Alberta plans tax breaks, incentives for oil firms

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Alberta will offer tax breaks and drilling incentives to small and mid-sized energy companies struggling to raise cash due to tight credit markets and a collapse in crude prices, the oil-rich Canadian province’s premier said on Thursday. The plan would also help protect energy-sector jobs by promoting the environmental cleanup of […]

U.S. pump prices on the rise as refiners cut back

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The break embattled U.S. consumers have been getting at the gas pumps may be ending as refiners slash fuel production to improve sagging profits. Retail gasoline prices have jumped 22 cents since early January to $1.91 a gallon and could top $2 a gallon in the coming weeks as refinery output […]

Dollar/oil correlation unlikely to return soon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The break in the link between oil prices and the dollar seen for much of the past 18 months is unlikely to be reestablished soon. Crude and the greenback, which historically had little to no direct trading relationship, began to show a strong negative correlation from 2007, when investors rushed into […]

Antarctic Meltdown Would Flood Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., and other coastal U.S. cities could find themselves under several more feet of water than previously predicted if warming temperatures destroy the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a new study based on a model predicts. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) towers about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) above sea level over a large section […]

New study identifies economies that will suffer most as climate change imperils

Research on fisheries worldwide warns climate change combined with fisheries dependency and limited capacity to adapt pose dangerous triple threat to countries in Africa, South America and Asia …The world’s fisheries provide more than 2.6 billion people with at least 20 percent of their average annual per capita protein intake, according to the United Nation’s […]

Protecting Fish Ahead of the

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council today is poised to close a vast stretch of American waters to fishing that has never been fished actively. This sounds strange initially, but it Many biologists and fisheries experts say it

Obama declares major disaster area in Kentucky

President Barack Obama today declared that a major disaster exists in Kentucky, clearing the way for the state and local governments to be reimbursed for 75 percent of their costs in cleaning up and providing assistance to people after last week Ward said Obama approved Kentucky

While U.S. in Big Chill, Arctic Runs Fever

While parts of North America have been in the icy grips of an unusually cold and snowy winter recently, the Arctic has been downright balmy compared to past winters. These warmer-than-normal temperatures mean that the sea ice in the Arctic is looking pretty anemic, despite the winter season. Arctic ice goes through a normal cycle […]

Lawmakers: Colo. withheld enforcement rules costs

The Department of Natural Resources told Colorado lawmakers in 2007 that developing state oil and gas regulations could cost less than $7,000 the first year, while an internal department estimate put the cost of implementing the regulations at more than $1 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The $7,000 estimate appeared in […]

Global warming may delay recovery of stratospheric ozone

Increasing greenhouse gases could delay, or even postpone indefinitely the recovery of stratospheric ozone in some regions of the Earth, a new study suggests. This change might take a toll on public health. Darryn W. Waugh, an atmospheric scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his colleagues report that climate change could provoke variations […]

Ancient geologic escape hatches mistaken for tube worms

…In an area approximately one and a half times the size of the City of Calgary, scientists discovered that what was previously identified as fossilized tubeworms were actually fossilized tubular escape hatches for methane, a major constituent of natural gas. …Although the results may be surprising, the ramifications are even more so. The fact that […]

Mechanics of Future Oil Price Volatility

I previously examined the interface between peaking oil supplies and oil price volatility as a predator-prey system. With the rapid drop in oil prices, itThe fundamental problem facing oil markets at present it this: while present supplies are sufficient to meet present weak demand, these sources of production face rapid decline. The current low oil […]

Saving the Suburbs, Part 2

If some of the readers of my last post have their way, suburbia could eventually evolve into something straight out of Cormac McCarthy Though a healthy contingent of commentators on

China to Construct 8 Strategic Oil Reserve Bases

China plans to start constructing 8 more strategic oil reserve bases this year, after the first batch of four have gone into operation in 2008, authoritative sources disclosed. China started to construct its first batch of strategic oil reserve bases from 2003, altogether four in Zhenhai, Zhoushan, Huangdao and Dalian, respectively. Zhenhai and Zhoushan two […]

BG Delays LNG Terminal Project in Italy to at Least 2010

(Bloomberg) — BG Group Plc, the U.K.

Attack on oil facility off Nigeria kills one: navy

LAGOS (AFP) He said the attack took place in the early hours. Nabaida said a storage facility belonging to Addax Petroleum had come under attack. According to him, the navy boarded an Addax service vessel and an exchange of fire with the attackers ensued. AFP

Little prospect of East-West accommodation

Following are 10 reasons why the epic match between East and West over world domination will strategically intensify rather than move toward any meaningful accommodation:Reason 1Russia won’t be so foolish as to agree any deal with the West for a restoration of vital investment capital inflows. Why not? Because Western governments and financial institutions don’t […]

Britain May Help Credit-Starved ”Green” Projects: Adviser

The British government may have to support renewable energy developments such as new wind farms as the global credit crisis chokes funding for companies, the government’s climate change adviser said on Wednesday. Adair Turner, who is also chairman of the Financial Services Authority, warned of a drastic shortage of credit to fund schemes which he […]

Central Asian Gas Not a Panacea for Europe

Sourcing more natural gas from the ‘Stans’ looks like a way for Europe to lessen its reliance on Russia, but there are plenty of roadblocksFor several reasons, not the least of which is strident competition from Russia, a meaningful EU-Central Asia energy partnership is unlikely.Today, nearly all the gas that leaves the Stans goes through […]

European Producer Prices Fall More Than Expected on Cheaper Oil

European producer prices declined more than economists expected in December on lower oil prices, adding to arguments that the region’s central bank should reduce interest rates more to combat the deepening recession. Factory-gate prices in the euro region fell 1.3 percent from the previous month after a record 2 percent decline in November, the European […]

Petrobras Will Receive 33 New Drilling Rigs by 2012

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, will take delivery of 33 new oil rigs by 2012 as it seeks to boost output, an official said. Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, will receive 11 rigs this year, head of Exploration Services Erardo Barbosa said today at a news conference in Rio […]

Kidnappings rise in Nigeria’s oil-producing delta

Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped the wife of a former oil minister, an employee of an Italian energy firm and an electoral official in recent days, highlighting growing insecurity in the country’s oil heartland. Security experts say military efforts to curb crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, combined with lower world energy prices, have […]

Report says Cambodian mining, oil sector corrupt

The corrupt elite of Cambodia, one of the world’s most impoverished nations, has laid the groundwork for siphoning off vast profits from a coming boom in mining and oil exploitation, a nongovernment organization said Thursday. Britain-based Global Witness said that rights to exploit the resources have been allocated behind closed doors by a small number […]

Sudan’s growth to fall after oil peak

Sudan But the oil and gas volumes will then steadily fall to 596,000b/d by the end of the 2018, according to Business Monitor. And growth is forecast to fall from 12.7 percent in 2008 to 7.9 percent this year. The forecast comes at a time when the Government of National Unity is preparing to bring […]

Aussie firm sees buoyant future in wave power

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – For millennia, Australia’s rugged southern coast has been carved by the relentless action of waves crashing ashore. The same wave energy could soon be harnessed to power towns and cities and trim Australia’s carbon emissions. “Waves are already concentrated solar energy,” says Michael Ottaviano, who leads a Western Australian firm developing a […]

Biofuel yield figures are

There are few substitutes for fossil fuels when it comes to keeping the wheels turning on trains, buses, lorries and cars. Biofuels are the obvious alternative, but can we grow enough biofuel crops to meet demand? New research suggests that biofuel-crop yields may have been misrepresented in the past, giving us false hopes about the […]

Smart-grid standards an issue in economic stimulus bill

Some of the nation’s largest providers of electricity meters say the House’s $819 billion economic stimulus bill could put them out of business and wreak havoc in the new market for “smart-grid” technology by favoring certain computer network standards. In a letter to U.S. senators, providers Itron, Landis+Gyr, Elster and Aclara say the measure “has […]

Climate bill seen possible ”in weeks”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate’s top environmental lawmaker offered a preview on Wednesday of major component of climate change legislation she said could be introduced “in weeks, not months.” “We are not sitting back and waiting for some magic moment,” Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told […]

Not all ”green” jobs pay well

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has high hopes that millions of “green” jobs will be created by investing billions of dollars in renewable energy, but a report on Tuesday warned not all those workers would earn good pay. “Green jobs are not automatically good jobs,” according to the report commissioned by several U.S. labor […]

Meltdown 101: Has the recession hurt Big Oil?

HOUSTON (AP) More than once last year, executives from Exxon, Chevron and the other oil majors were pressed by members of Congress to explain soaring fuel prices amid their huge profits. Don’t look for similar hearings anytime soon. Associated Press

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