Here are nine of the safest places in the world to survive a third world war

WE live in dangerous times, and the threat of global annihilation is always lurking just around the corner. Nuclear war is always a lingering threat, and recent escalations over Syria risk reviving Cold War tensions between hostile nuclear powers. Reuters 6 When the end times come, where are the best places to hole up away […]

There’s Never Been A Better Time to Be Alive

Johan Norberg wrote his excellent new book Progress for three reasons. First, because something important happened. Second, because no one believes it. And third, because it’s dangerous that they don’t believe it. Norberg’s book comprehensively documents the myriad ways the state of humanity has vastly improved over the past couple of centuries. Global life expectancy […]

What does a peak in per capita demand mean for global energy?

A new World Energy Council report, called “The Grand Transition”, has found that global per capita energy demand will peak before 2030. The prediction is nothing short of historic, given that world energy demand has more than doubled since 1970. What accounts for the shift? According to the document, released just prior to the start […]

Saudi Arabia, Where Even Milk Depends on Oil, Struggles to Remake Its Economy

AL KHARJ, Saudi Arabia — This is what it takes to run a mega-dairy in the scorching desert here: 180,000 Holstein cows, precisely cooled cowsheds, water pumped from deep underground, feed from Argentina and a state-of-the-art refrigeration system. To transport chilled milk and other products all over the Arabian Peninsula, add 9,000 vehicles. None other […]

Welcome To Peak Oil

The term “peak oil,” per Wikipedia, is the point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which it is expected to enter terminal decline. To yours truly, it refers to the point in time at which oil prices must begin to decline lest their effect on inflation become problematic. […]

Energy demand to peak by 2030 amid ‘Grand Transition’

Global per capita energy demand will peak before 2030, thanks to technological innovation, government policies and lower growth expectations, according to a newly released report by the World Energy Council. The “Grand Transition” report sets three scenarios for the energy sector to 2060, with very different realities across regions. It highlighted there will be a shift […]

D.E.growth: A Small Change in the Slogan with Large Benefits

In a recent article with Stefan Drews, we discussed why degrowth might be an unfortunate name and slogan for the alternative economics movement. We listed several expressions that could possibly be better, but we were also upfront about their disadvantages. Here I propose a new term that might combine the advantages of the word degrowth […]

Mammoth Global Debt A Risk To Oil Demand

The world’s combined huge debt level poses a risk to oil demand growth, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday, building upon International Monetary Fund (IMF) figures from last week. The IMF said on October 5 that the global gross debt reached US$152 trillion in 2015, an all time-high, and warned that it could […]

Why energy prices are ultimately headed lower; what the IMF missed

We have been hearing a great deal about IMF concerns recently, after the release of its October 2016 World Economic Outlook and its Annual Meeting October 7-9. The concerns mentioned include the following: Too much growth in debt, with China particularly mentioned as a problem World economic growth seems to have slowed on a long-term basis […]

Power plants, happy with high electric rates, fight natural gas expansion

Almost everyone agrees that the cost of electricity in Maine and New England is too high. Almost everyone, that is, except the region’s power plant owners. They’ve recently stepped up their opposition to plans aimed at lowering wholesale natural gas prices by expanding pipeline capacity. These plans would pump more fuel to power plants when […]

The End of China Inc?

As Evercore ISI notes in its latest China weekly summary, the “biggest China policy development last week, was multiple cities establishing new rules to slow the spreading housing mania,” adding that this was “surely at Beijing’s behest“, it now indeed appears that China is once again trying to cushion a soft landing for a housing […]

BP CEO: Oil market is in balance

<p>Oil price now has breathing room: BP CEO</p> <p>Bob Dudley, CEO of BP, tells CNBC the oil industry is &quot;pretty much in balance,&quot; following its &quot;really rough run.&quot;</p> Oil price now has breathing room: BP CEO   4 Hours Ago | 01:51 “The oil market is “pretty much in balance,” Bob Dudley the chief executive of […]

$60 Oil Not ‘Unthinkable’ This Year, Saudi Energy Minister Says

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih said that he was optimistic major oil producers could agree to cut production by November and that it wasn’t “unthinkable” that crude prices could rise another 20% this year to $60 a barrel. The minister’s words confirmed a decisive shift in policy by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting […]

Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030

Germany isn’t content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country’s Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you’d have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it’s electric or running on a hydrogen […]

US Storage Filling Up With Unaccounted-For Oil

U.S. crude oil storage is filling up with unaccounted-for oil. There is a lot more oil in storage than the amount that can be accounted for by domestic production and imports. That’s a big problem since oil prices move up or down based on the U.S. crude oil storage report. Oil stocks in inventory represent surplus supply. Increasing or […]

There is Less Than ONE Day’s Surplus of Natural Gas

Natural gas supply and demand fundamentals have changed in a major way. In March there was way too much gas. By November there may not be enough…at least at these low prices. NOW is the time to position yourself to profit from it…..BEFORE the money starts flowing into natural gas producers. For 21 consecutive weeks […]

Asia Soaks Up Iran’s Post-Sanctions Oil

Asian nations are stepping up their purchases of Iranian oil, underscoring Tehran’s deepening energy ties with the region amid a slow rapprochement with European crude buyers. China, India, Japan and South Korea are among big Asian oil consumers that have sharply boosted their imports of Iranian crude this year. China and India are looking to […]

Cheap oil – Benefits have costs

Remember peak oil? And the dire predictions that the world’s oil supplies would run out, with accompanying higher energy prices? Fracking technology has rendered that alarm mute. The glut of world wide oil has driven the cost down to prices not seen in years. You and I are beneficiaries of the oil surplus, but the […]

Could the bottom fall out of this oil rally?

The oil markets will have to wait almost two more months before the uncertainty surrounding the pending OPEC deal is settled, so in the meantime a renewed focus on the fundamentals is in order. The global oil production picture is still highly fluid, particularly with promises for a cut to OPEC production while some OPEC […]

Chatting with Steve St. Angelo about Oil and Finance

  Independent researcher Steve St. Angelo started to invest in precious metals in 2002.  Later on in 2008, he began researching areas of the gold and silver market that, curiously, the majority of the precious metal analyst community have left unexplored. These areas include how energy and the falling EROI – Energy Returned On Invested […]

Energy Poverty And Its Human Costs

More than any other time in history, people around the world are demonstrating a deep and passionate commitment to addressing poverty. With the world wealthier and more prosperous than ever before, no one should be confined to a life of poverty. A clear sign of the global commitment to end poverty is the release of […]

Why Oil Will Power Past $100

Summary In recent years, many factors have caused a big drop in the price of oil. Many of these changes that have hurt oil seem permanent; trends toward alternative energy in particular are accelerating. However, the price of oil won’t stay low forever. It will rebound and hit $100/barrel again in the next few years. […]

No, Giant Farms Are Not Feeding the World. They’re Feeding Canada.

If you’ve followed debates around US agriculture over the past decade, you’ve surely heard it: Our industrial-scale farms may pollute and overuse water, foul air, destroy soil, harm local economies, and abuse workers, but that’s just the cost of providing a crucial humanitarian service: feeding the world. The GMO seed/pesticide giants Monsanto and DuPont make […]

E is for EROEI

Understanding EROEI – or Energy Return On Energy Invested – should be on every school curriculum, but isn’t. Simply put, it’s the amount of energy we as a species can play with. Back in the days when you could poke a hole in the ground and oil would gush out of it skywards, getting hold […]

The Golden Age of Gas – When Will It Come?

According to one of its authors, a new book entitled The Future of Natural Gas: Markets and Geopolitics published by EconPapers attempts to explain the International Energy Agency’s implied contention – posed as a question as the title of a book five years ago, whether gas was entering a golden age – bearing in mind the […]

We used to worry about ‘peak oil’. Then the technological revolution happened

When you hear the words high tech, you probably imagine a smartphone, a driverless car, maybe even a spaceship. Having been in the oil and natural gas business for 36 years, I picture 3D seismic imaging that enables scientists to see miles below the seabed floor; the world’s biggest carbon sequestration project; and precision drilling […]

Fresh water, a rare commodity

Water has become India’s scarcest resource, which isn’t just hurting its economy, but its people too. With 18% of the world’s population and 4% of its water resources, India is clearly a water-stressed nation. Constitutionally, water is a state subject. But after two consecutive deficient monsoons, the need for a natural framework policy on water […]

China may be stockpiling more oil than anyone realized

One of the mysteries of the oil market is the question of how much crude oil China has squirreled away in commercial and strategic stockpiles. Now a satellite-imaging firm called Orbital Insight claims to have an answer. It says Chinese inventories in May stood at 600 million barrels, substantially more than commonly thought and nearly […]

Peak salt: is the desalination dream over for the Gulf states?

Gulf states are among the most water-scarce in the world. With few freshwater resources and low rainfall, many countries have turned to desalination (where salt is removed from seawater) for their clean water needs. But Gulf states are heading for “peak salt”: the more they desalinate, the more concentrated wastewater, brine, is pumped back into […]

Accelerationism… and Degrowth? The Left’s Strange Bedfellows

Over a year ago I lived in Barcelona, where I was lucky enough to witness a social movement—in large part fuelled by cooperatives, squats, and other autonomous spaces—win the mayoral elections. I had spent the year being involved with a group that studies and advocates ‘degrowth’—the idea that we must downscale production and consumption to […]

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