Category:

Fracking Is the Future

Fracking is the future according to Lord John Browne, the former chief executive for BP. He is known as the fracking czar due to his enthusiasm to bring the process to Great Britain. Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, uses a combination of water, sand, and chemicals to separate shale from natural gas and oil. Lord Browne wants to take fracking to a new level in Great Britain. According to the British Geological Survey, the Bowland-Hodder formation in England’s midsection contains shale deposits with more than 1,300 trillion cubic meters. Within that shale are deposits of oil and natural gas. With fracking, Great Britain will have enough oil and natural gas for 40 years. He believes fracking is a secure domestic energy source that will create a plethora of new jobs and generate billions in tax revenue. Lord Browne considers fracking a better alternative to constructing nuclear plants and importing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Chernobyl: Capping a Catastrophe

Against the decaying skyline here, a one-of-a-kind engineering project is rising near the remains of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster. An army of workers, shielded from radiation by thick concrete slabs, is constructing a huge arch, sheathed in acres of gleaming stainless steel and vast enough to cover the Statue of Liberty. The structure is so otherworldly it looks like it could have been dropped by aliens onto this Soviet-era industrial landscape. If all goes as planned, by 2017 the 32,000-ton arch will be delicately pushed on Teflon pads to cover the ramshackle shelter that was built to entomb the radioactive remains of the reactor that exploded and burned here in April 1986. When its ends are closed, it will be able to contain any radioactive dust should the aging shelter collapse. By all but eliminating the risk of additional atmospheric contamination, the arch will remove the lingering […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Obama Says More Sanctions Against Russia Are Coming

President Obama, declaring that Russia was continuing to bully and threaten Ukraine, said here on Monday that the United States would impose additional sanctions on Russian individuals and entities, as well as freezing some exports of military technology. The announcement, during a visit by Mr. Obama to the Philippines, was widely expected. Last week, the president said that the sanctions were “teed up” and were being delayed only by technical issues and the need to coordinate with the European Union. The fact that the announcement was made on the last stop of Mr. Obama’s weeklong Asian trip underscored the sense of urgency about fears that Russia was destabilizing eastern Ukraine. The European Union is expected to announce similar measures within a day or so, as Mr. Obama and European leaders strive to keep a united front in their campaign of pressure on Moscow. “These sanctions represent the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

EU, Ukraine Set to Sign Natural-Gas Deal

The European Union and Ukraine have agreed on terms to boost the flow of natural gas from the 28-nation bloc to the former Soviet state, Slovak pipeline operator Eustream said late Saturday. "Representatives of Eustream and [Ukrainian pipeline operator] Ukrtransgaz will sign the document on Monday," Eustream said in a statement. The two sides agreed that the fastest and least legally cumbersome way to provide Ukraine with a third EU-based gas delivery route—it already has gas-flow agreements with Hungary and Poland—is to use the pipeline between Vojany and Uzhgorod, an underutilized secondary pipe on Slovakia’s eastern border. The deal would mark Ukraine’s third significant energy agreement with the West since a pro-European caretaker government . To reduce dependence on Russia, its major trade partner, Ukraine earlier this month with Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse Electric Co. until 2020 and AG . Write to Sean Carney at

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Dude, where’s my North Sea oil money?

For a few years, the UK enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime windfall – only, unlike the Norwegians, we’ve got almost nothing to show for it Last Wednesday, every single Norwegian became a millionaire – without having to lift a lillefinger. They owe the windfall to their coastline, and a huge dollop of good sense. Since 1990, Norway has been squirreling away its cash from North Sea oil and gas into a rainy-day fund. It’s now big enough to see Noah through all 40 of those drizzly days and nights. Last week, the balance hit a million krone for everyone in Norway. Norwegians can’t take a hammer to the piggy bank, amassed strictly to provide for future generations. And converted into pounds, the 5.11 trillion krone becomes a mere £100,000 for every man, woman and child. Still, the oljefondet (the government pension fund of Norway) owns over 1% of the world’s stocks, […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
Category:

Have We Reached The Limits Of Growth?

Robert Gordon has painted a dark picture of the world’s long-run economic growth prospects. But if the past is any guide, he will likely join the band of earlier distinguished economists who proved to be far too pessimistic about the human capacity to innovate. Dennis Robertson, the renowned Cambridge economist and a contemporary of John Maynard Keynes, famously remarked that economic fashion was like going to the greyhound races. If one stood still long enough, the dogs would come around one more time. This certainly seems to be the case with fashions in economic pessimism about the long-term economic growth prospects of the world’s advanced industrial economies. Each time these economies stumble, there is no shortage of economists who come out of the woodwork to advance plausible reasons as to why the limits of economic growth might have been reached. Yet each time, events seem to have proved these […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
Category:

Do the Math of Peak Oil and Convince Yourself

Until Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrère published their paper The End of Cheap Oil in 1998 (Campbell & Laherrére, 1998), the petroleum geologist Marion King Hubbert (1903 – 1989) was all but forgotten, including his correct forecast – back in 1956 – of the US’s peak of oil production in 1970 (Hubbert, 1956). In their paper Campbell and Laherrère warned that: “Barring a global recession, it seems most likely that world production of conventional oil will peak during the first decade of the 21st century.” It took another 12 years, but eventually the oil production optimist par excellence, the International Energy Agency (IEA, of the OECD countries), also had to admit the undeniable in their World Energy Outlook of 2010 (IEA, 2010): “Crude oil output reaches an undulating plateau of around 68–69 mb/d by 2020, but never regains its all‐time peak of 70 mb/d reached in 2006, […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
Category:

Is Peak Oil Waiting for Godot?

Waiting for Godot was a two act play by Samuel Beckett where two men kept waiting for Godot and they just kept waiting and waiting and waiting… And no, I don’t think we will be kept waiting and waiting like the characters in that play. Peak oil is about to arrive, in my opinion anyway. Way back in 2005 we thought it likely that crude oil production had peaked at just under 74 million barrels per day. During the preceding three years C+C production had risen by 6,481,000 barrels per day or 2,160,333 barrels per day per year. The reason for that dramatic increase was a doubling in the price of oil from $25 per barrel in 2002 to $54.43 in 2005. So oil production depends, to a great extent, the price of oil. The more money the more oil. However…  The C+C data in all charts below are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oil Holds Onto Gains on Ukraine Tensions

Crude-oil futures held onto overnight gains in Asian trading hours Friday on heightened tensions between Ukraine and Russia that kept global financial markets on edge. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $101.92 a barrel at 0549 GMT, down $0.02 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.01 to $110.32 a barrel. Ukrainian forces killed several militants outside a pro-Russian stronghold in eastern Ukraine on Thursday as it attempted to regain control of the region, prompting Russian military exercises on its side of the border. "With Russia warning of ‘consequences’ and Ukraine complaining of Russian ‘interference’ and ‘permanent threats and blackmail,’ worries over the possibility that escalation either via arms or sanctions could disrupt Russian oil and gas exports remained high," Citi Futures analyst Tim Evans said in a note. U.S. President Barack […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

WTI Crude Drops to Two-Week Low as Equities Decline

West Texas Intermediate crude fell to the lowest level in two weeks, widening the discount to Brent, as U.S. equities slipped and oil stockpiles expanded. Prices dropped 1.3 percent, following the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) amid disappointing corporate earnings. WTI capped the first weekly loss since April 4 as inventories reached the highest level since government weekly data started in 1982. Brent fell less than WTI on concern the Ukraine crisis will escalate and disrupt supplies. “I don’t see anything physical or fundamental that’s bullish for oil,” Kyle Cooper , director of commodities research at IAF Advisors in Houston, said today in a telephone interview. “Equities are falling. The petroleum market is driven by short-term money flows. We probably will test $100.” WTI for June delivery fell $1.34 to $100.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since April 7. The futures are […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple