When The Oil Drum Peaked

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:27 — 44.0MB) TWiE: discusses with Dr. Dave Summers, co-founder of The Oil Drum, natural gas & fracking, global oil supplies, solar on the White House (again) & parasitic loads in our homes all of that & more! Hosts: Kirsten Hasberg (Denmark & Germany) and Bob Tregilus (U.S.A.). Guest: Dr. David Summers […]

What To Expect During The Next Stage Of Collapse

For years now at Alt-Market (and Neithercorp.us) I have carefully outlined the most likely path of collapse to take place within the U.S., and a vital part of that analysis included economic destabilization caused by a loss of the dollar’s world reserve status and petro-status.  I have also always made clear that this fiscal crisis […]

Shale Grab in U.S. Stalls as Falling Values Repel Buyers

Oil companies are hitting the brakes on a U.S. shale land grab that produced an abundance of cheap natural gas — and troubles for the industry. The spending slowdown by international companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) comes amid a series of write-downs of oil and gas shale assets, […]

Campfire: Towards Homo Sapiens – A Movie Script

For a few years, on Saturdays, theoildrum.com hosted a “Campfire” discussion – with a focus not on charts and graphs, but more on the social science glue connecting the many subjects revolving around energy, the environment and society. Rather than a place to discover correct answers, the forum was intended to be a sandbox where […]

US Could Tap Into 1400 Terawatt Hours Of Clean Ocean Power

As the US offshore wind power industry slowly (very slowly) cranks up to speed, let’s not forget that US coastal waters also represent a huge, as-yet-untapped energy resource in the form of waves, tides and currents. The Department of Energy estimates the total could come up to 1400 terawatt hours of electricity per year, enough […]

Bill Gates: “I Love Nuclear”

For faithful viewers of the ANS Nuclear Matinee—an instant classic from not so long ago, starring Microsoft founder, philanthropist, and nuclear energy enthusiast (and investor) Bill Gates. Gates is a prominent investor in the nuclear reactor development firm TerraPower. For more information on the “traveling wave” reactor concept that the company is developing, see this post […]

Neo-Malthusians believe we may still be heading for some kind of population crash

Ever since Thomas Malthus published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” in 1798, positing incorrectly that humans’ proclivity for procreation would exhaust the global food supply within a matter of decades, population growth has been a hot button issue among those contemplating humankind’s future. Indeed our very success going forth and multiplying, paired with […]

Modeling Bakken Oil Production: The Oil Shock Model Explained

This is a guest post from WebHubbleTelescope. Here he provides a simplified explanation of his Oil Shock Model as applied to oil production from the Bakken formation. Previous contributions to THe Oil Drum from WHT can be found here and here. My premise for participating was that I wanted to see how far I could […]

Some strange business going on at one of China’s biggest oil companies

The loss of four senior management officials in the past week at China’s largest state oil company China National Petroleum Corp.  is still shrouded in mystery, serving to fan even more speculation about their resignations. On Tuesday, CNPC’s listed subsidiary PetroChina announced in a brief statement that three senior management officials had resigned following ongoing investigations […]

What do we mean by peak oil?

Another EarthWise piece I wrote aired on WAMC Wednesday.  This one was a very basic introduction to the concept of Peak Oil, which is pretty much what it had to be, since it was a 2-minute piece for a general radio audience which might not have even heard of peak oil. You can listen to […]

Fukushima Radiation Affecting US Tuna

Recent reports have exposed what some people had predicted at the time of the Fukushima nuclear disaster: that radiation would spread. And it has, through fish that migrates between North America and Japan. Reuters recently reported that “low levels of radioactive cesium from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident turned up in fish caught off California […]

The spectre of peak oil still looms over us

The Syrian conflict is full of complicating factors, but oil isn’t one of them. Syria accounts for less than half of one per cent of global production, most of which is consumed domestically. That said, Iran and Saudi Arabia stand on opposite sides of Syria’s civil war – and of the world’s most important oil […]

The Oil Drum, peak oil and why some good blogs don’t last

At the end of this month, The Oil Drum will be archived after eight years. A flurry of commentary when this was first announced concluded that it’s shutting down because of the demise of peak oil. Noah Smith, Forbes and Reuters’ John Kemp, among others, have concluded that extraction from new sources, particularly shale gas […]

Saudi Oil Output to Stay Near 10 Million Barrels a Day

Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s biggest producer, will probably keep crude production steady in September at similar levels to this month and July, a person with knowledge of the kingdom’s oil policy said. The world’s biggest crude exporter produced 10.03 million barrels a day in July, and taking into account inventory movements it supplied 9.9 million barrels […]

Will military strikes push oil prices to record highs?

As politicians in the US and Europe move closer to launching military strikes in Syria, the uncertainty in the country and the prospect of further instability in the Middle East is being reflected in the financial markets. In recent days, the price of oil has surged to a six-month high. A barrel of Brent crude […]

In Stunning Move UK Parliament Rejects Syria Military Strike, Obama “Willing To Go It Alone”

Moments ago the UK House of Commons, in a razor thin vote, rejected the Cameron proposal for military action in Syria with a vote 285 to 272. Cameron promptly said he would respect the will of the House of Commons and UK Defense Secretary Phillip Hammond confirmed there would be no UK military intervention in […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Supply Chains

Oil plays an essential role in almost everything that touches our everyday lives. From the food we eat to the means by which we transport ourselves, our goods, and our services, to what we grow, build, have, own, need, and do, oil is almost always an important element. But the painful truth now and soon […]

Peak Oil: a fertile concept

This article is a reflection originated by the recent demise of the “Oil Drum” website. Some people have taken this event as a demonstration that the concept of peak oil is dead and buried. But the situation is much more complex: peak oil is a fertile concept; it provides a complete worldview that sheds plenty […]

John Michael Greer: Terms of Surrender

Today’s debates over hydrofracturing (“fracking”) oil-bearing shales, the theme of last week’s post here on The Archdruid Report, have dimensions that go well beyond the world of ritual theater discussed there. To begin with, of course, a great deal of money is being made off the current fracking boom by assorted Wall Street office fauna, […]

Power Grid Down Drill To Be Conducted By US Government

Power grid vulnerabilities are finally garnering some attention by government officials. An electrical grid joint drill simulation is being planned in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Thousands of utility workers, FBI agents, anti-terrorism experts, governmental agencies, and more than 150 private businesses are involved in the November power grid drill. The downed power grid […]

Considering some oil numbers before the inevitable in Syria

As the likelihood of an attack by Western powers on Syria continues to roil the oil markets, here are a few numbers that we offer as background: Syrian production: It’s about 50,000 b/d. A few years ago, it was about 350,000 b/d. Days’ cover: This figure is just for OECD nations, which consist of 34 […]

Fukushima Daiichi leak raised to level 3 severity

Japan’s nuclear regulators have raised the level of severity of the radioactive water leak from a tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It is now a level-3 serious incident. The revision from level 1 is based on estimates of the volume of radioactive substances leaked. The leak was found earlier this month at one […]

Oil could hit $150 if Syria war spreads

Brent crude oil is likely to rise towards $125 a barrel if the West launches air strikes against Syria and could go even higher if the conflict spills over into the rest of the Middle East, Societe Generale said on Wednesday. Michael Wittner, oil analyst at the French bank, said the North Sea crude oil […]

Oil Prices Lead to Hard Financial Limits

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We live in a finite world.  Clearly, a finite world has limits of many kinds. Yet economist and other researchers use models that assume that these limits are unimportant for the foreseeable future. They have certainly not stopped to think that any of these might be very hard limits that are difficult to get around, and […]

Integrated Oil Bets Big on Demand Surge

Among the major integrated oil and gas companies, ExxonMobil’s return on capital employed is industry-leading. This lead, at least in part, is due to its in-depth understanding of energy markets. Because of this insight, it is useful to study their Outlook for Energy, a yearly publication with key findings concerning future energy demand and composition. […]

What The Oil Drum Meant

The popular peak oil blog The Oil Drum (TOD) began in early 2005.  I joined as a contributor in mid 2005, later becoming an editor, and I left the site in early 2008.  TOD continued in the meantime, at least up until now when the current editors have decided to transition to an archival format.  They […]

Bakken vs. Eagle Ford

This just news came out today.  Energy fact of the day: Eagle Ford Shale sets new oil output record in May, will likely surpass Bakken Shale next year From that article: Bottom Line: If the current annual increases in Eagle Ford Shale oil production continue in the 50-70% range, which are now much higher than the […]

Assad: Failure Awaits the USA

Syrian President Bachar al-Assad has warned President Obama not to take military action against his country since: “Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day”. Assad’s declaration will probably be more damaging to the over-inflated ego of the world’s policeman that […]

Peak car?

The Australian has an article on declining interest amongst Gen Y for getting a drivers licence – Driving me crazy: Getting a licence a low priority for Generation Y. In 1991, of NSW kids aged 20-24, 79 per cent had licences. By 2001 it had risen to 80 per cent. Yet by 2008 it had […]

Texas Earthquakes Tied to Extraction in Fracking

A recent wave of small earthquakes in and around the Eagle Ford formation in Texas was probably the result of extracting oil and in some cases water used for hydraulic fracturing, according to a study. Clusters of small-magnitude seismic events between November 2009 and September 2011 were “often associated with fluid extraction,” according to the […]

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