Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
A succession of ministers of mining and hydrocarbons in Bolivia have attempted to lead the process of reforming the laws governing the industry, since the country’s president was forced to step down late last year by protests over natural gas policy.
MIDDLE EAST CRISIS SPURS OIL PRICES… WORRIES DEEPEN OVER WORLD OIL RESERVES… WIND AND SUN: THE ENERGIES OF THE FUTURE. Sound familiar? Those are headlines from 1974, yet they might just as well have come from newspapers today.
The country’s oil consumption has doubled in the past decade, and China last year surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest user of petroleum — consuming about 6 million barrels a day.
Terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia yesterday prompted fresh oil price jitters before this week’s crucial meeting of OPEC oil producers aimed at increasing production.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin promised to boost oil exports if world prices remain high. The promise comes just days after reports that Russia does not have the infrastructure to increase production.
Western Oil Sands Inc. chopped 15 million barrels from the estimated reserves for its part of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, while its partner Shell Canada Ltd. made no change at all. It all comes down to reporting, and those exempt from NI 51-101 have the advantage
One message is very clear: When oil prices rise, stock prices tend to fall. When oil prices sink, stock prices tend to rise.
An independent oil company says that more than ten billion barrels of North Sea oil could remain untapped.
IN July 2002, the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board was given a briefing by Laurent Murawiec of the Rand Institute. The advisory group of intellectuals and government officials heard Saudi Arabia described as the enemy of the United States. The Saudis were the “kernel of evil, the prime mover, the most dangerous opponent”.
It powers the world’s economies … but unrest in Saudi is fuelling fears it could also destroy them
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.
Richard Heinberg on peak oil’s rising recognition in the public sphere, Saudi Arabian reserves, the Shell/Royal Dutch shock, the petroleum plateau, the war on Iraq, 9/11 complicity, and U.S. party politics.
