Peak Oil Passnotes: Work Those OPECs!

It is amazing how the march of time dulls the minds of people who are otherwise extremely smart, and OPEC ministers too. Each year over the past three years, 2004, 2005, 2006 and now 2007 we have seen prices top their current range in the third and fourth quarters of the year. This year has […]

$100 oil fades fast

The prospect of $100 a barrel oil is evaporating as fast as it was conjured. The commodity, which nine days ago was less than a dollar away from $100, is on Friday at less than $90, tumbling on the reality that oil supplies are adequate and that Saudi Arabia will likely fight for an OPEC […]

This stove cooks — but burns

A Salvadoran wanted to help the environment and his country’s poor. Instead, his acclaimed invention has cost him his family and savings. SAN SALVADOR — In a makeshift laboratory equipped with little more than a battered chair and a cheap kitchen scale, inventor Rene Nunez Suarez displays the contraption that has become his life’s obsession. […]

OPEC Countries Will Rival China in 08 Oil Demand Growth

OPEC countries will rival China in global oil demand growth through 2008 and beyond, according to a report released Friday by investment firm Lehman Brothers Inc. (LEH). Consumption of oil in countries that are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should grow 4.4% to 370,000 barrels per day in 2008, putting the producer […]

Dyer: The U.S. in Iraq: An ‘enduring’ relationship that isn’t

…There is no need to invade countries in order to get oil from them. There could, however, be a requirement for large, permanent American military bases somewhere in the Gulf if the goal was to be able to stop oil from the region from reaching some other country. Which country? The only challenger to America’s […]

US Coup Planned for Venezuela?

The New York Times had a news article about Venezuela in Thursday’s edition, but it was about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying he would cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia. There wasn’t a word about a memo from a CIA operative in Caracas to CIA Director General Michael Hayden, uncovered yesterday, outlining a plan for […]

Helium isotopes point to the best sources of geothermal energy

With fossil fuel sources depleting and global warming on the rise, exploring alternative means of power for humans is a necessary reality. Now, looking to the sky, relying on the wind or harnessing water power are not the only remaining options. Deep within Earth is an untapped source of energy: geothermal energy. It has been […]

New research discredits $100B global warming ‘fix’

Virginia Key, Fla. — Scientists have revealed an important discovery that raises doubts concerning the viability of plans to fertilize the ocean to solve global warming, a projected $100 billion venture. Research performed at Stanford and Oregon State Universities, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, suggests that ocean fertilization may not be an effective […]

Nigerian forces torch illegal petroleum

Troops patrolling the militant-infested waterways of Nigeria’s oil producing region torched two barges Friday after the boats were found transporting stolen petroleum products, police said. It wasn’t known if there were any casualties in the incident, which was still under investigation, said Rivers State police commissioner, Felix Ogbaudu. The two boats were discovered carrying stolen […]

Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28% of Greenhouse Gases

The United States could shave as much as 28 percent off the amount of greenhouse gases it emits at fairly modest cost and with only small technology innovations, according to a new report. A large share of the reductions could come from steps that would more than pay for themselves in lower energy bills for […]

Ecologist lectures on implications of ‘A World Without Oil’

John Kaufmann of the Oregon Department of Ecology visited Gonzaga on Tuesday to discuss the nation’s oil crisis. “This is not a choice; this is the future,” Kaufmann said at a lecture he gave called “A World Without Oil.” According to Kaufmann the days of “eat, drink and gas up” are coming to a close […]

Solar showdown in Congress

With Congress back in session, renewable energy proponents are girding for a battle over legislation that could make or break the nascent solar power industry. At stake in the energy bill now before Congress is the survival of a 30 percent investment tax credit that makes large-scale solar power plants a viable option for utilities […]

Pipeline Fire Traced to Pinhole Leak

CLEARBROOK, Minn. (AP) – An oil pipeline explosion that killed two workers and caused a spike in oil prices can be traced back to a pinhole leak first repaired three weeks ago, the company said. The fire was extinguished Thursday morning, and oil prices ended the day just slightly higher after it became clear that […]

UK Coryton refinery fire-hit unit still shut – HSE

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – A fire at Swiss company Petroplus’ Coryton refinery in southeast England in October is continuing to have significant impact on production at the plant, the Health and Safety Executive said on Friday. The unit damaged by the fire at the 220,000 barrel a day plant remains closed and an investigation […]

Important US Oil Complex Vulnerable to A Terrorist Attack

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, NOV. 29, 2007 – In the September HSToday I wrote the one-page story, But emphasis on its security was found wanting. Even former CIA Director James Woolsey, an advisor to the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, admitted the facility isn

Ethanol E85 fuel loses cost-benefit test to diesel

Anything’s better than ethanol blend E85, even ordinary gasoline, a new cost-benefit analysis of alternative fuels by researcher John Graham at the Pardee Rand Graduate School finds. Diesels scored highest, surprising even the researchers. “We were kind of expecting that hybrids would outperform diesels when we went into the study. It’s close, but the advanced […]

We Welcome Our New Overlords From Asia

America is more concerned about taxing big oil, while other governments are doing their best to acquire it and subsidize the costs for their own citizens. In the midst of all this impenetrable talk about the credit crisis, there’s a far more interesting topic looming on the horizon. It might even hit home in West […]

Winter tales become horror stories

BATH, MAINE One elderly man who called Midcoast Maine Community Action told receptionist Candy Downs that he was keeping warm by staying under the covers of a bed and running a hair dryer. “It’s sad. It makes me want to cry,” she said. The nonprofit organization that takes applications for energy assistance has seen an […]

Fourth Saudi underground storage open

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has opened its fourth underground oil-storage terminal to enable the kingdom to deliver oil products in emergency situations. The facility, inaugurated on November 26, is in the west of the country in Medina, close to the Yanbu refinery on the Red Sea. It is part of the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme, Saudi […]

Middle class angst: The politics of lemmings, part 2

…The deepest fear in suburbia, never spoken aloud, is that when this epoch unravels, Suburbia’s citizens quite simply will not know how to survive. Even the veterans of war who withdraw back into these spaces are largely incapable of the most basic skills that will be required in a non-technocratic world: building healthy soil, making […]

WoodMac: $70 Is the New $30

Wood Mackenzie says higher oil prices are offsetting the greater challenges faced by companies who explore for oil and gas – but only just. In analysis recently completed as part of Wood Mackenzie’s Exploration Service, the average return on exploration for conventional hydrocarbons in the past three years was just under 15% – assuming that […]

A dirty way to fight climate change

Brodhead, Wis.; and Lincoln, Neb. – Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs and plant a tree This is one way the earth has managed carbon since it began. The earth’s soil contains the second-largest quantity of carbon, where it has been the most stable and least vulnerable to fires and climate changes. (The largest amount […]

China’s Green Spending Falls Short

The good news out of China is that the People’s Republic will be spending $200 billion on cleaning up the air and water pollution that has marred its rapid economic growth. The bad news is that sum is virtually unchanged from the last budget and is unlikely to make a difference. The announcement this week […]

Vision of post-oil world scoops award

Sarah Hall has won the 2006/7 John Llewellyn Rhys prize, which celebrates the best fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama from the UK and the Commonwealth, with her third novel, The Carhullan Army, a tough portrait of life in a near-future Britain after the oil runs out. The novel presents itself as the statement of a […]

Nigeria: Rising Fuel Subsidy Worries FG

Another increase in the pump price of petrol may be under way given the strident concern being expressed by top government functionaries over the rising price of crude oil in the international market and what they call the concomitant rise in government subsidy on petroleum products. The Vice President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, made a veiled […]

World’s Sunniest Spots Hint at Energy Bonanza

Southern California is sunny, the French Riviera is sunny, but NASA says the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert in Niger are the sunniest — and the information could be worth money. America’s space exploration agency has located the world’s sunniest spots by studying maps compiled by US and European satellites.The maps […]

Energy Efficiency Fails to Cut Consumption – Study

American consumers are driving bigger gas-guzzling cars and buying more air conditioners and refrigerators as the overall energy efficiency of such products improves, a report released on Tuesday found. In what the study calls “the efficiency paradox,” consumers have taken money saved from greater energy efficiency and spent it on more and bigger appliances and […]

Biodiesel Could Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

A CSIRO report released November 27 confirms that using pure biodiesel or blending biodiesel with standard fuel could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. Biodiesel can be manufactured from any product containing fatty acids, such as vegetable oil or animal fats.The report, “The greenhouse and air quality emissions of biodiesel blends in Australia” […]

Energy-hungry India eyes role as ”wind superpower”

India might be painted as a pollution-spewing, global-warming economy of 1 billion people but it is also one of the world’s biggest wind power users, part of a focus on renewable energy mostly unnoticed in the West. Years of tax incentives have helped make India one of the fastest-growing markets for wind power, a major […]

Entire world has vital stake in China’s energy challenge

A major new report just released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) sheds stark light on one of the reasons why global oil prices are approaching an unprecedented $100 a barrel. The report provides truly stunning new details of the looming global impact of China and India on future energy markets and the prospects for […]

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LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
• More than 20% of global refining capacity at risk of closure
• Charles Hugh Smith Blog: Fire, Then Ice Our Deflationary Future
• Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says energy transition strategy ‘visibly failing’
• 100 million-degree ‘artificial sun’ sets new records in hunt for energy’s ‘Holy Grail’

• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy
• US seeks to buy up to 3 million bbls of oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate
• US oil production will keep booming in 2024, setting up a possible showdown with Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia piles pressure on UAE to shift COP28 focus away from oil and gas
• US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea