The Oil Drum

Four years on, Syrian gas deal still haunts Lebanon

"The crazy thing is that the Homs-Beddawi pipeline was done two years ago, but we are still not able to get gas from Syria or Egypt," says energy engineer Pierre el-Khoury, who is currently working with the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) branch at the Energy Ministry. "Who is going to be our supplier?

"Why were we signing a purchasing agreement with Syria when they don't have enough gas to meet their own requirements, and are in the middle of negotiating a purchasing contract with Egypt?" he adds. "I don't know, maybe they wanted leverage."

Nippon Oil, CNPC set mutual supply

The nation's No. 1 oil wholesaler, Nippon Oil Corp., has agreed with China National Petroleum Corp., China's biggest oil company, to begin mutual supply of products, starting in April.

The one-year agreement, signed Friday between Nippon Oil and China Oil, a trading house of CNPC, calls for the two oil companies to supply each other with products for which they have excess production capacities.

Nigeria's Energy Crisis . . . Any End in Sight?

Since the coming of the present administration, Nigerians have not witnessed the worst level of power generation and supply as they are presently going through.

The effect is that big and small-scale industries are closing down. Government appears incapable of dealing with the problem even as the terminal date nears.

Howard University Professor finding way to conserve energy, oil with fuel cells

In a small, dank laboratory in the basement of Howard University's engineering building, a control block emits a beep. A small cell under layers of protective covering supplies a watt of energy to a tiny lamp on a control block. This energy originates from a power source that could change the future of energy use in the U.S.

Halliburton's Lesar to Open Middle East Headquarters

Halliburton Co., the world's second-largest oilfield-services provider, will move Chief Executive Officer David Lesar to a new corporate headquarters in Dubai to help the company expand in the Middle East and Asia.

Nanocharging Solar

Arthur Nozik believes quantum-dot solar power could boost output in cheap photovoltaics.

GE CEO: U.S. needs national energy, climate policy

The United States needs to develop a national climate change policy, but also recognize that coal and other fossil fuels will remain an important energy source for decades, the chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co. said on Saturday.

Setting a blanket national policy would make it easier for companies to adapt than allowing a patchwork of state laws, Jeff Immelt said at a conference on the future of energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outside Boston.

"If we get 50 different energy policies in the United States, you never achieve enough scale to be good at anything," Immelt said.

Exxon Mobile CEO: Oil Volumes Will Keep Growing

Global Warming--Common Misconceptions Could be Leading Earth Down a Dangerous Path

Astrophysicists Dr. Hugh Ross and Dr. Jeff Zweerink are available for comment about the science behind global warming and urge caution moving forward. There are many common misconceptions circulating about this phenomenon that are inaccurate. If we move too quickly in an attempt to remedy the situation, as with the Kyoto protocol for example, we risk upsetting the delicate balance of Earth's atmosphere even further and could easily do more harm than good.

Highway speed limit plan irks Germans

An EU official called on Germany to give up the famous freedom of its highways and impose speed limits on the autobahn to fight global warming — a demand that drew angry responses on Sunday in a country that cherishes what it calls "free driving for free citizens."

3 European captives released in Nigeria

Hostage takers released three European captives Monday in Nigeria's restive oil region, officials said.

Petroleum industry 'facing shortage of skilled workers'

A senior Saudi Aramco official warned yesterday that the petroleum industry is facing a tremendous skills shortage which, if goes unchecked will undermine its ability to meet world demands.

OPEC to hold fire over cuts to oil output

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, satisfied with the current price of crude oil, is on Thursday expected to maintain its oil output quota, analysts said.

Oil that fries your burger can run your car

In the search for sustainable and non-polluting alternatives to fossil fuels, a small band of ecologically minded people are turning to vegetable oil and recycled restaurant grease to run their cars, trucks and even home-heating systems.

Solar technology gets White House boost

President Bush's program to help solar energy compete with conventional electricity sources will help fund Konarka Technologies' development of flexible plastic solar cell strips — material that could be embedded into the casings of laptop computers and even woven into power-producing clothing to energize digital media players or other electronics.

The new Seven Sisters: oil and gas giants dwarf western rivals

When an angry Enrico Mattei coined the phrase “the seven sisters” to describe the Anglo-Saxon companies that controlled the Middle East’s oil after the second world war, the founder of Italy’s modern energy industry could not have imagined the profound shift in power that would occur barely half a century later.

As oil prices have trebled over the past four years, a new group of oil and gas companies has risen to prominence. They have consolidated their power as aggressive resource holders and seekers and pushed the world’s biggest listed energy groups, which emerged out of the original seven sisters – ExxonMobil and Chevron of the US and Europe’s BP and Royal Dutch Shell – on to the sidelines and into an existential crisis.

I told you so: Daylight Savings Time doesn't save energy

Bahrain: Oil demand 'to rise'

The demand for oil will increase by 55 per cent in the second quarter of the century, Oil and Gas Affairs Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza said yesterday.

A reason why oil explorations must be expanded, oil resources handled more seriously and producer-consumer co-operation promoted, the minister said as he opened the 15th Middle East Oil Show.

Bahrain oil minister warns over Gulf tension

Bahrain's oil minister Sunday warned over political tension in the region, and called for continued global support from the world community to help ensure continued stability.

BP plan brings warnings about biofuel technology

Biofuel research is worth doing and may be one of many essential tools to limit damage from future climate change, but there are big environmental and social risks if it's pushed too hard and too fast.

Children of the Corn

Because we know that burning oil, coal and gas is causing monstrous problems, but because he’s still paid by oilmen, Bush just visited Brazil to sign an agreement with President Lula to increase ethanol production. Produced from sugar cane and corn, ethanol is refined to “replace” fossil fuels. Obama and Bush say its cleaner than coal, and doesn’t require any meddling in the Middle East, like oil does. But neither will tell you that producing ethanol creates more emissions than oil, and costs a fortune.

Ethanol not the oil substitute

Brazil's example is encouraging, but it does not mean that nations like Taiwan can rely solely on alternative fuels like ethanol when seeking to greatly reduce reliance on oil. Ethanol is certainly a valuable part of the mix, but when you consider that Brazil still consumes far more petroleum than it does ethanol, while in the US ethanol currently only comprises about 4.2 percent of gasoline supply it is obvious that ethanol is not the panacea to the world's future fuel needs.

Strapped for Energy, Chile Looks at Nuclear Option

Burgeoning demand for electricity and steeper prices for natural gas imports are prompting Chile to consider nuclear power to address an energy shortfall that seems certain to intensify.

China likely to miss energy-saving target

China will probably miss its 2004-2020 energy-saving target because local governments have set higher-than-expected energy consumption limits in order to boost their own economies, a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.