News from October 2009

An energy game-changer?

Louisiana shale could change fate of U.S. energy supply GRAND CANE, La. The gas found in the area’s Haynesville shale and in other shale formations throughout the country has changed the nation’s energy outlook in just a few short years. Some see abundant North American natural gas as the gateway to reduced dependence on foreign [...]

Rubin: Oil price to affect trade

Expect to see fewer ships coming into Halifax from across the Atlantic Ocean as the price of fuel skyrockets, says Jeff Rubin, a former chief economist at CIBC World Markets. “Between the first and second OPEC oil shock, which was a period of great increase in oil prices, there was massive trade diversion away from [...]

Oil to touch $100 per barrel in the longer term, say analysts

Not only are the current oil prices, hovering between $65 and $80 per barrel, sustainable in the short-term, going by the recent developments they could touch $100 in the longer term, according to analysts. “Long-term prospects look a lot different, with all market fundamentals pointing towards oil at $100 and more,” Philipp L Lotter, Senior [...]

No easy answers when electricity is cut off

The electricity had been cut off and it was dark in the house, so her young daughter didn’t realize that the lid was down on the toilet seat around 3 a.m. last Friday. “She’s in there cleaning up urine and she didn’t even wake me up, because she knew I had to work,” said the [...]

The Nuclear Wait

With climate talks starting in Copenhagen next month, many countries are eager to report advancements in nuclear power. The United States now has new applications for 26 nuclear power reactors Companies that design reactors, like General Electric and Westinghouse, and construction firms that build them, have experienced swift growth as countries in Europe and Asia [...]

Willing to give up blue skies for climate fix?

Geoengineering gets closer look as a ‘Plan B’ in case emissions don’t fall We can probably engineer Earth’s climate to cool the planet, scientists say, but are we willing to live with the downsides? Those could include creating more droughts, more ozone holes and, oh yeah, a thin cloud layer that obscures blue skies and [...]

'Almost out' of old Arctic sea ice, expert warns

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ he tells Canadian lawmakers OTTAWA – The multiyear sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has effectively vanished, an Arctic expert says, a startling development that will make it easier to open up polar shipping routes. Vast sheets of impenetrable multiyear ice, which can reach up to 260 feet thick, [...]

Chevron profit hit by oil, refinery weakness

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N) posted a 51 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday, becoming the latest oil major to be hit by the steep decline in oil and natural gas prices and anemic margins at refineries. Although the profit was better than expected, shares of the second-largest U.S. oil company [...]

After takeovers, Venezuela oil area languishes

CIUDAD OJEDA, VENEZUELA (Reuters) – Five months after Venezuela nationalized dozens of oil service contractors in Zulia state, the once-bustling industrial dock on Lake Maracaibo is nearly abandoned, and the 16 red flags raised to celebrate the takeovers are already tattered and faded. A few small groups of workers remain, hoping to get the jobs [...]

Lessons from oil industry may help address groundwater crisis

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Although declining streamflows and half-full reservoirs have gotten most of the attention in water conflicts around the United States, some of the worst battles of the next century may be over groundwater, experts say A new analysis by researchers at Oregon State University outlines the scope of this problem, but also points [...]