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Oil Prospectors Shift Back to Wealthy Lands

In this land of towering peaks and gurgling streams, Simon Bridges wants to be lord of the rigs. As New Zealand’s resource minister, Mr. Bridges is the man behind New Zealand’s big-oil aspirations. He travels the world to pitch New Zealand to petroleum prospectors. It used to be a tough sell. New Zealand is remote and among the world’s most expensive places to drill offshore. Big prospectors largely avoided it. Today, it is experiencing an exploration boom that is part of a broader shift: After decades of focusing on less-developed nations, big companies are tilting toward wealthy countries when hunting for oil and gas. Such places have higher costs and tighter regulations, but their political stability offers […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Drought hits China food production: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) – Severe drought and scorching heat has damaged over a million hectares of farmland in China’s Henan and Inner Mongolia provinces, with no immediate relief in sight, state news agency Xinhua reported. Henan in central China is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years with precipitation at less than half of normal levels, the agency said. Some 900,000 hectares of crops have been damaged, it said. Henan is a big producer of food crops, including soybeans, barley and rice. In some regions of the province, governments have shut off water supply to businesses such as commercial swimming pools and bath houses, while water intensive industries have been asked to restrict usage, Xinhua said. In Inner Mongolia, a drought ongoing since April has affected 150,000 hectares of farmland and 16.4 million hectares of pastures, while robbing 300,000 people of drinking water, said Xinhua. The Inner Mongolia drought was […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Gasoline Prices Falling on Production, Lundberg Says

U.S. refineries are flexing their muscles and helping lower gasoline prices in the middle of the peak driving season. The average price for regular gasoline at U.S. pumps dropped 9.04 cents in the two weeks ended July 25 to $3.5795 a gallon, according to Lundberg Survey Inc. It’s based on information obtained at about 2,500 filling stations by the Camarillo, California-based company. Prices are 9.51 cents lower than a year ago and are at the lowest level since March 21, the survey showed. Retail prices declined as refineries processed the most petroleum in government records dating back to 1989 in the week ended July 11. Plants in the Midwest exceeded their nameplate capacity during that week. “It’s really a mid-summer gift,” Trilby Lundberg , the president of Lundberg Survey, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Refiners have been on a kick to run more crude, run at high rates […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Not in my backyard: US sending dirty coal abroad

Coal from Appalachia rumbles into this port city, 150 railroad cars at a time, bound for the belly of the massive cargo ship Prime Lily. The ship soon sets sail for South America, its 80,000 tons of coal destined for power plants and factories, an export of American energy – and pollution. In the U.S., this coal and the carbon dioxide it will eventually release into the atmosphere are some of the unwanted leftovers of an America going greener. With the country moving to cleaner natural gas, the Obama administration wants to reduce power plant pollution to make good on its promise to the world to cut emissions. Yet the estimated 228,800 tons of carbon dioxide contained in the coal aboard the Prime Lily equals the annual emissions of a small American power plant. It’s leaving this nation’s shores, but not the planet. "This […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Dry Spell Brings Hard Times to State's Lake and River Tourism Industry

;California’s relentless drought is beginning to dry up revenue in its popular lake and river tourism industry. Marinas and boat ramps across the state are turning away customers, and even spots where water is still relatively plentiful say visitors are staying away, assuming things are worse than they are. Casualties abound from a three-year dry spell that also has wreaked havoc on California agriculture and prompted mandatory statewide restrictions on urban watering effective Aug. 1. Los Angeles County officials have banned swimming in summer getaway Castaic Lake, citing dangers such as unexpected drop-offs in a lake now less than half-full. Boaters there report new hazards, too. Water levels at Folsom Lake have reached near historic lows, forcing boaters out of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Dry Spell Brings Hard Times to State’s Lake and River Tourism Industry

;California’s relentless drought is beginning to dry up revenue in its popular lake and river tourism industry. Marinas and boat ramps across the state are turning away customers, and even spots where water is still relatively plentiful say visitors are staying away, assuming things are worse than they are. Casualties abound from a three-year dry spell that also has wreaked havoc on California agriculture and prompted mandatory statewide restrictions on urban watering effective Aug. 1. Los Angeles County officials have banned swimming in summer getaway Castaic Lake, citing dangers such as unexpected drop-offs in a lake now less than half-full. Boaters there report new hazards, too. Water levels at Folsom Lake have reached near historic lows, forcing boaters out of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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As US kicks off crude exports, Iran casts a shadow in Asia

The United States faces an awkward rival in its first attempts in 40 years to export crude oil – Iran. Iran, whose economy has been throttled by Western sanctions that have halved its crude shipments, is now selling higher quality and cheaper oil to China that leaves little room for the U.S. crude to enter the world’s top energy consumer. While buyers in Japan and South Korea have been willing to trial a U.S. grade of the super-light crude known as condensate, China has already locked in annual contracts with Tehran and is not expected to take any U.S. oil in the short-term. With U.S. producers looking to open a trade route to sell surplus condensate from the U.S. shale boom, worries about quality and legal issues have added to doubts about how much of the oil the rest of Asia can take. “China gets condensate from Iran, which […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Europe subdued, Russia shares tumble on new sanctions

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro was stuck near its lowest level since November and Russian shares tumbled for a third straight day on Monday as new European sanctions for Moscow chilled the already frosty relationship between the two. The 28-nation EU reached an outline agreement on Friday on its first economic sanctions on Russia, which said the moves would hamper cooperation between the two and undermine the fight against terrorism. Having suffered on Friday, Europe’s main bourses were again subdued. There was more pain for Russian stocks after a report that shareholders in defunct oil producer Yukos had won a $50 billion international court case against Russia. Moscow’s dollar-denominated RTS index was down 1.6 percent, its rouble-traded peer MICEX traded 0.9 percent lower, and the rouble was down 0.5 percent against the dollar to trade at 35.32. "While the suit has been pending since 2007, any judgment will likely […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Solar, peak oil and net energy

Solar and renewables are being touted as the energy sources of the future, but will they provide enough power relative to the energy that must be invested in them? Engineer Graham Palmer argues there’s no easy solution to the fact that we’re running out of fossil fuels. Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan once quipped that the last thing a fish would notice is the water. You could almost draw a parallel to the essential role energy plays in modern society—cheap accessible energy is now so ubiquitous that we barely notice the importance of it to modern living, nor the astonishing wealth it has brought. Just one litre of petrol provides the equivalent of a week or more of pre-industrial human labour. Having achieved this miraculous transformation, it is not likely that societies will voluntarily turn back. According to Joseph Tainter’s thesis, societies grow more complex in order to solve new […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Anticipating the Peak of World Oil Production

These are indeed good times to be a Peak Oiler. All the  peak oil deniers are dancing with wild exuberance, pointing to that spike of US shale oil production that they believe drives the final nail in the “Peak Oil Theory” coffin. And it is all happening right before reality slaps them in the face. There is no doubt that world Crude + Condensate production, without that tight oil spike, has been on a ten year bumpy plateau. World Less USA A But, you may ask, when the shale bubble burst, won’t that only mean we will still stay on that bumpy plateau? No for several reasons. First the bursting of the shale bubble will likely cause a decline in US production of perhaps half a million barrels per day per year for three to four years. Second Russia, whose production increase of over 1.5 million barrels per day […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple