Saudi Arabia Can Raise Output 25%, Naimi Says

Saudi Arabia (OPCRSAUD) can increase crude production by as much as 25 percent immediately if needed, the country’s oil minister said, seeking to allay the concern over supplies that has driven prices to the highest in three years. Brent crude has gained 15 percent in London this year to about $124 a barrel. Iran has […]

No-Growth Capitalism’s post-crash manifesto

“It’s about revolution,” warns Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group, in his new book “Screw Business as Usual,” a declaration of war against today’s out-of-control capitalism. Branson’s at war, on the attack. His command center is the Carbon War Room where message becomes action, rallying an army of entrepreneurs into what I […]

Peak Oil Denial: Not Understanding Doesn’t Help

Yet another in the seemingly endless string of cherry-picked story lines attempting to put to rest the “theory” of Peak Oil has found its way onto the internet, completely unremarkable in the talking points offered, which I’ll get to. What was most striking was not so much the uniform lack of understanding on the part […]

As Cars Are Kept Longer, 200,000 Is New 100,000

HOW far can a modern car really go? Given the increasing age of vehicles on American roads, we may be on the verge of finding out. As a stubborn recession made drivers wary of new purchases for several years, the average age of vehicles on the road in the United States stretched to a record […]

Chevron executives barred from leaving Brazil over spill

A Brazilian court on Saturday barred 17 executives from Chevron and Transocean from leaving Brazil, pending criminal charges related to a high-profile oil spill last November. A federal judge in Rio de Janeiro state granted a request from prosecutors who are pressing for charges against both firms, a spokesman for prosecutor Eduardo Oliveira said in […]

Fracking: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians

A new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking. Fracking is the controversial method of forcing water, gases, and chemicals at tremendous pressure of up to 15,000 pounds per square […]

Kunstler: Juked by Medicine

This still moment on the verge of spring equinox, industrial civilization is taking a rest from its travails of finance and economy. The creaking and groaning vehicle of world banking lurches forward with its latest patch, the Greek fix, but the explosive resignation last week of a Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith, posted as […]

Big Oil, Big Government, and Big Hypocrisy

In a speech last week Newt Gingrich exulted that the estimated Bakken shale oil reserves in North Dakota had recently been revised upward to 24 billion barrels. So much, he said in a tone of patronizing dismissal, for the “Peak Oil doomsayers.” These remarks by Gingrich, who also says he’d lower gasoline prices to $2.50 […]

The Impact on U.S. Consumers of Every 1¢ Increase in Gas Prices: $1 billion

The average price of gas in the U.S. topped $4.01 per gallon on March 15, the highest level in almost a year and up 15 percent from mid-December. The rise was due, in part, to an improving economy and also to growing demand due to worries of an oil supply disruption in the Middle East […]

Fracking Can Cause Air Pollution

Complaints about the potential bad environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing have centered on water contamination. But fracking can also affect the air — particularly during the period when the wells are being built. Researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health looked at air samples collected by the Department of Public Health in Garfield County, […]

Threat of diesel rationing in Europe

At the homepage of the Stock Market Guide, (a service provided by the Swedish magazines Private Business and Business Weekly), is an excerpt from Gunnar Lindstedt’s article “Dark cloud over new oil” that was published in this week’s edition of Business Weekly. The headline they chose to use was “Threat of diesel rationing”. The following […]

Collapse? Really?

Collapse is a scary word, and some people doubt it is even relevant to us. Obviously we are facing some major challenges in this century. Does that mean collapse? What is collapse, exactly? When societies have collapsed, what actually happened? How bad is it? Are there ways of reducing the badness? While historic events can’t […]

What Are We Going to Do With All This Gas?

Now that we know we can successfully produce gas from U.S. shale gas plays, the question remains: What do we do with all this supply? Price differentials between the low U.S. natural gas prices versus diesel, gasoline and propane are providing incentives for fuel-switching in other demand areas aside from the electric power and industrial […]

Saudis preparing for oil demand to peak

A top Saudi energy official expressed serious concern Monday that world oil demand could peak in the next decade and said his country was preparing for that eventuality by diversifying its economic base. Mohammed al-Sabban, lead climate talks negotiator, said the country, with the world’s largest proven reserves of conventional crude, is working to become […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Sociological & Psychological Considerations (Pt 1)

The human mind is a fascinating piece of machinery…. One issue about which I have come across almost no discussion is neatly summed up by a fascinating study I found late in 2011. The authors are to be commended for shedding light on a very real, very important aspect of Peak Oil’s impact which to […]

Iran threatens Hormuz and world oil supply after trade links cutoff

Intelligence Minister Ali Falahian, Iran’s senior spokesman on sanctions, said Sunday, March 18,  that if the US and Europe think they can ignore international law to promote their interests, they should know that Iran will respond in kind everywhere it can. “I suggest that the West take seriously our threat to close the Strait of […]

America in the Muslim world: War, intervention, and nation building

Americans view their country’s activities in the Muslim world as a necessary part of the “war on terror.” Nation building and spreading democracy are activities whose popularity spans the American ideological divide. But these activities raise questions about such fundamental concepts as the nation-state and sovereignty, and they raise fears in the Muslim world that […]

Toward Energy Literacy

“Energy literacy” and “peak oil literacy” should be requirements for pundits – and for citizens more generally. I’ve followed these issues for many years now and it still amazes me how poor the knowledge of energy issues is among even the chattering classes and punditry. A recent MSNBC show allowed a guest to state, without […]

An eerie winter

Last week’s summerlike weather provided an exclamation point on the end of the fourth warmest winter in the lower 48 states. Back in late December and early January as the winter was unfolding, I thought to myself that somehow we needed eerie music piped into the sky to give people some clue about how they […]

Iran Oil Bourse To Open Next Week ?

Cryptogon points to a few interesting datapoints, amongst which is a claim the fabled Iranian oil bourse finally opens next week – IRAN’S BANKS TO BE BLOCKED FROM GLOBAL BANKING SYSTEM ON SATURDAY. Flashback to a couple of weeks ago on Cryptogon: If SWIFT actually pulls the plug, I’d consider the fuse to be lit. […]

Tech Talk – going back to the first look at Saudi Arabian oil production

The United States Government has just asked the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to raise the levels of its oil production this summer. Oil production is otherwise anticipated to be at some 9.8 mbd this summer, with fluctuations of around 200 kbd about that number. (There are rumors it has just hit 10 mbd.) It […]

Food security in a hungry world

International community’s biggest challenge is producing enough nutritional food, delivering it to the hungry. Climate change, water shortages, higher energy prices, crop diseases and a rapidly expanding population. These are all factors that are making it increasingly difficult and risky for farmers and governments to ensure the world has enough to eat. World agriculture production […]

Power Struggles at the Persian Gulf – is Another Gulf War Imminent?

Iran is currently the fifth-largest oil producer in the world, the second-largest producer in the OPEC, and the third-largest oil exporter worldwide. Of the total production of almost 3.5mn barrels/day, 2.285mn barrels/day were exported last year. 0.8mn barrels/day are shipped to the OECD countries in Europe, 0.6mn barrels/day of those to the EU and 200,000 […]

Pakistan: Gas, fuel shortage creates mass outages

Electricity shortfall rose on Thursday beyond 6,000 megawatt (MW) that is almost 50 per cent of total 13,000MW demand in the country, thus necessitating a 10 to 14 hours loadshedding throughout the country. According to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO), urban feeders suffered more than 10 hours of loadshedding while in rural feeders, there […]

Kurds say Exxon still working in North Iraq

Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) has not suspended its work in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, an aide to the region’s president said on Saturday, after Baghdad said Exxon had frozen its Kurdish deal. Iraq’s oil minister said on Friday that Exxon had written to Baghdad informing it that it had suspended work in the Kurdish region, under […]

A Future Of Pink Slime And Peak Water

Just saying the words, “Pink Slime” gives me the creeps. I’m not pleased to learn that I’ve been dining on this swill for the past sixty years. The US Department of Agriculture has made an interesting response to the public outcry about slime. Starting in September, every school district in the country will have the […]

51% of Americans Believe a Financial Collapse Is Imminent; 85% Say Country Is Overwhelmingly Under-Prepared

A recent survey of 1,007 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over suggests that most of us believe a doomsday scenario of some kind will occur in the next twenty five years. With three million preppers in the U.S. getting ready for widespread disaster, gun sales sky rocketing, and retail precious metals purchases at unprecedented […]

New Fukushima Cessium-137 Threat

The corporate media is again ignoring a major and potentially catastrophic development at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Kyodo News reported on March 15 that “that the clarity of water inside the spent fuel pool of the No. 4 unit may have deteriorated based on a survey conducted by a camera,” according to Tokyo […]

Why The Huge Spike in Oil Prices? “Peak Oil” or Wall Street Speculation?

Since around October last year,  the price of crude oil on world futures markets has exploded. Different people have different explanations. The most common one is the belief in financial markets that a war between either Israel and Iran or the USA and Iran or all three is imminent. Another camp argues that the price […]

Drilling to Begin Soon from 1st Russian Arctic Platform

Drilling is scheduled to begin this month from the first permanent offshore platform in the Russian Arctic, the Barents Observer reports. Over 500 workers are currently preparing the platform for drilling. The platform was towed from Murmansk in August of last year. Original plans called for drilling to begin last September but were postponed. The […]

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