Norway, Afflicted by Peak Oil, Invades the U.S. Bakken Reserves

The Energy Information Agency (EIA) of the Department of Energy (DOE) recently reported increased oil production from the Bakken formation, an area of about 200,000 square miles located in Williston Basin found in parts of North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan. “North Dakota’s oil production averaged 660 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) in June 2012, up […]

A123 Bankruptcy Casts Doubts on EV Goals

The theory was that the federal government could guide an entire US electric vehicle (EV) industry into existence by orchestrating a constellation of grants, loans and loan guarantees to manufacturers and infrastructure developers, along with generous tax credits for purchasers.  That vision was attractive, because EVs have the potential to be an important element of a long-term strategy to […]

How Robots Manipulate Natural Gas Prices

In the past few months, predatory high frequency trading (HFT) tactics have targeted natural gas so hard, that traditional traders are abandoning the trade entirely, says the Wall Street Journal. And if that doesn’t concern you, for the rest of us this manipulation means the price of natural gas can fluctuate wildly. Here’s how it […]

When science is a conveyor of bad news

Science is a phenomenal institution. Sometimes I can’t believe we created this construct that works so incredibly well. It manages to convert human imperfections into a remarkably robust machine that has aided our growth juggernaut. Yet science seeks truth, and sometimes the truth is not what we want to hear. How will we respond? Will […]

Ground under Fukushima Unit 4 sinking, structure on verge of complete collapse

Though the mainstream media has long since abandoned the issue, the precarious situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan is only continuing to worsen, according to a prominent Japanese official. During a recent interview, Mitsuhei Murata, the former Japanese Ambassador to both Switzerland and Senegal, explained that the ground beneath the plant’s […]

You built that: 3 top strategies for resilience

President Obama aroused the GOP’s ire for reminding business owners of the obvious point that their success relies in part on roads and bridges built at public expense. But the rest of us would do well not to place too much faith in big government in the uncertain times coming with peak oil, climate change and […]

Explorers Spend Up in The West

Shell, ConocoPhillips and other global energy majors show no sign of pulling back from hugely expensive exploration programs off the coast of Australia, demonstrating an optimism about future major development despite increasingly strident concerns about costs. In a highly unusual concentration of gas exploration drilling, three of the most expensive exploration wells ever drilled in […]

Italy plans to double its oil, gas production by 2020

Italy intends to double its domestic production of oil and gas by 2020 and boost renewable energy power generation as it moves to cut consumers’ energy costs and boost flagging economic growth. A new energy strategy, presented to the cabinet on Tuesday, said it aims to have 14 percent of its energy needs met by […]

Forthcoming World Resources Report Will Focus on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Today is World Food Day, a chance for people all over the world to focus on approaches to end global hunger. Celebrated each year to commemorate the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this day provides us with an opportunity to assess where the world is today in regard to food security […]

Culprit behind High Cost of Gasoline: U.S. Exports

In the Boston Globe (10/12/2012), Congressman Ed Markey noted that gasoline prices are increasing (8 percent), while crude oil prices have decline (7 percent) during the past four weeks.  He wants the Federal Trade Commission to determine whether price gouging can account for increasing gasoline prices. The U.S. Department of Energy attempted to assure motorists […]

Smart Cities and the Smart Grid

There are natural parallels between the Smart Grid and smart cities in terms of concepts and deployments.  Both rely on ICT technologies and M2M (machine to machine) communications applications to enable devices and systems to be remotely monitored and controlled.  Both are infrastructure plays that often require significant financial investments and have payback periods that […]

Fracking’s Dark Side Gets Darker: The Problem of Methane Waste

Fracking for oil in North Dakota is so lucrative that when natural gas bubbles up alongside the oil, most oil companies simply view it as waste. It’s cheaper, in the short term, to burn the gas than it is to build the infrastructure to pipe and sell it–so they burn it. Across the North Dakota […]

Global Oil Production Set to Skyrocket

Climate change or no climate change, crude production is going up spectacularly If you are at all concerned about the effect of the consumption of fossil fuels on climate change, brace yourself. It is inevitably going to grow dramatically, and soon. By 2020 – just eight years, according to a little-noticed research paper for the […]

Peak Oil: Visually Explained

A very cleverley made graphic on the subject of peak oil. April 2008

Iran says EU new sanctions are futile

Stringent new sanctions imposed by the European Union will not force Iran back into negotiations over its nuclear programme, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says. European Union governments imposed sanctions on Tuesday against major Iranian state companies in the oil and gas industry, and strengthened restrictions on the central bank, cranking up financial pressure […]

Mexico Has World’s Highest Level of Energy Security

Mexico, which has monopoly power over its oil production and sales, has the world’s highest level of energy security, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce study of the largest energy-consuming nations. The government-owned Petroleos Mexicanos ranks among the world’s largest oil companies while Mexico’s energy expenditures and carbon-dioxide emissions per person are relatively low, […]

Jean Laherrère: Jean Maugeri part II

This is part II of a guest post by Jean Laherrère, long term contributor to The Oil Drum. Jean worked 37 years for TOTAL on exploration and production of oil and gas, and since his retirement has worked tirelessly to analyse the world’s oil & gas data and developments. In part I of this article […]

Waking giant-Marcellus Shale bullies U.S. gas market

U.S. natural gas prices escaped a rout this summer as record heat helped reduce towering inventory levels. This winter, fierce cold will be needed to help absorb the newest barrage of supply that will again test the limits of an over-supplied market. Up to $3 billion worth of new pipelines connecting to the Marcellus Shale […]

What Should We Do With All This New Natural Gas Supply?

Maybe, just maybe, you can turn it into a true alternative to oil. It wasn’t all that long ago — the 1970s — when American natural gas production was waning. If you look at the graph above, production of natural gas hit a peak in the early ’70s that it did not reach again until […]

Saudis have gas discovery in northern Red Sea

  Saudi Aramco is reported to have drilled a natural gas discovery in the northern Red Sea. The company plans to drill more wells to delineate the discovery, which lies 15 miles offshore Duba and across the Red Sea from Hurghada, Egypt.  Oil Gas Journal

Kunstler: Heretics Unite!

     History is in a bad mood, as reflected in its acting troupe, the human race. What goes for the micro of an individual human personality also seems true for group. We have our bright moments, or years, and our darker ones and cycles within cycles of these and even sometimes bright and dark […]

No risk of oil price collapse despite demand slowdown: Aramco CEO

The global energy industry faces downward pressure on demand while supply of fossil fuels has risen sharply but there is no risk of a price collapse, Saudi Aramco CEO Khalid al-Falih was quoted as saying Monday. “Our industry now faces downward pressure on demand; supply abundance; a slowdown in the deployment of renewables; and reduced […]

After Peak Oil, What?

In a post published more than four-and-a-half years ago, I argued that global oil production may have already peaked (or will do so in a couple of years). I then contended that peak oil, together with global warming, will force most countries to reduce both their demand for oil in response to an ever-diminishing supply […]

Iran’s Secret Plan to Contaminate the Strait of Hormuz

Iran could be planning to create a vast oil spill in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a top secret report obtained by Western intelligence officials. The aim of the operation is to both temporarily block the vital shipping channel and to force a suspension of Western sanctions. If there is a man who brings […]

Is the core still inside of Fukushima Reactor?

On 10/12/2012, Tepco measured radiation level in retained water of PCV1. The cesium level was lower than water retained outside of PCV, Suppression chamber, inside of the reactor building though core is supposed to be inside of PCV.     Related article..11.1Sv/h in penetration tip of reactor1, “The higher it goes in PCV, the higher the […]

The Potential for a Heating Oil Crisis

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) last week reported on a potential crisis for heating oil customers in the Northeast part of the United States. In This Week in Petroleum (TWIP), the EIA reported: For the week ending October 5, distillate inventories in the U.S. Northeast (PADDs 1A and 1B) were 28.3 million barrels, about 21.5 […]

Ugo Bardi: Italy implodes

Image: fuel consumption in Italy. Slightly modified from “Mondo Elettrico” (click to enlarge) In a post that I published in 2008, I wondered whether Italy could survive as an industrialized country with oil over $ 100 per barrel. Four years later, we have seen oil prices going through a cycle of collapse and return to […]

IEA optimistic about future of Iraq oil industry

The International Energy Agency predicted Tuesday that Iraq will consolidate its position as a global oil power – allowing it to rebuild the economy of a nation ravaged by war and decades of Saddam Hussein’s autocratic rule. The leading global energy monitor reported that Iraq’s annual revenues from energy exports could double to an average […]

Peak Lithium: Death Blow For Electric Cars?

Economists and investors love to argue over the peak oil theory, and what the impact will be for a shrinking high EROEI oil supply means for the global economy. Some think we’ll switch to natural gas and electric vehicles, some put their faith in biofuels, and some claim that we still have so much oil […]

US: Hackers in Iran responsible for cyberattacks

U.S. authorities believe that Iranian-based hackers were responsible for cyberattacks that devastated Persian Gulf oil and gas companies, a former U.S. government official said. Just hours later, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and he declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if American is threatened by a […]

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