The Oil Drum

Oil to Return to $78 a Barrel This Year, Pickens Says

Crude oil will likely return to its all-time high of $78.40 a barrel this year, according Boone Pickens, the Dallas hedge fund manager whose bullish bets on energy prices have earned him a place on the Forbes list of the richest Americans.

Thunder Horse Breaks a Leg

BP executives have waited for the oil and profits to gush forth, yet this behemoth has never produced any oil or gas, and the current plan is that it may begin production in late 2008. It was slapped around by two hurricanes in 2005. This delayed initial production for months, which has now become years.

GAO finds fraud in commuter program: Federal workers selling transit cards

It's a perk of federal employment: a free monthly subsidy that pays for commutes on public transportation. But scores of workers have been taking the government for a ride, selling their benefits on the Internet and pocketing millions in cash each year.

Gazprom steps on the gas

PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts forecast that in 2010, one-third of natural gas traded in the world will be liquefied.

Meanwhile, Gazprom, a Russian monopoly with ambitions to be a global energy producer, is suffering from a bad shortage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and export facilities. The feeling at the company is that this shortage is increasingly damaging its prospects, and its management has lately made some major efforts to develop its own production and export infrastructure for LNG. Gazprom is making preparations to win a sizeable part of the market in order to dominate it by 2030.

Russia Hopes to Become Major Oil Supplier

Russia is laying the infrastructure to become a major oil supplier to Asian countries, including an ambitious pipeline being built from Siberia to the Pacific coast, a Russian diplomat said Tuesday.

OPEC March oil demand weaker, cuts 2007 call by 120,000 bpd

Despite an uptick in its view of global economic growth this year, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is now expecting overall lower demand in 2007, the Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday.

BP profits miss

Oil giant BP said its first-quarter net profits fell 17 percent compared with the same period in 2006, and lagged forecasts slightly, as oil prices and production fell.

Embrace efficiency, one watt at a time, as nation's 'fifth fuel'

By the year 2030, demand for electricity in the United States is expected to grow by approximately 40 percent, according to U.S. Department of Energy forecasts. To meet that need, plans to develop new nuclear and advanced cleaner-coal power plants and to retire older, less efficient coal plants, are under way at utilities throughout the nation.

But there is another path that can help us achieve our country's goal of reliable, affordable and clean energy for all - energy efficiency. As the "fifth fuel," it can be as useful in meeting our growing energy needs as are the traditional generation sources of coal, nuclear, natural gas or renewable energy.

Peak Moment: Fossil Free by '33

Tam Hunt outlines a strategy for regional independence from fossil fuels -- and it centers around electricity. Start with efficiency & conservation, add renewables to replace fossil fuels for electricity, then add more renewables to electrify transportation such as plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. The result? A program "to save America's Environment and Economy one region at a time."

GM Exec Touts Renewable Energy Push

A top General Motors Corp. executive said Monday that the nation should accelerate the push toward renewable energy to fuel automobiles and said the conversion to ethanol as a leading contributor is "entirely realistic" in a few years.

Boeing in scheme to develop biofuel

Boeing, the US aerospace giant best known for making the 747 jumbo jet, is working on plans to develop a "biofuel blend" derived from plants or algae that could power conventional jets.

BMW woos support for hydrogen

BMW AG says it is talking with the Chinese government about hydrogen-powered vehicles, trying to win Chinese support to promote hydrogen as a mainstream new energy solution.

Carbon Gas Is Explored as a Source of Ethanol

A New Zealand company said Monday that it had secured financing from an investor in Silicon Valley to produce ethanol from an untapped source — carbon monoxide gas.

Uganda: 'Country to Retain Most Oil Proceeds'

Uganda will retain a larger share of all the money from the sale of the petroleum produced from Western Uganda, according to the State Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Mr Kamanda Bataringaya.

Mr Kamanda's claim is the first revelation of what the country will earn from its newly discovered resource amidst speculation and fears that Uganda might be cheated out of its bounty and its citizens left poor like it has happened in many African countries.

Iraqi, Kurdish officials to iron out oil law

Officials from Iraq's central government and the Kurdistan region will meet this week to iron out last-minute disputes over a draft oil law that will decide control of the world's third largest oil reserves.

Russia and Japan plight to make Energy Relations and Trade Strong

The two ministers talked about two oil and gas projects in Sakhalin Island in Russia and an oil pipeline project in East Siberia, informed a foreign ministry official from Japan on the condition of keeping his identity close.

Predicting Gas Hydrates Location And Quantities Just Got Easier

Given that there's more carbon trapped inside ice-like crystals under the seafloor than in all the world's oil, gas and coal reserves combined, it seems like it would be easy to find. Up to now that hasn't been the case, but thanks to the award-winning research of Rice University graduate student Gaurav Bhatnagar, the search for gas hydrates just got easier.

Environmentally friendly death

Cremation is contributing to global warming, argues an Australian scientist who yesterday called for an end to the age-old tradition.

Daniel Yergin: Energy's Challenges

For starters, I will put three ideas on the table. But, before doing that, let us consider the scale of the enterprise. For it is not just the energy the world consumes today, but how much more it will consume in the future. At Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), we've developed new energy scenarios out to the year 2030. The implications are daunting.

In a world of good economic growth, even with greater conservation, world energy demand grows by 75%. This reflects, more than anything else, the tremendous increase in automobile ownership and electricity consumption that will come with rising incomes.

Where we live may be to blame for rising obesity

Ever since two studies linked sprawl and obesity in 2003, study upon study has been published suggesting that our environment -- marked by car-oriented, isolated, unwalkable neighborhoods -- is having a deleterious influence on our health. In other words, sprawl is making us unhealthy, unhappy and fat.

Foreign Oil Firms in Libya Must Take Local Names

Large foreign firms working in Libya's oil industry have had to change their names to new ones reflecting the country's history and geography, the National Oil Corporation said on Saturday.

...France's Total has become "Mabruk Oil," the word Mabruk, which means "congratulations" in Arabic, being a popular boy's name in Libya.

Repsol of Spain becomes "Akakoss Petroleum Operations" -- a reference to the Akakoss mountains in the south of the country -- while the Italian natural gas firm ENI has opted for "Mellita Gas," named after the region where it operates west of Tripoli.

Norwegian authorities fear steep crude decline

What is the Norwegian Oil Director actually predicting here?

He is establishing "a slow and gradual decline" as a best case scenario for Norway, concluding that "serious efforts must be made in several areas" to achieve it. The alternative scenario? Steep decline.

Nigerian Election Result Keeps Oil Market on Tenterhooks

Traders of West African crude oil are keeping their eyes firmly fixed on reaction to the result of the Nigerian presidential election to gauge whether oil flow from Africa's biggest producer will be in jeopardy.

Virgin plans to fly 747 on biofuel in 2008

The first commercial aircraft to be powered by biofuel will fly next year in what could be a significant step towards airlines reducing their oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Fill 'er up. But with what?

In the fevered search for the fuel of tomorrow, a team of mit scientists has a surprising solution that just might be the most realistic one of all.

Texas Oil Falters in Performance as Benchmark

The mighty Texas crude-oil benchmark -- the per-barrel price watched obsessively by the markets and quoted by the media -- has diverged so drastically from prices of other grades of crude in recent weeks that some market participants are calling it a "broken benchmark."

Several factors have combined to push the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil -- used as the basis for the world's most widely traded energy contract -- dollars below other desirable, so-called light sweet crudes.

...The disparity, which is partly rooted in structural changes in the energy markets -- including how and where oil is produced and shipped -- means the standard barrel of oil no longer has a straightforward price.

Looking at Enron, the war and the sun

Four outstanding public-affairs shows, including an Oscar-nominated film on the implosion of Enron, highlight this week's PBS lineup.

...Anyone remember solar energy?

"Saved by the Sun," on "Nova," shines a light on an energy source that many people have dismissed.

Timeline: The Frightening Future of Earth - LiveScience has peak oil listed for 2008.

Tapping the $1.42 Trillion Vein

Buildings are the nation’s worst culprits when it comes to energy consumption. In fact, buildings in the U.S. alone account for 9.5% of the world’s total energy consumption. That’s more than three times the annual energy use of the entire African continent!

Peak Oil Review -- April 23, 2007 - ASPO-USA surveys the energy situation.

Incredible shrinking houses

Itty-bitty abodes quietly come back into vogue as the era of McMansions shows signs of peaking.

Stocksplosion - Kunstler

Whenever somebody complains about "the lies that George Bush & Co. told to get us into the Iraq war" (as Frank Rich did in The New York Times on Sunday), I wonder how those lies compare to the lies that the American public tells itself every day — for example, that we could run America without oil from the Middle East, or that hybrid cars will save Happy Motoring, or that we can have an economy without producing anything of value.

Playing with energy: Ghana`s energy crisis

A team of Brigham Young University students has achieved a feat that has eluded soft drink and clothing manufacturers for years. They have found a way to harness the energy of youth.

Six students from BYU’s engineering department unveiled last Tuesday a playground merry-go-round that generates electricity as it spins. The goal is to provide an inexpensive, simple power source for remote school houses in developing nations.

Corporate subsidies that feed sprawl

Are government subsidies to job-promising corporations the waste of taxpayers' money that critics have long claimed — a zero-sum city-to-city and state-to-state shell game?

Or are they worse? Do they foster sprawl, moving jobs out of cities, away from the workers in most need, and into better-off suburbs with little poverty, joblessness or affordable housing?

Norway: Smaller oil fields become important

At start-up in 2001, the Glitne field had four producing wells. Plans called for production to continue until 2003. Recoverable reserves were estimated to be 25 million barrels of oil.

"Everything now indicates that we'll recover twice as much, closer to 50 million barrels," says Rolf Saltkjel, Glitne's operations manager.

High oil prices, more reservoir expertise and increased demand and competition are driving forces behind ever extended production.

Italy Mulls Emergency Moves As River Dries Up

Italy is mulling emergency measures to replenish its biggest river and curb electricity consumption as unusually hot weather raises fears of a prolonged drought and power blackouts during the summer.

An island made by global warming

The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.

Cost slows Mideast refineries

'One of the problems that is happening right now is that construction costs are going up very rapidly. There is also a bottleneck in getting equipment and engineering firms,' said Zeta Rosenberg, an analyst with ICF Consulting and a co-author of the 2005 report, 'The Emerging Oil Refinery Capacity Crunch.'

'(Costs) are going up everywhere. What is happening is that commodity prices, such (as on) steel and cement, they have been going up, partly driven by demand in the Far East. Actually, China, India and the Middle East, all have growing demand,' Rosenberg said.

Capital costs have gone up about 65 percent in the past three or four years, and operating costs have risen by 30 percent, Rosenberg said.

A slippery business

More than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by the State. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have nationalised oil systems and bar foreign control over oil development. Foreign companies are hired only to provide specific services, for limited terms. They are given no direct interest in the oil produced. Iraq’s oil resources are estimated to be the second largest in the world. The draft Iraqi oil law would all but privatise Iraq’s oil industry under the cloak of “production-sharing agreements”.

Global Warming: Limits of Solar and Wind Power

As people across the US poured into Earth Day celebrations, they saw booths and heard speakers extolling the virtues of solar and wind power. What participants were highly unlikely to hear was that renewable energy cannot stop global warming without major social changes that Earth Day organizers rarely discussed.

Keep in mind the difference between the words “necessary” and “sufficient.” Yes, expansion of solar and wind power is absolutely necessary to prevent CO2 levels from rising, coastal cities from being flooded and species from going extinct. But no, by themselves, solar and wind are not sufficient to make the use of energy sustainable.

Abu Dhabi to Keep June Term Crude Sales Steady

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) will maintain crude oil term supply volumes to Asia in June at May levels, lifters said on Tuesday, in line with OPEC's decision last month to keep existing supply curbs.

Mini-review: Energy Crossroads, PO documentary

How do you get your older Midwest relatives to swallow the Red Pill and understand why you're obsessed with peak oil? Or your scientific and engineering friends who wrinkle their noses at the mention of eco-villages and collapse?

Tiroir A Films has just released a DVD for when End of Suburbia just won't do.

GlobalOilWatch.com Expands Content with Alternative Energy News

The online Energy news and research portal GlobalOilWatch.com expanded its real-time news content by adding a page dedicated to Alternative Energies on Earth Day 2007. This new page will include links to breaking news on ethanol, biofuels, and nuclear power as well as headlines on climate change and pollution.

U.N. panel to lay out steps on warming

After two reports predicting a warmer Earth where life is fundamentally changed, a U.N.-sponsored scientific panel next month will issue a third study describing how a united world can avert the worst, by embracing technologies ranging from nuclear power to manure controls.

Under a best-case scenario for heading off severe damage, the global economy might lose as little as 3 percentage points of growth by 2030 in deploying technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, says the panel's draft report, obtained by The Associated Press.

But it won't be easy.

The algae bioreactor

A Dutch company has successfully created algae photo-bioreactors for the purpose of producing biodiesel.

The looming oil crisis in Iran

Years of sanctions and lack of investment could impact its production and export by 2015.

Venezuela takeover may harm Orinoco oil projects

Venezuela's upcoming takeover of four large heavy oil projects will likely reduce the long-term efficiency of the OPEC nation's most important crude operations, analysts told Reuters on Monday.

Ford to develop 'sustainability strategy'

Ford Motor has promoted an executive to a top-level environmental remit in another reflection of green issues' elevation to the top of the US car industry's agenda.

Susan Cischke will be responsible for establishing a "long-range sustainability strategy" and environmental and safety policy for the company, reporting to Alan Mulally, Ford's president and chief executive. Ms Cischke formerly reported to Ford's head of corporate affairs as head of Ford's environmental and safety engineering.

GM: Mortgage meltdown will hurt sales

“The market as a whole has been a little weakish. That has come as a result of the housing market problems and the mortgage industry meltdown,” Lutz told Reuters. “A lot of people are finding themselves in a position of reduced affordability and that has had an impact, not just on us, but across the industry.”

Toyota overtakes GM in global vehicle sales

Toyota Motor Corp. became the world’s top auto seller in the first three months of the year, passing rival General Motors Corp. for the first time, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

Big Contracts For Big Oil

After a 35 year wait, American and British oil corporations are on the verge of securing control of Iraq's vast oil reserves. Becca Fisher reveals how the unholy alliance of Big Oil, government and the IMF is getting closer to its goal of reconstructing the Iraqi state to gain secure oil supplies.

LiveOffice Earth Day video (It would never even occur to me to print out e-mails, unless it was something like driving instructions I needed in the car, but I guess a lot of people do it.)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Launches Web site on Energy and Environment

Leading up to Earth Day, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a new website designed to raise conservation consciousness and show the contributions that the business community has made in protecting the environment. The Web site contains conservation tips for the road and home; environmental success stories from member businesses; and stresses that conservation is an important part of a comprehensive National Energy Policy which is vital for economic and national security.

74 dead at Chinese-run Africa oil field

Gunmen raided a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers, an official of the Chinese company said.

Seven Chinese workers were kidnapped in the morning attack at the oil installation in a disputed region near the Somali border, Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, told The Associated Press.

China has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in a hunt for oil and other natural resources to feed its rapidly growing economy. Its forays into areas considered politically unstable, however, has exposed Chinese workers to attacks.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's raid, but an Ethiopian rebel group warned last year that any investment in the Ogden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government "would not be tolerated."