Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The California Public Utilities Commission, charged with protecting California ratepayers and implementing a sensible state energy plan, is about to deliver ratepayers into the hands of oil companies wanting to hook the state into a dependency on expensive, imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) that comes at the end of a long supply chain over which Californians have no control.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s only OPEC member, may become a net oil importer this year as projects led by ConocoPhillips, Unocal Corp. and PetroChina Co. fail to stem falling output, helping to boost fuel prices to records.
Robert Ebel of CSIS, Washington, talks to Global Public Media’s Julian Darley about the difficulties that Russian oil and gas production now faces. He also comments on US energy policy and the new Oilfields Megaprojects Report.
Speculation over the actual size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves is reaching fever pitch as a major bank says the kingdom’s – and the world’s – biggest field, Gharwar, is in irreversible decline.
Social critic James Howard Kunstler has railed for years against the twin evils of bad urban design and suburban sprawl. Based in Saratoga Springs, the author of The Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere warns that our beloved cars — and the subdivided landscape they drive us to — are leading American culture down a four-lane highway to destruction.
Realism is the philosophical notion that what our scientific theories tell us about the world are more or less, or approximately true.
Many govenments around the world are pushing carbon sequestration as the panacea to global warming. Deeper analysis shows that economic realty will push most economies towards a nuclear solution – the only problem of which is – what to do with the waste.
As the United States gears up for an attack on Iran, one thing is certain: the Bush administration will never mention oil as a reason for going to war.
Michael Klare discusses the recent and proposed changes to locations of US overseas bases in relation to changed geopolitical circumstances and the need to protect its sources of oil.
Saudi Arabia is promising petroleum buyers all the crude they want to build inventories ahead of an expected sharp increase in demand, according to a media report Thursday. The world’s largest oil exporter is offering to pump to capacity, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition, citing an unnamed senior OPEC official.
The $11 billion Gorgon gas project, off the West Australia coast, moved a step closer yesterday with project partner Shell saying it had finalised the sale of 2.5 million tonnes of Gorgon LNG (liquefied natural gas) a year to the US west coast.
For Global Public Media, Chris Skrebowski, author of the important Oilfields Megaprojects Report for the UK Petroleum Review, explains to Julian Darley why 2005 will be a critical year for global oil.
