News from February 2008

Ecuador Further Delays Oil Exports

QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Ecuador’s oil and mining minister, Galo Chiriboga, said Friday the government has declared a force majeure on its oil exports. “We have low levels of crude in stock and we need to supply local necessities for refining crude,” said a high-level official. The official said the next shipments could be delayed by [...]

Demanding a new supply

Dr. Paul Newendorp to discuss

Lester Brown: The Day China Runs Dry

China’s massive but dwindling aquifers would be on track to run virtually dry if over-pumping continued, said Lester Brown, prominent US environmental policy advocate. At that point, its grain production would dive, severely exacerbating any food price increases that had already accumulated. Without rationally priced water, Brown predicted this scenario and a severe global food [...]

Peak Oil Passnotes: The Race to the Bottom (of the Barrel)

It has been another week of crude oil records as the Nymex breached $103 per barrel and event Brent crude topped $100. One of the reasons is that the Wal-Mart economy of the world, bargain basement U.S., has once again seen its currency rupture a little bit more. Stacking high and selling your countrymen cheap, [...]

Morgan Stanley: A Petrodollar Tsunami Is Coming

High energy prices lead to transfers from oil importers to oil exporters, note Stephen Jen and Charles St-Arnaud in Morgan Stanley’s latest Global Economic Forum, and as oil breaches the psychological US$100 a barrel, so investment decisions by the owners of these petrodollars clearly become more important the higher oil prices go. As Jen and [...]

Remember The Gold old days!

Remember the good old days when things like supply and demand seemed to matter? Well yesterday, at least for awhile, it seemed like those good old days were back. Oil inventories weighed on oil prices as the complex shifted focus away from the falling dollar and rising inflation and once again shifted to ample supply [...]

As green power investments rise, a fear they are being misguided

PARIS: Long considered marginal and even quixotic, energy from sources like the wind, sun and plants is turning into one of the world’s most highly valued industries. And while power generated by “green” sources remains tiny compared with fossil fuels, the sector has begun to attract the attention of big-league investors seeking to profit from [...]

PDVSA says Exxon’s asset freeze based on fantasy

LONDON (Reuters) – Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA told a UK court on Friday that a $12 billion freeze on its assets should not have been granted to Exxon Mobil as the oil major’s arguments were “sheer fantasy land”. PDVSA lawyer Gordon Pollock said the amount frozen was excessive. He said a claim that PDVSA [...]

BMW betting on hydrogen

Earlier this month, The Chronicle ran an interesting interview with General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, in which he said major car manufacturers need to develop a variety of alternative energy technologies in preparation for the day that world gets off the oil. The theory goes: Betting on just one — electric cars or fuel cells [...]

Pemex Says Production From Cantarell Field May Drop Up to 18% This Year

(Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, the state- owned oil company, expects to increase oil production in 2008 after a three-year decline, even as output at its largest field drops as much as 18 percent this year. Overall production may rise to 3.1 million barrels a day this year, said Carlos Morales, director of exploration and production [...]