Putin controls end oil gusher
A five-year oil boom is ending in Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, as President Vladimir Putin increases government control over the industry, curtailing investment in new wells, rigs and pipelines.
Eduard Gismatullin
Venezuela: Bush’s next oil war?
The combination of Washington’s isolation in Latin America and its need for Venezuelan oil is likely to keep at bay the threat of a direct military attack by the US, but it is also clear the Bush administration is preparing the ground for an attack of some sort against the Chavez government.
Full steam ahead for BC offshore oil drilling
No voices of caution or reason were invited to a $500-a-head meeting of government and energy industry leaders licking their chops and gripping their forks as they gaze out over the beautiful British Columbia coastline
For OPEC, Iran talks are a first in 34 years
The gathering in Iran is a testimony to a consensus that has shaped a rare unity among the Gulf oil producers in the cartel over the past five years. This rapprochement helped set in motion the group’s most successful period since its creation in 1960.
Running on empty
The leading energy analysts who foretold Enron’s demise have an alarming new claim: The world’s major oil companies are almost tapped out.
The Long Fingers of Petroleum
When you finally realize how pervasive oil is in our everyday lives, you will begin to understand exactly how much the human race must change in order to do without it.
Oil could gush to $100
That’s the view from analysts who may have considered that prospect a long shot just a few months ago. And to be sure, some still think that’s a stretch from the current $55 level, short of a major disruption like a terrorist attack.
World’s thirst for oil makes falling output worse
The slower increase in non-Opec supply is boosting demand for the cartel’s oil, reducing Opec’s already low spare capacity, while demand continues to grow.
OPEC says it’s lost control of oil prices
Cartel producers say they can’t keep up with strong global demand. ‘This is their claim. But the fact of the matter is that nobody knows what their capacity is.’
— Sen. Ron Wyden
Dem. – Oregon
Overshoot in a nutshell (Malthus was an optimist)
It is implicit in Malthus’s writings that uncontrolled population growth, failing “moral restraint”, would stall near the natural limits of the food supply. Like many who have commented on population growth, Malthus did not understand overshoot.
New-world fundamentals hold sway in oil markets
Over the past two years, though, oil markets have been sending a clear message, reinforced during the past two months as prices have surged as high as $55 a barrel.
The gnawing concern about Hubbert’s Peak, the theory that worldwide oil production may be in permanent decline, is colliding with increased demand from emerging markets such as China. The result is an oil market that defies convention.
OPEC Agrees to Raise Production, Seeking to End Oil-Price Rally
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to increase production for the fourth time in less than a year. “What will happen after the OPEC meeting is that they will all be producing at capacity,” said Kenneth Deffeyes
