Tibetan glacial shrink to cut water supply by 2050

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly 2 billion people in Asia, from coastal city dwellers to yak-herding nomads, will begin suffering water shortages in coming decades as global warming shrinks glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, experts said. The plateau has more than 45,000 glaciers that build up during the snowy season and then drain to the […]

French aristocrats forced to put North Sea assets on the block

THE Wendel family, one of France Jefferies has sent out teaser documents to potential bidders for the Dutch-based group, which has stakes in some of the leading fields in the North Sea, including Buzzard, the biggest find of the past decade. Interest is expected to be high for the company, which produces about 18,000 barrels […]

Recession drills deep into oil and gas

Job cuts have been the dominant theme in British business over the past three months. And the energy sector has been one of the most badly hit industries as a result of the volatile oil price. At the end of October, BP chief executive Tony Hayward warned that “productivity and efficiency” drives would result in […]

VeraSun auction of U.S. BioEnergy planned by March

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ethanol maker VeraSun Energy Corp received interim approval from a Delaware bankruptcy court judge to auction most of its U.S. BioEnergy ethanol plants by the end of March, according to court documents. VeraSun, which filed for bankruptcy in October due to high corn prices, weak ethanol prices and a lack of […]

Arctic warming pattern ‘highly unusual’: Report

A major U.S. government report on Arctic climate, prepared with input from eight Canadian scientists, has concluded that the recent rapid warming of polar temperatures and shrinking of multi-year Arctic sea ice are “highly unusual compared to events from previous thousands of years.” The findings, released on Friday, counter suggestions from some skeptics that such […]

The Case Against Dirty Oil

This article suggests that the US market for oilsands producers may not be as secure as Canadian producers may hope. Canada can compete in the market, but it may increasingly be at the expense of other global oil producers as this continent

‘Green’ energy plan in Obama stimulus may be losing steam

According to one observer, ‘the planning just has not been done.’ Barack Obama portrays his stimulus plan as a quick jolt for the ailing economy and a “down payment” on his priorities as president. But those goals appear to be colliding in at least one key area: energy independence. The stimulus package increasingly appears unlikely […]

Yes, there is life after oil

To say that this week’s international auto show in Detroit marked a new beginning might be going too far, given the history of the industry. But at the very least it was a sign. A new direction taken. A light at the end of the tunnel. The carmakers’ fresh lineup of electric and hybrid vehicles, […]

Mexico Looks to Play Catchup with Deepwater Oil Exploration

While the U.S. has spent two decades scouring the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico for oil, neighboring Mexico is just getting started. Output from Mexico’s traditional fields is in free fall, forcing state-run Petroleos Mexicanos to move into more difficult terrain in an effort to maintain its status as a major crude exporter. […]

ConocoPhillips plans to cut 4 percent of work force

ConocoPhillips on Friday unveiled plans to lay off 4 percent of its work force, illustrating that even the oil majors may not ride out a mean recession without taking some punches. In other worrisome news, the company said it will cut capital spending by 12.6 percent and write down the value of various assets by […]

Rising sea levels threaten East Coast

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sea levels on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast are rising faster than the global average because of global warming, threatening the future of coastal communities, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday. Coastal waters from New York to North Carolina have crept up by an average of 2.4 to 4.4 millimeters (0.09 […]

‘Oil storage at 25 year high’

Norway’s Frontline, one of the world’s biggest oil tanker owners, said today oil companies were storing “about” 80 million barrels of crude oil at sea, possibly the highest in a quarter of a century. “We think it’s about 80 million barrels…but we are not 100% certain,” the acting chief executive officer Martin Jensen told Reuters. […]

Venezuela Says $70 Oil Needed to Maintain Investments

(Bloomberg) — Oil prices need to rise to about $70 a barrel to sustain investments in fields and avoid shortages, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said. Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, is discussing prices with other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Ramirez said today in an interview […]

Flying the Coal-Fired Skies

In the not-so-distant future, cars could run on electricity, power plants on wind and solar energy, and city buses on zero-emission hydrogen fuel cells. But airplanes? Those just might run on coal. Yes, coal. The U.S. Air Force wants to create a synthetic-fuel industry that, unless something better comes along, will mine America

Pace of Oil, Gas Mergers to Increase

Oil and gas industry mergers will probably pick up this year as producers struggling to finance expansion target rivals for growth, said Scotia Capital investment banker Adam Waterous. Companies in the oil and gas industry are finding it harder to raise new capital to increase output after crude oil prices dropped 60 percent in the […]

Platts survey: December OPEC oil output fell to 30.74 mil. barrels per day

The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 30.74 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in December, according to a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials just released. This is a decline of 640,000 b/d from the November level of 31.38 million b/d. The […]

Platts Webinar – President Obama’s 1st 100 Days

Once Obama’s Sworn into Office, What Happens Next in Energy, Environmental Policy?

* How will Obama’s appointments at the White House, the Energy Department, the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency blend to kick off his energy and environmental agenda?

* What do Obama and Congress have in store for energy investments in the economic stimulus plan?

* What do appointments at FERC, CFTC mean for regulation of energy infrastructure and commodities?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1pm EST

Platts

For Wind Turbine Manufacturers, the Layoffs Begin

President-elect Barack Obama will spend part of today touring a factory near Cleveland that makes parts for wind turbines The news comes barely six months after the company announced expansion plans that would make it the

Government issues draft offshore drilling plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A preliminary proposal was issued on Friday by the U.S. Minerals Management Service to hold oil and natural gas lease sales in coastal areas where drilling was, until recently, banned. The draft plan proposes 31 energy exploration lease sales between 2010 and 2015 for areas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, including […]

More Evidence That Peak Oil Is A Reality Just Around the Corner

In the last month or so there have been two very public indications that not even the Middle East Rather than oil pushers, the Saudis see themselves as good global citizens who are trying to save the world from a catastrophic oil shortage. But, as Al-Naimi told 60 Minutes, the kingdom is hedging its bets. […]

Kibaki declares famine National Disaster (Kenya)

President Mwai Kibaki on Friday declared the current food shortage facing the country a National Disaster and launched a campaign to raise over 37 billion shillings required to address the situation. “Our national assessment is that 10 million people are food insecure and require emergency support. These people will not be able to meet their […]

Public Invited to Meetings on Sea Level Rise

ALBANY, NY (01/12/2009; 1350)(readMedia)– The public is invited to a series of meetings about the effects of sea level rise and the development of recommendations for dealing with rising sea levels, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today. The meetings, sponsored by the New York State Sea Level Rise […]

Toyota, Showing Off a New Car, Points to Peak Oil

Memo to onlookers worried that American consumers will never stop buying gas guzzlers: They may soon lack the choice to not change. That was the message of Toyota vice president Irv Miller, who warned at the Detroit Auto Show that last summers $4-a-gallon gas prices were but a Peak oil, the theory that oil production […]

Scientists watching sea level effects on East End marshes

As ice caps melt and sea levels rise around the planet, some local scientists are worried that the East End

Great Lakes Water Levels Sensitive To Climate Change

…new evidence by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, published recently in the journal Eos, indicates that the water level in the lake system is highly sensitive to climate changes. “In the distant past, there were great fluctuations in the water level of the Great Lakes, but […]

Slight Changes in Climate May Trigger Abrupt Ecosystem Responses

Slight changes in climate may trigger major abrupt ecosystem responses that are not easily reversible. Some of these responses, including insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback, may adversely affect people as well as ecosystems and their plants and animals. The U.S. Geological Survey led a new assessment of the implications of a warming world on […]

Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has released a report that discusses the impacts of sea-level rise on the physical characteristics of the coast, on coastal communities, and the habitats that depend on them. The report, Coastal Sensitivity to […]

Arctic Heats Up More than Other Places

A new comprehensive scientific synthesis of past Arctic climates demonstrates for the first time the pervasive nature of Arctic climate amplification. The U.S. Geological Survey led this new assessment, which is a synthesis of published science literature and authored by a team of climate scientists from academia and government. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program […]

Bloomington schools closed after fuel issues in buses

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The Bloomington School District is closing schools Friday, after extremely cold temperatures caused the biodiesel fuel in school buses to clog. The problem left dozens of students stranded Thursday — some for up to 30 minutes in the dangerous cold. Superintendent Les Fujitake said the district could not ensure the buses would […]

The current crisis was predicted 30 years ago

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Vlad Grinkevich) – The current economic crisis came as a bolt from the blue for most. In the meantime, experts warned in the early 1970s that the world economy was heading for a crisis in the first decades of the 21st century. In the 1960s, Western countries concluded that oil-stained […]

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