The Sahara Desert is expanding—world’s largest desert grew by 10 percent since 1920

The Sahara Desert has expanded by about 10 percent since 1920, according to a new study by University of Maryland scientists. The research is the first to assess century-scale changes to the boundaries of the world’s largest desert and suggests that other deserts could be expanding as well. The study was published online March 29, […]

The View from Les Houches: Of Rare Metals and Cute Kittens

Les Houches, March 2018. José Halloy of the Université Paris Diderot discusses mineral depletion in his presentation. Note how he utilizes Hubbert curves to estimate the trajectory of mineral extraction. He predicted that the dearth of very rare elements will negatively affect the electronics industry, perhaps killing it completely. José Halloy’s presentation at the Les […]

The World Oil Supply is Infinite: I Know That Because I Believe It

Earth scientists have been making the case for years that the present level of human activity is not sustainable.  We’re rapidly depleting resources, degrading ecosystems, altering the atmosphere, etc.  What earth scientists are saying is generally not covered by the mainstream media, or is sugar coated, because the mainstream media is an outlet for the […]

The world has tons of oil left

The consultancy Rystad Energy has released new estimates of global oil resources that help underscore why the discussion in energy circles has transformed over the last decade from when supplies will peak to when demand will taper off, because there’s lots of oil left and being discovered. The data: “Rystad Energy estimates that liquid resources […]

Carbon Cool

“These stories have three things in common. They reverse climate change by gaining new respect for the element carbon upon which all life depends. They are powered by human ingenuity, working as part of, not against, nature. They are driven and emboldened by the astonishing, illimitable, force of youth.“  Sustainability is an overused and misused […]

Oil is a Scarce Resource

Building a country or a region’s economy on the extraction of a resource is fool hardy. A resource extracted is gone! It is no longer there! Inevitably payday will come, maybe not within our lifetime, maybe not within our children’s lifetime, but it will come. True, by the time that resource is extracted, there may […]

BP Announces New North Sea Discoveries

BP plc announced Wednesday that it has made new discoveries in the North Sea at Capercaillie, in Block 29/4e, and Achmelvich, in Block 206/9b. The Capercaillie well was drilled to a total depth of 12,303 feet and encountered light oil and gas-condensate in Paleocene and Cretaceous-age reservoirs, while Achmelvich was drilled to a total depth […]

‘Major’ Deep Offshore Oil Discovery Made in US Gulf of Mexico

Chevron Corporation announced Wednesday that a ‘major’ oil discovery has been made at the Ballymore prospect, located deep offshore in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Ballymore well reached a total measured depth of 29,194 feet and encountered more than 670 feet of net oil pay with ‘excellent’ reservoir and fluid characteristics, Chevron said in a […]

Exxon discovers oil, gas in Papua New Guinea

Exxon Mobil Corp. has discovered natural gas and oil in the western province of Papua New Guinea and has begun evaluating the find with its partners. The Texas oil company drilled an exploration well more than 8,900 feet into the earth and found hydrocarbons in sandstone reservoirs, confirming that the gas-rich field encompassing the Toro […]

Hope Wanes for ‘Elephant’ Oil Discoveries in Norway’s Arctic

After a disappointing year for drillers, Norwegian authorities are reviewing their hopes for the Nordic country’s hottest exploration area. “In the part of the Barents Sea that’s currently open, you’ve sort of tried the elephants — the big opportunities,” Bente Nyland, the head of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, said in an interview. “You’re now down […]

Helium in the high desert highlands

Helium is important to the United States of America. Western Colorado and eastern Utah together will play a modest but important role in providing America with this lesser known naturally occurring gas central to the nation’s modern standard of living. In 2016, The Wild Earth Guardians protested mineral leases north of Grand Junction auctioned by […]

Oil discoveries are at an all-time low — and the clock is ticking

We’re running out of new oil. Explorers in 2017 discovered the least amount of oil since at least the 1940s, according to Rystad Energy, an oil and gas consultancy. It estimated that less than seven billion barrels of oil equivalent were found this year through Thursday. Some energy companies will announce more discoveries next year in […]

US Geological Survey To Reevaluate Bakken Oil Reserves

Federal geologists will lead a push to reevaluate the total amount of recoverable oil near North Dakota’s Bakken formation, according to the state’s Senator John Hoeven. Hoeven requested the new analysis from the U.S. Geological Survey in an attempt to attract new investors to the shale play. The survey will now include 17 other formations […]

The Super Basin Behind US NatGas Dominance

Natural gas production in the United States has skyrocketed over the past five years, making the carbon-light fossil fuel cheaper to access and plentiful for export, according to a new report by the Energy Information Administration. Production in the Appalachia region alone has seen a jump of 14 billion cubic feet per day since 2012, […]

US Vastly Overstates Oil Output Forecasts, MIT Study Suggests

Turns out, America’s decade-long shale boom might just end up being a little too good to be true. There’s no denying that fracking has turned the U.S. into a force in the global oil and gas markets, which has more than a few people abuzz about the prospect of energy independence. But now, researchers at […]

The global resource shortage you have never heard about

If someone were to ask you to name the most-extracted materials on Earth, you might answer with fossil fuels or biomass. However, by weight, the answer is actually sand and gravel. Picture sand and most people think of seas, river deltas, deserts and endless miles of beaches — a never-ending resource that seemingly will last […]

Abiogenic Petroleum: Peak Oil and “Fossil Fuels” – Debunked

Live on Tuesdays at 5pm Pacific time – UnSpun #094: Greg Quinones is a business consultant, writer, public speaker, trainer and teacher. He is Founder and Managing Executive Partner of ZEN Enhanced Oil Recovery (ZENEOR) a Texas based privately held limited liability company. ZENEOR specializes in “out-of-the-box” thinking in oil production and process. Through extensive […]

Iran-Iraq earthquake: Hundreds killed as border region hit

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake has shaken the northern border region between Iran and Iraq, killing at least 348 people and injuring thousands more. One Iranian aid agency said 70,000 people needed shelter after the quake, one of the largest this year. The majority of those who died were in Iran’s western Kermanshah province. Nearly 5,660 were […]

Pemex makes Mexico’s biggest onshore oil find in 15 years

Mexico’s national oil company Pemex has made its biggest onshore oil discovery in 15 years with a find in the eastern state of Veracruz, President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Friday. Tanker trucks of state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) are seen in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez Pena Nieto said Pemex […]

Warming oceans, melting ice caps and a super volcano

Mother Earth we are sorry. Humans seem to be the most destructive species on the planet. Can we not help our destructive ways? Our carbon emitting habits prove that. We are destroying the only planet we can call home. This year’s hurricane season is proving itself to be one for the books. Ten consecutive storms […]

ExxonMobil ‘Puts Guyana on the Map’ with Discovery

Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday reported its fifth new oil discovery after drilling the Turbot-1 well offshore Guyana with the Stena Carron drillship. “The results from this latest well further illustrate the tremendous potential we see from our exploration activities offshore Guyana,” ExxonMobil Exploration Co. President Steve Greenlee said in a company announcement. “ExxonMobil, along […]

Call For Reviewers: Mathematical GeoEnergy

A new book entitled Mathematical GeoEnergy: Oil Discovery, Depletion and Renewable Energy Analysis     by Paul Pukite, Dennis Coyne, and Dan Challou will be published late next year by Wiley as part of their AGU Book Series. We are looking for potential reviewers of the manuscript. As the title implies, the contents are math intensive, and […]

‘Game-Changing’ new research on prolific Permian Basin estimates 60 billion to 70 billion barrels remain

Energy researchers at IHS Markit have completed the first, three-year phase of a massive Permian Basin research project that models and interprets the giant basin’s key geologic characteristics to better estimate its remaining hydrocarbon potential, and initial results indicate the giant basin still holds an estimated 60 billion to 70 billion barrels of technically recoverable […]

Plentiful oil will sustain the age of hydrocarbons

  Last week, I wrote about the likelihood of a long plateau of oil demand at something around 100m barrels a day for the next two to three decades. That figure reflects a balance between falling consumption of petrol as electric vehicle numbers grow and continuing increases in demand for diesel for the freight business, […]

Only ~10% Of UK’s Recoverable Offshore Oil & Gas Reserves Remain

Only around 10% of the UK’s original offshore recoverable oil and gas reserves now remain, according to a new study from the University of Edinburgh. This means that at current rates of extraction, the UK’s reserves will only last another decade or so. Once the UK’s oil and gas reserves run out, it will become […]

United Kingdom’s Oil, Gas Reserves May Be Depleted Within 10 Years

A recent study suggests oil industries in the United Kingdom are entering their final decade of production. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland analyzed the output from offshore fields and found nearly 10 percent of the U.K.’s original recoverable oil and gas remains, according to a release on the study. This is roughly 11 percent of […]

NKorea Nuclear Tests Could Trigger ‘Supervolcano’ Eruption

After North Korea’s latest nuclear test, scientists are worried that more underground explosions in the isolated country’s rocky north could set the stage for a deadly volcanic eruption not unlike the one that NASA fears could be brewing in the Yellowstone caldera. Following the North’s sixth nuclear test Chinese authorities have stepped up radiation monitoring […]

Earth Is Starting to Run Out of Sand

When most of us think of limited resources, typically fossil fuels, trees or fresh water reserves come to mind. But, can we now add sand to the list? Well, according to scientists, our sand supplies are not only being depleted, but it’s happening at an alarming rate. Certainly, we’re all aware of the growing population […]

Global Ocean Circulation Appears To Be Collapsing Due To A Warming Planet

Scientists have long known about the anomalous “warming hole” in the North Atlantic Ocean, an area immune to warming of Earth’s oceans. This cool zone in the North Atlantic Ocean appears to be associated with a slowdown in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), one of the key drivers in global ocean circulation. A recent […]

Norway’s Arctic Oil Ambitions Suffer As Most Promising Well Yields None

Norway’s hope of discovering a large oilfield in the Barents Sea has suffered a major setback after the far north Arctic’s most promising reservoir turned out to contain only small amounts of natural gas. Statoil, the country’s top oil and gas producer, has stepped up drilling in the Barents Sea this year as the government […]

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