Natural gas by the quart: Shell’s new oil isn’t crude

Natural gas probably isn’t running your car, but it may soon be lubricating your engine. Royal Dutch Shell, which owns Pennzoil, Quaker State and other brands, is announcing Friday that it has already started selling a premium motor oil that is derived from natural gas and not crude. The process begins with Shell’s $19 billion […]

‘Full Disclosure’ of Frack Chemicals Urged by Energy Department Advisors

An Energy Department advisory board recommended “full disclosure of all known constituents” in fluids used for hydraulic fracturing, according to a draft report released March 6. The “Task Force Report on FracFocus 2.0” from the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) said state and federal regulators should adopt standards for companies making trade secret claims […]

Iran, world powers hold ‘substantive and useful’ nuclear talks

Iran and six world powers held “substantive and useful” expert-level talks over Tehran’s nuclear program this week, they said on Friday, ahead of a new round of political negotiations later this month. Seeking to build on an interim agreement reached late last year in Geneva, Iran and the major powers aim to hammer out a […]

Loophole Makes Hilarious Mockery Of US Crude Oil Export Ban

Washington is tangled up in spirited bouts of mudwrestling over exporting US-produced crude oil, which has been prohibited since the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Oil companies, environmentalists, consumer groups, lobbyists, lawmakers – they’re all at it. Oil companies, faced with lackadaisical consumption and ballooning production in the US, are desperate. They have visions of […]

OPEC oil output: a big jump, lifted by Iraq

Crude oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) climbed by 240,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 30.11 million b/d in February from 29.87 million b/d in January following a surge in Iraqi exports and despite new setbacks in Libya, a just-released Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts […]

Can The United States Rule The (Energy) World?

Geopolitical crises in Eastern Europe have been met with calls in the United States to use energy as a foreign policy tool. With U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz asking the industry to make a stronger case, however, it’s domestic policies that may inhibit energy hegemony. “The industry could do a lot better job talking about […]

Energy Crunch: Peaks and tipping points

Off-shore oil rig image via *Psycho Delia*/flickr. Three things you shouldn’t miss this week Global riot epidemic due to demise of cheap fossil fuels – From South America to South Asia, a new age of unrest unfolds as industrial civilisation transitions to post-carbon reality. UK oil and gas production in terminal decline? Offshore production by field: http://crudeoilpeak.info/uk-peak […]

Will LNG prices in Asia continue to be oil-linked?

The simple answer to that question is that there is no simple answer. Historically, LNG prices were linked to oil because LNG was displacing oil and that practice continued until US LNG export projects were proposed. Buyers from the US export projects will get LNG based on Henry Hub gas prices because in most cases […]

Ukraine crisis is about Great Power oil, gas pipeline rivalry

Pipeline map via BBC Russia‘s armed intervention in the Crimea undoubtedly illustrates President Putin’s ruthless determination to get his way in Ukraine. But less attention has been paid to the role of the United States in interfering in Ukrainian politics and civil society. Both powers are motivated by the desire to ensure that a geostrategically pivotal country with […]

In Defence of Hypocrisy

Do I contradict myself?  Very well then I contradict myself,  (I am large, I contain multitudes.)   The ‘I’ in this passage — from section 51 of Song of Myself, by poet Walt Whitman — stands as a reference to the erratic and self-contradictory ways in which people think and act out their lives.   […]

Peak Oil: Appreciating The Risks

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Richard Steiner: The first step in recovering from any addiction is to tell the truth — admit the addiction, acknowledge its consequences. Yet this is something we still seem unwilling to do with our addiction to oil…. The truth about oil is that while there are benefits […]

Brazil prepares for the second great LNG bailout

Brazil should give up electricity for Lent, a Rio de Janeiro-based analyst told Interfax on Wednesday, with a touch of gallows humour. However, it is no laughing matter: the hydropower-dependent country has just recorded the second-driest January in 80 years, and the prospect of electricity rationing looms. The 100 days between Carnival and kick-off for […]

Natural Gas and International Policy

Recent unrest around the world is making U.S. policy makers to look closely at our nation’s energy policy.  Venezuela, one of the world’s largest oil producers, has seen their oil production fall due to political unrest, bad leadership, and a broken economic system.  Russia, another major energy producer, is rattling sabers and Europe is uncomfortable […]

Vladimir Putin using Russia’s natural gas as a weapon against Ukraine

Former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton says Russian President Vladimir Putin is using his country’s energy resources to intimidate his opponents. Concerns over Ukraine’s financial condition mounted this week after Russian state gas company Gazprom said it was cancelling a substantial discount on natural gas granted to the former satellite country in December. Mr. […]

The Math Of Feeding The World

The next time you’re enjoying a meal, take a moment to think about where the food came from. Think about the family farmer or rancher who helped put it on your plate—not only that day, but all 365 sunrises a year for you and the other 7 billion and counting people around the world American […]

Question Everything, Believe Nothing – Group Think and the Hive Mind

Question Everything, Believe Nothing Chapter Two Group Think and the Hive Mind By Cognitive Dissonance     To subscribe to ‘Dispatches‘, a periodic newsletter from Cognitive Dissonance and TwoIceFloes Creations, please click here.   Chapter One may be found here.   There is a pretty common ‘belief’ among many that to ask questions of some ‘things’ that others […]

Reasons for our Energy Predicament: An Overview

Quiz: What will cause world oil supply to fall? Too little oil in the ground Oil prices are too low for oil producers Oil prices are too high for oil consumers leading to recession, debt defaults, and ultimately a cut back in credit availability and very low oil prices Oil exporters are subject to civil […]

Imperial Conquest: America’s Long War Against Humanity

Worldwide militarization is also part of a global economic agenda, namely the application of the neoliberal economic policy model which has led to the impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. The world is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, “a […]

‘Doctor EROEI’ Was Wrong

‘For some years now,‘ Tim Morgan writes in Life After Growth, ‘global average EROEIs have been falling, as energy resources have become both smaller and more difficult (meaning energy-costly) to extract.‘ You may have heard of this concept called energy return on energy invested (EROEI). It looks at how much energy we expend in relation […]

Peak Oil: Facts Annoy

TRUTH BE TOLD   Crude oil production is heavily concentrated in a small number of countries and a small number of giant  fields….Future global production is therefore heavily dependent on the future prospects of the giant fields, but this remains uncertain—in part because the required field-level data are either unavailable or unreliable. (links/citations in original) […]

Are You Crazy To Continue Believing In Collapse?

It’s nerve-wracking to live in the historical moment of an epic turning point, especially when the great groaning garbage barge of late industrial civilization doesn’t turn quickly where you know it must, and you are left feeling naked and ashamed with your dark worldview, your careful preparations for a difficult future, and your scornful or […]

A Century of Challenges Peak Oil & Economic Crisis

Nicole M. Foss is co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. Nicole Foss – How I Prepared My Home for Peak Oil and Economic Uncertainty videos..

Ukraine Crisis Means Drill Baby Drill

Russia’s invasion of the Crimea is a tipping point event that will further spur the North American oil boom.  The European Union (EU) and United Statesin 2008 threatened toslap economic sanctions on Russia for invading Georgia.  But after a while the criticism faded and sanctions threats were quietly dropped, because the EU is almost entirely […]

Schadenfreude and the Future of Energy Storage

I had the pleasure this past week of attending the ARPA-E Summit in Washington, D.C. The ARPA-E Summit is always for me one of the most interesting programs on the industry calendar. Although the Summit focuses primarily on highlighting new energy technologies, much of its program is devoted to discussing the future of energy and […]

Chronology of the Ukrainian Coup

This is a guest post by Renée Parsons, who did a very good job of pulling together the facts. Facts are important, you know, especially in light of the rabidly anti-Russian press coverage in the US. [Wednesday updates: • According to a leaked EU’s Ashton phone tape, the Kiev snipers, who shot both protesters and […]

Can we depend on a “Call on OPEC”, or has OPEC peaked?

Steve Kopits, in his recent presentation at Columbia University, ridiculed the IEA’s often used term a “Call on OPEC“. That is, the IEA looks at the world oil supply and if they see a supply shortage looming on the horizon they then issue a “Call on OPEC” to supply x number of extra barrels and […]

EROEI: Economics Without the Money

“For some years now,” Tim Morgan writes in Life After Growth, “global average EROEIs have been falling, as energy resources have become both smaller and more difficult (meaning energy-costly) to extract.” You may have heard of this concept called energy return on energy invested (EROEI). It looks at how much energy we expend in relation […]

Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain pull ambassadors from Qatar

Three Gulf states withdraw their ambassadors from Qatar after alleging that the emirate has been meddling in their internal affairs Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have issued a joint statement withdrawing their ambassadors from Qatar. “The three states have decided to start taking measures they see fit to protect their security and […]

T. Boone Pickens: Let’s transform energy — with natural gas

The US consumes 25% of the world’s oil — but as energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens points out onstage, the country has no energy policy to prepare for the inevitable. Is alternative energy our bridge to an oil-free future? After losing $150 million investing in wind energy, Pickens suggests it isn’t, not yet. What might […]

Iraq returns as world’s fastest-growing oil exporter

* Iraq boosts February exports to 35-year high * Oil execs say more Iraqi growth possible in 2014 * OPEC delegates relaxed, for now, about extra Iraqi oil Iraq is reclaiming its rank as the world’s fastest-growing oil exporter, cushioning consumers from Libyan supply outages for now and, perhaps, reviving OPEC market share rivalries down […]

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