Oil

Everything is bullish (in its own way)

by

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.”

ODAC Newsletter – 8 June 2012

by

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…

Peak oil – June 8

by

-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 real reason the military is going green

by

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.

Oil prices

by

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…

Commentary: Why doesn’t the UN take peak oil into account?

by

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.