Forecasting the limits to the availability and diversity of global conventional oil supply

Highlights • We validated model scenarios vs. 11 years of empirical oil production data to reduce uncertainty over future production. • Only model scenarios assuming lower volumes of extractable oil (EUR) were accurate vs. the global production data. • Global conventional oil production peaked in 2005; inclusion of oil from ultra-deep waters has slowed the […]

World Oil Production Outlook

Peak oil was supposed to have arrived a decade ago, but then the US tight oil boom spoiled the party. Can looking into the rear vision mirror now help us understand what is likely to happen from here? We will find out by going through the last 30 years of production by continent, starting with […]

Kunstler: Fore !

Sure enough, President Donald Trump likes to get out on the golf links, which is where he was on Saturday, a most spectacularly lovely Indian Summer day following a harsh election week. Of course, his outing provoked much mirth from a gloating national news media — and, by national, I mean united in purpose — […]

Libya Oil Output Hits 1 Million Barrels

Libya boosted oil production to more than 1 million barrels a day, a milestone for the North African country after civil war all but shut its energy industry. The OPEC member, home to Africa’s largest crude reserves, ramped up production in the past six weeks amid a truce between rival military forces. It was pumping […]

How long do most species last before going extinct?

The majestic blue whale has plied the seas for about 4.5 million years, while the Neanderthals winked out of existence in a few hundred thousand years. But are those creatures representative of species overall? How long do species usually last before they go extinct? It turns out the answer we find now could be very […]

America turns its back on the world

As Americans and observers around the world anxiously awaited the results of the presidential election, the United States quietly turned up the thermostat on the planet. By exiting the most significant international agreement ever forged to fight the climate crisis, Donald Trump for once actually kept his word, or at least close to it: In […]

The Great Pause Week 34: Dragon Dimming

“Pandemic lockdowns curtailed jet travel, closed shops and schools, and reduced global dimming by more than 20%. So what happened then?“    There was a famous experiment on May 21, 1946 that cost the Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin his life. In 2016, Alex Wellerstein revisited it for The New Yorker:   Slotin’s procedure was […]

Biden has a climate-change mandate — what can he actually achieve?

Joe Biden wavered on the controversial practice of oil and gas fracking early in the campaign but by the time the presumptive president-elect addressed the American people on Saturday night, his desire for a strong U.S. role in the climate-change fight was clearer. Biden had already said he’ll reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris […]

Oil Prices Are Only Going in One Direction

This was supposed to be a time when things were getting closer to normal for OPEC. A recovery in oil demand after the first wave of the pandemic, coupled with a deep slump in U.S. production, was meant to leave the world needing more of its members’ crude. But it isn’t turning out like that. […]

Is ‘insect apocalypse’ close-by?

The global health of insect populations is far more complicated than previously thought, new data suggests. Previous research also indicated an alarming decline in numbers in all parts of world, with losses of up to 25% per decade. Reports of the rapid and widespread decline of insects globally have caused great worry to scientists. This […]

The Petrodollar Era – What is the Endgame?

After World War II, a new international monetary system called Bretton Woods was created. Bretton Woods established three main things: (1) the U.S. dollar was to be an international reserve currency, (2) the U.S. dollar would be backed by gold at a price of $35 per ounce, and (3) any country could exchange dollars for […]

The narrative problem after peak oil

In the 1970s, the developed states were shaken by oil shortages.  Although largely artificial – the result of OPEC flexing its muscles, and later the Iran-Iraq war – the oil shocks briefly caused people to take seriously the prospect of running out of oil.  The shock was all the more profound because, with the earlier […]

US Murder Machine Now Under Competent Management

Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States is now all but certain. In order to have any chance of successfully advancing his legal narrative of electoral shenanigans President Trump would have to both (A) really want to remain president and (B) have the backing of sufficiently large power structures, neither of […]

Collapse, you say? Part 3: Inputs and Outputs continued

  Discuss this article at the Kitchen Sink inside the Diner   Kincardine’s breakwall awash in the waves This is the second half of a post that I cut in two because it was just too long (6000+ words). If you haven’t read the first half yet, it would be a good idea to do […]

Wall Street Enthusiasm for Green Energy Fades

Wall Street’s confidence that the U.S. election would spark a clean-energy revolution dimmed after Republicans appeared set to retain control of the Senate, casting doubts over whether Joe Biden could pursue his climate agenda even if he wins the White House. As a picture slowly emerged Wednesday of Democrats positioned to potentially take the White […]

COVID-19 and energy transition will expedite peak oil demand to 2028

Hind Al Soulia – Riyadh – OSLO — The COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of the energy transition have led Rystad Energy to significantly revise its long-term oil demand forecast. The virus is expected to have a lasting impact on global oil demand, which we now see peaking at 102 million barrels per day (bpd) […]

US sells oil seized from Iran to Venezuela for $40 million

The United States said Thursday that it had sold Iranian oil seized on its way to Venezuela for more than $40 million. Washington announced in August that it had confiscated 1.1 million barrels of petroleum from four tankers en route between the two countries, which are both under US sanctions. “We estimate that in excess […]

The Care of the Mind

Before we begin, a preliminary note is in order.  Yes, I heard about what’s happening with the US election. I write my posts in advance, and this one was finished days before the votes started being counted. We’ll discuss the election over on my Dreamwidth journal once the rubble stops bouncing and the dust settles. […]

We need a Green New Deal without growth

Robert Pollin and Noam Chomsky have a new book out, Climate Crisis and the Green New Deal. It’s an important contribution to the emerging GND literature, from two thinkers I respect.  But in recent interviews, when Pollin has been asked about degrowth, he has responded with claims that are factually incorrect and, I think, intentionally […]

No Matter Who Wins

Modern elections—despite their social and political importance—have become more like sporting events than referendums around ideas. We so intensely identify with our partisan tribe, that we focus on the slogans, the rooting against the ‘other guy’ and other us-vs-them dynamics, and often lose sight of the issues, the context, and how ‘winning’ for our country […]

The world holds its breath for U.S. election outcome

A day after Americans voted in a bitterly contested election, the rest of the world was none the wiser on Wednesday, with millions of votes still to count, the race too close to call and a mounting risk of days or even weeks of legal uncertainty. A combination picture shows U.S. President Donald Trump pumping […]

The Green New Deal transition

“Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands” —    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1841 The Green New Deal (GND) and similar climate proposals envision a transition to a zero-emissions energy economy in the coming two to three decades. These are clearly ideas whose time has come: recent polls show that almost 70% of 2020 voters […]

Heinberg: A simple way to understand what’s happening … and what to do

The world seems to be coming apart at the seams. It’s critical to understand why, so that we can avoid the worst and find the best responses so as to move toward the environmentally and socially healthy future we want. It turns out that there’s a relatively simple frame for gaining such understanding. This straightforward […]

Biden’s Plans Regarding Energy Are Simply Not Doable

Joe Biden’s climate and energy plans mandate a carbon-free generation sector by 2035. Since new nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration technologies are not economically competitive, subsidized wind and solar power would have to make up the share from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) that currently make up 62 percent of the generation […]

Chris Martenson: We Are Pawns In A Bigger Game Than We Realize

  “I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others…. Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well.”  ~ Sherlock Holmes – The Adventures of Silver Blaze Is it possible to make sense out of nonsense? So much these days is an incoherent […]

Russia rules out cutting fossil fuel production in next few decades

Russia has no plans to rein in its production of fossil fuels in the coming decades despite the global efforts to shift towards low-carbon energy, according to its energy minister. Alexander Novak told the Guardian that Russia did “not see that we will achieve a peak in [gas] production anytime soon” because the world’s appetite […]

« Previous 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