Why we have a wage inequality problem

Wage inequality is a topic in elections around the world. What can be done to provide more income for those without jobs, and those with low wages? Wage inequality is really a sign of a deeper problem; basically it reflects an economic system that is not growing rapidly enough to satisfy everyone. In a finite […]

U.S. Lifted The Crude Oil Export Ban, And Exports Went… Down

Just over three months after the authorities lifted the four-decade ban on crude oil exports, the U.S. has actually exported less this year than it did over the same period the year before, when the ban was still in place. According to Clipper Data market intelligence cited by the Financial Times, we’ve seen a 5 […]

What Low Oil Prices Really Mean

Since the start of 2016, oil prices have swung between $27 and $42 per barrel, about a quarter of the 2008 peak crude oil price of $145. On February 16, oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, and Venezuela agreed to a tentative deal to freeze their production in an attempt to boost prices. This […]

Dyson developing an electric car

Dyson is developing an electric car at its headquarters in Wiltshire with help from public money, according to government documents. The company, which makes a range of products that utilise the sort of highly efficient motors needed for an electric car such as vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and bladeless fans, last year refused to rule […]

Cheap Oil Slow to Boost Global Growth

International Monetary Fund researchers said the benefits from cheap oil may not materialize until demand in the global economy picks up and central banks in advanced nations move away from near-zero interest rates. Despite a significant drop in oil prices since June 2014, economists are still looking for the positive effects of cheaper oil. While […]

Fuss over “missing” 800,000 oil barrels: ‘Get over it,’ says IEA official

Has the hoo-ha over the 800,000 “missing barrels”, the difference between average daily global oil production and consumption flagged by the International Energy Agency in its March report gone a bit too far? And did you fall for the argument that these barrels may not even exist, which in theory halves the presumed oversupply in […]

The Future of Batteries and Electric Vehicles

Steve Levine, author of “The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World,” joins us in studio to discuss the current status of batteries and the impact they could have on the energy market over the next 10 to 20 years. Electric cars have been on the horizon for years now, but […]

It’s Not Peak Oil, It’s Peak Affordable Oil

Lately there has been some suggestion that “Peak Oil is dead” — that because of the recent drop in demand and price for oil, we will never again see high oil prices and will never run out of oil. What this conclusion misunderstands is that it’s not about running out of oil, it’s about running […]

Saudi Arabia Won’t Let Oil Prices Stay Over $40

Saudi Arabia faces a stark choice: either let markets crush American frackers or watch American frackers crush markets. After testing the upper twenties for a couple times, oil prices have staged a huge rally lately, trading above the $40 mark. Energy companies have rallied along, helping major Wall Street averages race towards new highs. But […]

Peak Oil Returns: Why Demand Will Likely Peak By 2030

Think Progress has a post on the “peak oil demand” theory that seems to have come into vogue to replace traditional peak oil theory based on supply depletion – Peak Oil Returns: Why Demand Will Likely Peak By 2030. Is it possible that the world is actually going to follow the path of the “Transport […]

Villageness

“Before you reach carrying capacity you start to make bad, short-term, expedient decisions.” Towards the end of our two-week Permaculture Design Course at Maya Mountain — their 11th as a host and our personal 50th as a teacher — we sallied out into the Maya world with Chris Nesbitt in search of a turkey for […]

The Rise Of Electric Vehicles

Mother Jones has a look at research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) into the future of electric vehicles – The Bright Future Ahead for Electric Vehicles, in 4 Charts. Last month, Elon Musk predicted that the electric vehicle industry will “definitely suffer” from low oil prices—a barrel of crude is about $33 today, down […]

What Happened to Peak Oil?

Peak oil is the point at which global oil production peaks and can only go down. M. King Hubbert developed the theory of peak oil after observing this pattern in individual oil fields and then extrapolating these trends to the U.S., accurately predicting a peak in U.S. production by 1970. But in the last few […]

An Empirical Model For Oil Prices and Some Implications

This is a guest post by Ian Schindler (Schinzy). The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Ron Patterson or Dennis Coyne. Introduction This work is preliminary. It is a preview of part of a paper I am writing with Aude Illig. There are three main reasons I am making this post. The […]

IEA warns consumers of spike in oil prices

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is warning consumers not to let cheap oil lull them into a false sense of security amid forecasts of a price spike by 2021. In a report, the IEA said it expects prices to start recovering in 2017. But it forecasts that will be followed by a sharp jump in […]

Our economic growth system is reaching limits in a strange way

Economic growth never seems to be as high as those making forecasts would like it to be. This is a record of recent forecasts by the International Monetary Fund: Figure 1. World GDP Forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. Figure 2 shows world economic growth on  a different basis–a basis that appears to me to […]

When Will The Oil Market Rebalance?

Some observers believe the market must rebalance before oil prices bottom. But that is not necessarily true for futures prices, which are based on price expectations. Projections show the world rebalancing in the second half of 2017. At that point, oil inventories will be much higher, and oil companies will draw them down if prices […]

A New American Dream

Jeremiah (my partner) and I don’t dream of getting rich, or owning a big house with a white picket fence and a two-car garage, or driving a fancy car. Rather, we dream of a world where our children will have a decent chance of survival and good quality of life – a world with drinkable […]

The Oil Price – Some (Mar-16) Observations and Thoughts

In this post I present some selected parameters I monitor which may help understand near term (2-3 years) oil price movements and levels. It has been my understanding for some time that the formulations of fiscal and monetary policies also affects the commodities markets. Changes to total global debt has and will continue to affect […]

The implications of peak energy

Our current society is one based on whim. Whatever we want can be had if we have the money. Not only can we have what we want any time we want it, it’s the done thing to throw it away and buy something else when it breaks or the latest upgrade comes out. We are […]

How oil price volatility explains these uncertain times

How oil price volatility explains these uncertain times By TOM THERRAMUS for OIL-PRICE.NET, 2016/03/01 The numbers say that these should be the best of times for America. The economy has been growing for five years. Unemployment is low. Inflation is almost nonexistent and gas is cheap. Yet, many Americans feel deeply uneasy about their future […]

Oil Prices Should Fall, Possibly Hard

Oil prices should fall, possibly hard, in coming weeks. That is because fundamentals do not support the present price. Prices should fall to around $30 once the empty nature of an OPEC-plus-Russia production freeze is understood. A return to the grim reality of over-supply and the weakness of the world economy could push prices well into the $20s. Saudi Arabia’s Minister of […]

$67 Oil Has All The Majors Converging Here

Argentina offers one of the few places on earth where oil companies are not suffering from the full force of the collapse in prices. Argentina regulates oil prices, a policy originally intended to insulate the public from the whims of the market, protecting people from triple-digit crude prices. But with the crash in prices since […]

India, Middle East Countries In Talks On Oil-For-Food

India is in talks with some Gulf nations to buy oil to fill its strategic reserves and sell food in return, seeking to use its position as the world’s third-largest oil importer to both secure energy supplies and boost exports. Indian Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters the idea was still fluid, but New Delhi […]

Energy Access for the Developing World

Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS What’s the best way to bring energy to those in the developing world who lack it? Why do forecasts by agencies like IEA always seem to overstate the cost of solutions in the developing world? Why do big expensive programs run by […]

A Barrel of Oil Costs Less than the Barrel It Comes in

Here’s a stat that illustrates just how much crude prices have fallen: a barrel of oil costs less to buy than the actual barrel it comes in. That fact comes courtesy of Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, who calls oil “the Kim Kardashian of asset classes,” in a Friday note because of the attention it’s commanded across the […]

Why, look: It’s an oil price-rigging revival

Beware, Americans! Wall Street is desperately trying to rig the oil and gasoline markets again. I’ve been following this scheme for nearly 10 years as speculators, led by the Goldman Sachs gang, tried to convince people that the world is running short of oil and that the price would soon go to $200 a barrel. […]

Where Has The Oil Gone? Missing Barrels And Market Rebalancing

Global oil production exceeded consumption by just over 1 billion barrels in 2014/15, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Production exceeded consumption by an average of 0.9 million barrels per day in 2014 and 2.0 million bpd in 2015 (http://tmsnrt.rs/1pvIEw8). Of the 1 billion barrels reportedly produced but not consumed, roughly 420 million are […]

The Future of Oil Companies: A Slow Decline

Market watchers are announcing the demise of the oil majors. Not for the first time. According to Jilles van den Beukel, former geoscientist with Shell, the oil companies are indeed seeing their world shrinking. But they are not dead yet: their reason for being – the world’s demand for oil and gas – is still […]

Time to End the Oil Addiction?

Oil has dominated the wealth of nations for the majority of the 20th century, often shaping the outcomes of wars and dominating the global geopolitical power. One can wonder, how has humanity come to such a reliance on oil? The first account of the use of oil dates back to 347 AD in China, but […]

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