US will not reissue waivers for Iran oil imports

The Trump administration on Monday told five countries – Japan, South Korea, Turkey, China and India – that they would no longer be exempt from US sanctions if they continued to import oil from Iran after their waivers ended on May 2. “We’re going to zero. We’re going to zero across the board,” US Secretary […]

The Extinction Conundrum

  Audio Only:   (audio-only MP3 provided in case you want to multi-task and listen while sitting in traffic on the way to work in your cubicle or digging post holes for your fencing on the Doomstead or kneeling by the throne and Praying to the Porcelain God.  mp3 Audio can be downloaded from Diner […]

Who is Cassandra?

A wonderful interpretation of the ancient Trojan prophetess in a performance by the theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder on her always interesting blog “Backreaction.”  You can find more of her songs at her youtube page. But who was Cassandra? I can tell you that from personal experience. She appeared to me in person — well, as […]

Iraq, Kurdistan To Discuss 50% Increase In Oil Production

The central Iraqi government will meet with its Kurdish counterparts soon to talk about oil exports from the now semi-autonomous region that tried to gain independence last year. Reuters reported, citing Iraq’s oil minister, Thamer Ghadhban, that the two sides will also discuss the increase of oil production from the fields around the northern city […]

Crisis capitalism will never survive

As Parisians watched Notre Dame’s spire, engulfed in flames, crash the iconic rooftop, a collective wail rose from the crowd. From Omaha to Rangoon, the gothic church bells and gargoyles, cinematic confidants to Chaney’s and Laughton’s Quasimodos, symbolize permanence. Fortunately, Notre Dame will be rebuilt because westerners, inexplicably soothed by stasis, abhor change, even denying […]

‘Artificial sun’: China’s quest for clean, limitless energy

HEFEI: A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing’s determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050. Sometimes called an “artificial sun” for the sheer heat and power it produces, the doughnut-shaped Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) that juts out on a […]

Trump Says He’s Spoken to Saudi Arabia About Increasing Oil Flow

President Donald Trump said he’s spoken to Saudi Arabia and other countries about increasing oil flow and that “all are in agreement.” Trump described the conversations in a tweet on Friday in which he also said a California tax on gasoline is causing “big problems on pricing for that state.” Spoke to Saudi Arabia and […]

The “Population Bomb” Bombed

In 1968, the “year’s most important book,” what Greg Garrard[1] called a neo-Malthusian classic, The Population Bomb, by Stanford University Professor Paul Ehrlich, “made dire predictions and triggered a wave of repression around the world.”[2] Authored by an evolutionary biologist known for his “groundbreaking studies of the co-evolution of flowering plants and butterflies,” it became […]

Russian Oil to Parts of Europe Suspended

Russian oil flows to parts of Europe were halted after customers complained of unusual impurities in the crude, adding another disruption to the global oil market and pushing prices in London above $75 a barrel. Poland, which receives oil through a northern section of the giant Druzhba pipeline, stopped Russian imports, saying shipments have become […]

What Oil Shortage? Just a Case of Supply Being Redistributed

Last April, Iran exported about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day (mbpd) before President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Tehran. Sanctions were then placed on Iran, but following great opposition from Iran’s key customers, namely China and India, the U.S. granted “waivers” to allow some exports of Iranian crude. […]

End of the World?

Claims ring saying that human-caused climate change will soon make the Earth unlivable, but other similar claims have been made in the recent past that have turned out to be false. The photo at right, from AP, shows a 1970 Earth Day event in Philadelphia.   “Millennials and people and you know Gen Z and […]

Peak Oil, Abiotic Oil & EROEI: Real(ish)

Guest Seinfeld routine by David Middleton The plots of the Seinfeld TV show often revolved around trivializing important things and blowing trivial things out of proportion. While not a Seinfeld fanatic (I’m more of a Frasier fanatic), I thought the comedy routines were generally brilliant and quite effective. Peak Oil, abiotic oil and EROEI (energy […]

How To Bury the Fossil Fuel Industry

Keen eyes browsing through the Green New Deal resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in February might have noticed a concerning similarity between that document and the Paris climate agreement: Neither mentions fossil fuels. To be clear, the Green New Deal is probably the best shot we have at […]

Iran denounces ‘illegal’ US sanctions as oil waivers end

Iran denounced US sanctions on its oil sector as “illegal” on Monday after the United States announced it will no longer grant sanctions exemptions to Iran’s oil customers. “Since the sanctions in question are principally illegal, the Islamic Republic of Iran did not and does not attach any value or credibility to the waivers given […]

Kuntler: An Empire of Bullshit

After two years of gaslighting the public while it blew smoke up America’s ass, the Jacobin news media enjoyed its final feeding frenzy with the release of the 400-page Mueller report. They expected 1000 pounds of raw filet mignon, but it turned out to be tofu fried in olestra. The ensuing fugue of hyperventilating hysteria […]

Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil field is fading faster than anyone guessed

It was a state secret and the source of a kingdom’s riches. It was so important that US military planners once debated how to seize it by force. For oil traders, it was a source of endless speculation. Now the market finally knows: in Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest conventional oil field, can produce a […]

The Firm Floor Under Oil Prices

The continued slowdown of US shale production and the looming deadline for Iran sanctions waivers have put a floor under oil prices this week Friday, April 19, 2019 Oil held steady at the close of the week, with a slowdown in U.S. shale and the looming deadline for a decision on Iran sanctions waivers putting […]

Exxon Mobil makes new oil discovery offshore Guyana

Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday the U.S. oil major along with its partners have made an oil discovery offshore Guyana, which adds to the previously estimated 5.5 billion barrels of oil-equivalent. The discovery was in the Turbot area of Stabroek Block, which is expected to become a major development hub, Exxon said. This is […]

Fragility In The World 2019

Yemen is labelled as the most fragile country by Fragile States Index in 2019. Finland is now the least fragile country. Source: https://fragilestatesindex.org/ (Highlights from Fragile States Index) “This year, Yemen claimed the top position for the first time as a result of its civil war and humanitarian catastrophe. Although Yemen’s top ranking may provide cause […]

7 things we’ve learned about Earth since the last Earth Day

This year’s Earth Day, April 22, will arrive at a sobering moment in human history. The world is warming faster than ever. The oceans are rising. Thousands of migrants are fleeing environmental disasters. Taxpayers are paying billions to rebuild communities after climate-linked wildfires and hurricanes destroyed them. The Trump administration is unraveling policies designed to […]

Iran Peddling 1MM Barrels of Oil Again

An Iranian exchange has offered investors as much as 6 million barrels of oil so far this year. Only a single deal closed, for the minimum 35,000 barrels. Iran’s oil production and exports have slumped after the U.S. reinstated sanctions last year, and new curbs are set to further restrict its exports. Exemptions for importing […]

In The Permian Basin, Natural Gas ‘Flaring’ Persists, With No Solution In Sight

The axiom, bigger is better may not apply to everything in Texas. For one thing, the Permian Basin is cranking out so much natural gas that producers are burning it in high volumes Bloomberg reports that at the end of last year, producers were burning enough fuel to power every home in Texas. Matt Smith, […]

Population IS a Problem

And it warrants greater attention, not less. This roundtable discussion with the staff of World Population Balance answers the question, “Is there a problem with population?” An attempt to answer the question with a “not really” was recently published in a commentary at Resilience.org. Population: What’s the Problem?, written by Chris Smaje, made some points […]

Saudi Aramco’s Quest to Become the World’s Biggest Oil Consumer

Saudi Aramco is well known as the world’s top crude exporter. If all goes to plan, it may also become the biggest user of the fossil fuel. More than a third of Aramco’s oil is currently fed into its fully-owned and joint venture refineries, according to its bond prospectus. The company plans to double its […]

Can US sanctions on Venezuela work?

The US Treasury Department has designated not just Venezuela‘s vital oil industry but its entire banking sector also as the target of sanctions, making it almost untouchable for companies and banks that do business with the United States. But in the last three months, President Nicolas Maduro‘s government has been busy finding ways to circumvent […]

‘Really smart guys’ push to make biggest oilfield even bigger

Standing at the center of the prolific Permian Basin, Scott Hodges explains how the future of the world’s largest oil field may very well depend on what he calls jokingly calls the “really smart guys.” Hodges, a 57-year-old manager with Occidental Petroleum Corp., runs a cluster of installations at the Hobbs oil field, where dozens […]

China to generate fusion power from reactor by 2040

China aims to complete and start generating power from an experimental nuclear fusion reactor by around 2040, a senior scientist involved in the project said, as it works to develop and commercialise a game-changing source of clean energy. China is preparing to restart its stalled domestic nuclear reactor programme after a three-year moratorium on new […]

Kunstler: Cascading Cat Litter

And so now Julian Assange of Wikileaks has been dragged out of his sanctuary in the London embassy of Ecuador for failing to clean his cat’s litter box. Have you ever cleaned a litter box? The way we always did it was to spread some newspaper — say, The New York Times — on the […]

The Metal Venezuela Has; Gold For China; Invention Of Peak Oil

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Oil-eating bacteria found at the bottom of the ocean

Scientists have discovered oil-eating bacteria in the planet’s deepest oceanic trench, the Mariana Trench. An international team of researchers, including scientists from Britain, China and Russia, used a submersible to collect microbial samples from the trench, which bottoms out at 6.8 miles below sea level. For reference, the peak of Mount Everest is 5.5 miles […]

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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