Jevons’ coal question: Why the UK Coal Peak wasn’t as bad as expected

In his book The Coal Question from 1865 William Stanley Jevons examined for how long the United Kingdom could continue to fuel its economy based on cheap supplies of coal. At the time the UK consumed about 93 million tons of coal providing nearly all of its energy supply. His estimate was that within a […]

U.S. May Ship More Coal, Raising EU Supply

The U.S. may increase coal exports, further boosting supply of the commodity in Europe, Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG) said. “A big push” to encourage natural-gas burning in the U.S. may drive up coal exports to Europe, China and India, said Hayden Atkins, an analyst in London at Macquarie’s commodities unit. The closing of Germany’s nuclear […]

Kuwait oil exports to peak in 2011: IMF

Higher revenue to boost GDP by 5% while inflation will rise Kuwait is projected to net its highest ever oil export earnings in 2011 because of a surge in crude prices and the this will widen its real GDP by nearly five per cent through the year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has  said. From […]

New High for Saudi Oil Production

According to OPEC, Saudi Arabian production increased to 9.75mbd in July.  This is a modern record (though they produced more back in the 1980-1981 timeframe).  However, they didn’t achieve the 10mbd that press reports were suggesting back in June.  Whether because the press had the target wrong, or because they couldn’t quite manage the goal, we are […]

Fall of the Soviet Union: Implications for Today

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the country that was the “big growth story” was the Soviet Union. Its oil consumption grew by leaps and bounds. Its space program grew; its military program grew; and it became much more industrialized. But then something happened to stop the amazing growth story. The Soviet Union became the Former […]

U.S. Shale Gas Industry Reserves Are Over Stated at Least 100 Percent

The deep waters of the world’s oceans and seas are a frequent topic in discussions of the source of future production of oil. Having talked about the development of the offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields last time, in this post, I’m going to venture further away from the coast, and look at […]

Shaky U.S. economy won’t benefit from natural gas expansion

As the federal government prepares to gut key programs to protect water and other natural resources through this week’s debt agreement, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to invest $12.4 million on programs to support shale gas development. Yet new analysis released by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch casts […]

Tech Talk – The Deep Waters of the Gulf and Salt Domes

The deep waters of the world’s oceans and seas are a frequent topic in discussions of the source of future production of oil. Having talked about the development of the offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields last time, in this post, I’m going to venture further away from the coast, and look at […]

Peak oil was thirty years ago

Taking a break from my war with Murdochracy, my most recent column in the Australian Financial Review (over the fold) was about Peak Oil. Partly for tactical reasons, but mainly because I believe it’s basically correct in this case, I’m wearing my hardest neoclassical hat. One of the more intriguing sidelights to debates over climate […]

Will Natural Gas Become US’s Primary Energy Source by 2030?

Could domestic natural gas become the “game-changer” energy source for the United State in the 21st century? It’s possible. Even Billionaire Oilman T. Boone Pickens, who knows a thing or two about the energy business, is bullish on natural gas. Maybe you should be too, as an investor or a consumer. A “perfect storm” of […]

U.S. Shale Gas: Less Abundance, Higher Cost

Shale gas has become an important and permanent feature of U.S. energy supply. Daily production has increased from less than 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfd) in 2003, when the first modern horizontal drilling and fracture stimulation was used, to almost 20 bcfd by mid-2011. There are, however, two major concerns at […]

ConocoPhillips Gets Aussie Gas To Satisfy Chinese Demand

ConocoPhillips recently announced that it will be investing in a joint venture with Origin Energy and Sinopec by purchasing a 42.5% stake in the Australia Pacific LNG project. [1] The project is estimated to have a gross capital expense of $20 billion with a peak capacity of 115-120 million barrels of oil equivalent of natural […]

Petrobras to Double Oil Output by 2015

Perhaps the biggest foreign-policy story of the past decade, thoroughly overlooked by the American media after 9/11 and its subsequent monomaniacal focus on terrorism, security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the fact that Latin America has essentially moved away from Washington’s influence. This quiet revolution from below, in rejecting the Monroe Doctrine, […]

The future of cheap energy: Underground Coal Gasification

Between 2000 and 2010 world energy use increased by 2.6 billion metric tons of oil equivalent per year. Of this increase, a little over half came from coal, and 72% of the coal increase came from China. The vast exploitation of Chinese coal, the cheapest source of electricity in the world, enabled western nations to […]

Oil facing a glut as manufacturing melts down

With the global manufacturing meltdown underway, the truth is the demand outlook for oil is getting grim and prices may face even more pressure as OPEC oil production increases. OPEC output hit the highest level since 2008, a fact that may give OPEC sheiks nightmares as economic data across the globe begins to falter. First […]

Pipelines 101: An Introduction To North American Oil & Gas Pipeline Routes and Safety Concerns

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be rolling out a whole lot of information about pipelines. Why? Because these metal tubes are truly the blood vessels of the oil and gas industry. Without them, the industry wouldn’t be able to deliver the liquid fossil fuels to their refineries, or out to the […]

Leaked contract reveals BP’s control of Iraqi oil

A report published today uses leaked documents to shows how BP secretly renegotiated it’s Iraqi oil contract, and how Iraqis will pay the price. Here is the press release for the report, published by PLATFORM A leaked contract between BP and the Iraqi government has revealed the extent to which the company has gained control […]

Militants attack gas pipeline to Israel

Gunmen blew up a terminal along Egypt’s natural gas pipeline to Israel in the northern Sinai Peninsula Saturday, security officials said. It is the third attack on the pipeline this month and the fifth since the 18-day uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in February. No gas has been flowing through the pipeline since the […]

Chevron Secures LNG Sales Agreements With TEPCO

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today announced that its Australian subsidiaries have signed binding Sales and Purchase Agreements (SPAs) with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) for the delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Chevron-operated Wheatstone natural gas project in Australia. Under the agreements, Chevron, together with Apache Energy and Kufpec, will deliver up to […]

US oil production gains change the energy landscape

The Independent Petroleum Association of America has called attention to a stealthy trend changing the energy landscape: US production of crude oil and gas liquids is increasing. Not many years ago, US production was thought to have entered a period of perpetual decline. Even fewer years ago, the assumption was that the only producing region […]

Analyzing the Global Oil Supply: 2012 Is the Year for Peak Oil

I first want to make sure that we are on the same page as to what Peak Oil actually means. Here is the definition from Wikipedia which is basically how I understand it: Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of […]

Venezuela to raise oil production, Chavez says

President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela’s state oil company will boost its crude output by 30,000 barrels a day beginning Thursday in honor of his 57th birthday. It’s a symbolic increase for a country that claims to already produce about 3 million barrels a day. But Chavez told state television Wednesday it’s part of a […]

Kuwait oil production flirts with 37-year peak

Saudia Arabia is getting all the attention as it unilaterally boosted its oil production after last month’s failed Opec meeting, but neighbouring Kuwait deserves consideration too. The emirate, which at the begining of the year was pumping 2.3m barrels a day, is ramping up its output significantly, according to industry executives. The estimates vary, but […]

Peak Oil: When Saudi Spare Capacity Falls Short

The last few nights have been restless, to say the least. And the worst part is I know exactly why I keep up my insomniac pacing. A single thought has been rushing to the forefront of my sleepless psyche: Let’s hope it won’t be us asking the Saudis for more oil. That’s what we were […]

A big shale play in California

California stands poised for a crude rejuvenation of sorts, as development of the Monterey Shale play holds a key to reversing the state’s decades-old trend of declining production. Call it a “California revolution,” as does Phil McPherson, a senior research analyst with Global Hunter Securities. Bakken and Eagle Ford, the all-stars of the U.S. shale […]

Could a Natural Gas Cartel Emerge?

We’ve learned to loathe OPEC for oil. Will we have to deal with an OGEC for natural gas? The oil market is global, which is a root cause of the economic and geopolitical briar patches in which the oil-intense U.S. regularly finds itself. Bomb a pipeline in the Middle East, blow over an offshore rig […]

Natural gas from Iran exported to Europe

Iran reached a $10 billion (Dh36.7 billion) agreement with Iraq and Syria to allow the transit of natural gas from Iran’s South Pars field to Europe via Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea, official state media reported. Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian oil ministers signed the agreement yesterday, state-run IRIB News reported, citing remarks by Javad Owji, […]

The scourge of ‘peak oil’

When demand for oil consistently surpasses supply, experts warn that our lives will look “very differently”. Energy derived from oil reaches, quite literally, every aspect of our lives. From the clothes we wear, to the food we eat, to how we move ourselves around, without oil, our lives would look very differently. Yet oil is […]

World Oil Supplies as Reported in EIA’s most recent International Energy Statistics

This post is mainly an update based on World Oil Supplies as Reported in EIA’s most recent International Energy Statistics. The world is split into four economic groups to describe supply developments as follows: OECD, Russia, OPEC and Rest of World (ROW; Rest of World = World – (OECD + Russia + OPEC)). Figure 01: […]

natural gas production, as shale gas arrives

The natural gas industry in the United States has undergone significant changes in the last twenty years. As I noted last time, until 1993 the industry was beset by regulation that controlled both price and flows. With the removal of those regulations the industry was able to make considerable strides to increase market share. As […]

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