The BNP was Right About Peak Oil

Oil at $100 per barrel; predictions of price rises to $115 per barrel by the Spring; serious shortages of aviation fuel; mainstream oil industry commentators openly discussing the increasingly unavoidable geological constraints on production – Peak Oil is moving from disputed theory to accepted (though still downplayed) fact. We are over-crowded. Without immigration the UK […]

Americans driving less, analysts say

What are Americans going to do if the price of gas stays above $3 a gallon Transportation analysts, eyeballing the first shreds of evidence that Americans have begun to drive less, are pushing the envelope to divine the potential implications. “A lot depends on whether this is a trend or a blip,” said Nathan Erlbaum, […]

UK – Wind farms: Blowing money on a fantasy

My electricity company has just sent me a handwringing letter, explaining why, despite its best efforts to keep costs down, my bill is set to soar again this year. The reason – apart from the usual rapacious profits enjoyed by our power suppliers – is a hidden subsidy paid towards the development of wind farms. […]

OPEC oil production increased in January – El-Badri

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – OPEC production has risen in the first month of the year according to the Secretary General of the group, Abdalla El-Badri. OPEC member production, including Iraq which is not included in official production quotas, has risen to 32.1 mln barrels a day from 32 mln barrels. El-Badri said if the market […]

Richard Heinberg’s Museletter: The Great Coal Rush (and Why It Will Fail)

The world appears poised for a headlong sprint toward greater dependence on coal. This book’s purpose is to examine one crucial question that will shape this next great coal rush: How much is left? The answer from conventional wisdom is, Lots. Coal appears to be the most abundant of the conventional fossil fuels, and everyone […]

Minnesota State Legislators Meet To Discuss Oil Reserves Drying Up

Today, state legislators listened to the dire warnings of an energy leader at the Minnesota State Capitol. The world’s oil reserves are drying up according to Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker from Houston who has recently written a book on the subject.Simmons says oil production has already peaked and soon supply won’t be able […]

Unlike the ’70s, energy lessons expected to last

The oil shocks of the 1970s produced a flurry of attention to alternative sources of energy, but it faded once prices dropped in the mid-1980s. Now, with oil prices again high and climate change moving up the list of public concerns, interest in alternative energy is once again at fever pitch. Is history about to […]

U.S. sees Russia, China, OPEC financial threat

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries have a worrisome potential to use their growing financial clout to exert political pressure, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday. U.S. National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell voiced the concern to Congress in his annual assessment of potential security threats to […]

U.S. DOE Budget Allows for Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 1.5 Billion bbl

President George Bush’s release of the $25 billion Department of Energy (DOE) fiscal year 2009 budget includes plans to expand even further the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 1.5 billion barrels. The Office of Fossil Energy received a $1.1 billion portion of budget appropriations. A statement from the DOE stated, “To further protect the nation against […]

Worldwide Peak Oil May Already Be Here – Now What?

Houston recently hosted the 2007 US.-World oil Conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas – USA (ASPO) at the Hilton Americas hotel. The event included four days of presentations and field trips by several hundred participants. Yet, despite the compelling significance of this issue – that the world’s supply of […]

Jeremy Leggett: The great fuel folly

Oil firms’ output is down, yet profits skyrocket. It all points to the crisis predicted by the peakists Records tumble as the oil majors release their annual results. The most profit made by a European company: Shell’s $27bn. The most profit made by any company ever: ExxonMobil’s $40bn. Amid the noise about capital allocation and […]

Iraq accuses Iran of stealing oil

The Iraqi Oil Ministry has accused Iran of stealing oil from a shared field under their common border. Iraq also accuses Tehran of illegally seizing and capping off wells in a second field that Iraq claims lies entirely within its territory. The two adjacent oil fields, Abu Gharb – which Iraq claims in its entirety […]

Lent fast to cut carbon emissions

Two senior bishops are urging people to cut back on carbon for Lent instead of the conventional chocolate or alcohol. The Bishops of London and Liverpool, Dr Richard Chartres and James Jones, are launching the Carbon Fast at Trafalgar Square with aid agency Tearfund. They hope to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint for […]

Society depends on more for less

To address the climate challenge we need to reduce the carbon content of our energy by at least half. But at the same time we must learn to generate a unit of GDP for about half the energy which we use at present. Energy efficiency and carbon content of energy are equally important, but they […]

BP annual profits fall by a fifth

The oil giant BP has reported a big fall in profits at the end of a tough year for the company. The firm saw replacement cost profits reach $17.29bn ( Despite the rising price of oil, the money BP makes from refining has been squeezed and two of its US refineries have seen output reduced. […]

South Africa: Power Crisis Fires Up Platinum, Coal Prices

SA’s electricity supply crisis is playing itself out on global markets, with the prices of platinum, palladium and coal hit ting record levels yesterday on fears that Eskom’s power cuts to mines would disrupt supplies. Platinum roared to a record high yesterday, with an analyst saying it could breach $2000/oz, while palladium hit a six-year […]

Soaring cost of artificial fertiliser to hit the farming industry

Problems have been blamed on many factors – the closure of phosphate mines in Russia; growing demand from biofuel farmers and use of former set-aside land; the rising price of oil; even cynical stockpiling by fertiliser companies. Advice from suppliers is to order now because it will be distributed on a first come-first served basis. […]

Biofuels make little environmental difference

New research from Australia and the OECD shows the benefits of biofuels in reducing greenhouse gas emissions are insignificant, at only one to four per cent. A new Federal Parliamentary report shows there’s also no economic case for mandating the level of ethanol in fuel.OECD trade and agriculture analyst, Martin von Lampe, says with global […]

Record Financing For Biofuels, Not Food

Biofuels have quickly turned from environmental saviour to just another mega-scale get-rich quick scheme. Countries and regions without their own oil reserves to tap now see their farms, peatlands and forests as potential “oil fields” — shallow but renewable lakes of green oil. However, renewable does not mean sustainable, and in most cases the only […]

Mexico to issue permits for biofuel production

Mexico said on Monday it will issue permits to companies for the first time to produce biofuels in a bid to cut emissions from cars and boost incomes for impoverished farmers. The energy ministry said in a statement that companies will be allowed to produce ethanol and biodiesel, which can be used as additives in […]

Shell’s Van Der Veer Gets Refreshingly Honest

So Who says Peak Oil is not about to become a reality? It must be true; Shell’s biggest cheese, Jeroen van der Veer, effectively says so. In an e-letter to staff that must surely be splattered right across the Big Oil community by now, and be doing the rounds of NOCs (national oil corporations), Shell’s […]

As Oil Majors Chime In, the Reality of Peak Oil Lurches Closer

One by one, the world’s oil companies are coming out of the closet. For years operating under the assumption and public assertion that world oil supplies were plentiful and would be for years to come, now many of the world’s most powerful and well known oil giants are talking about scarcity or, even, the dreaded […]

Why the Corporate Rich Oppose Environmentalism

In 1876, Marx’s collaborator, Frederich Engels, offered a prophetic caveat: “Let us not . . . flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us. . . . At every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a […]

Stay the Course

…Oil prices are down slightly on the theory that the US economy is slowing and there will be demand destruction. Recent trade statistics show we are importing more of it and paying a higher price for it. People will not stop driving to work. The point to remember about oil is that it is priced […]

Fragile Dollar Hegemony: Iran’s Oil Bourse could Topple the Dollar

…So, how important is it that oil continue to be denominated in dollars? Would the United States wage war to defend the dollar’s status as the world’s The petrodollar system is no different than the gold standard. Today’s currency is simply underwritten by the one vital source of energy upon which every industrialized society depends—oil. […]

Ice Melt Accelerates Around the World

With atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at new record highs and global average temperature now some 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the frozen regions of the earth are showing us just how rapidly climate change can take effect. Recent years have seen ice melt accelerate and spread to new, previously unaffected regions. In many areas, […]

Amazon forest still a global warming mystery

Scientists working to determine if it is a net carbon emitter or ’sink’ The project

Climate set for ’sudden shifts’

Many of Earth’s climate systems will undergo a series of sudden shifts this century as a result of human-induced climate change, a study suggests. A number of these shifts could occur this century, say the report’s authors. They argue that society should not be lulled into a false sense of security by the idea that […]

ASPO Newsletter – February 2008

1001. Oil Price 1002. BrasilASPO-Ireland (PDF)

Kunstler: Serial Bubbles?

Eric Janszen of iTuilip.com has made a splash in the mainstream media with his Harper’s Magazine cover story on the “The Next Bubble.” His thesis is that a new tidal wave of investment will shortly roll toward “infrastructure and alternative energy.” By this Janszen means a revived nuclear power push, refurbishing highways, bridges, and tunnels, […]

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