Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
My apologies to Ray Stevens, writer of the 1970s hit “Everything Is Beautiful,” the lyrics and title of which I’ve morphed into the title of this piece. But with that I note the perpetual bullishness of the financial industry in the face of what is really an ongoing debt deflation. Every incident, every turn of events is summarized by the industry as a “bullish development.”
At the end of March, when Brent traded at around $125 per barrel, Saudi oil minister Ali al Naimi wrote a sharply worded article in the FT claiming there was no justification for such high oil prices, and Brent has since slumped to $100, which happens to be the Saudi target price. The decline is likely to be temporary, however, and Mr al Naimi soon shown to be as influential as King Canute…
-For first time in years, the world is producing more oil than it needs
-Bill Reinert Describes What the Future of Energy Looks Like to his University of Colorado Audience
-The Saudi Oil Problem
-Citi’s Ed Morse Has A Huge Note Blasting Everyone Who Believes In Peak Oil
-The Oil Bubble Is Popping, But Will It Pop Down To $67?
-Aggregate factors in the price of oil
The military imperative is to prepare. In many ways, it’s leading the way in the development of new energy sources, said Brandon Fureigh, advocacy director for the Truman National Security Project. And with a massive budget and an oversized carbon bootprint, the military is in a good position to drive innovation. “The military has always been a good testing ground for technology in general and one reason is they have a large budget,” he said, noting how ideas sparked by military research trickle into the general business arena. Its budget for clean energy has tripled in the last four years to $1.2 billion.
-Shale energy triggers bean rush in India
-Halliburton blames guar bean shortage for profit warning
-Shale Gas: Fracking great
-Lawmakers air frustration over federal attention to shale
-China’s shale future: not as bright as promised?
-Gas rebranded as green energy by EU
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, on developments this week
After Part One, this is Part Two of my thoughts on some of the energy related themes of this ASPO conference and where we find ourselves now.
It’s worth a comment on oil prices which have been collapsing with remarkable speed lately. Firstly, let’s briefly recap the price history of the last five years, which I have divided into eight eras…
On my first return visit to Scotland and Europe, I happened to be near the right place at the right time for my first ASPO conference since Pisa in 2006. In two parts, here are my thoughts on some of the energy related themes of the conference.
Jeff Rubin, economist and winner of the 2010 National Business Book Award for his title Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, speaks at the Toronto Reference Library May 14, 2012. With CBC’s Michael Hlinka.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The EU crisis
-Falling prices
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
In thousands of ways, UN policy helps shape how we respond to emerging crises, from basic poverty to world political events, from food to climate change and population. What is emerging, however, is that UN analyses are increasingly diverging from reality – as they attempt to describe our future, they have failed to adequately (or at all) take into account that most basic of all considerations, material limits on energy resources.
