Oil price to limit output rise in the Americas

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Oil production in the Americas is expected to climb only slightly this year with previous outlooks for Canada and Brazil looking too rosy after a collapse in crude prices turned an industry boom to bust. Production in the Americas looks set to rise in 2009 by a net 100,000 barrels a […]

Green wheel turns pedal bike into electric hog

MIT trades bike tires for power generation, storage and propulsion system The next time you change a bike tire, think about upgrading your power as well. Scientists at MIT are testing a new power generation, storage and propulsion system known as the GreenWheel that will turn any pedal bicycle into an electric hog. “Just take […]

Erosion doubles along stretch of Alaska coast

Climate factors ‘may be leading to a new era,’ USGS study says Most of California isn’t falling into the sea yet, but big parts of Alaska are. In a possible sign of things to come, erosion of a stretch of Alaska’s coast surged in recent years to more than double the average historical rate, threatening […]

Arctic sovereignty: Sheathe thy sword

Now that global warming is rapidly melting the Arctic ice cap, opening up the possibility of shipping through the Northwest Passage and developing the region’s vast oil and gas resources, the five Arctic basin states (Canada, United States, Russia, Denmark/Greenland and Norway) are scrambling to secure their claims to the region. Under the 1982 UN […]

Aramco, Dow plan to drop troubled RBS

Riyadh: Saudi Aramco and the Dow Chemical Company of the US are seriously considering dropping the cash-strapped Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) as project financing manager of their joint venture industrial facility in Ras Tanura in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to well-informed sources. This was after reports appeared showing that the bank is facing acute […]

ANALYSIS – Asia diesel market seen going from bad to worse

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – After falling to near five-year lows, Asian diesel margins may be in for still deeper losses as a worsening global economy deals a harsh blow to industrial and transport demand for a product that two years ago led the barrel. The grim signs are everywhere: refineries reining in output; traders seeking to […]

Burning Questions: What Does Economic ‘Recovery’ Mean on Extreme Weather Planet

It turns out that you don’t want to be a former city dweller in rural parts of southernmost Australia, a stalk of wheat in China or Iraq, a soybean in Argentina, an almond or grape in northern California, a cow in Texas, or almost anything in parts of east Africa right now. Let me explain. […]

I Dream of Denver

You may not know it to look at them, but urban planners are human and have dreams. One dream many share is that Americans will give up their love affair with suburban sprawl and will rediscover denser, more environmentally friendly, less auto-dependent ways of living. Those dreams have been aroused over the past few months. […]

Obama compares oil sands to coal

OTTAWA (AP) Obama likened the carbon footprint of the oil sands with that of the U.S. coal industry. “What we know is that oil sands creates a big carbon footprint. So the dilemma that Canada faces, the United States faces, and China and the entire world faces is how do we obtain the energy that […]

World Bank warns of climate change in Andes

LIMA, Peru (AP) “In Peru, (the glaciers) are melting very quickly. More than 20 percent of the glacial ice caps have disappeared since the 1970s,” World Bank climate change specialist Walter Vergara told reporters in the capital, Lima. The World Bank study on climate change in Latin America warns of three other major threats besides […]

A Fire Sale on Natural Gas Fields

What on earth could prompt an oil patch player to voluntarily hand off an interest in a valuable gas property, gratis? Last week, Parallel Petroleum did just that, in agreeing to transfer half of its 35% interest in a Texas natural gas field to Chesapeake Energy Chesapeake owns the majority interest in the field and […]

National Academies to Host Climate Change Conference

At the request of Congress, a two-day summit on “America’s Climate Choices” will be held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on March 30 and 31. Top climate change experts will meet with members of Congress and the Obama administration, as well as with business leaders and representatives of nongovernmental organizations, to […]

Survive by turning back hands of time

Leave it to Gordon Brown, the British prime minister. This severe Scot, son of a Presbyterian minister, the closest you can get to being a dour Dutchman like me, is also not afraid to face reality. Brown’s most loyal ally in his cabinet, Ed Balls, said last week — with the express approval of his […]

New York Must Prepare for Global Warming

New York City must prepare for higher temperatures, more rain and an increased risk of coastal flooding in the coming decades as a result of global climate change, an advisory panel said on Tuesday. City officials said that to prepare for the expected effects of climate change, the city should plan to keep cooling centers […]

China’s financial clout locks in energy supplies

SHANGHAI – Call it planning ahead. While China’s exports plunge and millions of laid-off workers hunt for jobs, the country’s big state companies are spending billions of dollars securing access to oil and other scarce resources the country will need in coming decades. The $25 billion energy agreement signed late Tuesday by China and Russia […]

Tracking the storms of oil addiction

As the current economic crisis continues to deepen and branches out into additional sectors in more countries around the globe, we should be asking ourselves if the foundation of our economy is able to sustain us through the next several decades. We have built our modern civilization upon the use of fossil fuels, and as […]

Deffeyes: The Second Great Depression

On February 10, 2009 The Independent in the UK reported on a speech given by The Right Honorable Ed Balls, who has what it takes to use the word “depression.” He warned that events worldwide were moving at a “speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before” and banks were losing cash […]

Israel Assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientist

Israel is using sabotage, front companies and double agents to disrupt the Tehran’s ‘illicit weapons project’ as an alternative to direct military strikes, The Telegraph reportedly quoted US intelligence sources as saying. The report cited the death of Ardeshire Hassanpour, a top nuclear scientist at Iran’s Isfahan uranium plant who reportedly died of “gas poisoning” […]

U.N. says food production may fall 25 percent by 2050

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Up to a quarter of global food production could be lost by 2050 due to the combined impact of climate change, land degradation and loss, water scarcity and species infestation, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The fall-off will strike just as 2 billion more people are added to the world’s population, […]

With Turbines, Alaska Is Frontier for Green Power

TOKSOOK BAY, Alaska As interest in cleaning up power generation grows around the country, Alaska is fast becoming a testing ground for new technologies and an unlikely experiment in oil-state support for renewable energy. Alaskans once cast a wary eye on anything smacking of environmentalism, but today they are investing heavily in green power, not […]

Peak oil review – Feb 16

1. Production and Prices 2. French realism 3. CERAWeek 4. Detroit at the Crossroads 5. Briefs 1. Production and Prices The trends that have developed over recent weeks continued. Prices started about $40 a barrel on hopes that the US stimulus program will be successful and then fell for 4 days to $34 a barrel […]

Tree rings tell of killer droughts

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Along the mountainous spine of Vietnam grow ancient conifers whose tree rings tell of droughts lasting more than a generation that helped push civilizations toward collapse, a climate change conference heard on Tuesday. Research by scientists from the United States and Japan has revealed a record of drought in Indochina that goes […]

Alternative Energy Still Facing Headwinds

Despite Obama’s Support, Projects Tripped Up by Financing, Logistics BOULEVARD, Calif. — The late afternoon light is shining golden on the high chaparral as Donna Tisdale stands near a faded 1800s ranch house, scans the unblemished surrounding hills and sees trouble on the horizon. “The ridge right there will have turbines on it,” she says, […]

EPA to review Bush rule on warming emissions

Environmental groups expect curbs on coal-fired power plants The Obama administration on Tuesday agreed to review whether it should regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, portending a major reversal of the Bush administration’s policy on global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency granted a petition from environmental groups seeking to overturn a Bush-era EPA […]

Los Angeles nears water rationing

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a recent flurry of winter storms doing little to dampen California’s latest drought, the nation’s biggest public utility voted on Tuesday to impose water rationing in Los Angeles for the first time in nearly two decades. Under the plan adopted in principle by the governing board of the L.A. Department […]

Oil industry locked in boom and bust

LONDON (Reuters) – After oil prices crashed to $10 a barrel in 1998, they more than tripled two years later as lower investment and higher demand strained supply. The signs are the industry, now reeling from a $100 crash, is still locked in a cycle of boom and bust. A difference this time is high […]

China lends Russia $25 billion to get 20 years of oil

MOSCOW (Reuters) – China has agreed to lend Russian oil companies $25 billion in return for supplies from huge new East Siberian oilfields that will power its economy for the next two decades. Russia’s state oil champion Rosneft (ROSN.MM) and pipeline monopoly Transneft (TRNF_p.RTS) on Tuesday signed a long-delayed deal to borrow the money from […]

Oil slick

The mood was somber at the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s Private Capital Conference at the Houstonian Hotel in Houston in mid-January, where oil and gas executives gathered to discuss the state of the industry. There was a lot of talk of opportunity but not a lot of talk of available financing to expand companies, […]

Increasing Greenhouse Gases Lead to Dramatic Thinning of the Upper Atmosphere

The highest layers of the Earth The study utilized orbital tracking data on 27 space objects that have been aloft for over 30 years and whose closest approach to the Earth ranges from 200-800 km (124-497 mi). The Space Shuttle typically orbits at 300-450 km (186-279 mi), and the International Space Station is at an […]

Byron King: The Oil Glut of 2009

The current oil price contains absolutely no risk premium. $35 crude price simply does not reflect how rapidly the oil market could tighten in 2009 Western oil majors like Exxon are finding it harder than ever to identify new prospects and successfully complete new oil projects. BP’s Thunder Horse project in the Gulf of Mexico, […]

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