The past year has been all about shifting debt.

The financial crisis drove American homeowners into debt. Homeowners defaulted on their loans (or threatened to), driving the banks into debt. The U.S. government bailed out the banks, shifting debt to the public balance sheet.

And over the last few weeks the "hot potato" has once again begun to move. From the government back to the private sector.

A new stimulus grant of $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy that includes support for grid-scale energy storage projects is the latest sign of the growing need to find ways of storing energy from electricity production.

While traditionally storage has focused on balancing peak and off-peak usage, the need has become greater with renewable energy forms like wind and solar because these depend on sources that are only intermittently available.

California last month ...

I'm spending a few days in Toronto at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual conference.

This is one of the mining industry's largest events. Thousands of companies descend on the site to promote their projects. Financiers from across the globe come armed with billions of dollars slated for mineral investment.

Meetings with these individuals are often interesting. Yesterday my partner Phil O'Neill and I sat down with a fund manager who represents a group of ...

PetroChina joined with Royal Dutch Shell in a bid for Australian coal-seam gas producer Arrow Energy as Asian countries scramble for a stake in the vast energy resources at their doorstep in Australia.

Full article at: ...

A year ago this week the stock market hit its nefarious 666 level on the S&P 500. Since that historic day, we have enjoyed a 68% appreciation in equities from their depressionary low. Not only has the bounce caused a chorus of perma-bulls to claim the worst of the recession is behind us, but also to declare that the bull market is here to stay.

But the cacophonies from those pundits who are now categorizing the move off the lows as a long lasting trend are overlooking an important ...

When oil crossed $120 a barrel for the first time in May 2008, oil cornucopians knew they were in trouble. Prices had quadrupled in just five years, yet had failed to bring new production online. Regular crude had flatlined around 74 million barrels per day (mbpd). The case for peak oil was looking stronger with every new uptick in crude futures.

The following month, prominent peak oil critic and cornucopian Daniel Yergin of IHS-CERA changed his stance: The peak oil threat would be ...

Chevron has acquired exploration rights for four shale gas concessions in southeastern Poland, the U.S. oil giant said in a recent SEC filing, joining other international companies in the hunt for unconventional gas reserves in Europe in the hopes of duplicating the production boom in the U.S.

The need in Europe to reduce dependence on imported gas, especially from Russia, is spurring efforts to tap shale gas and coal-bed methane using new technologies that have proven successful in U.S. ...

Oil Market Summary for 03/01/2010 to 03/05/2010

Jobs data indicating that U.S. economic recovery might be picking up steam finally pushed crude oil futures decisively over the stubborn $80 a barrel threshold. Nymex’s benchmark West Texas Intermediate settled Friday at $81.50 a barrel, a seven-week high, after topping $82 in intraday trading.

The European Commission added to its economic stimulus program with the largest-ever package of grants to energy infrastructure, including support for the Nabucco pipeline project that will help Europe diversify its sources of natural gas.

The package of 2.3 billion euros ($3.1 billion) for 43 projects will attract 22 billion euros ($30 billion) of private sector energy investment, largely for pipelines and electricity interconnectors.

“The problem is that, in today's economic ...

Four Democratic senators entered into the clean energy vs. jobs fray, charging that too much federal stimulus money for wind energy projects is going to foreign suppliers and creating jobs abroad instead of in the U.S.

The administration and the domestic wind energy industry immediately rejected the lawmakers’ charges, as the political pressure to reduce unemployment continued to fuel the economic debate in Washington.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, joined by Sens. Bob Casey ...

The elections in Iraq on March 7, 2010, are likely to serve as an important indicator of the prospects for a resolution of the long-running dispute over the administration of the ethnically mixed and resource-rich province of Kirkuk in the north of the country.

The European currency has depreciated dramatically against the US dollar in the past few months, falling from over $1.50 on December 1st to $1.35 today. The move has caused many investors to question the viability of the European Union and its currency, while also serving to reinforce the notion of the USD’s position as the world’s reserve currency.

To be clear, there has never been any question in my mind that the euro is just another flawed fiat currency. It could never ...

The Russian gas giant this week said it will allow up to 15% of its gas sales to Europe to be sold at spot gas prices on the continent.

I've got a bad feeling about the Euro: the structural imbalances I presented yesterday irrevocably doom the single currency.

Just to recap the cycle and its consequences, here is a chart:

Click here for chart: The Mercantilist Nation  - Consumer-Debt Nation ...

South Korea is coming to northeast British Columbia.

It was reported this week that state-run Korea Gas has signed a deal with Canadian gas major EnCana covering three fields in the province of British Columbia. Korea Gas will take a 50% interest, for a price tag of $1.1 billion.

Details are scant. EnCana itself has not commented. But the deal almost certainly focuses on gas from the Horn River Basin/Montney shale play.

Major producers have been flocking to northeast B.C. ...

European shale-derived natural gas could become a reality far sooner, and in far larger quantities, than markets expect.

In a Securities and Exchange disclosure from last Thursday Chevron confirmed that it won new rights to explore Poland for potential shale gas, although the size of the acreage was not divulged.

Noted in the annual report, Chevron has acquired rights to explore for natural gas in the Grabowiec concession, located in the southeastern part of Poland.

The confirmation ...

Iraq announced a $318 million contract with a unit of Turkish Petroleum to drill 45 wells in the supergiant Rumaila oilfield as the country strives to regain and even surpass pre-war production levels.

With the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world, Iraq said at an industry conference last month that it wants to raise its production capacity to 12 million barrels a day in the next six years from ...

Natural gas prices ended lower last week despite slightly supportive weekly inventory data and cold weather forecasts in the US, as a slide in crude and more bad economic news pressured prices.

Energy efficiency is one of the themes most discussed by those who are interested in issues regarding energy and the environment. The key question is how effective these proposed solutions will be. Will these technological solutions labeled as ‘energy efficiency’ (i.e. an increase in power plants generation efficiency, cogeneration, home insulation, more efficient electric motors, cars, light bulbs, etc.) really lead to a decrease in the global demand for energy?

I’ve received a copy of a new regulation framework for geothermal energy in Europe. Handed to me by a colleague last week, whose associate led the drafting of the document.

Geothermal is still an infant industry. In many countries, governments lack even a basic mechanism for granting licenses on geothermal projects. There just isn't any legal-work around giving a company rights to hot groundwater.

The new framework attempts to address this and several other issues for ...

Texas became the latest state to launch an environmental watchdog for energy development as a nonprofit group set its sights on the Barnett Shale drilling in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Texas campaign of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, after similar campaigns in New Mexico and Colorado, is part of a growing concern about the environmental impact of techniques like hydraulic fracturing that are creating an energy boom as the U.S. exploits vast deposits of shale oil and ...
Read entire blog post »

Crude oil broke through the $80 a barrel ceiling repeatedly during the week but kept falling back as hedge funds placed big bets on the Euro’s decline.

The fiscal drama in Greece held global markets hostage much of the week as worries about the impact of the Greek crisis on the euro outweighed comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke about continued low interest rates in the U.S., pushing the euro down against the dollar and damping crude prices.

The euro recovered ...

There has been some unusual action on the Japanese commodities markets that demands a comment.

I mentioned earlier this week that over the last two weeks the Japanese have revved up several new structured investment products tracking commodities.

There are now some "seismic signals" registering in those markets, showing these new ETFs and trusts may be having an immediate impact.

On Tuesday, open interest in rubber futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange suddenly ...

It’s a truism that the 21st century future of not just Asia, but the entire world, will be significantly determined by the relationship between the globe’s two fastest-growing large economies, China and India.

As most observers know, there have long been kinks in the political military relationship between the two countries, most notably their direct armed confrontation in 1962.

This was generally seen as a military victory for China, and provoked a thoroughgoing ...

What's more important: upside or stability?

That debate constantly rages amongst commodities producers. Especially when it comes to deciding whether to sell gold, copper or oil at spot versus long-term pricing.

Long-term pricing is the stable option. Like being in a good marriage. A seller has a decent price, one they can count on. There probably aren't going to be any big surprises. An acceptable profit will be made.

Spot pricing is the "one-night stand" of the ...

Reports that French oil giant Total is ready to invest $20 billion in Nigerian oil and gas development spread through energy markets in an unlikely bit of positive news for the beleaguered African producer.

Full article at: ...

The U.S. Department of Energy is using funds from last year’s economic stimulus package to guarantee $1.37 billion in loans for a solar energy project in California’s Mojave Desert.

Just over a year ago, and spurred by an article in Time, I wrote a post on the possible global supply of lithium, which is used in renewable batteries, and a major choice for use in the batteries of electric vehicles, such as the Chevy Volt. Since the story has acquired more recent interest this week, and with new information, it is worth re-visiting the topic.

I began the original post by noting that our first introduction to these batteries was in our role as an Explosives Lab when we ...

Full article at: ...

The Obama Administration is currently pursuing a misguided and dangerous war on the oil and natural gas industry, blaming it for not doing enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions.  Not only does this belligerent policy fail to improve the situation it was designed to address, it will also place U.S. energy security at much greater risk in the long run.

The Libyan government has been sounding off lately about boosting the profile of its oil and gas market, but it’s questionable whether international companies will ignore the government’s missteps in the industry - not to mention the recent lackluster energy finds - and keep injecting money into the North African country.

Full article at: ...

News came yesterday that oil major BP is close to a deal in the Alberta oil sands.

It appears that BP is the preferred bidder for a majority stake in bankrupt oil sands developer Value Creation. The price tag is $1.2 billion.

The U.S. has a lot of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) rods from nuclear reactors, which need to be disposed off in deep, protected underground sites. Yet these rods give off massive amounts of heat as they slowly cool.

The simmering difficulties in the US strategic relationship with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were, by the beginning of 2010, ready to emerge despite the attempts of the US Administration of Pres. Barack Obama to show a pattern of deference to Beijing. But the internal US economic policies, leading to the de facto devaluation of the US dollar, seemed, if anything, a deliberate move to devalue the worth of the PRC’s massive investments in US dollar instruments.

U.S. lawmakers are toughening their stance on Iran’s energy industry with new economic penalties, but experts doubt the Islamic regime will pay much attention and is more likely to open the doors even wider to other players eager to replace fleeing investors.

Long on Congress’ radar screen, Iran is being targeted by two bills: The Senate’s Dodd-Shelby Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act passed in late January; and the House’s Iran Refined ...

The U.S. Dollar is Finally Getting Invited Back to the Investment Party

The buck is up 6% against the euro in the last three weeks. Notwithstanding problems in Greece and Spain, and the attendant complications for the E.U., this is a pretty good performance.

”Endless Oil” is the title of a piece in Business Week (Jan, 18, 2010). Its author is Stanley Reed, and it was interesting for me because I remember when Business Week would not have published a tissue of nonsense like that article, and perhaps even more important, I was surprised when I saw the names of some of the persons whose opinions were cited.

After starting the week on a firmer note, oil prices fell sharply toward the end of the week in a general market sell-off as investors sought the dollar as a safe haven amid worries about European Union economies.

This might be the year's most important news. Which got almost no press globally.

Something strange happened in Japan in December. Shipments of aluminum from Mozambique and Brazil showed up in the northwestern ports of Fushiki and Fukui.

Shipping aluminum to Japan isn't weird. The nation is an important consumer. But shipping South American and African aluminum to northwest Japan is strange.

These are minor ports. Usually such imports would be unloaded on the Pacific side, ...

As widely reported, the fall in WTI was part of a larger sell-off in commodities. Triggered by strengthening of the U.S. dollar.

With all the focus on yesterday's selling, there was less press on the things being bought. Most notably U.S. Treasury notes.

During the decade after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, China was generally seen throughout East Asia as a friendly alternative power-center to the American-led Washington-consensus that told countries in trouble they had to force their banks to declare their bad loans and clean up the political influence of big finance – commands which, of course, the US completely ignored when its own banking & insurance sectors went over the cliff in Black September 2008.

But in the last ...

David Threlkeld of metals trading advisor Resolved Inc. got some press this week.

That happens when you predict a catastrophe.

Threlkeld was quoted by Bloomberg repeating an ominous prediction he first made in May 2006. The call? That the copper market is heading for a catastrophic collapse. With the LME price falling to below $1 per pound.

Threlkeld has some credentials. He was one of the first to expose rogue copper trader Yasuo Hamanaka in the mid-1990s. And point out that ...

In a global economic scene dominated by continuing uncertainty, one of the few “sure bets” has SEEMED to be the “green tech / cleantech” sector.

Full article at: ...

Full article at: ...

The problem of all this debt and fiscal profligacy is clear. Every dollar of debt is a promise to tax that same dollar in the future…and with interest. Estimates indicate that the publically traded debt will rise to $18.5 trillion by 2020. To compare, the total National debt outstanding today is already an unbelievable $12.3 trillion and the publically traded portion of that debt is $7.7 trillion. Having publically traded debt increase from $7.7 trillion to 18.5 trillion may result in ...

Often the green movement’s whipping boy, the oil and gas sector has no chance of escaping the scourge of climate change, an issue that everyone from international leaders to even Osama bin Laden are bemoaning these days.

From the conference halls of Copenhagen in December, to somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistani border in recent days, critics are sounding off about what the crossroads of lax industry ways and weak government rules has done to the environment.
Full article at: ...

A great - and still growing - divergence appeared in 2009 between public statements by leaders and their public performance. The politicized, romanticized theater of increasingly populist “democratic” leaders and media seemed to be of a different planet from activities taking place in the real world.

While a large part of the global population appears still transfixed by words, there is a growing perception that great fissures already rend the global strategic ...
Read entire blog post »

Crude oil futures slipped below $73 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate late Friday as a temporary boost from strong GDP figures failed to last and let prices sink to a one-month low.

While I’m disgusted with the level of banker’s bonuses and with the obscene leverage practices

Gazprom faces regular opprobrium for its bullying ways of using energy as a pressure and political tool. Seen by some, mostly Russians, as the symbol of a successful and strong Russia, others see it as a dominating juggernaut, economic right arm of the Kremlin implementing, or should we say, imposing its policies by using energy as a weapon.

Over the next year or two, you will likely find yourself paying a LOT more at the gas pump. Big changes are taking place in the oil industry . With increased global demand and declining supply, easy oil is not so easy anymore.

Everything is about to get more expensive. From gasoline to anti-freeze, life jackets to golf balls, and eye glasses to fertilizer. There are very few things in the modern world that aren't made from oil, made by machines dependant on oil, or shipped by vehicles powered ...

Substantial and unmistakable signs of profound change in the global strategic framework have become concrete in the past year. The stress in the structure has already developed into fissures. The transformation, in reality, has been underway since the end of the Cold War, and will continue and compound for at least another decade.

The balance of power is changing. Apart from the wave of globalization, which was really a precursor event, what is now emerging is the first truly fundamental ...

As the recession fades from the Canadian oil sands and projects delayed amid months of uncertainty score a second chance, criticism has still not simmered down over how these pockets of crude sully the surrounding land in the country’s picturesque province of Alberta.
Full article at: <a href="http://www.oilprice.com/article-canadas-alluring-energy-supply-regaining-its-lustre-despite-continued-criticism.html" target="new">Alberta Oil Sands</a>

Indonesia, although a considerable distance from being a state capable of projecting power, has begun to bring greater focus to its strategic situation, and, at the same time, it is moving toward a consolidation of the Yudhoyono era.

Even absent a blue water/blue skies military projection, continued movement along these paths seems set to give Indonesia greater brown water defensive control over the vast Indonesian island empire, and make it a more significant gatekeeper of the South-East Asian ...

As we've discussed, Japan is using a lot less oil these days. In the last year, Japanese consumption dropped 800,000 barrels per day.

That's leaving the country's petroleum infrastructure under-used. Nippon Oil plans to idle 20% of its refineries by 2015.

Oil storage facilities are also sitting empty. And the Japanese government is getting creative in putting this "empty space" to productive use.

Full article at: ...

New measures by Chinese authorities to curb bank lending reversed a rally in energy prices early in the week, bringing West Texas Intermediate futures down more than 4% in the second half of the week to below $75 a barrel by Friday.

China continued its efforts to slow down its economy and prevent overheating, and told some banks to stop making certain kinds of loans. The Chinese move on Wednesday hit all commodities across the board, from gold to lead, with the prospect of slower economic ...

Description: The U.S. Export market is fairing reasonably well. Whilst it produces no Consumer Goods it does produce Capital goods. Engines, boilers and factory components. High-value products that are used by developing countries to make lower-value things.

US and Western European political leaders have begun to focus on Yemen as a source of projected instability and as a haven for jihadist terrorism against the West.

This simplistic and overly narrow view has largely been a reaction to media reporting of the links of alleged (and unsuccessful) Nigerian-born terrorist bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to a radical Yemeni group, and to intense ongoing fighting between insurgents and Yemeni and Saudi government forces on the Yemen-Saudi ...

The shape of this economic recovery will not be in a “V”, as many pundits have promulgated, but instead may be the inversion of that letter…which will unfortunately look much more like a tepee. The upcoming downfall will surprise most investors who have been tricked into believing that a government can print and spend their way into prosperity.

Undeniably, there has been a superficial recovery in the economy, which was presaged by a 65% rebound in the S&P 500 since ...

The "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" dropped today on Capitol Hill.

The odd-sounding measure ("You've caused a financial catastrophe. That'll be $8.50 please.") is the Obama government's latest plan to recoup the cost of bailing out the financial system over the last 18 months.

The plan basically taxes large American banks. Based on how aggressive they are.

Full article at: http://www.oilprice.com/article-lending-takes-another-teeth-kick.html

Market rallies on impressive trade figures from China. But the real excitement over today's news came in the oil sector. Oil hit $84 per barrel after it was reported that China's December crude imports hit a record 21.26 million tons. That's 160 million barrels. Or 5.15 million barrels per day.

Full Article at: http://www.oilprice.com/article-a-limp-oil-world.html

Do hedge funds have an impact on energy trading?

While the answer might seem intuitive, the debate as to whether they actually do has come to resemble the medieval theological dispute about how many angels can dance on the head of the pin.

Because, like angels, many trades in energy futures are invisible, and it is often not possible to pinpoint where they take place.

And yet, for most of us, including lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it seems obvious that when hedge funds buy and ...

Following the Japanese crash in the early 1990s, the government spent in an attempt to keep the economy afloat. Between 1990 and 2008, central government debt surged from $2.2 trillion to $8.5 trillion as the feds pumped out cash. Much of this went to public works. Roads, bridges and yes, swimming pools.

This represents a 285% increase in government debt in under 20 years. During the same period, U.S. government debt grew from $2.4 trillion to $5.8 trillion. Well behind at only 140% ...

There have been growing whispers coming from Tehran since mid-December 2009 which identify Iranian Ayatollah Shahroudi, as the new candidate-successor to Iran’s ailing “Supreme Leader”

Iran’s mid-June 2009 intense presidential elections, which led to the current crisis, were ...

Climate Change is having a great impact on global perspectives, which is leading Governments and Businesses to take a serious look at Carbon Sequestration (CCS.) This means that instead of drilling gases out of the bottom of the planet, there is now a push to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the gases discarded by industry and transporting and injecting it into underground geological formations.

Inside Beltwayistan, a number of Bushevik oil patch zombies still roam the recession-blasted landscape mindlessly chanting their Caspian mantra, “Happiness is multiple pipelines” - with the caveat that they flow westwards and bypass both Russia and Iran. They’ve now added a new word to their vocabulary, “Nabucco,” and worse, have bitten a number of Obama administration officials and visiting European politicians, who have joined their shuffling ranks.
 
Their ...

Iran’s ruling mullahs are confident anew in their country’s ability to surge to a hegemonic position in the Middle East without a major war. The main reason for the mullahs’ confidence is their interpretation of the appeasement policies of the US Barack Obama Administration.

Most significant is the undeclared – yet widely projected – profound change in US policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran and all other regional governments are convinced ...

Is the term “clean coal” an oxymoron?  That’s a hot question for politicians, the energy industry and environmentalists, alike.  While the words seem intuitively clear, the meaning of the term, as well as the feasibility of improving coal’s environmental impact, are in question.

Originally, “clean coal” referred to any number of techniques to reduce the negative effects of burning coal.  Up until recently, this has meant reducing sulphur dioxide ...

The financial crisis changed the way people think. At least some people.

In North America, the bursting of the housing bubble dispelled the myth you could get rich simply by owning a home. Likewise, people are now realizing that buying and holding stocks is not a sure-fire way to grow wealth.

The "get rich easy" schemes are falling by the wayside. Leaving people to once again make money the old fashioned way. Earn it.

The crisis has forced us to ask: what can I ...

The coming year: 2010, will see a growing clash of conflicting mega-trends in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater; trends which will ultimately have long-term impact not only on the region, but on all of Eurasia and global energy and political arenas.

These main mega-trends are:

1. Obama’s Needs: The desperate efforts of the US White House of Pres. Barack Obama to appease and negotiate with any element of the “Taliban” — and the label “Taliban” is used ...

ExxonMobil's buyout of XTO Energy was the story of December. It might be the story of 2009.

But equally important are the details now emerging about the deal. Particularly the "escape hatch" that Exxon built in.

Exxon is buying XTO to get into the shale gas game. Shale gas is one of the true revolutions we've seen across the commodities space over the last decade. And XTO has the expertise Exxon needs to quickly become a heavyweight in this arena.

It is often assumed that what preoccupies military planners is their attempts to define the shape of future warfare so that they can adequately prepare equipment and doctrine ideal to meet the threat. Evidence, however, shows that what most occupies their attention is how to adapt existing force structures and systems to react to emerging conditions. 

The vast bulk of their attention, inevitably, is on the massive capital investment in weapons systems which last, often, a half-century ...

Iraq has the world's third largest oil reserves, after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iraq's oil capacity could reach 12 million barrels per day (bpd) in six years.

BAGHDAD - What was once considered a pipe-dream could become reality: after decades of dictatorship, war and international sanctions, Iraq’s massive oil reserves are set to be tapped proper and the country once known for two overflowing rivers could be crowned oil king.

If the seven oil projects awarded to foreign oil companies this weekend, and the three from an auction earlier this year, develop as planned, within eight years, Iraq will see its oil production capacity leap to more ...

While energy-strapped India is scouring the globe for oil and gas - a bid that recently took it to Sudan and Russia where India signed two memoranda of understanding, and to Iran where it forged two agreements – the South Asian nation is also urging energy investors to its shores.

“India is thirsty for energy,” Ron Somers, president of the U.S.-India Business Council, told OilPrice.com. India, with a population of roughly 1.2 billion and a 300-million-strong middle ...

A detailed look at Iranian Geopolitics and their Nuclear Power moves in the region.

In order to survive revolutions must continue to propagate themselves or else they die; that was true of revolutions on the left that saw their golden years in the late 1950s and ‘60s in much of Latin America and communist Eastern Europe, and it true of today’s Islamist movements. To survive they need to keep moving. Understand that and you understand the basis of what drives Iran’s Islamic ...

When you analyse Natural Resource companies it’s essential you know which type you are dealing with. The first type are explorers. These are companies hoping to find something. Oil, gold, geothermal energy. They have not yet made a discovery, but they possess expertise that gives them a chance of doing so.

The second type are developers. Companies that have found something. And are now working on figuring out how big, how challenging and how costly that something will be to get out ...

For over a decade Turkey has been engaged in an uphill struggle to gain admission into the European Union. Turkey is gradually beginning to re-align its foreign policy in favor of the Arab and Muslim East.

A detailed look at hedging and what does Mexico’s recent trade mean? Is this a vote of no confidence in the Oil Market or something else!

Iran is gathering momentum to become a great regional power with global implications. It is already a nuclear weapons power, with externally-acquired nuclear weapons. But the question facing Iranians and the external community is the style of governance of the country, and its specific international and grand strategy objectives.

Iran's present geo-strategic position is also transformed in importance by the end of the Great Game (or at least the component of it which began with the ...

As multinational military forces have left Iraq, international petroleum companies have eagerly descended -- seduced by the long-term potential of vast oil reserves off-limits to foreigners for decades. Yet lingering violence, legal questions and political uncertainty make doing business in this country a gamble.

In the first international oil auction held last June, widely seen as a failure, the Iraqi government awarded a firm contract to only a consortium of British Petroleum and the China ...

History was made about ten days ago in Vienna at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency when China and Russia voted along with the United States to sanction the Islamic Republic of Iran over its continued pursuit of nuclear energy. Iran, it is believed, intends to develop the technology to produce weapons of mass destruction. So say Western nations. Iran, of course denies all such accusations, claiming its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

What is ...

Interesting piece on Crude oil – it’s actually quite a complex substance:

Some people arbitrarily speak about oil as if it is a single, indistinguishably homogenous substance without any unique differentiation, but this is actually not the case at all! In fact, there are many different kinds of oil.

In its natural, unrefined state, crude oil ranges in density and consistency, from very thin, light weight and volatile fluidity to an extremely thick, semi-solid heavy weight oil. ...

Interesting piece on Crude oil – it’s actually quite a complex substance:

Some people arbitrarily speak about oil as if it is a single, indistinguishably homogenous substance without any unique differentiation, but this is actually not the case at all! In fact, there are many different kinds of oil.

In its natural, unrefined state, crude oil ranges in density and consistency, from very thin, light weight and volatile fluidity to an extremely thick, semi-solid heavy weight oil. ...

Interesting piece on Crude oil – it’s actually quite a complex substance:

Some people arbitrarily speak about oil as if it is a single, indistinguishably homogenous substance without any unique differentiation, but this is actually not the case at all! In fact, there are many different kinds of oil.

In its natural, unrefined state, crude oil ranges in density and consistency, from very thin, light weight and volatile fluidity to an extremely thick, semi-solid heavy weight oil. ...

After 40 years of bitter opposition Environmentalists concede that Nuclear Power is essential to avert further harm from Global Warming. The Nuclear Industry has felt itself vilified, constrained and damaged by the ceaseless and sometimes pathological opposition of the environmental movement, this changing attitude is manna from on high.

Although very little happened, Nov. 24 was a red letter day for the nation's nuclear power industry. No new nuclear reactors were purchased, no ...

One bonus of the global recession is that it wiped a lot of incompetent hedge fund managers and energy speculators from the canyons of Wall Street. As the Gordon Gecko sycophants regroup and look for the next Big Thing, maximizing profit while minimizing risk, the landscape looks very different than it did a year ago. In such a climate, it is uranium, not oil and natural gas that would seem to have the brightest future for one simple, overriding capitalist principle – supply and demand. ...
Read entire blog post »

After years of over promising and under delivering, the solar Industry is finally starting to show some interesting developments which have the potential to make solar power as cheap as fossil fuel on a cost-per-watt basis within five years.

Getting us to that state, called grid parity, would require solar companies to produce power for around $1 a watt. Is it possible anytime soon?

Many analysts think so and the target date being touted around is 2015. The reason for this fresh optimism ...

The recent revelations of a International Energy Administration whistleblower that the IEA may have distorted key oil projections under intense U.S. pressure is, if true (and whistleblowers rarely come forward to advance their careers), a slow-burning thermonuclear explosion on future global oil production. The Bush administration’s actions in pressuring the IEA to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves have the ...

The media is chock full with articles of scientists, environmentalists and Carbon Billionaires (Al Gore) – stating how mankind is destroying the planet with our use of fossil fuels and other contaminents. The fact that industry is causing ecological and environmental damage is without doubt, but are we really the cause of the high greenhouse gas levels, or should we be more concerned with natural causes such as melting permafrost.

Most foreign investors have been focused on Central Asia’s vast hydrocarbon resources and the extractive industries of energy and Minerals. But water is an issue of rising concern throughout the region as after years of soviet mismanagement geopolitical tensions are running high.

These regional problems present outside companies willing to think outside the box with an incredible opportunity and a guaranteed red carpet welcome.

Full article: ...

As we all live in the present, it is very hard to fully assess the future implications of decisions supported or made by political and business leaders. An extraordinary game of geo-strategy is under way to lock in long-term agreements, notably in the energy sector. At a global level, the transit routes of future oil & gas pipelines become the object of a power struggle involving not only the suppliers and end-users but also the ...

While many Western investors remain fixated on somehow acquiring a slice of Turkmenistan’s natural gas riches, despite a recent scandal over the country’s actual reserves, there is another country further east whose energy and mineralogical reserves have been overlooked – Uzbekistan.

While a number of factors are responsible for this oversight, including relative geographical isolation (Uzbekistan, along with Liechtenstein, ...