Triple digit oil prices to hamper growth

The global economy depends on oil as the human body on blood. It is because oil is the major source of energy to drive the wheels of production across the globe. Interestingly, it is the converging point of economics and politics. That is why it is sold in a world market in which every barrel, […]

Saudi, Chinese oil giants ink joint refinery deal

Saudi state oil giant Aramco inked a deal Saturday with China’s Sinopec to build an oil refineryin the Red Sea city of Yanbu that will process 400,000 barrels per day, state news agency SPA said. The project, named Yasref, aims to be operational in 2014, SPA reported. Saudi Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake […]

Peak Oil, Energy Descent, and the Fate of Consumerism

A new paper by Dr. Samuel Alexander, “Peak Oil, Energy Descent, and the Fate of Consumerism” of Simplicity Institute (www.simplicityinstitute.org). Rethinking energy at the end of the era of cheap energy is crucial and is not optional – the laws of Thermodynamics cannot be repealed and Mother Nature has a way of settling such issues […]

Cairn’s $600 Million Greenland Oil Campaign Ends in Failure

Cairn Energy Plc ended this year’s $600 million drilling program off Greenland after the biggest exploration campaign attempted in the Arctic island’s waters failed to make a viable discovery. The AT7-1 well, which had encountered traces of oil and gas, has been plugged and abandoned, the Edinburgh-based company said today in a statement. The AT2-1 […]

One step closer to controlling nuclear fusion

Using a heating system, physicists have succeeded for the first time in preventing the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor. It’s an important step forward in the effort to build the future ITER reactor. Scientists have achieved a milestone: they have managed to stop the growth […]

Ugo Bardi: Why biofuels are not a good idea

Last year, I was engaged in a public debate on energy with a high level senior official of the Italian government – a “technocrat” if you like to use this term. When I expressed strong doubts about biofuels as a source of energy, his reaction was aggressive. He attacked me personally, hinting that I was […]

US acts to hold Israel back from striking Iran.

The bombing attack in Tehran which killed Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan last Wednesday, Jan. 11, generated an angry phone call from US President Barack Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day, debkafile’s Washington and intelligence sources report.  Washington is increasingly concerned, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, that Israel is preparing […]

OPEC could replace Iran oil supplies to Europe

OPEC members would be able to make up for a drop in Iranian oil supplies if the EU was to agree to an embargo on the country’s imports, said Chakib Khelil, the group’s former president. Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has oil in onshore storage and in tankers, […]

PFC Energy: Saudis have 2.5m barrels spare oil capacity

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is able to boost production to its officially-announced peak of 12.5 million barrels a day, according to PFC Energy. Proposed European Union sanctions to block imports from Iran have raised the prospect that other suppliers may need to make up any shortfall. Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who has […]

A Provisions Shortage Sparked the Arab Spring?

In 1798 32 year-old British economist Malthus anonymously published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” and in it he argued that human population’s increase geometrically (1, 2, 4, 16 etc.) while their food supply can only increase arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4 etc.). “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in […]

Energy use sucking up a precious resource

If you enjoyed a cup of coffee this morning, it might interest you to know it took 140 litres of water to produce that cup. Such a simple but profound equation. It is strange, strange, strange that when it comes to the most important subject on the planet, the basis of all life – water […]

Fukushima: The Asian 911

Fukushima is the worst nuclear “accident” in history. Many Japanese have come to the conclusion that not only is their government lying to them about how bad the radiation is but they are also lying to them about the entire nature of the incident. Ten months after the event we now have much more information […]

Gulf Nations Aid U.S. Push to Choke Off Iran Oil Sales

Pressure on Iran mounted on Thursday, with the United States saying it was determined to isolate the country’s central bank, and three of Iran’s largest oil customers — Japan, South Korea and China — getting assurances that Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf producers would help make up any gap in supplies if they curtailed […]

Canada: Markets focus on energy-hungry Asia

It was less than four years ago when then-Governor Sarah Palin threw her support behind TransCanada Corp.’s plans to build a pipeline to transport natural gas from the Alaska North Slope through Canada and into the southern united States. But as a swell of shale gas hit the market, sending North American natural-gas prices down, […]

Renewable-energy misery spreads to Vestas, as the Danish wind turbine maker slashes jobs

Turbulence in the renewable-energy industry buffeted Vestas on Thursday, as the Danish wind-turbine maker announced plans for 2,335 layoffs, including some at its U.S. headquarters in Portland. Vestas Wind Systems will cut about a tenth of its worldwide work force, slashing costs by $190 million before year’s end. Layoffs will include 182 in the United […]

Nigeria oil union threatens the government

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Conflict between the Nigerian government and the country’s unions over the abolition of a fuel subsidy has escalated sharply. The dispute has already been felt in the world wide oil market, where the price of crude has risen by $2. At the same time, Nigeria’s president Goodluck Jonathan is grappling with insurgent violence […]

UK oil and gas decline to halt as investment booms

British oil and gas tax revenues could rise by billions of pounds this year as high oil prices boost earnings and tempt operators into opening new fields after a decade of sharp declines, industry data and Reuters research showed on Thursday. The past two years of investment have set the stage for a landmark shift […]

EU Iran Oil Embargo Likely Delayed Six Months

A European Union embargo on imports of Iranian (OPCRIRAN) oil will probably be delayed for six months to allow countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain to find alternative supplies, an EU official with knowledge of the talks said. The embargo, which would need to be agreed by the 27 nation-bloc’s foreign ministers on Jan. […]

The war is with China, the battleground Africa

When United States President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta appeared together at the press conference at the Pentagon recently to reiterate America’s commitment to the Asia-Pacific region, the subject of Africa did not come up. Sometimes what is avoided can be a clue to what is most important on the agenda. The […]

Nuclear Comeback Could Boost Uranium Prices

The price of uranium could receive a boost from renewed instability in the Middle East if governments turn again to nuclear power, an industry executive told CNBC. Last March, the Japanese earthquake and subsequent crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants reignited safety concerns about nuclear power and stalled the industry’s revival. In the […]

Lufthansa suspends biofuel test flights

Lufthansa has stopped testing biofuel in its aircraft because it has exhausted its stocks of biosynthetic kerosene and no other reliable supplies are available. The final test flight was a long-haul service to the US. German airline Lufthansa ended its six-month trial of biosynthetic kerosene with a transatlantic test flight on Thursday. The Boeing 747-400 […]

India – Land of Energy Opportunity

Quick, what country is the economic engine that will power world growth? If you answered “China,” you’re far from alone. But there’s another country that deserves as much attention and better yet, is much friendlier to investment: India, home to 1.2 billion people. To electrify all those houses, power the industries that keep all those […]

China Snubs Geithner on Iran Oil

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s efforts to tighten economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program won backing from Japan a day after China rejected limiting oil imports from the country. “We want to take concrete steps to reduce our share in an orderly way as soon as possible,” Finance Minister Jun Azumi said […]

The Perennial Search for Perennial Grains

Most would agree that there is no single solution to the challenges brought about – currently and in the future – by inexorably declining, worldwide oil production rates, or Peak Oil.  As Steve Andrews, one of the co-founders of ASPO-USA likes to say – there are no Silver Bullets, only Silver BB’s. So, Silver BB’s […]

More Tiresome Denial

What would the New Year be if we didn’t have an offering of more half-truth, delusional nonsense about our fossil fuel status? Amy Myers Jaffe (nice takedown here) wrote an article for Foreign Policy a while back, serving up another example from the playbook of denial nonsense. As I suggested in a series of posts […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Holiday/Family Dinners

The (I hope) festive holiday season is once more in our collective rearview mirror, and we all now eagerly await the return of spring and the good feelings the change to warmer seasons always seem to usher in. Most of us probably spent at least a brief period of time celebrating the holidays and (again, […]

Oil Prices

I have been generally bearish on (Brent) oil prices for the last few months on the reasoning that the situation in Europe had to get worse before it got better.  I am becoming less certain about the direction of prices in early 2012. One factor in my shifting stance is an emerging sense that the […]

Super Fracking Goes Deeper to Pump Up Natural Gas Production

As regulators and environmentalists study whether hydraulic fracturing can damage the environment, industry scientists are studying ways to create longer, deeper cracks in the earth to release more oil and natural gas. Energy companies are focused on boosting production and lowering costs associated with so-called fracking, a technique that uses high-pressure injections of water, sand […]

Naked Oil

All is not as it appears in the global oil markets, which have become entirely dysfunctional and no longer fit for its purpose,in my view. I believe that the market price is about to collapse as it did in 2008, and that this will mark the end of an era in which the market has […]

US presses China over Iran oil imports

US officials have expressed optimism China is open to working with Washington in its efforts to get major oil importers to reduce dependence on supplies from Iran. The officials spoke after US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner arrived in Beijing as part of a lobbying effort which Washington hopes will add to the pressure on Tehran […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy