The questionable economics of shale gas

Shale gas is being sold to the American public as a miracle, arriving just in time to save us from peak oil. It’s an abundant new fuel supply that will be a “game-changer,” we’re told. We’ll soon be a major exporter of gas to the rest of the world. The economics of fossil fuels have […]

Dr. Kenneth Deffeyes on Peak Oil

Dr. Deffeyes is an author and Princeton University professor emeritus. He joined the Shell research lab when M. King Hubbert had recently issued his controversial predictions that U.S. oil production would peak during the ’70s. After reworking Hubbert’s numbers, Dr. Deffeyes sought other employment. He is the author of “Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil […]

Iraq leads increased medium-term OPEC production capacity

The International Energy Agency, revising upward earlier estimates, said it expects production capacity of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reach 38.1 million b/d by 2016. “Crude oil expansion plans in the medium term are moving apace, with capacity now forecast to increase by 2.33 million b/d to 38.1 million b/d by […]

Three bombs hit southern Iraq oil pipeline

Three bombs hit an oil pipeline that transports crude from Iraq’s southern oilfields to storage tanks around the oil hub of Basra on Tuesday, an oil police source said. “The explosions happened in succession and caused an enormous fire,” said the source who was at the blast scene. “We cannot go near the explosion site […]

Argentina poised for shale oil and gas boom

Argentina could be nearing a shale oil and gas boom similar to the one that transformed the US energy landscape as former state monopoly YPF eyes another 1bn barrel discovery adjacent to a Patagonian field whose reserves were more than six times bigger than thought. YPF has almost finished drilling a 502 sq km area […]

Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply

Hackers are bombarding the world’s computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption. Oil company executives warned that attacks are becoming more frequent and more carefully planned. “If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of valves, or release valves, you can […]

Suncor, Gulfsands declare force majeure in Syria

Suncor Energy Inc. and Gulfsands Petroleum PLC each declared force majeure and are suspending their respective operations with Syria’s state-owned General Petroleum Corp. (GPC) to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Union. “These actions are taken as a result of sanctions on Syria announced by the European Union on Dec. 2,” Suncor said, adding, […]

IEA economist cheers Saudi oil output rise

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said a boost in Saudi oil output would provide welcome relief from the threat that high fuel prices pose to efforts to revive the global economy. The Paris-based IEA, which advises industrialised countries on energy issues, has warned that Brent prices over $100 a barrel are a threat to the […]

Iran Wants OPEC to Adjust Output for Increased Libya, Iraq Oil

Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said some OPEC members should curtail output to accommodate the return of Libyan crude to markets and an increase in Iraqi production, the state-run Mehr news agency reported. Iran will suggest at the planned Dec. 14 meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that members of the group that […]

Dr. Kontorovich, Russian Academy of Science, Peak Oil in “in 2020 and not later than 2030”

When one examines the programme for the World Petroleum Congress in Qatar, December 5-7, one can see that there are seven plenary sessions and the last of these has the theme “Peak Oil: Ahead of Us or Behind Us?”. The managing director of the French oil company Total, Christophe de Margarie, is the main speaker […]

Has the world reached economic peak oil?

Whisper it. Oil production in the US is increasing. The country where output peaked in 1970 and then shrank by 40 per cent over four decades, has turned some kind of corner. Between 2008 and 2010, production rebounded by 800,000 barrels per day to 7.5 million barrels per day, and analysts forecast more growth to […]

From King Coal to King Gas

If the bible for energy policy wonks is the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook, industry executives have ExxonMobil’s The Outlook for Energy. The 2012 edition of Exxon’s long-term report, released on Thursday, offers an insight into one of the talking points in Big Oil’s boardrooms: the golden age of natural gas. The increasing […]

World’s nuclear power generation capacity falls

Despite a record rise in global nuclear power capacity to 375.5GW in 2010, the past year has seen the figure drop back to 366.5GW as production costs have increased, power demand slowed and Fukushima remained in people’s minds, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online (VSO) report. Much of the decline in capacity is […]

Running Out of Oil

from outofoilvideo.com

When oil disruptions lead to crises: Learning from the Arab oil embargoes 1967 and 1973-74

What is oil dependence and how can it lead to energy crises? What lessons can be learned from history to tackle new energy crisis? And why do some oil disruptions lead to crisis while other do not? This article looks at the Arab Oil Embargo of 1967 and the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-74 and […]

Peak oil and the future of growth

This energy predicament is namely that the quantity of oil as well as the quality of oil are in decline. He shows that oil discoveries peaked in 1964 and oil production peaked 40 years later. Martenson also shows how our return on invested energy is rapidly declining — the “cheap and easy” oil fields have […]

Industry study touts large economic impact of shale-gas drilling

A new national study asserts that the shale-gas revolution is having deep, sustained economic benefits by creating jobs, reducing consumer costs, and stimulating growth. The industry-sponsored study by IHS Global Insight found that natural gas production in formations such as Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale supported more than 600,000 jobs nationwide in 2010 and is projected to […]

A reality check on U.S. oil imports and the shale revolution for Mortimer Zuckerman

Mortimer Zuckerman, the chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, announced on November 25, 2011 that America’s energy problems are over thanks to the shale gas revolution. He delivered the good news in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal called “How American Can Escape the Energy Trap”. The article’s subtitle […]

Saudi Arabia Oil Loadings Decline 8.1%, Ship-Tracking Data Show

Oil tankers able to haul a combined 8.78 million barrels a day went to Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura, the world’s largest crude-export terminal, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Vessels with a total capacity of 8.38 million deadweight tons were at Ras Tanura from Nov. 20 to Nov. 26, 8.1 percent less than the previous […]

Peak Oil Reality Discovery & Production Won’t Meet Future Demand, featuring Sadad al Husseini

2009 FEATURING SADAD AL HUSSEINI FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF SAUDI ARAMCO!!!

Nigeria sets ambitious oil targets, sceptics abound

Nigeria plans to produce 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil by 2015 and build three new refineries adding 445,000 bpd of capacity, the oil minister said on Wednesday, ambitious plans which have been promised before. Analysts and oil executives doubt the plans are achievable. Africa’s largest energy industry is struggling because a […]

Saudi Arabia Finally Gives Up

Saudi Arabia has long said that it has loads of untapped reserves and would, within a few years, be on track to increase oil production from 10 million barrels per day to as much as 15 million barrels of oil per day. But Saudi production has stayed stubbornly at 10 million barrels. Last week, the […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The IEA’s Road Show

Every November following the publication of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook, the leadership of the Agency travels to major capitols in an effort to explain to the world’s leaders the conclusions of the new publication. Parts of this year’s briefings contain not-so-subtle hints as to what sort of energy policies the world’s leaders might like […]

Petrodollars: Trying to reverse the slide in Indonesian oil output

Indonesia used to be a major exporter of oil. It hasn’t been in that position for more than five years, and its decline in production has resisted efforts to be reversed. But have those efforts been adequate? In this week’s Oilgram News column “Petrodollars,” Platts’ Meghan Gordon–normally based in Washington, but who recently spent a […]

Tech Talk – A Second Look at Natural Gas in the Bakken

The comments on the recent post on natural gas flaring at The Oil Drum drew a few comments that I would like to discuss before moving on to start reviewing the situation in Russia. Most particularly I want to discuss the change in the regulations that are now imposed in the Bakken, and then go […]

Lust for fossil fuels brings the world to Canada’s oil sands

The helicopter swooping over once-pristine spruce forests provides a close-up view of why the province of Alberta in Canada is among the planet’s most coveted – and contested – petroleum hot spots. North of Fort McMurray, a boomtown serving tens of thousands of migrant workers, Syncrude Canada’s oil sands operation stretches 192km². Rivals Exxon Mobil […]

UK: Field of dreams, or an environment nightmare?

Under a new government “licensing round” early next year – the first since 2008 – bids for shale gas exploration licences are expected to surge, industry experts have told The Sunday Telegraph. The company responsible for Britain’s only active shale gas drilling, Cuadrilla Resources, recently claimed a gigantic 200 trillion cubic-foot find at its site […]

As Colombia ramps up oil exports, it has ‘growing pains’

These are boom times in Colombia’s oil patch. Currently the seventh-largest foreign supplier of crude oil to the United States, Colombia is on track to play a bigger role — and soon. The South American country is ramping up production and expects to hit 1.5 million barrels a day by 2015. That would be a […]

China: Oil output to rise steadily as gas output soars

China’s oil production will rise steadily over the next 20 years, and its gas output will soar, the Ministry of Land and Resources said Thursday. Combined oil and gas output is expected to rise to 360 million tons of oil equivalent by 2015 and 450 million tons by 2030, up from 280 million tons last […]

Increase in Kuwait’s oil output timely

News reports suggesting Kuwait’s oil capacity reaching a sustainable 3 million barrels per day (bpd) is timely for a country engulfed in political turmoil. The reference is to the storming of the national assembly by tens of angry Kuwaitis demanding the removal of the country’s premier. The allegation is the government payment of bribes for […]

« 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