Energy
Looking for oil demand in all the wrong places
Much of the world is paying attention to the oil inventories and demand figures coming out of the US and other OECD nations. While the OECD accounts for a big portion of global demand, that number has been shrinking since the 1990s. This is why oil prices only crashed to about $30/bbl when OECD demand... »
Driving to Starvation
Biofuels are a false dawn. They are inefficient (in terms of EROI) and they waste food. Biofuels are not a solution to expensive oil. It is simply a massive “The grain grown to produce fuel in the US was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels,”... »
Don Coxe: Basic Points Feb 2010
Hard Rocks and Hard Shocks »
A World Without Oil
The average American consumes roughly 25 barrels of oil per year: ten barrels of oil for food, nine barrels for autos, and seven barrels for homes. What would life be like if we didn’t have oil? National Geographic »
Oil Oversupply Can Easily be Absorbed
Imbalances still exist in the oil market, according to Iran’s OPEC governor, but there isn’t enough oversupply to derail crude prices. “There is some oversupply in the market,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters in a telephone interview. “But it cannot damage the market. It can be absorbed into stocks.” Storage levels have fallen over winter, but... »
“We have only seen the first leg of it”
Mike Ruppert’s new documentary “Collapse” and his book “Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World” are getting a lot of attention around the world. Mr. Ruppert, a middle-aged former L.A. cop turned journalist and author, was recently interviewed. He had these touching words to say: “It is not... »
Shell & Peak Oil
Shell CEO Peter Voser, addressing an audience at The Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., answered a question about peak oil: …despite developments in technologies such as electric cars, wind power and other alternative energy sources, “we will need conventional oil” for the foreseeable future. “We cannot switch it off, and we can... »
We’re all PIGS now
The financial crisis of 2008 stemmed from cheap money, but was pushed over a cliff by expensive energy. Rising gas and food costs were the catalysts that squeezed consumers who were already over-leveraged. Studies have shown that the first houses to start dropping were the ones with the furthest commutes. This started a domino effect... »
Do You Have a Company Song?
This is apparently the company song for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant. My favorite line: “Don’t bother trying, you’ll never ever find A surer friend than Gazprom” Interesting. A little creepy. MTV award contender? »
The Morning Paper: Asia, Gold & Empires
Morning reading for bright eyes and bushy tails… Asia buys record volume of W.African oil in Q1 India potential buyer for IMF gold Empires on the Edge of Chaos (Niall Ferguson) »