Logic Of Power

We’re not trying to live like our ancestors, but to do something totally new: to preserve the most helpful complex technologies, while shifting to a political and economic system where power is fully shared. — Ran Prieur It seems like ages ago when I wrote about the logic of power. To sum up that post, […]

Oil Prices Will Recover

On St. Patrick’s Day the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that oil production from three of America’s largest shale plays is in decline. The EIA is forecasting that total U.S. oil production will be in decline in the 3rd quarter. The South Texas Eagle Ford, North Dakota’s Bakken/Three Forks and the Niobrara in Colorado […]

Crude oil prices could go as low at $35 per barrel

Crude oil prices took a roller coaster ride dipping down to a six-year low of $42.17 per barrel before bouncing back up and closing the day at $44.66 per barrel. But one expert on the Eagle Ford shale said conditions are ripe for oil prices to drop even further before they can climb back up […]

The Global Economy’s “Impeccable Logic”

Ever since the Occupy movement coined the terms “the 1%” and “the 99%” to point out disparities of wealth and power, the gap between rich and poor has received a lot of attention. In his highly-regarded 2014 book, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, for example, Thomas Piketty’s central thesis is that wealth inequality is bound to […]

Adjusting the Fifth to a Finite Planet, Part II

Among the avenues by which Takings case law could be adapted to the reality of a finite planet are these three: One: Change the default by changing the definition of what constitutes a reasonable investment expectation. It is no longer reasonable for an individual to expect to profit from using property in ways that would […]

Russian Inflation hits 17 per cent

Inflation in Russia has hit a zenith of around 17 per cent, the economy minister said Thursday, as the economic crisis roiling the country takes its toll.”The peak in inflation has not passed but we have reached the highest point and will probably stay at this level for some time,” minister Alexei Ulyukayev was reported […]

The Oil Age – A new quarterly peer-reviewed printed journal

1. Background & Objectives The journal addresses all aspects of the evolving ‘Oil Age’, including physical, economic, social, political, financial and environmental characteristics. Oil and gas are natural resources formed in the geological past and are subject to depletion. Increasing production during the First Half of the Oil Age fuelled rapid economic expansion, with human […]

Depaving Cities, Undamming Rivers—Here’s How We’re Undoing the Damage

The largest dam-removal project in history reached completion last fall, when excavators dredged the final tons of pulverized concrete from the Elwha River channel in Western Washington. Native fish, banished for 100 years from their historic spawning habitat, already were rediscovering the Elwha’s newly accessible upper stretches. Within weeks of the final explosion in August, […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Mother of All Black Swans

Even Saudi Arabia’s oil minister is starting to talk about the advent of a “black swan.” These are defined as completely unexpected developments which cause lots of unexpected change. I believe we are going to be seeing a major black swan event in the not too distant future. It should be clear to everyone that […]

Global population growth threatens to outstrip fresh water supply

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Global demand for fresh water is set to outstrip supply as a result of population growth by the middle of this century if current levels of consumption continue, a study said. Fears of water shortages could intensify although this is not the first time in history that demand is poised […]

A Nuclear Deal With Iran Could Increase Global Oil Glut

It’s not just Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders who are scrutinizing the Iran negotiations. Oil traders are, too. That’s because there’s already an oil glut, and an Iran deal could lift sanctions and mean even more oil. “Even the thought that Iranian oil could be unleashed on the global market is, you know, getting […]

Are The Good Times Over For Growth In US Shale Gas?

U.S. natural gas production could decline in 2016 for the first time in 10 years, driven by low oil prices after a decade of gangbusters growth from shale plays. While most analysts forecast gas production will continue growing year-over-year, albeit at a slower pace, a couple of outlier analysts believe low oil and gas prices […]

Oversupply Driving Oil Prices Down

Oversupply Driving Oil Prices Down – Bloomberg Business

Will The Oil Markets Capitulate Before Demand Recovers

Is the U.S. shale industry at a tipping point? Oil prices fell to a six-week low on Friday after the International Energy Agency warned that the U.S. may soon run out of room to store all the oil being pumped out of shale plays across the country. As oil starts to back up, the worry […]

North Sea oil to benefit from tax cuts

North Sea oil producers will benefit from a sharp cut in taxes worth £1.3bn after the UK chancellor slashed the headline supplementary rate on profits in the Budget, a move that could give some ageing fields a new lease of life. George Osborne responded to the plunge in crude prices and industry pleas for help […]

Saudi oil: Peak conspiracy

The oil world’s been full of speculation about the shift of strategy last year by Saudi Arabia which saw it keep the pumps running even as the price fell, turning an initial drop into a plunge. There may be a simpler explanation for Saudi’s willingness to see prices slide than an attack on US shale […]

Winners And Losers At The End Of The Era of The $100 Barrel

  What if the world never again sees sustained prices for oil over $100 per barrel? What if—absent exogenous black-swan events like major wars—oil never sells for much more than $50 per barrel for decades into the future? Who wins? Who loses? The short answers: The winners are consumers everywhere, and American business that produce […]

Rising energy prices will challenge western way of life

A little-known Ministry of Defence (MoD) report published earlier this year warns that converging global trends will dramatically affect UK economic prosperity through to 2040. The report says that depletion of cheap conventional “easy oil”, along with shortages of food and water due to climate change and population growth, will sustain rocketing energy prices. Long-term […]

The gold:oil ratio is speaking

As a believer in the power of diversification and inflation protection a basket of commodities can provide in a passive index framework, it is hard to grasp how much investors love oil and gold. It must be that oil is the biggest, most economically significant commodity, and gold is the shiniest, most prized metal – […]

Kunstler: American Amoeba

T he money-moving world waits on tenterhooks for the Wednesday appearance of America’s oracle, Janet Yellen, to step out of her grotto and state whether or not she feels twinges of patience. Wikipedia notes that Pythia, the original priestess of Delphi “…delivered oracles in a frenzied state induced by vapors rising from a chasm in […]

OPEC Crude plus More on EIA Estimates

The katest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report is out with OPEC crude only production numbers for February. All data in the OPEC charts below is in thousand barrels per day and the last data point is February 2015. Total OPEC crude only production was down 137,600 barrels per day in February. Algeria seems to have stabilized […]

What we can still learn from “Star Trek”: a saga of harmony in diversity.

The death of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who impersonated Mr. Spock in the original TV series  “Star Trek” has ended an age. Star Trek was a true 20th century saga, a way of seeing the world. To some of us, it may look completely obsolete, today, but it must have been telling us something deep; […]

Iran Can Add Million Barrels a Day of Oil Without Sanctions

Iran could raise oil exports by 1 million barrels a day without international sanctions, its oil minister said as talks resumed with the U.S. over the nation’s nuclear program. “If sanctions are lifted, we can raise our exports by one million barrels per day within a few months,” Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Monday […]

The world’s population continues to explode!

Feeding the World Basic survival for us humans and just about everything else living; more and more investment funds are focusing on food and water production – why? What are the facts? Starting with water; estimates suggest that the world population will increase by 40 percent to 9 billion by 2050. As their purchasing power […]

Removing U.S. Oil Ban Would Create Jobs

Lifting a 40-year-old U.S. ban on crude exports would create a wide range of jobs in the oil drilling supply chain and broader economy even in states that produce little or no oil, according to a report released on Tuesday. Some 394,000 to 859,000 U.S. jobs could be created annually from 2016 to 2030 by […]

Building an eco-friendly bunker

A bit of a departure from our usual fare, here’s something for the survivalist in all of us and especially for those folks lucky enough to have some land, preferably in a rural area. — Ed. Most of us have a proverbial “plan-B,” or at least a rough idea of how we would protect ourselves […]

The Rage of the Cultural Elites

A certain unhappy incident happened to my aunt in the summer of 1966. The Cultural Revolution—a political movement initiated by Mao Zedong—was beginning to engulf the country. That same year many American college students were protesting against the Vietnam War and Leonid Brezhnev was keeping his seat warm as the General Secretary of CPSU, having […]

How Fast Can We Cut Energy Use?

Energy intensity improvements, or declines in the amount of energy consumption per unit of economic output, must play a critical role in efforts to decarbonize the global economy. Global decarbonization scenarios depend on a wide range of energy intensity improvement rates. Several scenarios which rely heavily on renewable energy and exclude other technologies from consideration (i.e. nuclear […]

California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans

Once upon a time, much of the state of California was a barren desert.  And now, thanks to the worst drought in modern American history, much of the state is turning back into one.  Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century that the state of California had seen in 1000 years.  […]

US fuel consumption is soaring amid cheaper prices

Fuel demand in Texas is growing strongly as lower oil prices encourage motorists to use their vehicles more and buy larger replacements. Receipts of motor fuel taxes in February 2015 were 6 percent higher than in the same month in 2014, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Texas collected almost $284 million in […]

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