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Will cheap gas mean return to gas-guzzling ways?
DENVER (AP) — Prices at the pump are dropping fast, and gas could fall below $3 a gallon in a matter of weeks, if not sooner. Does that mean Americans will return to their heedless, gas-guzzling ways?
Experts say no because most drivers assume the dip in prices will be short-lived, and motorists have adjusted their habits accordingly.
“We’ve been through almost eight years of continuously rising gasoline prices,” AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said. “Any notion that this is a temporary thing has pretty well been erased.”
New technologies are emerging fast, with electric cars expected to hit the market in a couple years. But the question is no longer when gas prices will fall, but when will the next spike come?
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Big oil-producing countries are showing signs of distress as the global credit crunch and falling crude prices begin to squeeze government budgets and delay projects.
Fears that the boom days are fading appear strongest in Iran and Venezuela, whose governments have come to rely on oil prices to prop up otherwise shaky economies. Both countries this week led a chorus within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries calling for an emergency meeting of the cartel, now set for Nov. 18, to weigh a production cut.
The global economic crisis is eating into oil demand, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, and helping to drive down crude prices. Some forecasters said that despite a strong thirst for oil in Asia and the Middle East, global oil consumption could flatten out next year, potentially ending nearly a decade of steady demand growth.
Oil Demand Falls on Global Economic Woes, Iran’s Nozari Says
(Bloomberg) — Oil demand is faltering as the financial crisis slows global economic growth, Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said, after crude oil fell below $78 yesterday for the first time in a year.
“Oil demand has decreased due to the current economic situation in the world,” Nozari told reporters today on the sidelines of an oil-refining forum in Tehran. “A way out needs to be found; the balance of the market is essential for oil consumers and oil producers.”
Iran agrees to export natural gas to UAE
TEHRAN (Xinhua) — Iran signed a 2 billion U.S. dollars gas deal with Crescent Petroleum of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the English-language Press TV reported on Saturday.
According to the 25-year gas deal signed on Friday, Iran will export natural gas from the country’s Salman field to UAE, said the TV report.
Reporter denies newly signing of Iran-UAE gas deal
TEHRAN, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — An Iranian reporter who writes for Wall Street Journal of the United States denied on Saturday an earlier report on newly signing of Iran-UAE gas deal.
No new gas deal signed between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday but there was one in 2001, Roshanak Taghavi told Xinhua through telephone.
Peru president accepts resignation of Cabinet
LIMA, Peru – President Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet on Friday without naming replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal.
Garcia’s government has been rocked by the public airing of audiotaped conversations discussing kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. Discover denies any wrongdoing.
Mexico Lawmakers’ Draft Oil Bills Leave Major Overhaul in Doubt
(Bloomberg) — Mexican lawmakers negotiating an oil- industry overhaul have drafted bills for the least contentious of President Felipe Calderon’s proposals amid continued wrangling over his plan to let the state oil monopoly use private companies to reverse declining production.
Drafts of the bills by members of the Senate’s energy committee, obtained by Bloomberg News, would increase the use of renewable fuel sources, give the government more control over energy policy and create a board to review exploration projects. The documents cover four of seven proposals derived from Calderon’s plan to loosen the monopoly in what would be the most ambitious revamping of the industry in 70 years.
Exxon Mobil is controversial
but should you buy its stock?
Exxon is the kind of stock I want anchoring my portfolio, particularly when times are tough. The company produces a product people need and use every day and it generates lots of cash. I also believe we are fast approaching the era of “peak oil” and Exxon’s large reserve base will continue to become ever more valuable.
The Perils of the Coming Sugar Economy
Peak oil, skyrocketing fuel costs, and the climate crisis are driving corporate enthusiasm for a “biological engineering revolution” that some predict will dramatically transform industrial production of food, energy, materials, medicine, and the ecosystem. Advocates of converging technologies promise a greener, cleaner post-petroleum future, where the production of economically important compounds depends not on fossil fuels but on biological manufacturing platforms fueled by plant sugars. It may sound sweet and clean. But the “sugar economy” will be the catalyst for a corporate grab on all plant matter as well as the destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale.
Shell’s hilarious attempt to beef up email security
The series of leaked Shell internal emails to our website revealing construction flaws in the Sakhalin-2 project cost Shell many billions of dollars after the Russian government used the evidence as a pretext to take back ownership. The move cost Shell £11 billion UK pounds according to an article by The Sunday Times, which Shell managed to kill just before publication.
…We have even received and published leaked emails from Shell CEO Jeroen van der veer within hours of them being sent. In January of this year we passed to The Times newspaper a confidential Shell internal email authored by Jeroen. It resulted in one of the most important energy related scoops ever. The email contained an astonishing forecast in relation to “peak oil”, saying that demand for oil and gas would outstrip supply within 7 years. The leak and subsequent widespread publication pre-empted Shell’s own plans for making an announcement.
James Taylor Prepares For Peak Oil, Fears Collapse Of Society
Rolling Stone has a great new interview with legendary singer James Taylor about his new album Covers, his desire to go local in the face of rising energy prices, and why society may only become sustainable after a serious collapse. Here are some highlights:
On how rising energy has made him prepare for a more local existence:
“I have the sense that energy will become more and more expensive, and people will need to exist in a more local way,” he says. “And I feel sort of like a citizen of New England. I like living here and working here, so it may just be that my efforts are more and more sort of locally focused as time goes by.”
Arctic stormier as Earth warms, study finds
The Arctic has become more stormy in the past 50 years due to the warming climate, which in turn has quickened the pace of drifting sea ice, a new NASA study finds.
IEA cuts world oil demand forecast on weak economy
LONDON (Reuters) – The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday cut its oil demand growth forecast for 2008 to the lowest rate in 15 years, citing economic weakness and “a spiralling liquidity crisis.”
In a monthly report, the agency, adviser to 28 industrialised countries, reduced its 2008 demand growth forecast by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 440,000 bpd. This represents a 0.5 percent growth rate — the lowest in percentage terms since 1993.
The report adds to evidence slowing economies and the worsening financial crisis are reducing oil consumption. Oil prices fell further after it was released to a one-year low near $81 a barrel.
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Oil near $83 after fall to 12-month low
LONDON (Reuters) – Oil was near $83 a barrel after a fall to its lowest in 12 months on Friday, depressed by expectations global demand growth will shrink if the credit crisis pushes the world economy into recession.
Economic weakness spurred the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cut its forecasts for world oil demand growth for 2008 to its lowest rate since 1993.
U.S. light crude for November delivery was $3.59 down at $83.00 a barrel by 1133 GMT. It touched a session low of $81.13, its lowest since October 2007.
Prices have dropped nearly 45 percent from a peak of $147.27 in July.
London Brent crude was down $3.47 a barrel at $79.19, below $80 for the first time in a year.
Brown says OPEC output cut would be wrong
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday it would be “wrong” for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut production just as oil prices are falling.
“I’m concerned when I hear that the OPEC countries are meeting, or are about to meet, to discuss cutting production — in other words, making the price potentially higher than it should be,” Brown told reporters.
Lacking Credit, Trust, Banks Exiting Physical Energy Markets
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Banks are beating a hasty retreat from the physical oil and fuel markets, as the credit crisis cuts financial institutions out of a once-promising line of business.
Much like the credit market itself, the trading of physical barrels of oil or refined products for prompt delivery relies on trust. Deals are arranged between two parties or through a broker, and most agreements aren’t cleared, meaning that if one side doesn’t hold their end, the other takes the loss.
Physical deals are priced off of benchmark futures contracts, which are traded on exchanges in financial transactions that rarely involve exchanging actual commodities.
Companies often use borrowed cash to finance inventories and the transportation of oil and fuel by pipelines or tankers, making it difficult for companies seen as default risks to operate in the market. Over the last month, confidence in the banking sector has been badly shaken, with several failures, a rash of forced mergers and expectations of even more government support. In some energy markets, banks are being kept at arm’s length by oil companies and refineries that are wary of not being paid should a counterparty join the list of failed banks.
Jeff Rubin, chief economist and strategist at CIBC World Markets, has seen his forecast for oil to hit $200 (U.S.) by 2012 take a beating as the price of crude oil goes down, down, down. It was last seen at about $87 a barrel, down more than 40 per cent from its record high in July.
In his updated strategy, Mr. Rubin maintains a bullish outlook, arguing that the fundamentals that drove up oil during its remarkable run are still in place. Speculators may be gone, he said, but the marginal cost of a new barrel of oil is between $90 and $100. As well, the demand for oil has been driven mostly by developing economies, especially China, and not the G7, where economies are contracting and oil demand was stagnant even during good times.
Big Issue: Energy crisis hitting home
MURPHY, N.C. (AP) — When oil topped $100 a barrel earlier this year, and gasoline prices soared above $4 a gallon, Americans cried out for relief.
Some called for more offshore oil drilling. Others pushed for the development of alternative fuels. And many made energy policy a top priority as they consider the presidential campaign.
In an Associated Press-Yahoo News survey of voters taken early in September, 77 percent said gas prices were an important or extremely important issue. Only the economy ranked significantly higher.
Libya to Withdraw $7 Billion From Swiss Bank Accounts
(Bloomberg) — Libya said it will withdraw $7 billion from Swiss bank accounts and halt oil shipments to Switzerland in an escalation of a diplomatic dispute over the July arrest of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s youngest son.
“All forms of economic cooperation with Switzerland will stop until the motives of this bad treatment are made clear,” the state news agency JANA reported, citing an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman.
A BP-led group resumed oil production at one of its two Azeri offshore platforms shut after a gas leak in September, BP Azerbaijan said today.
“Oil production at Western Azeri was resumed late Thursday,” a company spokeswoman Tamam Bayatly told Reuters.
A source in the consortium told Reuters earlier this month that resumption of oil production at Western Azeri would double production at the Azeri-Chirag-Gyuneshli (ACG) offshore group of fields to around 600,000 barrels per day, down from the usual 900,000 bpd.
BTC Oil Pipe Outage Cuts Supplies Nearly as Much as Hurricanes
(Bloomberg) — Disruptions to BP Plc’s Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude pipeline may cut oil supplies by nearly as much as Gulf of Mexico production stoppages after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, according to the International Energy Agency.
Supplies through the link, which transports the Azeri crude blend from the Caspian Sea to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, have been curbed by a series of disruptions since August. Production from the fields which pump oil via the pipeline is currently about a third of normal output after a gas leak on Sept. 17, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report today.
Hungary bourse suspends MOL trade
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Shares of Hungarian oil and gas group MOL MOLB.BU were suspended on the Budapest Stock Exchange on Friday, the bourse said.
For the past few years, OI has been selecting investment ideas in companies that appear to have bright futures in a looming era of rising energy and resource demand. And many – most, really – of the investment ideas did well. Some did very well. A lot of readers made a lot of money. Whether it was oil, gold, refineries, cement or energy infrastructure, it seemed like we were investing in places where the world was going. Right?
But now it seems like the investment locomotive – energy, resources and related infrastructure – has derailed. Energy prices are declining. Energy-related stock plays are down. Commodities are down. Mining and infrastructure stocks are in the dumps. The falling tide is leaving us high and dry.
Alternative Fossil Fuels Have Economic Potential, Study Shows
ScienceDaily — Alternative sources of fossil fuels such as oil sands and coal-to-liquids have significant economic promise, but the environmental consequences must also be considered, according to a RAND Corporation study issued October 8.
N.J. vows to ‘race to the sea’ for wind power
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – New Jersey is powering up an ambitious plan to become a world leader in the use of wind-generated energy.
Gov. Jon Corzine wants the Garden State to triple the amount of wind power it plans to use by 2020 to 3,000 megawatts. That would be 13 percent of New Jersey’s total energy, enough to power between 800,000 to just under 1 million homes.
“We want to create this generation’s race to the moon, but this time, a race to the sea, to harness this potential wind source off of our coasts, and bring economic development, environmental benefits, and new, green jobs to the Garden State,” Corzine said Monday.
Mander says that our current economical model relies on constantly growing, which means constantly destroying more natural resources. He says given twin economic and ecological crises (and peak oil), that the era of growth may simply be over and we’re going to have to change the way we do things. He predicts doom: We’re not going to see much of a recovery in our lifetimes; there just aren’t enough resources to do it. The idea of never-ending growth is preposterous on a finite planet. The goal of our (environmental) work is to devise a Plan B.
McCain and Obama’s energy proposals
A look at some of the positions of the presidential candidates on energy and global warming.
Report Warns of Great Lakes Perfect Storm
A researcher in Wisconsin warns that climate change may put Great Lakes’ water quality at risk.
Johnathan Patz of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health says an increase in extreme monsoon-like rains, as occurred in some regions last spring, is likely to aggravate the risk of outbreaks of waterborne disease in the Great Lakes region.
Global warming sending tropical species uphill: study
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Global warming is driving tropical plant and animal species to higher altitudes, potentially leaving lowland rainforest with nothing to take their place, ecologists argue in this week’s issue of Science.
Coastal rebuilding awash in debate
Locals and officials throughout the Gulf Coast continue to press for more stringent building requirements and stronger levees and floodwalls to prevent floods. But some coastal analysts argue that coastal erosion is growing too fast and some Gulf Coast towns need to depopulate and move to higher ground.
The debate could be repeated in coastal communities in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and elsewhere throughout the USA, said Robert Young, professor of coastal geology at Western Carolina University.
“It’s hard to see how the federal government can continue pumping billions of dollars in protecting coastal communities,” Young said. “At some point within the next two decades, some of these vulnerable communities may need to relocate.”
Added Robert Thomas, director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Loyola University in New Orleans: “Once the nation begins this discussion, it opens a Pandora’s box. It applies to everybody.”
OPEC reportedly considers meeting to stop crude’s fall
The price of crude continued to drop Wednesday as the sagging world economy sapped demand.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries reportedly was considering a November meeting to discuss reducing production to shore up prices.
Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview from Tripoli that OPEC may meet Nov. 18 in Vienna.
“Oil producers are losing money because prices are falling,” Ghanem said. “We’d better keep the oil in the ground and not sell it because the international banks are collapsing, and we may lose our money there as well.”
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Global crunch strains Russian economy
MOSCOW — Battered by the global sell-off, the economy Vladimir Putin built has begun to show its chinks. Russian stock markets have nose-dived, a construction boom has ground to a halt and energy titans like Gazprom and Lukoil are urging the Kremlin to lend a hand.
Like other emerging economies, Russia is finding itself far from immune to the turmoil afflicting U.S. and European markets. And with oil prices continuing to drop, the country’s overdependence on energy as the engine of its economy only makes matters worse, analysts say.
Capitalism works! Just as the planet is driven to the brink of environmental destruction by our crazed pursuit of increased growth and consumption, so the hand that guides us begins to crumble.
Financial commentators have agreed on the cause. It was the bankers who made bets with money they did not have, putting new money into circulation as debt, often in excess of 20 times more than the value of assets they actually held. Then, as those limited assets dramatically lost value, there became no way to service these ludicrously leveraged bets.
What is not being discussed quite so openly is that the dramatic fall in the value of these assets is not a US sub-prime issue. This is only the symptom, not the cause. What caused this meltdown in asset value is a realisation by the international financial community that we have peaked. Ladies and gentlemen, our generation has inherited the era of peak oil, peak everything. The oil has not yet run out, but from now on, year on year, there will be an ever-decreasing supply available to us. The all powerful neo-liberal model of unceasing expansion and growth lies in tatters.
Scottish councils urged to get into peak oil practice
AS THEY grapple with the implications of climate change and the imperatives of “going green”, Scotland’s local councils, as an integral part of their responses to these twin “missions”, also need to come up with sustainable transport and energy solutions.
To help councils formulate their thinking, two organisations, the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) and the Post Carbon Institute, have got together to produce a guide aimed at local councils, outlining the implications of “peak oil” and the kinds of responsible options that are available to councils.
Next 20 years will see rapid changes – Sargent
“We need to drop that energy demand or else we drop people and that’s a pretty stark choice. Our global village depends on a sea of oil and in 2020 that will not be possible to depend on.”
He went on: “The next 12 or 20 years will probably contain more change than has been the case in the last 100 years. But, hopefully, it will be voluntary change.
“Life will be busier but less stressful and we will probably be healthier and lead more useful lives.”
Who’s the man with the plan now?
There are more storms brewing on the horizon – global warming, peak oil, water scarcity, food insecurity are rolling towards us. These are momentous, frightening times. The fundamentals of our economy, the sustainability of human life are under threat. This is no time for timid, piecemeal politics.
Petrobras Seeks Redress After Losing Ecuador Block, Gazeta Says
(Bloomberg) — Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state oil producer, is in talks with the Ecuadorian government on getting $250 million compensation for ceding an oil block, Gazeta Mercantil reported, citing an unidentified person at the company.
Petrobras has given up exploring Block 31, which may yield as many as 30,000 barrels a day, because it’s located in an Amazon Indian reserve and could present the company with social and environmental problems, according to Gazeta. The transfer of the block and receipt of payment may take at least four months, the Brazilian newspaper said.
Angola oil output dips to 1.959 mln bpd – Sonangol
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Angola’s oil production has dipped to 1.959 million barrels per day after touching 2 million bpd earlier in 2008, a senior official with the state-run Sonangol oil firm said on Thursday.
…He cited production problems in one of the southwest African nation’s oil developments for the drop.
Iran Offers to Cooperate With Saudi Arabia, Kuwait on Gas Field
(Bloomberg) — Iran, holder of the world’s second- largest oil and gas reserves, offered to cooperate with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to jointly develop the disputed Arash gas field, which spreads over the three Persian Gulf nations.
Iran has suggested the three countries cooperate on “investment, development and production and for the natural gas to be exported to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,” Mahmoud Zirak Chianzadeh, managing director of state-owned Falat Ghareh Oil Co., was quoted as saying by Shana.
S. Korea indefinitely delays power cost hikes
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea has put an indefinite hold on its plan to lift power costs in the latter half of the year, Seoul’s energy ministry said on Thursday, a decision prompted by inflation pressure and falling oil prices.
South Korea, heavily dependent on foreign energy reserves, was planning to raise electricity and gas prices by 5-8 percent as fuel costs increasingly became a burden for state-run energy companies — Korea Electric Power Corp and Korea Gas Corp.
Is it possible to spend a winter without heat?
With rising energy costs, is central heating for wimps? And can you face winter without turning on the heat and without breaking up your marriage?
Cheaper food and petrol offer cheer amid the gloom
The first signs of respite for consumers came yesterday as a slump in the price of crude oil held out the prospect of lower prices for fuel and food.
Supermarkets are preparing a new round of price cuts in coming weeks after the dramatic slide in crude oil to $86 (£50) a barrel, the lowest price for a year, and amid signs that food inflation has stalled.
Can Korea Learn From Wall Street Folly?
Asian economies, such as Korea’s, have benefited for decades from the exchange of cheap Asian credit for American consumption of Asian products. But should this arrangement significantly falter or fail, we could see America’s weakening economic leadership position being filled in part by China.
Police look to trade ‘gas hogs’ for fuel-efficient fleet
Last year at this time, Mike Cochran, assistant chief of the Lauderhill, Fla., police department, was driving a Ford Crown Victoria cruiser that he says got about 14 miles per gallon.
Now, as municipalities count every penny amid the economic crisis, he drives a four-cylinder Chevrolet Malibu that, according the Environmental Protection Agency, gets about 30 mpg on the highway.
“We started trying to segue away from the gas hogs,” Cochran said. “When we can, and where we can, we are trying to put officers in more fuel-efficient vehicles.”
LONDON (Reuters) – Plummeting car sales, climate change, high oil prices and the threat of global recession. The answer? Free electric cars.
So says the founder of California-based electric car operator Better Place, Shai Agassi.
“Do you want a $40,000 car, a $20,000 car or drive this car off the lot for free?” he asks.
…Agassi calculates the present running cost of a pure electric car at some 7 cents per mile compared with about 35 cents to run on gasoline — contrasting the dual cost of electricity plus battery with the cost of gasoline.
That price difference is the source of his teaser.
Why motoring will only get more expensive: three views of the future
As we struggle with high fuel prices and taxes intended to tackle global warming, Andrew English analyses three views of the future.
Exxon to Build $325 Million Battery-Part Plant in South Korea
(Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company, will invest $325 million to build a factory in South Korea to produce a main part of lithium batteries used in power-hybrid cars.
Consensus takes form on forests and climate change
BARCELONA (AFP) – An elusive consensus on the best way to reduce forest carbon emissions took shape Wednesday with the release of a joint statement by forestry companies, green organisations and indigenous peoples.
Climate change poised to devastate penguins: WWF
BARCELONA (AFP) – Half to three-quarters of major Antarctic penguin colonies could be damaged or wiped out if global temperatures are allowed to climb by more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to a report released Wednesday.
A two degree hike would threaten 50 percent of breeding grounds of emperor penguins, and 75 percent of Adelie penguin colonies, said the study, released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.
OPEC would cut output at below $80: source
DUBAI (Reuters) – OPEC was unlikely to cut output at its December meeting unless the price for crude produced by its members fell below $80 a barrel, an OPEC source said on Wednesday.
The price for OPEC’s basket of crude stood just above that threshold on Tuesday, at $80.04 a barrel.
“The price is still reasonable,” the source told Reuters. “If it stays where it is then OPEC will stick to the output levels decided at the last meeting. I think if it falls below $80, OPEC will do more.”
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BP’s Forties Crude Oil Output May Fall in January
(Bloomberg) — BP Plc said production of North Sea Forties oil, part of the benchmark used to price two-thirds of the world’s crude, will probably rise 4 percent in December before falling in January.
BP, the operator of the Forties Pipeline System, forecasts December production at 700,000 barrels a day, compared with 673,000 barrels a day in November, according to an update on its Web site. January output is scheduled to decline 2.7 percent to 681,000 barrels a day, it said. October production is forecast at 649,000 barrels a day.
Nigeria targets 4 mln barrels per day by 2010
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Nigeria is optimistic that the falling world oil price will stabilise and it expects to lift its production to 4 million barrels per day by 2010, the African nation’s oil minister said on Wednesday.
“We in Nigeria remain optimistic that the oil price will stabilise,” Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said at the Africa Upstream 2008 oil conference in Cape Town. “Our ambition is to reach 4 million barrels per day by 2010.”
Eq. Guinea sees oil output up to 400,000 bpd in 2009
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Equatorial Guinea’s oil production is likely to rise about 5 percent to an average of 400,000 barrels per day next year, an official in the African nation’s energy department said on Wednesday.
“It will probably be about 400,000 barrels (per day),” Diosdado Engono Bengono, director general of hydrocarbons in the nation’s ministry of mines, industry and energy, told Reuters at an oil conference in Cape Town.
Valero says restarting Houston refinery units after Ike
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Valero Energy Corp said Wednesday it will be restarting some units at its 130,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery in Houston, Texas after repairs from Hurricane Ike.
Russia to delay construction of proposed gas pipeline to China – Xinhua
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) – Russia will delay the construction of proposed gas pipeline to China due to competition from other gas sources in the Chinese market, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Russian media.
The Altai gas pipeline project, designed to ship 30 bln cubic meters of natural gas per year from western Siberia to China, was excluded from Russia’s recently released blueprint for gas industry development through 2030, the agency said.
US oil production at lowest level since 1946-gov’t
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. crude oil production this year is expected to fall below 5 million barrels per day for the first time since shortly after World War Two, the government’s top energy forecasting agency said on Tuesday.
The lower output is due to hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which at one point shut in almost all the 1.3 million barrels a day in oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
About 45 percent of Gulf oil output is still offline weeks after the hurricanes struck.
Oil Rebounds From 10-Month Low After Central Banks Cut Rates
(Bloomberg) — Crude oil rebounded from a 10-month low after central banks in the U.S., Europe and China reduced interest rates to thaw credit markets.
The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden’s Riksbank each cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point. Crude had earlier dropped with industrial metals on concerns that bail-out plans already being implemented will fail to avert worldwide recession that cuts energy demand.
“The coordinated rate cuts may slow the decline and perhaps even stabilize prices as some market participants view the move as positive for economic and oil demand growth,” said Mike Wittner, London-based head of oil market research at Societe Generale SA.
Nigeria says OPEC may need to act to stop oil slide
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria said on Wednesday that OPEC may need to intervene to balance the oil market if the price of crude continues to slide, making it the latest OPEC member to voice concern about the impact of the global financial crisis.
“There may be a need to intervene to balance the market if the price slide seemingly predicted on (lower) demand and over-supply continues,” Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia told Reuters.
Oil prices could fall more – Eni CEO
ROME (Reuters) – Oil prices could fall further with signs pointing to dropping demand, Italian oil company Eni SpA’s chief executive officer, Paolo Scaroni, said on Wednesday.
He said the company’s international growth would be unaffected by the current market turmoil.
OPEC may need to cut if oil under $90: Iraq
ANTALYA, Turkey (Reuters) – OPEC may need to consider cutting oil output if the price of crude remains below $90, Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told Reuters on Wednesday.
“It has been a source of concern since the price has fallen since June and July,” he said on the sidelines of an energy conference in the Turkish coastal city Antalya.
OPEC members move to support oil prices
CALGARY – With oil prices sliding nearly 40% from their July high, and predictions of a return to US$50-a-barrel oil becoming louder, some members of the OPEC cartel seem to be getting nervous their petrodollar hauls are lightening up.
Balts hope Georgia conflict boosts energy case
TALLINN (Reuters) – Ulo Kikas, harbor captain at the port of Muuga, stands at the top of the multi-storey harbor building near Estonia’s capital and points down to a network of vacant railway tracks for oil product wagons.
“That used to be full of trains,” he said. In the distance is an empty quay. “That is the coal terminal. There used to be piles of coal there, you could see them from here. Now there is nothing.”
The reason, Estonian officials say, is that Russia diverted shipments of oil products and coal from Tallinn port after a diplomatic row last year in a display of its willingness to use energy as a political weapon.
How Much Oil is Actually Left On This Planet? Should We Care?
According to Dr. Peter McCabe, a world-renowned scientist currently working at CSIRO in Australia, any realistic analysis of future energy sources can only conclude that, barring some complete and miraculous harmony between all the world’s economic superpowers, fossil fuels will dominate our energy mix for at least the next few decades — and we should just accept it.
… So, if Dr. McCabe is right, will the world have enough fossil fuels to keep up with demand? If we can’t completely switch to renewable energy sources for at least another 30 years (and assuming climate change doesn’t kill us off first) will the problem of peak oil rear it’s ugly head and kill us off anyways?
According to McCabe, in a nutshell the peak oil concept is fundamentally flawed because is doesn’t account for external factors.
GAO opens probe into gas, oil drilling in Utah
SALT LAKE CITY – Congressional investigators are looking at a federal government agency’s quick approvals for oil and gas drilling in Utah, a development applauded by environmental groups but condemned by industry executives as political posturing.
Two Government Accountability Office investigators are in Utah as part of a probe into the federal Bureau of Land Management’s practice of approving some drilling projects without a full environmental study of the consequences.
Nigerian militants threaten anarchy over graft case
LAGOS (Reuters) – Militants in Nigeria’s oil-producing south threatened on Wednesday to create a “state of anarchy” unless local government officials accused of corruption are properly dealt with. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it is investigating allegations that large sums of money were withdrawn in a suspicious manner from the funds of Rivers state, one of the three main oil-producing states in the Niger Delta.
Turkey says will push ahead with Iran gas deal
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s Energy Minister said on Wednesday the country would push ahead with a planned deal to produce and export gas from neighbouring Iran, saying cancellation of the deal was “out of the question.”
Turkey and Iran failed to conclude expected energy accords during a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey in August. The United States, which is seeking to isolate Tehran over it nuclear programme, opposes the plan.
India’s ONGC eyeing Kazakh oil asset – source
ALMATY (Reuters) – Leading Indian explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp has shown interest in buying a stake in MMG, a Kazakhstan-based oil production company, a Kazakh government source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Gazprom Neft, a unit of Gazprom, had earlier said it wanted to offer Kazakhstan a stake in one of its fields in Western Siberia in exchange for a 49 percent stake in MMG, also known as MangistauMunaiGas, but its offer has been rejected.
Saudi cbank says no need for emergency liquidity
DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s central bank said on Wednesday there was no need to provide emergency funds to banks in the world’s largest oil exporter as the financial sector faced no shortage in liquidity.
Muhammed al-Jasser, central bank vice governor, said in comments carried by the state SPA news agency that the central bank was ready to provide sufficient liquidity if needed but no bank had approached it for additional funds.
Gazprom May Say Quarterly Profit Reached $9.1 Billion
(Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom may say profit rose 5.2 percent in the first quarter as Russia’s largest energy producer benefited from higher natural-gas prices at home and abroad.
Net income probably advanced to 221 billion rubles ($9.1 billion) from 210 billion rubles in the same period last year, according to the median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The range was between 171 billion and 286 billion rubles. Sales probably rose 34 percent to 822 billion rubles.
Airlines’ earnings forecast to rise in ’09, as oil prices drop
The same U.S. airlines that looked to be goners three months ago when oil reached $147 a barrel now may be headed toward healthy 2009 profits.
Several industry analysts are forecasting 2009 gains instead of big losses for Alaska, Delta, Continental and US Airways. Perennial moneymaker Southwest could be more profitable.
US Airways President Scott Kirby said at a recent conference that investors don’t appreciate the magnitude of the changes airlines made to cope with $147-a-barrel oil.
Russia, Indonesia, Ukraine Shut Exchanges as Stock Rout Worsens
(Bloomberg) — Russia, Indonesia, Ukraine and Romania shut their stock exchanges after shares plummeted in the worst week for emerging-markets in at least two decades.
Russia’s Micex Index dropped 14 percent, having already slumped 20 percent this week, before trading stopped at 11:05 a.m. in Moscow. The exchange won’t reopen until Oct. 10 unless the Federal Financial Markets Service says otherwise, Micex spokesman Alexei Gerasyuk said by phone. The Jakarta Composite index fell 21 percent in its biggest weekly slump in at least 25 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Russian Stocks Tumble, Extending Record Decline, Led by Gazprom
Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural-gas company, fell 19.35 rubles, or 14 percent, to 121.80 rubles in the first 10 minutes of trading. OAO Lukoil, Russia’s largest independent oil producer, slid 181.89 rubles, or 16 percent, to 930.57 rubles at 10:40 a.m. in Moscow.
Jim Cramer: Wall Street, Fall 2009
In terms of investing between now and next fall, I’d buy the stocks of only companies you can’t not use — Kellogg’s, General Mills, Kraft, P&G. You can’t trust anything to do with financial paper — there’s still too much uncertainty (if a bailout bill does pass, at what price will the toxic bonds be marked?). And commodities have been bid up too high—demand soared as investors sought shelter from stocks — to buy for some time. Oil’s going to $50 on weaker demand; when it gets there, we can revisit the oil stocks.
To drill or not to drill is not the question: Renewable resources abound. Let’s use them.
Washington – To drill or not to drill is the wrong question.
Real solutions to the energy and climate crisis are available today if we focus on what we have in abundance instead of arguing over what’s exhaustible and dwindling – namely fossil fuels.
Alcoa stops capital projects on income slump
ALCOA says it will stop all “non-critical” capital projects and suspend its share-buyback program after a slump in metal prices.
The company posted a third-quarter net income drop of 52 per cent, hurt by a charge for layoffs at a Texas aluminium smelter.
Sell-off continues in solar sector
NEW YORK – The rising cost of debt and potentially less generous subsidies in Europe exacerbated what had been part of a broader Wall Street sell-off for the solar sector Tuesday.
Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research said it was moving to a more cautious outlook on the sector.
“The risk of oversupply in the solar market will soon become a reality as considerably less generous demand subsidies take hold just as a wave of supply and tight financing hit the market,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note. “We believe that liberal subsidies of the past in markets like Germany and Spain are unlikely to be replicated in the future given fears of their ultimate cost in a bad world economy.”
U.S. announces ‘Biofuels Action Plan’
WASHINGTON (UPI) — U.S. government officials have released the National Biofuels Action Plan, an interagency plan to accelerate development of a sustainable biofuels industry.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the plan is in response to President George Bush’s goal of cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent in the next 10 years.
Indonesia Biofuel Policy to Reduce Palm Oil Exports
(Bloomberg) — Exports of palm oil from Indonesia, the largest producer, may decline by as much as 1.5 million metric tons a year after the nation made the use of renewable energy mandatory, a government official said.
“In relation to the mandatory policy for bio-energy issued last month, we see that the use of agricultural products for alternative energy will increase,” Bayu Krisnamurthi, a deputy to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Boediono, said today in Jakarta. “This will cut our exports” of palm oil.
Autumn reds disappearing as global warming blurs boundaries between the seasons
The vibrant palette of autumn is draining away from Europe’s woodlands, as global warming continues to blur the boundaries between seasons, scientists have warned.
Researchers at the Italian Meteorological Society have observed less gold, copper and red foliage in the country’s woodlands, and linked this to rising temperatures and extended springs and summers.
Scientists urge Canadians to ‘vote strategically’ for the environment
OTTAWA – Canada’s top global warming scientists weighed into the election campaign on Tuesday, blasting the Conservative government’s record on climate change and urging Canadians to “vote strategically” for the environment to protect future generations and modern civilization.
EU MPs’ climate package vote brings little joy for industry
BRUSSELS (AFP) – A European parliamentary committee on Tuesday broadly approved ambitious proposals to tackle climate change, refusing to bow to industry pressure to water down the measures.
The global financial crisis and the closure of German auto factories did not prevent the parliament’s environment committee from voting 44 to 20, in favour of a tough stance in talks with the 27 EU member states on how to achieve the agreed goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020.
Climate change seen aiding spread of deadly diseases
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) – A “deadly dozen” diseases ranging from avian flu to yellow fever are likely to spread more because of climate change, the Wildlife Conservation Society said on Tuesday.
The society, based in the Bronx Zoo in the United States and which works in 60 nations, urged better monitoring of wildlife health to help give an early warning of how pathogens might spread with global warming.
Rainforest dwellers demand more say in climate change efforts
BARCELONA (AFP) – Indigenous leaders in five Amazonian nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Wednesday demanded a larger say on how best to manage tropical forests to fight climate change.
More than a billion poor people who depend on forest ecosystems risk economic and cultural devastation if efforts favored by rich nations to reduce greenhouse gases fail to respect their rights and needs, they said at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.
House Democrats unveil draft climate change bill
WASHINGTON – With the presidential election less than a month away and the economy reeling, House Democratic leaders on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to reduce the gases blamed for global warming from power plants, transportation and factories by 80 percent come 2050.
The draft legislation, which will be refined in coming months for introduction next year, would begin slowly, capping emissions of heat-trapping gases released by transportation and power plants first, then moving to other sectors of the economy. The money earned from auctioning off some of the permits would be redirected to energy efficiency and clean technologies. In later years, all permits would be sold with the proceeds going back to the taxpayer, unless Congress reauthorizes the bill.
Inflationary U.S. bailout may boost oil: Merrill
LONDON (Reuters) – The inflationary effects of the U.S. government’s finance sector bailout could drive oil back above $150 a barrel in the long term, a Merrill Lynch commodities specialist said on Tuesday.
“Near term, the oil price could drop due to the negative effects on the global economy of the ongoing credit contraction,” Francisco Blanch, Merrill Lynch’s global head, commodities research, told a commodities conference.
“The (U.S.) government-sponsored bank bailout is inflationary and we believe the oil price will go back above $150 per barrel in the long run,” he added.
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Oil rises to $91 after steep slide
LONDON (Reuters) – Oil rose by $3 a barrel on Tuesday after a large interest rate cut in Australia raised hopes that other policymakers would follow suit to bolster economic growth, a move that would support oil demand.
The gain recouped some of the losses on Monday, when oil fell by $6 as part of an international market rout, and European equities also moved higher after. But oil traders were skeptical the rally would last.
“It’s a bit of a recovery, but hardly anything to speak of after very steep falls,” said Christopher Bellew, a broker at Bache Commodities.
“It would be foolish to think the dawn has come in terms of oil prices going back up again.”
Iran worried by falling oil demand
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran is concerned that the deepening global financial crisis is having a bigger impact on oil demand growth than previously expected, the Islamic Republic’s OPEC governor said on Tuesday.
It was too early to say if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would have to cut production at its December meeting to match lower demand growth, Muhammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters in an interview.
“We are worried about demand,” Khatibi said. “The financial crisis is deeper than we expected and this is definitely influencing world oil demand.”
Libya Urges OPEC to Cut Output to Halt Price Decline
(Bloomberg) — OPEC, the producer of more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, should cut output after crude fell 38 percent from its July record in the wake of the credit crisis, Libya’s top energy official said today.
“With oil prices collapsing and international banks being routed, it’s better to keep our oil underground,” Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said in a telephone interview from Tripoli. He declined to say by how much OPEC should lower production.
Gasoline May Fall Below $3 a Gallon on Slowing Demand, Economy
(Bloomberg) — U.S. gasoline pump prices may fall below $3 a gallon for the first time in almost a year because of declining crude oil costs and collapsing demand.
Retail prices may fall as low as $2.70 a gallon by the end of November from about $3.50 a gallon on average nationwide now, said Dominick Chirichella, a senior partner at the Energy Management Institute in New York, a consulting company. U.S. gasoline demand is the lowest since September 2005, and the number of miles driven by Americans this year may fall for the first time since 1980, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Energy Department warns of higher heating costs
WASHINGTON (AP) — Although global oil prices have plummeted, the cost of heating your home this winter will be a lot more expensive, especially for households that depend on fuel oil, the Energy Department predicted Tuesday.
Beijing hikes prices for gas, diesel oil
BEIJING (Xinhua) — Beijingers are paying more for gas and diesel oil Tuesday.
As of midnight, prices were up eight percent.
Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform issued a release about the price hikes late Monday. It said, benchmark prices for gasoline and diesel oil would be hiked 200 yuan and 290 yuan per ton, respectively.
Tropical Storm Marco prompts evacuation
Petroleos Mexicanos, the third-largest supplier of crude to the U.S., closed six wells in the Gulf of Mexico and removed 33 workers from offshore platforms.
Output from the producer’s Lankahuasa platform was shut at 3 p.m. yesterday, Mexico City-based Pemex, as the company is known, said in a statement on its Web site. The El Raudal natural-gas processing center was also shut, according to the statement.
Gazprom Expects OPEC to Stop `Substantial’ Drop in Oil Price
(Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, Russia’s largest energy company, expects OPEC members to prevent a further “substantial” drop in the oil price after it tumbled almost 40 percent since a July high, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said.
“The oil price can’t drop down substantially, at least through the policies of OPEC countries,” Medvedev said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Moscow today. “We do hope the measures taken both in Europe and the U.S. will not allow the economy to freeze.”
Russia Stocks Gain on Bank Funding Pledge, Paring Record Slump
(Bloomberg) — Russian stocks rose, paring a record decline yesterday, after President Dmitry Medvedev called on the government to lend 950 billion rubles ($36 billion) to the country’s banks to ease credit markets.
OAO Sberbank and VTB Group, Russia’s biggest banks, led the advance. OAO Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer, pared yesterday’s 24 percent decline after crude rose in New York.
Nigerian conflict a warning for Big Oil in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Recurrent violence in oil-rich parts of Nigeria may provide a sobering lesson for oil companies hoping to work in Iraq — a place that is much more dangerous despite the fact that attacks are at their lowest level in more than four years.
Representatives of 35 international oil companies will meet with Iraqi government officials in London on Monday to discuss the bidding process for eight enormous oil and gas fields. If the contracts are approved, they could lead to the biggest foreign stake in Iraq since the industry was nationalized more than 30 years ago.
About 4,000 miles from Baghdad, oil companies are doing damage control in Nigeria — arguably the most dangerous place in the world where firms like Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. currently operate.
Three years of attacks in the country’s Niger Delta have cut oil production from 2.5 million barrels per day to around 1.5 million — demoting Nigeria to Africa’s second largest oil producer behind Angola.
The violence in Nigeria pales next to Iraq, even now.
Nigeria attacks starting to affect energy investment
Militant attacks on oil companies in Nigeria’s Niger Delta are scaring off investors and pushing up costs, according to Tunde Afolabi, chief executive officer of Lagos-based Amni International Petroleum Development Co.
“There has been noticeable capital flight” from the region, Afolabi told the Africa Independents Forum in Cape Town today. “The return on investment in the Niger Delta is lower than elsewhere. Attacks by militants have become part of our production plans.”
Qatar Is Cutting Oil Supplies to Return to Quota
(Bloomberg) — Qatar is reducing oil production to return to its official target in line with a decision made by OPEC last month, the country’s Oil Minister said today.
“We are cutting to restrict ourselves to the official quota, as we agreed in the OPEC meeting,” Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told Bloomberg by phone today from Doha. “It is small amounts.”
Don’t worry about oil. With oil and gas prices at all time highs, that seems a strange thing to say. Yet, we really shouldn’t worry. Solutions are available and well under way.
Around 1880, visionaries in Paris painted a bleak picture of the future. If our city continues to grow at this rate, they argued, carriages couldn’t ride our avenues anymore in the near future. They will be stuck in mounts of horseshit. The respected elders of their times didn’t see that the solution to the problem was already coming. Henry Ford was about to introduce the automobile to the world.
Today’s media are full of contemporaries of these Parisian visionaries. We read about peak oil and about the disasters waiting to happen when the last drop of fuel hits the pump. Even the nuclear industry sees an opportunity for a come back for unneccesarily dangerous power plants.
BP’s BTC Crude Oil Pipeline Will Export 18 Cargoes in November
(Bloomberg) — Shipments of Azeri crude via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline will total 12.34 million barrels in November, 47 percent of the volume pumped before a spate of disruptions starting in August.
China top refiners to raise Oct runs after repairs
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top refineries will
likely raise crude throughput in October by more than 3 percent
from last month as Lanzhou, the largest oil plant in western
China, revs up operations after a delayed maintenance.
Twelve major plants that account for more than a third of
China’s capacity, most of them on the eastern and southern
seaboards, plan to process 2.52 million barrels per day (bpd)
of crude this month, up from 2.44 million bpd in September, a
Reuters poll showed.
The rate is about 89.4 percent of China’s total refining
capacity.
Norway sees oil/gas output rising 3.8 pct in 2009
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s total oil and gas output will grow by 3.8 percent next year from 2008 and rise further by 2012 as more production of natural gas offsets less oil, the government said on Tuesday.
Oil production, including natural gas liquids, was seen at 139 million cubic metres of oil equivalent — or at about 2.4 million barrels per day — next year, against 140 million cubic metres seen this year, according to the 2009 draft budget.
Norway to spend more oil wealth
Oil-rich Norway is set to spend more of its vast petroleum wealth in next year’s national budget to help offset an economic slowdown expected on the heels of a four-year boom, the finance minister announced Tuesday.
Norway, a country of 4.7 million people, is a major exporter of oil and natural gas, giving the government surplus revenue each year that are invested in the Government Pension Fund – Global. The surplus for next year is projected to be 358 billion kroner ($57.7 billion), based on 500 kroner ($80) per barrel oil.
Norway earmarks $309 mln for carbon storage in ’09
OSLO (Reuters) – Oil-rich Norway will spend 1.9 billion crowns ($308.7 million) on carbon capture and storage (CCS) next year as it seeks to develop technology expected to play a leading role in combating climate change.
Sharing rides makes sense in rural areas
Tony McQuail can feel the winds of change blowing.
He tests them with his thumb whenever he gets a chance.
The NDP candidate in Huron-Bruce has achieved a bit of local renown for hitch-hiking to various campaign stops. It’s all part of his efforts to reduce his impact on the environment.
“As somebody who wanted to try and run a low-carbon campaign, the idea of test-driving a rural ride-share concept during the election campaign had a lot of appeal to me,” the Lucknow- area farmer said in an interview.
India hopes to attract over $4bln in green energy
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India is hoping to attract investments of more than $4 billion in renewable energy over the next 5-7 years, as it prepares to unveil a new biofuels policy within a month, renewable energy minister Vilas Muttemwar said.
Domestic and foreign companies such as India’s Tata group and Reliance Industries as well as state-run utilities are among hundreds of companies vying for a stake in India’s emerging green energy sector.
Another 150 companies are also keen to set up biofuel processing plants, Muttemwar told Reuters in an interview.
States ranked on energy efficiency
WASHINGTON – An advocacy group ranks California, Connecticut and Oregon at the top of a list of states improving energy efficiency to respond to high prices, energy security and global warming.
Energy Star Doesn’t Mean Your Fridge Is Green
Consumer and environmental groups say it’s often too easy for companies to win the right to display the star. According to descriptions from the Department of Energy (DOE), which manages the Energy Star appliance program, the coveted logo should ideally appear on dishwashers, refrigerators, and other appliances that score in the top 25% for energy efficiency in their categories. But in 2007 some 60% of all dishwasher models on the market qualified, the DOE says. The year before, 92% of them hit the mark. “If the DOE gives Energy Star to everyone, eventually it’s worthless,” says David B. Goldstein, a director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Deadlines set for designating polar bear habitat
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The federal government will designate “critical habitat” for polar bears off Alaska’s coast, a decision that could add restrictions to future offshore petroleum exploration or drilling.
Depression may form in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche – NHC
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A low pressure system in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche in the southwest Gulf of Mexico has a 20 percent to 50 percent chance of developing over the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a report Monday.
Mexico’s biggest oil field, the Cantarell Field, is located in the Bay of Campeche.
The NHC said the low would likely move west during the next 12 to 24 hours and some development was possible before it moved inland over mainland Mexico Monday night or Tuesday.
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Saudi refinery repairs to take 2-3 months – trade
DUBAI (Reuters) – Damage from a fire in late August at a secondary unit at Saudi Arabia’s largest oil refinery has cut output of gasoline and distillates and could take two to three more months to repair, industry sources said on Monday.
The sources said they had only recently learned of the fire and it was unclear which unit at the 550,000 barrels per day Ras Tanura plant had been affected.
A gasoline-producing reforming unit at the plant has been shut down, two sources said.
Africa: Journalists Reflect On Coverage of Food And Fuel Crisis
Journalists covering the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in Castries, St Lucia reflected on the way the story of the rising food and fuel crises has been covered in their respective countries and newsrooms and resolved to be more comprehensive and complete in future coverage of the story.
Farmers struggle as costs rise and economy slumps
Farmers say they aren’t sure yet how the recent credit crisis will affect them, but they dow know the prices of things like fertilizer and fuel have been continuous strains on their budgets. “I didn’t fertilize this year, but you can only do that one time,” says Baxter. And Harry says, “My input is so much higher than it was, due to fuel and the economy.”
They say at this rate, they aren’t making much of a profit, and some farmers are getting out while they’re still ahead. Dealers we spoke to at the Farmfest, told us business seemed pretty good, so perhaps farmers aren’t backing away from spending money. But a common theme we heard is how little farmers are profiting, with such high input costs- due to the energy crisis.
Four Crises of the Contemporary World Capitalist System
The final and perhaps greatest crisis is that of the availability and distribution of such critical resources as oil, food, and water. The sustainability of human life is simply not consistent with inherently wasteful capitalist growth.
The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook tells us that 50 percent more energy will be needed in 2030 than in 2005 (after adjusting for efficiency improvements) and that almost three-fourths of this increased demand will come from developing countries, with China and India alone responsible for 45 percent of the increase in demand. After 2015, China is expected to be the planet’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, ahead of the United States, followed by India as the third largest emitter. (Other studies show China is already the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases.)
McCain’s Balancing Act on Energy
Many of Sen. John McCain’s answers to the country’s energy crisis, however, clash with the views of the GOP’s conservative GOP base. But some of the positions that his party stalwarts strongly oppose — including introducing climate legislation and keeping the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off-limits to drilling — appeal to the independent and moderate Democratic voters whom McCain needs to win in November. Can the Republican nominee continue to run to the left of the GOP base and still hold on to its support?
Dutch city kept warm by hot-water mines
In an age of rapidly rising fuel bills the discovery of vast supplies of free hot water sounds too good to be true. But that is exactly what one Dutch city has found to run the radiators of hundreds of homes, shops and offices.
Heerlen, in the southern province of Limburg, has created the first geothermal power station in the world using water heated naturally in the deep shafts of old coalmines — which once provided the southern Netherlands with thousands of jobs but have been dormant since the 1970s.
Oil falls below $90 as financial turmoil spreads
Oil prices fell to an eight-month low below $90 a barrel Monday on speculation that the spreading financial crisis will exacerbate a global economic slowdown and cut demand for crude oil.
Significant gains by the U.S. dollar against the euro also contributed to slumping oil prices.
By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for November delivery was down $4.03 to $89.85 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the price fell as low as $89.07 a barrel before recovering slightly.
On Friday, the November contract lost 9 cents to close at $93.88 a barrel.
In London, November Brent crude fell $3.64 to $86.61 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Oil prices have tumbled nearly 40 percent since peaking in July. The Nymex front-month contract last traded this low in early February.
Russia’s warships head for exercise with Venezuelan navy
Russia displayed its military strength in the Mediterranean yesterday after warships heading to Venezuela passed through the Strait of Gibraltar in the second deployment of Russian naval vessels in the waterway since the Cold War.
The nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great, accompanied by the Admiral Chabanenko, an anti-submarine destroyer, as well as a reconnaissance vessel and a support ship, are destined for a maritime exercise with the Venezuelan navy.
En route, however, the aim appears to be to demonstrate to the West and Nato that Russia is once again back in business as a blue-water power.
UK electricity price four times more than France
British companies are being forced to pay over four times more for their electricity this winter than competitors in France and in excess of 70 per cent more than in Germany.
The discrepancy will increase concerns that Britain’s crumbling power infrastructure is a growing threat to the country’s competitiveness and comes as Ofgem today announces its report into competition in the energy market.
UK: Ofgem probe finds some customers are “missing out” but no evidence of cartel
After a seven-month investigation into price rises in the industry, the watchdog set out a number of proposals, including measures to ban price differences between payment methods, in order to help customers who are being failed by the sector.
The proposals will particularly help more than four million customers without gas who currently have no access to the most competitive offers, the watchdog said.
Russia’s oil wealth no vaccine against global crisis
MOSCOW: No longer quite so flush from vast oil and gas wealth, Russia’s economy is feeling the pinch from the global crisis and problems at home, putting investors and small businesspeople on edge. While economic growth has surged upwards at rates of over seven percent in recent months, plunging stockmarkets and massive central bank intervention have told a different story, denting a feeling of immunity from wider trends.
…The downbeat mood was expressed last week by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said Russia had picked up an “infection” from the United States. Global financial turbulence has been accompanied by falling world oil prices, a factor particularly likely to concentrate minds in Russia given its position as a top world energy producer.
BP chief says Russian unit conflict getting resolved
BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward said he expects to complete the legal documents governing Russian venture TNK-BP by Dec. 1, putting a formal end to a shareholder conflict that threatened to paralyze Russia’s third- largest oil producer.
The Russian government “indirectly” helped resolve the dispute by bringing the two sides to the negotiating table, Hayward said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper published today. BP spokesman Vladimir Buyanov confirmed the authenticity of Hayward’s comments.
Russia asks Britain to extradite ex-head of Russneft oil company
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Russia has sent Britain a request for the extradition of Mikhail Gutseriyev, the former head of the oil company RussNeft, wanted in Russia on charges of tax evasion, investigators said Monday.
“He is in England, and a request for his extradition has been forwarded,” Igor Tsokolov, department head at the Russian Interior Ministry Investigation Committee, said.
Charities put ministers in the dock over energy poverty
Help the Aged and Friends of the Earth will launch a high court judicial review today to force the government to stand by promises made in 2000 to eradicate fuel poverty and help millions of households facing a winter of burgeoning gas and electricity bills.
The charities said the government was legally bound by promises it made in legislation passed in 2000, in which it undertook to abolish fuel poverty by 2016 and to eliminate it among the most vulnerable households by 2010. The hearing is scheduled to last two days, with a judgment expected within six weeks.
Households in fuel poverty are defined as those in which more than 10% of income is spent on energy. But far from the numbers falling, the past year has seen a steep increase as gas and electricity bills have rocketed.
Congress’ boost to Amtrak fueled by high gas prices, too much traffic
Highway congestion, high fuel prices, dependence on foreign oil, pollution and global warming are creating perfect conditions for reforming stagnant transportation policies.
Is it any wonder that Americans are cutting back on driving and turning to trains in record numbers?
Congress got the message last week that the status quo, including an overreliance on the airline industry, is no longer acceptable for moving people around the state or across the country.
Canada: How do the Liberals rate on energy policy?
Canadians seem to want leadership to reduce global warming and to adjust to higher energy prices as peak oil arrives. But is reality different from the perception? The Liberal plan is actually quite modest in comparison to the size of the economy or the government’s operating budget. Are Canadians ready to accept real change, however gentle it may be?
Bartlett has no plans to slow down as a politician
Bartlett speaks often about “peak oil” – a theory that the country’s production peaked in 1970 and is declining – and urges the pursuit of alternative forms of energy.
His other main issues include ethical embryonic stem-cell research and preparing the country for an electromagnetic pulse attack.
He describes himself at his Web site as “a conservative who wants to help restore the limited federal government envisioned and established in the Constitution by our nation’s founders.”
Casino economy can’t be sustained
Reich is correct, of course. But even his recommendations, as sound as they are, don’t go nearly far enough. In effect, they recommend that the monitors watching each gambling table from ceiling booths wake up and start doing their jobs.
He overlooks the fact that the globalized economy based on competition and risk-taking is a relic of the past and fundamentally unsustainable. Peak oil and global warming are seeing to that. Goodbye corporate globalization.
America’s century: is the sun setting on an epoch?
In the same week that the US Treasury Secretary sank to one knee to implore a congressional leader to vote for the $US700 billion ($890 billion) package to save the American economy, Colonel Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese astronaut to walk in space. It was a striking juxtaposition of American vulnerability with Chinese success, of US crisis with Middle Kingdom might. It was heavy with the symbolism of an empire in decline in contrast with one on the rise.
Chavez will swap gas-guzzlers for clean cars
CARACAS, Venezuela — Give up your gas-guzzler and get a free car. That’s President Hugo Chavez’s offer to Venezuelans.
Chavez says he plans to start a program next year that will give away cars running on less-polluting natural gas to people who turn in old cars that consume “too much gasoline.”
Unilever comes out against worldwide rush to biofuels
Unilever, the food and consumer goods group, has thrown its weight behind moves to scrap mandatory biofuel targets and subsidies. It is backing recommendations being made today to Commonwealth finance ministers at their annual meeting in St Lucia to improve food security and prevent famine.
Unilever is concerned that subsidies for biofuels are driving up food prices and the cost of its products.
At last, many of the world’s political leaders have begun to realize that diverting land and food crops to produce biofuels leads to higher food prices. But an equally important consequence of this policy folly is being largely ignored in the public and political debate: Producing biofuels will further deplete the world’s already overtaxed water supply.
This is emblematic of a larger and increasingly dangerous disregard for the world’s most valuable, irreplaceable and finite natural resource: fresh water.
Bill McKibben – Meltdown: A global warming travelogue
For a long time — the first 15 years that we knew about global warming and did nothing — there were no pictures. That was one of the reasons for inaction.
Climate change was still “theoretical,” the word that people in power use to dismiss anything for which pictures do not exist. It is the reason we don’t see shots of coffins coming back from Iraq; it’s the reason the only prison abuse we really know about was at Abu Ghraib. Without pictures, no uproar; not in a visual age.
But now the pictures have started to come, and they will not cease.
Shanghai highrises could worsen threat of rising seas
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shanghai, China’s most populous city and an aspiring global financial center, is also among the world’s most vulnerable urban areas to a rise in sea levels as global warming melts polar ice.
Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, had already left it prone, but researchers warn that forests of skyscrapers sprouting across the ambitious metropolis could compound the threat by causing its marshy ground to sink.
Look out, Oregon, for a global warming land rush
The prediction caused a collective grimace among the mayors, city councilors, engineers and planners in the audience. By 2060, a Metro economist said, the seven-county Portland area could grow to 3.85 million people — nearly double the number here now.
Then Lorna Stickel, a planner with the Portland Water Bureau, stood to ask a question. Does the population projection, she asked, account for the possibility of climate change refugees?
Brains have been spinning ever since. Because what if?
What if the American Southwest dries up, browns out, and those people now misting their patios in Arizona head to the still-green Pacific Northwest? What if Californians hit the road north in numbers far surpassing the 20,000 who now move to Oregon each year? What if the polar ice melts, oceans rise and millions living along coastal areas — or ravaged by Katrina-like storms — have to move?
What happens, Stickel later asks, “as we become more attractive and other places become less attractive?”
Russia’s bid to control Caspian energy
RUSSIA’S INVASION of Georgia in August inflicted a potentially severe blow to global energy security by threatening export routes for Caspian energy. Russian President Medvedev’s declaration on Aug. 31 that Moscow has “privileged interests” – read, a sphere of influence – in bordering countries underscores that Moscow’s aims stretch beyond Georgia. Among the targets are the major producers of Caspian energy – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
Russia seeks a de facto veto over Caspian energy. This is important because the Caspian Basin holds some of the largest reserves of conventional oil and gas in the world after the Persian Gulf and Siberia. Moreover, Georgia is a pivot of the “new Silk Road,” a vital link to world export markets avoiding Russia’s control.
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US not vying with Russia over Central Asia – Rice
ASTANA (Reuters) – The United States is not trying to poach Russia’s allies in Central Asia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday during a visit to oil-rich Kazakhstan.
Moscow is sensitive to visits by top U.S. officials to its neighbours in the region, and has in the past accused Western nations of trying to lure away its allies.
Marrying energy demand and supply
“We have moved into a new energy world. The volatility of the global oil price has had a major impact on the world economy at the same time as we are obliged to make major cuts in CO2. It no longer makes sense to have one department responsible for energy demand and another for energy supply.”
This is how a senior UK government insider explained the widely praised decision on Friday to create a new Department for Energy and Climate.
OPEC chief says will seek to balance market – paper
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Supply and demand alone will set oil prices in coming months and OPEC will seek to balance the market at its December meeting after recent declines, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said in remarks published on Sunday.
Prices had recently fallen from levels created by “perverse” speculative practices, Algerian government newspaper El Moudjahid quoted him as saying.
UAE firms start pumping Kurdish gas over Iraq objections
DUBAI (AFP) – United Arab Emirates-based firms Dana Gas PJSC and Crescent Petroleum announced on Saturday that they had begun producing gas under a deal with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region over Baghdad’s objections.
Saudis extend Jazan refinery deadline to 2015
Riyadh: The Jazan refinery in Saudi Arabia is expected to come online in the first quarter of 2015, the Petroleum and Mining Ministry said on Friday, after reports of fresh delays hitting the planned export-oriented refinery.
Correa warns Petrobras over Ecuador oil field
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Ecuador’s president is threatening to nationalize an Amazon oil field if Brazil’s state oil company doesn’t hand it over quickly.
President Rafael Correa says Petroleo Brasileiro SA has not followed through on a two-week-old deal giving Ecuador’s state oil company control of the field.
Tories ‘sold to the oil men,’ Duceppe charges
MONTREAL — Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe launched his most aggressive attack to date against the Conservatives and Stephen Harper, saying today that they have been “sold” to the oil industry.
Duceppe said it was worse to have a Conservative majority in the House of Commons than a minority government that is inherently unstable, even in a time of economic crisis.
Economic storm fuels homeowners’ worries
Rising oil costs, dependence on foreign countries for petroleum, an economy in disarray, and the bitter bite of the encroaching winter may make warmth harder to come by than ever before.
Mina, executive director of Massachusetts 211, a nonprofit headquartered in Framingham, fears the dire potential of escalating heating costs this year.
Feds should boost support for CDTA and other bus services
A couple of announcements by the Capital District Transportation Authority in the last week — that it plans to raise fares, and delay a planned expansion of service in Saratoga County — are troubling to anyone who believes in public transit. At a time when ridership is rising dramatically, the last thing you want to do is take actions that will discourage use. Unfortunately, thanks to the run-up in fuel prices (the same factor that has driven the increase in ridership), the authority is facing a $9 million budget gap, which it needs the fare hike to plug. It wants to go from the current $1 to $1.50 in May, and $2 in 2010.
This situation isn’t unique to CDTA; it’s occurring all over the country. Which makes it a national problem — as well as an opportunity.
Financial crisis darkens outlook for climate
Wall Street’s sickness and its contagiousness for the world economy are bad news for the already faltering effort to craft a new pact to tackle climate change.
Tighter budgets, shrinking corporate profits and worries about jobs could crimp manoeuvring room at upcoming UN talks on toughening curbs on greenhouse-gas emissions, sources say.
Gordon Brown urged to pay millions to stop oil firms destroying Amazon rainforest
Rainforest campaigners will this week urge the Government to pay out millions of pounds to stop oil reserves under the Amazon being exploited.
Sinking Tuvalu wants our help as ocean levels rise
THE first nation likely to be overwhelmed by climate change wants Australia to accept its entire population if sea levels continue to rise.
Tuvalu, in the South Pacific, is one of the world’s lowest-lying nations and faces inundation within a generation by rising tides linked to mankind’s impact on the climate.
Climate change threatens to raise the stakes for Iowa farms
If the Earth heats up as climate forecasts suggest, agricultural production is likely to fall in many parts of the world, especially in poor countries near the equator and in Australia, a key producer of grain.
But parts of the United States, including Texas and states in the Southeast, also could see smaller harvests because of declines in rainfall. One study estimates that Texas’ productive acreage could drop by 20 percent, even with development of more drought-tolerant crops.
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Economists say that means Iowa and other Midwest states will be more important than ever to global food production.
Behind the Bluster, Russia Is Collapsing
To be sure, the skylines of Russia’s cities are chock-a-block with cranes. Industrial lofts are now the rage in Moscow, Russian tourists crowd far-flung locales from Thailand to the Caribbean, and Russian moguls are snapping up real estate and art in London almost as quickly as their oil-rich counterparts from the Persian Gulf. But behind the shiny surface, Russian society may actually be weaker than it was even during Soviet times. The Kremlin’s recent military adventures and tough talk are the bluster of the frail, not the swagger of the strong.
While Russia has capitalized impressively on its oil industry, the volatility of the world oil market means that Putin cannot count on a long-term pipeline of cash flowing from high oil prices. A predicted drop of about one-third in the price of a barrel of oil will surely constrain Putin’s ability to carry out his ambitious agendas, both foreign and domestic.
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“Congress should realize we have two diseases crippling America today,” warned Matthew R. Simmons, Chairman of Simmons & Company International. “While the financial crisis is like asthma or tuberculosis to the economy, a gasoline supply crisis could be terminal cancer,” Simmons argues. “The government can print more money but gasoline is a hard asset. If we drain the pipelines, we won’t be able to drive; if we don’t ban driving we could run out of food within 5-6 days and face the greatest crisis in the history of the United States,” Simmons said on WorldEnergy.TV, where he focused on the current financial crisis, the price of oil, the gasoline shortages, and the upcoming presidential election.
Iran says oil under 100 dollars is ‘unsuitable’
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossiein Nozari said on Saturday that a price of under 100 dollars for a barrel of crude oil is “unsuitable.”
“An oil price of less than 100 dollars is unsuitable for anyone, either for producers or for consumers,” Nozari told reporters on the sidelines of a gas export conference.
The minister did not elaborate.
“Unfortunately despite decrease in oil prices we have not seen any signs of a decrease in the costs” of oil production, he added.
US threatens to steal Iraq oil money
Washington has threatened to seize Iraqi assets and oil money if Baghdad rejects a controversial US-proposed security pact, Iraq says.
Gunmen release Briton in Nigerian oil city
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen in Nigeria on Saturday released a Briton kidnapped more than two weeks ago in the oil hub Port Harcourt, a military spokesman said.
Why an oil producer turned into an importer
Indonesia’s petroleum production has plummeted by almost half in the past decade, and its ageing oil fields are not all that is to blame.
The tangle of red tape faced by oil companies, coupled with rising local demand, have helped turn the country from oil producer to net oil importer.
ESPO oil pipeline section opened in Russia’s Far East
TALAKAN (Yakutia), October 4 (RIA Novosti) – A 1,100 km leg of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline was opened Saturday in Russia’s Far Eastern republic of Yakutia.
Offshore Exploration & Production Policy
Peak oil situation will definitely impact Bangladesh like any other country. Its developing economy will require substantial oil, gas & coal to keep the engine of economy running. It must create required incentives for oil majors and reputed mining companies with proper licensing and fiscal policies. At the same time it has to gradually but carefully adjust its domestic price of energy so that the expensive future energy does not create imbalance in the energy market. It is highly unlikely that Bangladesh will soon achieve its own capacity to make significant investment in exploration.
Myanmar Plans Offshore Oil Exploration With Vietnam
YANGON (AFP)–Myanmar’s state oil company is to explore offshore oil and gas in a joint venture with two Vietnam companies, state media reported Saturday.
It allows the companies to explore supplies in the Gulf of Martaban, south of Myanmar in the Andaman Sea.
Asia, where demand has been a big factor in soaring oil prices, will continue to be the centre for oil and gas consumption going forward, although demand for energy may not exceed 4% per year over the next 20 years, says a senior industry executive.
”Our current projection is that the total oil and gas demand is unlikely to exceed 4% over the next 20 years, although prices would depend upon the cost of exploration and production,” said Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of the world’s second largest oil and gas exploration company, Royal Dutch Shell.
Study: Make diesel, jet fuel at ND refinery
BISMARCK – Developers of a proposed oil refinery near Williston say it should produce mostly diesel and jet fuel instead of gasoline, and that it needs new pipelines to export refined petroleum products.
Air Force bases in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana are potential customers for jet fuel, and the refinery should assure North Dakota farmers, truckers and oil producers of a ready supply of the diesel fuel they need, said Mel Falcon, chief executive officer of Northwest Refining Inc. of Williston.
First Nations, Enbridge reach deal over pipeline
On Friday afternoon, chiefs from Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 First Nations and representatives from Enbridge Pipelines Inc. participated in a pipe ceremony near Regina to formalize what the chiefs are describing as “a new alliance.” The two groups as well as representatives from the provincial and federal governments met Thursday to settle a dispute over the construction of the pipeline through traditional territory.
Tata Motors Scraps Factory for World’s Cheapest Car on Protests
(Bloomberg) — Tata Motors Ltd., India’s biggest truckmaker, abandoned its newly built factory for the world’s cheapest car because of violent protests by farmers, hampering plans to start selling the $2,500 vehicle this year.
California’s Number One Inland Oil Polluter in Trouble Again
SAN FRANCISCO, California, October 3, 2008 (ENS) – An oil company that state and federal officials have called California’s number one inland oil polluter has failed to meet multiple deadlines to clean up leaks from settling ponds on one of its leases, so the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week took over partial cleanup operations to ensure they are completed before the rainy season.
ConocoPhillips official sees boon for gas in next year’s CO2 debate
No matter who wins the presidential election, the natural gas industry already is a winner because both candidates and Congress are intent on getting legislation passed limiting U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
James Duncan, director of market analysis for ConocoPhillips Gas & Power Marketing, made that observation Oct. 2 during a meeting of the National Energy Services Association in San Antonio.
WWF bemoans attempts to water down EU’s green targets
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe’s plan of action to tackle climate change is being undermined by pressure from industry and may no longer achieve its original green goals, the environmental group WWF said Friday.
Richard Leakey: It’s the end of the world as we know it
Can we sustain 7 billion people on the planet? Almost certainly not. Could there be an epidemic that could wipe out half the world’s population? Certainly yes. When will it happen? Probably soon.
Houston with oil at $70 or $300
Houston investment banker Matt Simmons, whose Simmons & Co. survived the 1980s oil patch depression and is thriving as Wall Street investment banks implode, says the economy here is “stronger than horseradish.”
Yeah, but are we on the edge of a precipice? Not unless Washington totally blows it, he says.
“Not unless they say, ‘Let the fire burn itself out,’ ” he says. “Look how effortlessly we did away with Washington Mutual and Wachovia. It was done gracefully.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be hitches with tight credit for a while, but Simmons is convinced such “paper” problems will be worked out.
“I lived through the most terrifying decade of my life when we saw 95 percent of participants in the oil service industry disappear,” said Simmons, 65, referring to the 1980s.
“I feel sorry for some of my friends at Lehman Brothers,” he said, referring to the 158-year-old Wall Street firm that dropped off the face of the earth two weeks ago. “But that institution basically wrecked itself. They took the wildest risks. They kind of needed an enema.”
He’s focused on what he considers a much bigger crisis, albeit one that for some time to come will keep Houston humming.
As profiled in the current issue of Fortune magazine, Simmons is the high priest of “peak oil.” His thesis is that Saudi Arabia and the world have less oil than is claimed, and that we either are now at or have already passed peak production of oil.
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Oil near $94 as market awaits US bailout vote
Oil prices were erratic near $94 a barrel Friday as investors waited to see if a reworked $700 billion bailout package would pass the U.S. Congress and help stabilize the economy of the world’s biggest crude consumer.
A short slide by the U.S. dollar against other major currencies was seen as helping boost oil prices, but expectations that U.S. jobless data to be released later Friday would show growing stress in the labor market kept a ceiling on gains.
Australia: Fears petrol prices could double
Petrol prices could double within six years as demand for oil soars but supply barely grows, warns a former chief engineer for petroleum giant BP.
Speaking ahead of a conference in Perth today which will focus on the growing global food and fuel price crisis, Jeremy Gilbert said the world had almost reached peak oil production while demand was tipped to grow by 50 per cent over the next two decades.
Improved extraction techniques meant oil fields were running down faster than expected while discovery rates for new fields had declined steadily since the late 1970s.
Oil and Gas – The Next Meltdown?
Drawing parallels with the current financial meltdown, Matthew Simmons expresses his alarm about gasoline stocks being the lowest in several decades and refinery production down following recent hurricanes. He warns that if there were a run on the “energy bank” by everyone topping off their gasoline tanks, the U.S. would be out of fuel in three days, and grocery shelves largely emptied in a week. In an interview plus excerpts from his presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) conference on September 22, 2008, Matt highlights the risks and vulnerabilities in the finished oil products system, and answers questions from the audience.
OPEC oil output falls in Sept-Reuters survey
LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC oil supply in September fell, the first monthly decline since April, as violence in Nigeria cut output and top exporter Saudi Arabia trimmed production, a Reuters survey showed on Friday.
The survey indicates that output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, source of two in every five barrels of oil, was falling even before it agreed at a meeting in September to trim output and prop up prices.
Iran’s Natural Gas Conference Raises Concerns Over Western Sponsors
Iran is hosting a international conference on its natural gas exports Saturday and Sunday in Tehran. Organizers say the meeting is aimed at developing Iran’s rich natural gas sector. Iran is under international sanctions over its nuclear program and the participation of major international energy firms in the conference is drawing criticism.
Sentiment of oil markets is shifting from bullish to bearish
Fears of a global economic meltdown have overtaken the oil markets. Further contraction is a reality — now looming large on the horizon — and the crude markets could not be far behind in taking the cue.
Prices continued to fall on concerns that even a US bailout of its ailing financial sector would not be enough to restore the declining oil demand. Markets lost nearly 10 percent in New York in response to the dramatic rejection of the $700-billion bailout plan by US legislators last Monday, dropping more than $10 a barrel to slip below $100, and they appear poised to keep falling.
Just when you thought we were going to sneak past the raging wildfire that has been consuming equities on North American markets this week without getting too badly burned, along come the experts at Merrill Lynch to toss a lit match right into the heart of the oilpatch.
That’s more or less what happened Thursday when Merrill’s energy analysts put out a research note warning that oil could fall to $50 should the financial crisis unfolding in the United States prove unmanageable and drag the global economy into a deep and prolonged recession.
Unfortunately, it appears that all investors heard was OIL IS GOING TO $50. YIKES!
Russia delays south Europe gas pipeline: report
(MOSCOW) – Russian gas giant Gazprom has delayed by at least two years the launch of the South Stream pipeline linking Russia to southern Europe, a newspaper reported Friday, citing a company document.
The pipeline would be operational by 2015, the document said, two years later than a launch date Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller gave in January, said the Vedomosti daily.
China oil refiners may return to profit in October: association
BEIJING — China’s oil refiners may return to profit this month after benefiting from the recent falling global crude prices, according to an industry association.
The country’s oil refining industry would probably shake off heavy losses caused by previous crude price increases and state-imposed caps on refined oil prices if international prices continued to drop, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association said in a report.
Gas shortages ease up in Southeast
Gas lines here were shorter and less common Thursday than last week. All 111 QuikTrip stations in metropolitan Atlanta had gas Thursday — up from just 25%-50% a week ago, company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh says.
“We’re not going to be running out of gas, not even spot shortages,” he says. “There may be some stations that are running short on premium only. That will be corrected by the weekend. We are at the point now where we’re not just playing catch-up. We think that … (now) we’re going to have the luxury of building inventory.”
As international airfares soar, Americans stay in USA
Travelers feel the pain of high domestic airfares, which rose this summer more than any year in the past quarter century. Meanwhile, many international tickets have risen to levels too steep for the budgets of many American vacationers and companies. That’s translating into softer demand.
Kenya: Kenya Airways May Cut Routes Due to Costs
Kenya Airways may abandon some of its routes due to high fuel prices and reduced air traffic.
Toyota resorts to 0% financing to draw buyers in slow times
Toyota announced Thursday what is calls its most sweeping credit incentive-discount program ever. It came a day after the Japanese auto giant, which so far had escaped much of the auto industry’s woes this year, reported a 32.3% sales falloff for September compared with the month a year ago.
In a bid to revive traffic in showrooms, Toyota will offer 0% financing on 11 models through Nov. 3. The deal covers most of the Toyota brand except hybrids and the Yaris subcompact. The company’s Scion and Lexus brands are not included.
Carmakers sound alarm at Paris show
PARIS (Reuters) – Top automakers including General Motors and Ford warned of tough times as the Paris Auto Show opened on Thursday amid concerns that slowing demand could force production cuts and job losses.
Financial crisis could dent nuclear plant growth
PARIS – Growth in the construction of new nuclear plants worldwide is at risk because of the global financial crisis, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday, adding that short-term projects like oil drilling are more likely to go ahead.
During a visit to Paris, Bodman said the crisis could have an impact on the “nuclear renaissance” that is sweeping the industry as countries around the globe search for alternatives to fossil fuels.
Green Energy Boom In Bailout Bill
Houston – Renewable energy providers will reap an immediate benefit from the raft of new incentives in Washington’s financial rescue package. Better late than never.
John Berger, chief executive of Standard Renewable Energy, was holding his breath this week. “If it passes, this would complete the mainstreaming of solar energy in the U.S.,” says Berger, who generates 85% of Standard’s $20 million in annual revenues from solar installations. He figures the new tax credits could quintuple his solar business in a year.
Poet say removing cobs for fuel helps corn grow
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Removing cobs from fields may help corn plants grow better and provide a feedstock for next-generation cellulosic ethanol, said a fuel expert at private company Poet, the top U.S. maker of ethanol.
U.S. needs environmental standards for biofuels
The U.S. lacks criteria to ensure that cellulosic ethanol production will not harm the environment, warn scientists writing in the journal Science. The researchers say that with proper safeguards, cellulosic ethanol can help the U.S. meet its energy needs sustainably.
“Environmental standards are needed now, before the industry moves out of its research and development phase,” said Phil Robertson, Michigan State University professor of crop and soil sciences and lead author of the paper. “With production standards and incentive programs, cellulosic biofuel cropping systems could provide significant environmental benefits.”
Three months ago, everyone wanted to know if renewable energy could save America from the escalating costs of fossil fuels. Now, everyone wants to know if renewable energy can save itself.
In the past six months, biofuels have been bruised, battered and beaten as the surge in food prices triggered a public backlash against diversion of corn to energy. Oil and gas prices have plunged and could fall further still if the economy comes crashing to a halt. Meanwhile, the environmental benefits of many purported clean energy projects have been subject to increasing scrutiny.
Using Plants Instead of Petroleum to Make Jet Fuel
Chemical engineers in North Dakota have successfully turned oil from plants—canola (rapeseed), coconuts and soybeans—into jet fuel indistinguishable from the conventional kind, according to U.S. government tests. Working with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), scientists at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota turned these plant oils into fuel that had a similar density, energy content and even freezing point.
South Africa: Country to Unveil Africa’s First Electric Car in Paris
Science and Technology Minister, Mosibudi Mangena, will on Thursday preside over the unveiling of Africa’s first locally developed electric car at the Paris Motor Show in France.
Named “Joule”, the ultra sleek zero-emission car is Africa’s answer to climate change.
Tiny Smart car evolves into all-electric version
PARIS – Get ready for a new sound — not look — to the tiny Smart cars produced by Daimler. On Thursday at the Paris Motor Show, the company introduced its Smart ED — an all-electric vehicle that makes barely a peep.
The Smart ED — the ED stands for electric drive — can cover about 90 miles without recharging, Daimler said, adding that limited production would start by the end of 2009.
Report: Solar market to reach $100 billion in 2013
Despite projected oversupply in early 2009, leading to significantly lower average selling prices (ASPs), the global solar market will reach $100.4 billion in 2013, up from $33.4 billion in 2008, according to the latest report from Lux Research.
The phrase “clean coal” is polluting the energy debate. The phrase is an oxymoron. We can come up with ways to clean up after coal – many of them very expensive and, in the case of coal’s greenhouse gas emissions, untried. And we can use coal more efficiently than in the past. But coal itself is not clean and never will be. That is a matter of chemistry and geology.
Join the transition from fear to hope
Do you live in a transition town? And if not, why not? Transition towns are the hottest new trend in urbanism. Or rather in post-urbanism, since their guiding principle is to find ways of living in the cities we’ve already built as the oil that feeds them runs out, and inconveniently heats up the planet in the process. Transition towns aim to keep communities functioning in the face of peak oil and climate change.
Hundreds of plant species are in danger as Kew seed bank faces £100m shortfall
The Millennium Seed Bank is facing a funding shortfall that could force it to halt operations.
Scientists at the seed bank need to raise more than £100 million in little more than a year to safeguard the facility’s future. Failure to secure the money would put the survival of hundreds of species of plant at risk and damage Britain’s credibility as a centre of scientific excellence.
Climate change may be sparking new and bigger “dead zones”
Dead zones are not new; they form seasonally in economically vital ecoystems worldwide, including the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay. Agricultural runoff sparks many of these die-offs; increased use of nitrogen fertilizers has doubled the number of lifeless pockets every decade since the 1960s, resulting in 405 dead zones now dotting coastlines globally.
But lesser-known wastelands are also emerging—without nutrient input from farms. Alarms about such dead zones first sounded in Oregon during the summer of 2002. Usually “we see many schools of fish and lots of different species,” says David Fox of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, but surveys revealed dead fish and invertebrates littering the seafloor. The culprit was hypoxia—low-oxygen conditions, which can occur after the decomposition of organic matter in areas where deep waters well up to the surface.
Western US may face “crippling” black outs
A new study released this week highlights what experts have been saying for years: the U.S. faces significant risk of power brownouts and blackouts as early as next summer that may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives.
The study, “Lights Out In 2009?” warns that the U.S. “faces potentially crippling electricity brownouts and blackouts beginning in the summer of 2009, which may cost tens of billions of dollars and threaten lives.”
“If particularly vulnerable regions, like the Western U.S., experience unusually hot temperatures for prolonged periods of time in 2009, the potential for local brownouts or blackouts is high, with significant risk that local disruptions could cascade into regional outages that could cost the economy tens of billions of dollars,” the report warned.
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Oil Spike: Will a Financial Bailout Push Crude Back Up?
Congress might bail out more than just Wall Street—it could bail out OPEC, as well, keeping oil prices high and climbing into next year.
Despite all the market turmoil and fears of the biggest bang since the Great Depression, crude oil has stubbornly stuck around $100 a barrel. Its most recent rebound came amid fresh hopes Congress would cobble together a bailout package, after earlier pessimism that the U.S. rescue package would be too little to save the economy.
But one school of thought says that any sort of financial rescue package will shore up the world’s biggest economy—and oil consumer—enough to send crude oil back toward record highs. We spoke with oil bull Jeff Rubin, chief economist at Canadian bank CIBC World Markets, who earlier predicted $200 oil within a few years.
When Will Financial Markets Become More Intelligent Than Henry Paulson?
More government regulation of financial markets? Fugetaboutit. The real question about financial markets going forward might be whether we’re willing to let the markets run themselves. In other words, Will we humans let machines take charge of the global money game? Because at some point soon, they will be able to run it better than we can.
Back in 2001, I had a conversation in Toronto with a quite-prescient Thomas Homer-Dixon, who had just published a book called The Ingenuity Gap. His basic premise: Humans are building systems as complex as weather, and human brains can’t keep up. People can no longer understand and control the globally-networked technology we’re creating. Amazingly, one of the examples he used that day was the global financial system – proclaiming that a meltdown was coming that no one would understand or know how to stop.
More Insights: Clean Energy and the Credit Squeeze
Global venture-capital investments in clean technology rose 37 percent in a year, to a record $2.6 billion for the third quarter (July through September), according to the Cleantech Group, a research firm. Companies involved with smart-grid applications, algae and thin-film solar had a particularly good quarter.
And while some analysts are optimistic about clean energy’s ability to weather the current storm, the Cleantech Group — whose numbers cover North America, Europe, China and India — anticipates a fourth-quarter pullback as financial conditions deteriorate and even venture capital firms close their wallets.
A few short decades from now, agricultural crops will face entirely new growing environments. In many countries, the coldest growing seasons of the future will be hotter than the hottest ever recorded in the past. Here’s change you can believe in: The 11 hottest years on record have all occurred in the past 13 years.
Should we assume rice, wheat and corn varieties will be unaffected under environmental conditions they have never experienced? They won’t. If today’s corn varieties are still in the field in southern Africa two decades from now, production will drop by 30 per cent because of climate change, and we will watch babies starve to death on TV due to our own lack of foresight and preparedness.
Bush Approves Automaker Loan Program: But Will It Arrive in Time?
President Bush on Sept. 30 signed a broad spending bill that keeps government operating in the new fiscal year, and includes $7.5 billion to pay for a $25 billion loan program to help automakers and supplier companies transition plants to building more fuel efficient vehicles.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are all facing liquidity problems as they try to restructure amidst the current economic calamity, and develop new models that will help them meet stricter fuel economy regulations between 2015 and 2020, as well as increased consumer demand for those vehicles. Some analysts believe GM, for example, coud hit a critical shortage of liquidity by the middle of next year.
Starting today, the Department of Energy will begin a two month process in which it will write the parameters around which the auto companies can apply for the loans. Broadly speaking, each company will have to show that the money will be used to modernize plants and technology that will deliver more fuel efficient vehicles to the public.
Eco-towns are supposed to provide a ‘template’ for all other new housing, but the credit crunch has cast doubts over their future.
‘Car sleepers’ the new US homeless
This new phenomenon of middle-class homelessness is hard to quantify, but New Beginnings, an organisation that runs the car park sleeping scheme in Santa Barbara, says they accommodate some 55 people in a dozen parking lots.
Outreach worker Nancy Kapp, once homeless herself, says there is a waiting list for car park spaces and she is getting more and more calls each day from people about to lose their homes.
UK: Million more suffer fuel poverty
The number of households in fuel poverty in the UK rose to 3.5 million in 2006, government figures show.
The figures from the Department for Environment and the Department for Business show this is a an increase of one million on 2005 levels.
Coal to Wood: The Conversion Calculus
Making electricity from wood chips is trendy these days, as I have written before.
But here’s an interesting twist: many newly announced biomass plants will actually be running on old coal boilers. Xcel Energy, a big Midwestern utility, announced this week that it would spend up to $70 million to allow a coal boiler at a small power plant to run on gasified biomass (the plant’s two other boilers already run on biomass).
Russian Oil Output Heads for Annual Decline After Ninth Straight Monthly Decline
(Bloomberg) — Russia’s oil production fell for the ninth straight month in September as producers struggled with rising costs and maturing fields, bringing the world’s second- biggest crude exporter closer to its first annual drop in output since 1998.
Production fell 0.4 percent to 9.83 million barrels of crude a day (40.2 million metric tons a month) compared with a year earlier, according to figures released by the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit.
Output in Russia’s oil heartland of western Siberia is flagging as older fields mature and companies invest in harder- to-reach regions to tap deposits. In July, parliament approved tax breaks championed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to spur investment in national production.
Oil prices fall, ending brief rally
LONDON (AFP) – Oil prices dropped Thursday as the market refocused on data revealing a jump in American crude stockpiles, after a brief rally in response to the US Senate’s approval of a revised financial bailout.
London’s Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November dropped 1.24 dollars to 94.08 dollars a barrel.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for November, fell 95 cents to 97.58 dollars a barrel.
Oil May Fall to $50 in Global Recession, Merrill Says
(Bloomberg) — Crude-oil prices may fall as low as $50 a barrel next year, about half current levels, in the “unlikely” event of a global recession, weighing on shares of petroleum producers, Merrill Lynch & Co. said.
Such a scenario, where global growth in Gross Domestic Product falls to 1.5 percent, isn’t the base-case forecast, the bank said today in a report. Merrill cut its 2009 average price estimate for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark oil grade, by 16 percent to $90, citing falling demand and the start of new fields in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Companies Scramble for Ever-Scarcer Resources
NEW YORK (IPS) – As humanity runs out of oil and minerals, the extraction of previously untouched deposits suddenly pays off — financially. But experts warn that it will likely further accelerate climate change and seriously damage the environment.
Back in the 19th century it was easy to discover an oil well: one could accidentally step in a puddle of “black gold” — it made its way to the surface voluntarily. But with conventional oil wells running dry, the industry is shifting to so-called “unconventional” sources like tar sands — but not without problems.
“It takes two to three times more energy to get a barrel back from tar sands than from conventional crude oil,” said Steve Andrews, co-founder of the U.S.-based Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO), in an interview with IPS.
Bailout Passes After Ornaments Attached
Gasoline rationing is in force in several southern states with many operators placing a limit of $30 per transaction to insure everyone gets fuel. AAA expects the shortage to last another 2-3 weeks. Most stations around Atlanta are out with pumps covered with out of service signs. Traffic has slowed significantly and lines are forming well in advance of scheduled fuel deliveries so drivers can be assured of having a place in land. Drivers are not only filling their tanks but many are filling gas cans, milk jugs and anything else that will hold gas and that is just adding to the shortage for everyone else. This is a prime example of what we will face on a permanent basis once peak oil arrives in a couple years.
America’s Oil Export Problem (Yes, Export)
The U.S. could cut oil imports by nearly 15% tomorrow without using less gasoline, invading a foreign country or driving up prices at the pump. How? By cutting exports.
Yes, exports.
This will come as a surprise to many, but in the past four years U.S. oil and petroleum exports have reached four consecutive record highs–at least since the early ’80s. In 2007, the U.S. exported 1.43 million barrels of oil per day; up by roughly half a million barrels of oil per day since 2004.
Credit worries slow OTC oil trading
LONDON (Reuters) – Credit market strains have sliced the volume of over-the-counter trading in oil markets, made traders more careful about who they do business with and some deals harder to finance.
Analysts said this stems from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, which has toppled Wall St firms and contributed to a near 10-percent slide in crude oil prices on Monday and a partial recovery on Tuesday.
U.S. Approves 900,000-Barrel Oil Reserve Release
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. approved the release of as much as 900,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to two unidentified refiners, after a request for more supplies to ease fuel shortages in the Southeast.
The refiners receiving the oil will be announced “if/when the shipment happens,” department spokeswoman Healy Baumgardner said in an e-mailed statement. Today’s release would bring to a total of 5.69 million barrels the amount of oil the department has provided since hurricanes Gustav and Ike stormed the Gulf Coast last month.
Gas shortage has politicians making tough calls
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Tired of waiting in long lines or simply running out of gas, angry drivers in the Southeast are lashing out at politicians, demanding that their leaders do more to get fuel flowing to the region.
“We have a gas crisis!” one frustrated motorist recently e-mailed to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican running for governor. “Do you exist?’”‘
Elected leaders, especially in Georgia and North Carolina, where gas supplies remain low three weeks after Hurricane Ike, are wrestling with judgment calls about how much government should do to respond.
Should they declare an emergency and restrict gas purchases, or let the markets take their course? Should they simply urge conservation or work the phones to try to persuade gasoline distributors to release more of their supplies? And will their actions create more havoc than help?
Whatever the result, somebody is going to be unhappy.
Gazprom, E.ON clinch deal on Siberian gas field
MOSCOW/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Russia’s Gazprom, the world’s largest natural-gas company, agreed to give German utility E.ON a stake in a Siberian gas field, ending speculation that four years of talks might fail.
E.ON will give back to Gazprom a stake of about 1.42 percent in the Russian company, and the German utility will in exchange receive a quarter minus one share of the Yuzhno Russkoye gas field, the two companies said on Thursday.
Exxon to boost gas output under Sakhalin I in Russia’s Far East
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK (RIA Novosti) – Exxon Neftegas Limited, a subsidiary of U.S. oil major Exxon and operator of the Sakhalin-I oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific Coast, said on Thursday that it plans to boost gas output.
Exxon Neftegas CEO James Taylor said the company plans to raise gas production at the Chaivo deposit, and that this will require the drilling of additional gas wells and the expansion of existing coastal and offshore facilities.
Taylor said the project would help increase gas sales on the domestic and international markets.
Nigeria’s Chanomi Creek Oil Pipeline Is Ruptured, Punch Reports
(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s Chanomi Creek oil pipeline in Delta State has been ruptured, potentially forcing the shutdown of the Warri oil refinery by tomorrow, the Punch newspaper reported,
No group has claimed responsibility for the damage, Punch said, citing “unconfirmed reports” that it may have been attacked by militants.
U.S. car sales in September were the worst since 1993
Americans felt too broke to buy new cars and trucks last month, making September the first month with total sales below a million since February 1993.
A drumbeat of bad economic news drove a sales decline for every major automaker as total light-vehicle sales tumbled to 964,873, down 26.6% compared with September 2007, sales tracker Autodata reported Wednesday.
“I’m shocked by what’s happened,” says Clinton, Iowa, auto dealer John McEleney. Gas prices “have been trumped by the credit crisis” in spooking would-be buyers, he says. His Iowa dealerships sell Toyota, Hyundai, General Motors and Chrysler brands.
Canadian September Auto Sales Rise, Helped by Toyota
(Bloomberg) — Auto sales in Canada rose 1.7 percent in September as an increase for Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles helped outweigh declines at General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., according to figures compiled by a consulting firm.
…The monthly increase, the second in five months, was buoyed by car sales, which climbed 5.1 percent. Light truck sales fell 2.2 percent.
Mitsubishi Motors set to test electric cars in Europe
PARIS (Reuters) – Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors said on Wednesday it will begin testing its electric cars in Europe next month as it aims to beat rivals to the uncharted market and promote itself as the pioneer of the zero-emission vehicles.
Competitors such as General Motors Corp and the Renault-Nissan alliance have been winning the publicity game with promises to be the first mass producers of electric cars, but Mitsubishi Motors has the advantage of being the only mass-production carmaker with a working model being tested on the road today: the bubbly, four-seater i-MiEV hatchback.
New Zealand – Peak oil and public transport: Cullen’s revelation
The Green Party have challenged Labour to redirect the billions of dollars earmarked for New Zealand’s largest ever roading programme into public transport, following Dr Cullen’s admission yesterday that people will choose public transport if it is provided and that Peak Oil is real.
In a speech yesterday, Dr Cullen admitted both that “we have to come to terms with a new set of circumstances – the emerging reality of Peak Oil,” and that
“we can get people out of cars and onto public transport.”
We can’t afford to keep Sydney running: Rees
SYDNEY has grossly under-estimated the population explosion that will squeeze its resources over the next 20 years, but the cash-strapped Premier admits it is “pointless” to promise the billions of dollars in extra spending the city will need.
Nathan Rees yesterday signalled deep cuts in the capital spending program and a radical departure from the $140 billion infrastructure strategy of the former premier, Morris Iemma.
…Treasury pressure on infrastructure spending is apparent again today, as the Herald reveals the Government is facing renewed pressure from its officials to dump Mr Iemma’s promised $1.36 billion South West Rail Link, a 13-kilometre line to the new population growth centre at Edmondson Park and Leppington. Expressions of interest were invited only weeks ago from companies to build the line.
New Zealand: Lifestyle News Headline Feed
Raglan leading the way towards an eco-friendly society
‘Transition Town’ is an initiative that has arisen from peak oil and climate change concerns.
In a nutshell, it is change at a community level, a transition away from oil dependency to alternative fuels, but more than that too.
So far in New Zealand, just a handful of towns are taking the idea seriously. Campbell Live went to one – Raglan.
What will the next 10-20 years be like? With global climate change and peak oil what can we expect? David Holmgren co-originator of the permaculture concept has developed a new website investigating some possible outcomes.
Google presents $4.4 trillion energy plan for ‘debate’
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Google Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a $4.4 trillion energy plan to greatly reduce U.S. use of fossil fuels by 2030 by tapping alternative sources, including wind and solar power.
Curb sprawl to help climate? California will try
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Tuesday that attempts to ease greenhouse gas emissions by giving priority to transportation projects that limit commutes and curb urban sprawl.
Supporters said the legislation is needed to help implement a 2006 law that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Governments moved quickly to rescue our banks. Why does it take any longer to act to save the planet from runaway warming?
Palin: cause of global warming ‘doesn’t matter’
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said Tuesday that global warming is “real,” but stressed that it “kind of doesn’t matter” whether or not humans are to blame for climate change.
Human activity has “contributed to the issues that we’re dealing with now with these impacts” on the earth’s climate, Palin, who is Republican standardbearer John McCain’s running mate, said in an interview aired Tuesday with CBS News’ Katie Couric.
“I’m not going to solely blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate because the world’s weather patterns are cyclical, and over history we have seen changes there.
“But it kind of doesn’t matter at this point in the debate what caused it. The point is it’s real, we need do something about it.”
Experts warn species in peril from climate change
ORLANDO, Fla. – Climate change threatens to kill off up to a third of the planet’s species by the end of the century if urgent action isn’t taken to restore fragile ecosystems, protect endangered animals and manage growth, scientists warned Wednesday as a wildlife summit opened.
“Much of the predictions are gloom and doom. The ray of hope, however, is that we have not lost our opportunity. We still have time if we act now,” said Jean Brennan, a senior scientist with Defenders of Wildlife and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Small sacrifice can save the planet
AUSTRALIANS will be driving clean electric cars, giving up their lamb roast and rump steaks for chicken and pork, living in higher-density cities and swapping cheap air flights for interstate trains.
In the outback, millions of beef cattle and sheep will disappear from the marginal rangelands, farmers will grow grasses and eucalypts for carbon trading and kangaroos will dominate the bush, potentially becoming one of the nation’s biggest export meats.
This image of a sustainable future for Australia has now become a mainstream view with the release of Professor Ross Garnaut’s final sweeping report on how the nation can take up the fight against climate change. It can be achieved for a modest increase in our electricity bills – but the overall cost will be less than the impact of the GST.
