Australia to take control of oil stocks

CANBERRA, Australia: Australia’s government is ready to take emergency control over the nation’s oil stocks to meet energy shortages in a mining boom state caused by an explosion at a natural gas plant, the prime minister said Wednesday. Western Australia state, a major exporter of iron ore and natural gas, lost 30 percent of its […]

Solar power costs to be competitive by 2015-study

The costs of making electricity with solar power within a decade will reach parity with power made with fossil fuels like natural gas and coal, a study announced on Tuesday by supporters of renewable and solar energy says. “As solar prices decline and the capital and fuel costs for coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants […]

Finland looks for sharp increase in wind power

Finnish utilities, including Fortum, said on Tuesday they have started two different projects, planning to increase the Nordic country’s wind power production up to 30-fold in coming years. Fortum said it had reserved two offshore areas in northwestern Finland for wind power plants, with total capacity seen at 1,150 to 1,300 MW.Separately, two regional unitlies […]

China to raise fees on coal mining: report

China will raise fees on using coal mines across the country in a bid to save energy by curbing wasteful mining, state media reported on Wednesday. “We will soon charge resource utilisation fees in the whole coal mining sector to achieve our energy-saving goal,” the China Daily said, citing Vice Finance Minister Zhang Shaochun.The government […]

June is Bustin’ Oil All Over

According to Rep Peter DeFazio (D-Or), the entity that owns the most oil in the United States right now is not ExxonMobil or Chevron or Valero: it’s Morgan Stanley. So what’s Morgan Stanley doing with all that oil? Speculating on the petrofraud bonanza. The short-sightedness of this utterly stupid investment pattern are many: 1. The […]

How to cut the price of oil

Can the world do anything No guarantees, but such actions may ease the price pressures that pushed oil to a record $139 a barrel earlier this month. Energy costs have become a driving force of inflation besetting US and global consumers. Policymakers don’t have a magic wand to wave. The long-term challenge will remain: Demand […]

Senators jab OPEC over high oil prices

WASHINGTON: Eleven senators called on the Bush administration Tuesday to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization against eight members of the OPEC cartel, saying they are violating trade rules by colluding to hold down global oil supplies. The senators, ten Democrats and one independent, maintained “the very existence of OPEC” violates the GATT […]

Have U.S. Drivers Reached Filling Point of No Return?

It took some time, but Americans are responding to rising energy costs by driving smaller cars and cutting back on miles they log on the road. But why now, with gasoline fetching $4 a gallon, instead of a year ago, when it pushed past $3, or in 2004, when it pierced $2? Energy prices have […]

Myth-makers caught short in oil speculation

BRUSSELS – As in military science there is the danger of “fighting the last war”, so in economic science there is the danger of puncturing the last bubble. This is especially hazardous when what one has is not, in fact, a bubble. Then, the myths of such a bubble are what need puncturing. So it […]

U.S. Airlines May Lose Up to $13 Billion This Year

(Bloomberg) — U.S. airlines may lose as much as $13 billion in 2008 as surging fuel prices outpace fare increases, the chief of the Air Transport Association told a Senate committee. This year’s financial results will be “on par” with the industry’s worst ever as carriers’ combined fuel costs reach $61 billion, ATA Chief Executive […]

Record-high corn prices slow ethanol expansion

Record-high corn prices, among other market conditions, have ethanol producers slowing expansion and analysts crunching numbers to find the industry’s break-even point. On Monday — the eighth consecutive day that corn prices set a record — major ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp. said it will delay starting two nearly complete ethanol plants “until ethanol market […]

China And Mideast Expand Ties As Oil, Oil Money Seek Homes

Mideast oil producers are cash-flush with crude over $130 a barrel. That huge pool of liquidity is increasingly flowing to the world’s fastest-growing economy: China. Some say that could lead to a big shift in global financial power. In the last year, bankers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations have […]

Mexican Standoff: a New Threat to Oil

AY, CARAMBA! OUR PETROLEUM AND NATURAL-GAS supply pains could get a lot sharper, owing to both the growing potential for political instability in Mexico, which is waging war against powerful, home-grown drug cartels, and to soaring levels of political inanity in the U.S. Mexico? Believe it or not, our No. 1 source of illegal immigrants […]

AFRI(OIL)COM

The number of Americans who believe that the war in Iraq was a mistake has surpassed the number who felt the same way about Vietnam during that war. At the same time, a much quieter U.S. military build-up is underway on another continent. The ultimate objective of the two efforts is the same: securing Big […]

World crude production has peaked: Pickens

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – World crude oil production has topped out at 85 million barrels per day even as demand keeps climbing, helping to drive a stunning surge in prices, billionaire oil investor T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday. “I do believe you have peaked out at 85 million barrels a day globally,” Pickens, who heads […]

While The Candidates Spar On Policy Points, Rome Is Ready To Burn

There is still an air of unreality in the economic debate that is increasingly dominating the election. For one thing, it is still “AAU” (All About Us), as if what happens in the US economy in a globalized world is somehow separate and disconnected to what happens to people “out there.” It is as if […]

Escalating Delinquencies in RE Taxes … Next Housing Bubble Unwinding

I It will be interesting to see a few weeks down the road how many households were late (or delinquent) in meeting this critical deadline. … I would be hard pressed to cite ONE local (or regional) governmental or quasi-governmental entity that isn

Reliance to Raise Crude Oil Imports From Saudi Arabia

(Bloomberg) — Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s biggest company, is increasing crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia as it seeks to secure supplies because of rising demand for fuels in India and the rest of Asia. Reliance, based in Mumbai, is boosting purchases by at least 90,000 barrels a day, accounting for 30 percent of Saudi […]

When Gas Stations Run Out of Gas

Consumers aren’t the only ones getting squeezed at the pump. Many gas station owners can’t afford to buy gas either Don’t be surprised to see more filling stations with empty pumps. But don’t panic either. There isn’t a gasoline shortage like there was in the 1970s. What’s happening is that filling stations have had their […]

CNN: Economist Predicts ‘Game Over’ Because of Rising Oil Costs

…Senior business correspondent and program host Ali Velshi, along with CNN Why was Leeb so pessimistic? He said if oil prices continue to rise, they increase the cost of finding and refining new oil too. Speaking of costs to develop a Petrobas owned oil reserve discovered off of Brazil, Leeb suggested that development costs for […]

Rising cost of food devastates Haiti. Some reduced to eating dirt

The food crisis that has triggered protests and violence around the world in the past fewe months has devastated impoverished Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Angry crowds smashed shop windows and ramapaged through the streets in several Haitian cities in April, leaving six people dead and prompting the resignation of the Caribbean […]

Fuel strike: Protests spread across the globe

Protests against rising fuel prices crippled parts of Europe and spread to Asia and South America yesterday with lorry drivers threatening more militant action if governments did not help to ease the burden of rising costs. French drivers blocked roads in a day of action organised by the main haulage associations. From Calais to Marseilles, […]

Status Quo-oh (Kunstler)

A catastrophe for Iowa farmers will not be just a catastrophe for Midwestern Americans. In the Iowa floods, we’ll see more evidence of how the problems of weird weather (climate change) combine and ramify the problems associated with peak oil. In this particular case they lead to an inflection point sometime around the 2008 harvest […]

Airlines to Congress: Do something about oil

U.S. airlines are calling on Congress to take action as soaring oil prices push jet-fuel costs to levels that are pushing the industry toward financial ruin. Reuters writes that the industry today is expected to “call for urgent congressional action to stem what they believe is excessive speculative trading in oil markets. The focus on […]

Supply of Hybrids Lagging Demand

Just as hybrids are in strong demand, sales are flat because they aren’t available. Manufacturers weren’t prepared for the fast turn-around in consumer purchasing behavior. Conventional small car sales soared last month, but hybrid sales were flat or down – not because people don’t want them, but because dealers had few left. SustainableBusiness

Ford to idle Michigan SUV plant for nine weeks

Ford Motor Co plans to close a Michigan plant that builds large sport utility vehicles for nine weeks as demand for the vehicles has declined amid record high U.S. gas prices. The Michigan Truck plant in Wayne, Michigan, which makes the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition, will be idled starting Monday until August 25, Ford […]

China a net importer of gasoline for the first time in May

China became a net importer of gasoline for the first time in May as the cap on oil product prices discouraged refiners from processing increasingly expensive crude oil and the summer harvest and preparations for the August Beijing Olympic Games increased gasoline demand. China imported 338,572 tons of gasoline in May and exported 160,000 tons, […]

$80bn plan to raise oil output

Saudi Arabia is planning to invest $80 billion in increasing its oil output to 12.5 million barrels per day and expanding its refining capacity by 43 percent to six million bpd within the next few years, according to an economic report unveiled yesterday. The report, which was issued by the Federation of GCC Chambers of […]

Refining shortage cause of high oil price: UAE

High oil prices are due to a shortage of refining capacity in industrialized nations, the United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli said in remarks published on Tuesday. “There are not enough refineries to meet growing demand,” Hamli told the Gulf News daily. “A shortage of refineries is one of the main reasons behind the […]

Kuwait Says Oil Over $100 Is Too High; Support Saudis

Kuwait followed Saudi Arabia in saying crude oil prices are too high as evidence mounts that energy costs are restraining growth and accelerating inflation. “I think it’s high,” Kuwait Finance Minister Mustafa Al- Shimali said in an interview in Isfahan, Iran, today. A reasonable oil price would be “more or less $100,” he said. Crude […]

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