News from October 2005

Oil may fall to $US45-$US55: OPEC

OPEC expected world oil prices to stabilise in a range of $US45-$US55 a barrel next year and had ample spare capacity to meet demand, acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said overnight.“Based on fundamentals, prices should not increase. They should moderate below the levels of recent months,” Mr Shihab-Eldin said. theaustralian.news

Energy Storage – Your Pick Of Power Or Energy In The Ragone Plot

Energy storage is a big issue, especially if we’re going to be flipping from a society that uses 80% chemical energy (like oil) and 20% physical (like wind) to 80% physical and 20% chemical. Energy storage devices do have their technological limits, which means efficiency isn’t always the be all and end all of the [...]

Hardy algae promising in biofuel production

Biodiesel can be produced from vegetation such as soybeans, sunflowers and rapeseed, but the best way to create the fuel may come from a little organism that likes sewage, grows in water and can produce up to 50 percent of its body weight in oil. The report stated it would take about 770 square miles [...]

Environmentalists slam World Bank’s clean energy ‘failure’

The Washington-based World Bank, which provides finance to states for poverty alleviation and development purposes, has been tapped by the G8 as a key player in funding renewable energy sources. But FoE laid into the institution for failing to meet its already existing targets for increasing financial support for such projects. Despite a commitment to [...]

HelioVolt claims thin-film advance for solar energy

HelioVolt (Austin, Texas), a four-year-old developer of thin-film photovoltaic coatings, said CEO Billy Stanbery’s model, also known as the “Intra-Absorber Junction,” provides a basic understanding of physics of CIGS thin films. The company further claimed that the model was an advance toward commercialization of the technology for solar energy production. eetimes

Treating Foreign Buyers Fairly

Now lawmakers are mulling an overhaul of the rules for foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies that can affect national security. The proposals range from giving Congress veto power over such deals to tougher enforcement of conditions Uncle Sam imposes. BusinessWeekOnline

Firm in $450 bln Exxon bid run from flat

The firm behind a $450 billion bid for the world’s top oil company is run from an $150-a-month apartment in the outskirts of the Chinese capital. Exxon dismissed the bid from King Win, a company incorporated in New Zealand with an apparent history of making unsolicited offers for large companies. [Editors Note: I also saw [...]

Could Big Oil be a Scapegoat?

Who’s to blame? As consumers struggle to pay off gasoline credit cards and brace for what could be their highest winter heating bills ever, the easiest target for their frustration is Big Oil.Philadelphia Inquirer

Statoil CEO: 2007 Oil, Gas Output Target More Challenging

Statoil ASA (STO) is finding it increasingly challenging to meets its 2007 oil and gas output target of 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day with the delay of two key projects, the company’s chief executive said Monday. Although CEO Helge Lund said at the company’s third-quarter earnings investors conference the target stands, “it [...]

Shell Dutch Unions to Target Refinery, Expand to Gas

Royal Dutch Shell Plc workers in the Netherlands later today will start a strike, their first in the country in 26 years, to protest the company’s proposal to alter the pension plan. Workers at the 416,000 barrel-a-day Pernis refinery in Rotterdam and the chemical facility at Moerdijk will begin winding down output at 6 p.m. [...]