Barnett shale gas production – on its way downhill?

Map of active permits and wells currently carried on the oil proration schedule and gas proration schedule database. The American shale gas revolution began in the area that goes under the name of the Barnett Shale. On the map above you can see active permits and wells. The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRA) is the […]

15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made The Decision To Go To War With Syria

Following John Kerry’s press briefing, it appears the Obama administration seems absolutely determined to help radical Islamic jihadists that have beheaded Christians, that have massacred entire Christian villages, and that have pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda topple the Assad regime and take over Syria.  Yes, the Assad regime is horrible, but if these jihadist lunatics take […]

In Bustling Houston, It’s A Case of ‘Build, Baby, Build!’

With Texas one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy, the skyline of swaggering Houston is where the action is as builders and global oil companies, from Phillips 66 to Exxon Mobil Corp, look past previous busts and spend billions on gleaming new buildings. The U.S. shale oil and gas revolution – which […]

Wealth is not Property

[Guest post by Ellen, a long-time reader of this blog that I’ve only just heard from recently. She makes a valid point, one I couldn’t have made better myself. It makes me happy that a woman is making it, although that doesn’t make it any less incendiary (for some people).] Thank you for your series […]

Housel: Peak oil is finally here

Peak oil is here, writes The Economist. But not the peak oil you’re thinking of, where supplies dwindle and prices march inevitably higher. That’s so 2008. This is peak oil demand, and it could hit in the next few years. As The Economist wrote earlier this month: “We believe that demand, not supply, could decline. […]

Reaching “peak bashing” of peak oil

The discussion of the death of peak oil has ramped up along with the increased hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling into tight sands and formations across North Dakota and Texas.  In fact, even people that think peak oil will correlate to significant problems for society shy away from the term.  But just as it is […]

Peak Oil Denial: Abundant Nonsense # 3

We don’t like bad news, particularly when it has very long term implications. Individually and collectively we tend to slip into denial mode, focus on diversions, become numbed to the reality of the situation, cling to anyone willing to assure us it just ain’t so, that things are going to get better. You can’t live […]

Energy From Oil or Energy From Water?

The late, Dr. Richard Smalley, Nobel laureate in Chemistry said the Terawatt Challenge is to find the “new oil”—a basis for energy prosperity in the 21st century that is as enabling as oil and gas have been for the past century. According to the US Energy Information Administration in 2006 the world derived its primary […]

Gail the Actuary almost gets it right

In the entry of July 11th, I commented on Gail Tverberg’s list of monetary problems that arise in connection with energy technologies that have an EROI as low as 5.0 in the methodology employed by Charles Hall until quite recently when he began to collaborate with Pedro Prieto who has added many (but not all) […]

Energy Cost Innovation: Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors

Low-cost, clean energy can help solve many world problems, from global warming to overpopulation to GDP stagnation. Nuclear power can be such an energy source, but the costs of solid fuel reactors continue to rise. Needed energy cost innovation may arise from a new technology — liquid fuel nuclear reactors. Global warming arises principally from […]

Fukushima’s legacy is just beginning

The highly radioactive water leaking from the wrecked Fukushima plant is part of a problem that Japan will take decades to resolve and which will blight many thousands of lives. LONDON, 25 August – The discovery at the plant of a leak of radioactive caesium eight times more dangerous than the levels immediately after the […]

When Beer and Natural Gas Collide

What happens when oil and gas companies contaminate the water that Brewers rely on for their beer in the State of Colorado? What happens after the citizens of the towns with those beers (Da’ Beers!) passed ballot initiatives to protect their towns? What happens when these towns are sued to force fracking against their will […]

Richard Heinberg: Was the Oil and Gas Industry Promoting Peak Oil to Make Maximum Profits?

Richard Heinberg’s new book explains why the oil and gas industry’s exaggerations of future supply have been motivated by short-term financial self-interest and are a disaster for America. August 19, 2013  | The following is an excerpt from Snake Oil: How Fracking False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future by Richard Heinberg (Post Carbon Institute). […]

Permaculture: Green Gold

“It’s possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems with the use of permaculture design principles and techniques.” Environmental film maker John D. Liu documents large-scale ecosystem restoration projects in China, Africa, South America and the Middle East, highlighting the enormous benefits to people and planet of undertaking these efforts globally. Geoff Lawton explains about permaculture and […]

Within Four Years, China To Consume More Oil Than U.S.

The U.S. is on its way out as the world’s No. 1 oil importer, according to energy market researchers at Woods Mackenzie.  That coveted (or not so coveted) title will belong to none other than China.  As if anyone would be surprised. According to the report, China will spend $500 billion a year on crude […]

Up Against Hard Limits – Food And Finance

We are reaching hard limits in food production and financial engineering. In the first 25 years after World War II (1946-1970), an abundance of cheap oil and plentiful opportunities (low-hanging fruit) for global development led to rapid urbanization and economic growth in much of the world. As oil became more expensive and the demands for […]

King Coal Gets Fatter, While The US Goes on a Diet

Introduction This is the 5th installment in a series that examines data from the recently released 2013 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Next week’s installment will be on carbon dioxide emissions, and that will wrap up the series. The previous posts were: Renewable Energy Status Update 2013 Hydropower and Geothermal Status Update 2013 The State […]

Who said that peak oil models were wrong?

An impressive graphic (click to enlarge) from a recent presentation by Jean Laherrere. The text is partly in French, but it is easy to understand the main results of the study. In the figure above, we see how well the world’s oil production has followed the models over nine years. On this point, Laherrere says […]

USDA: Rural population needed not for farming but for cannon fodder

Why do we need more farmers? What is the driving force behind U.S. Department of Agriculture policy? In an infuriating epiphany I have yet to metabolize, I found out last Wednesday in a private policy-generation meeting with Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. I did and still do consider it a distinct honor for his […]

Might as well face it, you’re addicted to oil

54Comments America, we need to talk. Have a seat. Remember when President George W. Bush told you seven years ago that you’re addicted to oil? Well, you’re still addicted, and it’s clear that many of President Bush’s prescriptions for breaking that addiction — “zero-emission coal-fired plants”, nuclear energy, next-generation biofuels, and hydrogen — have gone […]

China on Track to spend US$500bn on Crude Oil Imports by 2020, Surpassing US Import Require

On 20 August Wood Mackenzie (WoodMac) released a report on China and the USA’s future imports of oil. WoodMac regards itself as one of the world’s leading companies producing energy analyses. The title of the report is “Heading in Opposite Directions: China and US Reliance on Oil”, but I chose to use the report’s subtitle […]

Tech Talk – where to expect more oil to come this year

The news that Saudi Arabia is planning to employ 200 drilling rigs next year (up from 20 back in 2005) suggests that there is a recognition that future reserves may not measure up to the planned volumes needed. Plans now include exploration of the shale deposits in the country, looking primarily for natural gas. There […]

No such thing as green consumerism

Photo: HelloImNik/Flickr. A war on climate change is a war on materialism, plain and simple. The carbon pollution spewing out of our power plants and tail pipes is a natural byproduct of the monstrous engine of economic growth we have built, an engine that exists solely to satisfy the demand our materialism creates. Indeed this […]

Some Credible Scientists Believe Humanity Is Irreparably Close to Destruction

If you were to zoom out and take a comparative look back at our planet during the 1950s from some sort of cosmic time-travelling orbiter cube, you would probably first notice that millions of pieces of space trash had disappeared from orbit. The moon would appear six and a half feet closer to Earth, and […]

Global AC Needs Could Grow 50 Times Greater Than US Demand

America used to be the king of car sales, but China took that crown in 2009. America also used to be the world’s biggest polluter, but China now has that dubious distinction as well. Now China — along with India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines — could be set to surpass the U.S. in […]

A Production Chart and an IEA Prediction

Hey, it has been a slow last few days an I am hurting for anything to post. So I just picked out 25 countries that are obviously in decline and charted them. Hope you find it interesting. The countries are: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guiana, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iran, Libya,  Malaysia, […]

Peak oil is dead: long live peak oil!

Perhaps the news of the death of Peak Oil have been a bit exaggerated. Despite the tsunami of hype related to the new dreams of abundance, the concept of peak oil remains entrenched simply because it makes sense. Some economists have been arguing for decades that depletion was not an urgent problem and sometimes that […]

Helping Pemex help Mexico

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, unveiled a proposal this month to reform the country’s state-owned oil and gas monopoly Petroleos de Mexico, or Pemex. The plan, which requires a constitutional amendment, would allow foreign firms to partner with Pemex for the first time since 1938, when then-President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the industry. It’s a plan […]

Exxon Selling Iraqi Oilfield Stakes To PetroChina

Exxon Mobil is selling stakes it controls in Iraq’s West Qurna-1 oilfield to China’s PetroChina and Indonesia’s Pertamina, the country’s oil minister confirmed on Friday. “25 percent to Petro China and 10 percent to Pertamina,” Abdul Kareem Luaibi told Reuters on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting here. He added that the deal would be […]

Fukushima Update

It’s been over 2 years since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and it still seems to be making headlines (I’m sure officials were assuring us a few weeks after the disaster occurred that all was well and it couldn’t possibly melt down) so I thought I’d do a little survey of recent news. A few […]

« 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