Big cars rule Gulf roads amid record oil prices

DUBAI (Reuters) – Luxury sports cars, gas-guzzling SUVs, even tank-like Hummers all jostle for space on Gulf highways, their owners buoyed by record oil prices that have forced some motorists to ditch cars for bicycles in the West. Not only has government-subsidized gasoline prevented motorists in the Gulf Arab region from feeling the pinch at […]

Lofty oil could lead to more-resilient economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The wrenching adjustments U.S. consumers and businesses have begun to make to cope with sky-high energy costs mark the start of a painful process that should lead to a more energy-efficient, resilient economy. The relentless oil-price surge has pushed the cost of gasoline to record heights as well. Over the past year, […]

Democrats Say Oil Companies Should Lose Leases They Don’t Use

June 21 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp. and other oil companies should be forced to give up any offshore leases they aren’t using and not be awarded new leases, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall said today. The Democratic congressman, whose district includes coal- mining areas of West Virginia, accused the oil companies of […]

Why Is Oil So High? Pick a View

People who have spent their careers tracking the ups and downs of the global oil markets say their compasses are spinning. Oil prices rise for reasons they cannot quite fathom, and where prices will be a year from now has become, literally, anybody

Saudi pumping extra oil to meet demand: Saudi source

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia has decided to increase oil supply to meet demand from customers, a Saudi oil source said on Saturday. Saudi Arabia will raise output to 9.7 million barrels per day in July, the fastest daily rate in decades. “We increased because they (our customers) asked […]

Fuel costs sending immigrants back to Mexico

…But high gas prices are forcing contractors and day laborers to change how they do business, which is causing a ripple effect in other areas. Construction projects and landscaping jobs are being delayed because contractors can “Your car is your job; nothing is more true these days,” said Warren Harris, human services coordinator for the […]

Drilling for profit in all the wrong places

John McCain and Bush are calling for a grand solution to our energy woes: tapping the billions of gallons of crude that lie off our coasts and in our wilderness areas. Less obvious is just how easily the oil can be extracted, refined, and brought to market–here. Some of the reserves on the Continental Shelf […]

FACTBOX – Comments ahead of emergency oil talks in Jeddah

(Reuters) – The world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, convenes an emergency meeting of producers, consumers and big oil executives on June 22 to seek a solution to soaring crude prices. Producers and consumers have long blamed each other, but the Saudi cabinet, chaired by King Abdullah, issued instructions two weeks ago to bring them […]

Big Oil’s slick no-bid contracts will keep us mired in Iraq

Didn’t you just know this was coming? A consortium of Western oil companies The American public has been reassured, repeatedly, that petroleum had absolutely nothing to do with the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq. President Bush, the oilman from Texas, has scoffed at the idea. So has Vice President Dick Cheney. … The war […]

U.S. Energy Secretary says more oil needed to tame price

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Producers must pump more to ease the pain felt in the United States and elsewhere from record fuel prices, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Saturday. “Anything that will add supply to the market is important,” he said. … Bodman said prices would soar higher if more oil was […]

Peak Oil Media: Hirsch, Simmons, House Dem(s?) on Nationalizing Refineries, Klar

Bob Hirsch talking “Worst Case Scenarios” for Oil…as in $500/bbl in the next few years…with increasing uncertainty/volatility (yes, that’s right, oil could snap back down to $100/bbl, but then snap back up even higher again in a few months…without even considering geopolitics and other “above ground factors,” which of course we must.) More under the […]

Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe

An English industry insider says we’ve grossly underestimated our reserves. Could he be right? Ask him about oil, and Dr. Richard Pike has a rather sunny outlook. Oil and gas, he says confidently, will be around well into the next century. Pike can maintain his optimism because he knows something no one else knows. He […]

Primer: Peak Oil

…It’s no wonder, then, that passions can run high in the peak oil debate, sometimes to a pitch that makes it a challenge to bring rival camps to share a stage. That’s where a cyber soapbox comes in handy. Here we present two opposing views from long-sparring rivals. Matthew Simmons, who leads an independent, Houston-based […]

Michael Klare interview on Financial Sense Newshour

Michael T. Klare, Five College Professor of Peace & World Security Studies, Hampshire College, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. About 45 minutes. Financial Sense Newshour (audio)

Nigeria loses 120,000 bpd after pipeline attack: industry

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian militants blew up a key oil supply pipeline operated by US oil group Chevron, slashing output by 120,000 barrels per day, military and industry sources said Saturday. “The attack took place yesterday (Friday) near Escravos. The supply pipeline was blown up. The company has shut down operation in the area,” military […]

Europe split over oil price plan

European Union leaders have agreed to a 3-month study to find ways of cushioning the impact of soaring energy prices on the region’s citizens. At an energy summit in Brussels, ministers discussed plans to ease the pain of record oil and gas prices on consumers and companies.They asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to report back […]

Mozambique: Preferred Crops for Biofuels

A preliminary study on biofuel production in Mozambique has suggested that the most appropriate crops to use would be sunflower, sugar cane and sweet sorghum, reports Friday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”. According to Edward Hoyt, a consultant for the company Ecoenergy, charged with drawing up the study, which will be used by the […]

US flooding ruins crops and threatens global food prices

The floods, which began at the end of May, have killed 24 people and caused damage estimated at billions of dollars. They have also dashed hopes of a bumper harvest in the Midwest. Donnie Miller, who has farmed in Iowa for three decades, said he had never known such a disastrous year. Ever since the […]

China fuel hike shakes up markets

International oil prices fell, shares of Chinese petroleum-related companies jumped and many of the country’s motorists rushed to fill up their tanks after Beijing’s unexpectedly early decision on Thursday night to raise petrol and diesel prices by upwards of almost 17%. More price hikes may follow in the next six to nine months as the […]

India tiptoes to the new Middle East

China currently imports 40% to 50% of the oil it consumes, out of which close to 60% comes from the Middle East. The dependence is expected to rise to 70% by 2015. “Therefore,” as Professor Weiming Zhao of the Middle East Studies Institute of the Shanghai International Studies University recently wrote, “China has a significant […]

Sri Lanka threatens to nationalise Indian Oil over price spat

Sri Lanka has threatened to nationalise the local unit of Indian Oil unless it reduces the retail price of diesel, local officials said. Petroleum Minister A.H.M. Fowzie said the government will take over the 160 fuel retail depots operated by Lanka IOC, the local subsidiary of India’s state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), unless it makes […]

Coming soon: solar-powered soldiers

Army uniforms could be fitted with solar panels to allow soldiers to generate power in the field and charge batteries for radios, phones and laptops under a project being funded by the Defence Force. The panels, being developed by researchers at the Australian National University, rely on thin, flexible elongated solar cells and could potentially […]

UK: Wind power to drive green revolution

Until a few months ago it was thought impossible for Britain to approach generating 15% of its energy from renewables by 2020 as required by the EU. But next week the government will lay out an ambitious blueprint for what it says is an achievable energy revolution. It will affect everyone in Britain and raise […]

Wind Turbine Industry Steps Up to Global Demand

Emerging Energy Research (EER), a research and advisory firm analyzing clean and renewable energy markets, expects the global installed wind base to grow more than fivefold from its 2007 total of 94 GW to more than 576 GW by 2020. Rapid growth is expected in the U.S. and China. As a result of this booming […]

Will $45 trillion save us?

Investing one percent of the worldIEET

Iran sees higher crude price in coming days -report

A senior Iranian oil official said he expected crude prices to rise in coming days with the approach of summer, a newspaper reported on Saturday. “In coming days we will witness another increase in oil prices,” Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, a senior oil official, told Tehran-e Emrooz daily. Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said on Friday […]

Top US Oil Suppliers Struggling With Output

As the focus of the global economy tilts toward oil-price talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend, consider a chilling set of numbers that speak to why oil prices are near $140 a barrel. Oil output in four of the top five suppliers to the U.S. – the world’s biggest oil consumer – dropped by nearly […]

Prime Minister Putin Primes the Pump

On June 11, the International Energy Agency announced that Russia’s oil production had hit 9.5 million barrels per day in the first quarter, edging past Saudi Arabia’s 9.2 million to make the country the global King of Crude. But few in Russia are cheering because that new crown is already wobbling. After climbing for years, […]

Royal Dutch Shell confirms Iraq talks

Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Friday confirmed it’s in contract negotiations to boost Iraq’s petroleum output, after reports that the western oil giants are close to resuming a major role in the war-torn country for the first time in 36 years. The oil majors as well as a host of smaller companies are in talks […]

The aviation crisis: time to tear up the old rules

The high price of oil is changing everything – for airlines and for their passengers. In 2002, a barrel of oil was US$25. And the total industry fuel bill was $40 billion. In that same year, the world’s airlines lost $11.3 billion. To recover, enormous changes followed. Fuel efficiency improved 19%. Sales and marketing unit […]

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