Low oil prices won’t slow Texas

Gas is cheap, jobs are plentiful and the economy is rolling. This is why we love the free market. In the last six months, the price of oil has fallen 36 percent, shaking producers, energy investors and some governments. Such steep drops used to be bad news, usually a signal of global recession. This time, […]

It’s official: America is now No. 2

Hang on to your hats, America. And throw away that big, fat styrofoam finger while you’re about it. There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just say it: We’re no longer No. 1. Today, we’re No. 2. Yes, it’s official. The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest […]

How Low Can Oil Prices Go?

The price of oil in global markets has plunged by nearly 40 percent over the past six months. As a result, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. has dropped from an average of $3.68 in June to $2.74 this week. In June, the U.S. Energy Information Administration had projected that […]

So Why Isn’t Gas Even Cheaper?

Economists call it the “rockets and feathers” phenomenon. Rockets zoom higher, but feathers float lower. There’s pretty wide agreement that gasoline prices seem to rise quickly when oil spikes, but they don’t fall so quickly when crude crashes. There’s little consensus about why. The latest data point comes with the recent plunge in global crude […]

Oil and the Global Slowdown

The world economy is slowing down and the authorities are fretting. Japan, Italy, and Greece are all in recession. China is slowing down according to official statistics, and even more according to whispered accounts. Germany, France and the Netherlands are all at stall speed. According to the BLS, the United States is doing just great […]

Saudi Arabia Sees Oil Prices Stabilizing Around $60 a Barrel

OPEC’s biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, now believes oil prices could stabilize at around $60 a barrel, a level both it and other Gulf producers believe they could withstand, according to people familiar with the situation. The shift in Saudi thinking suggests the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries won’t […]

Oil And The Global Slowdown

The world economy is slowing down and the authorities are fretting. Japan, Italy, and Greece are all in recession. China is slowing down according to official statistics, and even more according to whispered accounts. Germany, France and the Netherlands are all at stall speed. According to the BLS, the United States is doing just great […]

No Peak Oil: Proved U.S. Oil and Gas Reserves Continue To Increase

It was only four years ago that economist and New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman sounded the alarm on peak oil, lamenting that high oil and commodity prices reflect the fact that we live in a “finite world.” But now oil prices are plummeting as U.S. oil production booms due to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, […]

T. Boone Pickens predicts $100 a barrel

Prominent oil investor and sometime-renewable-energy booster T. Boone Pickens predicted Tuesday that the plunging oil price would rebound to $100 a barrel in the next 12 to 18 months. Pickens also said he expects the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will eventually move to slash oil production, possibly in the first half of 2015. […]

We Are Never Going to Run Out of Oil

In a chilling 2010 column, Paul Krugman declared: “peak oil has arrived.” So it’s really not surprising that the national average for a gallon of gas has fallen to $2.77 this week – in 10 states it was under $2.60 – and analysts predict we’re going to dip below the two-dollar mark soon. U.S. oil is down to […]

Low Oil Prices Are History’s Greatest Case of Market Failure

They price oil and gas based on current demand and supply, and not based on the costs to the planet in pollution, global climate change, sea level rise, and more. Remember “Peak Oil?” The world was running out of oil, we were told: Prices would soon skyrocket, and we had better find other fuels. Well, that […]

China emerging on top in OPEC price war as it stockpiles crude oil

China is emerging as the winner from OPEC’s battle with rival oil producers as the world’s biggest energy consumer stockpiles crude. The nation’s efforts to boost reserves may increase its imports by as much as 700,000 barrels a day in 2015, according to London-based Energy Aspects Ltd. That’s more than half the global glut forecast […]

Oil at $40 Possible as Market Transforms Caracas to Iran

Oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008 and threatening to have the same global impact of falling prices three decades ago that led to the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union. Russia, the world’s largest producer, can no longer rely on […]

Eight States Where Gas Will Drop Below $2

Experts have already begun to mention the chance that the average price for a gallon of regular gas will drop below $2 in some parts of America. There are several states where this is highly likely. As a matter of fact, the prices in these states could drop below $2 as early are the start […]

Crude Oil Does The Limbo: How Low Can It Go?

The commodity market for crude oil may have been the one of the two most exciting financial markets around the world during 2014’s first 11 months. Crude’s price per barrel rose to a high of $107.95 June 20, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data, or FRED. And oil’s price per barrel fell to a low […]

Cheap Oil A Boon For The Economy? Think Again

I thought it might be a nice idea to question a certain someone’s theories using their own words, while at the same time showing everybody what the dangers are from falling oil prices. There are many ‘experts and ‘analysts’ out there claiming that economies will experience a stimulus from the low prices, something I’ve already […]

Oil Prices Are Plunging. Here’s Who Wins and Who Loses.

While Americans were stuffing their faces with poultry Thursday, global oil markets were in chaos. And the implications are far-reaching. The price of oil was down more than 9.9 percent Friday afternoon after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided it would not cut back production significantly in the months ahead. In other words, […]

Why oil prices will bounce back … eventually

When an asset class takes a swan dive off the cliff, fortunes can be lost trying to call the bottom. It’s often impossible to tell whether the asset in question is on a suicide run or undergoing a short-term correction. And so it is with oil. Oil prices are down by a third since June […]

France Wants To Get Rid of Diesel Fuel

France wants to gradually phase out the use of diesel fuel for private passenger transport and will put in place a system to identify the most polluting vehicles, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday. Next year, the government will launch a car identification system that will rank vehicles by the amount of pollution they […]

Oil: The Good, the Better, the Ugly

Oil prices have fallen a long way this year. They might fall much further still. Crude prices have fallen 36% since their summer peak, then sent into a tailspin by  the failure of OPEC, the cartel of oil producing countries accounting for 40% of global supply, to trim its output quotas. And history suggests prices […]

Oil and Currency Markets Reflect Expectations for Lower Global Economic Growth

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Bloomberg. Note: The U.S. dollar index measures the value of the U.S. dollar against a basket of six currencies’ exchange rates: the euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc, and Swedish krona. An increase in the index means the dollar is appreciating against these currencies. March […]

Fossil fuels have made all our lives better

Here’s a question for Floridians to ponder: Is it good that your state generates 86 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels? I’d wager most of you would say no. So would many of the politicians and bureaucrats directing America’s energy policy. This was on full display earlier this month, when President Obama announced that […]

Saudi Arabia Says Oil to Stabilize

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said crude prices will stabilize while the United Arab Emirates said OPEC will do what it takes to balance the market. Angola predicted the 12-nation group will reach a consensus when it meets tomorrow. The “market will stabilize itself,” Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi minister, told reporters in Vienna today. The world’s […]

Who’s Ready For $30 Oil?

How low can and will oil prices go, and what will the effects of those prices be? I bet you’ll have a hard time finding even just two people who have the same opinion on that. Not that it’s merely a matter of opinion, mind you, there are a great number of real life factors […]

Peak oil price ‘may have passed’ according to oil and gas analysts

The peak price of oil may have passed, according to industry analysts Gaffney, Cline and Associates. The firm said the drop in value of a barrel of oil from $145 in 2008 to less than $80 in 2014 was caused by supply significantly outstripping demand. In a newly-released report, the Houston-based company warned the imbalance […]

What Does ‘Energy Access’ Even Mean Anyway?

What does it mean for a household or business in a developing country to have electricity access? This apparently simple question has a complex and contested answer. Should a household with a solar panel that runs a light and a cell-phone charger be deemed ‘electrified’? How about a home connected to an electricity grid that […]

Peak car, peak house?

There’s been a bit of talk in the media over the past week or so about ‘peak car’ in Australia. This is the idea that car use in Australia seems to have peaked. The term of course comes from ‘peak oil’ – the idea that oil reserves had peaked and were entering decline. This was […]

Why Crude Oil $80 Is the New Normal, Reasons Saudi Arabia Will Not “Swing”

Now the dust from the Shock & Awe of the 30% drop in oil prices has started to settle, two things are clear: (a) Saudi Arabia did not engineer anything (b) they don’t have a Machiavellian plan to stick one up the wildcatters in North Dakota, or the Russians…the Iranians…the Venezuelans, or even the genius […]

Energy & The Economy – Why Society Will Be Forced To Become Less Complex

In the past few chapters on Energy Economics, Peak Cheap Oil, and the false promise of Shale Oil, we’ve gone into great detail to show how our economic growth is deeply dependent on our energy systems. Here’s how it all sums up. There are some knowns: We know that energy is required for both growth and complexity.  We know that surplus […]

200 billion barrels of new oil production is needed by 2030

This 21 November the world’s oil analysts are attempting to guess what OPEC will decide at its meeting in Vienna on 27 November. Before each OPEC meeting Bloomberg News asks a number of analysts their opinions on OPEC’s future oil production. Yesterday Bloomberg News published what 20 analysts think regarding the 27 November meeting. Half […]

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