Don’t expect a Cuban oil bonanza

More U.S. travelers may soon start flocking to Cuba, but don’t expect oil executives to follow them. Cuba is believed to hold sizable oil and gas resources off its northwest coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico — raising speculation that the Communist nation could become an attractive target for energy companies if Wednesday’s diplomatic […]

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Strategy Is About More Than Destroying The US Shale Business

Saudi Arabia may not be aiming at the US in its hands-off policy toward falling oil prices. At a panel discussion Wednesday hosted by the Overseas Press Club and Control Risks (the latter a global risk consultancy), the speakers seemed skeptical of the idea that Saudi Arabia was refusing to prop up oil prices because it […]

US will stay in ITER, boosts domestic fusion program

Omnibus spending bill removes the threat of US withdrawal from project. The measure also boosts US domestic fusion program. The US won’t be backing out of ITER, the international fusion test reactor under construction in France, for at least another year. Funding of $150 million is provided for ITER within the $1.1 trillion bill that […]

New York Bans Fracking After Health Report

New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration said on Wednesday. New York Environmental Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a cabinet meeting he will issue an order early next year banning fracking, which has been under a […]

Decline Rates of Large Oilfields, featuring Jim Buckee

Former Talisman Energy CEO Jim Buckee discusses the decline rate of giant and super giant oil fields. Interviewed by Steve Andrews, Energy Analyst-Writer

Oil Prices as an Indicator of Global Economic Conditions

West Texas Intermediate sold for $105 a barrel at the start of July, but ended last week at $58. The most important factor has been surging U.S. production. But another reason oil prices have slid so much is weakness in demand for the product, which may be related to a slowdown of overall world economic […]

Why Oil Is Being Hurt by US, and Why Oil Goes Back Up in 2015

Trying to peg the bottom in oil is quite simply a guessing game. Still, with the gyrations and price swings, some investors have to wonder if the worst has been seen. After all, oil has fallen nearly 50% from the peak this summer. On top of many of the frequently covered issues around oil demand, […]

Pillaging the World. The History and Politics of the IMF

The following text is the forward to Ernst Wolff’s book entitled : Pillaging the World. The History and Politics of the IMF, © Tectum Verlag Marburg, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8288-3438-5, www.tectum-verlag.de. The book is available in English and German No other financial organization has affected the lives of the majority of the world’s population more profoundly […]

How Technological Progress can Generate a Faster Collapse

The image above (from Wikipedia) shows the collapse of the North Atlantic cod stocks. The fishery disaster of the early 1990s was the result of a combination of greed, incompetence, and government support for both. Unfortunately, it is just one of the many examples of how human beings tend to worsen the problems they try […]

A Framework for New Economy Organizing

When I first got involved in the co-op movement I didn’t do it because I thought the co-operative model was an end in itself. It was a means to an end. This will be different for different people but for me that end was, and largely still is, an economy run for and by the […]

American Privilege

Limousine liberals are peddling the convoluted construct of “white privilege” to explain unequal achievement. This misguided notion fosters complacency and exacerbates inequality, preventing pursuit of something much more powerful – American privilege. Maybe there are some remnants of white privilege, but it is subsumed by American privilege which entices the venturesome into our cavernous vaults of […]

Panicked by population hysteria?

A steady stream of headlines are hyping a new journal article that claims that the world population is a terrifying goliath resolutely stomping towards human destruction. Written by two environmental scientists in Australia, Corey Bradshaw and Barry Brook, and edited by Paul Ehrlich, (a Stanford zoologist famous for his sensationalist claims about population growth in the 1970s) the article […]

The Sci-Fi Farms That Grow Most of Our Food

According to the creation narrative, God made green plants on the third day, an idea that inspired the title of Henrik Spohler‘s project, The Third Day. His series documents industrial agriculture’s obsession with monoculture and large-scale farming across Europe and the US. The title isn’t a religious reference, but instead intended to comment on how […]

Evaluating Fifteen Years of IEA Energy Forecasts

Highlights This article analyses historical IEA forecasts of global energy consumption. Three major forecasting challenges are observed and briefly analysed: Overprediction of oil consumption Underprediction of coal consumption Underprediction of other renewables Introduction The International Energy Agency tackles a monumental task every year when compiling its World Energy Outlook report: forecasting global energy consumption over the […]

Goldman: “Oil Prices Can Go Lower For Longer”

What a difference 5 months makes. It seems like it was yesterday when Goldman’s commodity strategist, Jeffrey Curie, wrote in a July 28, 2014 note that: The long-awaited global recovery appears to be getting on track, lifting commodity demand Apparently unaware that just 5 months later precisely the opposite narrative would be used by everyone, […]

Nigeria: Fuel Scarcity Looms as Oil Workers Begin Nationwide Strike

NIGERIA Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and its Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, will today begin an indefinite nationwide strike, to protest the inability of the government to carry out Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, of the refineries and reduce pump prices of petroleum products in line with […]

Is Cellulosic Ethanol All it’s Cracked Up to Be?

The EPA has long promoted cellulosic ethanol as the future of biofuels, but technical challenges have kept production far below targets. A recent rule change allows RNG, renewable natural gas, to qualify as cellulosic biofuel even though RNG is not cellulosic, but this helps the EPA to appear to be meeting their goals. RNG growth […]

Depletion of Kirkuk oil feared

Kirkuk University experts expressed fears of the depletion of the northern oil and the dangers of reducing oil prices. During a scientific conference held at the University, experts urged for studies that will calculate the storage of Kirkuk oil wells and the produced quantities. On 30 November, 2014, Premier Haidar al-Ibadi stated that experts warned […]

Is China’s economy really the largest in the world?

For the first time in more than 140 years, the US has lost the title of the world’s largest economy – it has been stolen by China, according to the IMF. But how reliable are the statistics underpinning this claim? The BBC’s economics editor, Robert Peston, explains lower down why China matters to all of […]

Orlov: Can anybody find me… a central banker to love?

[Last minute update: the repo rate has been just hiked to an eyewatering 17%! At the same time, the percentage of bullshit in the rationale given was lowered significantly: it is to prevent further ruble devaluation. Simply put (perhaps too simply), ruble liquidity for currency speculation has just dried up. At the same time, the […]

Industry Backed Bill Could Force Mineral Owners to Sell

  As lawmakers return to town this week for their final interim session of 2014, they’ll learn more about a practice in the natural gas industry companies want them to approve through legislation: forced pooling. Kevin Ellis, president of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, explained to lawmakers during a November meeting, when […]

Chemical from Fracking, Acidizing, and Gravel Packing Make us Sick

It is well-known that many of the chemicals used in fracking, acidizing, and gravel packing are harmful to our bodies. Just look at the above graphic. What hasn’t been so clear is the evidence that highlights incidences where these chemicals have actually made people sick. There are two main factors why we still don’t have […]

The Global Bankers’ Coup: Bail-In and the Shadowy Financial Stability Board

On December 11, 2014, the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, stepped into the ring. […]

A look at Israeli settler population growth

Here is a look at the growth in the population of Israel’s West Bank settlements over the past decade, including the past five years under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, compared with growth of the overall Israeli and Palestinian populations. 2003 2008 2013 Israeli overall population: 6.75 million 7.42 million 8.13 million Growth 9.9 percent 9.6 […]

Shale Vulnerable to Short-Term Investment Cuts Versus Deepwater

U.S. shale projects may be vulnerable to short-term investment cuts in relation to deepwater projects, according to a Dec. 9 report by petroleum investment advisor Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA). Oil and gas companies are facing reduced cash flow in 2015 due to the recent decline in oil prices to a five-year low. That dip […]

New era of cheap oil ‘will destroy green revolution’

The collapsing oil price that is reshaping the global economy could derail the green energy revolution by making renewable power sources prohibitively bad value, experts have warned. Oil tumbled below $60 a barrel for the first time in more than five years yesterday – a fall of 44 per cent since June. It is forecast […]

The Shocking Data Proving Shale Oil Is Massively Over-hyped

Hooray, Crude Oil is suddenly much cheaper than it used to be. That’s great news, right? Not so fast. For certain it’s not good news for those counting on a continued rise in US oil production from the “shale miracle”. Many drillers were challenged to operate profitably when oil was above $70 per barrel. Very […]

Will $60 Oil Kill New CNG Cars From Honda, Ford, and Chevy?

Business magnate T. Boone Pickens has long advocated for NGVs. Source: T. Boone Pickens. Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (NYSE: HMC  ) just released the 2015 version of its Civic Natural Gas, and by all accounts it’s the most feature-filled and capable natural gas vehicle that Honda has ever sold in the United States. However, oil prices […]

Iraqi army prepares for liberation of Mosul

Battle over Iraq’s second largest city will be key in fight against ISIL, Iraqi finance minister tells Al Jazeera. Iraqi forces are making plans for a push into Mosul, Iraq’s second city that was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters six month ago, Iraq’s Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Al […]

Sensing a Deal on Sanctions, Iran Is Bullish

The text message, received as the deadline for nuclear talks was expiring, gave Fatemeh Moghimi a thrill she had been waiting years to feel. “The deal,” it read, “was done.” It took Ms. Moghimi, the owner of a leading trucking company, a second to absorb the news. When she did, she recalled recently in her […]

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