Tight Oil and Oil Sands Versus Small Deep Water Developments

This post which is based on results from earlier research and analytic work posted on The Oil Drum, Fractional Flow and not least in recent (private) discussions with other international acknowledged experts present some facts and observations about developments of tight oil (which to some extent also applies to oil sands) versus small deep water […]

Radioactive Japanese wave nears USA

In the wake of the deadly tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 and severely damaged a nuclear reactor, Japanese officials say the levels of radiation are safe for everyone outside the reactor area itself. But as radioactive water from the plant nears the West Coast of North America — the water is expected to hit […]

Kunstler: (Un)Paving Our Way To The Future

You can’t overstate the baleful effects for Americans of living in the tortured landscapes and townscapes we created for ourselves in the past century. This fiasco of cartoon suburbia, overgrown metroplexes, trashed small cities and abandoned small towns, and the gruesome connective tissue of roadways, commercial smarm, and free parking is the toxic medium of […]

China scrambles fighter jets towards US and Japan aircraft in disputed air zone

Escalation of response in South China Sea is the first time China is known to have sent military jets in zone alongside foreign craft. China scrambled fighter jets to investigate US and Japanese aircraft flying through its new air defence zone over the East China Sea on Friday as the regional clamour over the disputed […]

Large-scale Arctic oil and gas drilling decades away

* Arctic estimated to have 90 billion barrels of reserves * Statoil does not expect major production before 2030 * High development costs, harsh weather are big obstacles * Some wells cost $500 million to drill, firm says Norway’s Statoil said it would be decades until drilling begins for much of the Arctic’s vast untapped […]

A More Realistic Cost of Wind Energy

  Various promoters maintain the cost of wind energy is competitive with other sources of energy. As shown below, this is not the case.   The EIA calculates the levelized cost of NEW onshore wind turbine plants place in service in 2018, capacity factor 0.34, 30-yr life, at $86.6/MWh, including transmission of $3.2/MWh.   NOTE: […]

New York’s Fracking Hypocrisy Underscores Energy Illiteracy

New York has issued a moratorium for hydraulic fracturing in the portions of the Marcellus Shale that fall within its borders, but the state is benefiting economically and environmentally from the fracking going on in neighboring Pennsylvania, as NPR reported. New York City, for example, has rolled out a program, “NYC Clean Heat,” to encourage […]

Arab World Sinks Deeper into Water Crisis

The Arab world is widely perceived as blessed with an embarrassment of riches: an abundance of oil (Saudi Arabia), one of the world’s highest per capita incomes (Qatar), and home to the world’s tallest luxury building (United Arab Emirates). But it lacks one of the most finite resources necessary for human survival: water. “The average […]

Iran’s Rouhani: “We Are Not Dismantling Our Nuclear Facilities; Iran Will Maintain Its Uranium Enrichment Programme”

In case there was any confusion just how “historic” last week’s agreement with Iran, loudly trumpeted by the Obama administration as the most “historic” since Syria in a, well, long time, truly was in terms of curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, here is the explanation straight from the horse’s mouth i.e., Iran president Hassan Rouhani who […]

Tepco To Build Two Coal-Fired Plants In Fukushima

After being essentially nationalized as a result of the Fukushima explosion, and following years of denial finally admitting that TEPCO has lost control of the clean up effort of the Fukushima nuclear power plant corpse, one would think Tokyo Electric Power Company may have second thoughts about installing additional capacity around ground zero. One would […]

Too Much Oil: U.S. Storage Set to Pass the 400 Million Threshold

Trend is to Store more Oil  A year ago oil in storage stood at 274 million barrels, and with another robust year of domestic production, and despite curtailed imports, the US Oil Inventory stands at 391 million barrels and climbing. We are still technically in the building season for oil supplies which peaked in late […]

JODI, Canada and the IEA’s Position On Peak Oil

The JODI data came out a few days ago. Below is JODI World Total C+C with EIA data used for countries not reporting to JODI. I use EIA data also for Venezuela and Iran because JODI uses data reported by these two countries which is political and inflated by about one million barrels per day […]

Turkey and Iraqi Kurds seal ‘secret oil deal’

Agreement to allow pumping of oil and gas through Turkey to world markets likely to anger Baghdad, reports suggest. Oil and gas from Iraqi Kurdistan will soon be exported via pipelines through Turkey, after a tranch of contracts were signed in secret this week, Reuters news agency reports. The deals were reportedly completed on Wednesday during a three-hour […]

Meet Harold Hamm, the billionaire behind America’s ‘great renaissance of oil’

In the history of oil, this fall is a tipping point, the moment America gurgles past Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s petroleum king. The man most responsible is Harold Hamm, 67, a drawling, blue-eyed billionaire, a sharecropper’s son who grew to be the richest energy mogul in America. He was the first to […]

Japanese firm plans 250 mile-wide solar panel belt around Moon

A Japanese firm announces its innovative solution to the nation’s energy problems – a 250 mile-wide belt of solar panels on the moon Tokyo-based Shimizu Corp. wants to lay a belt of solar panels 250 miles wide around the equator of the moon   A Japanese construction firm is proposing to solve the well-documented energy […]

Chinese energy giant eyes Canadian natural gas project

The deal is already facing backlash from a prominent environmentalist and First Nations rights advocate The Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec is in talks to buy a stake in a $15 billion natural gas export project in British Columbia.Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg/Getty Images China’s largest state-owned oil and gas company, Sinopec, is reportedly in talks to […]

Can geothermal industry gather steam in Canada?

  Kirsten Marcia aims to launch an energy project with profound implications for Canada. A geologist by training, Ms. Marcia is president and CEO of Deep Earth Energy Production Corp., a Saskatoon-based startup she cofounded in 2010. DEEP’s ambition: to become Saskatchewan’s first geothermal power producer by tapping a vast hot aquifer three kilometres below […]

Water shortages may make fracking impractical

Quantities required for the fracking process may make it problematic in areas of the UK where resources are scarce   Anti-fracking protesters outside IGas’s Barton Moss site in Eccles, Greater Manchester. Photograph: Northern Gas Gala Fracking may be impractical in parts of the UK due to the scarcity of local water supplies, and in other […]

Oil prices likely to decrease next year

Various geopolitical uncertainties have pushed oil prices higher recently (mainly political unrest in the MENA region) and may continue to do so for some time to come. In the next 18 months, however, the overall trend in prices is declining. Non-OPEC supplies continue to grow strongly, while economic growth in the US and Europe seems […]

At the Closing of an Age

Last week’s post here on The Archdruid Report suggested that the normal aftermath of an age of reason is a return to religion—in Spengler’s terms, a Second Religiosity—as the only effective  bulwark against the nihilistic spiral set in motion by the barbarism of reflection. Yes, I’m aware that that’s a controversial claim, not least because […]

Gas prices nationwide at lowest point in 3 years

For those always scouring the streets for the lowest possible price on gasoline, this holiday presents special reason to be thankful, federal energy analysts say. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is reporting that average gas prices for the Thanksgiving holiday are at their lowest level in three years. “Despite this week’s increase in regular-grade gasoline […]

Why Electric Car Could Be Safer than Gasoline-Powered Ones

Sure, lithium-ion batteries have risks, but so do gasoline-powered cars. As I write in another story today, lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars have some inherent risks, just like any way of storing energy for cars. The point of that article is that those risks can be managed, just as we’ve managed the risks with […]

Implications of Nuclear Agreement With Iran

This afternoon, one of my correspondents asked me the following question: What’s your put on the new Iranian agreement, can the weapon program be capped and verification assured? Here was my response: I am happy that there is an interim agreement. It indicates that some people are starting to recognize that Iran is probably telling […]

Sustainability Sucks

I confess to wanting to get your attention because I have something to say about sustainability.  Mostly I want to talk about the word “sustainable” which falls under the same banner as “green” and “eco” and “natural” these days, even though I may agree with many of the specific practices people are labeling as “sustainable.” […]

The Tar Sands and the World Tree – can Ragnarok be avoided?

Norse mythology tells of Ragnarok, a cataclysmic disaster akin to ecocide. In order to avoid this fate we need new stories that reunite human experience with nature. What do the “selfish gene,” homo economicus and the idea that human nature is immutable all have in common? They mix selective evidence with supposition, and masquerade as […]

US Directly Challenges China’s Air Defense Zone

Pair of American B-52 Bombers Fly Over Disputed Islands   The U.S. moved forcefully to try to counter China’s bid for influence over increasingly jittery Asian neighbors by sending a pair of B-52 bombers over disputed islands in the East China Sea, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The B-52s took off from Andersen Air Force Base […]

The Chinese Have Bought Out Ecuador’s Oil Sector

China’s aggressive quest for foreign oil has reached a new milestone, according to records reviewed by Reuters: near monopoly control of crude exports from an OPEC nation, Ecuador. Last November, Marco Calvopiña, the general manager of Ecuador’s state oil company PetroEcuador, was dispatched to China to help secure $2 billion in financing for his government. […]

Crude Traders Skeptical That Iran Deal Will Bolster Oil Supplies

Crude traders are skeptical that the accord loosening some economic sanctions against Iran in return for limiting nuclear work will lead to a surge in oil supply from what was once OPEC’s second-biggest producer. Brent, the benchmark for half the world’s crude, ended at $110.88 a barrel in London yesterday, little changed from where it […]

Why Forecasts of a World Without Carbon-Based Fuel Are Delusional

Resource pressure is a constant.   While the US continues to engage in a delusional energy “debate” about whether we will continue to burn coal and whether natural gas is a panacea, China is struggling to acquire and deploy of energy resources to support its economic growth targets. China has an environment versus growth problem.    […]

World Crude Oil Production by Geographical Area

Here is charts of World oil production by geographical area. The data is from the EIA with the last data point July 2013. With the next EIA update this post will move to a page that is updated monthly. North America, which is the USA, Canada and Mexico. Central & South America has several producers, […]

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