Opinion: Oil is too valuable to drill

NEW ORLEANS — There’s a voice missing from the debate over whether to open up the nation’s offshore oil to drilling. That would be the voice of unborn Americans – not our children or even their children, but children generations from now – assuming the republic lasts that long. Drilling will be an environmental disaster, […]

Four Ways to Fight the

By now, you But whether you believe Peak Oil is true or not, at least nine of the largest 21 oil fields on the planet are in decline. In 2006, a Saudi Aramco spokesman admitted that its mature fields are declining 8% per year. It

Atlantic storm season picks up pace, new hurricane

NASSAU (Reuters) – A busy Atlantic hurricane season moved into top gear on Monday when Hurricane Hanna developed near the Bahamas just as Gustav’s winds and surge lashed New Orleans and the newly formed ninth storm of the year looked set to eventually threaten the United States or Caribbean. The flurry of storms was the […]

Michael Klare: Putin’s Ruthless Gambit

Many Western analysts have chosen to interpret the recent fighting in the Caucasus as the onset of a new Cold War, with a small pro-Western democracy bravely resisting a brutal reincarnation of Stalin’s jack-booted Soviet Union. Others have viewed it a throwback to the age-old ethnic politics of southeastern Europe, with assorted minorities using contemporary […]

Megaprojects Predict Decline of Oil Production

I There is nothing theoretical about megaprojects analysis, only a bunch of best guesses as to actual production from new oil fields measured against estimated near term declines in production from old oil fields and estimated changes in global demand for oil, all by year. Those guesses may be close to the truth or not […]

Louisiana Refiners to Take Days to Resume Full Supply

(Bloomberg) — Louisiana refineries that shut down before Hurricane Gustav may take up to 10 days to resume operations because of a lack of power, stunting fuel output at a time when regional gasoline inventories are at a 10-month low. Marathon Oil Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and other refiners that shut plants as Gustav swept […]

A Growing Global Power Crisis Looks to be Greater Danger Than Oil

How many stories have you seen about high oil and gasoline prices? Now how many have you seen about global electricity shortages? Lost in all the attention oil is receiving, reports from around the world indicate that 100 or more countries may be suffering, many acutely, from shortages of electricity. Given who is in trouble, […]

OPEC Will Cut Output, Defend $100 Oil Price, Pickens Tells CNBC

(Bloomberg) — Oil prices are unlikely to drop below $100 a barrel because OPEC will cut production to support the price, billionaire hedge-fund manager Boone Pickens told CNBC today. “OPEC likes it up here,” Pickens said in a televised interview from the New York Mercantile Exchange. “I think they’ll support it and cut production.” The […]

Dick Cheney to take fight against Russia’s oil dominance to Azerbaijan

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president will arrive in the Caucasus on a mission to prevent Russia from gaining a stranglehold over Central Asia’s vast reserves of energy. As he starts a tour of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, Mr Cheney will try to allay fears that Russia’s campaign in Georgia has fatally damaged a cornerstone of […]

UK makes Atlantic sea bed claim

Britain is to formally present its case to the UN in New York for extending its territorial rights around Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. States have rights over their resources – including oil or gas reserves – up to 200 nautical miles from the shoreline. But the UK wants to extend those rights around […]

Energy alternatives: Electricity without carbon

Electricity generation provides 18,000 terawatt-hours of energy a year, around 40% of humanity’s total energy use. In doing so it produces more than 10 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide every year, the largest sectoral contribution of humanity’s fossil-fuel derived emissions. Yet there is a wide range of technologies The easiest way to cut the carbon released […]

Australia – ‘Big Dry’ turns farms into deserts

In the once-lush fields of South Australia, on land that borders the state’s world famous Lower Lakes, farmer Nigel Treloar rounds up the herd with the help of his off-road motorbike. It is one of the few things that has got easier as a result of Australia’s worst drought in 100 years. That is because […]

It’s a wrap

A month ago I announced I was giving up plastic for the whole of August. My aim was to try to live for a month without buying anything new made from plastic or wrapped in plastic. I was able to keep and use the plastic I already owned but if anything ran out I would […]

Sea level rises could far exceed IPCC estimates

Could our coastlines disappear underwater much sooner than we think? The controversial view that sea levels could rise at a rate of more than 1 metre per century has found support from a new study of a long-melted ice sheet. In reconstructing the events at the end of the last ice age, Anders Carlson of […]

Winter heat crisis looms, little relief seen

High fuel prices and the weak economy could make heating a luxury this winter. And the government’s low-income assistance plan may not suffice. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home heating bills are expected to rise dramatically this winter and there is growing concern that the government program aimed at helping poor families cope with energy costs […]

ASPO Newsletter – September 2008

1077. Spain reacts to Peak Oil 1078. 33rd International Geological Conference 1079. A Fall in Oil Price 1080. A Sense of Direction 1081. The Golden Zone 1082. The Good News 1083. ASPO-USA Conference 1084. Russia Re-evaluated 1085. Estimating Discovery and Reserve GrowthASPO-Ireland (PDF)

Russian Oil Output Fell in August, Continuing Decline

(Bloomberg) — Russia’s oil production declined in August as companies struggled with costs and maturing fields, bringing the world’s second-largest crude exporter closer to its first annual drop in output since 1998. Production fell to 9.82 million barrels of crude a day (41.5 million metric tons a month), 0.9 percent less than a year earlier, […]

Iran calls for control of OPEC oil supply

TEHRAN (Xinhua) — Iran’s Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said here on Tuesday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should control the excess of oil supply to the market, the official IRNA news agency reported. Nozari called for the member states of OPEC to discuss the issue by reconsidering the quota in the […]

Adaptation: The Ultimate Challenge

WWF climate change adaptation expert Kit Vaughan talks about the limits of adaptation, and how climate change will shake the very foundations of our society. A certain amount of climate change is inevitable. How can we adapt to this? That Mankind has met adaptation challenges before. What makes climate change different? Adapting to climate change […]

Gulf Oil Industry Seems Unscathed

HOUSTON From initial reports, the storm appeared to leave production platforms and refineries essentially unharmed, meaning that oil and gas supplies would not be disrupted and prices at the pump may continue to ease in the days ahead. At the least, oil experts said the risk of a sharp price spike appeared to have faded, […]

alternative energy source found in southwest utah

A company is claiming it has found the nation’s biggest geo-thermal find in 25 years in southwest Utah. This weekend they’re already finishing up a power plant to provide electricity for Mickey Mouse’s home town. “We call them ‘heat farms’ because we’re just extracting heat out of the earth,” says Michael Hayter of Raser Technologies. […]

Louisiana Gov asks U.S. government to tap oil stockpile

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday called on the federal government to release emergency crude oil supplies to counteract fuel shortages due to Hurricane Gustav. “We think it is necessary,” Jindal said at a news conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, monitored via local television. “We know we are going to need this […]

Glaciers need closer watch in poor countries: UNEP

GENEVA (Reuters) – Scientists are not paying enough attention to glacial melting in the Andes, the Himalayas and peaks in other developing countries, a United Nations-backed report found on Monday. Experts from the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) said while there has been excellent monitoring of glacial trends in […]

Climate ‘hockey stick’ is revived

A new study by climate scientists behind the controversial 1998 “hockey stick” graph suggests their earlier analysis was broadly correct. Michael Mann’s team analysed data for the last 2,000 years, and concluded that Northern Hemisphere temperatures now are “anomalously warm”. Different analytical methods give the same result, they report in Proceedings of the National Academy […]

Environmentalist Says ”Clean Coal” Technology is a Myth

CHARLESTON – The same day two energy companies announced plans to build West Virginia’s first coal-to-gasoline plant, a spokeswoman for one of the state’s largest environmental groups was trying to convince state lawmakers that coal-to-liquids technology would be a step in the wrong direction. Vickie Wolfe of the West Virginia Environmental Council said coal- to-liquid […]

Gas prices weathering Gustav – so far

Average price of gas nationwide dips slightly on Monday; oil plunges in trading, gas futures also drop; Gustav damage not yet known. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Now that Hurricane Gustav has made landfall, energy analysts say that the fate of gas prices in coming days could hinge on possible damage to the area’s dozens of […]

Alaska pipeline the power poker chip

[…] More important, there is enough gas trapped under the tundra here to help the United States fend off an energy crisis that politicians have called one of the greatest threats to their country. Sarah Palin, Alaska’s governor and, as of yesterday, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, wants to get it out of the ground as […]

Hurricanes, floods show risks of climate change: UN

OSLO (Reuters) – Atlantic hurricanes and floods in India are reminders of the risks of ever more extreme weather linked to a changing climate, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday. Achim Steiner said that more damaging weather extremes were in line with forecasts by the U.N. Climate Panel. He […]

Peak Oil Review – September 1

1. Production, prices and the Gustav factor 2. US Natural Gas Supply 3. EU and Russia 4. Briefs 1. Production, prices and the Gustav factor Despite the extensive publicity given to the forecast that hurricane Gustav was likely to cross through the Gulf oil fields and slam into Louisiana as a very powerful storm, the […]

EU, Dependent on Russian Energy, Balks at Georgia War Sanctions

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — European Union leaders refused to impose sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Georgia, acknowledging their reliance on Russian oil and gas at a time of faltering economic growth. EU leaders took the symbolic step yesterday of suspending talks over expanded trade ties with Russia, fearing that tougher measures would expose […]

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