News from October 2006

Big oil’s expensive black gold quest

One study says oil company spending is having little impact on boosting supplies, but firms continue to hunt. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Soaring crude prices may have prompted oil companies to venture into ever hostile terrain to bring supplies to market, yet by one account all the spending may merely serve to hold production levels [...]

Major oil producer Venezuela to build 17 ethanol plants

In an interesting but as yet unclear development, Venezuela’s most recent Energy Strategy Meeting concluded with the announcement that the country will be investing massively in ethanol production. The OPEC member is the world’s 7th largest oil exporter, so it comes as a surprise to see Venezuela investing in biofuels. According to Prensa Latina, state-run [...]

The green nanotech revolution: apricot, cashew nuts to replace petrochemicals

Apricot kernels and cashew nuts. We have been eating these delicacies in large quantities for decades. But who would have thought they would one day become the object of interest for nanotechnologists and biochemists looking to use them as renewable and biodegradable substitutes for petrochemicals? The use of renewable biomass as an alternate source for [...]

The Oil Drum: The First Ever Off-Shore Wind Farm Financed by Banks…

This Wednesday, a few banks, including mine, signed and disbursed a ground-breaking loan: we put 378 million euros on the table, to build 60 wind turbines in the North Sea, 25 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands, near Amsterdam. The wind farm, at 120 MW is not the biggest to be built offshore (that [...]

Grain Drain: Get Ready for Peak Grain

Now Whenever there

OPEC says British climate change report ”unfounded”

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A hard-hitting report on climate change published by the British government on Monday has no basis in science or economics, OPEC’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said on Tuesday. The report written by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said that failure to tackle climate change could push world temperatures up by 5 [...]

Warned of costs, world seeks way to fight warming

OSLO (Reuters) – U.N. climate talks in Kenya next week will hunt for new ways to fight global warming, stung by a warning that long-term inaction may trigger a cataclysmic economic downturn. But delegates say the 189-nation talks from November 6-17 look unlikely to make any big breakthroughs and may shy away from setting a [...]

U.S. drops royalty claims against Chevron

The U.S. Interior Department has dropped claims that the Chevron Corp. underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The decision could have far-reaching impacts, allowing energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties, the Times reported. The Interior Department [...]

Oil firms drill for deepwater profits

With global demand for oil showing no sign of abating, the industry is going to ever greater lengths to secure supplies. Tall as a nine-storey building and as long as two tennis courts, the anchor handling vessel is the work horse of the offshore oil industry. The entire deepwater exploration and drilling industry has boomed [...]

U.N. chief asks new uses for atom energy

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged the world’s nations Monday to adopt a broad new plan for the use of atomic energy to address mounting concerns about the further spread of sensitive technology. He said a new approach is essential because rising global demand for energy has made atomic power a more [...]