Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
An oil-free New Zealand is on the Green Party’s agenda. … co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons warned of an oil crisis within 10 years. “The end of cheap oil is coming towards us with the force of a tsunami and New Zealand is not ready,” she said.
An energy tsunami formed due to a number of multi-billion dollar energy deals in oil and gas involving Iran, India, Russia and China has been unleashed in Asia, with great economic and political implications for the United States in particular and our global society in general.
Our civilization “is the first to develop a level of personal comfort that creates the illusion and the expectation that, thanks to our civilisation and our technology, we can forever conquer cold, hunger, pain, illness and eventually death itself. We have done this thanks to the use of one substance: oil.”
Norway’s oil production is likely to slip to 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2005 but combined oil and gas output will hit a new record and peak in 2008, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said on Thursday.
The unabated rise of international oil prices and depreciation of the dollar will push economic growth in the US down to about 2.5% in 2005, but will have little impact on economic growth in the European Union, where growth is expected to accelerate modestly.
The world’s oil production may be about to reach its peak – forever. Such apocalyptic prophecies often surface in the middle of the northern hemisphere winter. What is unusual is that this time the doomsday scenario has gained serious credibility among respected analysts and commentators.
Sir Mark Thatcher’s decision to plead guilty to unwittingly helping an alleged African coup plot is the latest twist in one of the more bizarre and murky tales in the continent’s history of power struggles involving natural resources.
The US is investigating the risk of losing its share of Venezuela’s oil exports as the government of President Hugo Chávez seeks to steer more supplies towards China and other nations.
On Christmas Day, Cuban President Fidel Castro in the Gulf of Mexico in an area controlled by Cuba. Castro disclosed that the Canadian companies had discovered estimated reserves of 100 million barrels.
Ultimately, says Deffeyes, we may just have to resign ourselves to relying more on coal, wind, and nuclear fission for electricity and switching to high-efficiency diesel and hybrid automobiles in order to ration our remaining oil reserves for as long as possible. Abundant energy from fossil fuels was a one-time gift, Deffeyes concludes, that lifted humanity up from subsistence agriculture and has led to a future based on renewable resources
The world economy has gotten fairly comfortable with oil at $45 a barrel. But how will it react to paying $100 a barrel three years from now? Or $150 in five years?
China continues its attempt to become a major global oil producer. Having mishandled and prematurely depleted the reserves within its own borders, it has embarked on a strategy of global acquisitions.
