Ford CEO says shift to small cars here to stay

Americans’ switch to buying smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles is permanent, not a temporary shunning of big SUVs while they wait for record fuel prices to drop, Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally says. Mulally says the stampede is a “structural change” and if, as Ford predicts, fuel prices stay up, “That shift to small and medium-size […]

Bush administration: Domestic sources of energy are off limits

BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — A new report from the Bush administration says most of the oil and more than 40 percent of the natural gas beneath public lands in the United States are off limits to drilling. Opening those reserves would give energy companies access to an estimated 19 billion barrels of oil and 95 […]

Soros warns of oil bubble

Billionaire investor George Soros is to tell US lawmakers on Tuesday that “a bubble in the making” is under way in oil and other commodities and that commodity indices are not a legitimate asset class for institutional investors, according to a report Tuesday in the Financial Times. According to prepared remarks, Soros will tell a […]

Peak Oil Worries

Discussing a report on demand for oil, with Kevin Book, FBR Capital Markets SVP, energy policy, oil/alternative energy and CNBC’s Becky Quick. CNBC (video)

New Zealand: Gearing now for peak oil shock

A movement that “stops the ‘overwhelm’; the feeling ‘but what can I do’? It’s an opportunity for people to come from an individual standpoint and make a difference.” That’s how Normandale resident Juanita McKenzie describes Transition Towns. It’s a model in which community-based initiatives facilitate transition from a globalised, oil-dependent society to a resilient, re-localised […]

GM to close 4 factories, may drop Hummer

Automaker to curtail truck, SUV production amid soaring fuel prices WILMINGTON, Del. – General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles. CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker’s annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be […]

What Goes Up Must Come Down

Just as the El Nino phenomenon is bandied about to explain away any weather disturbance, economic analysts these days impulsively attribute all major trends to the “Chindia” factor. However, the myth has again transcended the truth. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the discussion of oil. China is indeed a trendsetter when it […]

Pickens Says CFTC Probe of Oil a `Waste of Time’

(Bloomberg) — A U.S. probe into whether speculators manipulated oil prices up to more than $135 a barrel is a “waste of time,” billionaire hedge-fund manager Boone Pickens said yesterday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the watchdog for U.S. commodity transactions, said May 29 that it was investigating how much of the gain in oil […]

Norway Oil Rig Managers May Strike at Statoil, Shell Platforms

(Bloomberg) — Norwegian oil rig managers threatened to strike on North Sea platforms owned by StatoilHydro ASA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc this week if talks fail to resolve a dispute over wages and benefits. The Norwegian Organization of Managers and Executives will pull workers from Statoil’s Snorre A platform and Shell’s Draugen A rig […]

Soaring inflation threatens peg to $US

Inflation for states in the Persian Gulf is still rising at breakneck speed, new data signalled yesterday, spurring calls for the gas-exporting emirate of Qatar to stop pegging its currency to the flagging American dollar “Things are not getting better. Action should be taken,” said Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, top economic adviser to the ruling emir, when […]

UN sets out food crisis measures

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged nations to seize an “historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture” as a way of tackling the food crisis. Mr Ban told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome that food production would have to rise by 50% by 2030 to meet demand. Mr Ban said export restrictions and import tariffs ought […]

OECD boss hails high oil prices

The soaring cost of oil is welcome as it sends a clear signal to consumers and firms to curb their use of fuel, the head of the OECD has said. Speaking at the annual meeting of the world’s richest nations, Angel Gurria said it would be “disastrous” if they cut fuel taxes or subsidised prices. […]

Indonesia’s PLN sees coal demand trebling by 2010

Indonesia’s state electricity firm, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), said on Monday it expects its coal consumption to more than treble in the next two years as it works to reduce its reliance on oil. The expected surge in domestic demand from Indonesia, the world’s biggest thermal coal exporter, has worried traders who fear Jakarta […]

World coal shortfall to grow: Arch CEO

The world coal shortfall will last at least two or three years and could reach 70 million tons next year, Arch Coal Inc Chairman and CEO Steve Leer said Monday. “In 2008, we estimate we’re 25 to 35 million tons short across the globe,” Leer told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in Houston. “We see […]

OPEC to Spend $160 Billion to Increase Capacity

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members will invest US$160 billion in oil development projects in the next three years to increase their production capacity by 15% in response to growing demand, the secretary-general of the cartel,Abdalla Salem el Badri, has said. The announcement by Badri came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon […]

Iraq’s oil exports rise

Iraq’s oil production and exports have risen to their highest levels since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Oil Ministry said Monday. The country’s exports reached 2.11 million barrels a day in March while the total output stood at about 2.5 million barrels a day, spokesman Assem Jihad told The Associated Press.The country plans to […]

UK: Oil price rise brings industry boom

As the high oil price makes many of us think twice before we pop to the shops by car, it also makes every barrel of North Sea oil more valuable. In Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe, the oil price is bringing boom times for the oil industry. It’s an ill wind that blows no […]

Santos Predicts Growth in Unconventional Gas Supplies

Unconventional sources of natural gas, such as coal seam and shale, are likely to increase their contribution to supplies of the fuel, said Santos Ltd., Australia’s third-biggest oil and gas producer. These forms of gas make up about a third of the U.S.’s 24.5 trillion cubic feet of annual consumption and will become more important […]

Soaring Living Costs Cloud UN Climate Talks

UN-led climate talks kick off on Monday in Germany with experts trying to forge a global warming pact facing a new challenge from critics who say climate change measures are partly to blame for higher food and energy prices. The meeting is the second of eight which aim to secure a global climate deal by […]

Plant Waste Biofuels Benefit From Food Debate

In a greenhouse on the top floor of the science complex at the University of Guelph in southwestern Ontario, microbiologist Anthony Clarke stands next to rows of corn plants sprouting out of black plastic pots. In them, he sees the future of renewable fuel — but he’s not looking at the corn kernel.“We have all […]

Food Price ”Catastrophe” Feared On Eve Of Summit

Soaring food prices could trigger a global catastrophe and the world’s poor need action, not words, from this week’s UN food security summit, human rights activists and the World Bank said on Monday. The warning came as world leaders arrived in Rome for a global conference to tackle a food crisis that is pushing 100 […]

Has Oil Production Reached a ‘De Facto’ Peak?

Someone please call the English Department to come save the world On the other side, looking at the same graphs, is a group yelling

Bad weather closes 2 main oil export ports in Mexico

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico: Two of Mexico’s main oil export ports were closed by bad weather on Monday and officials across the southeast were evacuating low-lying communities threatened by heavy rains from the remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur. The storm swelled rivers and caused some flooding in Tabasco, a swampy state along the Gulf of Mexico that […]

Heating oil sticker shock to hit New England

PORTLAND, Maine – While people in most of the country may be worried about their summer air conditioning bills, many residents in the Northeast are way beyond that: They’re already thinking ahead to next winter’s heating bills. And what those who heat their houses with oil are seeing is giving them sticker shock. Retail heating […]

India: Steel min seeks gas on a par with fertiliser sector

NEW DELHI: The steel industry has joined the list of sectors that are unhappy with the government

Bolivia grabs control of gas firm

The Bolivian government has continued its nationalisation of key industries – taking full control of a key gas pipeline company. President Evo Morales said Transredes had been seized after the foreign firms which owned half of it failed to agree a share buy-back. Ashmore Energy International and Royal Dutch Shell, which held stakes, have yet […]

Motiva loses power at Port Arthur, Tx refinery

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Motiva Enterprises had a power failure at its 285,000 barrel per day refinery in Port Arthur, Texas Monday morning, traders said. “We hear the whole thing is down,” said one Gulf Coast trader. A company representative was not immediately available for comment.

Gas prices a risk for casual restaurants, Starbucks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Record high U.S. gas prices threaten a new level of pain for casual dining restaurants stuck between value-oriented fast food and high-end eateries whose customers can afford to shrug off the economy’s woes. Shops and restaurants around the United States are reporting fewer visitors in the face of a credit crunch, […]

Bush: Climate bill would raise gasoline prices

Supporters counter that cost of inaction would be even greater WASHINGTON – Playing the gasoline card, the Bush administration on Monday predicted that a climate change bill before lawmakers this week could raise pump prices by as much as 53 cents a gallon by 2030. He also estimated that the bill could cut U.S. economic […]

UK: Government caught out over oil price surge despite warnings

Energy banker Matt Simmons even bet on it in 2005 On May 22, in the UK During the May 22 Commons exchange sparked by a question from Norman Baker, MP for the Lewes constituency, Wicks said:

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