Saudi Arabia is buying US land to feed its cows

Unable to sustain their own livestock in the desert, Saudi Arabia is scooping up more and more American farmland, with the onus now on drought-stricken U.S. states to raise the crops to feed Saudi dairy cows. Saudi dairy company Almarai, which in 2014 bought 9,600 acres of farmland in Arizona, has expanded its U.S. farmland […]

The world’s going to need 50% more food by 2050

Imagine if Golden Corral, the super buffet restaurant, released a report stating that by 2050, their business model would no longer be sustainable. No longer would they be able to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet with all the fixings of a Thanksgiving feast. Rather, they’d replace it with an all-you-can-drink smoothie bar with tasty protein options. […]

Human Settlers Grew like an ‘Invasive Species’

  Photo: Amy Goldberg Bustling cities, sprawling suburbs and blossoming agricultural regions might seem like strong evidence that people have always dominated the environment. A Stanford study of South America’s colonization shows that human populations did not always grow unchecked, but were at one time limited by local resources – just like any other species.In […]

Saudi Arabia Seeks To Use Soverign Wealth To Become Black Swan Sanctuary

Saudi Arabia is working to create the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund so it might redirect the nation away from dependence on oil! What do the Saudi’s know? Will they have time before the bottom falls completely out of the oil market? We’ve reported here on the emergence of cold fusion as the ultimate Black […]

Plastic, China and how to drive your brand into the circular economy

As our seafood gets overfished, and with a growing global population that consumes many more products and plastic, we are facing a growing waste challenge which may lead us to having an ocean that has more plastic than fish by 2050. Part of me believes this tragic result will come much earlier, due to the […]

An Energy Diet for a Healthy Planet

Part I: Envisioning 100 Kilowatt-hours/Person/Day   Biodiverse farm of the future (Singing Frogs Farm) Nearly every human being on the planet consumes energy beyond the amount they derive from food, some more than others. In 2014, Americans, on average, consumed a total of 230 kilowatt-hours of energy per person per day. (See note at bottom […]

Britain is Sending a Huge Nuclear Waste Consignment to America

A very unusual exchange is about to take place over the Atlantic. The UK is sending some 700kg of highly enriched uranium to be disposed of in the US, the largest amount that has ever been moved out of the country. In return, the US is sending other kinds of enriched uranium to Europe to […]

The End of Ordinary Politics

Archdruids may take vacations but politics never sleeps, and during the month that’s elapsed since the last post here on The Archdruid Report, quite a number of things relevant to this blog’s project have gone spinning past the startled eyes of those who pay attention to the US political scene. I’ll get to some of […]

The Bakken LTO extraction in Retrospect and a Forecast of Near Future Developments

In retrospect, it becomes easier to understand the amazing growth and resilience of Light Tight Oil (LTO) extraction from Bakken (and other US tight oil plays) if the effects from the use of huge amounts of debts (including assets and equities sales) is put into this context. Debt leverage together with a high oil price […]

World Crude plus Condensate Decline Rate

There is concern that World C+C may decline steeply after the peak, I believe those concerns are over blown. There is always the possibility that there could be a severe recession due to high debt levels, high oil prices or potentially due to both problems in combination. War and environmental damage due to overpopulation are […]

Kenya got oil: what next?

Back in 2012, the news of Kenya’s oil discovery spread fast. Stock markets roared, politicians gushed and the Twitterati tweeted. Fast forward to today: with $70 off oil prices and at least another four to five years to go until the first commercial production, one cannot help but ask, has Kenyan oil been overrated? With […]

This is what could end the oil rally

Oil’s rally could fizzle if there’s no agreement among major producers for a freeze later this month, and the ripples could be felt across global markets. “It totally matters. The market goes up and down by who said what last,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital, of the meeting. “I don’t think there’s going […]

Iran Says Oil Output Will Hit Presanctions Level In A Year

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on state television on April 6 that the country’s crude output within a year will reach the presanctions peak of 4 million barrels a day. Iran’s oil exports by March 2017 will reach 2.25 million barrels a day, thanks to the lifting of economic sanctions in January under […]

New environmental cleanup technology rids oil from water

A new technology that is easy to manufacture and uses commercially available materials makes it possible to continuously remove oils and other pollutants from water, representing a potential tool for environmental cleanup. The material is shown to be superhydrophobic and superoleophilic, meaning it rejects water while absorbing oils. It is made using melamine sponges, an […]

Shale Euphoria: The Boom and Bust of Sub Prime Oil and Natural Gas

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first send mad Introduction The aim of this article is to show that the shale industry, whether extracting oil or gas, has never been financially sustainable. All around the world it has consistently disappointed profit expectations. Even though it has produced considerable quantities of oil and gas, […]

$120 Oil As Soon As 2018?

Today, I’m going to try and tackle the reasoning for my ‘wild’ predictions for oil reaching triple digits by the end of 2017. While I am nearly alone in these forecasts, they are not just pulled out of space, but with deep regard for the fundamental supply/demand picture that everyone mostly agrees upon, combined with […]

$20 Billion Settlement in BP Oil Spill

A federal judge in New Orleans granted final approval Monday to an estimated $20 billion settlement, resolving years of litigation over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The settlement, first announced in July, includes $5.5 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties and billions more to cover environmental damage and other […]

Saudi Arabia and Iran’s Oil Production Proxy War

Angus Blair, chairman at Signet Institute, talks about the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran and optimism for the Saudi Aramco IPO. He speaks on “Bloomberg Surveillance.”

Saudi Arabia’s Last Weapon In The Oil War

Saudi Arabia may soon have to use its last weapon in an all out war against American Frackers, and the Iranian and Russian oil producers: Break the riyal peg to the US dollar. For almost three years, the Kingdom has been using a conventional weapon for fighting the oil war: raising oil output. The logic of […]

Alarmists won’t like it, but fossil fuel supply is abundant

T seems what’s good news for most of humanity is bad news for global warming alarmists. In a recent article in the Journal of Economic Perspective, researchers Thomas Covert, Michael Greenstone and Christopher R. Knittel ask, “Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?” They conclude: No. This disturbs them, since the three are adherents of […]

Saudi Arabia to hold on dollar peg

As oil prices remain below $40 per barrel after plunging almost 70 per cent, and the dollar continues to strengthen, Riyal’s peg to the greenback might appear vulnerable to global investors. Dubai: With liquid foreign assets estimated at $700 billion, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, can continue with its currency’s peg to the […]

Storm ‘Unfreezes’ North Pole, Causing Temperatures to Rise 50 Degrees Fahrenheit Above Normal

A storm system that’s recently brought extreme weather across the country also caused temperatures to rise about 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in the North Pole today. The North Pole “unfroze” today, experiencing a temperature high of upwards 40 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that’s “unheard of” in the area during winter months, according to ABC […]

Is This the End of Cheap Food?

Enter your local supermarket and it’s hard to miss the mile-long piles of fresh produce. And when those heads of lettuce or cauliflower are in season, the prices can be low enough that feeding yourself doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. But that may not last much longer. The world population continues […]

Too Big to Scale

“We’re looking at The Cloud from both sides now.” While it is not likely that the heterodox economist E.F. “Fritz” Schumacher was the first to use the term “appropriate technology” — he preferred “intermediate technology” — he certainly had a big role in defining it. In Small is Beautiful he described it as the “middle […]

Russian oil output highest in 30 years

Russia’s oil production rose 0.3 percent to 10.91 million barrels per day in March, its highest level in nearly 30 years, raising questions over Moscow’s commitment to freeze output ahead of a producers’ meeting in Doha later in April. Energy Ministry data on Saturday showed that in tonnes, oil output reached 46.149 million in March […]

‘Ice Wall’ Is Japan’s Last-Ditch Effort To Contain Fukushima Radiation

 The nearly mile-long structure consists of underground pipes designed to form a frozen barrier around the crippled reactors. • The $312 million system was completed last month, more than a year behind schedule. • Nearly 800,000 tons of radioactive water are already being stored onsite. Japanese authorities have activated a large subterranean “ice wall” in a desperate attempt […]

Andy Hall Thinks Oil Could Go Back Above $100

As we discussed yesterday, the jobs number today came and went without much of a market impact.  Stocks went lower, then higher. Rate went lower, then higher, then lower.  The dollar was mixed.  As we said, the job creation has been steadily good.  But the quality of jobs, the ability of workers to command better […]

Asia Likely to Face Severe Water Crisis by 2050

Asia, the continent that houses roughly half the world’s population, will face a “high risk of severe water stress” by 2050 if the current environmental, economical and population growth persists, warns a new study. The study points out that water shortages are not simply the results of climate change and environmental stress. “It’s not just […]

Saudi to Join Oil Output Freeze Only if Iran Joins

Saudi Arabia will agree to freeze crude oil production levels only if Iran and other major producers do so, the kingdom’s deputy crown prince said in an interview with Bloomberg. Iran has said it will not join fellow OPEC and non-OPEC members in a plan to be discussed in a Doha conference on April 17 […]

Age of Stagnation

The common political conversation about our shared economic future focuses on achieving an escape velocity where the post-war growth boom can return as usual. While years of lackluster economic performance mount, a rapidly growing global economy is still discussed like it is readily just over the horizon. Can the factors creating a slower growth world […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy