India’s ‘worst water crisis in its history’ is only going to get worse

India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and around 600 million people face a severe water shortage, according to a government think tank. Approximately 200,000 people die every year due to inadequate access to clean water and it’s “only going to get worse” as 21 cities are likely to run out […]

Why $100 Price Forecasts Are More Sensational Than Logical

Towards the end of 2017 and for much of the first quarter of this year, both oil futures benchmarks – i.e. Brent, the global proxy gauge, and West Texas Intermediate, the keenly watched U.S. contract – oscillated in very predictable ranges marking a gradual uptick to sub-$70 per barrel for the former, and sub-$65 for the […]

Nigeria plunged in to darkness by power grid meltdown as millions watched World Cup build-up on TV

NIGERIA suffered a major power cut on the first day of its World Cup campaign, according to local reports. The power grid melt down came on the same day the national team played Croatia in its first fixture. AP:Associated Press 3 Nigeria has suffered a nationwide power cut after millions watched their national team play […]

A look at Saudi Arabia and the new economics of oil

There is absolutely no doubt that the next Opec ministerial meeting this week will pit Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies against Iraq, Iran and Venezuela, three founder members of the oil exporters organisation. Saudi Arabia has increased its production 140,000 barrels a day above its 10.058 MBD output ceiling in the pact the kingdom […]

Concrete is the stuff civilization is made of. But for all its blessings, there are huge environmental costs

You may not realize it, but as you read this you are probably surrounded by the most important artificial material ever invented. Is there a floor beneath you, walls around, a roof overhead? Chances are excellent they are made at least partly out of this astonishingly underappreciated material: concrete. To most people, concrete is just […]

Rosneft Says $70-80 Oil ‘Comfortable’ Ahead of OPEC Talks

Rosneft PJSC’s said crude at $70 to 80 a barrel was a “comfortable level” and expressed satisfaction with the results of Russia’s joint supply cuts with OPEC, just a week before talks that could phase them out. The producers working together have “restored balance to the market by cutting oil production,” Russia’s biggest oil company […]

Steep Oil and Strong Dollar Make Toxic Brew for Global Economies

For Americans, rising oil prices are threatening $3-a-gallon gasoline and pushing up prices for plane tickets. In many other parts of the world, today’s crude rally is more painful—sparking protests, gas lines and emergency subsidies to quell unrest. That is because many consumers outside the U.S. face a double whammy when—like now—the dollar gets stronger […]

Russia, Saudi Arabia are getting increasingly chummy, and that has big implications for OPEC and oil prices

Saudi Arabia may have gotten blown out by Russia during its first match at the World Cup, but there seems to be no hard feelings between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Vladimir Putin. The two leaders met this past week as the Russian national soccer team clobbered Saudi Arabia 5-0 in Moscow. It appears […]

A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall

Après moi, le déluge ~ King Louis XV of France A hard rain’s a-gonna fall ~ Bob Dylan (the first) As the Federal Reserve kicked off its second round of quantitative easing in the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis, hedge fund manager David Tepper predicted that nearly all assets would rise tremendously in response. “The Fed just announced […]

The Population Explosion

Of all the problems of the world one that is of serious concern is the population explosion which is increasing beyond control. What will be the fate of human beings if this trend goes on relentlessly whereas the productive capacity of the planet earth is getting limited to feed them. The poor poverty-stricken people of […]

The Bullish And Bearish Case For Oil

Oil prices are in a holding pattern as we await the outcome of the OPEC+ meeting in a few days, and while the result of that meeting will almost completely control the direction of oil prices in the near-term, there is a bit of disagreement among analysts over the bigger picture in regards to the […]

The Apparently Never-Ending Permian Blowout

Energy dominance carries its own backlash, it turns out. Ground zero is the Permian basin in west Texas, where oil production has run ahead of pipeline capacity to get it to market, forcing some U.S. barrels to price at wide discounts. Thankfully, new pipelines should fix the problem by early 2020. Apparently, though, the futures […]

Irv Mills: My Peak Oil Journey

For some time now I been intending to do a post about “My Peak Oil Journey”, describing how my understanding of Peak Oil has evolved over the years. I think it will fit nicely at this point in my series of autobiographical notes. Throughout the history of this blog I’ve focused on three of the […]

A Closer Look at Drilling the ANWR

The passage of Public Law 115-97 in December 2017 required the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to administer a competitive oil and natural gas program for the leasing, development, production, and transportation of oil and natural gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Prior to the Trump Administration’s decision to open up the area, […]

It’s a ‘Toxic World’

After hearing Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo co-founder Jeremy Grantham’s keynote on Tuesday at the 2018 Morningstar annual conference in Chicago, there is no doubt RIAs in the audience were persuaded to utilize sustainable investing methods. Grantham, who said 98% of his net worth was invested in or committed to environmental foundations, gave a sobering speech on […]

Permian, Marcellus & Utica to Supply 55% of N. American Gas by 2030

The Permian, Marcellus and Utica shale plays will supply 55 percent of the North American gas market by 2030. That’s the forecast of McKinsey Energy Insights (MEI) in their latest report “North America Gas Outlook to 2030.” Of the anticipated associated gas growth, about 60 percent is expected to come from the Permian. Currently, the […]

Berkeley declares ‘climate emergency’ worse than World War II, demands ‘humane’ population control

The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night declared what it called a “climate emergency” with more global significance than World War II, and demanded an immediate effort to “humanely stabilize population” and “reverse ecological overshoot.” The resolution, which invokes the global conflict between the Axis and Allies, charges that Americans bear an “extraordinary responsibility to […]

World Sets New Oil Production Record

This week the 2018 BP Statistical Review of World Energy was released, which covers energy data through 2017. It is the definitive source for global energy production and consumption figures, and a primary source of data for numerous companies, government agencies and non-government organizations. I will take a deeper dive into the report in upcoming articles, […]

Permian Oil Production To More Than Double By 2023

A new report by research firm IHS Markit says oil production from the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico could more than double by 2023. The report predicts “stunning” growth, saying about 41,000 new wells could increase production from the nation’s top oilfield by almost three million barrels per day in the years […]

The Powers of Fossil Fuels, an Update with Data per 2017

This post is an update and small expansion of The Powers of Fossil Fuels spanning more than two centuries of the history of the world’s energy, primarily fossil fuels (FF), consumption. Between 2002 and 2017 world energy consumption grew with about 39%, world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 130% and world total debts by more than […]

The Permian Faces A Long Term Natural Gas Crisis

The bottlenecks in the Permian have created a widening chasm between not just Brent and WTI, but also WTI in Cushing or Houston and prices fetched for oil in the Permian basin. Oil output continues to soar in West Texas, despite the fact that the region’s takeaway capacity is tapped out. The discount for Midland […]

Trump, Iran spar over oil prices ahead of OPEC meeting

U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran exchanged sharp words over oil prices on Wednesday, with Trump blaming OPEC for high oil prices and Tehran accusing him of stoking volatility after he withdrew last month from a global nuclear arms deal with Iran. FILE PHOTO: A man fixes a sign with OPEC’s logo next to its […]

The Texas Oil Boom Is Lean And Sweet

Drillers in the Texas oil patch are reaping the benefits of efficiency gains wrung out painfully during the recent bust. A record 4 million barrels a day come out of the Lone Star State, up 15% from 2014, when prices last hit $100 a barrel–and the industry is doing so with three quarters of the […]

What’s Wrong With The Economy: 9 Toxic Dynamics

These nine dynamics are mutually reinforcing. Beneath the surface signals of an eternally rising stock market and expanding GDP, we all sense something is deeply, systemically wrong with the U.S. economy. These nine structural dynamics generate secondary dynamics, all of which are toxic to social mobility, sustainable prosperity, accountability and democracy: 1. The financialization of the […]

Oil Markets Unmoved By North Korea Summit

Oil markets largely ignored the much-anticipated meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, though further geopolitical maneuvers should weigh on crude prices moving forward. (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) (Click to enlarge) – LNG exports have increased sharply around the world, after the inauguration of a […]

A global Dust Bowl is coming

More than 40 percent of the global population, more than 2 billion people, have a dust problem. Not “dust” meaning the grey puffs under the couch, but the dust of the Dust Bowl: microscopic soil particles, less than 0.05 millimeters across, so small that they get hoisted up into the wind and end up in […]

Is the Empire on the Edge of the Seneca Cliff? Italian Prime Minister Conte Opens to Russia at the G7

It is rare that a province of the Empire tries to pursue an independent foreign policy but, at the last G7 meeting, the new Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, did something like that. He stated that Russia should return to the G8 (now G7) and called for the lifting the economic sanctions against Russia. In […]

Saudi Oil Output Said to Rise Above 10 Million Barrels a Day

Saudi Arabia boosted daily oil output in May to the highest level since October, ahead of meetings with Russia and other global producers next week where they may propose raising production even further and phasing out 18 months of voluntary cuts. Saudi Arabia, which along with Russia is trying to garner support for lifting output […]

How many vehicles can the earth sustain?

One of the hallmarks of the good life in developed countries is the freedom to move about as we choose in personal vehicles. However, as populous developing countries are gaining in economic power, people in those countries are asking for the same mobility that people in developed countries enjoy. Consequently, demand for personal vehicles has […]

Is the Trans Mountain Pipeline (and Other Fossil Fuel Investments) a Future Stranded Asset?

Several major economies, including the U.S. and Canada, rely heavily on fossil fuel production and exports. But the surging market penetration of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency improvements, and climate emission policies are certain to substantially reduce the global demand for fossil fuels. In a seminal paper published a week ago in Nature Climate Change, researchers present the results […]

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