The Oil Drum

Preparing Nigerian cities for expensive oil

IN the next 20 years, the World’s cities will go through a fundamental transformation. Many including Nigeria will expand greatly in size and population, and still have to serve the basic mobility needs of their people in a world of much higher oil prices. In the second half of the 20th century, major cities began to emulate the transportation policies of the United States of America. Countries like Nigeria admired US automobiles and borrowed US highway design methods to reshape their cities around the automobile.

Fuel shortages, stark realities and present challenges (2)

The issue of vehicular pressure, in absolute terms, is very real and worrisome. Today, in Nigeria, the ambition of every young man or woman is to be a car owner. This is a legitimate desire though, as a result of poor development of reliable mass public transportation. The rail system in Nigeria which was developed by the colonial masters mainly for the evacuation of agricultural produce and minerals in the 20s has received unimaginable and scandalous neglect by successive Nigerian governments since independence in 1960. Same goes for the waterways and the airways in which basic and necessary facilities are poorly developed, rendering them ineffective for mass commuting from location to location. As a result, virtually all movements have to rely on land vehicles plying ill-developed roads.

Draft Law on Oil Money Moves to Iraqi Cabinet

A draft version of the long-awaited law that would govern the development of Iraqi oil fields and the distribution of oil revenues has been submitted to Iraq’s cabinet, the first step toward approving the legislation, two members of a senior negotiating committee said this weekend.

And Raed in the Middle has links to the Arabic text and English translations of the Iraqi oil law.

Bangladesh: At the mercy of climate change

It is more exposed than any other country to global warming. And a series of unusual events - from dying trees to freak weather - suggest its impact is already being felt.

The Second Oil Boom: To Avoid Replicating the First Experience

This suggests that the main challenge facing these countries will be maintaining control over public spending, since substantial and consistent increases in financial revenues lead to pressure on governments for more spending.

It is worth noting that certain Gulf oil States, especially the GCC member States have learned valuable lessons from the first oil boom and are now exerting great efforts to control and improve the management of public spending, and direct oil revenues into three basic spending venues.

Rush for Cambodia’s oil begins

Cambodia has huge offshore oil fields whose expected worth far exceeds its current GDP. Experts fear that only the government, one of the most corrupt in the world, might benefit. An agreement with Thailand must still be worked out to develop fields in the Gulf of Thailand.

Consultation on carbon-storage risks to be launched

The Commission is launching an online public consultation on potential risks, particularly environmental, from new technology allowing CO2 emissions from power plants to be stored underground.

Outsourcing emissions

Official greenhouse gas figures hugely underestimate Britain's contribution to climate change, a report concludes.

Christian Aid says adding in emissions from UK-funded operations in other countries would raise the UK's share of the global total from 2% to about 15%.

British companies wanted globalisation, it says, and must take responsibility for the associated emissions.

Expert doubts Pennsylvania can make renewable fuel

Gov. Ed Rendell wants to see Pennsylvania farmers grow enough crops to produce a billion gallons of renewable fuels each year to reduce the state's dependence on foreign oil.

But the plan could die on the vine because there isn't enough farmland to produce grain for energy while also keeping up with agricultural needs, according to a local agriculture expert.

Sri Lanka: Better utilisation of Eppawala deposit for betterment of the country

With the energy crisis in the world, prices of phosphorus fertilisers are steadily increasing over the years resulting in increase in the cost of cultivation adding burdens to farmers and the Government.

Being self sufficient in phosphate fertiliser is the only lasting solution for this.

A New Paradigm for Peace in Iraq

Much of the conflict among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq and the region is about control of oil. As recent analysis of the US-promoted Iraqi oil law has pointed out, the United States has claimed an outsized share of Iraq's oil wealth for US corporations. The factions in Iraq are fighting in effect over the leftovers from the US corporations' table. The United States can make a lucrative proposition to all parties: We will give up our claim on your oil and agree to simply buy it on the same terms as any other consumer if you establish among yourselves a long-term agreement on how to divide it equitably.

Political Heat: an interview with NASA scientist Drew Shindell

Press releases about global warming were watered down to the point where you wondered, Why would this capture anyone’s interest? Once when I issued a report predicting rapid warming in Antarctica, the press release ended up highlighting, in effect, that Antarctica has a climate.

Cooling the Planet

If we can’t adequately reduce or sequester carbon emissions, are more-radical alternatives like orbital mirrors a solution to climate change?

Resource Wars

Even for those as optimistic as Maugeri, the question of who controls the oil cannot be irrelevant. The U.S. state through threat, intimidation, and violence wants its ham fist on the spigot, allowing it to blackmail other countries. U.S. imperialism has exerted control over the Global South through the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO. During the Cold War it used the threat of communist Russia and China to keep Europe and Japan under its “leadership.” It is now attempting to use terrorism in the same way, not altogether successfully as it is turning out since its invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have failed to produce stable governments. Its actions have produced more terrorists and alienated most of the world. Seeking control over oil for leverage does not seem a far fetched stratagem for the oil soaked Bush-Cheney administration.

Driving towards disaster

"Is individual mobility a good?" If so, it's axiomatic that it ought to be universally available. But if at present 15% of the world's people have 85% of the world's cars, and we're heating up inexorably, will we physically survive 30%, let alone 50% car ownership? Not even Jeremy Clarkson would defend that one. So roll on peak oil?

Northern exposure

As the Arctic melts, vast deposits of oil and gas may be opened up for exploration. Will an Arctic without ice only prolong our dependence on fossil fuels?

Study sees harmful hunt for extra oil

All the world’s extra oil supply is likely to come from expensive and environmentally damaging unconventional sources within 15 years, according to a detailed study.

The two sectors that will prosper even with deflation and economic recession – biotech and aerospace

Biotechnology will finally solve the energy crisis. Crude oil and natural gas will finally be produced through cultivation, undersea assets – the miracle of biotechnology will bring prosperity.

Saudi Arabia's Nominal GDP Reaches SR1.30 Trillion in 2006

A correction in the stock market failed to have a major impact on Saudi Arabia's economic performance last year. Saudi Arabia's economy was in fact exceptionally sound and robust in 2006. After joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), Saudi Arabia embarked on the mammoth projects of economic cities which will have a long-lasting impact on the macro-economic policies and on the fundamental structure of the Saudi economy, according to a report received here from the Kuwait-based Global Investment House (Global) on Saudi Arabia's economic and strategic outlook.

University's prototype uses ocean's energy

A perpetual-motion machine is the stuff of fantasy, but clean, renewable energy sources are within the grasp of societies that marry science, industry and economics.

Fuel for nothing, drive for free

By transforming his $1,900 1984 Mercedes 300D into a greasemobile. Instead of diesel, Kinney's Benz runs on used vegetable oil, which he gets free of charge from a pizza joint and a diner.

3 Croatian workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Gunmen seized three Croatian workers in the latest kidnapping to hit Nigeria's unruly southern oil region, police said Monday.

Expert urges response to looming oil supply problems

An internationally recognised expert in energy market analysis and energy forecasting warns liquid fuel shortages, massive unemployment, high interest rates and severe recession are some of the impacts facing Australian supply chains and the broader community if governments and companies do not prepare now for the peaking and subsequent decline of world oil production.

Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise

In a remote patch of the Anbar desert just 20 miles from the Syrian border, a single blue pillar of flanges and valves sits atop an enormous deposit of oil and natural gas that would be routine in this petroleum-rich country except for one fact: this is Sunni territory.

Ruble May Gain as Putin Uses Oil, Gas to Lift Exports

The ruble rally shows no sign of abating as President Vladimir Putin continues to exploit Europe's dependence on Russian energy with a policy of ever-rising natural-gas prices.

"Russia has a big weapon in the form of energy," said Lars Rasmussen, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen who covers the former Soviet states. "They intend to use it to extract higher revenues from their neighbors. This is very positive for the ruble."

What tortillas tell about energy policy

A surge in U.S. ethanol production has led to a near-doubling of corn prices, so Mexican President Felipe Calderon recently put caps in place on the skyrocketing price of corn tortillas. This is economic nonsense, but it’s not the only economic nonsense involved.

U.S. programs subsidizing ethanol production from corn are money down a rathole.

USAF tests synthetic fuel from coal, gas

With the wind chill making it seem like 40 below zero, Lt. Col. Daniel Millman said the Air Force picked the right place to test a new fuel.

Millman, pilot of a B-52 bomber, helped test a synthetic fuel blend that could be made domestically from coal or natural gas as the Air Force seeks to wean its dependence on foreign crude and defray soaring fuel costs.

Americans Believe Global Warming Is Real, Want Action, But Not As A Priority

Most Americans believe global warming is real but a moderate and distant risk. While they strongly support policies like investing in renewable energy, higher fuel economy standards and international treaties, they strongly oppose carbon taxes on energy sources that put carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps

A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half

Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels.

Big oil firms expand in unconventional oil sector

Major oil companies are playing a bigger role in the search for oil and gas from unconventional sources, consultants Wood Mackenzie said on Monday.

Someone at DailyKos is looking for scriptwriters, video editors, and researchers to help out on a peak oil documentary.

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