Remember When We Were Running Out of Crude Oil Storage?

Given the amount of air time the crude oil storage situation received back in March and April, this might be a good time to revisit that situation. If you recall, there was a great amount of hand-wringing regarding the crude oil storage picture in the U.S. Inventories were high and they were continuing to rise. […]

Why Use Compressed Natural Gas?

Why CNG? CNG is an abbreviation for Compressed Natural Gas. Compressed Natural Gas is exactly the same as the fuel that is delivered to our customer’s homes , but is simply compressed so that we can store more of it in one place. This allows us to use CNG to fuel generators, tractor trailers, and […]

The Key to Humanity’s Future? Asian Cities

Some 10,000 years ago, just as our planet emerged from the last ice age, human beings began to experiment with an entirely new and innovative form of social organization. Instead of constantly roaming around in packs, they grouped together in one place to live in settled communities — the first proto-cities. Since then, humans have […]

Laudato Si’: Signalling towards Degrowth?

By now, there are likely few who have not heard of Pope Francis’s recent encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’”. And as many of the readers of this blog might already know, the Spanish and Italian versions contain what appears to be a direct endorsement of degrowth: the use of the term „decrecimiento“ (sp) and […]

Red-hot fuel demand can’t shore up the oil price alone

Sales of transport fuels have exceeded all expectations this year, making demand from reviving economies the mantra of bulls who say the oil price is well on the mend. But warning signs, especially in Europe, may derail that view. Growing stocks, and early stress signals for some oil products, such as diesel, are throwing a […]

Mexico Moving Forward With Major Natural Gas Pipeline

On June 22, Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) announced it would tender a new round of 24 energy infrastructure projects totaling $10 billion, including a $3 billion underwater pipeline bringing U.S. natural gas from Texas to Tuxpan, Veracruz. Amidst a grand national “gasification” strategy that has promoted Mexican imports of U.S. natural gas, this may […]

Transition Streets in the US

After more than a year in the making (with lots of expert and volunteer support) we have finally released our neighborhood carbon/water/waste reduction project, Transition Streets. If you are interested in what this scrappy nonprofit can do with help from a lot of friends and supporters take a look here: http://transitionstreets.org/. In a nutshell: We […]

Livestock feed to overtake biofuel in grain demand

Livestock feed will surpass biofuels as the main source of growth in global grain consumption in the next 10 years as emerging countries consume more animal protein while lower oil prices and policy changes end a decade of high demand for crop-based biofuel, the FAO and OECD said on Wednesday. In their annual Agricultural Outlook […]

Asia depends on Middle East for 66 % of its oil imports

This post uses data from the inter area oil movement section of the BP Statistical Review published in June 2015. It is a continuation of an earlier post on Asian oil consumption and production. Global trade and Asia’s share Total global oil trade steadily increased by 4.7% pa up to the US recession year of […]

Watering Down the Energy Debate

Water is essential for the production of energy. Energy facilities both consume water and have impacts on the aquatic ecosystems they interact with. These interactions are complex however and it is a mistake to over-simplify – one we must avoid if we are to meet our future energy needs in the most sustainable manner possible. […]

Fuel demand stabilises in the United States

The initial consumption stimulus from lower oil prices may be fading, at least in the United States, according to the latest round of official data on traffic volumes and fuel sales. Traffic on California’s highway network was 2.6 percent higher in May than a year earlier, the state transportation department said. Growth was the same […]

Chevrolet Bolt Electric Vehicle

The electric vehicle wars are about to heat up, and it looks as though the next big fight will be between General Motors and Tesla Motors. Both companies are no stranger to electrified vehicles, but Tesla has by far been the poster child for the EV movement since the introduction of its highly acclaimed Model […]

T. Boone Pickens: $70 Oil Coming

During an appearance on FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, T. Boone Pickens, BP Capital Management Chairman said we should take advantage of America’s energy, as it is the cheapest in the world. And he warned that U.S. consumers are becoming too complacent with cheap gasoline prices because he believes oil will rebound to the […]

BP Data Suggests We Are Reaching Peak Energy Demand

Some people talk about peak energy (or oil) supply. They expect high prices and more demand than supply. Other people talk about energy demand hitting a peak many years from now, perhaps when most of us have electric cars. Neither of these views is correct. The real situation is that we right now seem to […]

So What Exactly Have Fossil Fuels Done For Us?

It has become popular to demonize fossil fuels. Pop stars, press, politicians and now pontiffs speak with a single voice: We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas needs to be progressively replaced without delay. Until greater progress […]

Asia’s oil consumption at record high while production peaked in 2010

The annual BP Statistical Review has come out, as usual in June. In this post we focus on the Asia Pacific region. This is important because the Australian government has offered the help of “Team Australia” to build the “Asian Century”. The question no one asks (or wants to ask) is how much oil there […]

Effect of Saudi Arabia Decisions on Global Crude Oil Supply & Demand

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia exerts more influence on the global price of crude oil than any other nation state. Oil analysts study Saudi policy and politics with as much attention to detail as financial analysts spend on US Federal Reserve meeting minutes. The current confluence of dramatic changes external and internal to the Kingdom […]

Society will collapse by 2040 due to catastrophic food shortages

A scientific model supported by the Foreign Office has suggested that society will collapse in less than three decades due to catastrophic food shortages if policies do not change. The model, developed by a team at Anglia Ruskin University’s Global Sustainability Institute, does not account for society reacting to escalating crises by changing global behaviour […]

Russian minister: Oil markets stable

From the Russian perspective, the situation in the global crude oil market is starting to stabilize, the minister of economic development said. Crude oil prices starting in June 2014 began a steady decline, dropping from levels above the $100 per barrel mark to below $50 per barrel in early 2015. A year on, Russian Minister […]

‘Missing barrels’ may hold new oil demand

The sea of crude oil drowning markets may be only half as deep as an influential estimate suggests. The Paris-based International Energy Agency, an alliance of 29 oil-importing nations including the United States, has contributed to the downturn in oil prices with its estimates that the global supply of oil is outpacing demand by about […]

The Arab world and the future of Africa

When the 22 countries of the Arab League met in their Cairo headquarters last month to discuss common security concerns, there were 10 African representatives in attendance. In discussions of the Arab world, one unmistakable factor is often missed: the Arab world is heavily African. Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and […]

Peak Zealots and Their History of Failure

A recent headline based on an EIA report citing reserves may peak in next 20 years revived the discussion of “peak” oil six months after the markets shuddered with a $60/barrel drop in price and the idling of wells and new drilling because of the “glut” of supply. The “Peakonistas” and their political sycophants came […]

Predictions Of Oil’s Demise Premature

The recent meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries provides an opportunity to understand the mysteries of the global oil market. As expected, OPEC decided not to cut its oil production. Barring unanticipated developments, prices will drop, says oil analyst Larry Goldstein. Potential oil supply, including drawdowns from bloated inventories, exceeds demand. Goldstein rightly […]

China’s natural gas demand sputters

For global natural gas producers, no country is as important to their future as China. An expected surge in demand over the coming two decades from China is underpinning billions of dollars of investment in new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants around the world, pipeline projects from its neighbours and unconventional gasfields at home. But […]

Economics for a Full World

Because of the exponential economic growth since World War II, we now live in a full world, but we still behave as if it were empty, with ample space and resources for the indefinite future. The founding assumptions of neoclassical economics, developed in the empty world, no longer hold, as the aggregate burden of the […]

Peak Oil? Yes, Absolutely – Peak Oil Demand

You should never bet against the capability of oil investors to turn the world completely upside down. A great example occurred on Wednesday of last week, as Arthur Berman argues in this excellent article. He points out that Brent crude surged from $62 a barrel to $65 a barrel on 10 June, despite the US […]

A year after the crash, oil markets risk more trouble ahead

A year on from the start of one of the biggest oil price crashes in history, the driving force behind the slide remains intact: there is still too much crude. While output continues to grow, the economic outlook has darkened in top energy consumer China, where oil demand has been one of the few bright […]

The Future History of Political Economy – Part 2

You can read Part 1 here. Ecological Economics represents the extension into economics of the thermodynamic revolution of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In physics, that revolution dethroned Newton and brought relativity. In biology, it was midwife to the birth of ecology, the study of ecosystems as wholes in which energy networks—food webs—are a defining […]

Our Phantom Economy

Those who believe that phantom recoveries and phantom metrics can be substituted for reality are in for a shock in the next downturn. Stripped of artifice, there are only two kinds of media stories: those that support the status quo narrative, and those that are skeptical of that narrative. What is the status quo narrative? […]

Economic Growth and its Inequality

The discourse on economic growth has been one associated with increased wealth and subsequent happiness. The notion of ‘trickle down’ has been used to pursue levels of staggering economic growth over the past century and enabled governments to implement policy initiatives, which have been argued to supposedly benefit the poorest in society. However, this is […]

« 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