The Oil Drum

Hubbert's Peak Theory Points to Dwindling Oil Supply

HUBBERT'S PEAK IS not a mountain, but it's just as good at hiding whatever's on the other side. One anonymous day in the not-too-distant future it will be the most crowded place on Earth. And coming down won't be nearly as much fun as going up.

Peak Oil Passnotes: Born to Be Mild Weather

The week has passed relatively uneventfully apart from some tightening fundamentals. As yet no one has dropped any explosives on Iran, peace is just about being maintained in Lebanon and although Al-Qaida have said they intend to target oil installations they appear to be about as effective an armed group as the U.S. Army. Not very.

U.S. warns of Nigeria militant plots

The United States warned Friday that Nigerian militants may be planning to expand their activities beyond the country's restive oil-producing southern regions.

Light, sweet crude prices rose more than $1, to settle above $59 a barrel, in part because of worries over the warning.

Ex-oil minister despairing of Iraq oil future

Former Iraq oil minister Issam Al Chalabi paints a bleak picture for the future of Iraq's oil industry, panning the result of the US-led war, its insistence on passing an oil law, and the situation aboveground hampering development of the resources below it.

..."They cannot increase; the only way is for production to go down," said Mohamed Zine, Middle East regional manager for energy analyst firm IHS. "There has been no improvement, nothing," said Zine, whose views on the situation in Iraq are often less dramatic than Chalabi's. "It is getting worse."

To Fuel Russia's Growth, Gazprom Turns to Coal

On Tuesday February 13, University of Houston Professor Michael J. Economides released a report claiming that Russia faces a huge shortfall between natural gas supply and demand in the next three years.

Chubais Spots Gas Shortage in Russia

Russia will face the gas shortage of 4 billion cu meters in 2007, RAO UES CEO Anatoly Chubais announced with reference to the gas balance of the country passed by the government. The shortage will widen to 8 billion cu meters in 2008 and reach 40 billion cu meters in a few years, Chubais predicted as quoted by Interfax.

Bodman: All Nations Should Open Energy Markets

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Wednesday called for all nations to embrace a "new paradigm of energy security" that must include open markets for energy trading and investment.

"History has shown that an unfettered market is the most effective and efficient way to determine price and allocate resources based on supply and demand," he said in a speech at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates' annual conference in Houston.

Big Oil frets over rising costs, tough access

Surging oil prices have brought energy companies record profits in recent years. But the boom has also pushed up the cost of doing business and emboldened oil-producing nations to restrict access to their reserves.

Cobalt: Aggressive Governments Unexpected Obstacle

Joseph Bryant, chief executive of Cobalt International Energy LP, doesn't buy the below ground version of peak oil - a theory that global crude production has entered a period of unstoppable decline.

But as the head of a two-year-old exploration company looking to acquire its first leases outside the U.S., he knows all about how politics above the surface can get in the way.

Weekly Offshore Rig Review: Improving Productivity

Evaluation of rig productivity like this signifies clearly the engineering advancement generations of engineers, drillers, operators and contractors have achieved . In simpler terms, it appears that an average rig today can do what two rigs could do in 1949.

India: Will fuel price cut stop inflation?

Prices are rising sharply in India and in a desperate attempt to control inflation, the Government has cut fuel prices.

Turkey Warns Cyprus to Cancel Exploration Tender

"We expect Greek Cyprus to end its initiatives to launch international tenders which violate the joint rights of the island's two communities and amount to a fait-accompli," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent Bilman said in a written statement.

Nuclear debate needs fresh source of energy

Tony Blair has had nearly 10 years to face up to the growing threat from climate change and the inevitable consequences for how we power and light our homes, work and public spaces in future. Our existing stock of nuclear stations, still generating a fifth of all the UK's electricity needs, is well into middle age, heading for retirement.

British Millers Worried by Impact of Biofuel Subsidy

British millers are worried that government subsidies to promote biofuel intensifies competition between using grain for food or fuel and damages their industry.

Kiwi lambs poised to be processed into bio-diesel blend

United Kingdom bio-diesel producer Argent Energy is investigating, with oil companies Shell and Chevron, a plant to process 75,000 tonnes of the lamb chop trimmings to produce 85 million litres of bio-diesel a year.

Internet claims role in fighting global warming

Companies are starting to capitalise on reducing travel costs as well as CO2 emissions by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Peak Oil Theory Could Distort Energy Policy and Debate

The “peak oil” debate continues to rage without any obvious progress. In essence, the peak oil lobby suggests, as it has been doing unsuccessfully for many years, that global production will soon reach a peak and then decline rapidly thereafter with dire global consequences. The “market view” of Cambridge Energy Research Assocs. (CERA), based on 2 decades of research, is also not a view of unlimited resources, but concludes that a plateau rather than a peak will occur — although not tomorrow — and that supply will not “run dry” soon thereafter. We hold that above-ground factors will play the major role in dictating the end of the age of oil.

Water found under Antarctic ice to raise sea level forecasts

Scientists have detected a network of lakes and rivers of rapidly moving water under the thick ice sheet of West Antarctica, a discovery that will force a revision of predictions of global sea levels as the sheet melts due to climate change.

OPEC Cuts Non-Member Supply Forecast on Mexico, U.S.

OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, cut its forecast for 2007 supply from non- members mainly because of delays at North American projects and left its world demand estimate "broadly unchanged."

Chinese oil companies to set up reserves

China may ask state-owned energy companies to establish oil reserves as a supplement to a national reserve being set up as the Asian giant struggles to fuel future growth, state media said on Thursday.

Study Questions Prospects for Much Lower Emissions

As Democratic leaders in Congress prepare to put climate change legislation on the agenda, some in the utility industry are arguing that it will take decades of investments and innovation to get substantial reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Another spin on the server energy use story: US servers now use more electricity than color TVs

Between 2000 and 2005, server electricity use grew at a rate of 14 percent each year, meaning that it more than doubled in five years. The 2005 estimate shows that servers and associated equipment burned through 5 million kW of power, which cost US businesses roughly $2.7 billion.

...If current trends continue, server electricity usage will jump 40 percent by 2010, driven in part by the rise of cheap blade servers, which increase overall power use faster than larger ones.

Dodge joins stampede into China market

Big name automakers have set their sights on China and other fast-growing developing markets to help offset legacy costs and provide sales growth missing in the U.S. and other Western markets.

Hybrids lose their luster

Sales of big vehicles have recovered - General Motors' pickup and SUV sales rose by almost 33% one month last fall - and the huge demand for high-mileage cars has slackened. What had been an interesting national conversation about weaning ourselves from oil has been muted.

Until the next time prices spike.

Gore announces climate-change concerts

Al Gore announced on Thursday a series of worldwide concerts to focus on the threat of climate change, with a powerhouse lineup from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi.

The 24-hour event on July 7 is part of a kickoff campaign, Save Our Selves — The Campaign for a Climate in Crisis, that promoters hope will trigger a broad movement to address what the former vice president calls a "planetary emergency."

Rising sea levels present China with 'unimaginable challenges'

A report released recently by the State Oceanic Administration has warned of a rapid rise in sea levels that threatens China's densely populated east coast, the China Daily reported.

"The speed is astonishing," said Lu Xuedu, the deputy director of the environmental division of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Vanishing glaciers offer clear evidence of climate change

Climate change is likely to melt one of Peru's biggest glaciers within five years and is threatening ice packs on some of the world's most famous mountain ranges, scientists have said.

Climate change has accelerated the retreat of glaciers at rates not seen for thousands of years, glaciologist Lonnie Thompson told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences' annual meeting.

Politicians sign new climate pact

Leading international politicians have reached a new agreement on tackling climate change, at a Washington summit.

Offshore Wind Farm Could Blow Away Energy Needs

Wind power could supply all the energy needs of much of the East Coast and then some, if a phalanx of wind turbines running from Massachusetts to North Carolina were installed offshore, a new study concludes.

Florida makes it easier to build nuclear plants

The Florida Public Service Commission adopted new rules this week to encourage the construction of nuclear power plants within the state.

Government forced to rethink nuclear power plans

The government's plans to build a new generation of nuclear power plants have been dealt an embarrassing blow by a court ruling in favour of environmental group Greenpeace.

Greencore condemned for rejecting ethanol move

Much of the criticism at the company was delivered by Allan Navratil, a beet grower from Cork, and a founding member of the Biofuels Initiative, which includes Colin Campbell, of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (APSO) on its board.

Oil majors question Bush biofuel plan

Exxon, Chevron CEOs say technology to increase biofuel production remains well out of reach.

Michael T. Klare - Global Warming: It’s All About Energy

But global warming is not an “environmental” problem in the same sense as these others – it is an energy problem, first and foremost. Almost 90% of the world’s energy is supplied through the combustion of fossil fuels, and every time we burn these fuels to make energy we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; carbon dioxide, in turn, is the principal component of the “greenhouse gases” (GHGs) that are responsible for warming the planet. Energy use and climate change are two sides of the same coin.

Emissions from commercial planes prompt concerns about regulating greenhouse gases

As the debate over global warming heats up, airlines, regulators and environmentalists agree that emissions from commercial aircraft are a growing source of greenhouse gases and need to be brought under control.

Their problem: how to cut toxic emissions without cutting into the economics of the financially vulnerable airline industry.

State-owned companies are the future of the oil industry

The future of the oil industry lies in the hands of state-owned companies in the sector, and they tend to become increasingly global.

Saipem wins new contracts worth more than 1 billion euros

Saipem SpA said it has won three new contracts, two onshore in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia and one offshore in waters between Algeria and Spain, worth more than 1 bln eur.

The first contract, awarded by Saudi Arabian state-run energy group Saudi Aramco, is for the expansion of the Quarayyah Sea Water Plant facility, about 250 km southwest of Dhahran.

The Desperation of George W. Bush, Part II

How desperate are they? Desperate enough to lobby the IPCC and ask them to include in the summary for policymakers some nutty strategies for dealing with climate change, such as putting giant mirrors or a giant sunscreen into orbit, or pumping tiny droplets of sulfate, or reflective dust, into the atmosphere as “important insurance” against rising emissions.

The Heated Debate Over Citizenre

How an emerging company has created a storm of controversy in the world of solar energy.

Population growth plays a key role

Global warming is "unequivocal," according to the recently released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The most likely culprits are people - all of us. Yet there never has been much public discussion about the role of human population growth in global warming.