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10 Years After ‘The Party’s Over’: an interview with Richard Heinberg

10 Years After ‘The Party’s Over’: an interview with Richard Heinberg While running the risk of sounding like a Hello! Magazine reporter, I must introduce this post by saying that while in the US recently, I joined Richard Heinberg and his wife Janet in their beautiful permaculture garden in Santa Rosa, California.  Richard will be known to most readers of this blog as the author of  The Party’s Over, Powerdown, The Oil Depletion Protocol, Peak Everything, Blackout  and  Snake Oil  as well as one of the best communicators on the whole peak oil/everything question.  This year marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of  The Party’s Over .  Richard has already reflected on this in September’s Museletter [ 10 Years After ], but Richard and I pulled up a chair under a tree in his garden and chatted more about the book, its impact, and other related issues.  You transcript […]

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Pakistan 'ready to deliver nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia'

Intelligence sources say Pakistan-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to counter Iran’s atomic programme, but Islamabad says claims ‘baseless’ Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, as did General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI intelligence service. Saudi officials have long told their American allies that they planned to obtain atomic weapons if Iran went nuclear. The latest reports suggests they could be ready even sooner. Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden last month that if Iran got the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring”. Pakistan declared itself as a nuclear armed state in 1998 with its first test. It has never signed up non-proliferation agreements and has […]

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Pakistan ‘ready to deliver nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia’

Intelligence sources say Pakistan-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to Saudi Arabia as part of efforts to counter Iran’s atomic programme, but Islamabad says claims ‘baseless’ Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, as did General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI intelligence service. Saudi officials have long told their American allies that they planned to obtain atomic weapons if Iran went nuclear. The latest reports suggests they could be ready even sooner. Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden last month that if Iran got the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring”. Pakistan declared itself as a nuclear armed state in 1998 with its first test. It has never signed up non-proliferation agreements and has […]

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GE Aviation signs 10-year supply agreement for biomass FT jet fuel for engine testing; baseline of 500,000 gallons per year

  « Study shows connected-car ecodrive system can increase fuel savings 27% without increasing inter-vehicle spacing | Main | DOE launches alternative fueling station locator app » Print this post GE Aviation signs 10-year supply agreement for biomass FT jet fuel for engine testing; baseline of 500,000 gallons per year Web Schematic 2013 Updated740x442 Schematic of the DG Energy facility that will produce the cellulosic synthetic jet fuel. Click to enlarge. GE Aviation, which consumes more than 10 million gallons of jet fuel annually at its engine testing centers, has signed an agreement to purchase cellulosic synthetic biofuel from The D’Arcinoff Group (DG), based in Washington, DC, to be used for production and development testing of GE jet engines, starting in 2016. The 10-year agreement calls for GE’s baseline commitment of 500,000 gallons annually of the low-emissions jet fuel to be used at the company’s main jet engine testing […]

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BP to Give Up Control of Big Libyan Oil, Gas Project

LONDON— BP BP.LN -0.72% BP PLC U.K.: London GBp 480.95 -3.50 -0.72% Nov. 7, 2013 3:10 pm Volume : 11.47M P/E Ratio 5.93 Market Cap GBp90.92 Billion Dividend Yield 4.93% Rev. per Employee GBp2,864,460 11/06/13 BP to Give Up Control of Libya… 11/01/13 BP Names Michael Gibbs CIO 10/30/13 India Asks Reliance Industries… More quote details and news » BP.LN in Your Value Your Change Short position PLC is in talks to relinquish control of a major oil and natural-gas project in Libya, a blow to the country as it tries to attract companies to tap Africa’s largest oil reserves. BP is negotiating a deal with Libya’s state-controlled National Oil Co. to transfer a stake in BP’s two Ghadames blocks to NOC subsidiary Arabian Gulf Oil Co., or Agoco, and make it the operator of the venture, according to executives at both NOC and BP. BP is seeking to […]

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WTI Fluctuates After Gaining on Increased U.S. Gasoline Demand

West Texas Intermediate crude fluctuated after rising the most in five weeks as the U.S. consumed gasoline at the fastest rate since July. Futures were little changed in New York after climbing 1.5 percent yesterday. Demand for motor fuel expanded 2.6 percent last week, draining 3.76 million barrels from gasoline inventories, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The stockpile decline was more than nine times the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News . “We have seen from the last couple of reports that the gasoline drawdown is still quite robust,” said David Lennox , a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney. “There appears to be enough demand being generated in the U.S. to at least take care of some domestic supply coming into the market. If that’s the case, the price will remain relatively robust.” WTI for December delivery was at $94.85 a barrel in […]

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Crude Surges the Most in Five Weeks as Fuel Demand Climbs

West Texas Intermediate crude surged the most in five weeks as U.S. gasoline demand rose to the highest level since July, trimming fuel inventories. Futures jumped after the Energy Information Administration reported that consumption of the motor fuel climbed 2.6 percent last week and gasoline supplies decreased 3.76 million, more than nine times the 400,000-barrel drop forecast by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Crude inventories increased for a seventh week, extending the longest stretch of gains since March. “The shocker number is the draw in gasoline,” said Rich Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist and founder of Iitrader.com in Chicago . “Demand is picking up, and it’s supportive for the market. The market is definitely responding to the products numbers. Crude oil is oversold.” WTI for December delivery rose $1.43, or 1.5 percent, to settle at $94.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange , the biggest one-day advance since […]

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Crude-oil futures were slightly lower in Asian trade Thursday

Crude-oil futures were slightly lower in Asian trade Thursday with sellers gaining the upper hand in Brent amid signs of progress in Iran-U.S. nuclear talks and ahead of central bank announcements in Europe. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December traded at $94.73 a barrel at 0603 GMT, down $0.07 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.34 to $104.90 a barrel. Brent crude extended losses as markets wait for announcements by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank later Thursday, as any changes in monetary policy will affect the euro and oil prices. The premium of Brent crude over Nymex WTI has dropped to around $10.10 a barrel. A lot of traders have significant positions in the Brent-WTI spread and are probably liquidating their positions as the spread narrows, Ken Hasegawa, commodity […]

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Oil prices may be losing Iranian ‘risk premium’

Page added on November 6, 2013 One of several factors contributing to the sharp drop in global oil prices in recent months has been optimism about a deal over Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Despite Tehran’s denials, fears the country is developing nuclear weapons has kept the international benchmark price for crude oil above $100 a barrel for nearly three years. A new round of talks over Iran’s nuclear program begins in Geneva on Thursday. Iran’s top negotiator has said it is possible that there could be a preliminary deal as early as this week, which could have a dramatic impact on oil prices—and U.S. consumers. “There’s a $10-to-$15 ‘risk premium’ in the price of oil, and it’s been there for quite a while—just related to what’s going on with Iran, its nuclear program and the West’s reaction to it,” said Addison Armstrong, senior director of market research at Tradition Energy, […]

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Crude Traders Seen Sticking With Brent Amid Manipulation Claims

The alleged fixing of oil prices is unlikely to sway traders from using Brent as a benchmark for buying and selling oil in the $5.7 trillion commodity market, according to analysts and brokers from London to Tokyo. Four energy traders claim in a lawsuit that some of the world’s biggest oil companies including BP Plc (BP/) , Statoil ASA (STL) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) conspired with Morgan Stanley (MS) and energy traders such as Vitol Group to fix spot prices for Brent for more than a decade. The North Sea oil price as assessed by Platts, a unit of New York-based McGraw Hill Financial Inc., is used to price more than half the world’s crude including Australia ’s Cossack, Malaysia’s Tapis and Castilla in Colombia. “Brent is going to remain as the benchmark for the foreseeable future at least, because there is no real alternative to it […]

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