Israel becomes lab for electric car network

Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi has begun rolling out the world's first nationwide electric car network. Now, will the drivers come? After more than $400 million in outlays and months behind schedule, dozens of electric cars have hit the road in Israel, the test site Agassi chose for his Better Place venture. Four stations where the cars can get a new dose of juice when their batteries run out are operating, and the plan is to ramp that number up within months. The concept: to wean the world from oil and eliminate the biggest hurdles to environmentally friendly electric cars — high cost and limited range. To do this, Better Place has jettisoned the fixed battery. Instead, drivers can swap their depleted batteries for fully charged ones at a network of stations, receiving a full, 100-mile range in five minutes. Better Place owns the ...

G8 to call on IEA for “action” on oil

Group of Eight leaders agreed on Saturday to call on the International Energy Agency to take "appropriate action" if there are further disruptions to the oil market in the coming months, sources familiar with the G8 draft communique said. "There have been increasing disruptions in the supply of oil to the global market over the past several months, which pose a substantial risk to global economic growth. In response, major producers have increased their output while drawing prudently on excess capacity," the statement will say, according to the sources. "Looking ahead to the likelihood of further disruptions in oil sales and the expected increased demand over the coming months, we are monitoring the situation closely and stand ready to call upon the International Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied," it says. The statement ...

Proposal to turn Kuwait into world’s oil capital – State’s energy consumption up 66%

The concept of ‘Kuwait as the world’s oil capital’ will see the light after being studied comprehensively, said, Fadhel Safar Minister of Public Works and Planning and Development revealed on Thursday. On the sidelines of a preparatory meeting for the country’s second mid-term development plan, Safar told KUNA that the idea of turning Kuwait into a world oil capital goes falls in line with the vision of turning it also into a financial and commercial hub. This can be accomplished by offering a complete set of Kuwaiti oil and manufacturing industries by providing job opportunities for 21,000 potential employees, the minister said during last night’s meeting that included the presence of representatives for the Kuwaiti oil and industrial sectors. The meeting provided a good opportunity to discusses some of the challenges that hinder the performance of these two sectors such as ...

The age of extreme oil: ‘This used to be a forest?’

One grey Thursday at the end of April, a plane touched down in Fort McMurray, Alta., carrying four Achuar Indians from the Peruvian Amazon. They had flown 8,000 kilometres from the rain forest to beseech Talisman Energy Inc., the Calgary-based oil and gas conglomerate, to stop drilling in their territory. Talisman's annual general meeting was coming up, and the Achuar were invited to state their case to chief executive officer John Manzoni in front of the company's shareholders. But first, they wanted to see a Canadian oil patch for themselves, and meet the aboriginal people who lived there. Their host in Fort McMurray was Gitzikomin Deranger, Gitz to his friends – a 6-foot-4 Dene-Blackfoot activist who lives in a comfortably cluttered duplex with his parents and a revolving assortment of relatives. Many of them crowded in to meet the Achuar, who relaxed ...

Oil well in Cuba comes up dry, raises questions about future exploration

Cuba’s dreams of an oil bonanza suffered a tough but possibly temporary setback Friday when the Spanish Repsol company confirmed it hit a dry hole when it drilled a well off the island’s northwest coast. The dry well will put more pressure on Cuba’s dependence on Venezuelan oil and means the government of Raúl Castro needs to continue nurturing its tight relations with the ailing president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, one analyst said. The development also may temporarily allay fears of an oil spill in Cuban waters that could foul the Florida Keys and the U.S. eastern seaboard, although several other foreign oil companies have options to explore in Cuban waters and Repsol had contracted to drill a second exploratory well. Repsol spokesman in Kristian Rix confirmed to journalists in Havana Friday that the Scarabeo-9 floating drill platform found nothing in a well ...

Iran Wants Sanctions Lifted

Iran on Saturday said sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme should be lifted in ...

Obama may tap Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Despite the recent fall in oil prices, analysts say President Obama may tap the ...

Dump the pump: could peak oil be voluntary?

People have fretted about when the world’s oil will start to run out ever ...

The Art of PV War

The U.S. Department of Commerce today handed down it’s preliminary report on alleged dumping by Chinese ...