Fuel Economy Improvements Show Diminishing Returns in Fuel Savings

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2014 Note: Calculations in graphic assume a fuel price of $3.50 per gallon and annual travel of 12,000 miles per vehicle. Fuel costs, which depend on vehicle fuel economy, miles driven, and fuel price, are an important factor in vehicle purchasing decisions. However, fuel economy improvement exhibits […]

EIA conference speakers warn of US light crude oil’s ‘day of reckoning’

The US could find its light crude oil production growth stymied if it doesn’t allow more of it to be exported, speakers warned during the US Energy Information Administration’s 2014 energy conference’s first day. John R. Auers, executive vice-president of Turner, Mason & Co. Consulting Engineers in Dallas, described what he termed “a day of […]

150 Years Of “Real” Oil Prices

In real terms, the price of crude oil has not been more expensive since the Pennsylvania Boom over 150 years ago…   Source: BP ZeroHedge

Put 53 Years on the Clock: The End of Easy Oil Is Within Sight

Love it or hate it, British multinational oil and gas company BP (NYSE:BP) is one the world’s top institutional experts on energy. Besides being a business leader in its industry — the sixth largest integrated oil company (IOC) by market cap in 2013 — the supermajor is at the forefront of the semi-commercial, semi-academic conversation […]

Coal Plant Carbon Pollution Injects Life in Old Oil Wells

The dream of pollution-free coal plants is getting a boost from growing demand for carbon dioxide used to revive old oilfields. In one of the first projects to harness the C02 waste of a coal plant for oil drilling, power generator NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) announced today that it’s beginning construction on a $1 billion […]

EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report

Just as I was finishing this post North Dakota published their production numbers for May 2014. North Dakota production was up over 36,000 barrels per day on 227 new well completions according to The Director’s Cut. I will have a post on all that tomorrow. The EIA’s Drilling Productivity Report has just came out. Below […]

The Real Shale Revolution

By now everyone knows the shale revolution was made possible by the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. But although fracking has captured the popular imagination, and is often used as a synonym for the whole phenomenon, horizontal drilling was actually the more recent and important breakthrough. Mastery of horizontal drilling around 1990, originally […]

Oil Is Vulnerable to Geo-Political Risk

Bruinhill Partners’ Michael Gurka and “Oil’s Endless Bid” Author Daniel Dicker discuss the price of Oil on “In The Loop.”

What Is Power Consumption Telling Us About The US Economy?

We track US power consumption on a weekly basis as reported by Barron’s, as we believe this information provides insightful – albeit sometimes “noisy” and seasonally unadjusted – clues about the performance of the economy over time. The expectation is that a more robust economic environment requires more power, although factors like colder winters and […]

World Population Could Quadruple By 2100

World population levels could soar to explosive heights if contraception doesn’t become readily available to women in developing countries. Friday marks World Population Day, the United Nation’s awareness event that invites experts to assess population growth and its global effects. The population currently sits at 7.2 billion, according to the U.N. It will likely hit […]

Tech Talk – Here we go again, again

A couple of posts or so ago I mentioned that there are three major problems sitting relatively un-noticed as we head into the mess of Peak Oil. Of these, perhaps the one that gets the least attention is the steady decline in production from existing wells. We are just about at the point where the […]

Peak Oil: Denial Magic 1

They should be magicians. Successful magic depends on the artist being able to distract the viewers from the sleight-of-hand performed. Keep them preoccupied with one topic or one item and it’s then much simpler to create the illusion of magic. Peak oil deniers are a lot like that. Toss out some carefully massaged facts bearing […]

Oil Abundance? Not So Fast – Drilling holes in the energy boom story

The story of America’s new energy abundance has been accepted uncritically by too many people.  A closer look at the realities of today and the last decade, coupled with a better understanding of our energy and oil systems, reveals risks that must be discussed and included in planning for the years ahead. This brief paper […]

America’s Oil Consumption Is Rising, Not Falling, Outpacing China’s

U.S. oil demand reversed course in dramatic fashion in 2013, as the nation’s growth in crude consumption outpaced perennial leader China for the first time since 1999, according to oil company BP’s annual compendium of world energy statistics. The U.S. increase follows two years of declines, and dampens hopes that the world’s largest oil guzzler […]

IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven on peak oil

With the introduction of unconventional oil sources, predicting peak oil has become almost impossible, the executive argues “The global energy map is quickly being redrawn,” says Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency. “What we are seeing is an oil boom that shows no sign of slowing” she adds. For […]

Orwellian Newspeak and the oil industry’s fake abundance story

When what you are saying is so obviously at odds with the plain truth, it is useful to choose your words carefully to obscure this fact. This was the strategy of the Ministry of Truth, the propaganda arm of the authoritarian government depicted in George Orwell’s novel 1984. The altered language was called Newspeak, a […]

Nicole Foss: We Need Freedom of Action To Confront Peak Oil

Nicole Foss: We Need Freedom of Action To Confront Peak Oil

Oil pipeline across Iowa proposed

A Texas energy company is hoping to build an 1,100-mile underground pipeline to transport a highly volatile type of crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields through 17 Iowa counties en route to Illinois. The project still faces regulatory hurdles from the Iowa Utilities Board and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and from […]

Population crisis putting world at risk

Since 1989, July 11 has been designated World Population Day. The United Nations was inspired to do so because of public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, when the world’s human population reached 5 billion. Two billion more were added by October 2011, and the estimates for population in 2050 are between […]

The deteriorating economic outlook

The third and final estimate (until the annual GDP revisions) of first quarter 2014 real GDP growth released June 25 by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis was a 2.9% contraction in GDP growth, a 5.5 percentage point difference from the January forecast of 2.6% growth. Apparently, the first quarter contraction was dismissed by those […]

Thailand gas demand growth plunges

Thailand is cutting natural gas imports as consumption growth has sagged to two-decade lows. The cutbacks threaten to idle costly fuel import facilities and force suppliers such as Myanmar to turn to rival buyers such as China. Growth in gas use has stalled as the economy has taken a hit from months of political turmoil, […]

Putin pledges to help revive Cuba’s offshore oil exploration

Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to help revive Cuba’s struggling offshore oil exploration on Friday at the start of a six-day tour of Latin America as Russia aims to reassert its influence on the communist-ruled island. Putin was joined in Havana by close ally and so-called Russian oil czar Igor Sechin, the chairman of state […]

Halliburton Forms Energy Joint Venture In China

Halliburton said Friday it is entering its first joint venture in China that will use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to unleash energy. The Houston company, which provides drilling services to oil and gas operators, said it will create the joint venture with an affiliate of SPT Energy Group. The venture will focus on hydraulic fracturing […]

Iraq’s Kurdish Fighters Seize Kirkuk, Bai Hassan Oil Fields

Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Friday Kurdish Peshmerga forces had seized control of production facilities at two key oil fields near the northern city of Kirkuk, in a move that could further worsen already frayed relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad. According to a statement published on the oil ministry’s website, Kurdish Peshmerga forces […]

Opportunity to Use Science to Establish Radiation Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to solicit comments from the general public and affected stakeholders about 40 CFR 190, Environmental Radiation Protection Standards for Nuclear Power Operations. The comment period closes on August 3, 2014. The ANPR page includes links to summary webinars provided to the […]

Peak Oil in Russia

This week no energy relevant developments came out of Iraq. The Islamic State seems to be still consolidating its territories, facing scant opposition from the Baghdad government. But the spectacular advances seem to be done with, at least for now. Few western media outlets are able to properly report the situation, with gory news now […]

How To Find Shelter From The Coming Storms?

Some basic suggestions for those who are seeking shelter from the coming storms of global financial crisis and recession. Reader Andy recently wrote: “I look forward to your blog each day but am still waiting for your ideas for surviving the coming crisis.” Andy reports that he and his wife have small government and private […]

Are We Running Out of Oil?

For many years, a number of industry experts have been sounding the alarm that America, and the world, are about to run out of oil. This is nothing new. In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said that U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. The Interior Department said global reserves would last 13 years… […]

Rising global oil demand driven by US

Global demand for oil will pick up next year as U.S. consumption reverses a four-year decline, and the United States will produce an increasing share of the world’s supply, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Thursday. As the world economy continues to recover, oil demand will grow by 1.2 million barrels per day […]

Global oil exploration nears $1 trillion – where are the finds?

* New oilfield development drop to lowest since 1999 * Global reserve replacement ratio falls steeply * Enhanced oil recovery from mature field is partial solution Two years ago Total (NYSE: TOT – news) ‘s chief Christophe de Margerie launched a “high risk, high reward” oil exploration strategy, betting he could hit a bonanza, even […]

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