U.S. Energy Policies Based on Inflated Fracking Predictions

Economic predictions about the fracking industry’s potential growth have for the most part gone unquestioned — until now. A new report from the Post Carbon Institute exposes highly inflated forecasts and concludes that the amount of oil that can be tapped by hydraulic fracturing cannot be maintained at the levels assumed beyond 2020. The report, […]

Why Does Saudi Arabia Seem So Comfortable With Falling Oil Prices?

Oil prices continue to tumble: down about 25 percent since mid-June to a four-year low, and many analysts believe there is no end in sight. While that’s good for consumers and most businesses in the U.S., the falling price is bad for oil-exporting countries such as Russia, Venezuela, Iran and Iraq. And blame — or […]

Total War Over The Petrodollar

The conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Total SA’s chief executive, Christophe de Margerie, started the second the news broke of his death. Under mysterious circumstances in Moscow, his private jet collided with a snowplow just after midnight. De Margerie was the CEO of Total, France’s largest oil company. He’d just attended a private meeting […]

Oil Gives Kurds a Path to Independence, and Conflict With Baghdad

Roughly two dozen huge oil tankers are idly turning figure eights around the Mediterranean or on the high seas, loaded with oil pumped from wells in Iraqi Kurdistan but with nowhere to legally offload it. The oil fleet is a costly gamble, to the tune of millions in fees each month, by Kurdish officials who […]

Peak Empire, Take Two

Based on the lessons of history, all empires collapse eventually; thus, the probability that the US empire will collapse can be set at 100% with a great deal of confidence. The question is, When? (Everyone keeps asking that annoying question.) Of course, all you have to do is leave the US, go some place that […]

Piercing the technology bubble

This weekend, October 25 and 26, I will be joining leading critics, from the United States and abroad, of corporate-controlled technologies, who are also proponents of appropriate technologies for the people (Vandana Shiva, Anuradha Mittal, Helen Caldicott, Wes Jackson, Bill McKibben), convening at the historic Cooper Union Great Hall on “Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth”. […]

Gulf states need to reform spending as oil price slips

Gulf Arab oil exporters will have to reform their state spending and make cuts in some areas because of weak oil prices, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said on Saturday. “We must undertake comprehensive economic reforms including the reform of imbalances in public finances,” Saleh told a meeting of Gulf Arab finance ministers, central bank […]

Oil wars: Saudi vs the world?

As global oil prices tumble, we ask why the country that is OPEC’s kingpin is doing nothing to stop it. There are winners and losers in every economic situation, but few have the impact of one involving oil. The price of Brent crude, which at one time priced 90 percent of the world’s oil, has […]

Syrian Regime, Iraqi Kurds Among Those Buying ISIS Oil

Lebanese cabinet decides to drastically restrict entry of Syrian refugees; U.S., allies stage 15 air strikes on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria; 200 Iraqi Kurds to pass through Turkey to defend Kobani from ISIS. Islamic State wrested a Sunni Muslim village in western Iraq on Thursday from tribal defenders who put up weeks of […]

Plunging oil prices challenge geopolitical, energy industry assumptions

Global oil prices have fallen 25 percent since June, marking the return of oil-price fluctuation as a geopolitical wild card. Although oil prices have been relatively stable — about $100 a barrel — for the past five years, the historical pattern has seen high oil prices boost the strategic clout of producing countries by boosting […]

US and Russia to share intelligence on ISIL

Military leaders from more than 20 countries have met in the United States to discuss how to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as US and Russia announced an agreement to share intelligence on the armed rebel group. US President Barack Obama met on Tuesday defence ministers from 22 countries, acknowledging that he is “deeply […]

Combat robots to protect Russian oil and gas infrastructure in Arctic

 Undersea combat robots will be protecting Russian oilrigs and transportation networks in the Arctic region at some point, Deputy General Director of the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, Chairman of the Foundation’s Scientific and Technological Board Vitaly Davydov told Interfax-AVN. “The Foundation is not designing robotic sharks but it is working on undersea robots […]

Turkey: Ukraine crisis to affect natural gas supply

During a televised interview on NTV, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız answered questions regarding the possible troubles of Turkey’s natural gas supply, the effect of falling oil prices and the impact of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) on Turkey’s energy projects. Touching on the possibility that Turkey might encounter dilemmas […]

Saudi’s Policy Of Downplaying Oil Prices Will Backfire On Them

Saudi Arabia wants to use lower oil prices to pressure Russia to change its stance on Syria, to antagonize Iran, and to force US shale gas out of the market, Pepe Escobar explains the possible blowback… Via RT, RT: Russia’s economy is surely being hit by the falling oil prices. But what about other oil […]

Who’s Afraid of a Russian Gas Cut?

How scared should Europe be of a stoppage in Russian natural gas supplies this winter? That depends on whether countries are willing to sacrifice for one another and unify in their response. As Russian President Vladimir Putin basked in applause at a Serbian military parade last week, he sent out a clear warning to the […]

Cutting back natural gas flaring in North Dakota hits a bump

North Dakota oil drillers appear to be losing ground in the effort to meet state-mandated requirements to reduce flaring of associated natural gas at crude oil wells due largely to persistently high flaring rates on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. While operators overall appeared to be close to meeting flaring reduction goals, the issue has […]

Why USA Will Remain World’s Dominant Economic Power

While the vast majority of pundits are looking at a future time clock marking the historical moment at which China will surpass America’s leadership in gross domestic product of goods and services, this inevitability will not be a true measurement of overwhelming global economic superiority. While the intrepid and justifiably successful Chinese growth, utilizing its […]

Lower Oil Prices Are Unambiguously Good

Steep stock market corrections often create shrouds of pessimism that do bad things to people’s brainpower. And one of the absolutely stupidest things I have heard in recent weeks is that the recent drop in oil prices is bad. You heard me right. Serious people on financial television are saying lower oil prices are a […]

Airstrikes target Islamic State oil facilities in Syria

Airstrikes in Syria shifted from the besieged city of Kobani toward the oil facilities that fund Islamic State fighters who have seized portions of Syria and neighboring Iraq, the military announced Saturday. Two airstrikes were conducted near Kobani compared with six announced Friday and 14 in and around the city Thursday, according to U.S. Central […]

Sorry, Mr. Putin: $75 Oil Is Coming

Russian President Vladimir Putin has become the world’s most unlikely environmentalist. According to NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Putin has been “actively” supporting environmental groups in Europe that oppose hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, that would tap Europe’s supplies of oil and natural gas. These supplies would threaten the cash earned by the Russian economy from […]

Egypt warplanes hit Libya

Egypt deepened its involvement in the fight against Islamist militias who have taken over key parts of Libya on Wednesday, with officials saying Egyptian warplanes have bombed their positions in the eastern city of Benghazi. The two officials, who have firsthand knowledge of the operation, said the use of the aircraft was part of an […]

Crashing oil prices could crush Vladimir Putin

Falling oil prices are good for American drivers, but not for Russia. In early March when Russia first sent troops into Ukraine, oil was trading comfortably above $100 per barrel. Now, it’s around $81, a level not seen in three years. That’s a tough pill for Russia to swallow since the country relies heavily on […]

The Saudi oil war against Russia, Iran and the US

Saudi Arabia has unleashed an economic war against selected oil producers. The strategy masks the House of Saud’s real agenda. But will it work? Rosneft Vice President MikhailLeontyev; “Prices can be manipulative…Saudi Arabia has begun making big discounts on oil. This is political manipulation, and Saudi Arabia is being manipulated, which could end badly.” A […]

The Source of All Resources

On October 7, we held the grand opening of the factory of my new company, Pioneer Energy, in Lakewood, Colorado. This is the speech I gave to commemorate the occasion. We are here today to celebrate the opening of a new factory, a place for making things. Such an event is always cause for celebration, […]

U.S. Airstrikes Cut Islamic State Oil Production by 70 Percent

It’s been a month since President Obama announced that the U.S. would engage in a sustained campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State, the militant Sunni rebellion in Syria and Iraq. The idea was to bomb Islamic State into nonexistence, which has proved difficult. Not only is the movement well-armed, battle-hardened, and deeply entrenched in much […]

Privately, Saudis tell oil market- get used to lower prices

Saudi Arabia is quietly telling the oil market it would be comfortable with much lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy that may be aimed at slowing the expansion of rival producers including those in the U.S. shale patch. Some OPEC members including Venezuela are clamoring for production cuts to […]

Saudi Arabia’s “Oil-Weapon” Hits Europe

We first exposed the “secret” US-Saudi deal in September which led to the inevitable bombing of Syria. We then progressed to explain the quid pro quo of the deal in lower oil prices (benefiting US consumers into an election and crushing Russian revenues). In today’s Wall Street Journal we get the final piece of the […]

Russia hopeful for government agreement on gas with China

* Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to visit Moscow * Deputy minister says several deals to be signed * Analysts doubt Russia and China can finalise gas deal soon * Deputy minister says several deals to be signed Russia has prepared intergovernmental agreements to sign during Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Moscow next week including […]

Why Oil Is Plunging: The Other Part Of The “Secret Deal” Between The US And Saudi Arabia

Two weeks ago, we revealed one part of the “Secret Deal” between the US and Saudi Arabia: namely what the US ‘brought to the table’ as part of its grand alliance strategy in the middle east, which proudly revealed Saudi Arabia to be “aligned” with the US against ISIS, when in reality John Kerry was […]

Michael Klare, Washington Wields the Oil Weapon

It was heinous. It was underhanded.  It was beyond the bounds of international morality. It was an attack on the American way of life.  It was what you might expect from unscrupulous Arabs.  It was “the oil weapon” — and back in 1973, it was directed at the United States. Skip ahead four decades and […]

« 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