Iraq assigns $60m to set up oil refineries

The Iraqi Oil Ministry signed contracts with state-owned and private Iraqi firms to build two oil refineries at the cost of $60 million in northern Iraq, Iraq Directory reported.

The project will be established to ease the load on other refineries and meet increasing demands on fuel among Iraqis in all provinces as the country is currently facing a major shortage in fuel, especially in transportation and heating.

Will Al Gore get us to Solartopia?

What's not being said is that the solution to the problem---the necessary transition to Solartopia, a world based on renewable energy---is also the key to the future of our economic well-being, and would be whether global warming was a problem or not.

In short: even without the dire disaster of climate change, a transitioning to green power is the only hope our global economy has for future prosperity.

Africa: Is Africa Ready for Nuclear Energy?

SOUTHERN AFRICA is facing energy shortages as climatic changes intermittently turn off the switch on hydroelectric power generation and oil prices remain exorbitantly high.

As regional energy powerhouse South Africa ponders uranium enrichment, there is need to explore whether other uranium-producing African countries that are still in the dark on alternative sources of energy, can take a bite of the "yellow cake" (energy rich uranium oxide) and generate nuclear energy.

Sunrise In Coal Fields: Coal’s Role In A Peak Oil World - an interactive slide show by Matt Simmons.

Exxon Sees Technology, Local Needs as MidEast Key

Exxon Mobil Corp. is betting that soaring domestic energy demand among the booming economies of the Middle East will spur regional leaders toward offering improved access to their energy resources, with technology the key that may unlock the door.

International oil companies searching for hydrocarbons are struggling to secure exploration rights in much of the Middle East, home to some 60% of global oil and gas reserves, as oil-rich nations emboldened by high crude prices tighten up on contract terms and access rights.

War, Energy, Banks & USDollar

The tight relationship between the crude oil price and the USDollar valuation is historically well known, firmly in place for over three decades. While the United States owns control of the world reserve currency, a delicate PetroDollar linkage factor remains in force. Since large oil purchases are conducted in US$-based transactions, entire banking systems are designed accordingly so as to handle those transactions. Some Persian Gulf nations like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have diversified more of their reserve assets away from the USDollar and its related (in)securities. Instability in the region is very likely to deliver some additional instability to the USDollar itself. What the current hellbent political leaders seem to ignore is the potential for continued and amplified economic and financial retribution and vengeance on the most vulnerable facade to the United States monolith, its faulty financial flank.

Cuba Shows Off Oil Works to Foreigners

Cuban oil officials took foreign geologists and petroleum experts on a tour of the island's oil and natural gas works on Saturday in hopes of sparking more international interest in investment.

Attendees at an earth sciences conference were taken by state oil company Cuba Petroleos to several extraction facilities in a deposit-rich strip along the northern part of the island, including the US$200 million (euro150 million) Cuban-Canadian ENERGAS natural gas plant in an area called Boca de Jaruco.

"The geology we find here is very similar to that of eastern Mexico, of the southern United States," said Rafael Tenreyro, a drilling specialist with the state oil company, known as Cupet.

Australia's Woodside, BHP, Santos Halt Output; Cyclone Nears

Woodside Petroleum Ltd., BHP Billiton Ltd. and Santos Ltd. said Monday they have halted production as Cyclone Kara builds off the coast of Western Australia.

South Korea wants in on Saudi refineries

South Korea is pressing Saudi Arabia for a role in $12 billion worth of refinery projects in the kingdom.

Trade Arabia business news reports Saudi Arabia has already signed deals with France's Total and U.S.-based ConocoPhillips.

EU Energy Chief Warns Russia, Others Against Gas Cartel

E.U. Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on Monday warned natural gas producers such as Russia and Algeria that if they considered forming a cartel, he would strongly push the development of nuclear power to meet the E.U.'s energy needs.

Aramco, Sinopec, Exxon to join Chinese venture

Saudi state oil giant Aramco, US major ExxonMobil and China’s Sinopec will hold on Friday a formal signing ceremony for a multi-billion dollar joint-venture in China’s Fujian province.

The three announced they had finalised the deal to triple the capacity of the Fujian oil refinery in February, pending government approval in both Saudi Arabia and China. When it was agreed in 2005, the project had a price tag of $3.5bn.

Another Hearing to Examine Interior's Royalty Program

The House Natural Resources Committee turns this week to problems with the Interior Department's management of royalties from energy production on federal and Indian lands.

The committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday entitled "Royalties at Risk." The department's oversight of billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties has been called into question by press reports, lawsuits and the department's inspector general.

Give Me Incentives, Or Give Me Death

It was there, while attending a breakout session about energy rebates and incentives, that Mark Jewell, founder and president of RealWinWin, an energy efficiency consulting group, offered this query: Should the tail of incentives wag the dog of energy efficiency?

You would think not. But this is truly the scenario in which we currently find ourselves.

Two Foreign Hostages Released in Nigeria

An Indian and a Lebanese man kidnapped in Nigeria's oil rich south last week have been released, a diplomatic source said on Sunday.

China car firms gear up for booming sales

Shanghai's urban planning museum has a useful exhibit - a series of photographs taken from the same spot, now, and 20 years ago.

The transformation is startling.

Where once there were muddy lanes, now concrete highways soar.

In two short decades, roads that were crammed with bicycles have given way to highways choked with cars.

China's landscape is being remodelled by the car.

Petrobras May Confirm Campos Basin Oil Discovery, Globo Says

Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, is close to confirming the discovery of a ``gigantic'' field of light-grade crude under the Campos Basin, the Globo daily newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.

...The field, if economically recoverable reserves are confirmed, would be one of the largest of its type in the world, Globo said. Petrobras, as the company is known, on July 12 said it found a new exploration frontier under a salt layer that sits beneath existing Campos Basin heavy oil fields.

Fixing Iraq

Between revenue from oil exports and foreign aid, over $100 billion has been pledged to Iraq’s “relief and reconstruction” in the last four years. Yet there is precious little to show for it. About half of this amount is Iraq’s own money. The United States has allocated a total of $38.28 billion in aid as of the end of 2006, but only $12 billion has been spent on civilian reconstruction with most it going to the Iraqi army and police. Other donors have pledged just over $15 billion, but most of this has not been delivered because of the chaos and violence in the country.

Amid security risks, China may lead way for Iraqi oil

China has sat out the Iraq war, but it could be the first to take advantage when the Iraqi government finishes a law opening up its oil fields to international companies.

China, Norway, U.N. sign climate change agreement

China, Norway and the U.N. Development Program signed an agreement on Monday to develop programs to combat the effects of climate change in China's rural areas, including the melting of glaciers in Tibet.

George Monbiot: If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels

Oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People - and the environment - will lose.

Edwards Unveils an Energy Plan with Substance

Forget flash, Edwards seems to be about substance. He just unveiled a bold energy plan that addresses some of the great challenges of our time.

Nuclear energy 'not the solution to global warming'

Environment ministers from Austria, Iceland, Ireland and Norway said Monday that nuclear power was not the solution to global warming.

In a joint statement following a meeting in Dublin, the four ministers from the non-nuclear countries said the "inherent risks and problems associated with the nuclear energy option remain and it can not therefore claim to be a clean alternative to fossil fuel use."

Cairn Energy drills 41-million-pound loss

British oil firm Cairn Energy said on Tuesday that it dived into the red in 2006 with a net loss of 41 million pounds (82 million dollars) after downgrading energy reserves estimates at its Sangu field in Bangladesh.

New, unknown climate zones seen by 2100: study

Global warming could re-make the world's climate zones by 2100, with some polar and mountain climates disappearing altogether and formerly unknown ones emerging in the tropics, scientists said on Monday.

Norway's Lutheran Church calls for climate change efforts

Eleven bishops from Norway's Lutheran Church on Monday called on the country's authorities to step up efforts to fight climate change, which they say is particularly harmful to the southern hemisphere.

Stockpickr: Trade Like Goldman Sachs

True, it's going to be hard for Exxon, with a $423 billion market cap, to double in size anytime soon. But it's hard to find a safer bet. Exxon trades at just five times cash flows, has more than $20 billion net cash in the bank and, if any of the peak oil theorists such as T. Boone Pickens are right about the price of oil, it will continue to have steady profits.

Public transportation lacks adequate funding

In the fight against global warming, using public transportation is by far the number one way to reduce carbon emissions. In Vermont, 46 percent of those emissions come from the transportation sector and most is caused by driving to and from work. What is not well-known is that if only four commuters ride the bus, instead of drive cars, then emissions are reduced.

Future biofuel farmers of America

Substituting food or feed crops with energy crops has dubious benefit. Fortunately, there's huge potential in two other feedstocks that don't replace crops. New processes allow virtually any cellulosic plant material, including waste and slash, to be made into ethanol. And then there's, of all things, pond scum. We think of algae as a plague in our lakes, but it's now seen as one of the most promising biomass materials for biodiesel production.

That whacky Inhofe; what fun

The Wall Street Journal reported that, in response to Inhofe's outburst last week, blogger Lou Grinzo has created "The Inhofe Scale" to measure statements "that exhibit a noticeable and willing detachment from reality."

The scale uses Inhofe as the prime measure at 100, with 30 to 50 applying to those who refuse to see the gradual effect of such phenomena as peak oil, and 100 to 200 applying to what Grinzo calls "Apocalypticons," the extremist range of doomsayers, many of them misanthropes, who see the abrupt end of the world as we know it.

Comments, corrections, clarifications, and c*ckups

As a voter it's hard not to be cynical about the weekend’s election. It was largely irrelevant to our futures. "Rearranging the deckchairs" is a phrase that springs to mind. For without doubt the defining issue of our times is energy; and that was hardly mentioned. The mainstream media in Australia, even Crikey, haven't cottoned on to Peak Oil which likely is happening right now. Two-thirds of the world's oil producers are in decline including Mexico, the North Sea and Australia. Saudi production dropped by nearly one million barrels per day last year, but that didn't make the news.