Iran Altering Reactor in Bid for Nuclear Deal

Atomic power engineers in Iran have started redesigning a partly constructed reactor in the northwest city of Arak to limit the amount of plutonium it produces, the country’s top nuclear official said Wednesday, expressing hope that the change would help alleviate Western objections that the plutonium could be used in weapons. The official, Ali Akbar […]

Military Skill and Terrorist Technique Fuel Success of ISIS

As fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continue to seize territory, the group has quietly built an effective management structure of mostly middle-aged Iraqis overseeing departments of finance, arms, local governance, military operations and recruitment. At the top the organization is the self-declared leader of all Muslims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a radical […]

Gazprom Begins Accepting Payment For Oil In Ruble, Yuan

Several months ago, when Russia announced the much anticipated “Holy Grail” energy deal with China, some were disappointed that despite this symbolic agreement meant to break the petrodollar’s stranglehold on the rest of the world, neither Russia nor China announced payment terms to be in anything but dollars. In doing so they admitted that while […]

Ukraine warns Europe of Russian gas cut-off, Moscow denies

* Russian, EU diplomats say Russian cut to EU is unlikely * Russia halted gas flows to Ukraine in June * EU, Ukrainian utilities try to prepare for winter disruption (Add comment from Kremlin spokesman paragraphs 10-11)   Ukraine warned Europe on Wednesday that Russia could cut off gas to the continent this winter, but […]

NRC: Okay to Store Used Reactor Fuel on Site

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a final rule Aug. 26 declaring that continued storage of spent nuclear fuel on the site of a commercial power plant is safe if properly managed. The rule addresses the storage of used fuel between the end of the reactor’s licensed term and its final removal for disposal. In a […]

Fractures in Arab Gulf alliance a greater threat to oil security than Islamic State

Break up of the Gulf Co-operation Council could threaten world’s largest oil fields as Saudi Arabia and Qatar lock horns over alleged support for Islamists Fighters of al Qaeda linked ISIL carry their weapons during a parade in a Syrian town Photo: Reuters In 1981 six Arab monarchies, which today control about a fifth of the […]

The Taliban With Oil Fields: Islamic State a Formidable Money Machine

With its reign of terror over a large population and ability to self-finance on a staggering scale, the extremist group that beheaded American journalist James Foley resembles the Taliban with oil wells. The Islamic State, which now controls an area of Iraq and Syria larger than the U.K., may be raising more than $2 million […]

The Status Quo’s Model Of “How The World Works” Is Broken

The Status Quo is dysfunctional because its model of how the world works is broken. Much has been written about the dysfunction in Washington D.C. Pundits have been wringing their hands for years over the rise of bitter partisan politics and the resulting gridlock. The impact of this–what I have termed profound political disunity–extends beyond […]

How Norway has avoided the ‘curse of oil’

As one of the centres of Norway’s booming oil and gas industries, it is also a very wealthy place. Yet there are few displays of ostentatious spending – there are no supercars with tinted windows, no designer handbag shops, and no queues of people outside exclusive nightclubs. For while other countries have struck oil and […]

A look into heart of jihadist ‘caliphate’ in Syria, Iraq

“What do you want to be? A jihadist, or to execute a martyrdom operation?” In the “caliphate” recently proclaimed by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, even young children are indoctrinated, and Sharia law is backed by the gun, according to a gripping documentary offering one of the first glimpses of life in Raqqa, power base […]

Orlov: It’s the Saudis, Stupid!

[Just nine days after I pointed out that Obama’s latest “humanitarian” bombing puts American lives in danger, we have the video of the journalist James Foley’s beheading at the hands of Daash, a.k.a. Islamic Caliphate, a.k.a. ISIS/ISIL. Well, that didn’t take long! But there is more to the story: what stands behind this event, and […]

The ISIS’ Top Line: $2 Million In Daily Revenue From “Oil Sales, Extortion, Taxes And Smuggling”

A few days ago when we commented, somewhat in jest, on the seemingly impressive strategic planning behind the Islamic State jihadists becoming a “commodities trading powerhouse” (when it was revealed that ISIS had sold the grain it had stolen from the Itaqi government back to the government), we described just how well-versed in the ways […]

Can You Guess Which Country Depends Most Heavily on Russian Gas?

When it comes to energy, Germany is a bit of a conundrum. It’s a global leader in renewables usage, having increased the share of renewables in its total energy consumption from 6% to an impressive 25% over the past decade. Yet it’s also a heavy user of coal – a fact that’s glaringly inconsistent with […]

Islamic State renews push for Iraq oil field

The Islamic State group has launched a renewed push to seize Iraq’s main oil refinery north of Baghdad, battling security forces backed by air support, authorities and witnesses said. At least three Iraqi security personnel were killed, and seven others were injured in the fighting on Sunday, in which fighters attacked the Baiji refinery from three […]

There Are ISIS Sleeper Cells In U.S.

A former CIA officer said Thursday he has no doubt Islamic State (ISIS) sleeper cells are already planted on U.S. soil. An unnamed U.S. intelligence official told CNN there’s already an indication of ISIS sleeper cells in Europe that could target U.S. embassies and other American interests. But former CIA officer Bob Baer told the […]

Public Data Reveal Secret Rail Movements of Crude Oil

It’s been almost four months since the Obama Administration ordered railroads to start giving state emergency officials details about their shipments of crude oil. The idea was that since these trains have a tendency to explode, and since they’re often rolling right through the middle of towns and cities, the least they could do would […]

ISIS’ thirst for oil could lead to ‘global catastrophe’ if unchecked

Islamic State’s thirst for blood has the world on edge, but its equally insatiable yearning for oil could prove a “catastrophe” for the global economy if the terror organization isn’t stopped, experts say. The jihadist group, formerly known as ISIS, now controls seven oil fields and two small refineries in northern Iraq, bringing in as […]

Energy Crunch: [redacted]

Three things you shouldn’t miss this week Article: From polls to protests, the shale gas industry is its own worst enemy – a week from hell for the shale gas industry. Chart: “Disclosure of early thinking could close down discussion” – what’s left of Defra’s fracking impact report: Chart: UK public back renewables over shale – DECC’s […]

Poverty Is Not Inevitable: What We Can Do Now to Turn Things Around

Pearl Street, New York City. “This little girl and this man (I assume homeless) were talking, and they were laughing, smiling, and loving every minute of it,” writes photographer Eric Magnuson. “The little girl couldn’t care less what the man looked like or what situation he was in. She just saw him as another person.” […]

“The Financial System Is Vulnerable,” NYFed Asks “Could The Dollar Lose Its Reserve Status?”

When a tin-foil-hat-wearing blog full of digital dickweeds suggest the dollar’s reserve currency status is at best diminishing, it is fobbed off as yet another conspiracy theory (yet to be proved conspiracy fact) too horrible to imagine for the status quo huggers. But when the VP of Research at the New York Fed asks “Could […]

Alaska Oil Tax Repeal Measure Losing

Sarah Palin Favored Reverting to the Oil Tax Structure She Signed into Law in 2007 An Alaska ballot measure to repeal a 2013 oil tax law that drastically cut the amount major oil companies in the state pay was losing early Wednesday morning. The referendum was losing by a 52.1% to 47.9% margin, with 80% […]

Thoughts on Israel’s Natural Gas Policies

The Israeli government’s energy policy serves to transfer national wealth into private hands. By avoiding price regulation of the gas sector, the government allows gas licensees more than a billion dollars per year in excess profits at the public’s expense. Moreover, if the government moves forward with plans to approve gas exports, national wealth worth […]

How Iraq’s black market in oil funds ISIS

Luay al-Khatteeb spoke to CNN about the impact of ISIS’ march through northern Iraq, and the militant group’s control of some oil fields. He explained how they used the oil fields to raise funds, and how it could impact global prices. This is an edited version of the conversation. How much of Iraq’s oil market […]

Iraq Says It Is Retaking Mosul Dam

President Obama said Monday that Iraqi special forces, backed by American war planes, had retaken a strategically critical dam near Mosul, the latest in what he described as a string of positive steps in halting the march of Islamic extremists across the country. “This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working […]

Saudis give UN $100m ‘to fight terrorism’

Saudi Arabia has handed over a cheque for $100m to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help finance the UN’s centre to combat global terrorism. The UN chief welcomed the gift at a ceremony in his office and said the recent upsurge in terrorism in a number of countries and regions – most dramatically, the Islamic […]

The US Is Now Assisting Kurds In Fighting ISIS With Drones, F-18s

Just over a week ago, Obama announced that the US military intervention in Iraq would be solely under the pretext of “humanitarian intervention” while US troops would be deployed exclusively as “advisers”, and nothing else. 7 days later, the siege on Mount Sinjar is virtually over with the US announcing that “far fewer Iraqi refugees […]

It Is My Shale Gas and I Want It Now

The shale gas that lies beneath the surface of Upstate New York belongs to real people who need it now. It’s time they stood up for themselves! I recently read a comment on an online anti-drilling site that made me laugh out loud.  I have made and read many comments on many articles, but surely this one […]

The US Humanitarian Intervention in Iraq: The Oil and Water Angle

The success of stated limited U.S. humanitarian goals for the latest intervention in Iraq could hinge on more than the fate of minorities trapped on top of the Mount Sinjar. That is because the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has taken control of critical water and oil infrastructure including the Mosul Dam.  Flooding […]

Ukraine destroys Russian military convoy

Ukraine said on Friday it had destroyed part of a Russian military convoy that entered onto its territory in an incursion that has sent cross-border tensions rocketing. NATO accused Russia of active involvement in the “destabilisation” of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Kremlin separatists have been fighting against Kiev for four months. The two countries have also […]

Peak oil and energy policy—a critique

Abstract Energy policy has frequently been based upon assumptions about future oil prices. At the end of the 1970s it was assumed oil prices would continue to rise. Now a similar assumption pervades policy design. This article critiques the peak oil hypotheses which lie behind these forecasts and policy beliefs, and considers that, from a […]

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