The Cautious U.S. Boom in Oil Shale

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Oil shale has never made an American company more than a nickel or two; quite a few, in fact, have lost countless millions over the last century trying to cook oil out of the rock. R. Glenn Vawter, who has worked as an executive for many of the losers, knows all that only too well.

Iran admits oil projects suffering

Iran’s oil minister on Wednesday admitted that Tehran was having trouble financing oil projects, in a rare acknowledgment of the economic cost of its nuclear dispute.

The Economist: energy Argentina’s "biggest worry"

Industry sources warn of blackouts in 2007 if weather conditions are unfavorable. Fear of blackouts has suppressed investment in energy-intensive businesses, such as steel, aluminum and petrochemicals.

Gadgets drive up energy bills and emissions

Consumer appetites for electrical gadgets will push up UK energy consumption by 82% over the next five years, a report warned today.

Zimbabwe: Threat to seize oil firms

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has threatened to seize the facilities of leading oil companies operating in the country and use them to distribute fuel, accusing them of refusing to cooperate with government.

India: Scarcity of LPG, Kerosene Artificial

People queuing up at Public Distribution Shops, popularly known as ration shops, as early as 6 am, braving the morning chill, has become a common sight in the city. It is just to obtain the monthly quota of kerosene.

Kuwait: Ministry hikes campaign to cut use of water, power

The Ministry has intensified its public awareness campaign on the importance of conserving water and electricity to avoid the recurrence of the energy crisis experienced in Kuwait last summer.

Saudi Aramco Introduces Second Grade Gasoline

The Premium 95 gasoline is being sold at 75 halalas a liter, while the Premium 91 costs 60 halalas only. The new gasoline is aimed to provide a more economical choice for most of the car owners and drivers in the Kingdom.

Pakistan - Country faces energy crisis: Another weekly holiday under study

ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis and its oil consumption has gone up by about 80 per cent mainly due to law and order problem in Balochistan, increased village gasification ahead of elections and low hydel power production, senior government officials said.

The situation is such that the government is considering restrictions on night-time commercial activity across the country to conserve the amount of energy available.

As part of conservation measures, the proposal to observe Saturday as second weekly off has again come under consideration.

Pakistan: Furnace oil import may exceed estimates by $1b

ISLAMABAD: The import bill of furnace oil would exceed the budget estimates by around $1 billion in the current fiscal as the Water and Power Development Authority has demanded the government to allow it to import the furnace oil to avoid an energy crisis including acute power and gas shortages following the discontinuation of natural gas to the power producers and the overall industrial sector, Daily Times has learnt.

Chavez shakes up government

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has requested and received the resignation of his ministers, including energy and oil minister Rafael Ramirez.

Sunoco Logistics to build crude tanks for Motiva

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP said Wednesday that it has reached a deal to build a 2 million barrel crude oil storage facility at its Nederland, Texas, tank farm to support the proposed expansion of Motiva Enterprises' Port Arthur, Texas, refinery.

Russia closing another door of oil availability to the United States

Another door of oil availability for the United States and other major oil consumers may be rapidly closing, as president Vladimir Putin's Russia is retaking control of his nation's vast energy resources.

Iran and China's CNOOC Sign $16 Billion Gas Deal

Thirsty Japan Gambles over Iraqi Oil

Basically, as the United States fooled the whole international community over its real intention of invading Iraq, the Japanese government has so far withheld the main reason behind its full cooperation with the Bush administration in Iraq.

Farmland as an Investment Asset

Over the past half century, U.S. farmland prices rose though two long bull markets, punctuated by a short, severe crash.

Energy-Saving Software Sales Boom as Corporate America Goes Green

This morning Green Wombat spoke to a CEO whose startup tech company's revenues have shot up from $400,000 to $4 million in two years. Verdiem isn't about Web 2.0, it doesn't do online video or mobile social networking for Generation Z. It makes software that - wait for it - manages corporate personal computer networks to lower energy usage.

John Michael Greer: Nawida 2150: Q&A

Q: What about the other children? Can’t their parents afford to send them to school?

A: Partly that; partly, some people don’t see the point of schooling their children; and partly, some children just aren’t suited to book learning. They’ll be perfectly good farmers and crafters even if they can’t read a word of Old Time English, and the doors illiteracy closes to them probably wouldn’t open for them anyway.

The Petroleum Deterrent: How energy dependence is weakening the foreign influence of the United States, and what to do about it.

For the first time in three decades, energy has become a central problem in foreign policy. The surge in oil prices—and in oil revenues for producers—has strengthened the ability of such nations as Russia, Iran and Venezuela to pursue political and strategic objectives of their own. Even worse, in the Middle East, oil money has trickled down to support terrorism. Energy producers with rising revenues are far more impervious to U.S. pressures. Thus, the reality of the oil market has reduced the influence of the United States and its allies.

Russia threatens to cut off gas supplies

Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly threatened to cut off supplies to Georgia if it does not agree to a 125 percent increase in the price of gas imports, a company official said Wednesday.

Iraqis in tentative oil law deal

Baghdad - Iraqi officials have reached a tentative deal on an oil law that would allow the regions to negotiate oilfield contracts with foreign investors but gives the central government the final say.

Total: 3 guards killed in Nigeria attack

LAGOS, Nigeria - Armed men attacked a Total SA oil pumping station in Nigeria in an overnight raid that left three security guards dead and shut down the facility, a company official said Thursday.

The Geopolitics of Energy Security: The Rise of Asia

Asia's new nuclear race

ADELAIDE - With energy security appearing as a major concern on policy agendas of many Asian nations, both large and small, the option to go nuclear is gaining increasing support in many capitals.

Investing in oil drilling equipment

Through his 37 years of experience in energy sector investment banking, Simmons has lived through several booms and busts, witnessing the evolution of oil field technology from the front lines. So his view that "the technology pipeline is nearly empty" does not bode well for those waiting on a great free-market solution to the ever-present challenge of depletion.

Norway's energy merger is driven by growth potential

BP plans boardroom shake-up

Cambodia oil, blessing or curse?: "Cambodians could easily follow Nigeria's footsteps"

Bush signs bill opening the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas drilling

Tom Whipple - The Peak Oil Crisis: The Council of Governments Starts Planning

The Metropolitan Washington Area Council of Governments (COG) recently released its 2006 Strategic Energy Plan. Reports like this of course are lengthy —220 pages—- and are unlikely to be read outside of a narrow circle of local officials and energy professionals. As it deals with a topic soon to be vital to those of us who live around the nation's capitol, I thought it would be worthwhile to read it for you and pass on some insights as to what COG thinks we should be doing.

Kansas utility's plan faces scrutiny

TOPEKA, Kan. - Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is considering a request from environmentalists that she ban new coal-fired power plants amid concerns about plans to build three of them in western Kansas.

Washington Warming to Southern Plants A warming climate in the Washington area is beginning to affect the area's trees, with cold-loving species finding the weather less welcoming and southern transplants thriving, according to findings released yesterday by the National Arbor Day Foundation. ...The findings also help give an unexpected answer to one of the region's oldest questions. If Washington wasn't the South before, then now -- at least from a gardener's perspective -- the South seems to be coming to Washington. "You could say D.C. is the new North Carolina," said Bill McLaughlin, a curator at the U.S. Botanic Garden on the Mall.

The Hidden Opportunity in Global Warming

The U.S. media might have missed the significance of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, but the public shouldn't miss the message: It's about hope.

Kurt Cobb: Cuba's strange path

Cuba has become the poster child for a transition away from an agricultural economy based on fossil fuel inputs and for a society focused on self-sufficiency. Strangely, it may owe much of its success in this regard to its relative backwardness and its isolation from the world community. The implications for so-called modern industrial countries in a world approaching peak oil couldn't be more striking. To understand this, it is worth briefly tracing Cuba's path since the Cuban revolution.