Oil

It powers the world’s economies … but unrest in Saudi is fuelling fears it could also destroy them

Maybe it’s time to panic about gas

Breaking the $2-a-gallon gasoline price barrier was unpleasant, and your lightened wallet may be eliciting visions of Nixon-era rationing and fill-up lines beyond the horizon, but geologists and economists think the industry and the economy will be just fine. Gas is cheap, they say, when you consider the rising costs of everything else. But another consensus has emerged among the experts: This might be a good time to panic anyway.

OPEC Meeting May Increase Quotas for Oil

Scrambling to control high oil prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet this weekend in Beirut before its official conference there next week and may pursue a plan to raise quotas sharply or do away with them entirely, an OPEC spokesman said yesterday.

A Different Era for the Alternative Energy Business

The most accessible deposits of fossil fuel are being rapidly depleted. At the same time, alternative energy sources are being viewed more and more as a worthwhile insurance policy against the risk of depending on the Middle East and other unstable regions for the bulk of the world’s oil and gas supply.