Dispatch From A Post-Carbon World: Planting The Seeds For A More Resilient Future

Whenever I buy grapes imported from Chile, fill my gas tank with fuel sourced in the Persian Gulf, or select underwear made in Thailand at a department store headquartered in Minneapolis, I can’t help but wonder how much longer we can all go on like this. That our survival hinges on the economic vitality of […]

The Middle East holds 43.2% of world’s natural gas

The Middle East, with 80.3 trillion cu/m, is home to 43.2 percent of the total natural gas deposit in the world, according to a new report. A BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2014 report said Qatar currently contains the highest deposit of natural gas with 24.7 trillion cu/m with Saudi Arabia next in […]

Beyond oil and reserves, Russia running on empty

* Russian economy at zero growth despite high oil prices * Sanctions hinder investment in oil production * Drop in crude prices could shake Putin’s reign   For all the sanctions Western leaders can throw at Russia, the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s ability to back separatists in east Ukraine is something beyond his […]

Are You Driving the Right Car for an Oil Crisis?

With further escalation in hostilities in Iraq as the militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) tries to lock down more oil and gas assets, it is hard not to worry that an oil crisis might be looming. Saudi Arabia has fortified its northern border with Iraq with more military hardware and […]

Japan’s About To Make A Move That Could Kill Its Solar Industry

On the second anniversary of a scheme aimed at boosting Japan’s renewable energy after the Fukushima crisis, its powerful industry ministry is taking steps critics say will choke off solar investment and pave the way for a return to nuclear power. Japan’s ambitious plans for solar in the past two years — if they were […]

Russia And India Begin Negotations To Use National Currencies In Settlements, Bypassing Dollar

Over the past 6 months, there has been much talk about the strategic proximity between Russia and China, made even more proximal following the “holy grail” gas deal announced in May which would not have happened on such an accelerated time frame had it not been for US escalation in Ukraine. But little has been […]

Peak Oil: How Soon? How Serious?

Petroleum Geologist Jeffrey J. Brown provides an overview of the global energy picture, focused on oil supply and demand and the impact of peak oil exports. Is the world at or near the maximum of oil production? Can new finds make up for increasing consumption? How might net exporters alter supply? Series: Humanitas [9/2008] [Public […]

The Gulf of Mexico Is Still Dying: Pathogenic Micro-organisms Proliferate Due To Polluted And Poisoned GOM ‘Bioterrain’

There have been several significant developments over the past few decades in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) which now require special and immediate attention.  The multitude of oil spills — both large and small — require extraordinary remediation measures, as well as the application of safe and proven technologies which will not make the existing […]

Oil companies cooling on Arctic leases

Oil companies that had locked up more than 1.3 million acres of the Beaufort Sea for drilling in 2007 have since relinquished nearly half that territory, signaling the industry’s appetite for tapping those Arctic waters may be waning even as the Obama administration makes plans to auction off more of the area. Oil companies have […]

Peak Oil: The Limits Of Swashbuckling

I and others have written a number of articles detailing some of the drawbacks, consequences, and less-publicized aspects of the recent oil production surge resulting from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) taking place in several regions of the country—most notably throughout the Bakken Formation in North Dakota and several regions of Texas. Others have focused their attentions […]

Solar Scams Alive and Kicking in Australia

The headline might appear a little alarmist but yet again, I find myself personally caught up in helping consumers navigate through solar scams. It seems that despite (or perhaps because of?) the industry down-turn new solar companies continue to appear. Why anyone who was tuned in would want to start a solar company from scratch […]

Armed men blow up Yemen’s oil pipeline halting crude flows

Armed men blew up Yemen’s main oil export pipeline on Wednesday, a local official said, halting crude flows and disrupting an important source of revenue for the impoverished state. Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines have repeatedly been sabotaged by insurgents or tribesmen since anti-government protests led to a power vacuum in 2011, causing fuel shortages […]

Orlov: Saving Face

The Americans are finding out the hard way that a fact-free zone is not a comfortable place to inhabit. The initial knee-jerk allegations, voiced by Obama, by the screechy UN representative Samantha Power, by John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and any number of talking heads, were that the downing of flight MH17 was all Putin’s fault. […]

Average Price of Electricity Climbs to All-Time Record

For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Before this June, the highest the average price for a KWH […]

New Russia Sanctions: Washington, Delusional About US Energy Capacity, Lashes Out

The New York Times reports that “The United States and Europe kicked off a joint effort on Tuesday intended to curb Russia’s long-term ability to develop new oil resources.” The new sanctions would deny Russia access to western technology needed to access polar oil and deepwater oil, as well as tight oil produced by hydrofracturing […]

Ship loads first US condensate export cargo in 40 years

An oil tanker has started loading a cargo of condensate, or ultra-light oil, the first such export from the United States since the easing of a 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Westport Petroleum Inc, the Franklin, Tennessee-based shipping arm of Japanese trader Mitsui & Co, […]

Why We Keep Circling Back to Natural Gas

It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the global markets. Like a lion stalking its prey, our commodities coverage keeps circling back to the natural gas sector. For several reasons… Consumer demand is set to grow annually, as more homes adopt cheaper sources of energy. The electricity generation sector is also poised to grow, as […]

Is Economic Migration Still Sustainable?

Migration has always been part of the human experience. As the world’s population has grown, so too has the number of people migrating. But have we reached the point where the developed world is no longer seeing a benefit from the economic migration of people from the developing world? From the 18th Century onwards, 55 […]

Which Countries Produce The Most Fossil Fuels?

Which country takes the most fossil fuels out of the ground? The answer to this question is relatively predictable: China. Today China is the world’s biggest consumer of energy and the vast majority of that comes from burning coal mined in China itself. Little surprise then that China is number one in terms of taking […]

Buyer of Kurdish oil revealed in report

A report Tuesday says Talmay Trading of the British Virgin Islands is scheduled to take Kurdish crude oil loaded on a tanker parked off the coast of Texas. CNBC reports the company contracted AET Offshore Services in Dallas to unload the 1 million barrels of crude oil on board the United Kalavytra, anchored off the […]

Worldwide water shortage by 2040

Two new reports that focus on the global electricity water nexus have just been published. Three years of research show that by the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The SunCell

Last week Randell Mills, the CEO of BlackLight Power, gave his second public demonstration and briefing in a month on the progress his organization is making in developing a new source of energy. This new source is based on converting the hydrogen in water into a lower energy form of hydrogen which Mills calls a […]

Colin Campbell – Calculating the Peak of Oil Production

Colin Campbell – Calculating the Peak of Oil Production

Warren Buffett Really Likes Oil Trains — Despite the Explosions

The people in the Musi-Café had no idea what hit them. At about 1am on July 6, 2013, a train parked on a slope a couple miles awayslipped its brakes. Seventy-two tank cars loaded with crude oil accelerated into the town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec and began to tumble off the tracks, detonating and burning with […]

Solution to World Hunger? Scientists Sequence Genome of African Rice

An international team of researchers have sequenced the complete genome of African rice, enabling the development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental stresses to help solve global hunger issues. The genetic information will also enhance understanding of the growing patterns of African rice. The effort to sequence the […]

Why Hillary Clinton is Right about Putin

Both energy companies and consuming countries who still think appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin will solve their long term problems need to think again. Hillary Clinton’s tough talk about why we must stand up to energy fascism is spot on and needs to be carefully heeded. The West and China have undoubtedly benefited from cheap […]

Making Good Food Affordable

In Treating Food as an Investment, I note the relationship between reduced food expenditures in the United States over the past several decades and the increasing trend in healthcare spending. There are many reasons underlying this relationship, but among them is the fact that most Americans buy very low quality food, a habit that harms our health on […]

Yukos shareholders say would talk to Russia over $50 bln

Shareholders of former Russian oil producer Yukos would be willing to discuss with Russia a court’s decision to award them $50 billion in compensation, a spokesman for holding company GML said on Tuesday. “We have always been ready to negotiate with the other side. GML made many attempts to do so ahead of initiating this […]

Iraq Gets Court Order Seizing Kurdish Crude Off Texas

Iraq persuaded a U.S. judge to order the seizure of $100 million of oil inside a tanker anchored off Galveston, Texas, that it claims was illegally pumped from wells in Kurdistan. Kurdish officials “misappropriated” more than 1 million barrels of oil from northern Iraq and exported them through a Turkish pipeline, according to a complaint […]

Food – Thou Shall Not Waste

“Only two years ago, the soup kitchen was serving 50 meals a day. Today the number has almost doubled and, what is even more worrying, we have started receiving families with children,” says Donatella Turri, director of the Caritas Diocese of Lucca. The paradox is that the lengthening queues at the Lucca soup kitchen come […]

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LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
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