Methane time bomb ticking louder

At a press conference Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, a Russian scientist who has spent the last 15 years tracking the release of methane from Siberia was asked if a huge surge he and his team detected this summer constituted “a global emergency.” Igor Semiletov did not say no, and did […]

Russia’s oil companies face short-term crunch

EVENT: Rosneft, Russia’s top oil producer, confirmed yesterday that it would seek a $4-billion loan from the state development bank in 2009. SIGNIFICANCE: Rosneft’s announcement is symptomatic of the difficulties facing Russia’s oil majors, including private companies such as Lukoil and TNK-BP. The companies have exhibited strong growth in recent years as increased production and […]

World faces ‘total’ financial meltdown: Bank of Spain chief

MADRID (AFP) Ordonez recognised that falling oil prices and lower taxes could kick-start a faster-than-anticipated recovery, but warned that a deepening cycle of falling consumer demand, rising unemployment and an ongoing lending squeeze could not be ruled out. “This is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression” of 1929, he added. AFP

Lower gas prices won’t last forever, economists warn

…”As soon as the world economy turns around, then prices will shoot higher again,” said economist Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics LLC in suburban Cleveland. “As soon as those economies pick back up, we’re going to be right back in the soup.” Mr. Mayland is talking about the economic theory of peak oil, the belief […]

Cramer’s Solution for $150 Oil

Cramer has a plan to make sure the U.S. never again suffers $4 gasoline. Barack Obama should, as one of his first acts as president, build storage facilities That, of course, is the problem. We don

Russia keeps distance from OPEC

Russia kept its observer’s status at this week’s summit conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and avoided taking the plunge into membership of the international oil cartel that was hinted at by the Kremlin last week. At the same time, the Kremlin is playing a siren song to attract greater coordination of […]

Saudi Oil Kingdom Resisting Renewables

Review of a recent documentary by 60 Minutes about the Saudi Oil industry, showing their world-preeminent infrastructure, new projects, and projections; but, more significantly, their denial of and resistance to any clean alternatives. In watching this excellent documentary, it struck me the extent to which oil has a vested interest in perpetuating their dominance, and […]

World Bank Urges Russia to End Its Ruble Policy

The World Bank called on Russia to abandon the ruble’s managed exchange-rate policy in order to moderate capital outflow, which is set to reach at least $100 billion this year, and safeguard the country’s massive monetary reserves. The recommendation, the World Bank’s firmest on the subject yet, capped a week of economic data making it […]

Will Obama Champion Space-Based Solar Power?

The National Space Society has submitted a policy paper (pdf) to the Obama-Biden transition team concluding that Space-Based Solar Power is more technically executable than ever before and urging federal investment that would be necessary to capture large amounts of electricity from space This wouldn’t be the first time the federal government has delved into […]

Ike damage to delay Exxon facility start-up

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hurricane damage discovered at Exxon Mobil Corp’s $1 billion natural gas terminal under construction in Texas will postpone the facility’s start up, according to a report in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. The liquefied natural gas, or LNG, facility in […]

Oil

Once upon a time, clever people scared themselves by trying to predict the end of the world. Sir Isaac Newton Last week it was the turn of Fatih Birol, chief economist to the International Energy Agency (IEA), who argued that conventional crude output could plateau in 2020. How seriously we should take this is anyone

Can OPEC Save the World Economy?

…As for cheap oil which has returned, briefly, to signal that all asset classes are in deflationary rout at this moment (Q4 2008) the ASPO 7 conference in Barcelona, Spain (Oct 2008) provided sobering and very coherent, convergent data on probable future supply trends. By 2010 it is likely the ‘Peak Oil plateau’ of around […]

Give your garden a global-warming makeover

Home gardeners can do a lot to address global climate change. Options include everything from choosing self-reliant plants that need less water and fertilizer to reducing energy use by trading in mowers and blowers for rakes and hand clippers. CLIMATE-PROOFING used to mean tossing a little mulch on the garden, hauling pots of tender plants […]

Asia refiners bracing for possible supply cuts from Mideast

SINGAPORE: Middle East crude oil producers may be pushed next week to cut term-contracted shipments to customers in Asia, even though demand for high-sulphur or Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar have quotas but not Iraq. It

Mapping Renewable Energy, Rooftop by Rooftop

The sun shines on everyone All of that could be changing. The engineering company CH2M Hill is now joining hands with the U.S. Department of Energy to provide Internet solar maps of 25 American cities, using Google Earth technology to chart the precise solar potential of neighborhoods, literally rooftop by rooftop. The company has just […]

Fact vs. Fiction on Food vs. Fuel

The sharp drop in world prices for oil and grain precipitated by the past few months Back when oil cost three- and four-dollars-per-barrel, the increased use of ethanol was blamed for high food prices, food riots and starvation of the poor. Senior UN official Jean Ziegler called the use of food crops for fuel a

State sees 3.8 percent oil production decline next year

Alaska North Slope oil production is expected to average 689,000 barrels per day this year, a decline of 3.8 percent from last year, state revenue forecasters said in a revenue forecast released in Juneau Dec. 9. For 2010, the department anticipates further production declines to 665,000 barrels per day, the report said. The production decline […]

Nigerian oil reserves drying up?

Nigeria’s oil reserves could dry up in the next 50 years, according to energy officials for Africa’s largest oil producer, citing a downward trend in production over the last five years. Many attribute the decline to ongoing violence, not depleted resources. The director of Nigeria’s Department of Petroleum Resources (NYSE:PEO), Aliyu Sabonbirni, said both the […]

Despite Recession, Oil Demand – and Prices – Will Rise

But let

Gasoline prices lowest since February 2004

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 5 percent from two weeks earlier, hitting its lowest level since February 2004, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey released on Sunday. The national average for self-serve, regular unleaded gasoline was about $1.6622 a gallon on December 19, […]

Deep-water wind farm plans inspire hopes, outcries

ORONO, Maine Behind the scenes in the U.S. and in Europe, the race is on to build the world

Rising Seas, Severe Drought, Could Come in Decades, Says U.S. Report

The United States could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades–sooner than some previously thought–says a new government report. It contends that seas could rise rapidly if melting of polar ice continues to outrun recent projections, and that an ongoing drought in the U.S. west could be the start of permanent drying for […]

Russia and Ukraine again face New Year gas showdown

MOSCOW (AFP) A source close to the talks refused to rule out a repeat of a scenario similar to the 2005-2006 gas row where Russia cut off supplies to Ukraine, triggering a supply crisis in Europe “Everything can happen,” the source, who asked not to be named, told AFP. The significance of the looming standoff […]

Crude oil to stay in $45-60 band

Crude oil prices are likely to remain between $45 and $60 a barrel in 2009 as recessionary trends across the world have reduced demand, five analysts tracking the sector said. Oil prices declined 27 per cent in the last week, its biggest weekly decline since the Gulf War 17 years ago. This was despite the […]

New twist in biting fuel shortage (Kenya)

he fuel shortage crisis is set to deepen after the Government contracted a company in financial distress to import the crucial commodity for this month. Triton Petroleum Company, which on Friday was put in receivership over a Sh1.6 billion debt, imported 56,000 tonnes of crude and refined oil against the countryEastStandard

Russia, EU See Caspian Energy Dreams Deferred

Entering the year, Russia appeared to have the upper hand in securing a lion’s share of the immense natural gas and oil reserves in the Caspian basin. Gazprom, confident in the strategic advantages it had over outsiders through its access to Soviet-era infrastructure in the region, significantly upped the ante at the beginning of 2008. […]

Is the U.S. Rig Count about to Enter Freefall Territory?

Barely a month ago, Wall Street analysts became concerned about a drop in the U.S. rig count due to weakening commodity prices, and in particular natural gas prices, and the impact of the credit crisis on producer access to capital. The talk initially was about whether the rig count would fall by 100-200 rigs or […]

Shadowed by $200 oil

It I recently spoke to a group of local energy economists, though, and they weren

Even OPEC is powerless to stop the plunge in crude oil prices

HOUSTON In other words: Even if OPEC talks about cutting the supply of oil, those cuts are nothing compared to the way the slumping economy is pushing demand downward. So prices keep sliding. Is there anything more to it? Here are some questions and answers about OPEC

Promoters overstated the environmental benefit of wind farms

The wind farm industry has been forced to admit that the environmental benefit of wind power in reducing carbon emissions is only half as big as it had previously claimed. UK – The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has agreed to scale down its calculation for the amount of harmful carbon dioxide emission that can […]

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