Australia: Greedy petrol firms in hot seat with ACCC

THE bosses of Australia’s big four oil companies will this week be forced to explain why they have failed to pass on falling international petrol prices to local motorists in 2008. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel yesterday renewed his demand for crisis meetings with the chiefs of Caltex, Shell, BP and Mobil. […]

Cornucopians and their magical thinking

We are all subject to bouts of magical thinking. The classic and most widespread form of this is to confuse correlation with causation. One can see it in daily life: Objects such as rabbits’ feet, special stones, and certain “lucky” pieces of clothing are presumed to be the cause of whatever good fortune comes to […]

Reasons to buy a hybrid — or not

(AOL Autos) — OK, it’s official: Hybrid vehicles are definitely the wave of the future or at least one of them. With gas prices remaining over $3 a gallon and oil prices up around $100 a barrel, the need to save on fuel — and fuel costs — is clearly not just a passing trend. […]

Hershey ups candy price

Chocolate maker, hit by higher energy costs, increases wholesale prices by about 3%. HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — Chocolate maker Hershey Co., faced with rising costs for commodities and energy, said Monday it will boost its wholesale prices by about 3 percent on one-third of its domestic candy line. The price increase — effective immediately — […]

Powering Civilization to 2050

This post is the start of an attempt to sketch out what an integrated solution to the world’s food, energy, land, climate, and economy problems might look like. My basic goal is to get to a somewhat defensible story of how civilization could get to 2050 in reasonable shape, despite the problems of climate change, […]

The kinder, gentler energy superpower

Canada is the kind of oil supplier the U.S. can rely on, and no one knows it better than the Texans In Texas City, a small port town south of Houston near the Gulf of Mexico, a hub of refineries rises through the misty January air, billowing steam from scrubber towers. These refineries make up […]

China looking for energy supplies at home

BEIJING: After a scramble by China’s big oil companies to secure energy reserves overseas, they seem to have found their best prospects in the most unexpected place: under their own feet. China is turning inward for energy resources to feed its economy as it faces increasingly nationalist governments from Venezuela to Russia that want bigger […]

Iraq halts Korea oil exports over Kurd deal

Iraq has halted crude exports to South Korea’s SK Energy in protest of an oil deal between Korean companies and the Kurdistan regional government, an Iraqi oil ministry source said on Monday. Baghdad suspended a contract to export 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) to SK Energy on Jan.1 and has given SK Energy until Jan.31 […]

Oil reserves fuel fight

WASHINGTON

Yemen: Students protest increase in bus fares

A demonstration that started with a few university students and grew to include over a hundred protestors took place at the New Sana

Mexican Parties on Strike for Oil

Mexico, Jan 27 (Prensa Latina) Mexican political parties in the Broad Progressive Front (FAP) threatened to go on a “legislative strike” to avoid the privatization of the country Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. recently won a three-year, $683 million contract with PEMEX to manage the drilling and completion of 58 land wells in the country’s […]

Auto companies press states on California emissions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Automakers and their allies have stepped up lobbying to convince states that a proposal by California to cut tailpipe emissions sharply to fight global warming could further depress the struggling U.S. industry. There is concern among General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co, Chrysler LLC — and supporters in Congress and at state […]

Drivers to see major toll hikes

From the Golden Gate Bridge to the New Jersey Turnpike, the nation’s toll booths are getting dramatically more expensive to drive through. The sharp increases come as states endure financially lean times triggered by the housing and credit crunch and struggle to find money to maintain or replace vital infrastructure. …”People view highways as free, […]

Botswana: Power Cuts Plunge Business Into Turmoil

The business community in Gaborone has expressed grave concern that they will lose millions of Pula during the expected power shortage that has already manifested itself in frequent outages. Since January 16 some parts of the country has experienced unexpected power blackouts. This is because Botswana’s major power supplier, Eskom, of South Africa, has decided […]

Maldives Builds Barriers to Global Warming

Countries struggling with climate change could learn a lot from a constellation of tiny islands in the Indian Ocean. The Republic of Maldives was one of the first countries to recognize the danger of rising sea levels. It’s also one of the first to come up with a plan to adapt to a warmer world.President […]

Researchers say sea levels rising faster than predicted

Rises in sea levels during the coming decades could be much higher than previously believed, say experts. A new report by a consortium of scientists from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, and research centres in Germany and the US says that sea levels rose by an average of 1.6 m every hundred years […]

China battles winter weather chaos ahead of holiday

China on Sunday ordered urgent steps to fight transport chaos and energy and food supply strains caused by brutal winter weather, which forecasts said was likely to continue as the nation heads into a major holiday. Heavy snow and sleet has hit central, eastern and southern China in recent days, areas used to milder winters. […]

Gas: Highly prized reserves in a tightening market

In the past decade Africa may well have been the most exciting region in the world for oil exploration but, for many multinational companies, the continent has also emerged as an important gas play. With Europe concerned over Russia’s political motives in exploiting its energy wealth and big international companies shut out or deterred from […]

The oil majors: Trickier times ahead for big fish

Over the past 15 years, Africa has featured prominently on the global exploration map of international oil majors looking to open up new frontiers and book new reserves. Soft fiscal terms in oil rich countries and high oil prices more recently have driven exploration programmes of some of the bigger companies into the deepwater areas […]

Sheryl Crow – Gasoline

“Gasoline” – on Detours CD to be released Feb 5th Way back in the year of 2017 The sun was growing hotter And oil was way beyond its peak When crazy Hector Johnson broke into a refinery And the black gold started flowing Just like Boston tea It was the summer of the riots And […]

A Hobbson Choice : Oil for Food or Oil for Fuel ? (India)

Oil is central to the economy. Be it the oil for food or oil for fuel. In both the cases the country is dependant on imports. We import about 70% of petroleum products to meet our energy needs. Our import of petroleum products in the first six months of the current fiscal (2007-08) increased to […]

Seven killed in Beirut violence

Seven people have been killed in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a demonstration against power cuts descended into violence. Shots were fired as the army intervened when protesters tried to block a road. An activist from the opposition Shia Amal movement was killed, triggering violent protests in which six more people were killed, reports say. […]

Shell Heading Toward Stormy Waters in Nigeria

In the next few days, British Dutch oil and gas major Shell could be faced with increased problems. Nigeria, Shell Some days ago, Van der Veer said he is prepared to discuss all issues pending, such as renewed contract discussions, the gas flaring issue and possible new investment schemes. Analysts, however, think both leaders will […]

Saskatchewan open to expanding nuclear business

REGINA — It was an analogy that developed in the 1970s as nuclear power plants were being developed around the world: Saskatchewan and its vast supply of unmined uranium would be to nuclear power what Saudi Arabia was to oil. Over the last three decades the prediction has been realized and the province, better known […]

Massive delays plague region

The total budget for construction projects under way in the Middle East reached almost $1 trillion (Dh3.67trn) last year, according to UAE-based industry intelligence provider Proleads. But the region-wide expansion drive is being hit by massive delays. In addition, soaring engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract costs have prompted most project sponsors to postpone or […]

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler

A SEA change in the consumption of a resource that Americans take for granted may be in store … Growing meat (it

India: Govt to prioritise natural gas allocation

NEW DELHI: Fertiliser plants will have the first right over domestic natural gas, followed by petrochemical and existing power units if the government approves a draft natural gas utilisation policy. According to the draft prepared by the Petroleum Ministry, natural gas produced from fields like eastern offshore KG-D6 field of Reliance Industries or Panna/Mukta and […]

Marshall Islands faces fuel shortage

MAJURO

Higher prices food for dismal thoughts

…Until last week, I put this down to the burgeoning food demands of the fast-growing, heavily populated emerging economies of the East. That, and the needs of the bio-fuel industry. But a thoughtful new paper from UK-based consultants Bidwells Agribusiness suggests something else is driving global food prices higher – namely an ever more pressing […]

Official worries fuel pipeline will draw insurgents

State Rep. Chente Quintanilla says head of Texas’ homeland security is ignoring his concerns that a proposed Pemex pipeline could attract leftist Mexican insurgents to the U.S. Quintanilla, D-El Paso, worries that a proposed pipeline that would transport gasoline from stateside petroleum tanks directly through El Paso County into Juarez could be sabotaged by Mexican […]

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