Brazil Petrobras Reports Espirito Santo Oil Find To ANP

Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras (PBR) notified the National Petroleum Agency late Wednesday that it had discovered signs of oil at an inland exploration block. Petrobras said it found traces of oil and gas in a wildcat well drilled at the ES-T-364 inland block in the Espirito Santo Basin. The 4BRSA640DCES well was drilled by […]

Obama and Chávez: Energy Partners?

While Latin America was hardly the most pressing foreign policy concern debated during the US presidential campaign, the case of Venezuela was unique in that it tapped into two broader themes repeatedly invoked by Obama and his Republican opponent John McCain. The first was whether America should engage directly with its adversaries, an approach that […]

IMF: Mideast under strain despite oil wealth

The world’s worst economic recession in about six decades is hammering the nations of the Middle East, with falling commodity prices severely straining economies and wealthy oil producers digging deep into savings to sustain spending. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook, released Wednesday, offers another unwelcome reality check for the volatile region, where officials from […]

Kuwait Min Says Worried Budget Gap If Oil $30-$40/Bbl

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al Sabah said Friday the government is worried it will incur a budget deficit if the oil price falls to an average of $30-$40 a barrel this year. However, he added that it would be comfortable if the oil price averages $50-$60 a barrel in 2009 and $70/barrel or […]

Schlumberger 1Q tumbles 30 pct as drilling drops

Schlumberger Ltd. said Friday its first-quarter earnings tumbled about 30 percent as oil and natural gas companies cut back on exploration and drilling due to lower prices and demand. It also forecast sluggish oil-patch activity for at least the rest of this year. The world’s largest oilfield services company said net income in the January-to-March […]

Ivory Coast activists scupper palm oil project

Ivory Coast’s main palm oil company, Palmci, on Friday announced it was abandoning a major plantation scheme in the south of the country after opposition by environmentalists to destruction of a forest. “Palmci has decided to abandon this project in the face of the refusal of certain NGOs to accept the coexistence of environmental preservation […]

US urges Central Asia to boost gas export routes

A recent crippling gas pipeline blast in Turkmenistan, which the government blamed on Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom, is proof that energy-rich Central Asian nations need to diversify their export routes, a senior U.S. diplomat said Friday. Russia currently controls most natural gas export routes out of the region, but that grip is coming under growing […]

North Sea companies welcome tax breaks

North Sea oil and gas companies have welcomed new tax breaks in the Budget designed to stimulate investment, which has been battered by falling oil prices and a shortage of finance. However, some companies in the sector warned that the measures were likely to have only a marginal effect, given the severity of the squeeze […]

China plugs into electric car market

The car is a pretty ordinary looking sedan, which is not an altogether bad thing for an electric car. The weird, boxy “green-look” of so many of the pioneer models had limited appeal. But it’s the battery in BYD Auto’s new E6 fully electric car, not the design, that is currently causing the buzz in […]

Fla. House panel OKs bill for drilling near shore

Echoing last year’s “Drill, baby, drill” Republican election slogan, a GOP-dominated House panel voted Tuesday to allow oil and natural gas exploration and production in Florida waters up to 10 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. In a mostly party-line vote AFP

Iraq, Syria agree on plan to repair Kirkuk-Banias oil line

Iraq and Syria, following broad-ranging talks between Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri, have agreed on a new plan to repair the bomb-damaged Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline. “Discussions led to a strategic agreement in the areas of oil, gas, power, and trade,” said Al-Maliki, adding, “The two sides also reached […]

Asia, Mideast to debate when, not if, oil should rise

Asian and Middle East energy ministers may agree this weekend that letting oil prices rise eventually in order to stimulate investment is just as vital as keeping crude at $50 for now to aid the ailing world economy. But they may struggle to find common ground over how and when that ascent should start, and […]

Calif. approves nation's 1st low-carbon fuel rule

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the rule would “reward innovation, expand consumer choice and encourage the private investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure.” “I think we’re creating the framework for a new way of looking at automotive fuels where no longer will gasoline derived by petroleum be the only game in town,” […]

Limits to Growth Model Worth Another Look

There are only finite resources in the world, but population continues to grow. How will this situation resolve itself? This was a question a group of scientists (Meadows et al), commissioned by the “Club of Rome,” attempted to answer back in 1972, in a book called Limits to Growth. The model they presented predicted growing […]

Blame oil, not banks, for recession

… The connection between oil price spikes and recessions was first advanced in 1983 by economist James Hamilton of the University of California at San Diego. He showed that almost all U.S. recessions have been preceded by spikes in the price of crude. Using the Hamilton template, Mr. Reynolds notes that 10 spikes occurred between […]

China

(Bloomberg) — China, which agreed last week to acquire a share in a Kazakh oil producer, will provide financing for overseas asset bids by domestic oil companies taking advantage of slumping energy prices, an industry official said. The government will take up stakes in overseas oil projects that it will help to acquire, the official, […]

Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate

For more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming. But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked […]

Recession, health concerns get Americans gardening

DALLAS (Reuters) – Alison Baum of San Antonio, Texas hopes to save money and eat better by getting her hands dirty. She is joining the swelling ranks of Americans who have started backyard fruit and vegetable gardening, a trend rooted in a desire to cut costs as the recession bites, fears about the safety of […]

Africa to feed EU's appetite for biofuels as its people starve

The French chapters of Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development (CCFD) and others have joined forces under a single watchword: ‘‘Biofuels won’t feed the planet.’’ Friends of the Earth is an international network of non-profit organisations campaigning for sustainable societies and Oxfam France is engaged in a global non-governmental […]

Schlesinger/Hirsch: Getting Real on Wind and Solar

By James Schlesinger and Robert L. Hirsch If large-scale electric energy storage were viable, solar and wind intermittency would be less of a problem. However, large-scale electric energy storage is possible only in the few locations where there are hydroelectric dams. But when we use hydroelectric dams for electric energy storage, we reduce their electric […]

Peru Mulls New Reserves To Protect Amazon Tribes

Peru’s government, which is encouraging energy companies to develop the resource-rich Amazon, is considering creating five new reserves to protect jungle tribes that are living in voluntary isolation. Advocacy groups have been pressuring Peru to balance indigenous and environmental rights demands with those of foreign investors as the country tries to boost energy output. The […]

Clean coal push marks reversal of UK energy policy

No new coal-fired power stations will be built in Britain from now on unless they capture and bury at least 25% of greenhouse gases immediately and 100% by 2025, the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, announced today. In a reversal of energy policy which represents a major victory for the new Department for Energy and […]

Iran, Iraq reach agreement on setting up oil pipeline

Deputy Oil Minister Noureddin Shahnazizadeh said Thursday Iran and Iraq have reached agreement on setting up oil pipeline from Basra, southern city of Iraq, to Iran’s southwestern city of Abadan. The agreement was reached in a meeting between Iran’s Oil Minster Gholam-Hossein Nozari and his Iraqi counterpart Hussain al-Shahristani, Shahnazizadeh said on the sidelines of […]

Russia sees no need for oil cuts as shortage looming

Russia believes global oil output cuts will have a short-lived effect and made no sense given a looming global supply shortage in the medium term, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Wednesday. “According to various estimates, there will be a serious shortage of oil supply, maybe in one, maybe in two-three years,” Shmatko told reporters. […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Capping Carbon

Seventeen years after the Kyoto Protocol was drafted, it appears that the U.S. is moving toward taking action to limit the nation’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Last week, with White House blessing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a preliminary decision that carbon-dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels constitutes a danger to the public. The […]

John Michael Greer: A Struggle of Paradigms

Perhaps the most fascinating factor shaping today If you don

Energy is everything

It is fascinating to watch the behaviour of our political and business leaders as they attempt to cope with the world No living or manufactured thing exists on this planet without energy. It enables flowers and people to grow. We need energy to mine minerals, extract oil or cut wood and then to process these […]

America needs passenger rail

President Obama recently unveiled his plan for bringing high speed passenger rail service to the U.S. The proposal includes a Gulf Coast corridor connecting Houston and Mobile, by way of Baton Rouge, and service from New Orleans to Washington, DC. This plan is great news for America, but is only the first step towards necessary […]

U.K. Says No New Coal Plants Without Carbon Capture

(Bloomberg) — The U.K. will only allow new coal- fired power plants to be built if they capture carbon-dioxide emissions for underground sequestration, said Ed Miliband, the minister responsible for energy and climate change. All new coal plants will need to demonstrate carbon capture and storage on at least 400 megawatts of their output, according […]

Monbiot: Budget 2009: Alistair Darling has just thrown away £300m

The car scrappage scheme will raise emissions, while the target for cutting carbon emissions of 34% by 2020 is still not enough You might have imagined, in these lean times, that the government would spend what remains of our money carefully. But it has just thrown away The car scrappage scheme is not about jobs […]

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