Draft Doha agreement would freeze output until October

A spike in tensions between arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran appeared on Sunday to ruin prospects of the first binding oil output deal in 15 years between OPEC and non-OPEC nations, and looked set to prompt another fall in the price of crude. Some 18 OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, including Russia, had been meant […]

Are You Ready for $5 Gas?

In a version of “hit ’em while they’re down,’ the Obama administration has unleashed a slew of new regulations targeting U.S. oil and gas production.  These include costly methane emission rules on all new and existing wells, reversals of promised offshore acreage leasing, a de facto freeze of leasing on federal lands, and burdensome EPA […]

Saudi Prince Says He Could Add a Million Barrels Immediately

Saudi Arabia could raise crude production by more than a million barrels a day immediately, said the kingdom’s Deputy Crown Prince, as he reiterated the nation would only agree to freeze production if all major producers including Iran do the same. Mohammed Bin Salman Source: Saudi Arabia’s Royal Court The world’s largest oil exporter could increase […]

Saudis Stick to Oil Freeze Ultimatum as Iran Stays Home

Saudi Arabia won’t restrain its oil production unless other producers, including Iran, agree to freeze output at a meeting this weekend in Doha, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said. Iran said it had decided to stay at home. The world’s biggest crude exporter would cap its market share at about 10.3 million to 10.4 million […]

Time to panic, the world is running out of (fill in the blank)

In case you missed it, the world is on the cusp of a pencil crayon shortage. As the story goes, the worldwide adult colouring book craze has spurred a run on pencils, and the companies that make them are struggling to keep up with demand. “A surge in the number of people buying adult colouring books has […]

Iran’s oil production has already surpassed 3.5 million bpd

Iran’s oil production has already surpassed 3.5 million barrels per day, the deputy oil minister said on Saturday, and the Islamic Republic is seeking to increase oil and gas exports in the coming month. “Iran’s crude oil exports will increase to 2 million barrels per day in the coming month … Gas condensate exports would […]

Bakken Update – April 2016, Little Decline So Far

North Dakota data from the NDIC is out. Bakken Three/Forks data shown in chart above (NDIC Data) with a Red Queen Model (based on Rune Likvern’s original work) using data gathered from the NDIC by Enno Peters to develop well profiles. The model uses an estimate of the well profiles based on the NDIC well […]

The cuckoo that won’t sing: sustanaibility and Japanese culture

This post was published for the first time on April 6, 2011. It is re-proposed here as part of a mini-series on Japanese culture that includes the previous post here as part of a mini-series on Japanese culture that includes the previous post on population control during the Edo period   Many elements of Japanese […]

Peak Oil: Are We Not Better Than This? Pt 3

Peak Oil: Are We Not Better Than This? Pt 3 Apr 15 Is Your Community Prepared?, Peak Oil, Peak Oil: Worth Pondering GHB091215A We will have to transition to a post-fossil-fuel economy eventually, either out of wisdom or chaos [1] Discussions about the future of fossil fuel production and supply have to become more than […]

Secret meeting by environmentalists to target Exxon, oil industry

Environmentalists backing a Big Tobacco-style government probe of oil companies plotted their strategy for targeting companies like ExxonMobil at a closed-door meeting in Manhattan earlier this year, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The report sheds new light on an evolving campaign against the fossil fuel industry that has drawn in several attorneys general […]

Is Cheap Oil Contractionary?

Low oil prices were supposed to be a big boost for the world economy; but it didn’t happen. Maury Obstfeld, my long-time textbook co-author and now chief economist at the IMF, offers an interesting argument about why: he suggests that it’s because of the zero lower bound. Falling oil leads to falling inflation expectations, and […]

New Documents Show Oil Industry Even More Evil Than We Thought

In 1968, a pair of scientists from Stanford Research Institute wrote a report for the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for America’s oil and natural gas industry. They warned that “man is now engaged in a vast geophysical experiment with his environment, the earth” — one that “may be the cause of serious world-wide environmental […]

This country could drive oil demand growth

Global oil demand growth is forecast to ease further in 2016, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, predicting a slowdown in demand from some of the world’s top consumers and a rise in demand from one particular economy. Growth in global oil demand will ease to around 1.2 million barrels a day in […]

Six Urgent Matters for Humanity in Global Crisis

In these mean streets of globalized capitalism in crisis, it has become profitable to turn poverty and inequality into a tourist attraction. The South African Emoya Luxury Hotel and Spa company has made a glamorized spectacle of it. The resort recently advertised an opportunity for tourists to stay “in our unique Shanty Town … and […]

The Constrained Role of Biomass

A wide range of possibilities The amount of biomass available to provide energy depends a lot on the amount of land available to grow energy crops, and how much that land can yield.   Different assumptions on these variables produce quite different estimates of the total resource, and numerous studies over the years have produced a […]

Huge Oil Supertanker Lines Forming “World’s Biggest Traffic Jam”

      “It may be the world’s biggest traffic jam.” – Reuters Last week we revealed what we thought was a “shocking photo” of nearly 30 oil tankers caught in a traffic jam off the Iraqi coast, an indication of just how much excess oil is currently parked offshore.   To be sure, the record offshore […]

Bill Clinton Predicts Global “Crisis”

Former President Bill Clinton is worried that a “crisis” of global proportions is around the corner, but that presumptive president Hillary Clinton will “know what to do” when it happens. During a speech yesterday, Clinton asserted that Hillary was better qualified to be president than him when he first ran “because of the trouble around […]

US shale oil peak in 2015

The latest EIA drilling productivity report (11th April 2016) https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/ shows US shale oil production continuing to decline in Bakken, Eagle Ford and Niobrara while the Permian has flattened out. The Eagle Ford graph (Fig 1) shows that monthly declines in existing wells overwhelm production from new wells by a factor of 2.5 The resulting peak in […]

Animals, Land and People

Will runs the largest USDA-certified organic farm in Georgia, farming 1,200 owned acres and 2,000 leased. He has over 2,000 head of cattle, raises 60,000 pastured chickens, and also raises eight other species of animals, most of which roam around in a model of farming based on the way animals graze on the Serengeti plains. […]

The End of The Coal Age In Sight ?

Bloomberg has a report on the bankruptcy of the world’s largest coal producer – Coal Slump Sends Mining Giant Peabody Energy Into Bankruptcy (much to the delight of the writers at Grist I expect). In an age where power generation is largely switching to renewable energy (with the remnants opting for gas) there doesn’t seem […]

‘Peak Oil’ Not Until 2035

The world will begin to wean itself off its reliance on oil starting in about 20 more years. According to Bernstein analyst Neil Beveridge, the world will hit peak oil in 2035. The global crude oil supply glut, as well as the rise of electric vehicles, slowing growth in China and increases in fuel efficiency […]

Cursed by oil? Academic says production often leads to misery.

What do the migration crisis, ISIS-led terrorism in Europe and Russia’s alignment with Syria’s Assad government have in common? “All of those stories come from countries that export oil,” says Leif Wenar, author of “Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World.” “There is something about oil which is very dangerous to the people of […]

Iran FM confirms receipt of S-300 long-range, surface-to-air missiles from Russia

Iran has received a batch of S-300 long-range, surface-to-air missile systems from Russia, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said. In a recorded statement broadcast on state television on Monday, Jaber Ansari, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told a news conference that the “first phase of this [delayed] contract has been implemented”. “The first batch of Russia’s […]

How The Oil Crisis Has Impacted Military Spending

A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has revealed that most of the world’s nations hiked their military budgets last year, marking the first increase in spending since the 2008 crisis. It seems that the only ones not taking part in this military spending hike are some of the world’s biggest oil producers. […]

Peak Oil: Time To Get Serious

The truths, unpleasant though they may be, are the truths: inexpensive, readily available oil is slowly but surely becoming less readily available, more expensive, and harder to come by. Current conditions [ultra-low prices; curtailed/canceled oil production and exploration projects; over-supply; declining investments; high debt] only highlight that the problems of maintaining an adequate, affordable, accessible […]

Tapping into the Ocean’s Energy

The oceans generate enough energy for us to give up coal and gas completely, but no one has been able to harness it effectively. The Triton is a wave harvester that uses a novel design which may be the key to unlocking the power of the ocean

The Peak Oil Crisis: A Bizarre Twist

By Tom Whipple The saga of cold fusion went flying off in new direction last week when a Florida law firm sent out a press release saying that: 1. Rossi’s 1-megawatt nuclear reactor test was a resounding success; and 2. that Rossi is suing its U.S. licensee, Industrial Heat down in North Carolina. The suit […]

Of Citizens and Covenants

Our society is characterized by great freedom: by ever-growing personal autonomy, a loosening of social and civic bonds, and a diminishing of cultural and religious value systems. But have these things made us more free, more enlightened? Perhaps not. As David Brooks writes in a Wednesday column, The liberation of the individual was supposed to […]

IMF Warns of Global Stagnation as It Cuts Growth Outlook Again

Fund sees world GDP expanding 3.2% in 2016, 3.5% in 2017 `There is no longer much room for error,’ chief economist says A prolonged period of slow growth has left the global economy more exposed to negative shocks and raised the risk that the world will slide into stagnation, the IMF warned. The International Monetary […]

Where America Gets Its Oil: The Top 10 Foreign Suppliers Of Crude To The U.S.

Venezuela is still one of our top oil suppliers, but its exports to the U.S. are down 37% since 2005. (Photo: Bloomberg News) The past decade has seen a major shift in the U.S. crude oil market. As a result of the surge in domestic production that was largely enabled by hydraulic fracturing — a […]

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