Iran Oil Reserves Increase by 2.8 Billion Barrels

A senior official of the Iranian Oil Ministry says the country’s oil reserves have increased by 2.87 billion barrels during the previous Persian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012). The National Iranian Oil Company’s Director for Exploration Seyyed Mahmoud Mohaddes said on Saturday that more than 847 billion cubic meters of new gas reserves have […]

Peak Oil & Peak Everything Lecture

This lecture took place April 19th, 2012 and was given to the students of Professor Bill Schulze’s Sustainable Business class in Cornell University’s school of Applied Economics and Management. The lecture covers peak oil, the economics behind peak oil, the current state of our energy markets, the substitution to unconventional oil that is taking place […]

Home Run for Peak Oil

Today, more than the recent past, the peak oil denial industry is making heroic efforts at sidelining peak oil by describing it as controversial. Calling it controversial is an effective way of discrediting the concept, and ignoring its troubling implications for the global economy and human society. Making sure that there is no full public […]

Peak oil spells bad news for farm input costs

PEAK oil may force farmers to change the way they farm and where they export, according to Sydney University Agriculture and Environment senior lecturer Dr Lindsay Campbell. Mr Campbell believes farmers will face an increase in the price of chemicals, nitrogen, phosphate and freight costs, caused by increasing energy costs stemming from peak oil. “It […]

China should prepare for the risks of declining oil reserves for the sake of future energy security

In recent years, Chinese scholars have been embracing “peak oil” theory in increasing numbers. The idea – first put forward by American geophysicist MK Hubbert in 1949 – is that individual oil fields, oil-producing regions and world oil production will display a “bell curve”: a steep rise in available supplies, narrow peak and subsequent rapid […]

Peak Oil: Capitalism & Sustainability (Pt 5)

Back in November, Naomi Klein offered a fascinating and thought-provoking essay in Nation magazine entitled “Capitalism vs. the Climate” in which she discussed the transformative changes needed if we are to successfully (not a guarantee) and thoroughly address the challenges of our warming planet. Her insights and observations can easily be adapted to the similar […]

Kunstler: As If Nothing Matters

The world gave the appearance of doing nothing and going nowhere over the past month – apart from the sensational liaison of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, which, some believe, augurs a dazzling speed-up of the much prayed-for economic recovery, return to full employment, $2.50 gasoline by summer, and the selection of Jesus Christ as […]

Shale Finds that form a bedrock of hope

Gateway to the windswept wilds of Patagonia, Neuquén knows the power of oil money. Hydrocarbon riches have helped make the city the biggest in an Argentine region that has been producing oil and gas for roughly a century, with a bustling downtown packed with tower blocks and new four-by-four vehicles. Now Neuquén is on the […]

Israel’s Key Energy Provider, Egypt, Cuts Off All Natural Gas Supplies

Two months ago, we warned that while the world had decided to blissfully move on from last year’s topic #1, the MENA revolutions, and specifically the massive power vacuum left in their wake, things in the region were far from fixed. Quite the contrary, and as we added back then “it is very likely that […]

China Begins to Face a New Wealth of Energy

According to estimates from the US Energy Information Administration, China leads the world, with about 36 trillion cubic meters of recoverable shale gas reserves in several basins on land and under the South China Sea. The reserves are believed to be able to meet China’s demands for more than 300 years at the current rate […]

Withdrawing from the global village

The world’s elites don’t want to admit it. But the kind of global village that they have insisted on building–a vast free-trade paradise run by an ever more complex and opaque system of logistics and finance–isn’t working, not even for many of them. The cost of maintaining this brittle, complex system and keeping the huge […]

MALTHUS AND DARWIN: The Population Boon

As U.S. troops were massing in England for the Normandy invasion, the U.S. Congress engaged in a heated debate about how to avert mass unemployment when millions of servicemen came home at war’s end. Their concern followed precedent. Only a dozen years earlier, at the nadir of the Great Depression, World War I veterans had […]

Seven Myths Deniers Use To ‘Debunk’ Peak Oil, Debunked

Peak oil is a fact, not a theory. From US conventional oil production peaking in 1970 to global conventional oil production peaking in 2006 the figures are indisputable. Even institutions such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and publications like The Economist that are not known for alarmism have admitted that oil production from conventional sources has […]

U.S. oil production is up, so why are gas prices so high?

Given America’s new oil rush, it would seem the best of times for gas prices. But with $4-per-gallon sticker shock, it might feel like the worst of times. How can this be? The question is all the more perplexing, because the United States is not only producing more crude oil but also using less of […]

TEPCO: Not Enough Money To Handle Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 4 Problems

The problems at reactor 4 are the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and TEPCO doesn’t have the money to fix them. The problem at Fukushima nuclear reactor 4 which is being dubbed as the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and civilization as […]

Expert Warns: 100% Certainty of Total Catastrophic Failure of the Entire Power Infrastructure Within 3 Years

As smart grid metering systems expand across the developed world, many are starting to ask whether the threats posed by the new devices, which officials promise will save energy and reduce end user utility costs, outweigh their benefits. In addition to documented health concerns resulting from radiation emissions and no cost savings being apparent, opponents of the technology […]

USGS: World Outside U.S. Holds 565 Billion Barrels of Oil

The world excluding the U.S. holds 565 billion barrels of undiscovered, conventional oil and 5,606 trillion cubic feet of natural-gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. These numbers represent technically recoverable resources, or quantities of oil and gas that can be produced using currently available technology and industry practices, regardless of accessibility or economic considerations, […]

High oil prices threatened by … high oil prices

The fivefold increase in oil prices over the past decade has created boom times in Alberta, in North Dakota and in crude-producing regions across the globe, but the era of $100-a-barrel oil may be sowing the seeds of its demise. Oil-consuming nations, such as the United States and China, have become preoccupied with security of […]

Saudi Arabia Complacent in Age of Inflated Oil Prices

Saudi Arabia does not allow its oil to be traded, nor does it offer its oil without restrictions for resale. The kingdom only sells to final users — that is, to refiners, who process the crude oil themselves. That means oil may be available, but will remain unsold if refiners do not have a demand […]

Caribbean: Turning Landfills into Energy

The tourist brochure shows pictures of lovely white sandy beaches, tall coconut trees and rolling mountains. Welcome to the Caribbean. But the picture has been changing in recent years as Caribbean countries grapple with millions of tonnes of household waste that sometimes scar the landscape. Now there is a glimmer of hope. A United Kingdom-based […]

“Milestone” oil manipulation case unsettles traders

U.S. regulators’ $14 million settlement with high-frequency trading firm Optiver over oil price manipulation in 2007 is a “milestone” victory in their toughening stance on market malfeasance which is being closely watched by traders. In its first major case against an algorithmic trader, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said late on Thursday that a court […]

Nuclear Energy Accidents May Become Thing of Past

When it comes to nuclear power, there’s talk of all sorts of technologies and fuels — things that could make the average guy’s head spin. But if you think nuclear energy is an efficient and pollution-free way to make electricity, consider “thorium” and “molten salt reactors.” Huh? On the periodic tables, thorium rests just two […]

Earth Day’s dark side

Sunday was Earth Day, the annual jamboree of the green movement held worldwide since 1970. Unfortunately, a review of the accomplishments of the advocates of environmentalism and population control since that spectacular debut shows very little reason to celebrate. The seminal scriptures of modern-day environmentalism were Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” Paul R. Ehrlich’s “Population Bomb” […]

A Primer on Peak Oil

I ran across three separate articles on peak oil at well-regarded financial news sites today: The Economist, The Financial Times and Le Figaro. I thought I’d give you a run down of what they were saying and what it means for the economy and investing. What is Peak Oil About? Let’s start with The Economist: […]

The Myth That the US Will Soon Become an Oil Exporter

Countries trade crude oil and oil products back and forth. When all of these transactions are netted out, is the US close to becoming a “net” oil exporter? With the recent increase in oil production (perhaps even exceeding that of Russia on a “barrels-per-day” basis), a person might think that US oil production problems are […]

Obama oil margin plan could increase price swings

President Barack Obama’s bid to dampen the influence of oil speculators by having regulators set trading margins could backfire, potentially making prices even more volatile and leaving crude dominated only by those with the deepest pockets. Under Obama’s request to Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would determine how much speculators need to pay […]

Apocalyptic Daze

As an asteroid hurtles toward Earth, terrified citizens pour into the streets of Brussels to stare at the mammoth object growing before their eyes. Soon, it will pass harmlessly by—but first, a strange old man, Professor Philippulus, dressed in a white sheet and wearing a long beard, appears, beating a gong and crying: “This is […]

Peak oil goes mainstream (again)

Well, The Economist is talking about it in a non-sneery way. Okay, perhaps that’s not fair — only in February the newspaper likened oil markets to a horror movie: with prices likely to stay high and tight capacity raising the risk of future price spikes. Still, it’s interesting, in this time of triumphalism over shale […]

Japan Fires Up Nuclear Power Plants

After a long and arduous battery of routine inspections, not to mention many power failures and blackouts, Japan is ready to resume using nuclear energy after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda last week declared that two reactors were already safe to reactivate and operate after having passed undergoing computerized “stress tests”. This vote of confidence […]

Thomas Berry: Healing A Savaged Earth

Despite the fact that we have clearly entered uncharted territory in relation to the effects of industrial civilisation on the fate of the earth and her creatures, big government of all persuasions seems intent on relentlessly pursuing economic growth, environmental plunder and social and political control at every level. In view of our gathering predicament […]

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