Radiation level increase in northern Europe may ‘indicate damage’ to nuclear power plant in Russia

Low levels of radiation spotted in northern Europe may have come from a malfunctioning nuclear power plant in western Russia. Nuclear safety officials from Finland, Norway and Sweden have all announced earlier this week they have detected increased radioactive isotopes across Scandinavia and in some Arctic regions. While the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority said on […]

Will US Shale Oil Production See A V-Shaped Recovery?

The news didn’t make much of a ripple when it came out, probably because crude prices were down anyway, though not by much. But for what it was worth, the latest weekly survey on the US oil rig count released by industry firm Baker Hughes on Friday showed a drop of just one unit. This […]

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare

The author in Maranhão, Brazil, 1995 On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem. I may seem like a strange person […]

Why Oil Didn’t Save the Whales – and Why it Matters

A widely aired talking point among those who believe that new technological developments are the key to solving our environmental problems is that “oil saved the whales”. In this view, the emergence of petroleum products in the mid-19th century undercut the price of whale oil, prompting the decline of the whaling industry and thus reprieve for […]

Kunstler: Beware of What You Wish For

Apart from the 150 people shot (25 killed) in Chicago, the week after Father’s Day had the quality of a time-out from widespread anarchic violence that the Democratic Party has unleashed upon the nation to distract the public from the party’s lack of a viable election candidate or any credible platform of ideas for managing […]

Fracking pioneer Chesapeake files for bankruptcy protection

Chesapeake Energy, a shale drilling pioneer that helped to turn the United States into a global energy powerhouse, has filed for bankruptcy protection. The Oklahoma City-based company said Sunday that it was a necessary decision given its debt. Its debt load is currently nearing $9 billion. It has entered a plan with lenders to cut […]

3 Risks Threatening To Crash Stocks

Since the appearance of the bearish island reversal we noted two weeks ago, stocks have struggled and so far failed to regain the highs reached earlier in June. And another bearish island reversal happened on Tuesday. The resistance displayed by these reversals and the resulting choppiness of trading are exactly the sort of indicators we […]

Wet War in a Dry Land

As you begin the final descent into Cairo International Airport, you’re struck by a vast and endless swathe of sand. The Pyramids break up the expanse, and suddenly your eyes are met with green; a small green sliver cuts through that sprawling metropolis. In August of 2019, I found myself in the middle of that […]

Non-OPEC W/O U.S. On Production Plateau

A post by Ovi at peakoilbarrel. This post updates Non-OPEC production to February 2020. However we are now in late June 2020 and the effects of the plunge in the price of WTI which began on January 6 and ended in the negative low of $-37.63/bbl on April 20 is showing up in plunging production […]

The World Isn’t Ready for Peak Oil

Two months ago, the world experienced a historic collapse in oil prices, as coronavirus-related shutdowns cratered global demand, briefly turning prices for May delivery negative. Prices have since rebounded modestly, but they remain unsustainably low for countries that depend on oil exports to generate government revenue. The resulting instability, from the Middle East to Africa […]

The Collapse Of Ideology And The End Of Escape

Introduction If you have begun to anticipate the climate-driven collapse of societies, what can you wish for? I have written elsewhere about the problems of being attached to hope, if that means we falsely assume we can’t engage in the world creatively unless we have an expectation of a lasting positive outcome. But it can […]

Earth’s Rapidly Degrading Soil Is Bad News For Human Health

“If mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy,” says soil advocate, Holly Arbuckle… “In order to have nutrient dense food, [and healthy people] we need healthy soil.” Given that 95 per cent of per capita calorie consumption worldwide comes from crops that grow directly in the soil or from food sources that indirectly rely on it, the […]

David Attenborough’s Population Scare Is Unwarranted

The planet is on the cusp of a seismic demographic shift. Peak population growth was in 1968. It has slowed inexorably since. Probably well before the end of this century, the number of humans will be on a path of absolute decline. The brakes have not been exactly slammed on, but the pace of growth […]

The US, China and the great economic decoupling

A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies has come to dominate the planning for a post-pandemic world. The resulting global landscape will be unlike anything since the Second World War ended 75 years ago. The US and China’s combined GDP is $35.6 trillion and they are home to 1.72 billion of the world’s population, […]

System Fail # 1: Riots Across America

The pilot episode of subMedia’s brand new show, System Fail, looks at the incendiary riots that have swept across the United States in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and the state’s desperate attempts to bring things back under control. Featuring an interview with Oluchi Omeoga, co-founder and core organizer of the Black […]

The End Of Money: From Paper To Things

Summary The Fed’s balance sheet will go from $4 trillion at the start of the crisis to $10 trillion by year-end and beyond. The government strategy is being driven by MMT (Modern Monetary Theory). Simply stated, MMT is a macroeconomic framework that says sovereign countries like the U.S., U.K., Japan, or Canada are not operationally […]

Covid to Keep More Oil Underground, Forcing Drillers to Change

Hundreds of billions of barrels of oil stranded by weak demand could accelerate companies’ pivot to cleaner energy, or threaten their long-term survival. BP Plc raised the possibility of stranded oil assets when it announced this month it would take the biggest writedown on the value of its business in a decade. But it wouldn’t […]

Why Every Person In America Needs To Become A Prepper During The Second Half Of 2020

It has been on my heart to write this article for a few days, but I knew that it wouldn’t be easy to write.  2020 has already been one of the worst years in modern U.S. history, and it looks like the next six months are going to be extremely challenging as well.  But even though […]

The Country That Won The Oil War

China is now holding most of the cards in the oil price game as far as Riyadh and Moscow are concerned–and Beijing is right where it wants to be. The other two have overplayed their hands. And the U.S. has–once again–been caught napping. There’s a ton of geopolitical leverage to be had for China. The […]

Killing Them Softly With Sanctions

Dig deep into the June issue of National Geographic magazine and you might just find something that will cast a major aspect of American foreign policy—our economic sanctions regimes—in a new light. The issue’s cover story, “The Last Voices of World War II,” includes a graphic showing the death tolls of the various nations in […]

A Star is Born. What’s Happening on the Front Lines of Fusion

Fusion power, a form of power that is highly efficient, secure and eco-friendly with a virtually inexhaustible supply of fuel, is being eyed as the solution to current major energy and environmental problems. Toshiba shares its vision and how advancement in its fusion technologies is contributing to the realisation of this energy source in the […]

Demand for fossil fuels may not ever return to 2019 peak levels

New Analysis by Boston Consulting Group Reveals That the COVID-19 Crisis May Have Brought Forward an Expected Decline in Demand for Fossil Fuels by More Than a Decade, Making a Return to the 2019 Peak Unlikely While the short-term economic fallout of the global COVID-19 pandemic has already become visible, the crisis may have a […]

Covid-19 has led to a pandemic of plastic pollution

As the world produces more protective equipment—and gorges on takeaways—pity the oceans THE THAMES has always been a reflector of the times, says Lara Maiklem, a London “mudlark”. Ms Maiklem spends her days on the river’s foreshore foraging for history’s detritus, from Roman pottery to Victorian clay pipes. She can tell the time of year, […]

The Arctic is on fire: Siberian heat wave alarms scientists

The Arctic is feverish and on fire — at least parts of it are. And that’s got scientists worried about what it means for the rest of the world. The thermometer hit a likely record of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Russian Arctic town of Verkhoyansk on Saturday, a temperature that would […]

US Sanctions on Venezuela

Since 2006, the United States has imposed certain restrictions and sanctions in response to activities of the Venezuelan government and individuals. This includes sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PdVSA), its government, and central bank. These sanctions have increased pressure on the government and accelerated a decline in oil production. […]

Are We Nearing Peak Oil Supply?

Are we now deep in the abyss? Up to our necks in it, if the oil price is any guide. Brent has now tested sub-U.S.$20 a barrel in this downturn and WTI sub-zero, albeit briefly and in somewhat freakish circumstances. Where are the signs of stress across the oil value chain? And what are the […]

Millions of Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells Pose Environmental, Health Risks

In May 2012, Hanson and Michael Rowe noticed an overpowering smell, like rotten eggs, seeping from an abandoned gas well on their land in Kentucky. The fumes made the retired couple feel nauseous, dizzy, and short of breath. Regulators responding to the leak couldn’t find an owner to fix it. J.D. Carty Resources LLC had […]

Why Are There ANY Rigs Running In the Permian Basin ?

Oil and natural gas wells make money or they don’t. They don’t start  making money until they have paid back ALL costs associated with acquiring the lease to  put that well on and ALL drilling and completions costs, including corporate overhead to run the business and, in the case of shale oil wells, the cost of financing. […]

Overshoot day: the other side of the coin

Every year on Earth Overshoot Day, a table becomes very popular, showing the number of Earths needed to be ecologically sustainable if all the people in the world had the same ecological footprint as the average citizens of various countries. This is computed by fixing the world population at the current value and varying the […]

What’s Next For Big Oil?

Something unthinkable is happening in Big Oil, and it’s not the demand slump or the spending cuts or the layoffs. With the exception of the demand slump, we’ve seen all this before–more than once, in fact.  No, what’s unthinkable is that Big Oil appears to be planning to stop being Big Oil. It’s not a […]

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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