Belgian & EU Parliamentary Meetings on Peakoil & Energy Policy

The end of cheap oil poses the great challenge of diminishing dependence on oil in the economy. Topics of importance include coping with effects of high oil prices on the economy and investment, regional transport planning for diminished oil use, and an agriculture without fossil fuel use, To advance policy discussions on these and more […]

Bottom Line, Libya Will Remain a Transnational Oil Fiefdom

George Galloway, the combative British MP, put Anna Walker of Sky News in her place when she tried to insist that Libya’s oil is negligible and hardly worth starting a war over. “BP has 15 billion pounds worth of investments in Libya,” Galloway instructed the corporate media teleprompter reader, “so don’t pretend it is not […]

Taking the ‘war’ out of US air wars

Start this way: American “air superiority” in any war the US now fights is total. In fact, the last time American jets met enemy planes of any sort in any skies was in the First Gulf War in 1991, and since Saddam Hussein’s once powerful air force didn’t offer much opposition – most of its […]

Yemeni generals defect to opposition

Tanks and armored vehicles deployed in the Yemeni capital on Monday after a three top army commanders announced they were defecting to the opposition. “We announce our peaceful support for the peaceful revolution of the youth and their demands and we carry out our duty … in ensuring security and stability in the capital,” top […]

Libya to give weapons to one million people: report

Libya‘s government has begun distributing arms to more than one million people and will complete the operation within hours, the state news agency reported on Sunday. Jana news agency quoted sources in Libya’s defense ministry as saying they “expected the operation to end in the next hours to arm more than a million men and […]

U.S. Tomahawk Cruise Missiles Hit Targets in Libya

U.S. military officials have confirmed the first American tomahawk cruise missiles have been fired at targets inside Libya from ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The move is the first direct U.S. involvement in the international operation mobilizing to stop Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s attacks on opposition strongholds and enforce a U.N.-backed no-fly zone. Pentagon officials […]

Chossudovsky: Libya no-fly zone means war

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution establishing a no-fly zone over Libya. Michel Chossudovsky, director of Centre for Research on Globalization, says western nations are interested in Libyan oil and other resources, not protecting the people and that is why they care more about the fight in Libya, than elsewhere in the Arab world.

French planes fly over Libya; Gaddafi hits Benghazi

French reconnaissance planes flew over Libya on Saturday, in the first sign that international air strikes may be imminent while Muammar Gaddafi’s forces tried to push into the rebel-held city of Benghazi. “There are French reconnaissance aircraft over Libya,” a French military source told Reuters at 2:15 p.m. British time. The advance by Gaddafi’s troops […]

Saudi King Orders Billions more in Handouts

Saudi King Abdullah announced on Friday billions of dollars in handouts for his people and boosted his security apparatus in a renewed effort to shield the world’s top oil exporter from unrest rocking the Arab world. In a rare televized address to the nation, the ageing king made a brief statement congratulating Saudis for their […]

Libya declares immediate cease-fire after U.N. resolution

Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa tells reporters that Libya will impose an immediate ceasefire and will abide by the U.N. Security Council resolution. He says Libya is stopping all military operations against rebel forces. Speaking to reporters in Tripoli, he says Libya will “try to deal positively” to the resolution, which calls for a no-fly […]

U.N. okays military action on Libya

The United Nations authorised military action to curb Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing “no mercy, no pity.” “We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room,” he said in a radio address to the eastern city. Al Jazeera television […]

Gaddafi prepares for final showdown

Muammar Gaddafi’s forces are pushing towards the rebel stronghold of Benghazi and predict they will suppress the rebel uprising within days. Meanwhile, world leaders continue to dither on imposing a no-fly zone over the country. Muammar Gaddafi’s forces pushed towards the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Wednesday and his government predicted victory within days […]

UAE, Saudis, Egypt, Algeria Top ME arms buyers

Middle East accounted for 1/6 of the world’s arms imports while having just 1/15th of the world’s population in 2010, study finds. he governments of the Middle East and North Africa dug deep into their pockets last year to stock up on weapons, according to the annual study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute […]

Peak Oil Matters: Apparently Clueless IS A Strategy

~~~ “We’re blindly focused on searching for answers within our old paradigm of energy and it’s a vision that really needs to shift.” [1] Several weeks ago, I began a multi-part series entitled Clueless Is Not A Strategy (first posthere) whose primary purpose was to argue that in the face of growing oil production challenges, we […]

Bahrain protesters block highway, confront police

Protesters blocked a main thoroughfare to Bahrain Financial Harbour on Sunday, a major business district in the Gulf Arab banking centre, facing off with police who fired clouds of tear gas and water cannon. In one of the most violent confrontations since troops opened fire on protesters last month, youths erected barricades across the highway […]

Nuclear Disaster ‘Will Have Political Impact as Great as 9/11’

The nuclear accident at Japan’s Fukushima plant following Friday’s earthquake and tsunami has led to anxious questions in Germany about the safety of its own nuclear reactors and is putting the government under intense pressure to rethink its decision to extend plant lifetimes by an average of 12 years. German media commentators across the political […]

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes

Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island’s royal family since demonstrations began a month ago. The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of […]

Saudi Police Open Fire At Protest Rally

AP reports that the Saudi police open fire at protesters in Qatif after government warns demonstrators it will not tolerate protests. In other words, the shootings will continue until morale is restored. Look for crude to go antigravitational here. Saudi police have opened fire at a rally in the kingdom’s east in an apparent escalation […]

The first UK Peak Oil Task Force Report, featuring Jeremy Leggett

Filmed in September 2009, leading analyst Jeremy Leggett discusses details of the first report, released in 2008, and the reaction (or lack thereof) by the Tony Blair administration of the UK government. Since then, a second report has been issued. Both reports, and much more information, are available without charge at http://peakoiltaskforce.net.

Our Man-Made Energy Crisis

The unfolding turmoil in Libya has amplified concerns about the reliability of global energy supplies in an era of political uncertainty. Is oil at $200 per barrel inescapable? Is this the beginning of the end so vigorously underscored by peak oil enthusiasts for the last several decades? The short answer is clearly “No.” Yet the […]

The Empire Strikes Out

Tunisia, Egypt, Libya… now, children, one of these things is not like the others. That’s right, Libya wasn’t, and to a considerable extent still isn’t, run by a dictator who happens to be a Western stooge. Say what you want about him, Muammar Gaddafi is a phenomenon. Compared to his inimitable, flamboyant persona, Tunisia’s unimpressive […]

Kuwaiti protests on Tuesday aim to remove PM

Kuwaiti youth groups will take to the streets on Tuesday to demand the removal of the prime minister and for more political freedom in the Gulf Arab state, the world’s fourth largest oil exporter. The protests, inspired by Arab unrest across the Middle East and North Africa that has toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, […]

World in Collision

Back in 2005, which seems like an eternity ago not quite six years hence, I attended an Energy Conference arranged by Rep Roscoe Bartlett, a conservative Republican from Maryland with a background in science. Bartlett was and is a staunch believer in M King Hubbert’s predictions of Peak Oil. I was able to hear Peak […]

US Food Producers: “Just Get Out of My Way”

Nine billion, that is a figure I heard over and over at the Commodity Classic meeting in Tampa, Florida last week. It is the estimate of the world’s population by the year 2050. Of course all those people are going to want to eat, and most will want to wear clothes and drive cars. Where […]

White House considers tapping oil reserves

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said on Sunday the Obama administration is considering tapping into the U.S. strategic oil reserve as one way to help ease soaring oil prices. Speaking on NBC television’s “Meet the Press,” Daley said: “We are looking at the options. The issue of the reserves is one we are […]

Bahrain promises government jobs, protests continue

Plans by Bahrain to create 20,000 jobs in its security apparatus could be a move to open up government jobs to the country’s disgruntled Shi’ites and appease protesters against the Sunni-led government. Bahrain has seen its worst unrest since the 1990s after a nascent youth movement emboldened by similar protests elsewhere in the Arab world […]

Saudi Arabia bans all protest and marches

Saudi Arabia has banned all protests and marches, state television on Saturday cited the Interior Ministry as saying after Saudi minority Shi’ites staged small protests in the oil-producing eastern province. Security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order, state news channel al-Ekhbariya said in an alert without giving details […]

What’s happening on the ground in Libya?

Platts’ John Kingston discussed the current flows out of Libya, and the outlook for the industry in the future, in an interview with Canada’s BNN. You can see it here.

Protesters converge on Iraq capital

Thousands of people have converged on Baghdad’s Tahrir, or Liberation, Square for an anti-government demonstration, despite a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the Iraqi capital. Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf reported from Baghdad that the situation was heading towards a stand-off, as security forces demanded the protesters leave, blocking their […]

Will oil force the Fed’s hand?

William McChesney Martin, Jr., the Federal Reserve chairman during the 1950s and 1960s, famously joked that it’s the job of the central bank to “take away the punch bowl just when the party is getting started.” He was referring to a need for the Fed to start raising interest rates when the economy was improving […]

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