JPMorgan Cuts Forecasts on 2010, 2011 New York Oil Prices as Demand Slows

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered by 5.5 percent its forecast for New York oil prices this year on speculation a slowdown in global economies will limit crude’s potential to rise.

The bank cut to $77.25 a barrel its estimate for the average price of West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange during the rest of 2010, from a forecast of $81.75 a barrel made last month, according to a monthly report e-mailed today. It lowered its forecast for 2011’s average price to $79.25 a barrel from $90.

Crude Oil May Fall as U.S. Inventories, OPEC Output Increase, Survey Shows

Crude oil may fall next week amid increases in U.S. oil supplies and OPEC production, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Fifteen of 36 analysts, or 42 percent, forecast crude oil will decline through Aug. 6. Twelve respondents, or 33 percent, predicted that futures will rise, and nine, or 25 percent, forecast prices would be little changed.

Motorists can expect fairly steady pump prices

Motorists heading out on vacation in the next month should expect gasoline prices to remain fairly constant, give or take a few cents.

Although gasoline demand has been slightly stronger in the past month, ample supplies have kept prices below $3 a gallon. It's trend that should extend to Labor Day, unless a hurricane shuts down oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

North Dakota Passes Oklahoma in Drilling Rigs as Baker Hughes Count Rises

North Dakota overtook Oklahoma this week as the third-most active state in drilling for oil and natural gas, according to data published by Baker Hughes Inc.

The number of North Dakota rigs exploring for and producing oil and gas jumped by two to 128, Baker Hughes said. Oklahoma fell by nine to 123, the biggest drop among the states. Oklahoma is home to the oil delivery hub for the U.S. Midcontinent.

China invests 40 billion dollars in Iran oil, gas

TEHERAN — Iran’s main economic partner China has invested around 40 billion dollars in the Islamic republic’s oil and gas sector, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.

Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noqrehkar Shirazi also said that Teheran’s oil exports to China fell by 30 percent in the first six months of 2010 compared with the corresponding period last year.

Exxon, BP, Imperial Oil Form Exploration Venture for Canada's Beaufort Sea

Imperial Oil Ltd., Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc formed a joint venture to explore for oil and natural gas in Canada’s Beaufort Sea.

Mexico Pemex Aims To Boost Investment In Coming Years-Official

MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--Mexico's state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, wants more capital expenditure money for 2012 as it seeks to control declining production at offshore deposits, squeeze more crude out of new and mature onshore fields, and move forward with plans to dip into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico despite the BP oil spill, officials said Friday.

Chevron-Ecuador verdict unlikely until 2011 -judge

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A verdict in a multibillion-dollar trial against Chevron Corp in Ecuador over rain forest pollution looks unlikely to be reached until 2011, according to the new judge on the case.

Responding to a request from the international arbitration tribunal to which Chevron appealed last year, the judge in the case estimated his verdict would not be reached for another eight to ten months.

Government logs show delays in report of Michigan oil spill

What did Enbridge Energy Partners know about crude oil spilling from a ruptured pipe in west Michigan?

And when did the energy company -- and its Canadian parent, Enbridge Inc. -- realize it had a potential disaster seeping into the Kalamazoo River?

Investigation into oil spill cause begins

As cleanup efforts on Friday appeared to contain the spread of the Kalamazoo River oil spill, parallel efforts ramped up toward pinpointing a cause for the crisis -- an answer that could take up to 18 months to find.

BP's `Kill' Start May Be Delayed Due to Storm Debris

BP Plc’s next attempt to more fully seal its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico was delayed by a day so the company can remove debris from a relief well.

The “static kill” procedure, in which mud will be pumped into the well, may start Aug. 3 rather than Aug. 2, National Incident Commander Thad Allen told reporters on a call yesterday.

Many Gulf of Mexico oil rig relocation decisions have yet to be made

As rigs have gone idle, the contractors have been hit by a blizzard of force majeure notices from the oil companies invoking clauses in their contracts that give them an out if work is delayed by an unforeseen event. This appears to be a novel application of force majeure, which is more typically invoked in the case of a natural disaster, and the contractors are resisting, leading to ongoing discussions as the parties try to hammer out deals or agree to standby day rates far lower than the usual average of $400,000 a day.

Scientists point to better way to safer drilling: An editorial

The Obama administration has insisted that its blanket moratorium on deepwater drilling is unavoidable to prevent another spill and ensure drilling is safe before it resumes.

But scientists and disaster experts investigating the Deepwater Horizon explosion are advocating for better alternatives to the broad ban -- and the administration ought to listen and end the moratorium's economic choke hold on our region.

U.S. May Widen Range in BP Oil-Spill Estimate, Scientist Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration, which plans within a few days to announce a new determination for how much oil BP Plc’s leaking Gulf of Mexico well was spewing, may widen the range of its estimate because of difficulties assessing the flow, said a scientist involved in the research.

“There’s just a lot of uncertainty because there was no monitoring system put in place,” said Ira Leifer, a University of California, Santa Barbara researcher and a member of panel of scientists consulting the U.S. Energy Department on the spill.

BP May Sell Its German Gas Stations for $2.6 Billion, Wirtschaftwoche Says

BP Plc wants to sell its German gas station unit Aral to finance expenses related to the Gulf of Mexico disaster, Wirtschaftswoche reported, citing unidentified bankers involved in the sale.

Aral, Germany’s biggest chain of gas stations, is valued at more than 2 billion euros ($2.61 billion), the bankers said, according to an e-mailed preview of the magazine report, to be published Aug. 2.

Oil Spill Officials Shift to Long-Term Concerns

NEW ORLEANS — Officials in charge of the oil spill response in the gulf region say they are beginning to shift their efforts to a new phase, focusing more on long-term recovery now that some of the urgent demands of the spill are diminishing.

US Gulf Coast states push for offshore oil revenues

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Reuters) - BP Plc's massive oil spill has given Gulf Coast lawmakers leverage to push for a larger share of the billions of dollars in royalties that oil companies pay to drill in U.S. waters.

As a part of 2006 energy legislation, lawmakers like Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu secured a deal to direct a 37.5 percent share of U.S. offshore royalties to coastal states starting in 2017. The provision would net $650 million a year to Louisiana alone, with smaller amounts flowing to Alabama and Mississippi.

House approves oil spill reform bill

(Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday approved the toughest reforms ever to offshore energy drilling practices, as Democrats narrowly pushed through an election-year response to BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Passing the bill as the House leaves for its six-week recess gives lawmakers the opportunity to return home boasting they reined in Big Oil and held BP responsible for the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.

Open season for Alaska gas pipeline closes Friday

Alaskans should know by the end of Friday whether natural gas producers have any interest in building a major pipeline in the state. But few other details will likely be released when TransCanada Corp. officially ends its 90-day process of seeking shipping commitments for its proposed line.

"If there are no bids, we will be able to say so very quickly," said Tony Palmer, TransCanada's vice president of Alaska development. Otherwise, "it will be generic in nature, as opposed to specific," he said.

North Dakota group worries about pipeline steel

A North Dakota environmental group wants government regulators to investigate whether a Canadian company used faulty steel in the construction of a pipeline that moves crude oil from Canada through six states.

Dickinson-based Dakota Resource Council says TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline used steel from a supplier that has had problems with steel in other pipelines.

Nuclear Power Games

Saudi Arabia wants to go nuclear. Like many developing nations, the kingdom has seen its electricity demand soar in recent years—more than 8 percent annually—and is actively searching for alternatives to fossil fuels. Enter nuclear power: last month Saudi Arabia announced a joint initiative with Japan’s Toshiba and American firms the Shaw Group and Exelon to build and operate at least two nuclear power plants in the country. This comes on the heels of the establishment in April of the King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy, an organization to manage future energy sources.

Of course, Saudi Arabia’s hardly alone in the Middle East in its desire for nuclear power. But unlike its poorer neighbors, it’s got the money to see its plans to fruition. However, the country’s legendary secrecy about its internal workings has some analysts worried about its nuclear ambitions. Unlike, say, the United Arab Emirates—which is quite transparent about its own $40 billion nuclear-power program and has even signed a bilateral agreement on nuclear cooperation with the U.S.—Saudi Arabia is unlikely to follow suit and show all its cards.

Richard Heinberg on 100 days of the BP gusher

As the 100 day anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf rolled around this week, WMNF's Kelly Benjamin spoke with Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and former advisor to the National Petroleum Council on Peak Oil and the ramifications of the BP tragedy. Benjamin asked Heinberg what should be learned from the Deepwater Horizon disaster in respect to the continued reliance on petroleum as the chief energy source for the planet.

Merging onto electric avenue

“The early market is driven by enthusiasts who have very strong feelings about technology,” says Tom Turrentine, the director of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California, Davis. “A lot of the buyers are like people who buy iPads,” But research by his institute shows the next wave of buyers ranges from casual and hard-core classic environmentalists to people worried about air quality, from peak oil advocates to citizens concerned about the military and economic security of the United States. At this point, he says, a lack of knowledge about electric vehicles may be the greatest roadblock to their success.

The New Knowledge-based Age needs new Thinkers and Visionary Leaders, not the Occupants of the Dead Palaces

The prosperity fantasy bubble is fast approaching to an end with the peak oil forecasts as a visual reality in- waiting. Power, prosperity and poverty are all trials in human affairs and transitory phenomenon. Was the discovery of oil a conspiracy (“fitna”) for the Arabs to change the originality of their thinking, beliefs, values and passion for Islam as successful system of human life?

Transition Lake County get-acquainted potluck planned for Aug. 3 (Northern California)

LAKE COUNTY – Transition Lake County invites interested individuals and families to their get-acquainted barbecue and potluck at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 3.

The gathering will be held in the little park behind the Kelseyville Senior Center on Third Street, just south of Main in Kelseyville.

Official: More than 800 dead in Pakistani floods

NOWSHERA, Pakistan — Flooding in Pakistan has killed more than 800 people in a week, a government official said Saturday as rescuers struggled to reach marooned victims and some evacuees showed signs of fever, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.

The flooding caused by record-breaking rainfalls caused massive destruction in the past week, especially in the northwest province, where officials said it was the worst deluge since 1929. The U.N. estimated Saturday that some 1 million people nationwide were affected by the disaster, though it didn't specify exactly what that meant.

How Prospects Cooled for U.S. Global Warming Bill

For advocates of action on climate change, it seems like a long time since the hopeful first days of the Obama administration.

Global warming blamed for extreme weather

Meteorological experts have blamed global warming for this year's extreme weather in the country, which continues to be hit by persistent heat waves and floods.

China has recorded 6.4 days of hot whether, 1.9 days more than previous years on average.

Moreover, satellite-monitoring data on July 25 showed the surface temperature in some regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang had reached 45 degrees C.

Meanwhile, storms and floods have hit 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities since March, resulting in 968 deaths and 507 missing people, with the total economic loss estimated at 181 billion yuan (US$27 billion), according to the latest information released by the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Thursday.

Greenland Ice Cap Melt Is Accelerating

A British research team studying the Greenland ice sheet has discovered evidence of a rapidly accelerating rate of melt.

Dr Alun Hubbard, leading a team from the universities of Swansea and Aberystwyth said the ice sheet in their region had lowered six metres in just a month.

The phenomenon is caused by surface melt, a vicious cycle in which melted ice brings about further thawing of the cap beneath it.

ANALYSIS-Russian oil output yet to peak, say drillers

(Reuters) - Global oil servicing firms are seeing strong growth in Russia as companies order advanced technology for depleted West Siberian fields in a move that may allow Russian output to grow further from current peak levels.

Russian oil output has grown by 70 percent since 1999 to exceed 10 million barrels per day and become the world's largest. It has defied repeated predictions it would fall as depletion of West Siberian fields outpaces production growth in East Siberia.

But oil servicing firms say the quest for the best equipment and technology may allow Russia to achieve even its ambitious targets to produce as much as 10.7 million bpd by 2030 if Arctic and offshore Caspian Sea fields are also put on stream.

Why We'll See $300 Oil by 2020

For decades, the theory of peak oil—or the idea that the world either has or will soon exhaust its ability to produce more oil—was derided as a doomsday scenario too unbelievable to ever come to pass. But $147 oil and one commodity crash later, and suddenly peak oil doesn't sound so strange after all.

In fact, mounting scientific evidence suggests that peak oil will not only be a reality, but may soon be upon us, says Charles Maxwell, senior energy analyst for Weeden & Co.

Scientists: BP dispersants have made spill more toxic

Amid growing concern about the use of dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico, a group of scientists working for law firms suing BP says their testing indicates that the dispersants being used to break up the oil are making this spill even more toxic to marine life.

U.S. Justice Staff Said to Urge Subpoenas for BP Managers

U.S. Justice Department attorneys conducting a criminal probe of the BP Plc well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico have recommended that a grand jury be convened and BP managers subpoenaed to determine if any laws were broken, a person familiar with the investigation said.

Niger Delta Militants Threaten to Resume Attacks on Oil Facilities

Nigeria's main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is threatening to resume attacks on oil facilities in two weeks unless there is more progress in tackling the region’s problems. A spokesman for the group blames what he calls government inaction.

Venezuela approves Orinoco oil joint ventures

Reuters) - Venezuela has formally approved the creation of three joint ventures with foreign energy companies in the next step towards developing the OPEC nation's vast Orinoco extra heavy crude belt.

The Latin American country signed deals with several companies in February to exploit the reserves in the region, which are seen as some of the biggest deposits in the world.

Sri Lanka: Where there’s oil – There’s turmoil

We are almost certainly on the threshold of a new era of economic development and international diplomacy ushered in by the imminent discovery of oil. Drilling is due to start in the Mannar Basin next January. This opens before us exciting prospects of economic prosperity as well as daunting challenges posed by players in the arena of global political and diplomatic relations.

Mexico arrests Pemex oil official in bribery case

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police have arrested an official at state oil monopoly Pemex on suspicion of trying to sell an exploration contract for around $19,000, the attorney general's office said on Thursday.

Kabul rioters burn SUVs, yell 'Death to America'

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan police fired shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of people protesting the deaths of civilians in an accident involving a U.S. Embassy vehicle, officials said.

A crowd of angry Afghans shouted "Death to America," hurled stones and set fire to two SUVs after the crash on a road leading to Kabul's airport, according to the capital's criminal investigations chief, Abdul Ghaafar Sayedzada.

A NATO official told AFP the vehicles involved in the crash belonged to the U.S. Embassy.

Greek gas pumps dry despite strike order

Serious fuel shortages persisted in Greece on Thursday, hurting businesses and the country's tourism industry, after an emergency order to force striking truckers back to work was stalled by red tape.

Large coal reserve base to be built in Wuhan

(China Knowledge) - Henan-based China Zhong Ping Energy Chemical Group Co will team up with the Wuhan municipal government to build a large coal reserve base in the city, according to a statement published on the website of the Department of the Commerce of Hubei Province.

China's Nuclear Power Building Boom

The demand for emission-free nuclear electricity in China is growing as quickly as its megacities and middle-class. Some analysts estimate that China will need to build as many as 300 new nuclear power plants by 2050 -- a nuclear building boom so ambitious that it threatens to tax the world's supply of uranium to its limits. China currently has 17 nuclear reactors under construction or in the planning stages and 11 in operation. For comparison, the United States depends on 104 active reactors to provide about 20 percent of nation's electricity.

Steve LeVine: How long will the Chinese put up with coal?

Woodmac's report concludes that China's appetite for LNG will swell for the next decade, requiring the gas equivalent of 380,000 barrels a day of oil imports, but that this demand will be cut in half in the 2020s. Why? Woodmac doesn't say China will give up on gas, but rather that it's going to develop its own domestic resources -- specifically shale gas, using hydro-fracturing technology invented in the United States. In this scenario, China's gas supplants its use of industrial oil, but not too much coal, which will continue to be far and away the fuel of choice for the production of electricity.

GM to boost Chevy Volt production

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors announced Friday that the automaker has raised its planned production of the Chevrolet Volt electric car to 45,000 in 2012.

Originally the automaker planned to produce 30,000 Volts in its second year of production.

Gazing at the globe through a glass half full

I’m settling into my summer reading: I’ve read Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist and I’ve now moved on to a note just out from Baillie Gifford called Rational Optimism.

I found myself rather taken by Ridley’s book – largely because I think I might be something of an optimist myself. I’m mildly concerned about peak oil. But I also think it pretty likely that any long-term crisis over a shortage of fossil fuels will be thwarted by something along the lines of Ridley’s “vast solar power farms” in Algeria and some “pebble-bed passive safe modular nuclear reactors”. As my husband mutters every time an oil doomster comes to dinner, the Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stones.

Industrial Graft-Vs-Host Disease and the Throw-Away Economy

It has been noted among many Peak Oil advocates that in the future, as the cost of a) producing consumer goods, b) shipping them from the other side of the planet, or c) both, rise with the price of oil, people will turn repeatedly to repairing that which they already own.

Unfortunately, when it comes to many (most?) of the small consumer items we take for granted, this may be somewhat wishful thinking.

How Can We Reduce Oil Consumption & Still Ship Goods and Ourselves Around the Globe?

Two things which I think are worth keeping front and center when discussing how we wean ourselves off our petroleum addiction: Travel between nations is good; trade between nations is good. It's easy to point out specific incidences where less-than-savory outcomes resulted from trade and travel, but on the whole both are beneficial for human culture. What we need to address is how are we going to move our goods and ourselves around in less energy intensive ways, so that both are less harmful to the planet (and therefore ourselves).

Trapped in an age of false plenty

In the 1920s, in southern US states like California and Florida, it wasn't uncommon to see solar water heaters on the roofs of homes. Not that there were a lot of people eager to be green back then, it was simply an inexpensive way to heat water.

Then natural gas wells were drilled, and pipes were laid, and new homes were built with the pipes running right up into the hot water heaters. And the rooftop water heaters vanished.

Why?

Because natural gas was cheaper? Of course not. How could anything you pay for be cheaper than free sunlight? But natural gas was more efficient, and it didn't require home builders to put up the rooftop heaters, and roofs probably looked a bit prettier without pipes running across them.

The watermelon party

Two years ago as the world's economy collapsed, The Economist devoted an entire issue to the idea of so-called steady state economics.

The issue featured two academics who were already stars of the environmental movement, Tim Jackson and Herman Daly.

First results from Transition Together evaluation

‘Transition Together’, the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.

Unnatural Science

Clearly I’ve been out of some loop for too long, but does everyone take for granted now that science sites are where graduate students, researchers, doctors and the “skeptical community” go not to interpret data or review experiments but to chip off one-liners, promote their books and jeer at smokers, fat people and churchgoers? And can anyone who still enjoys this class-inflected bloodsport tell me why it has to happen under the banner of science?

Hammering away at an ideology, substituting stridency for contemplation, pummeling its enemies in absentia: ScienceBlogs has become Fox News for the religion-baiting, peak-oil crowd.

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Are 12 Times Support for Renewables, Study Shows

Global subsidies for fossil fuels dwarf support given to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.

Governments last year gave $43 billion to $46 billion of support to renewable energy through tax credits, guaranteed electricity prices known as feed-in tariffs and alternative energy credits, the London-based research group said today in a statement. That compares with the $557 billion that the International Energy Agency last month said was spent to subsidize fossil fuels in 2008.

“One of the reasons the clean energy sector is starved of funding is because mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of New Energy Finance. “This analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables.”

Disguised Blessing

Oil is nobody's poster child at the moment, what with the spill off China's Dalian port an aching reminder of the much larger calamity on the U.S. Gulf coast and persistent fouling of places like Nigeria. This can be a dirty business, even before the fossil fuel is burned and we experience whatever the effects of that are.

Yet there is good news on the oil front--the gloomiest pricing scenario has not happened. Remember July 2008, when spot crude exceeded $140 a barrel? Serious people were contemplating a $200 level, and some in the "peak oil is here" camp--that's the theory that the world has already begun to exhaust its reserves and, thus taken by surprise, will enter a panicky price spiral--were talking $300. In fact, the spot price has barely touched $83 in 22 months.

Oil Falls, Poised for Weekly Decline, on Weaker Global Economic Concern

Oil fell in New York, poised for its biggest weekly decline in four, on concern that faltering global economic growth will curtail a recovery in fuel demand.

Crude pared yesterday’s 1.8 percent gain as Asian and European equities dropped before a report on U.S. gross domestic product. Oil has retreated 1.4 percent this week, its largest loss since the five days ended July 2. Prices may decline next week as U.S. inventories rise, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

British Gas warns of rise in energy bills

British Gas, major provider of gas and electricity to UK homes, has said energy bills may rise although it "will try to delay" the hike as long as it can.

The warning comes just as the company is being pressurised by consumer groups to cut energy bills, after it reported a 98 per cent rise in profits to £585m over last year.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Imports Rise as Floating Storage Wanes

Oil imports into the Gulf of Mexico region surged to a record last week as the profits from floating storage evaporated, pushing traders to unload their cargoes and forcing crude futures lower.

The price advantage for traders who buy oil and store it at sea for a month instead of delivering it immediately has shrunk 90 percent since May. Floating storage in the Gulf dropped 24 percent in the week ended July 23, Bloomberg data show.

Rosneft, Others May Deliver Gasoline to Iran

Rosneft, Gazprom Neft and Tatneft may begin delivering gasoline to Iran in a month, the head of the Iran Commission of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Thursday.

Talks are being held on a “working level” and the first delivery may take place in late August or September, Rajab Safarov said in an interview.

China Declares Sovereignty in Southern Sea as U.S. Seeks Role in Disputes

China declared its “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea and held naval drills in the waters, pushing back against a U.S. role in resolving disputes in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

“China has indisputable sovereignty of the South Sea and China has sufficient historical and legal backing” to underpin its claims, Geng Yansheng, a Ministry of Defense spokesman, told reporters at a military compound outside Beijing today. It opposes efforts to “internationalize” the issue and will resolve differences through “friendly negotiation,” he said.

Big Oil posts better profits on higher fuel prices

NEW YORK — The major oil companies continue to climb back from the recession, with higher fuel prices driving up earnings.

After setting record profits in 2008, the oil industry tanked last year as the global economic downturn induced a dramatic drop in oil and natural gas prices. On Thursday, Exxon Mobil Corp. said it earned $7.56 billion in the second quarter, its best result since the last three months of 2008. Royal Dutch Shell Group posted a 15 percent gain in net income. A day earlier, ConocoPhillips said net income nearly tripled in the April-June period.

Exxon Mobil, PetroChina In Talks On China Gas Project -Source

BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) is in talks with PetroChina Co. to jointly explore and develop an unconventional gas block in the resource-rich Ordos basin in north China, a person who has direct knowledge of the matter told Dow Jones Newswires.

A successful conclusion to the talks would mark the entry of another global energy major into China's huge but undeveloped shale or tight gas sector, which China hasn't been able to develop due to a lack of technical expertise.

Total Reports 72% Increase in Profit After Raising Production

Total SA, Europe’s third-biggest oil company, reported a 72 percent increase in second-quarter profit after projects started last year were ramped up.

Profit excluding changes in inventories and the value of a stake in Sanofi-Aventis SA rose to 2.96 billion euros ($3.9 billion) from 1.68 billion euros a year earlier, the Paris-based company said today in a statement. That beat the 2.65 billion- euro mean estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Sunoco Rebounds on Refining

Independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products, Sunoco Inc. reported significantly better-than-expected second quarter 2010 results, driven by steady earnings from most of its business segments. Earnings per share, excluding special items, came in at $1.31, outshining the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 74 cents. The reported quarter result was substantially ahead of the loss per share of 27 cents in the second quarter 2009.

Pair of Atlantic Weather Systems Have Low Chance of Becoming Depressions

Two weather systems over the Atlantic and southeastern Caribbean have a “low chance” of strengthening into depressions or tropical storms, the National Hurricane Center said.

Russia To Export 5.5 Million Tons Urals From Primorsk In Aug

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Russia plans to export 5.5 million metric tons, or around 1.3 million barrels a day, of Urals crude in August from its Baltic Sea port of Primorsk, which is lower than the 6 million tons planned for July, according to the loading program seen by Dow Jones Newswires Friday.

Formosa Oil Refinery Fire May Have Polluted Taiwan Fishery, Officials Say

A fire at Formosa Petrochemical Corp.’s residual processing unit this month may have polluted fishery near the plant, local government officials said.

Dead clams and fish have been found in an area of about 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) since the July 25 accident, said Lai Chien-sheng, a section chief at the agriculture department of Yunlin county, where the plant is located. “We’re probing the cause of the deaths,” he said by phone today.

Regulators Warned Company on Pipeline Corrosion

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — The company responsible for a massive oil spill here was warned in January by federal regulators about insufficient monitoring of corrosion on the pipeline that federal officials say leaked more than one million gallons of oil into a major waterway this week.

The owner of the pipeline, Enbridge Energy Partners, received several citations from federal regulators in recent years before the warning in January. Company officials said they had routinely tested the pipeline for corrosion.

Enbridge: Corrosion not clue in oil spill

Reports of corrosion on Enbridge Inc.'s local oil pipeline aren't necessarily clues to the cause of the company's possibly 1 million-gallon leak into the Kalamazoo River this week, Enbridge officials said Thursday.

The unseen damage of a leaking pipe

Thick, black oil covers patches of grass on Debbie Howard's property, which borders the Kalamazoo River for slightly more than a mile.

Flooding has brought oil from the river onto Howard's 60-acre property in Galesburg, next to the Fort Custer Recreation Area. The water receded but left a coat of oil in its wake, she said.

Report: Michigan ranks high in pipeline accidents

WASHINGTON -- Michigan is more familiar than most states with oil spills and other pipeline accidents, according to a report released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation.

Michigan had 61 "significant incidents" over the past decade, the ninth-largest number in the country.

Spill halted, Enbridge’s reputation sullied

The Enbridge spill into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River has been contained, but it’s left a nasty sheen on the company’s reputation and its sprawling network of aging pipelines in North America.

US expert says China's worst oil spill is far larger than government has reported so far

BEIJING (AP) — China's worst known oil spill is dozens of times larger than the government has reported, and some of the oil was spilled deliberately to avoid an even larger disaster, an American expert said Friday.

China's government has said 1,500 tons of oil spilled after a pipeline exploded two weeks ago near the northeastern city of Dalian, sending 100-foot- (30-meter-) high flames raging near one of the country's key strategic oil reserves. It has not updated that estimate since a few days after the spill.

But Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska marine conservation specialist, estimated 60,000 tons to 90,000 tons of oil actually spilled into the Yellow Sea.

Explosion, Fire at Storage Tank at Pemex's Madero Refinery Evacuates 2,000

About 2,000 people were evacuated by Mexican authorities after an explosion and fire at a coker unit gasoline storage tank at Petroleos Mexicanos’s Francisco I. Madero refinery on the Gulf of Mexico.

The blaze was under control at 6:30 p.m. local time yesterday, said a Pemex spokesman, who asked not to be identified in accordance with company policy. No other facilities at the refinery were damaged, he said.

Libya boosts reserves

Libya's proven crude oil reserves rose to 46 billion barrels in the first half of this year after adding 612 million barrels from new fields, according to reports.

House to Take Up Offshore Drilling Reform Bill

Three months after the catastrophic oil rig explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. House of Representatives was poised on Friday to debate legislation clamping down on the industry's offshore drilling practices.

BP's Hayward: 'I became a villain for doing the right thing'

Tony Hayward, who resigned as chief executive of BP in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, has said that he was turned into "a villain for doing the right thing."

In his first interview since deciding to step down, Hayward told the Wall Street Journal that he did everything possible after the Deepwater Horizon exploded, by taking responsibility for the spill and spending billions on the clean-up operation and efforts to stop the leak.

US gas stations: Stay BP or change name to Amoco?

NEW ORLEANS — BP gas station owners across the country are divided over whether the oil giant stained by its handling of the Gulf spill should rebrand U.S. outlets as Amoco or another name as part of its effort to repair the company's badly damaged reputation.

Sinopec Says BP Declined Its Offer to Buy Some `Good' Assets After Spill

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia’s biggest refiner, said BP Plc declined an offer by the Chinese company to buy some of its assets.

“We’ve talked to BP on some good assets, but they won’t sell,” Zhang Jianhua, senior vice president of the company known as Sinopec, said in an interview in Shanghai today, without naming the ventures. “We aren’t in any talks with BP right now.”

Blowout Beneficiary

BP's spill is scaring oil and gas majors out of the deep water. That's good news for shale gas pioneer Range Resources.

Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been a Sink of Pollution

HOUMA, La. — Loulan Pitre Sr. was born on the Gulf Coast in 1921, the son of an oysterman. Nearly all his life, he worked on the water, abiding by the widely shared faith that the resources of the Gulf of Mexico were limitless.

As a young Marine staff sergeant, back home after fighting in the South Pacific, he stood on barges in the gulf and watched as surplus mines, bombs and ammunition were pushed over the side.

He helped build the gulf’s very first offshore oil drilling platforms in the late 1940s, installing bolts on perilously high perches over the water. He worked on a shrimp boat, and later as the captain of a service boat for drilling platforms.

The gulf has changed, Mr. Pitre said: “I think it’s too far gone to salvage.”

‘Peak oil boost for our industry’: 2020 Vision

However, the Twenty Teens are predicted to herald the arrival of Peak Oil. This will finally bring home the message that our transport needs to change dramatically.

Has this province reached its peak?

In a sense, Alberta reached its peak oil moment years ago with the decline of conventional oil reserves followed by the demise of its natural gas sector. When previous booms went bust, the expectation of the good times cycling back was always fulfilled — a resiliency no longer guaranteed.

Given its dependence on the oilsands, Calgary’s one-horse standing’s been whittled down to a pair of hooves and the pony they’re under has become an international pariah.

T3 presents - Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil

Transition Town Tramore (T3) and Futureproof Kilkenny have come together to organise for Canadian Energy Consultant and Financial Blogger Nicole Foss to visit the South East and give a presentation entitled Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil.

Nicole's presentation will give a thorough overview of the problems being faced within the financial system, and explain how it relates to the problems being experienced in the energy production system.

Living off the land

Five years have passed since we left Sydney. It seems like five minutes, yet our city life feels like a hundred years ago. We left to become as self-sufficient as possible after learning about the coming age of shortages and chaos resulting from peak oil (see opposite). Six months after leaving Sydney behind, I wrote a book called Choosing Eden (published by Random House Australia) explaining the move to the little farm we grandly called Eden Forest Permaculture Sanctuary.

Improved Gulf power grid reduces blackouts

The new GCC electricity grid has put an end to power cuts in four countries in the northern Gulf but the lack of an agreed tariff is hampering more effective use of the US$1.4 billion (Dh5.14bn) network, a senior official says.

The grid, which was connected for the first time last year, has allowed Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar to better handle surges in demand on the hottest summer days.

Spain Nearing Accord With Solar Producers on Reducing Subsidies

The Spanish government and solar- power producers are moving toward an agreement aimed at reducing subsidies to the industry and reining in electricity prices without damaging the country’s renewable energy industry.

Spain to Investigate Solar Plants Over Subsidies, Government Official Says

Spain may force any solar plant owners who cheated on paperwork to gain higher subsidies to repay income earned through deception, a ministry official said.

California Clears Hurdle for Electric-Car Charging Stations to Sell Power

California regulators voted to make it easier for electric-car charging companies to sell power in the U.S. state that’s likely to be the biggest market for such vehicles.

Fight Gears Up on Biomass

There is evidently no form of energy, including renewable energy, that lacks opposition. A big spat right now centers on biomass power plants.

Bike may spark an electric revolution

Eqbal al Yousuf said his company planned to sell Phoenix’s first 150 electric pick-up trucks by the end of the year but mainly in the US where there were government cash incentives for buyers and American authorities were pushing for green vehicles to be used in the public sector.

Without the government support to reduce the cost and risk in the UAE, local consumers will be wary of spending the US$75,000 (Dh275,475) for such a pick-up, he said.

“Humans get scared of anything new. We get scared of the unknown,” Mr al Yousuf said. “And this technology here is unknown for a lot of people around the world. So without the government push, without the government support, even if it’s cost-effective, a lot of people will not go for it.”

Instead of four-wheel vehicles, Mr al Yousuf plans to sell Phoenix’s electric bicycles in the UAE as early as September, before they are rolled out in any other market. The first shipment will be for 500 bikes, he said. The $800 bicycles have a maximum speed of 26kph and a range of 31km on a full charge.

Government funding for electric cars cut by 80%

A government scheme to give motorists money off when purchasing electric cars has been cut by 80 per cent. Despite recent warnings from independent climate change groups that Britain must increase the amount of electric cars drastically if it wants to meet EU emission targets, the fate of low-carbon charging points hangs in the balance. Environmental groups, politicians and electric car-makers argue that cutting the incentive will reduce the amount of green jobs and harm the cars’ take up.

Energy Department tests energy-saving program

The Energy Department has picked Bethesda-based Marriott International Inc. to be one of the companies in a pilot program to help businesses, governments and other organizations reduce energy use in their buildings.

EPA rejects challenge to climate rules

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday rejected an effort to keep it from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying that e-mails released in last fall’s “Climategate” scandal gave it no reason to reconsider the science of global warming.

In a sternly written opinion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said she didn’t agree with requests from the GOP attorneys general from Texas and Virginia, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups that questioned the underlying science linking humans to global warming and also warned of the potential economic burdens from new climate rules.

Cutting soot emissions best hope for saving Arctic ice

According to a new study led by Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University in the US, the quickest, best way to slow the rapid melting of Arctic sea ice is to reduce soot emissions from the burning of fossil fuel, wood and dung.

His analysis shows that soot is second only to CO2 in contributing to global warming.

Hagens: U.S. addicted to energy, debt

In spite of what you might have heard, the planet may never run out of oil.

Fat lot of good that'll do when it takes a barrel's worth of energy to get a barrel of oil out of the ground.

And we've long since used all of the easy-to-extract oil, says Nate Hagens, speaking Tuesday night at Kansas Wesleyan University on how communities can learn to adapt to declining resources, energy included.

Hagens is a former vice president for both Lehman Bros. and Salomon Bros. investment firms but quit that career several years ago and last week completed his Ph.D. in natural resources studies at the University of Vermont.

Until recently, he was also editor of theoildrum.com, a website dealing with global energy supply.

Hagen pulls from those areas, and others, such as evolutionary biology, to explain why America and other developed nations are addicted to both energy and debt, and how those addictions work against our long-term good.

John Michael Greer: The cybernetics of black knights

Let’s start with a few basics. Information is the third element of the triad of fundamental principles that flow through whole systems of every kind, and thus need to be understood to build viable appropriate tech systems. We have at least one huge advantage in understanding information that people a century ago didn’t have: a science of information flow in whole systems, variously called cybernetics and systems theory, that was one of the great intellectual adventures of the twentieth century and deserves much more attention than most people give it these days.

Unfortunately we also have at least one huge disadvantage in understanding information that people a century ago didn’t have, either. The practical achievements of cybernetics, especially but not only in the field of computer science, have given rise to attitudes toward information in popular culture that impose bizarre distortions on the way most people nowadays approach the subject. You can see these attitudes in an extreme form in the notion, common in some avant-garde circles, that since the amount of information available to industrial civilization is supposedly increasing at an exponential rate, and exponential curves approach infinity asymptotically in a finite time, then at some point not too far in the future, industrial humanity will know everything and achieve something like omnipotence.

Richard Heinberg: Beyond the limits to growth

In any case, the underlying premise of the book is irrefutable:

At some point in time, humanity’s ever-increasing resource consumption will meet the very real limits of a planet with finite natural resources. We the co-authors of The Post Carbon Reader believe that this time has come.

Spill marks turning point for offshore oil, not demise

With the Macondo well corked for now and perhaps days away from a permanent seal, the momentum for offshore work may be returning.

Companies are starting to adapt to the new shallow-water rules, with Houston's Apache obtaining a new drilling permit this month.

And four oil majors have banded together to create an oil spill response company that aims to address the industry shortcomings that were brought to light by the Macondo spill.

"Painfully, we learned how significantly the actions of one company could influence a huge swath of the Gulf Coast economy," said Dan Pickering, head of research at the energy investment firm Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.

Anger over the spill hasn't translated into legislative gains for fossil fuel foes.

Oil Industry Rethinks Cost, Risk Of Drilling In U.S.

The BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bound to have repercussions for the oil industry and America's energy future, but experts say it could be a while before they are all sorted out — and the final consequences could prove surprising.

The Risks of Deep Water Drilling

The Deepwater Horizon disaster serves as a tragic reminder of oil’s shortcomings.

In particular, it shows how the industry is trying to operate in very tricky conditions when it comes to deep water drilling. As oil executives say, at such depths, the seabed is as remote as the moon. And it has the added threat of much higher pressures.

Yet for all the hazards, production won’t move back towards shore anytime soon.

Shell could pursue BP for gulf damages

Shell today refused to rule out pursuing damages claims against BP and other companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The company took a $56m (£36m) hit after it was forced to stand down seven rigs and platforms because of the moratorium on drilling in the US imposed in the wake of the disaster.

Why Robert Dudley's BP Could Be Even Riskier

The embattled oil giant's first American CEO embraces a high-risk survival plan.

Florida bets on Feinberg

DESTIN, Fla. (CNNMoney.com) -- Business owners in Florida believe Kenneth Feinberg will manage the $20 billion oil spill claims fund fairly and efficiently, but because of the complicated nature of their claims, they're anxious about how much they'll get paid.

On the 100th day since the oil started spewing, Feinberg spoke to a jam packed crowd of business owners and industry leaders in Destin, Fla.

Mexico's exploratory drilling at record low

Mexico's state-owned Pemex has this year drilled the fewest wells in search of new crude and natural gas reservoirs since 2001, raising doubts over its drive to sustain production as major fields age.

Nigeria oil reserves drop by 4.79%

Crude reserves in Nigeria have dropped by 4.79% to 31.81 billion barrels over the past year because companies refuse to undertake exploration, a senior industry official said.

Michigan oil cleanup 'inadequate': governor

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm says the cleanup so far has been "wholly inadequate" and warns of a tragedy if the oil reaches Lake Michigan — and local residents are also expressing concern.

Greenpeace protest against Enbridge pipeline ends with four arrests

Four Greenpeace activists have been charged after protesters occupied the downtown Vancouver office of Enbridge and demanded the company halt plans to build a pipeline from Alberta to B.C.

Canadian oil sands profits jump amid green battle

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Two of Canada's biggest oil sands companies posted higher profits on Thursday on strengthening oil prices, as controversy builds over the environmental costs of tapping North America's biggest crude reserves.

Alberta gas shortage spreads to B.C.

A gasoline shortage at some Shell stations has spread from Alberta to southeastern B.C.

Shell said it doesn't know how many service stations have run dry, nor how long it will take to get fuel to them.

Mexico's Pemex posts Q2 20.1 bln peso loss on FX

(Reuters) - Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday, hit by foreign exchange losses on its U.S. dollar-denominated debt and domestic price controls for fuel sales.

Shipping goods from Asia more costly

The cost of shipping consumer goods from Asia to Canada is surging, with another price increase kicking in Sunday, as freight forwarders face a shortage of containers this summer and fall.

“This is traditionally the peak season for imports coming from China to Canada,” said Perry Lo, president of Canaan Transport Group Inc., a freight forwarding firm based in Mississauga, Ont. “And now we face a huge price hike.”

TransCanada profit down, hurt by nuclear business

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Pipeline and power company TransCanada Corp reported a 9.2 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday, hit by hedging losses as well as lower power prices and higher costs at its partly owned Ontario nuclear plants.

Is Outgoing Colombian President Riling Venezuela?

In Sunday's bombastic speech, Chavez told his countrymen war was imminent — and that it was the Yankee empire orchestrating the coming bloodbath. If an attack came, Chavez said, he would shut off the oil spigot to the United States — even if that meant Venezuelans would be forced to eat rocks.

This has been a regular threat over the years, and it plays well to Chavez's most radical followers.

But Chavez's latest diatribe comes at a particularly delicate time. Last week, in a special emergency session of the Organization of American States, the Colombian ambassador to that body, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, detailed how Venezuela allegedly aided and abetted Marxist rebels who have been fighting Colombia since the 1960s.

The black gold paradox

BANGLADESH that has been facing severe energy crunch, continues still to be indecisive about the use of one of the cheapest energy source, coal. Despite having a substantial reserve of the mineral, successive governments have failed to finalise a coal policy determining the methods of its extraction. The draft coal policy has been revised again and again in the light of recommendations of the experts but the final policy resolving the contentious issues involving the method/s of mining is yet to emerge.

The dispute over methods of mining in a country where coal mines are located in heavily populated areas is nothing surprising. The old method of coal mining, making tunnels underground, does not cause any major displacement of population or destroy forests and other infrastructures. But very marginal exploitation of coal reserves, estimated at 20 per cent of the entire reserve, is considered to be uneconomic. The other method, the open-pit mining ensures the full exploitation of the reserve. But it entails an enormous sacrifice in terms of loss of land and property and damage to environment, flora and fauna.

Front Yard Wind Power Plan Irks SF Neighbors

"I am pro wind and pro solar but I don't think this kind of thing belongs in a dense urban setting. I don't," said neighbor Lucile Taber. "If it were to fall it would fall directly to the home over there, another concern is the noise, there is flicker problems with it."

Hawaii utility proposes electric car charging deal

Hawaiian Electric Co. is proposing a plan to make it cheaper for early adopters of electric vehicles to charge up.

Palm oil giant accused of rainforest destruction caught ‘red-handed’

A major supplier of palm oil and pulp (paper) to multinationals, including food giant Cargill, has been caught clearing orang-utan habitats and carbon-rich peatlands.

Alaska Airlines cuts emissions with smoother landings

Smoother airplane landings are not only easier on passengers but also on the environment as they reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to new test results by Alaska Airlines.

The Seductions Of Clicking: How The Internet Can Make It Harder To Act

Our online networks build on what sociologist Mark Granovetter called "the strength of weak ties." Older forms of community built on distinct local networks where people knew each other face-to-face, but where reaching out beyond those they saw day-to-day was harder. Our new tools make it easy to maintain far looser networks that we can continue to easily nurture. As Gideon Rosenblatt of the environmental group Groundwire points out, "these networks of weak ties can be put into action on a moment's notice, enabling online social change efforts to go viral at a speed and on a scale never previously possible." We take for granted our ability to link overlapping circles of friends and acquaintances in a manner until recently inconceivable.

Iran’s top oil customer buys less

China’s imports of Iranian crude oil fell by almost a third in the first half of the year, new figures showed this week.

Volumes have decreased just as new US and European sanctions threaten to disrupt energy ties between the two countries, experts say.

Iran shipped just over 9 million barrels of oil to China to the end of last month, making it China’s third-largest crude supplier, according to fresh Chinese customs data. That was down from 13.1 million barrels in the first half of last year, even as Chinese imports from Angola, Saudi Arabia and other major exporters rose significantly.

Oil Declines on Rising U.S. Crude Inventories as OPEC Production Increase

Crude oil dropped for a third day in New York on speculation the economic recovery is not proceeding fast enough to rein in excessive fuel supplies.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ oil output increased for the third time in four months in July, led by gains in Iraq, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Futures yesterday declined to a one-week low after U.S. crude imports jumped to the highest level in almost four years, leading to an unexpected increase in commercially held inventories.

OPEC meets only half July oil output curbs -survey

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC is meeting only half its promised cuts in oil supply this month thanks to a big jump in exports from Nigeria and despite a smaller decline in production in Angola, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday.

Supply from the 11 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with output targets, all except Iraq, has averaged 26.95 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, up from 26.75 million bpd in June, according to the survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts.

Asia-Pacific crude-Sept Tapis climbs on gas oil strength

(Reuters) - Prices of Malaysian Tapis crude climbed on Thursday reflecting market-wide support for distillate-rich grades in Asia-Pacific.

Exxon Mobil's earnings more than double

NEW YORK — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday its second quarter income nearly doubled to $7.56 billion as oil prices increased from last year.

It's Exxon's highest quarterly profit since the $7.82 billion earned in the last three months of 2008. But it's still well below the record-setting third-quarter profit of that year, when Exxon earned $14.83 billion after oil prices spiked to near $150 per barrel in the summer.

Shell defends deep-water drilling as profits soar

Royal Dutch Shell posted soaring profits on Thursday and defended deep-water oil production, saying it has an "important role" to play despite the US Gulf of Mexico disaster that rocked rival BP.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant reported a 15-percent jump in net profit to 4.39 billion US dollars (3.38 billion euros) in the second quarter, as it slashed costs and raised output.

Its performance contrasts markedly with that of embattled BP, which on Tuesday posted a second-quarter loss of 16.9 billion US dollars in the wake of the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Natural-Gas Squeeze Prompts Switch of Fuel in Middle East

Persian Gulf petrochemical producers are turning to naphtha as a feedstock for the first time amid growing power-plant demand for natural gas.

Abu Dhabi plans to build the Middle East’s first plant that will only use naphtha to make plastics. Saudi Arabia may develop similar units as part of two refinery ventures, according to state-run Saudi Aramco, France’s Total SA and Sumitomo Chemical Co. of Japan, the partners in the projects.

While naphtha, a product of refining crude oil, is used to make petrochemicals around the world, countries in the Middle East have traditionally preferred cheaper home-produced natural gas. Now, new power plants are competing for those gas supplies, stoking demand for alternatives. That’s being exacerbated as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia expand petrochemicals production to cut dependence on crude exports.

Mystery of Japanese tanker damage probed

An investigation has been launched into the unexplained damage suffered by a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman.

The M Star was damaged on Wednesday while travelling from Qatar to Japan.

Port officials in Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates say the ship was involved in a collision. However, the boat's owners Mitsui OSK believe their vessel may have been attacked.

Early reports that the ship was struck by a freak wave have been dismissed.

North China gas well fire burning for nearly week: Xinhua

BEIJING (Reuters) – A natural gas well operated by Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group has been burning for nearly a week since drilling in the well caused gas to leak out and explode, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

No casualties have been reported. Villagers near the well were evacuated shortly after the accident, Xinhua cited a local county official as saying.

Crews work to cap new La. oil leak near Gulf

NEW ORLEANS – Oil, natural gas and water are still spewing from an abandoned well hit by a barge on a Louisiana waterway near the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Capt. John Arenstam says a wild well company is working on a plan to shut down the well, which is north of Barataria Bay and has been leaking since early Tuesday.

BP aims for quick well kill

HOUSTON/MIAMI (Reuters) – BP may permanently shut the well that caused the worst off-shore oil spill in U.S. history as early as Monday, the company said as speculation grew over assets it might sell to cover mounting costs.

Incoming BP chief executive, Bob Dudley, said on Wednesday the company would stay involved with the cleanup process in the Gulf of Mexico long after the leaking well was plugged and expressed optimism the damaged environment would recover.

"It is possible that as early as Monday or Tuesday this well might be killed," Dudley said on National Public Radio.

BP's Dudley Targets Riskiest Deepwater Drilling After $32 Billion Blowout

Robert Dudley, the man charged with rebuilding the reputation of BP Plc after the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, will slim the company to its core strength: the high-risk, high-return search for oil and gas in demanding environments.

That suggests Dudley, who becomes the first American chief executive officer of the British oil giant on Oct. 1, will follow the same strategy that led to the Gulf spill and turned outgoing CEO Tony Hayward into a pariah, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its Aug. 2 issue.

HSBC tapped to sell BP's stake in Vietnam gas project

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – BP has tapped HSBC to sell its stake in the Nam Con Son gas project in Vietnam, as it scrambles to hive off $30 billion of assets to pay for the clean-up of the worst oil spill in U.S. history, three sources said.

The British oil giant, which is on a campaign to sell a host of assets from Pakistan to Egypt, said last week it is seeking a buyer for its stake in the Nam Con Son gas project offshore southern Ho Chi Minh City, worth $966 million by one estimate.

BP May Sell Venezuela Oil Stakes to Russian TNK-BP Venture

BP Plc has told Venezuela’s state oil company it’s interested in selling stakes in three projects to its Russian venture, TNK-BP Holding, Petroleos de Venezuela SA Vice President Eulogio del Pino said.

Barring BP From Drilling Would Cost Jobs in U.S., Company Tells Congress

BP Plc objected to proposed legislation that would bar the oil company from operating new drilling leases in U.S. waters, saying it could trigger job losses and threaten the nation’s energy security.

A provision of the House bill may have a “drastic impact,” David Nagel, executive vice president of BP America, said in a July 28 letter to Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

First lawsuits linked to Gulf spill go to court

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The first lawsuits linked to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill go to court Thursday, as BP prepared -- after months of trying -- to permanently seal its ruptured well.

As the Gulf of Mexico disaster this week reached the 100-day mark with hopes high that the endgame may be under way, families of those killed in the rig explosion that sparked the disaster, and fishermen who lost their livelihoods because of it, were to face BP in court for the first time.

BP Said Negligence May Be Found in Cause of Oil Spill, Texas Letter Shows

A BP Plc lawyer said evidence would show that an April explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were the result of gross negligence, Texas officials said in a letter that didn’t say who committed the alleged negligence.

Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott said in the July 22 letter that BP didn’t attempt to take advantage of a cap on damages under the Oil Pollution Act because gross negligence would make that irrelevant. The letter was addressed to Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production, and Jack Lynch, a general counsel.

News Cycle Turns in BP’s Favor

The answer is boringly simple–BP capped the well, oil stopped flowing into the Gulf, beaches and fisheries reopened, the TV cameras moved on to the next sensation and the doom mongers that didn’t have the sense to pack up and leave too were left looking a little silly. Indeed, Matt Simmons retired as Chairman Emeritus of Simmons & Co.

Just as new shoots of grass are sprouting on once-oiled marshes, the facts are beginning to thrive now that the flood of hype has receded.

Gulf spill raises long-term beach safety questions

MIAMI (Reuters) – It could be years before some Gulf of Mexico beaches recover fully from BP Plc's massive oil spill and are declared free of toxic pollutants, including heavy metals, that can make people sick, a leading environmental advocacy group said on Wednesday.

Feds, farmers create habitats for migrating birds

MAMOU, La. – Water gurgling from a well is flooding Craig Gautreaux's rice and crawfish fields, turning the farm into a wetland for migratory birds whose usual Gulf of Mexico wintering grounds are threatened by the oil spill.

Across eight states, farmers such as Gautreaux are inundating fallow fields to provide an alternative for some of the tens of millions of ducks, geese and shorebirds that are beginning to make their way south on a flyway that stretches as far north as Alaska and Iceland.

BP Disaster Regnites California’s Anti-Drilling Fervor

What a difference an oil spill makes. Californians, whose dislike of offshore drilling dates back to the Santa Barbara spill of 1969, had begun to see virtue in new sources of oil as gasoline prices soared in 2008, polls showed.

That year, for the first time since 2000, when the first poll of the state’s environmental attitudes was taken by the Public Policy Institute of California, a majority — albeit a bare one, 51 percent — was willing to allow more drilling off the California coast. The majority was about the same in 2009, and opposition dwindled to 43 percent.

The latest poll, however, shows the opposition snapping back after the offshore oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In the institute’s survey this month of 2,502 Californians, 57 percent opposed new offshore drilling; the proportion supporting drilling dropped to 36 percent, down 15 percentage points from 2009 levels.

Analysis: BP spill seeps into Norway's Arctic drilling debate

(Reuters) - Norway's decades-old political consensus on offshore drilling is under attack in the wake of the BP oil spill, just as it covets new riches in the Arctic.

The powerful oil industry says it needs to tap resources off the Arctic archipelagoes of Lofoten and Vesteraalen and in a huge, recently demarcated Barents Sea border region with Russia to continue Norway's oil boom amid dwindling North Sea output.

But, emboldened by the Gulf of Mexico well blowout, Norwegian environmentalists seek to grab the upper hand in a battle they feel they have long been loosing.

Senate energy bill draws widespread criticism

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans and some moderate Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday began picking apart a new energy bill that they complained goes too far in holding oil companies responsible for accidents like the massive Gulf of Mexico spill.

"I think people who are very serious about responding to the spill in the Gulf should be offended by what has been presented" this week by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski.

Local food trend helps more folks eat fresh fruits, veggies

The "local" movement — buying and eating food produced locally rather than shipped from thousands of miles away — has been gaining steam with the steady growth of farmers markets and a phenomenon called community-supported agriculture. CSA members purchase shares of a farmer's crop for the season. The government doesn't track the numbers, but Local Harvest, a nationwide directory of small farms, farmers markets and other local food sources, estimates that tens of thousands of American families belong to CSAs, and supply trails demand. The number registered with Local Harvest alone indicates how quickly CSAs have multiplied over the past decade: The directory's listing has increased from 374 farms in 2000 to 3,660 today.

BANGLADESH: Spreading the floating farms’ tradition

CHANDRA (IRIN) - As swollen monsoon rivers and rising sea levels threaten to engulf more land across Bangladesh, NGOs are training thousands of farmers in traditional soil-less farming on water.

Transition model making headway in North County

Tina Clark, one of 21 trainers for Transition United States, spoke on July 7 about the Transition model, which is used around the world to help communities prepare for the social and economic changes that will occur as global oil supplies and other natural resources decline in the next century.

Clark told the group of 31 who attended the meeting about how each of us in our own way can help our communities prepare for a world without many of the luxuries that cheaply produced oil makes possible and at the same time replace them with meaningful alternatives.

A Push for Action on Renewables

With a cap on carbon dioxide an apparent nonstarter in the Senate these days, some clean energy and climate advocates have shifted their sights to a scaled-back but still ambitious goal: passage of a national renewable electricity standard.

Such a law would require utility companies to produce a set amount of electricity from renewable sources by a certain date, spurring the development of clean sources like wind and solar and probably lowering overall emissions nationally. Perhaps most important, some argue that with a strong push by the president, such a measure could actually clear the high bar for passage of 60 votes in the Senate this fall.

Why is our electrical system resisting open source?

A new research report from GigaOm asks an intriguing question.

Why is the smart grid resisting open source?

Canadian researchers hope to green the web, make Canada the world's web server

Canadian researchers hope to stem the global IT industry's rampant output of greenhouse gas emissions by perfecting a way to host the Internet's content purely on green power.

And if their experiment succeeds, Canada could essentially become the world's largest Internet server — powered with almost no carbon footprint — and help reduce one of the most significant, growing sources of pollution.

Biofuel Investment in Australia `Inadequate,' Caltex CEO Julian Segal Says

Caltex Australia Ltd., the nation’s biggest oil refiner, called for increased government funding to spur biofuels development as part of an effort to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and bolster energy security.

Australia has “inadequate funding” for biofuels, with the government devoting just $15 million to the technology, Julian Segal, chief executive officer of Caltex, said in a speech in Sydney today. The U.S. Department of Energy by contrast is investing more than $1 billion to advance the field, he said.

In China, Pollution Worsens Despite New Efforts

BEIJING — China, the world’s most prodigious emitter of greenhouse gas, continues to suffer the downsides of unbridled economic growth despite a raft of new environmental initiatives.

The quality of air in Chinese cities is increasingly tainted by coal-burning power plants, grit from construction sites and exhaust from millions of new cars squeezing onto crowded roads, according to a government study issued this week. Other newly released figures show a jump in industrial accidents and an epidemic of pollution in waterways.

NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries

The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.

In Memoriam       Victim of D.C. area storm, a local environmentalist, 'lived what he believed' Seven families who tend the Watkins Pond Community Garden in Rockville gathered Sunday for a picnic and double celebration: to mark their second summer harvest and to thank Carl Henn, the local environmental activist credited with creating their beloved garden. When dark clouds blew in without warning about 3:15 p.m., the group ran from the King Farm Park picnic area to its cars. Five minutes into the roaring wind and pelting rain and hail, one picnicgoer said, a bright bolt of lightning filled the sky, followed instantly by deafening thunder. It was only when everyone had emerged after the fast-moving storm passed a few minutes later that they saw Henn lying beneath a towering tree that had a fresh, eight-foot-long gash where lightning had apparently struck, said Dennis McCarthy of Rockville.       Carl Henn was a long time member of The Oil Drum, and the author of this guest post.

Analysis: U.S. refineries still need to trim capacity

(Reuters) - Atlantic Basin refineries remain most at risk for closure as refiners cut more capacity to balance supply with still-weak demand for gasoline and other oil products, but refineries in other parts of the United States are not immune.

The global economy is expected to show signs of recovery in 2010 and oil demand is predicted to grow but key gasoline demand in the world's largest oil consumer is not expected to return to its 2007 peak.

"Refineries at risk are not just in the Atlantic Basin," said Mark Routt, senior staff consultant with the economics unit of Texas-based consultants, KBC Advanced Technologies.

"Small refiners will find it increasingly difficult to compete against economies of scale available to larger rivals. So, too places in Canada and even the U.S. Pacific Coast where there are several refineries are also under pressure."

Gulf of Mexico's Deepwater Oil Industry Is Built on Pillars of Salt

Moore, while at Anadarko Petroleum Corp., was one of the earliest geologists to probe beneath the Gulf's salt, helping discover the Mahogany oil reservoir, the region's first producing subsalt field, after burrowing through 3,825 feet of salt in the early 1990s. The productivity of these salt-based fields could prompt a re-evaluation of peak oil's arrival, he said.

"If the volumes are there, this will be a significant addition to the world's resources," he said.

Centrica's East Yorkshire gas storage project on hold

Plans for an onshore gas storage facility in East Yorkshire by the British Gas owner, Centrica, have been put on hold.

The company said a lack of clarity over regulator Ofgem's access rights rules meant they were not in a position to proceed with the project at present.

Peak Oil – Who’s Using it all up?

However, it is the Indian/Chinese/Japanese bloc which should give rise to sleepless nights. This area is accelerating its oil consumption at ever increasing rates, far higher than North America, Europe and the rest of the world, but has very few oil reserves. Don’t forget, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, for them it was a war to secure natural resources in the Pacific, (what US administrations now refer to as “energy security”). Will this same pattern repeat itself?

Second Gulf spill spreads

A separate spill has spread to cover about six square miles in the US Gulf of Mexico as oil continues to shoot as much as 100 feet into the air from a damaged wellhead.

Fallout from Enbridge oil spill spreads

CALGARY -- As Enbridge Inc. scrambled Wednesday to get a damaged section of oil pipeline in Michigan back into service, it said it will also move to deal with concerns from opponents of its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to the British Columbia coast.

The Calgary-based company said Wednesday it will be days before it can get the section of the line in Michigan back into service as it begins to assess the cause of the rupture and cleans up crude fouling a river.

Analysis: Oil companies more cautious on storms after Gulf spill

(Reuters) - Heightened caution following the BP oil spill is prompting oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico to shut more production faster as storms threaten, exacerbating energy price volatility this hurricane season.

Comparing producers' precautions ahead of storms this year with preparations for more severe storms in previous years indicates that companies are taking tropical threats more seriously, even though predictions of a harsh hurricane season have yet to be borne out.

BP's missed opportunity on executive pay

As BP struggles to repair its severely tarnished reputation, analysts say reforming the way it pays senior executives could send a powerful message.

"Compensation for CEOs and other senior managers is the single best way to ensure that a company puts its money where its mouth is in terms of corporate values," said Nick Kalm, president of corporate consulting group Reputation Partners. "BP will have missed a major opportunity if compensation is not tied in a meaningful way to safety."

‘Greenwashing’ no longer enough for businesses

For more than a decade, BP had flooded the media with advertisements showing solar panels, windmills and waving fields of grass without a drop of oil in sight. It changed its name, KFC-style, from British Petroleum to BP to de-emphasize its claim to fame: hydrocarbons. The company adopted a stylized green sun as its logo and rolled out the slogan "Beyond Petroleum."

But when the company's Deepwater Horizon offshore well began blowing tens of thousands of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico each day, no outlay of advertising dollars could change the cold, hard facts: The company that had cultivated the greenest image in the oil industry still derived more than 99 percent of its revenues from gas and petroleum. For consumers who had been fed the image of the company out tending windmills, the revelation was almost as shocking as the images of oil-soaked pelicans.

California's clean energy future threatened by federal delays, state officials say

The U.S. Department of Energy is accused of foot-dragging in approving loan guarantees to finance several major projects worth an estimated $30 billion.

Botanical Gardens Look for New Lures

For the last quarter century, the Cleveland Botanical Garden went all out for its biennial Flower Show, the largest outdoor garden show in North America. With themed gardens harking back to the Roman empire, or an 18th-century English estate, the event would draw 25,000 to 30,000 visitors.

But in 2009, the Flower Show was postponed and then abandoned when the botanical garden could not find sponsors. This year, the garden has different plans. From Sept. 24 to 26, it is inaugurating the “RIPE! Food & Garden Festival,” which celebrates the trend of locally grown food — and is supported in part by the Cleveland Clinic and Heinen’s, a supermarket chain.

“The Flower Show may come back someday, but it’s not where people are these days,” says Natalie Ronayne, the garden’s executive director. “Food is an easier sell.”

Why were resources expunged from neo-classical economics?

Something strange happened to economics about a century ago. In moving from classical to neo-classical economics — the dominant academic school today — economists expunged land — or natural resources. Neo-classical value theory — based on marginalism and subjective valuation — still makes a great deal of sense. Expunging natural resources from the way economists think about the world does not.

No friends? It's worse for your health than being fat

"For instance, trends reveal reduced intergenerational living, greater social mobility, delayed marriage, dual-career families, increased single-residence households, and increased age-related disabilities," they wrote.

"More specifically, over the last two decades there has been a three-fold increase in the number of Americans who report having no confidant," they added.

"Such findings suggest that despite increases in technology and globalization that would presumably foster social connections, people are becoming increasingly more socially isolated."

A snatch of old song

Scything, largely thanks to Simon, is undergoing a renaissance in Britain. Scythes were used here from Anglo-Saxon times right up until the 1940s, initially to mow grass for haymaking and later also to mow cereal crops. They were operated by large mowing teams in the summer months and they were, and are, a terrific example of what used to be called ‘appropriate technology.’ The wooden handles, known as snaths, can be made anywhere there are trees by any competent woodworker, and the blades can be made by any blacksmith. They’re a genuinely pre- and post-modern tool, and will doubtless be around long after the Flymo has faded into legend. Keep the blade honed and peened, and know how to use them, and you have probably the most efficient and effective tool for cutting grass ever developed. This is proven entertainingly year after year at the Somerset Scythe Festival where the annual ‘scythe versus strimmer’ contest is always won by the scythe.

India’s new dams threaten Pakistan’s farming sector

The World Bank, which had been a party to the original treaty, appointed a Swiss civil engineer to arbitrate the technical aspects. In 2007, the engineer released his findings. While modifying some of the project’s design, he found technically that India’s argument was sound and ruled in its favour as far as the spillway gates were concerned.

As a result, Pakistan lost its single assurance that India would not manipulate the flow of water. And, now that it had the capability, India used it. To quote a recent article by John Briscoe, a former senior adviser to the World Bank who has worked on water issues on the subcontinent for 35 years: “This vulnerability was driven home when India chose to fill Baglihar exactly at the time when it would impose maximum harm on farmers in downstream Pakistan.”

Michigan oil spill Enbridge’s ‘highest priority’

A serious pipeline leak in Michigan has cast a dark shadow over what would otherwise have been an upbeat financial report from major oil and gas pipeline operator Enbridge Inc. on Wednesday.

The Canadian company said crews are doing their utmost to deal with a spill of about three million litres of oil, which has affected the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

Top 7 suppliers of oil to the US

Really big oil: Where does the US get its crude? Here's what you need to know.

Saudi Aramco Awards Yanbu Refinery Works to Tecnicas, Daelim Industrial

Saudi Aramco, the biggest state- owned oil company, awarded contracts at the planned 400,000 barrel-a-day Yanbu refinery in Saudi Arabia to companies including Tecnicas Reunidas SA and Daelim Industrial Co.

Tecnicas Reunidas will do work on the coker unit, Daelim will build the gasoline and hydrocracker units and SK Engineering & Construction Co. will work on the crude unit, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company said today in a statement. Tecnicas said separately it got $700 million contract.

Global lands Pemex pipeline contract

US-based Global Industries has won a $40 million contract from state-run Pemex for pipeline work in its Ku-Maloob-Zaap field in the Bay of Campeche.

BP to Pay Estimated $60MM in Advance Payments

BP estimates it will pay at least $60 million in advance payments in August to claimants across the Gulf Coast who have lost income or net profit due to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP, which has paid $256 million to date for claims including $30 million in the last seven days, will start making the advance payments by the end of this week. Claimants will receive their check about 30 days after they received their July payment.

Bangladesh and India sign electricity deal

DHAKA, Bangladesh (UPI) -- Bangladesh and India signed a power transmission agreement Monday for electricity to be imported to energy-starved Bangladesh.

Initially, 250 megawatts of power would be available to Bangladesh from India, with transmission to start in 2012.

Homeowners face £277 fuel-bill hike: Move towards 'green energy' will come at a price

Plans to tackle climate change will add £277 to annual household fuel bills unless consumers give their homes a ‘green makeover’, ministers warned yesterday.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne admitted the massive expansion of wind farms across Britain – along with clean coal power stations – will send electricity and gas prices soaring.

But Mr Huhne claimed that the price increases would be offset by government plans to improve the energy efficiency of millions of British homes.

"Brilliant": Prepare for the fluorescent future

In the book you argue that a more brightly lit street isn't necessarily a safer street. Why is that?

There was a big study in Illinois that showed that a reduction of street light reduced the amount of crime; it also increased the amount of crime that happened during daylight hours. We automatically assume that a well-lit street is safer, but I'm not sure if that basic assumption holds. A lot of cities thought stationary oil lanterns would hinder crime when they were first set up, but there were several cities, including Cologne and Birmingham in Britain who refused to put out streetlights because they thought it would aid and abet criminals. Absolute dark isn't safe but neither is absolute brilliance. The more light we have, the more light we feel we need to be safe.

Canning preserves summer's bounty for colder seasons ahead

"If you have your own vegetable garden, if you're shopping at farmers markets or if you belong to a CSA [Community Supported Agriculture farm share program], you're going to end up with more than what you need," she says.

What to do with the excess is the subject of "Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze or Dry Almost Anything," a new book Meyer edited for her employer, Herald Press, the mainstream publishing arm of the Mennonite Publishing Network, with offices in the United States and Canada.

Mitsui Says Oil Tanker Possibly Attacked Near Hormuz

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., operator of the world’s second-largest oil-tanker fleet, said one of its ships may have been attacked near the Strait of Hormuz, deemed by the U.S. to be the most important chokepoint for oil supply.

An explosion, which “may have been caused by an external attack,” occurred at 5:30 a.m. Tokyo time, slightly injuring one of the crew of 31, Mitsui said in a statement. The vessel, M. Star, is on its way to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to assess the damage and no oil is leaking, Mitsui said.

Oil dips to near $77 after surprise US supply jump

Oil prices dipped to near $77 a barrel Wednesday after a report showed U.S. crude supplies unexpectedly rose last week, suggesting demand remains weak.

...Crude inventories jumped 3.1 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday. Analysts had expected a drop of 2.3 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Supplies of gasoline and distillates also rose, the API said.

Oil May Rise Only as Far as $80 Fibonacci Resistance

Crude oil, which fell the most in more than three weeks yesterday, remains in a rising channel on technical charts and will continue to face resistance near $80 a barrel, according to Societe Generale SA.

Jeff Rubin: China’s energy consumption a zero-sum game

It wasn’t sheer coincidence that last year marked two pivotal events in the world’s vehicle industry. In 2009, China became the largest car market in the world, while in the same year there were four million fewer vehicles on the road in the United States. In a world where the supply of economically viable oil has peaked, or is, at best, growing marginally, driving has suddenly become a zero-sum game.

That means that if millions of new drivers are about to get on the road in China, then somehow millions of other drivers will have to get off somewhere else. Last year, that’s exactly what happened in America for the first time since World War II. And unless T. Boone Pickens is miraculously able to convert the American vehicle stock to natural gas–powered engines, some 40 million other vehicles in the U.S. will similarly be taking the exit lane over the next decade.

Refining Hits 10-Week High as Japan Starts Idled Factories

Oil refining in Japan, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, rose to a 10-week high as producers resume operations after maintenance shutdowns.

China lifts its gas use in first half

China’s use of natural gas jumped by 22 per cent in the first half of the year from the previous six months, government figures showed yesterday, propping up a global industry that has seen a supply glut push down prices.

China’s insatiable demand for energy has steered the direction of the world oil market for years but the country’s power industry and manufacturing are now turning increasingly to gas, with a new emphasis on shipping in the fuel from Qatar and other Gulf states. Chinese demand for tanker imports will increase fourfold by 2020, according to a study released yesterday. That could make up for the weaker-than-forecast growth in US demand and a flat outlook for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Japan and South Korea.

China, India shift to gas for clean growth

Asia is boosting consumption of liquefied natural gas (LNG) relative to oil as nations from China to India try to pollute less while driving economic growth.

Shell's Impact in Australian Oil, Gas `Only the Beginning,' Goldman Says

Royal Dutch Shell Plc is set to have an even bigger impact in Australia in the next year, potentially joining with Santos Ltd. to develop a gas project in Queensland and selling its refining assets, Goldman Sachs JBWere said.

Chevron in Australia native land title deal for plant

(Reuters) - Chevron Corp has signed a preliminary agreement with a group of native land owners in western Australia that will allow it to construct a liquefied natural gas processing plant, it said on Wednesday.

UK gas halts slide as maintenance restricts supply

LONDON (Reuters) - Prompt British gas prices were firm on Wednesday as terminal maintenance restricted supply, while forward contracts were mixed on more scheduled North Sea field and pipeline outages and liquefied natural gas imports.

Reliance Profit Growth May Peak on Failure to Raise Gas Output

Earnings growth at Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest company by market value, may slow from the fastest pace in more than two years as the company falls behind schedule to increase gas production, investors said.

ENI announces energy venture with Egypt

MILAN (AFP) – Italian energy group ENI said on Wednesday it had signed an agreement with Egypt on the production and transportation of oil and gas which would raise Egypt's profile as a supplier to the Middle East and Mediterranean region.

ENI and the two Egyptian state-owned oil companies EGPC and EGAS will establish a joint venture and work together on oil and gas upstream activities in Iraq and Gabon, the Italian company said late on Tuesday.

Shell Conducting Repairs at Australia Refinery; Unit Still off After Fire

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, says it’s carrying out maintenance at its Geelong refinery in Australia, declining to provide details of what units are being serviced.

“The facility is still functioning,” Paul Zennaro, Melbourne-based spokesman for Shell, said by telephone today. The bitumen unit, damaged in a May fire, remains offline and it isn’t known when it will return to service, he said.

Formosa Says 1-2 Weeks Before Two-Thirds of Oil Refinery Online After Fire

Formosa Petrochemical Corp., Taiwan’s only publicly traded oil refiner, said it may need one to two weeks to have two-thirds of its Mailiao oil refinery fully operational after a fire damaged a unit three days ago.

Enbridge posts 19% profit rise

Canadina pipeline player Enbridge said today that second-quarter operating profit rose 19%, driven by growth in both its natural gas delivery and oil pipeline businesses.

Congress Set to Tackle Oil Spill Liability, Drilling Safety

U.S. Senate Democrats are set to unveil a slimmed-down energy bill Tuesday aimed at reforming offshore drilling, but House lawmakers are taking up a tougher bill on Friday that adds another hurdle to get a bill signed into law this year.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to pass a bill before lawmakers leave for their summer recess next week, focusing on holding BP Plc accountable for its massive oil spill. Debate on the Senate bill could begin as soon as Thursday.

U.S. readies criminal probe of oil spill-report

(Reuters) - Several U.S. government agencies are preparing a criminal probe of at least three companies involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though it could take more than a year before any charges are filed, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

BP gets "wake-up call" and $32 billion in spill charges

LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc's newly named chief executive on Tuesday called the Gulf oil spill a "wake-up call" for the entire industry as the company tallied up its losses and disclosed two U.S. investigations.

Bob Dudley, who will replace gaffe-prone Tony Hayward as chief executive on October 1, said safety would be among his highest priorities as the first American to lead BP tries to refurbish the British oil company's battered reputation.

New CEO Dudley faces daunting task at BP

BP has been here before. Hayward himself was named to succeed a predecessor who oversaw a series of safety lapses that culminated in a blast at a refinery in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people in 2005.

Now, Dudley will embark on the clean-up of a company saddled with huge liabilities, a broken corporate culture, strained government relations and a badly damaged brand.

'Demonised' BP boss sparks fresh US anger on exit

LONDON (AFP) – BP's outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward was the target of fresh US anger Wednesday after claiming he had been "demonised and vilified," threatening efforts to draw a line under the Gulf oil spill.

The comments by Hayward, who resigned Tuesday following his heavily criticised handling of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, drew renewed criticism from Washington as BP struggles to restore its reputation after the spillage.

BP CEO change won't diminish Gulf response: govt

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. official overseeing the response to BP Plc's Gulf of Mexico oil leak said on Tuesday he doesn't expect the company's commitment to cleaning up the spill to be diminished with its change in leadership.

"I don't see any diminishing of performance or priorities," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said of BP's earlier announcement that Bob Dudley, who has been BP's top executive handling the spill response, will replace Chief Executive Tony Hayward on October 1.

Lift 'reckless' oil drilling ban, Gulf residents plead

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's "reckless" moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is suffocating small businesses and destroying livelihoods, lawmakers and residents said Tuesday.

"The decision to stop energy exploration in the Gulf of Mexico appears to have been made in an uninformed manner that borders recklessness," Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu told the small business committee, which she chairs.

X Prize to offer millions for Gulf oil cleanup solution

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – The X Prize Foundation launches a competition this week promising millions of dollars for winning ways to clean up crude oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The nonprofit group will hold a press conference in Washington on Thursday to reveal details of an Oil Cleanup X Challenge inspired by the disaster.

Gulf flow has stopped, but where's the oil?

NEW ORLEANS – In the nearly two weeks since a temporary cap stopped BP's gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, not much oil has been showing up on the surface of the water.

Scientists caution that doesn't mean the crude is gone. There's still a lot of it in the Gulf, though no one is sure quite how much or exactly where it is.

BP Oil Is Dissipating, Easing Threat to East Coast

Oil from BP Plc’s record spill in the Gulf of Mexico is biodegrading quickly, probably eliminating the risk that crude will go around Florida and hit the U.S. East Coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Oil has been dissipating through evaporation since BP stopped the flow from its Macondo well off the coast of Louisiana on July 15, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco told reporters yesterday on a conference call. Crude that’s dispersed into the sea is being gobbled up by bacteria, she said.

On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Gulf spill has not fouled most beaches but hurts tourism

The massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has not fouled the vast majority of the area's beaches but is still scaring tourists away, according to a report to be released Wednesday.

100 Days Into Spill, Gulf Life Forever Changed

(AP) A hundred days ago, shop owner Cherie Pete was getting ready for a busy summer serving ice cream and po-boys to hungry fisherman. Local official Billy Nungesser was planning his wedding. Environmental activist Enid Sisskin was preparing a speech about the dangers of offshore drilling.

Then the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the coast of Louisiana, and in an instant, life along the Gulf Coast changed for good.

Appeals Court Rejects Effort to Create Hybrid Taxi Fleet

The Bloomberg administration’s years-long attempt to force the city’s cab owners to switch from gas guzzlers to hybrid vehicles was rejected by a federal appeals court Tuesday morning.

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a judge’s 2009 ruling, in a suit brought by taxi fleet owners, that the city’s rules amounted to an effort to mandate fuel economy and emissions standards, something that only the federal government is allowed to do.

Wind Drives Growing Use of Batteries

The rapid growth of wind farms, whose output is hard to schedule reliably or even predict, has the nation’s electricity providers scrambling to develop energy storage to ensure stability and improve profits.

As the wind installations multiply, companies have found themselves dumping energy late at night, adjusting the blades so they do not catch the wind, because there is no demand for the power. And grid operators, accustomed to meeting demand by adjusting supplies, are now struggling to maintain stability as supplies fluctuate.

On the cutting edge of a potential solution is Hawaii, where state officials want 70 percent of energy needs to be met by renewable sources like the wind, sun or biomass by 2030. A major problem is that it is impossible for generators on the islands to export surpluses to neighboring companies or to import power when the wind towers are becalmed.

Is the welfare state in terminal decline?

As with cheap oil, we assumed that state services would continue at a certain level for the foreseeable future. Now we are moving into a period where the best of the state's provision may be behind us and, as with our oil reserves, we will be struggling to manage an increasingly scarce resource.

Many people still assume that, once the fallout from the economic crisis has worked through and the economy starts to grow again, things will get back to normal. The concept of the peak state, though, presents a different future.

Doomsday shelters making a comeback

Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he's "not paranoid" but he is concerned, and that's why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

Hodge bought into the first of a proposed nationwide group of 20 fortified, underground shelters — the Vivos shelter network — that are intended to protect those inside for up to a year from catastrophes such as a nuclear attack, killer asteroids or tsunamis, according to the project's developers.

Transition Town Star

Rob Hopkins and a group of compatriots decided to help Totnes begin the process of what they call "powering down." Powering down means relocalizing food and energy production, working to transform fossil-fueled behaviors, and increasing the community's capacity to deal with any systemic shocks caused by climate change or disruptions in fuel availability.

And thus the Transition Town movement was born.

China's Environment Accidents Double as Growth Takes Toll

China, the world’s largest polluter, said the number of environmental accidents rose 98 percent in the first six months of the year, as demand for energy and minerals lead to poisoned rivers and oil spills.

“Fast economic development is leading to increasing conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb” demands, the environmental protection ministry said in a faxed statement in response to Bloomberg questions.

Research ship Akademik Fyodorov leaves for 100-day Arctic expeditn

ST. PETERSBURG (Itar-Tass) -- The polar fleet flagship Akademik Fyodorov leaves the port of Arkhangelsk on Wednesday for a 100-day scientific expedition to the Arctic Ocean.

The expedition is launched within the implementation of a major state project, sources at the Arctic and Antarctic Scientific Research Institute told Itar-Tass.

Spread of Deadly Cryptococcal Disease in U.S. Northwest Linked to Global Warming

A deadly infectious disease once thought to be exclusively tropical has gained a toehold in the Pacific Northwest, and health experts suspect climate change is partially to blame.

Last week the CDC issued a report warning U.S. doctors to be alert for patients showing signs of a cryptococcal infection.

Cap and Trade is Dead. Long Live Cap and Trade.

Hard on the heels of the Senate Democratic leadership’s decision to put aside climate legislation intended to cap carbon dioxide emissions, another carbon-capping precinct was heard from this week.

Debate over China's role in reversing climate change

At the Copenhagen summit, did China sink the chance for an international deal to confront global warming, or merely refuse to be bullied by the United States and Europe? One truth underlined by the Copenhagen failure is that if there is to be a climate change solution it will have to be acceptable to China.

Chinese Consider Setting Coal Production Ceiling by 2015 to Cut Emissions

China, the world’s biggest polluter, may impose a cap on the country’s coal production by 2015 and enforce energy consumption targets to cut carbon emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

“There must be a ceiling on coal output in the future, and energy needs can be met with new and renewable energy,” Wu Yin, a deputy director at the National Energy Administration, told the official China Energy News weekly newspaper in an interview. Wu didn’t specify any production targets.

U.S. Rep. Schauer: Oil spill near Battle Creek largest in Midwest history

Marshall Township -- As much as 1 million gallons of oil may have leaked into the Kalamazoo River near Battle Creek in what could be one of the largest oil spills in Midwest history, officials say.

U.S. Rep Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, called it the "largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest" in a description to President Barack Obama this afternoon prior to a conference call with the media.

"According to EPA officials, this is the largest oil spill ever in the Midwest," he said. "The EPA is estimating 1 million gallons (spilled). ... This feels like déjÀ vu all over again with regard to what happened in the Gulf."

US, Canada refiners say unaffected by pipe rupture

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The rupture of Enbridge Inc's 190,000 barrel a day pipeline in Michigan has yet to choke off oil to several U.S. and Canadian refineries served by the artery, but it could be lifting prices for some alternative supplies.

Refiners such as Marathon Oil Corp, Suncor Energy Inc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Husky Energy Incsaid their plants in the U.S. Great Lakes region and southern Ontario were not hampered by the break of Enbridge's Line 6B at Marshall, Michigan, on Monday.

Crude Oil Declines From 11-Week High After Consumer Confidence Report

Crude oil tumbled the most in more than three weeks in New York after the Conference Board reported confidence among U.S. consumers fell, a sign that economic growth and energy demand may be restrained.

Japan, China agree to speed up gas fields talks

Japan and China agreed on Tuesday to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea, officials said.

Valero sees refinery runs down 12-13 pct

(Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) said Tuesday its refineries will run between 12.5 and 13.1 percent below their combined capacity in the third quarter.

The 15 refineries, with a combined capacity of 2.78 million barrels per day (bpd), are expected to run between 2.355 million and 2.435 million bpd in the third quarter.

BP Unlikely to Sell Venezuelan Assets to Cover Costs for Strategic Reasons

BP Plc, battling to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, is unlikely to sell stakes in three Venezuelan joint ventures as it seeks to raise cash to pay for the slick in the Gulf of Mexico, said Richard Obuchi, a professor at the International Energy Center in Caracas.

London-based BP is more likely to keep a presence in South America’s largest oil producer as a base for future expansion, Obuchi said yesterday in a phone interview. The Energy Center is part of the IESA business school.

Best Peak Oil Blogs

1. The Oil Drum – The Oil Drum discusses the future of energy and its impact on our world. They believe that we are near a peak oil point and that current oil production levels cannot possibly match the world’s ever growing energy demand. With original research and calculated conclusions, they aim to raise awareness and persuade people to work towards a common goal.

Russia attacks Iran's verbal assault on Medvedev

(Reuters) - Iranian criticism of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is "unacceptable" and "fruitless, irresponsible rhetoric", the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Medvedev told foreign ambassadors on July 12 that Iran was moving closer to the potential to create nuclear weapons.

Chevy Volt priced at $41,000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors announced the final price of its Chevrolet Volt electric car Tuesday afternoon, but it's the lease rate that will probably be most interesting to consumers.

The purchase price for a Volt will start at $41,000. The vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit, for an effective price of about $33,500.

More roadside chargers needed for electric cars

NEW YORK — The auto industry calls it range anxiety: Drivers want electric cars but worry they won't have enough juice to make long trips. After all, what good is going green if you get stranded with a dead battery?

It's a fear that automakers must overcome as they push to sell more battery-powered cars. So government and business are taking steps to reassure drivers by building up the nation's network of electric charging stations.

US seeks solar flair for fuels

The US Department of Energy has launched an 'artificial photosynthesis' initiative with the ambitious goal of developing, scaling up and ultimately commercializing technologies that directly convert sunlight into hydrogen and other fuels.

Palladium: The Cold Fusion Fanatics Can't Get Enough of the Stuff

mong physicists and chemists, cold fusion—nuclear fusion at close to room temperature—enjoys a reputation about on par with creationism. Cold fusion has always been alluring, however, because if it worked, our world energy shortage would be over. Instantly. It would produce loads of energy from, potentially, nothing but water and leave very little nuclear waste to deal with. But it also tempts people precisely because it's been pronounced impossible so many times—there's no better way to make your name in science than by demonstrating something impossible.

Audit: U.S. can't account for $8.7 billion in Iraqi cash

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Defense Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the U.S. for rebuilding the war ravaged nation, according to an audit released Tuesday.

The report by the U.S. Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction offers a compelling look at continued laxness in how such funds are being spent in a country where people complain basic services like electricity and clean water are sharply lacking seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Oil spewing from wellhead in Louisiana marsh

Adding insult to the Gulf's injury, an oil wellhead ruptured and is spewing oil into a Louisiana marsh, officials said Tuesday.

The oil is shooting up 20 feet into the marsh area, the office of Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.

The well is in inland waterways on the border of Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes, about 65 miles south of New Orleans, and in a marsh area not accessible by road.

How the Gulf of Mexico became the nation's 'toilet bowl'

Perhaps nowhere is the protracted death of the Gulf Coast more apparent than in Pointe-Aux-Chenes, Louisiana, and other indigenous bayou communities where, decades before the BP oil disaster, the marsh started disintegrating and environmental problems washed in from as far away as North Dakota and New York.

The Gulf of Mexico became, in effect, the United States' toilet bowl -- known for its seasonal "dead zones," high erosion rates, dirty industry, ingrained poverty and, now, for the biggest oil disaster in the history of the country. Compare that legacy on the Gulf Coast with the East Coast, with its wealth, and the West, with its more-sterling record of environmental stewardship.

Richard Heinberg: You Can be a BILLIONAIRE Without Even Trying!

What can you do to optimize your chances in the case of hyperinflation, a deflationary economic Depression, an oil crisis, a famine, or a series of horrendous environmental disasters? If you don’t already know, you’d better wise up fast—because some or all of these exciting opportunities are on their way to a neighborhood near you! In fact, one or two may already be tapping you on the shoulder and asking to make your acquaintance.

Pointy-headed intellectuals have been warning us about this stuff for years. Decades. Who cares? Who’s had the time for depressing, worrisome, gloomy, hard-to-understand statistics and graphs? There’s been work to do, money to be made, kids to put through college, new episodes of American Idol to watch.

The End of Capitalism? Part 2A. Capitalism and Ecological Limits

The following exchange between Michael Carriere and Alex Knight occurred via email, July 2010. Alex Knight was questioned about the End of Capitalism Theory, which states that the global capitalist system is breaking down due to ecological and social limits to growth and that a paradigm shift toward a non-capitalist future is underway.

Monitor Urges Utilities to Go Slow on Smart Grid Renovations

A report by the operations monitor of the North American electricity grid, issued today, raises a large yellow caution flag over climate policy initiatives that would require a massive change in the nation's power and transmission infrastructure.

A task force on climate change formed by North American Electric Reliability Corp. urges that policymakers not count on large amounts of renewable energy, demand reduction from smart grid systems or new storage technologies before they prove they can be worked onto the grid without endangering the system's reliability.

Deep cuts in generators' greenhouse gas emissions require an unprecedented transformation from current generation, says Mark Lauby, NERC's director of reliability assessment and performance analysis.

A cure for the energy crisis

Mike Markham used to hold a match under his faucet and light the tap water on fire. He’d get a small blue flame or an explosive orange fireball, depending on the day. “I had to check to see if I still had a moustache,” he says. Markham lives on an 80-acre farm in Fort Lupton, Colo. There are about eight natural gas wells within a few miles of his property, which he says are causing methane gas to migrate into his water.

The problem, which also affected about 100 of Markham’s neighbours who get water from the same aquifer, ended this year when the drilling companies changed pipe infrastructure and introduced filters and holding tanks to remove the gas before it entered household sinks. The aquifer is still contaminated, but local concerns about water quality aren’t going to stop the nearby drilling. That’s life on the front lines of what might be the biggest energy revolution in generations.

Valero CEO says Aruba restart in Sept. if profitable

(Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp plans to restart its shut 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) Aruba refinery in September after completing an overhaul currently underway and if the plant can operate at a profit, Chief Executive Bill Klesse said in a statement.

Kyrgyzstan’s energy crisis worsens

BISHKEK – Kyrgyzstan might see energy prices go up again. After April’s ouster of then-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the new government reduced electricity rates for the population from 1.5 KGS (about 3 US cents) per KWh to last year’s level of 0.7 KGS, pledging no more cyclic power cut-offs or rate increases in the near future.

The Bakiyev government explained the 2009 rate increases as needed to cover an energy industry deficit of 1.4 billion KGS. Those price hikes caused mass protests.

Time For Indonesia To Accelerate Use Of Renewable Energy

JAKARTA (Bernama) -- With the impressive rate of its economic growth which leads to a dramatic increase in energy consumption and in an effort to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, Indonesia has to find renewable energy that would may help reduce reliance on carbon-fueled energy, Antara news agency reported.

It is for that purpose that the Energy Care Society (MPE) on Sunday urged the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) to encourage the use of renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuel.

Pakistan: PM extends two-day weekend till October 31

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday extended two-day weekend for government employees till October 31.

The decision to extend the weekend came after a meeting to discuss the energy crisis was held, where all four chief ministers were present.

UK to back wind and nuclear to avert energy crisis

Energy secretary Chris Huhne will today set out the government's policy to secure the UK's energy supplies amid warnings of a potential power crisis.

The government will also publish a series of suggestions as to how the UK can meet its commitment to reduce emissions by 80% by mid-century.

China seen quickening hydropower approvals - media

(Reuters) - China is likely to expedite approving hydropower projects from the second half of this year, or face missing its ambitious renewable energy target after cutbacks in the past five years, local media said.

ANALYSIS: Wounded oil giant BP heads for uncertain future

The April 20 oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 people and sparked the biggest environmental disaster in United States history, was a 'watershed incident' in BP's 101-year-history, chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Tuesday.

But he hopes that the company, whose cash flow and underlying performance remains strong, has turned a corner in the fight to salvage its reputation - and secure its ultimate survival.

FACTBOX - BP sells assets to cover oil spill costs

Below are details of the assets BP has agreed to sell, and those that analysts deem likely to be considered for sale or that have been reported to be for sale.

BP should end the oil age early

The Gulf oil spill should spur BP to leave Canada's tar sands alone, and focus their energy on renewable power

James Akins, 83, dies; energy expert presaged danger of relying on Mideast oil

James E. Akins, 83, who as the State Department's chief energy expert in the early 1970s controversially predicted that growing U.S. dependence on Middle East oil gravely threatened the national economy and was vindicated when nearly all of his predictions came true, starting with the 1973 Arab oil embargo, died July 15 at his home in Mitchellville after a heart attack.

Eliot Spitzer: Two Crises Wasted

As we all now know, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and here we have wasted two of them. The momentum for change will now fade into the haze of a long, hot summer. Many Americans hoped that the BP leak would finally focus us on generating an energy/climate policy that would deal simultaneously with global warming and our dependence on fossil fuels. That hope has now totally disappeared. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the end of meaningful reform in the energy arena, and the politics after the midterm elections will make that issue even less palatable.

Australia: Food security plan essential for the national interest

While people discuss the threat of obesity in the suburbs and in the seat of power, nobody talks about the threat of global food scarcity. No one in Government seems worried about where the world will source its food or the consequences of shortages. Few are concerned about land being bought by overseas interests, about farmers being driven from the land by low farm gate prices and trade rules which discriminate against Australian growers. In fact, the Labor government in its 2010-11 budget cut programmes for natural resource management and land stewardship in the face of climate change and peak oil.

Selling the Farm, Part I: Does Australia risk losing control of its food resources?

Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets.

Selling the Farm, Part II: Does Australia need a food security plan?

Tasmanian Greens Senator Christine Milne says Australia urgently needs a national food security plan because of the growing danger of foreign takeover of key Australian agricultural assets.

Oil Trades Near 11-Week High; Goldman Says Crude Too Cheap

Oil traded near an 11-week high in New York as equities rallied around the world and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said crude prices are too cheap.

Oil was at about $79 a barrel before a government report due tomorrow that may show U.S. fuel supplies increased last week. Goldman Sachs said futures prices are “significantly” below the level warranted by “fundamentals,” offering buying opportunities for this year and next.

“We expect an average of $92 next year, so on a longer- term horizon prices are too cheap, but not far too cheap,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG in Vienna. “Crude faces some resistance around $80 as although fundamentals are slowly improving they’re not yet strong enough.”

Fuel price hike won't affect consumers: Deora

New Delhi (PTI) Ruling out any rollback in cooking gas and kerosene prices, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today said that the increase was "not that high" and would not affect consumers much.

"What should we rollback? We have increased prices only by Rs 3. If a family uses 5 litres of kerosene in a month, then its expenditure is increased only by 50 paise per day," he told reporters here.

Oil Supplies Falling to Four-Month Low in Survey on Storm

U.S. crude oil inventories probably fell to a four-month low last week as imports declined and Tropical Storm Bonnie disrupted production in the Gulf of Mexico, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Stockpiles fell 1.75 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, in the seven days ended July 23 from 353.5 million the week earlier, according to the median of 11 analyst estimates before an Energy Department report tomorrow. The last time supplies were so low was March 19, when prices averaged $81.46 a barrel.

Natural gas could lead to new Lebanon-Israel war

BEIRUT – The discovery of large natural gas reserves under the waters of the eastern Mediterranean could potentially mean a huge economic windfall for Israel and Lebanon, both resource-poor nations — if it doesn't spark new war between them.

The Hezbollah militant group has blared warnings that Israel plans to steal natural gas from Lebanese territory and vows to defend the resources with its arsenal of rockets. Israel says the fields it is developing do not extend into Lebanese waters, a claim experts say appears to be correct, but the maritime boundary between the two countries — still officially at war — has never been precisely set.

Occidental Petroleum Misses Analysts' Estimates on Shortfall in Production

Occidental Petroleum Corp., the U.S. oil producer that bought Citigroup Inc.’s Phibro energy-trading unit last year, posted a smaller profit increase than analysts predicted as output fell short of the company’s forecast.

Russia to use space tech to develop energy sector

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will employ technologies, initially meant for outer space research programmes, to develop its vast energy sector, Energy Ministry said on Tuesday in yet another sign of the Kremlin's modernisation drive.

The ministry said in a statement it signed a long-term agreement with Russian space agency Roscosmos "to secure effective exploration, production, transportation and usage of the energy resources by employing modern space technologies, products and services".

Total, Novatek Natural-Gas Venture in Russia Risks Losing Siberian License

Total SA and Russian partner OAO Novatek may lose a license to develop an Arctic natural gas field in a venture agreed on last year that was green-lighted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The Natural Resources Ministry’s environmental watchdog put a permit for the Terneftegaz venture on a list for possible early termination, according to its website. The Moscow-based regulator, Rosprirodnadzor, didn’t cite a reason.

Is peak oil imminent?

I have just read an article by Brendan Coffey with the title "Has peak oil arrived?" The short answer is "no" since OPEC has ordered its members to shut in production in order to keep up prices. Until the world economy picks up, there will still be a surplus of oil available.

BP replaces CEO and posts $17 billion quarterly loss

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil giant BP Plc launched a plan to repair its battered image in the United States on Tuesday, ditching its gaffe-prone chief executive and promising to slim down by trebling an asset sale target to $30 billion.

However, the company, the target of public anger over its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, tempted further ire by denying it needed cultural change and offsetting the costs of the spill, including expected fines, against its taxes.

The tax move will cost the U.S. taxpayer almost $10 billion.

BP Asset Sales Win 58% Premium, Show Potential for More Deals

Robert Dudley, appointed as BP Plc chief executive officer today, will sell as much as $30 billion of assets over the next 18 months after the company got a 58 percent premium for fields bought by Apache Corp.

BP plans to dispose of between $25 billion and $30 billion, mainly in oil and gas production, “worth more to other companies than to BP,” the company said in a statement today after it reported a record $17.2 billion second-quarter loss because of the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Activists disable some London BP petrol stations

LONDON (Reuters) – Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace disabled some of BP's 50 petrol stations in central London on Tuesday in protest at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Greenpeace said its activists had managed to close down 47 service stations in the capital. BP confirmed 30 had been forced to close temporarily. The company branded the demonstrations an "act of vandalism" and said it would reopen the sites as soon as it was safe to do so.

Conference looks to secure energy future

The future of Australia’s energy security is one of the key agenda items at the 2010 Gaseous Fuels conference being held this week.

Hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A), conference delegates are discussing a variety of topics.

However the central theme of many presentations is securing Australia’s energy future by promoting home-grown gas fuels, including liquid propane gas (LPG), compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

India's Nuclear Push: The Conflicts Within

After years of years of negotiations and sustained backing from the US government to find acceptance as a global nuclear power, India's plans to go nuclear for a major share of its energy production are in limbo, stalled by the refusal of the Lok Sabha, the country's lower house of parliament, to pass legislation limiting corporate liability in the event of a nuclear accident.

Porsche testing three electric Boxsters in 2011

Porsche has been ramping up its vehicle electrification program, ranging from the plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder concept and the 911 GT3R Hybrid racer to the new Cayenne hybrid that recently went into production. The latest addition to the electric drive program is a trio of experimental Boxsters that are powered purely by electrons.

Bikes and Cars: A Lesson in Los Angeles

Attending the Copenhagen climate conference last December, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles had a revelation: his own city needed to do more to promote bicycling as a clean form of transportation.

“I’ll tell you what I came away with: that in the area of bicycling, I’ve got to do a better job and the city’s got to do a better job,” Mr. Villaraigosa told Southern California Public Radio.

Last weekend, however, the mayor learned a tough lesson about urban cycling firsthand: cars and bikes don’t mix.

Let There Be Dimmers on Our Glowing Planet

America roared into the electric age and didn’t stop to consider what it had wrought until just short of the 100th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb.

That’s what Jane Brox, author of “Brilliant,” argues, and she dates that realization not to the 1965 blackout that closed down most of the northeast but to President Nixon’s dictum in the wake of the 1973 energy crisis that all nonessential lighting — holiday lights, advertising, the lights of Broadway — be dimmed. “Something essential had been taken away,” she writes, “something larger than sheer illumination: the assumption that we could live without thinking about energy, that we could take it all for granted.”

Delawares Drinking Water at Risk: At decades-old bait shop, fear erodes a livelihood

Decades of spills and accidents have delivered hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, refining chemicals and plastic residues onto fields that drain toward the run.

In 2006, a federally mandated investigation at nearby Delaware City Refinery found benzene trickling into Dragon Run from its bottom, along with other gasoline additives. Levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, had reached 50 percent of the concentration in some samples that would make the water off-limits for drinking.

"It used to be better and cleaner," Wilmoth said. "Now a lot of people are afraid to even go and catch any fish. They say not to eat this or that. Everyone is sort of scared about the river. The only people who aren't afraid are temporary workers, immigrants. That's mostly who I deal with now."

Voyage Redeems 12,500 Plastic Bottles

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A 60-foot sailboat built largely from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles docked Monday at Sydney, after four difficult months crossing the Pacific Ocean on a trip meant to raise awareness of the perils of plastic waste.

Brazil Indians free workers at hydroelectric site

SAO PAULO – Protesters on Monday released workers from the construction site of an Amazon hydroelectric plant that Indians say is being built on an ancient burial ground.

The Indians initially freed about 100 rank-and-file workers and later the last five senior employees who had been kept inside the Dardanelos plant in the city of Aripuana, national Indian bureau coordinator Antonio Carlos Ferreira Aquino said.

Virginia: Emissions Ruling for Coal Plants Is Reversed

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, on Monday reversed a ruling requiring the Tennessee Valley Authority to upgrade emission controls at three coal-fired power plants in Tennessee and one in Alabama.

Texas: Air Quality Decision Is Appealed

State officials on Monday appealed the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to overturn a state air permitting program. The E.P.A. ruled last month that the state’s flexible permit program violated the Clean Air Act, which requires state permits to set limits on each of the dozens of individual production units inside a plant.

Armageddon Wars: Overpopulation Vs. Global Warming

When the problem is resource scarcity, companies and individuals have a powerful incentive to become more efficient. It keeps their costs down. Mr. Simon understood this, and it’s the fundamental reason he won the bet.

But global warming is different. The fact that carbon emissions are warming the planet doesn’t make it more expensive to produce those emissions. So companies do not have an ever-increasing incentive to emit less — the way they would if the problem were, say, a lack of oil. Global warming doesn’t solve itself the way that resource scarcity does.

Green machine: Aircon that doesn't warm the planet

Maidment is leading a research effort, funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, to investigate more environmentally friendly air-conditioning and refrigeration systems. One option, ironically, is to use carbon dioxide to replace the synthetic HFC refrigerants used in such systems, he says: such gases can have around 4000 times the global warming potential of CO2. Around 2 per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to them, says Maidment.

European Climate Exchange site hacked

The hackers took the website offline and in a public act of digital direct action posted a message that they aimed would raise awareness about carbon trading as a "dangerous false solution to the climate crisis". Instead the group showed its support of the grassroots activists aiming to oppose the power structures and companies profiteering from the dysfunctional Cap & Trade scheme.

Fiorina backed by coal-mining firms

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has received about $63,000 in donations this year from Appalachian coal-mining interests, much of the money from an outspoken Ohio mine owner who dismisses global warming as "hysterical global goofiness."

In a cluster of transactions, most of them dated Feb. 4, 64 donors associated with mining in Ohio, West Virginia and other coal-producing states made contributions to Fiorina, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer.

U.K. Carbon Calculator Shows 80% Emissions Reduction Is Achievable By 2050

The U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change announced a “carbon calculator” that shows the country’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent in the six decades through 2050 is achievable.

The calculator is an online tool that allows power consumers to gauge how to achieve the necessary cuts by adjusting 34 measures of energy demand and supply, ranging from the temperature of people’s homes to nuclear power generation.

U.S. Says 27% of Gulf of Mexico Oil Production, 10% of Gas Idled by Storm

About 27 percent of crude-oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 10 percent of natural-gas output is still idle because of Tropical Storm Bonnie, the U.S. government reported.

Oil and gas producers report that one rig and three production platforms remain evacuated, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said today in a statement on its website. About 428,000 barrels of daily oil production are shut-in, along with 618 million cubic feet of gas.

Russia's Novatek forms Arctic JV with Gazprom Neft

(Reuters) - Russia's largest independent gas producer, Novatek, has formed a joint venture with Gazprom Neft to develop several Arctic fields, Novatek said in a statement on Monday.

China First-Half Gas Demand Rises 22% as Output Grows

(Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest energy user, consumed 22 percent more natural gas in the first half compared with a year earlier as the country boosted production and use of the cleaner-burning fuel to cut emissions.

Spill puts Obama's oil fund chief on hostile turf

BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. (Reuters) - The man who acquired a solid gold reputation for fixing sticky situations for the U.S. government is facing one of his toughest challenges yet: running BP Plc's $20 billion compensation fund.

Who is Bob Dudley?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Talk of the imminent departure of embattled BP chief Tony Hayward has the rumor mill working overtime on the man expected to replace him.

So just who is Bob Dudley?

BP’s Hayward to resign in October

Tony Hayward, who became the face of BP PLC's flailing efforts to contain the massive Gulf oil spill, will step down as chief executive officer in October and be offered a job with the company's joint venture in Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

W.House - BP must clean Gulf, no matter who in charge

(Reuters) - BP Plc must meet its obligations to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, despite any changes among its executives, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.

Latin America: A Blind Spot in US Energy Security Policy

For more than a decade, America’s relationship with Latin America could most accurately be described as unfocused engagement, driven by reactions to events or crises at best and benign neglect at worst. Apart from intermittent efforts to secure free trade agreements (NAFTA and CAFTA), combat drugs (Plan Mérida and Plan Colombia), and weigh in—often too late and too sheepishly—to political events (Honduran Presidential crisis or President Hugo Chavez’s saber rattling), the US has failed to engage the nations of resource-wealthy Latin America in any strategic manner.

This lack of attention to our closest neighbors—and some of our strongest allies—is quite alarming given US dependence on Latin America to provide our energy. Currently, more than one-fourth of imported oil comes from Latin America (and almost 50% from the Western Hemisphere). In 2009, the top sources of US imported crude oil (and their percentages) were Canada (21%), Mexico (11%), Venezuela and Saudi Arabia (9% each), Nigeria (7%), Russia (5%), Iraq, Algeria and Angola (4% each), Brazil (3%), Colombia and Ecuador (roughly 2% total). As is widely known, America imports more than 65-70 percent of its energy needs, which means that we are vulnerable to disruptions in the supply chain and to price volatility, which are affected by domestic political and economic conditions in oil-exporting countries upon whom we depend.

Tropical Storm Threat Passes, Operations Resume in GOM

Offshore oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico are re-boarding platforms and rigs, and restoring production following Tropical Storm Bonnie. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement's (BOEM) Hurricane Response Team is monitoring the operators' activities. This team will be activated until operations return to normal and the storm is no longer a threat to the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities.

View Is Bleaker Than Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan

A six-year archive of classified military documents made public on Sunday offers an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.

The secret documents, released on the Internet by an organization called WikiLeaks, are a daily diary of an American-led force often starved for resources and attention as it struggled against an insurgency that grew larger, better coordinated and more deadly each year.

...The documents — some 92,000 reports spanning parts of two administrations from January 2004 through December 2009 — illustrate in mosaic detail why, after the United States has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001.

WikiLeaks: More US documents coming on Afghan war

LONDON – The release of some 91,000 secret U.S. military documents on the Afghanistan war is just the beginning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange promised Monday, adding that he still has thousands more Afghan files to post online.

Interview with Art Berman - Part 2

I personally think the current administration is milking this thing for all the political capital they can. Nobody who’s handling this for them really knows much about the oil and gas business. You have a theoretical physicist running the Department of Energy and I’m sure he’s a very intelligent and high-integrity guy but he didn’t really know anything about drilling or petroleum and I don’t think Salazar is particularly schooled in it. President Obama doesn’t know anything about it. So you have a bunch of amateurs dealing with something that needs a bunch of professionals. Even on the networks and cable news shows, I haven’t seen anybody they’ve brought on who knows anything about it. A lot of interesting people get in front of the cameras and talk: college professors and oceanographers and image analysis specialists and the director of a center for biodiversity-he seems like a real smart guy-but they don’t know anything about drilling operations or petroleum. I don’t say that hyper-critically; it’s just a fact.

Some new rings of power as the Gulf enters a third age

The under-fire BP chief executive Tony Hayward’s recent visit to the Middle East may mark a new chapter in the long-running relationship between this region and the supermajor oil companies.

Tullow Discovers ‘Major’ Oil Field Off Ghana’s Coast

(Bloomberg) -- Tullow Oil Plc, the U.K. explorer with the most licenses in Africa, discovered a “major new oil field” off the coast of Ghana.

China says ocean cleared of oil 10 days after spill

Chinese officials say crude from the July 16 pipeline explosion near the port city of Dalian has successfully been cleaned up. Environmentalists say that, despite the removal of oil, damage is extensive.

Rosneft Second-Quarter Profit Advances 60% on Gains in Production, Prices

OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, said second-quarter profit advanced 60 percent on higher oil prices and output.

Five-day week saves millions

ISLAMABAD (APP): The five-day week system adopted by the government has saved millions of rupees in fuel and energy costs, besides enhancing efficiency and improving social life of the people, a survey said. The government initially adopted the five-working day week to cut down by 33 percent or 500 MW of electricity in April this year and the results were soon evident.

Analysis: EIA Analyzes Proposed Climate Change Laws

On March 29, 2010 the U.S. Senate (specifically Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman) sent a letter to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) requesting analysis to help them in their consideration of climate change legislation. Three goals were mentioned as the top priorities of this proposed legislation called the American Power Act of 2010 (APA): creating jobs, achieving energy independence, and reducing carbon pollution (in that order).

The EIA responded this month with their findings in a paper titled Energy Market and Economic Impacts of the American Power Act of 2010 (pdf). The EIA's report focuses on the impact that the policy proposals envisioned in the American Power Act of 2010 would have on the decisions of both consumers and producers and the implications of these decisions on the U.S. economy.

Kurt Cobb: Asymmetrical accolades: Why preventing a crisis almost never makes you a hero

A friend recently related to me that the quality assurance manager at the pharmaceutical firm he used to work for was an absolute stickler for one thing: There had to be a convincing cleanup procedure for anything anyone proposed to bring into a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. If it got on the floor or in the air or on the walls or in the production line and it wasn't supposed to be there, there had to be a way to get rid of it completely. Either that or it wasn't coming into the building.

This friend explained that the quality assurance program run by this man was so good that the Food and Drug Administration pointed other firms to it as an example of what they should be doing. So, how did people at the company feel about this man? Well, they didn't really like him. I imagined that to his fellow employees this man must have been like an insect buzzing around their heads--a beneficial insect, to be sure--but a buzzing insect nevertheless.

Turkey: Iran to respond to concerns about nuclear swap deal

Istanbul - Iran will respond to concerns about the nuclear swap deal it signed with Turkey and Brazil in May in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday.

'Iran notified us that they will submit a letter to the IAEA tomorrow morning,' Davutoglu said after meeting his Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Istanbul.

Can sustainable farming really feed us?

After a vivid and thoughtful discussion of the organic farming practices and the positive effects of a strong local economy that has in many ways rejuvenated the town of Hardwick, Vermont, the host, Robin Young, asked a pricelessly dense question: “but can sustainable farming really feed us all?” The thoughtless presumption of the question is that unsustainable farming might possibly be a better approach, that we ultimately have any choice but to follow sustainable practices, at least if we wish to sustain our civilization.

The answer I would have liked to have heard is: “but is unsustainable farming really sustainable?”

Growing Shortages of Water Threaten China’s Development

With 20 percent of the world’s population but just 7 percent of its available freshwater, China faces serious water shortages as its economy booms and urbanization increases. The government is planning massive water diversion projects, but environmentalists say conservation — especially in the wasteful agricultural sector — is the key.

'Villages' let elderly grow old at home

Phinisee, a widow for 40 years, can get around her home on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., but she needs help opening jars and reaching things. She can't handle even minor repairs around the house or drive places (she gave up her car in 1993).

That's OK because Phinisee lives in Capitol Hill Village, which began operating three years ago and is the oldest of six such villages in the nation's capital. She calls the village office, and they send her folks who clean her garden, install a railing, fix her windows, bring her groceries or drive her to the bank.

Ed and Margaret Missiaen, both retired and in their late 60s, are Capitol Hill Village members who volunteer. Margaret has cleaned Phinisee's garden. Ed has helped fix her windows.

They're counting on the village to help them when the time comes.

Nuclear experts seek to advance fusion project

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) – An explosion in costs has cast a cloud over a multi-billion-dollar nuclear fusion project aiming to make the power that fuels the Sun a practical energy source on Earth.

Delays, rocketing costs and financing problems have hit the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) whose consortium members start a meeting on Tuesday aiming to get the project back on course.

ITER was set up by the European Union, which has a 45-percent share, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States to research a clean and limitless alternative to dwindling fossil fuel reserves by testing nuclear fusion.

Crude Oil Declines a Second Day on Concerns Recovery Stalling

Oil declined for a second day in New York on speculation that the global recovery may stall and crimp fuel consumption.

Crude oil slipped from near its highest level in 11 weeks as European equity indexes pared gains on losses among health- care and food companies. The U.S. economy probably expanded at a slower pace in the second quarter as the trade deficit swelled, economists said before reports this week.

“We are bumping up against resistance again around $78,” said Christopher Bellew, senior broker at Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. “It’s going to take better macroeconomic news or perhaps storm activity in the Gulf of Mexico to spring prices from their narrow trading range.”

Survey: Gas prices barely rose in 2-week span

CAMARILLO, Calif. — A survey says the average price of regular gasoline in the United States has gone up in the last two weeks, but by less than a cent.

The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of regular rose slightly to $2.73.

Gulf Storm Drives Gasoline Bets Higher on Refinery Threat

Gasoline futures trading rose at the fastest pace in more than four months as Tropical Storm Bonnie, the second of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, threatened to disrupt refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chavez Warns of Cut in Venezuela Oil Supplies to U.S. if Colombia Attacks

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country would suspend oil shipments to the U.S. if a military attack were to be launched from Colombian territory.

The U.S. plans to assassinate him and overthrow his government, Chavez said yesterday on state television, citing a letter from a source he didn’t identify. Chavez has used speeches to warn that the U.S. is planning an attack from seven Colombian military bases where it has access, and to denounce alleged assassination plots.

EU to apply pressure on Iran with extra sanctions

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU foreign ministers will approve tighter sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear activity on Monday, with steps to block oil and gas investment and curtail Tehran's refining and natural gas capability.

The measures go beyond sanctions imposed by the United Nations last month and mirror steps taken by the United States in recent weeks to apply extra pressure on Tehran and get it back to negotiations over its uranium enrichment program.

ANALYSIS - Iran oil sanctions will leak

(Reuters) - Sanctions on Iran tighten their grip on Monday with European measures to make business with the OPEC member even harder, but no-one expects its oil trade to cease as high profits and energy needs inspire ingenuity.

Sanctions on Iran affect Gulf states

The sanctions are expected to disrupt the development of the Gulf region’s biggest shared resource, the giant offshore gas and condensate field known as the North Field in Qatar and South Pars in Iran. It ranks as the largest single conventional hydrocarbon deposit in the world, containing an estimated 310 billion barrels of oil equivalent in total reserves and supports Qatar’s position as the world’s leading LNG exporter.

Tehran Exchange Begins Trading Futures to Attract Investors

(Bloomberg) -- The Tehran Stock Exchange, home of the world’s second-best performing equity index, began offering derivatives based on local banks to diversify and attract foreign investors.

Formosa Petrochemical Shuts Down Unit at Mailiao Oil Refinery After Fire

Formosa Petrochemical Corp., Taiwan’s only publicly traded oil refiner, said it has halted its 540,000 barrel-a-day refinery at Mailiao after an oil leak triggered a fire at a residual processing unit.

Dalian Port Resumes Operating Two Oil Berths After Explosion Caused Spill

Dalian Port (PDA) Co., operator of China’s largest crude-oil terminal, said two oil berths resumed operations after a pipeline explosion caused a spill.

A third berth, capable of receiving 300,000-deadweight-ton crude oil tankers, will restart “in the near future,” the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China to buy less LNG: study

China could be set to buy less natural gas from countries like Australia in the future.

According to a new study, China is preparing to develop its own huge gas reserves and will import significantly less LNG in the future.

ONGC Said to Plan $5 Billion Spending to Boost Gas Output 60% in Six Years

Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India’s biggest energy explorer, plans to spend a record $5 billion to develop gas fields to boost output by almost 60 percent in six years, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Russia May Sell Stakes in Rosneft, Sberbank in Bid to Raise $29 Billion

Russia may raise 883.5 billion rubles ($29 billion) to help cover its budget deficit by selling minority stakes in 10 companies including OAO Rosneft, the country’s largest oil producer, the Finance Ministry said.

U.S. official: BP’s Hayward will be replaced

NEW ORLEANS — Gaffe-prone BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward — who incensed many on the Gulf Coast by saying he wanted his life back as they struggled with the fallout from the company's massive oil spill — will be replaced, a senior U.S. government official said Sunday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made, was briefed on the decision by a senior BP official late last week.

BP boss expected to quit but new payoff row looms

LONDON (AFP) – BP chief executive Tony Hayward is expected to quit imminently with a payoff of up to 18.5 million dollars despite being lambasted over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, British media reported Monday.

The size of the payoff, which must be agreed by a BP board meeting in London on Monday, risks sparking fresh controversy as the British-based firm battles to rebuild its reputation after the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Voyage to the bottom of an oily sea

It's not for the claustrophobic, the seasick or anyone fearful of venturing underwater, but the mini-submarine operated by the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute offers an unparalleled glimpse into the potential impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Our view on gas tax: Price holds key to ending nation's addiction to oil

Two years ago this month, crude oil prices spiked to more than $145 a barrel, driving the price of regular gasoline to more than $4 a gallon and painfully reminding the nation once again how vulnerable it is to the whims of the international oil market.

It's reasonable to ask what policymakers have done in the past 24 months to try to reduce that vulnerability. For that matter, it's reasonable to ask what they've done in the 37 years since the Arab oil embargo, which caused huge lines at gasoline stations, to stop enriching hostile petro-states in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The answer: not nearly enough.

Opposing view on gas tax: Unwise and unaffordable

If you think the USA would be better off with a higher unemployment rate, fewer small businesses and less money in family bank accounts, you should support big increases in federal taxes on gasoline and other motor fuels.

Senate Democrats to introduce energy bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil as early as Monday a slimmed-down energy bill seeking to make offshore drilling safer and convert trucks to run on domestic natural gas.

The full Senate could begin consideration of Reid's bill on Tuesday and Democrats would like to pass it by the early part of the following week.

How Soon Will Saudi Arabia Turn To Nuclear Energy?

While a growing number of countries have announced their civilian nuclear energy ambitions more than the past twelve months, no other nation is probably to have a lot more of your psychological impact on the nuclear energy picture than Saudi Arabia. We believe the Kingdom’s organic gas and drinking water issues will lead them to nuclear, sooner somewhat than later, possibly as early as this year.

Russia police kill two power plant attackers

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police killed two men on Sunday accused of bombing a North Caucasus hydroelectric plant, media reported, just days after President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to sack security officials if there were another attack.

Six masked men, suspected Islamist militants, stormed the Baksanskaya power plant in Kabardino-Balkaria Wednesday, shot dead two guards and set off remote-controlled bombs beside the main generator units, bringing the station to a halt.

Brazil Indians block workers at hydroelectric site

SAO PAULO – About 300 Amazon Indians prevented workers from entering or leaving the construction site of a hydroelectric plant that protesters say is on an ancient burial ground, Brazil's official news agency said Sunday.

Indians from eight tribes taking part in the protest are demanding compensation for losses caused by construction of the Dardanelos plant in the southern Amazon city of Aripuana, according to Agencia Brasil.

Brazilian Indians take hostages at Amazon dam site

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian native Indians on Sunday took 100 workers hostage at the construction site of a hydroelectric plant in the southern Amazon region, local media reported.

As many as 400 Indians from several different tribes occupied a power plant they say was built on an ancient burial site.

A sap and his ZAP (1)

My story begins a few years ago when I taught a series of classes through the Shasta College Community Education Program before they got wise and quit letting me teach there. They were not well attended but I've had worse. I recall having 5 to 15 in each one. This particular class was one night only and the topic was a bit dark. I called it The End of Oil and showed a film called The End of Suburbia.

I did a PowerPoint presentation on Hubbert's peak and explained that way back in 1956 this geologist named M. King Hubbert predicted that oil production in the United States would peak in 1970, which apparently it did about then.

Exploring Algae as Fuel

Foreign genes are being spliced into algae and native genes are being tweaked.

Different strains of algae are pitted against one another in survival-of-the-fittest contests in an effort to accelerate the evolution of fast-growing, hardy strains.

The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel.

Engineers race to design world's biggest offshore wind turbines

British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines – giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before – that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.

Smart home meters draw consumer complaints

As smart meters become more common in U.S. homes, they are triggering complaints that they're causing an increase -- not a decrease -- in utility bills.

2011 Ford Explorer makes its debut as an evolved SUV

DEARBORN, Mich. — It never became a symbol of excess, like the Hummer, but the once wildly popular Ford Explorer had become a relic of days when gas was cheap, housing prices were rising and the idea of driving a big, truck-based SUV to the suburban supermarket was rarely questioned.

But Ford unveils its new-generation 2011 Explorer today in a different world, where unemployment is still painfully high and people are questioning the costs of everything: gas, food, college degrees.

For Hybrid Cars, a Hybrid Invention

A company with a different approach to the electric car battery problem got a small boost recently when the Patent Office said it would issue a patent on its concept: using a storage device called a capacitor in conjunction with a traditional battery.

Cities tackle traffic head-on with commuter options

MINNEAPOLIS — The morning rush-hour traffic on Interstate 35W is crawling. The highway, which connects downtown Minneapolis and its northern and southern suburbs, is the busiest road in the state. When traffic snarls here, backups spread across the region.

A year ago, Peggy Birler, 45, would have been right in the thick of it, spending up to an hour driving alone to work. Today, Birler has a much shorter commute: She drives less than a mile to a Park & Ride lot, boards a bus for a 10-minute trip downtown, zipping along in a bus-only lane, then walks 1½ blocks to her office.

Paper Mate has biodegradable pens for back-to-schoolers

It may be less crucial for your kids to have Iron Man or Hannah Montana's images on their back-to-school supplies this fall than it is to have a currently far cooler word stamped on the stuff: biodegradable.

More than a decade after recycled paper started to become a serious factor in the $55 billion back-to-school market, the new buzzword for 2010 appears to be biodegradable (i.e., an item that will decompose in soil or in your garden compost pile).

Peak Oil and Climate Change: Between Too Soon and Not Soon Enough

We are going to burn all of the oil and coal we have, because their benefits as energy sources are concrete, immediate, and local, while their costs are gradual, delayed, and global.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but when facing similar choices, humankind has never chosen the more long-term view.

Gift Economy (1) - Reconceiving The Market

The show this week looks at the gift economy. We look at a range of reasons to challenge the cynical, capitalist view of the human as 'red in tooth and claw', listening to evidence from speakers including Alfie Kohn, Genevieve Vaughan & Jeremy Rifkin.

The Ecological Crisis is an Economic Crisis is an Energy Crisis

The world crisis is economic, ecological, and energy-based. Liberals want the state to regulate business and have a "new New Deal" to rebuild the economy and ecology. It won't work. Revolutionary anarchists want a new, ecological, economy which is democratically planned, produces for need not for profit, and is a decentralized federalism.

The Right and the Climate

The Seventies were a great decade for apocalyptic enthusiasms, and none was more potent than the fear that human population growth had outstripped the earth’s carrying capacity. According to a chorus of credentialed alarmists, the world was entering an age of sweeping famines, crippling energy shortages, and looming civilizational collapse.

It was not lost on conservatives that this analysis led inexorably to left-wing policy prescriptions — a government-run energy sector at home, and population control for the teeming masses overseas.

Social conservatives and libertarians, the two wings of the American right, found common ground resisting these prescriptions. And time was unkind to the alarmists. The catastrophes never materialized, and global living standards soared. By the turn of the millennium, the developed world was worrying about a birth dearth.

This is the lens through which most conservatives view the global warming debate.

Modern cargo ships slow to the speed of the sailing clippers

Container ships are taking longer to cross the oceans than the Cutty Sark did as owners adopt 'super-slow steaming' to cut back on fuel consumption.

Four Ways to Kill a Climate Bill

IF President Obama and Congress had announced that no financial reform legislation would pass unless Goldman Sachs agreed to the bill, we would conclude our leaders had been standing in the Washington sun too long. Yet when it came to addressing climate change, that is precisely the course the president and Congress took. Lacking support from those most responsible for the problem, they have given up on passing a major climate bill this year.

California: Climate law adds jobs to state payroll

The state's landmark global warming law has yet to create the promised bonanza of green jobs, but it has boosted payrolls in another sector of the economy: state government.

At a time of budget cuts and state worker furloughs, the state agency primarily responsible for regulating global warming has bulked up its staff as it prepares to enforce AB 32, the climate change law signed in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arctic may be ice-free by 2050: Russian expert

Media reports say Moscow and Washington are discussing cooperation in Arctic at the highest political level. Russia and Canada would also soon start negotiations on the integration of their national space systems to monitor the Arctic.

Anatoly Shilov, Deputy Chief of the Federal Space Agency, said Russia would spend USD 2 billion for the creation of multipurpose space system Arktika (Arctic) to monitor climatic changes and survey energy resources in the Arctic region.

An icy retreat

The fact that it was sometimes warmer at our measurement site at the West Coast of Greenland than it was in Central Europe at the same time surprised us quite a bit. However, some recent studies indicate that such a distribution of relatively high temperature in parts of the Arctic and relatively low temperature in Northern and Central Europe and parts of the US might become somewhat more wide-spread in the future. While the Arctic has always shown large internal variability that lead to large-scale shifts in weather patterns, in the future the ongoing retreat of Arctic sea ice might cause those weather patterns to occur more often that allow for Northerly winds to bring cold air from the Arctic to the mid-latitudes. Hence, it is quite possible that because of the retreat of Arctic sea ice, some smaller parts of the Northern Hemisphere will experience pronounced cold spells during winter every now and then. The mean temperature of the Northern Hemisphere will nevertheless increase further, and the export of cold air from the Arctic of course leads to warm anomalies there.