Energy Wars

A chart of the major oil producer's history

How are the 1.3 billion Chinese going to cope with their growing needs for energy? Can the increase in Chinese liquid fuel consumption be maintained? Even in the face of a nearby world oil production peak? Or will China have to cope with a liquid fuel crisis in the near term future? This post focuses on whether China will or will not be able to meet their increasing demand for liquid fuels until 2015.

Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman and Secretary of Agriculture Edward T. Schafer sent a letter on June 11, 2008 to Senator Jeff Bingaman addressing a number of questions related to biofuels, food, and gasoline and diesel prices. Read the letter.

The Federal Opposition's resources spokesman David Johnston says the proposed Commonwealth nuclear waste facility will be a small-scale operation for low level waste and it will most probably be in the Northern Territory. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson is expected to receive a report on four possible sites in the Northern Territory before the end of next month.

While President Bush fiddles as the economy burns from the impact of high energy prices, Senate leadership has proposed legislation, S. 3044, which addresses the pain families are feeling at the pump. Asking oil companies to pay their fair share in taxes to finance a new Energy Independence & Security Trust Fund is not unreasonable; it will provide households with the access to alternatives to high-priced oil that they desperately need. And beefing up the laws and enforcement to make sure that oil companies and financial speculators are playing by the rules will help ensure that all Americans get access to fairly priced energy.

Black gold might not be as scarce as we thought. This week oil prices escalated to a record $139 per barrel, but that may partly be because the amount of available oil in known reserves has been significantly underestimated. So says Richard Pike, a former oil-industry adviser and chief executive of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, who blames flawed statistical calculations.

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The world faces an ``oil crisis,'' and the International Energy Agency stands ready to release emergency stockpiles even as the biggest consumers discuss measures to contain spiraling demand, the agency's chief said.

WASHINGTON - As gasoline prices soar to new records, America's president - and the two men who hope to succeed him - are offering only partial or long-term solutions and ignoring three steps that many experts say could bring some relief now.

NEW ORLEANS - Researchers predict a "dead zone" of oxygen-depleted waters off the Louisiana and Texas coasts could grow this summer to 10,084 square miles - making it the largest such expanse on record.

Wow, a lot of people must have bought Hummers last week. How else to explain the spike in oil prices? No, I'm not being silly: They are, and by they I mean the gaggle of media pundits and other administration apologists-abetted by some green zealots-who want to explain our energy crisis by reference to profligate consumers.

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC's Secretary General on Tuesday appealed for calm, saying the record-high crude oil price was unbearable and did not reflect any shortage of supply in the market.

I've been mindful of the amount of water I use when making a pot of coffee ever since learning that one-third of the tap water used for drinking in North America is actually used to brew our daily cups of joe-and that if each of us avoided wasting just one cupful of coffee a day, we could save enough water over the course of a year to provide two gallons to every one of the more than 1.1 billion people who don't have access to freshwater at all.

"WE'RE not running out of hydrocarbons," insists Tony Hayward, the boss of BP, one of the world's biggest listed oil firms. To back up this view, he cites various comforting figures from the latest edition of the firm's "Statistical Review of World Energy", released on Wednesday June 11th. Enough oil has already been discovered around the world, Mr Hayward says, to maintain consumption at current levels for another 42 years. As he recently put it, humanity has guzzled through 1 trillion barrels, but has its next trillion already lined up, and could probably unearth a third trillion if it really applied itself. Why then, are oil prices hovering over $130 a barrel?

WASHINGTON - Saved by Senate Republicans, big oil companies dodged an attempt Tuesday to slap them with a windfall profits tax and take away billions of dollars in tax breaks in response to the record gasoline prices that have the nation fuming.

TEHRAN (AFP) - It was just before dawn on May 26, 1908, and G B Reynolds was drilling one more hole in a final attempt to find oil in Iran before his superiors ended what had been an expensive and fruitless project. Veteran prospector Reynolds, the chief engineer for Concessions Syndicate Ltd, struck a gusher at 360 metres (1,180) feet at Masjed Soleyman to find the first oil in Iran.

NEW YORK - Oil prices made their biggest single-day leap ever Friday, dragging the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points and raising the once-unthinkable prospect of $150 oil and more record gas prices by the Fourth of July. The meteoric rise of nearly $11 for the day piled atop an increase of almost $5.50 the day before, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days, easily a record on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

This is a guest post from Max Arturo Alcala Sainz. Currently, the list of academic institutions offering relevant and up-to-date information and courses geared to confront the imminent energy slope is awfully short. If you have ever tried to enroll in your local university for some hands-on Peak Oil learning experience, you may have found yourself disappointed in knowing that no such course is offered. Even in certain high-level economics courses that scrape at energy depletion and natural resources, you will probably be able to teach your professor a thing or two (if you are a keen reader of TOD). :)

AOMORI, Japan - Nations should fight rising oil prices by cutting subsidies and vastly increasing investment in energy, while oil-producing countries need to ramp up output and divulge more information about how much they produce, the U.S. energy secretary said Saturday.

Rising North Sea oil production was a significant factor in keeping oil prices under control in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Production peaked at 6.4 million barrels per day in 2000 and since then, declining North Sea Oil production is one significant reason that oil prices are now rising exponentially.

Energy ministers of advanced nations expressed "serious concerns" about soaring oil prices and urged producers to lift production through greater investment and provide more transparency on oil supply data. A joint communiqué by the Group of Eight ministers, also signed by China, India and South Korea, stopped short of the tough language demanded by Kevin Rudd, Australia's prime minister. He urged G8 leaders to "apply the blowtorch to Opec", which he blamed for the rise in crude oil prices to a record $138.54, after a $10.75 jump on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday.