How a gas boom became a glut

Passengers on Pennsylvania's natural-gas roller coaster are advised to check their restraining devices. It's poised to change course again, producing nausea for some and shrieks of joy for others. A combination of powerful forces - Mother Nature and supply and demand - is going to have at least a short-term impact on natural-gas drilling in the state. Low prices, full storage facilities, reduced use due to a mild winter, and slow-to-rebound industrial demand will likely slow down the industry for at least a year, and more likely longer. The state and the nation are reaching a temporary plateau in the natural-gas boom, with consequences both positive and negative. What happened? And what's next? Supply is the leading factor. The shale-gas revolution has outpaced production estimates from just two years ago. In 2008, Pennsylvania had to import 75 percent of the natural gas it needed ...

Mike Ruppert on Keiser Report

Every week, Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss killing Hollywood, poor Chris Dodd and how Mubarak’s fall brought about an assault on the internet. In the second half of the show, Max interviews Mike Ruppert about SOPA, the NDAA and Iranian oil.

Nature: Has Peak Oil Already Happened?

A new analysis concludes that easily extracted oil peaked in 2005, suggesting that dirtier fossil fuels will be burned and energy prices will rise Despite major oil finds off Brazil's coast, new fields in North Dakota and ongoing increases in the conversion of tar sands to oil in Canada, fresh supplies of petroleum are only just enough to offset the production decline from older fields. At best, the world is now living off an oil plateau—roughly 75 million barrels of oil produced each and every day—since at least 2005, according to a new comment published in Nature on January 26. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) That is a year earlier than estimated by the International Energy Agency—an energy cartel for oil consuming nations. To support our modern lifestyles—from cars to plastics—the world has used more than one trillion barrels ...

Supermarkets rush to raise fuel prices as pumps run dry amid fears of panic buying

Fuel prices have risen again just 24 hours after one of Britain’s biggest refineries went bust, stopping supplies to filling stations. There are fears of panic buying after long queues formed outside several filling stations in the South East yesterday as diesel pumps ran dry. Supermarkets – which usually set the trend – have put up to 1p a litre on the price of diesel and unleaded. On average across the UK, diesel rose to 142.32p (from 142.21p) per litre and is now within a fraction of a new record. Petrol rose to 134.03p per litre (from 133.89p), the AA reported. Queues: Motorists at a petrol station in Colchester yesterday, one of hundreds that saw extra demand after the firm behind one of Britain's biggest oil refineries went bust Tesco said it had increased its prices by 1p per litre on Monday – the second ...

BP exempted from US ban on Iran oil

BP Plc, UK, and EU have reportedly convinced US lawmakers to exempt a BP-led project from the newly- proposed Washington sanctions on Iran. This is a clear indication that the West is pushing for stricter embargoes on Tehran without harming its own economy. US senators have discussed provisions that could bar companies like BP from working with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Reuters quoted one congressional aide as saying on Monday. The project, known as Shah Deniz, is a USD20 billion enterprise in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan, in which the Iranian state-owned oil company Naftiran Intertrade Co., an NIOC subsidiary, holds a 10% stake. On New Year's Eve, US President Barack Obama signed into law fresh unilateral economic sanctions against Iran's Central Bank in an apparent bid to punish foreign companies and banks that do business with the Iranian financial institution. The ...

Fracking shakes the Earth, poisons our water

Add yet another new concern to the growing list of reasons to oppose hyraudlic ...

Coal, the new war in the Pacific

Takeovers of oil and gas assets are multiplying on all continents, with coal assets ...

The Hydrogen dream

Last week I went to Longwy's university campus, the Institut Universitaire de Technologie (part ...

Oil Supply as a Strategic Risk

Concerns about the climate have not inspired a lot of action lately on global ...