to say about oil, But at least the black liquid has lately been trading within a defined range. Earlier in the spring and summer of 2007, oil steadily ran up from below $55 to over $90. Why? Demand from the developing world has been increasing, of course. And there […]

The machine gun of capitalism

Dead soldiers, peak oil and mind-boggling profits; praise Jesus, the machine’s still working Surprisingly moving Barack Obama music videos? The potential end of the writer’s strike? Cute young deer being saved by helicopters? No no no no no. Here are your most deeply inspiring news stories of the month: A flurry of pink slips fluttered […]

A black-and-white issue

A confrontation between big oil and environmentalists opens today in Alaska when America invites bids for millions of acres of polar bear habitat in the Chukchi Sea, where 15 billion barrels of crude oil lie waiting to be tapped. Bidding will get under way days before a ruling on whether the animal, the poster child […]

The state holds the key to driving up electric car use

Cars are still the fastest rising cause of UK greenhouse gas emissions – producing 38m tonnes a year – and look set to increase their lead as road traffic continues to grow by 2% a year. Yet there is no policy in place to get cars off the road to contain or reverse the trend. […]

Gasoline could drop 50 cents/gallon by spring

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. drivers could enjoy a drop of up to 50 cents per gallon in gasoline prices by this spring as high fuel prices and the threat of a recession force them to conserve, experts said on Wednesday. U.S. gasoline supplies hit a near-14-year high of 227.5 million barrels last week, helped […]

UAF speaker says renewable electricity is key in gloomy oil scenario

Doom, gloom and murderous biker gangs killing and pillaging their way down mostly deserted highways is what awaits a world without oil, at least according to the first memorable post-apocalypse movie,

Gulf to become major fertiliser producer

The UAE and other Gulf states are expected to pump billions of dollars in the next few years into expanding their fertilisers industry to face an upswing in global demand as a result of agricultural expansion, according to an official study. The combined capital invested by the GCC states in fertilisers until the end of […]

Wind farms need techs to keep running

Critics of wind power have called the mammoth turbines eyesores and environmentalists have fought against them, warning the giant rotors could pose a hazard to migratory birds and other wildlife. But wind power officials see a much larger obstacle coming in the form of its own work force, a highly specialized group of technicians that […]

Declining coal reserves add to energy supply worries

In mid-2000, Australian thermal coal bound for the Asian market — mostly China — was selling for $24.59 a tonne. Last week, it broke $116. Some analysts speculate the price in 2008 might exceed $200. In the Indian business press, there was concern that since China became a net importer of metallurgical coal in 2007, […]

Wager Challenges CERA Oil Supply Prediction

Group bets $100,000 against CERA supply forecast HOUSTON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ — A group of businessmen and energy experts who believe that global oil production will soon peak, plateau and decline has issued a $100,000 wager to Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), a prominent oil forecasting think tank. Members of the challenger group also renewed […]

Cut Fertilizer Rates 75%

Darrel Carlisle thinks he might have the solution to high fertilizer prices. It The result: Continued high yields of wheat, barley and canola and much lower fertilizer costs, says Carlisle, who spoke at the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Tillage Conference in Minot, N.D. Carlisle says he has cut his fertilizer rates 75% and not seen a […]

World Demand Huge Factor in Soaring Fertilizer Costs

Nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer prices are expected to keep climbing in 2008. Several factors are contributing to this change, says Gary Hergert, University of Nebraska-Lincoln soils specialist says. Increases in fertilizer prices often are blamed on natural gas prices because natural gas accounts for 80 to 90% of the cost of producing anhydrous ammonia, the […]

Oil resources at stake in Chad conflict

Underlying the Chad conflict is a struggle to control the country’s oil resources, which while not extensive are nonetheless vital to the future of one of Africa’s most impoverished nations. “Oil plays an important role” in the current struggle between forces loyal to Chadian President Idriss Deby and rebels determined to drive him from power, […]

Are we there yet Pa? Nine Billion Little Feet on the Highway of the Damned

…Population growth is the rhino in the playpen, the root cause of our approaching eco-disaster that that no one honestly talks about. On the left we get an onslaught of information about what we must and must not do to prevent climate change. Good Democrats get Al Gore Most of the developed world remains clueless […]

Utilities Turn From Coal to Gas, Raising Risk of Price Increase

WASHINGTON But North American supplies of natural gas will be flat or declining in coming years, according to the Energy Information Administration. The United States already has high natural gas prices, a problem for homeowners and many industries, like chemical and fertilizer producers. Some experts fear a boom in gas demand for electricity generation will […]

Shell confirms force majeure on some Nigeria exports

LONDON/ABUJA (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell confirmed on Wednesday it has declared a force majeure on exports from Nigeria’s Bonny Light oil terminal due to security concerns. “From Feb. 7, we are declaring a force majeure on Bonny Light exports,” a spokesman said. “This is due to the inability to progress with repairs to a […]

Gas line operated by Charleston office explodes in Tennessee

A massive fire erupted in Tennessee on a pipeline operated from Charleston that brings natural gas from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the Kentucky-West Virginia border. The fire erupted Tuesday night at the Columbia Gulf Pipeline System’s pumping station near Hartsville, Tenn. Hartsville is about 40 miles northeast of Nashville and about 370 miles southwest […]

Canada: Freezing in the dark

Canada needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR). Canada needs Strategic Petroleum Reserves The International Energy Agency (IEA), of which Canada is a founding member, requires member countries that are net importers to maintain emergency oil reserves of 90 days of net imports. It does not require this of net exporters, as exporters are sensibly assumed to […]

Why the Saudis aren’t lifting a finger to ease oil prices

Their break from past oil policy is significant. Norfolk and Arlington, VA. – Here’s one of the most important puzzles of global oil security: Since the late 1970s, Saudi Arabia has pumped the market with oil, fearing that high prices could hurt global growth, reduce demand for Saudi oil, and anger its protector, Uncle Sam. […]

Protesters block Mexico onshore oil wells – Pemex

MEXICO CITY, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Protesters are blocking onshore oil wells and crude installations in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco, causing lost crude production, the state oil company Pemex said on Tuesday. It was not clear how much production was being lost by the protests, which were called by a former presidential candidate […]

Frozen Tajikistan appeals for aid in winter crisis

DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Tajikistan, paralyzed by the coldest winter in decades, asked for emergency international aid on Wednesday to help it survive an energy crisis which has left millions of people without power and heating. The bitter cold — with temperatures plunging to -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) across the impoverished nation — caught the […]

Uzbekistan suspends electric power supplies to Tajikistan

DUSHANBE, February 6 (Itar-Tass) – Uzbekistan has suspended electric power supplies to neighbouring Tajikistan that is experiencing global energy crisis, the deputy head of the Tajik state-run electricity provider Barki Tojik, Rashid Gulov, said on Wednesday. This is a short-term suspension caused by Uzbekistan At the request of the Tajik government and President Emomali Rakhmon […]

World oil supply may have already peaked

Is world oil production peaking? Quite possibly, says Lester Brown from the Earth Policy Institute. Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show a pronounced loss of momentum in the growth of oil production during the last few years. After climbing from 82.90 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2004 to 84.15 mb/d in 2005, […]

Canada’s National Energy Board lives in Fantasyland

IN 1980, furious Albertans slapped bumper stickers on their cars stating “Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark” to protest Ottawa’s “Canada First” National Energy Program. Every federal government since has ceded national energy policy to the provinces and, by proxy, to the North American marketplace. This appalling abdication of leadership leaves Canada completely […]

Exxon’s Sakhalin output to fall sharply in 2008

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil’s (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin-1 project will cut oil output sharply this year, a project partner said on Wednesday amid a gloomy outlook for Russia’s overall production this year due to stagnation in West Siberia. Sakhalin-1, which reported peak production of 250,000 barrels per day early last year, […]

The world’s rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said. The vast expanse of debris Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about […]

You Ask The Questions: Sir Jonathon Porritt

Judging by your early writing, you used to be a real green radical. Have your beliefs mellowed over the years? I wrote Seeing Green in 1984, before the collapse of Communism, so my political criticism in those days was even-handed If we don’t change our ways, what will happen to the planet? It depends how […]

Nato investigates defence threat from wind farms

Nato has begun an investigation into British findings that wind farms make overflying planes invisible to radar as military chiefs fear a security threat from the rapid spread of the turbines. The US has been attending tests by Britain Renewable energy campaigners have been stung by a spate of last-minute objections from the Ministry of […]

The Future of Transportation – Part I

In 2005, the world entered the The oil market is tightly intertwined with the car market, as both products complement one another to produce the

Don

Bloated with profits and rolling in cash, but it isn’t nearly enough. Oil companies confound our senses with big numbers – BP earned $17 billion ( The alternative to upsetting the staff would be to cut the payout and dismay the shareholders. For an oil company, yield is sacred, a Rubicon that must never be […]

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