Three Saudi Soldiers Die in Offensive on Yemen Rebels

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi warplanes bombed Yemeni rebels, as a five-day offensive by the oil-rich kingdom on its border with Yemen left three soldiers dead and another four missing.

Saudi Arabia’s air force fired missiles “intensively” at Yemeni border villages today, the Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels said in an e-mailed statement. Saudi officials say they are ejecting the rebels from their country’s mountainous borders with Yemen and have not entered Yemeni territory.

Halliburton to coax more oil out of largely depleted Ghawar field

Ghawar field, the world's largest, is a long asymmetric structure that is 230 kilometers long and approximately 30 miles wide however the width diminishes going south. The announcement makes no mention of Ain Dar, the most mature part of Ghawar in the extreme northwestern region of the field. Ain Dar has been under pressure maintenance by peripheral water injection for over 40 years. Ain Dar (and other parts of the field) began producing salt water in the late 1970s and by 2005, the cut was 42%. All of Ain Dar was wet since 1984. Once water became a major problem, many existing vertical wells were converted to short lateral horizontals running along the top 10 feet of the Arab D zone, the main pay. New wells were drilled horizontally to the same layer. Today, the redevelopment process has gone on so long that future oil production from Ain Dar is speculative. Shedgum, adjacent to Ain Dar on the east, is not much better off.

Aramco gas supplies to rise 30 pct in 5 yrs - reports

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco plans to raise its daily gas supplies by 30 percent within five years to 8 billion cubic feet, Al-Hayat newspaper quoted its Chief Executive Khalid al-Falih as saying on Sunday.

Aramco will also increase its daily supplies in ethane to 1 billion cubic feet and those of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 850,000 barrels, Al-Hayat quoted him as saying.

"Such increases will support the creation of many petrochemical industries," he said.

Demand for gas in the kingdom for power and industry is soaring due to an economic boom fuelled by the oil price rally of 2002-2008.

Qatar’s Al-Attiyah Says Gas Is Undervalued, Sees Demand Rising

(Bloomberg) -- Natural gas prices, down 18 percent in the U.S. this year, are too low and demand will rebound, Qatar’s Energy Minister said.

“By 2013, 2012, the world will see more demand” than supply, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said at a conference in Doha today, calling the current drop in demand “short-term.”

Ida becomes hurricane again in northwest Caribbean

Mexico's state oil monopoly, Pemex, which has extensive operations in the Gulf of Mexico, activated its hurricane contingency program but oil and gas production was unaffected, a company spokesman said.

U.S. energy companies said on Friday they were monitoring the storm's progress but had not yet begun evacuating any production platforms.

Brazil: Computer hackers cause major blackouts

An official with Brazil's electricity regulator has confirmed that large scale blackouts in 2005 and 2007 were caused by people hacking into the computers that control the electricity grid.

The official with ANEEL, which regulates electricity producers and transmission in Brazil, said that while the evidence was not absolute, it was widely believed that hackers broke into control computers and shut down power to millions.

Smart meters 'cut energy bills by 30%'

Smart meters can cut energy bills by about a third - an average of about £400 a year - according to British Gas.

Preliminary findings of the trial of 50,000 smart meters that have been operating for a year show a dramatic reduction in bills, coupled with a 40% drop in billing enquiries.

America's Dirtiest Vehicles

When it comes to pollution, these cars prove it's not just about fuel economy.

Brazil raises cane over U.S. ethanol tariff

Brazilian sugar producers say sugar-based fuel is more environmentally sound than electricity or corn ethanol as an alternative for powering cars. But the odds are long for a change.

Massachusetts rethinking push for wood burning plants

BOSTON — The Patrick administration is rethinking its support of wood-burning power plants, a key element of its long-term strategy to wean Massachusetts off fossil fuels.

Wood, also known as “biomass,” has long been part of the state’s portfolio of renewable energy sources, along with solar, wind and geothermal.

But some environmental activists say biomass power plants could lead to clear cutting forests while pumping more carbon dioxide into the air than coal plants, adding to global warming.

Deadly Gas Flows Add to a Lake’s List of Perils

The city of Goma and the surrounding area of eastern Congo hold many dangers, including armed rebellions, famine and volcanic explosions.

But there is another, more mysterious threat as well: large reservoirs of methane and carbon dioxide lying deep beneath Lake Kivu’s surface and along its shores. While the gases can be tapped for energy, they can also kill. Mr. Masha is believed to have died instantly when he hid in an invisible bubble of carbon dioxide, known as a mazuku, or “evil wind” in Swahili.

Creating a Landfill to Have Cleaner Air

KINGSTON, Tenn. (AP) — Smokestack scrubbers will eliminate most of the sulfur emissions from the coal-fired Kingston Fossil Plant, but they will also produce a new waste stream for a site still engaged in a $1 billion cleanup from a huge ash spill.

“It is a tradeoff,” Ron Nash of the Tennessee Valley Authority said during a recent tour of Kingston’s new $500 million scrubber complex. “In order to clean the air up, you create a landfill.”

Ecosystem in Peru Is Losing a Key Ally

Few trees are as well suited to the hyperarid ecosystem of the Atacama-Sechura Desert, nestled between the Andes and the Pacific. The huarango captures moisture coming from the west as sea mist. Its roots are among the longest of any tree, extending more than 150 feet to tap subterranean water channels.

The resilience of the huarango and its role in taming one of the world’s driest climates have long beguiled this country’s poets. Schoolchildren here, for instance, recite the words of José María Arguedas, a leading 20th-century writer: “The huarangos let in the sun, while keeping out the fire.”

But poetry is one thing. The necessities of human civilizations, and their capacity to wreak havoc on the ecosystems on which they depend, are another.

Is President Obama flip flopping on the Tar Sands?

Back in February, President Obama made a public statement against continued development of the Canadian tar sands (also known as oil sands) which are expensive and difficult to refine and carry a significantly larger carbon footprint than other oils. In that visit Obama came out in support of green jobs and renewable energy as the solution to the energy crisis and the need for more independence from foreign oil.

Fast forward to the end of the year and it appears that Obama has begun to flip flop on the need to slow global warming pollution and push for renewable energy standards to meet growing energy demands. He recently approved a deal to allow a new pipeline to deliver synthetic crude produced from Canadian tar sands to U.S. refineries. The administration is apparently stuck between wanting to reduce the country's reliance on OPEC and cutting carbon emissions which are having negative effects on the environment. In defense of his change in directions, Obama has said he wants to pursue carbon capture programs with the Canadians-a solution that is likely to have only a small impact on emissions, and not any time in the near future.

Climate change bill is in trouble

If you think the partisan divide over healthcare reform is ugly, take a look at the animus in the Senate as debate continues on a key climate change bill. So wide is the gulf that long-held Senate traditions on decorum are breaking down. And as Washington fiddles, the Earth burns.

Is There any Hope for Agreement at Copenhagen?

If you want to give a U.N. climate change negotiator indigestion, which isn't terribly hard to do these days, mention three letters: W-T-O. That stands for the World Trade Organization, the global body charged with supervising and liberalizing international commerce — and a whopper of a cautionary tale. Back in November 2001, in Doha, Qatar, the WTO launched what is known as the Doha Development Round of negotiations, an effort to increase global trade by reducing trade barriers. Eight years later, the "round" is still ongoing, the talks riven by deep disagreements — especially over agriculture subsidies in the West — between developed and developing countries. There's no end in sight.

Now, global climate change negotiations appear headed toward the same aimless end.

High tech research seeks climate change answers down on the farm

While Congress and the Obama administration consider climate change legislation, a group of researchers labor quietly at field test plots and on computers across the country in work that may offer answers for those decision makers in Washington and assist producers in making smart decisions to mitigate climate change on their own operations.

Couple's book tackles evangelicals' questions on climate change

WASHINGTON -- As an evangelical Christian living in Texas, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe found that many conservatives had questions about climate change based on things they'd heard on talk radio.

So Hayhoe and her husband, Andrew Farley, the pastor of a nondenominational church in Lubbock, Texas, decided to answer the questions in a new book from religious publisher FaithWords, "A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-based Decisions."