BP, Shell, Statoil in U.S. Lawsuit Over Alleged Oil Manipulation

BP PLC (BP.LN), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) and Statoil ASA (STL.OS) have been named in the first lawsuit to be filed following a European Commission antitrust investigation into alleged manipulation of oil prices and benchmarks, the Financial Times in London reported Saturday, citing legal documents. The oil majors were named as defendants in a [...]

Will It Be Inflation Or Deflation? The Answer May Surprise You

Is the coming financial collapse going to be inflationary or deflationary?  Are we headed for rampant inflation or crippling deflation?  This is a subject that is hotly debated by economists all over the country.  Some insist that the wild money printing that the Federal Reserve is doing combined with out of control government spending will [...]

Raising the Bar on Extractive Resources Transparency and Accountability

Over 3.5 billion people—or half of the world’s population—live in countries that are rich in extractive resources such as oil, gas, and minerals. Yet, too often, the benefits from this wealth do not go to support the development of the country and thus do not work to the advantage of the  average citizen. Extractive resources [...]

Hyperinflation – 10 Worst Cases

I have a neat little app on my smartphone that I like to look at when I’m feeling bored. It won’t change anything in my life, but it makes me think as I see the numbers clocking up, and then suddenly stopping for a few seconds. It’s the app that tells me the how much [...]

The Coming Collapse Of The Petrodollar System

Authored by Andrew McKillop, PETRODOLLAR WAR The theory of Petrodollar Warfare can be attributed to US analyst and author William R Clarke, and his 2005 book of that title which interpreted the US-UK decision to invade Iraq in 2003. He called this an “oil currency war”, but the concept of the petrodollar system and petrodollar [...]

Has the EIA Killed Peak Oil?

A number of factors have changed the face of peak oil. Low U.S. growth, increased oil production and more fuel efficient modes of transportation have dampened the effects of rising energy costs. Peak oil is still a real phenomenon, but in the medium term it looks like it will affect the economy through subtle means. US Consumer [...]

The Quiet Triumph Of Oil And Gas In Obama’s Policies

It was announced Friday afternoon, when no one was supposed to pay attention: after years of controversy, heated rhetoric, intense lobbying, and stiff opposition from some unlikely bedfellows, with multinational industrial and chemical companies weighing down one side of the bed, and environmentalists tossing and turning on the other, the Obama Administration decided in favor [...]

Forget ExxonMobil. Chevron is new leader in oil.

Although Chevron is smaller, it has eclipsed ExxonMobil as the best-managed international oil company. Chevron’s stock has outperformed ExxonMobil’s, it pays a higher dividend, and the company is reporting a slightly higher profit margin. A decade ago I would have said that ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) was the best-managed oil company among the international oil companies. [...]

Oil-price manipulation: the next Libor?

Some of the world’s biggest oil companies may have a new mess on their hands. The European Commission raided the offices of Shell, BP and Norway’s Statoil this week as part of an investigation into suspected attempts to manipulate global oil prices spanning more than a decade. None of the companies have been accused of [...]

Oil price-fixing scandal heats up in Europe

The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission, confirmed it has raided the offices of a number of oil industry companies for possible price-fixing. Here are some questions and answers on the investigation. — Which companies were raided and why? The EU Commission did not say which companies it is investigating. However, some firms have confirmed [...]

From Petrodollar To Petrogold: The US Is Now Trying To Cut Off Iran’s Access To Gold

The US is moving to broaden its ‘blockade’ efforts of Iran to the movement of pure gold into the Islamic Republic. The US-led embargo of Iranian crude succeeded in slowing the flow of petrodollars into the nation but as Foreign Affairs committee chairman Edward Cohen remarked, there is “no question that there is gold going [...]

Women in the Wind Energy Industry

Women are under-represented in wind and the other renewable energy industries, according to Kristen Graf, Executive Director of Women of Wind Energy (WoWE). She believes progress in renewables may depend on correcting that. “Statistics are difficult [to come by] because there is little historic data,” Graf said, “but preliminary results from an as-yet-unreleased NREL study [...]

Vietnam, Russia Sign Production, Exploration Deals

Vietnam and Russia have signed deals for three oil and gas projects during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Moscow, the Vietnamese government said in a statement late Tuesday. State-run Petrovietnam signed an agreement on the production and use of natural gas with Gazprom OAO and a letter of intention on petrochemical and oil [...]

Kunstler: No Mo’ PoMo?

Whenever the Federal Reserve wants to tweak the dials of the economy — or pretend that it can — it turns first to its sock puppet at The Wall Street Journal, John Hilsenrath, and “leaks” a rumor of policy change (here). They like to do this late on Fridays when financial markets are about to [...]

What Saudi Arabia Thinks About the U.S. Oil Boom

For some three decades, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, have wielded tremendous influence over the global oil markets. Saudi Arabia, in particular, has enjoyed the unparalleled ability to influence global oil prices by increasing or reducing its production and exports — an advantage it has [...]

Availability of oil in the long term is dubious, as oil prices could in fact retreat, helping the tanker market

The finite supply of oil could result in a highly unstable market environment if the oil market reaches its peak. According to a recent report from market analyst’s Poten & Partners, “conservationists and industry have been at odds over the ability of crude oil to continue to serve as a primary conduit for meeting the [...]

The Coming Price War Between Crude Oil And Natural Gas

The big difference in energy these days, not just in the US but worldwide, is reliability of supply, particularly in the abundant availability of natural gas. That reliability allows, even forces, Natural Gas to be a major energy source competitor. Extractive technologies of the past century relied on the location and exploitation of intense pockets [...]

The Price Of Copper And 11 Other Recession Indicators That Are Flashing Red

There are a dozen significant economic indicators that are warning that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession.  The Dow may have soared past the 15,000 mark, but the economic fundamentals are telling an entirely different story.  If historical patterns hold up, the economy is heading for a very rocky stretch. For example, the [...]

Are We Heading For a 2008-Style Economic Implosion

The media is jumping for joy over last week’s US jobs numbers. But beneath the veneer of headline numbers lies a truly horrible economic reality.   Let’s have a look at the two key economies for the world: China and the US.   For starters, China’s recent economic data, as massaged as it is to [...]

Patient contrarians: The natural gas market isn’t what it seems

Maybe it’s the gloomy Seattle weather that has made investment manager Jim Hansen and his son and partner, Kevin, at Ravenna Capital Management immune to oil and gas industry hype about the supposed U.S. shale gas “revolution.” More likely it is thorough research focused on making their clients money and keeping that money out of [...]

The Oil and Gold Booms Are Over

The wreckage caused by China’s great, juddering slowdown continues to spread far beyond the country’s shores. Although most commodities enjoyed a bounce on May 3, after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, the plunge in their prices over the past few months suggests the past decade’s rally is truly broken. For those of us not in the [...]

A mainstream brokerage firm talks End of Growth

perfect storm energy, finance and the end of growth The economy as we know it is facing a lethal confluence of four critical factors – the fall-out from the biggest debt bubble in history; a disastrous experiment with globalisation; the massaging of data to the point where economic trends are obscured; and, most important of [...]

Outlook Grim in Venezuela’s Essential Oil Industry

Only the filthy water from broken sewer pipes keeps the dust down in front of Ramon Boet’s shop, which sells statues of saints and other religious objects. In the distance, massive tankers pull up to a half-century-old refinery that processes much of the oil that earns Venezuela more than $100 billion a year. “It doesn’t [...]

The death of innovation, the end of growth

The US economy has been expanding wildly for two centuries. Are we witnessing the end of growth? Economist Robert Gordon lays out 4 reasons US growth may be slowing, detailing factors like epidemic debt and growing inequality, which could move the US into a period of stasis we can’t innovate our way out of. Be [...]

7 Reasons Why Oil Prices Won’t Plunge

The United States is in the midst of a miraculous supply boom that has seen domestic oil output soar by more than 1 million barrels per day in the past year to the highest levels in decades. U.S. oil output is now at 6.5 million bbl per day, in third place after Saudi Arabia and [...]

Future-Proofing Energy Markets

A PEEK AT POST-PEAK In energy markets there are few more contentious theories than that of peak oil. The idea was first posited by M. King Hubbert, a geologist for what was then known as Shell Oil—he asserted that oil discovery, and therefore production, would follow a bell-shaped curve. Here’s a short clip of him [...]

Peak Oil: Higher oil prices don’t mean higher oil profits

Bloomberg News explaining the consequences of peak oil without actually realising it.

Chevron CEO gets $3.5 million cash

Chevron Corp. says Chairman and CEO John Watson will get a $3.5 million cash bonus for the oil company’s big profit in 2012. It also said Tuesday that directors approved a $100,000 raise for Watson, boosting his annual salary to $1.8 million. Four other executives will get bonuses of up to $2.2 million and raises. [...]

James Altucher on the Peak Oil Fallacy, Investment …

This week we sit down with one of our favorite guests, James Altucher, editor of the widely read letter, The Altucher Confidential. Porter and James have a lively conversation about the peak oil fallacy and whether or not parents should send their children to college. Plus, James provides his analysis on where he sees investment [...]

“Peak Rail” – Has The Crude Shipping Train Left The Station?

Some call it the “holy rail.” In Alberta Canada, an estimated 120,000 barrels of oil per day are shipped out by train to the U.S. east coast and Gulf coast region. By the end of the year – when several terminals are completed – that number could reach 200,000 barrels a day. Despite rail costs [...]

Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Google and Wind Energy: Acquisition of Makani Kite Power  
• Greenland – The Rare Earth Frontier
• 2-child limit for Muslims in parts of Myanmar
• Are Pipeline Spills A Foregone Conclusion?
• BP, Shell, Statoil in U.S. Lawsuit Over Alleged Oil Manipulation

• US Oil Surge Could Impact Mideast Geopolitics  
• Thinking of starting a Transition Initiative?
• Peak Oil: Ignoring Evidence
• Difficult Truths about ‘Difficult Oil’
• Bound by the Chains of Oil: The Need for Energy Innovation
• The Peak Oil Crisis: A Stealth Revolution!