Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell seeks to reopen Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling debate

Gov. Sean Parnell, R-Alaska, accused Democrats of stifling domestic energy production and inhibiting job growth in the weekly Republican address on Saturday, reopening the debate about drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and calling on the Senate and the White House to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline. “Most Americans […]

Minister Reiterates OPEC Members’ Opposition to Anti-Iran Sanctions

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi, who is in Vienna to attend the conference of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said that members of the OPEC are against the West’s unilateral sanctions against Tehran. Speaking upon arrival in Vienna on Thursday evening, Qassemi said the unilaterally imposed western sanctions against Iran are another issue that would […]

Blood for oil

There’s quite a bit of scholarship about oil and civil conflict, but the role oil plays in driving interstate war is a bit less understood. A clever paper by Fracesco Caselli of LSE, Massimo Morelli of Columbia University, and Dominic Rohner of the University of Lausanne attempts to measure this by looking at whether the […]

Get Apocalyptic: Why Radical is the New Normal

In December 2008, Tim DeChristopher attended a protest at a federal auction of drilling rights to Utah wilderness lands. He found a better way to disrupt the auction when he picked up a paddle and began bidding on the leases as “Bidder 70.” He won $1.8 million worth of parcels and inflated the price of […]

The Enron analog

The Executive Branch of the US government is beginning to look like Enron just before bankruptcy. That’s not to say the administration of Barack Obama has criminals in high office, as Enron did. The basis for comparison here is consistent, unabashed, and in too many instances motivational hubris. The title of a 2003 book by […]

Iran: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah clinically dead

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz is reported to be clinically dead as the monarch is not recently seen in the public. A Saudi journalist working for London-Based Asharq Alawsat says the Saudi monarch has been clinically dead since Wednesday. He also quoted medical sources in Saudi Arabia as saying that the king’s vital organs, […]

The Unintended Consequences of Exporting Natural Gas

The best intentions during an election campaign have a habit twisting beyond recognition once a candidate is in power. I doubt when Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago he thought that, once in the White House, his Administration would be responsible for one of the most chilling crackdowns on the […]

Kuwait oil minister’s resignation accepted

The resignation of Kuwait’s oil minister Hani Hussein has been accepted, local media reported, after he came under pressure from lawmakers wanting to question him over a $2.2 billion compensation payment to Dow Chemical Co . Earlier this month the parliament speaker said some members of the cabinet had offered to resign, without giving details. […]

The Oil Extremists

The federal Energy Information Administration reported in March that at some point this year — maybe in the fall, maybe next month, maybe tomorrow — United States crude oil production will surpass imports for the first time since 1995. This is an important milestone. It does not mean that America has reached energy independence, not […]

Bahraini protesters clash with police

Thousands rally in village of Diraz to demonstrate against a raid last week on a top Shia cleric’s home. Thousands of anti-government protesters have rallied in Bahrain to demonstrate against a raid last week on a top cleric’s home. Shia protesters in the village of Diraz, west of the capital Manama, threw stones at hundreds […]

Hacks targeting US oil, gas, and electric companies traced to Iran

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times both report that recent cyber attacks against US oil, gas, and power companies have come from Iran. The hackers were targeting control systems and probing for the kind of access that would give them the ability to disrupt oil pipelines and other infrastructure. The cyber attacks are […]

The Natural Gas Games Begin

Washington this week has been engulfed in the natural gas export conundrum, with a Senate energy committee’s first in a series of natural gas forums starting off on 14 May. They’re just testing the waters here, but next week we’ll get down and dirty on this one: the entire meeting will be devoted solely to […]

Iran Pushes Ahead With New Nuke Plant

Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. Iran has transported the reactor vessel to the heavy water plant near the central town […]

US Oil Surge Could Impact Mideast Geopolitics

The United States will account for a third of new oil supplies over the next five years, and will become energy self-sufficient in 20 years, according to a new report by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Although U.S. oil imports from Arab Gulf countries increased last year, analysts predict the U.S. will lose its […]

A Mileage Tax Monitored By GPS For All N.J. Drivers?

It’s a controversial proposal: Paying for every mile you drive to cover road repairs. While some say it’s necessary, others are saying it’s time to put the brakes on the idea, CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported Tuesday. It’s the one thing New Jersey can boast about – having the fourth-lowest gas tax in the nation. […]

Federal mandate boosting biofuels use has unintended consequences

The 2007 energy independence law is proving to be a law of unintended consequences. The intent was to boost the production of ethanol and other biofuels so the country could reduce its growing dependence on imported oil. At the time, President George W. Bush, a former oilman, complained that the nation was “addicted to oil.” […]

U.S. OKs liquefied natural gas exports to Japan, others

The United States said Friday it will allow exports of domestically produced liquefied natural gas to Japan and other countries to which it is not bound by free trade agreements, authorizing a plan to deliver shale and other gases from Texas. Japan hailed the move as it had been asking the United States to lift […]

BP, Transocean Are Sued by Texas Over 2010 Gulf Oil Spill

Texas sued BP Plc (BP/), Transocean Ltd. and others involved in the 2010 oil spill, calling it the “worst environmental disaster” in U.S. history and becoming the fifth Gulf of Mexico state to file claims. The state accused the companies of violating Texas environmental laws, and is seeking damages for economic loss, including lost tax […]

US should repeal its antique ban on the export of crude

Sooner or later, the US government must allow general export of crude oil. Sooner would be better than later. A couple of recent developments illuminate the need. First, crude oil exports are reported by the Energy Information Administration to have jumped in February to their highest level since April 2000. The amount wasn’t great: 124,000 […]

Israel Hints at New Strikes, Warning Syria Not to Hit Back

In a clear warning to Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants in the region, a senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering additional military strikes to prevent that from happening and that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, would face crippling consequences if he retaliated. “Israel is determined […]

David Stockman: “The American Empire And The End Of Sound Money”

In Chapter 12 of David Stockman’s new book The Great Deformation, the outspoken truth-sayer discusses the realities of the end of the gold standard – from the the Bank of England’s ‘default’ in 1931 to the 1960 London Gold panic (a shot across the Keynesian bow) and on to Nixon and Bretton Woods, Stockman explains […]

Everything Is Rigged, Continued: European Commission Raids Oil Companies in Price-Fixing Probe

We’re going to get into this more at a later date, but there was some interesting late-breaking news yesterday. According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets. The targeted companies […]

India’s Oil Ministry proposal on doubling natural gas prices rejected

New Delhi: Oil Ministry’s proposal for an across-the-board near doubling of natural gas prices has been rejected by the Cabinet Secretariat saying a ministerial panel headed by Defence Minister AK Antony did not have powers to do so. The Ministry had sent a draft proposal for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) […]

The IEA Says Peak Oil Is Dead. That’s Bad News for Climate Policy

No one—aside maybe from survivalists who’d stocked up on MREs and assault rifles—was really looking forward to a peak-oil world. Read this 2007 GQ piece by Benjamin Kunkel—while we’re discussing topics from the mid-2000s—that imagines what a world without oil would really be like. Think uncomfortable and violent. Oil is in nearly every modern product […]

Peak oil, climate change and pipeline geopolitics driving Syria conflict

Root-cause environmental and energy factors sparking violence will continue to destabilise Arab world without urgent reforms The civil war in Syria has been devastating, generating a death toll fast approaching 100,000, while uprooting millions of civilians from their homes. But as the US and Russia signed an unprecedented accord on Wednesday in search of a […]

India’s Empowered group of ministers (EGoM) to finally meet

The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is likely to inform the EGoM that the current production level is not even sufficient to meet the core sector allocation After 15 months of being non-functional, the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on natural gas is likely to meet shortly, with re-prioritisation of consumers one of the […]

The Monarchs of Money

The Monarchs of Money The world’s central banks have printed unimaginable amounts of money in recent years. Neil Macdonald explores what this means for the global economy and for your financial well-being.

How Big Oil Uses the Republican Party to Subvert American Democracy

In a surprise move, the eight Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday blocked a floor vote on President Obama’s nominee, Gina McCarthy, as EPA Administrator. In doing so the Republican senators broke their earlier promisadditione to move McCarthy’s nomination if she answered an unprecedented 1079 written questions, a quest she […]

The Obama Administration’s Natural Gas Policy Is Tragically Misguided

The Obama administration has come out in support of the idea of exporting U.S. natural gas. This stance is counterproductive and shortsighted, and if followed, it will prove harmful to domestic manufacturing (i.e., value generation) and to future generations of Americans. While exporting natural gas would certainly prove to be an economic boon for a very […]

U.S. Should Export Natural Gas, Not Coal

President Barack Obama’s suggestion last weekend that he may favor greater U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas is a welcome sign. More exports would spur more domestic production and help balance U.S. trade. LNG exports could also help counter the unsettling increase in American exports of coal to Europe. In 2012, the U.S. sent about […]

« 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