Oil price slump to hit oil giants

Oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell will be back in the spotlight next week with first-quarter profits from the pair likely to be severely dented by sharply falling oil prices. A year ago, the pair reported Q1 results on the same day and fuelled motorist anger over rising petrol prices by reporting a combined […]

A Government still addicted to petrol (UK)

By David Strahan “All targets and no trousers” seemed to be the gist of the reaction from environmentalists to last week’s Budget. Greens welcomed the introduction of new, legally binding, carbon-reduction goals but attacked the lack of a clear road map showing how they could be achieved. Some applauded policies such as the extra subsidy […]

Oil export ban costs Iraq dearly, Kurds say

Iraq, hungry for investment after six long years of war, is losing millions of dollars a day due to Baghdad’s refusal to permit the Kurdish north to export oil, a top official in the largely autonomous region told Reuters. Iraq is losing millions and millions of dollars a day. We lost several billion dollars last […]

US Proposes "Variable Geometry"

The United States will work on energy issues with the other countries of the Americas based on “a variable geometry,” allowing governments to choose to cooperate in some areas but not others, said Jeremy Martin, head of the energy programme at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California San Diego. This “a […]

Thoughts on the Current Restructuring of Global Oil Demand

The global financial crisis may be hastening a process thatSeekingAlpha

Al-Naimi Says Saudi Oil Output Below Target; Stockpiles to Fall

Saudi Arabia, OPECBloomberg

Oil should rise to $70-80/bbl in 2010: Russian minister

Oil prices of around $50 a barrel are not high enough to ensure exploration and production but crude prices should rise to $70-80 within 12-18 months, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Saturday. “We are interested in a fair price … The current oil prices does not ensure sufficient funds for continuous oil production, […]

Venezuela Oil Company Cuts Costs As Prices Fall

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) He gave no other details on what areas of spending would be affected. A company statement said the spending cuts will allow PDVSA to pursue $14 billion in investments in maintenance, upgrades, natural gas and other projects this year, even as world oil prices remain low. The Street

Gore and Gingrich spar at Capitol over impact of addressing warming

WASHINGTON “It is a challenge that this Congress must rise to,” Gore said. “I wish I could find the words to get past the partisan divide that both sides have contributed to. … It shouldn’t be partisan. It should be something we do together in our national interest.” But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., […]

Ban petrol cars from 2015, says Norway's Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen

A PROPOSAL to ban sales of new petrol-powered cars in Norway from 2015 could help spur struggling carmakers to shift to greener models, Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen said. “This is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about this proposal,” she said, defending a plan by her Socialist Left Party to outlaw […]

Will recession spark global food crisis?

As farmers cut back on fertilizer, the impact could reverberate far beyond Potash Corp.’s bottom line Like millions of farmers around the world, David Start is slashing the amount of potash he uses on his Ontario farm and the impact is rattling the agricultural industry. Mr. Start has cut his potash use by 75 per […]

Kazakhstan Bank Stops Repaying Foreign Debt

MOSCOW The financial industry in Kazakhstan grew explosively until credit markets seized up two years ago. Rather than raise money through deposits, banks borrowed excessively from international lenders. Those lines of credit dried up in Kazakhstan quicker than elsewhere, given the risky nature of doing business in the country. The government has responded with efforts […]

New California fuel rule may violate NAFTA: lawyer

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) The measures to slash such emissions would force refiners to consider the carbon footprint of the fuels they produce, a potential blow to synthetic crude upgraded from Alberta’s oil sands, whose production emits more carbon-dioxide than conventional oil. However, the state may have no business imposing such rules on oil produced in […]

California's low-carbon fuel standard has oil companies anxious

In car-crazy California, a new fuel standard ordered by state officials to curb greenhouse gases could dramatically change how vehicles run. It also could have a huge effect on cost. The petroleum industry and some economists say the new standard adopted by the state Air Resources Board on Thursday will cost motorists billions, because blending […]

Alaska's drilling debate moves offshore

With the oil industry targeting Arctic waters, energy needs are weighed against a region’s delicate life cycle. …Though the conservation community has fought successfully over the last decade to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the remaining pristine areas of the North Slope have been going fast. In September, the Bureau of Land Management put […]

Japan honours 'Limits to Growth' science author

TOKYO (AFP) Meadows, of the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the lead author of the study, which became a best-seller but was also attacked as alarmist and opposed to technology and progress. Emperor Akihito watched Thursday as Meadows, 65, received the 500,000-dollar annual Japan Prize from the country’s Science and Technology Foundation for “transformation […]

Natural Gas Is Going to 1997 Levels and is Going to Stay There for A While

In the middle of this decade, E&P companies were spurred on by rising commodity prices and easy credit to find and develop new sources of domestic natural gas U.S. producers, loudest among them being Chesapeake, are howling that lower prices will eventually lead to less production, which in turn will severely impact supplies and raise […]

Dutch Firms to Build Network of Charging Stations for Electric Cars

Dutch electricity grid companies have agreed to build a national network of charging stations for electric cars to encourage the purchase of this type of clean vehicles, Dutch media reported on Friday. Eleven companies which manage the regional electricity grids decided to build at least 10,000 such charging stations by 2012. The whole country will […]

Namibia: Price of Fuel Has Seesaw Effect On Fishing Industry

The price of diesels has a seesaw effect on the fishing industry, managing director of Hangana Fisheries, Hendrick van der Westhuizen told the Economist this week. The fishing industry uses a lot of diesel on its fishing vessels, which spend a lot of days at sea. Van der Westhuizen said because of the volumes of […]

Book review: Ungainly friendship

Review of: Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics by Bobo Lo The Sino-Russian relationship is unequal, argues Lo, due to the gradual shift in the bilateral balance of power in China’s favor. Russia’s aggregate military strength still exceeds that of China, so much so that the former does not hesitate to sell […]

PM: Bulgaria has potential to become SE Europe's energy leader

Bulgaria has the potential to become the main distributor of natural gas for the entire Southeast Europe and the Black Sea region, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said on Friday in his keynote address at an energy business forum in the frame of the energy summit “Natural Gas for Europe: Security and Partnership.” According to […]

Is Biofuel Policy Harming European Biodiversity?

Current estimates state that transport is responsible for about 25% of the energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. While biofuels are seen as a possible means to reduce these emissions, they are under heavy discussion in terms of economic cost benefits and their environmental and social impacts. The EU promotes the production of biofuels and has […]

The New Gospel of Less

I started noticing new talking points oozing out this past week. Rather than cite specifics, I We are now told

A Defense of the Incandescent Light Bulb

Howard Brandston, an award-winning lighting designer, has worked on a number of high-profile projects in his career Specifically, Mr. Brandston accuses

T. Boone Pickens offers energy answer

T. Boone Pickens has watched the millions come and go, sometimes in a single day. He’s been high and low, anointed as a savior and lambasted as a vulture. At one point, his life had all the makings of a country-western song. He was ousted from his company while going through a protracted divorce and […]

China continues energy shopping spree with joint purchase of Kazakh oil producer

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) Backed by hefty foreign currency reserves, China is doing big energy deals in Central Asia’s biggest oil supplier and elsewhere as it seeks to secure future energy supplies for its growing economy. The purchase of the stake in MangistauMunaiGaz means that Chinese energy companies will control around 15 percent of this former […]

A Beguiling Veneer of Normalcy (Heinberg)

Recent travels have taken me to Las Vegas, New Orleans, and of course my home city, Santa Rosa, California. The economies of these places are faring quite differently. House prices in Las Vegas have nosedived, and the urban landscape that stretches away from casino theme parks on the strip is starting to look desperate, with […]

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Just as there are imaginary ASPO-USA

PDVSA struggling to pay debt

Venezuela state-owned PDVSA, plagued by financial problems related to the collapse of oil prices, has paid only about 5% of its outstanding debt to oil service companies and suppliers so far this year. US company Helmerich & Payne has not received any payment from PDVSA, despite the fact that it halted operations in four platforms. […]

Number of active oil rigs falls by 20

The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States fell by 20 this week to 955, down nearly half from a year ago. Of the rigs running nationwide, 742 were exploring for natural gas and 202 for oil, Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. A total of 11 were […]

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