Last Energy Signs Deals Worth $19 Billion for Nuclear Plants

Last Energy Inc., a startup developing advanced, smaller nuclear power plants, completed four deals worth $18.9 billion to build 34 reactors in Europe. The Washington-based company expects to install the first of its 20-megawatt systems as soon as 2025, Chief Executive Officer Bret Kugelmass said in an interview Monday. Last is building its first system […]

Russia-China ties enter ‘new era’ as Xi meets Putin in Moscow

China’s President Xi Jinping has said he signed an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin bringing their ties into a “new era” of cooperation, as the two leaders called for “responsible dialogue” to resolve the Ukraine crisis. “We signed a statement on deepening the strategic partnership and bilateral ties which are entering a new […]

Gasoline Is About To Get More Expensive

Here’s some bad news for drivers of luxury cars and large sport-utility vehicles who are pumping the top grade of gasoline: the premium they pay over regular fuel is getting pricier. US and European refiners are scrambling to get enough octane to make high-quality gasoline. There are several potential reasons for the shortfall, including the […]

A Run on the Planet

Banking rarely moves quickly—there are thirty-year mortgages, and ten-year certificates of deposit, and we still talk about “banker’s hours.” But when things go badly, as they did last week in Silicon Valley, the scary unwinding can come in the blink of an eye. One result of the rescue of the California bank will be to […]

The Anthropocene Has Created A New Disease: Plasticosis

A recently published study appearing in the journal PLOS ONE has found since 2005 a rapid increase in plastic particles in the oceans of the world. The data was collected from 11,777 surface water sampling stations. The research covers the period from 1995 to 2019 and estimates that between 1.1 and 4.9 million tons of […]

Did The EIA Finally Get Realistic About U.S. Shale Output?

Readers will recall that, for the last several months, I have noted that US oil production per the EIA’s weekly Petroleum Status Report was inconsistent with the data from the EIA’s monthly Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) The graph below shows the state of play as of last week.  The two red arrows at right show […]

Examining Alaska’s Biggest Oil Drilling Project in Decades

Breaking down the recent decision to approve the Willow oil project in Alaska, which also requires new habitat safeguards for the North Slope This week, the Biden Administration approved a scaled-back version of a major oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The decision to greenlight the ConocoPhillips Willow project was announced on Monday, following many […]

USA EIA Cuts 2023 Oil Price Forecasts

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) lowered its Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price forecasts for 2023 in its latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released this week. According to the March STEO, the EIA now sees the Brent spot price averaging $82.95 per barrel and the WTI spot price averaging […]

Newly discovered enzyme that turns air into electricity

Australian scientists have discovered an enzyme that converts air into energy. The finding, published today in the journal Nature, reveals that this enzyme uses the low amounts of the hydrogen in the atmosphere to create an electrical current. This finding opens the way to create devices that literally make energy from thin air.   The […]

EU agrees to push for worldwide phaseout of fossil fuels

European Union countries have agreed to push for the global phaseout of fossil fuels at COP28. It is part of the bloc’s promise to support and accelerate the energy transition ahead of the climate summit in Dubai this November. Faced with climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and the fallout of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the […]

Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant lost all off-site power

Vienna, Austria Video of 230309 DG BoG Ukraine Statement Before we start this agenda item I want to report that this morning at around 5am local time Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant lost all off-site power when its last remaining 750 kilovolt line was disconnected, its only remaining back up 330 kilovolt line having been damaged […]

When The Economy Gets Squeezed By Too Little Energy

Most people have a simple, but wrong, idea about how the world economy will respond to “not enough energy to go around.” They expect that oil prices will rise. With these higher prices, producers will be able to extract more fossil fuels so the system can go on as before. They also believe that wind […]

Kunstler: We’ll Soon Find Out

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier last Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.” Like so much else in America’s tortured, distractible life these days, the meaning larded into that […]

The End of the Oil Age Gets Postponed Again

It looks like we have to wait a little more to see the end of the oil age. Our desire to burn more and more stuff knows no limits — at least not when talking about the foreseeable future. Statements like “oil will be needed for at least another 10 years” or “independent experts agree […]

The Global Diesel Crisis Isn’t Over Yet

When the EU and the U.S. were discussing oil sanctions against Russia, some analysts warned that while markets would shrug off the oil embargo, things would be different for fuels. Because every economy runs on diesel, and global diesel stocks were critically low. Global diesel stocks remain critically low a month after the fuel embargo […]

Russia Flows to Poland Stopped on Lack of Shipment Orders

Russia stopped oil shipments to Poland after pipeline operator Transneft didn’t receive documents necessary for the crude to be allowed to leave the country. The producer of the oil that was due to be delivered to Poland in the final days of February didn’t send shipment orders or the transit payment, Transneft spokesman Igor Dyomin […]

Gas Crisis Is Far From Over for Europe

European natural gas prices are down 85% from the highs of last summer, but that doesn’t mean industries are back on an even keel. BASF SE is a case in point, announcing Friday that it’s closing several gas-intensive factories in Germany and cutting thousands of jobs. Europe’s biggest chemical producer will instead serve its customers in the region from […]

Shell CEO Says Cutting Oil, Gas Production Is Not Healthy

Shell Plc’s new boss said cutting oil and gas output would be bad for consumers, echoing a pivot by other major producers toward fossil fuels and energy security. “I am of a firm view that the world will need oil and gas for a long time to come,” Shell Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan said […]

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