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The declining flow of oil from Alaska's North Slope is creating anxiety among executives who run the trans-Alaska pipeline. Within a matter of years, they say, they will need to take costly steps to preserve the life of the 800-mile-long line. If they aren't successful, ice and wax could become a serious problem for the pipeline, increasing the risk of corrosion and spills. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.'s sense of urgency isn't because the North Slope is running out of oil. The Slope's producing oil fields still contain enough oil to supply the pipeline for at least several more decades. Many...

Interesting piece on Crude oil – it’s actually quite a complex substance: Some people arbitrarily speak about oil as if it is a single, indistinguishably homogenous substance without any unique differentiation, but this is actually not the case at all! In fact, there are many different kinds of oil. In its natural, unrefined state, crude oil ranges in density and consistency, from very thin, light weight and volatile fluidity to an extremely thick, semi-solid heavy weight oil. There is also a tremendous gradation in the color that the oil extracted from the ground exhibits, ranging all the way from a...

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

A report by two environmental groups and financed by Toronto-Dominion Bank finds that Canada can meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets only by limiting economic growth in the oil-rich provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The report, from the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation, broadly concludes that Canada can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020 while maintaining a “strong, growing economy, a quality of life higher than Canadians enjoy today, and continued steady job creation across the country.” But the study, which relies on an economic model from M.K. Jaccard and Associates,...

Ecology: The administration creates the mother of all protected habitats for a species whose numbers have increased since Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." It's our hopes for energy independence that are drowning. When filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose documentary "Not Evil Just Wrong" takes apart the myths of global warming, got to ask Gore a question at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, McAleer brought up the nine critical errors in Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth." A British court two years ago listed them and said they must be righted before the film could be shown in schools...

The Culver City Council on Monday unanimously approved a moratorium to halt drilling in the Inglewood Oil Field until next August, by when city officials hope to have drafted a new ordinance that ensures the public’s safety and welfare. The new moratorium will extend one that expires Oct. 8 by 10 months, until Aug. 23, 2010. Plains, Exploration & Production Company, the primary operator of the oil field, has already sent four notices of intent to drill new wells to the State Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, even though the oil company agreed with the Los Angeles County...

Energy: That an Alaskan senator-elect wants to drill in ANWR is not a surprise. That he's a Democrat is. Were high oil prices what helped push Detroit over the edge?There were many reasons for the collapse of the domestic auto industry. We have mentioned the high labor costs and bloated union contracts. Others have blamed the manufacture of cars and SUVs no one wanted to buy. We'd also point out that, thanks to OPEC and Congress, fewer people could afford to buy them even if they wanted to. Detroit didn't die just because corporate CEOs had a penchant for private...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

Energy: An amazing number of oil finds have been made this year, including the biggest in California in 35 years. If the world is running out of oil, why do we keep finding more of it? The mantra of the anti-drilling crowd has been that oil companies like to sit on their leases and the oil in the ground, hoping to drive up the price. They should use the leases they have or lose them, these critics say. They also like to add that the world is running out of oil so it doesn't matter anyway. Occidental Petroleum hasn't been...

The United States was self-sufficient in energy until the late 1950s when energy consumption began to outpace domestic production. At that point, the nation began to import more energy to fill the gap. In 2008, net imported energy accounted for 26 percent of all energy consumed.

New oil discovery in California; one more place to not drill here drill now. Oxy oil discovery could spark new interest in California's energy potential The biggest find in the state in 35 years, somewhere in Kern County, could herald new exploration in California and the U.S., experts say. But some worry it could lead to a false sense of security.

This came over the AP, and was picked up by a New Zealand site. I have not yet located other sources. Obama wants to end all Federal subsidies for petroleum. Most people do not realize that Petroleum has been massively subsidized for the past 50 years. This will not affect state, county, city or township gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel subsidies.

Energy Policy: Ignoring peak-oil Cassandras, BP has made another giant oil find in the Gulf of Mexico. We're not running out of oil. Our government just doesn't want us to look for it.The world is running out of oil and good riddance. That's the environmentalists' mantra. But since the first well was drilled near Titusville, Pa., 150 years ago, the prophecy has gone unfulfilled. Trouble is, those darn greedy oil companies keep finding the stuff. Oil has been produced in the Gulf of Mexico since the first well was drilled by Kerr-McGee Corp. in 1947. Some of the wells are...

Energy: We balk at importing "dirty" oil from Canada, but others aren't so reluctant. Exempt as a "developing" nation from Kyoto-like agreements, China has decided to help Canada develop its energy-rich oil sands.The Financial Post reports that PetroChina International Investment Co. has struck a deal to buy a 60% interest in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s McKay River and Dover projects for $1.9 billion. China has been establishing energy beachheads around the world in its quest to keep its growing economy fueled. With possible conflict brewing between Israel and Iran, Beijing recognizes the need for reliable suppliers like Canada in an...

Energy Policy: A new study shows that Waxman-Markey will increase prices at the pump, deepen our dependence on foreign oil and shred our ability to turn crude into gasoline. Even fuel-efficient cars will still need fuel.Oil may bubble up out of the ground, but gasoline does not. It's made in those ugly little NIMBY places called refineries we are loath to build anymore because we're too busy trying to save the Earth rather than our economy and American jobs. When Hurricane Katrina shut down 20% of our refining capacity in a single day and raised gas prices in a single...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

Stimulus: Brazil, a leader in the use of biofuels such as ethanol and in the face of falling oil prices, still plans to spend huge sums to expand its offshore oil resources. Drilling rigs are infrastructure too.With oil prices scraping the bottom of the barrel, pun intended, there wouldn't appear to be much incentive to pursue the development of new oil resources. And in tough economic times worldwide, the necessary investment required would appear to be prohibitive. As the U.S. seeks to get its economy going by building roads, bridges and bicycle paths, Brazil has decided to create jobs and...

Energy: As Russian attack submarines patrol our eastern seaboard, Moscow signs a deal to help Castro's Cuba drill for oil off the Florida coast. In Moscow and Havana, the cry is "Drill, Comrade, Drill!"Two Russian nuclear attack submarines have taken up positions along our East Coast in recent days, another sign of renewed assertiveness by the former communist giant. The move comes as Moscow inks a deal with the communist relic of Cuba to drill for oil we refuse to go after. The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the...

As Palin pointed out to Salazar, the USGS assessment "estimates that Arctic Alaska has mean technically recoverable resources of approximately 30 billion barrels of oil, 6 billion barrels of natural gas liquids and 221 trillion cubic feet of conventional natural gas."

Energy Policy: The chief economist of the International Energy Agency says the world is running out of oil. We've been told that for the last 150 years. The only thing we're running out of is the will to drill.Ever since the first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pa., in 1859, experts have been predicting we would soon run out of oil. The latest is Dr. Fatih Birol, chief economist for the International Energy Agency in Paris, whose job it is to assess future energy supplies by OECD countries. In an interview with the Independent, Dr. Birol says that based...

NIGERIAN militants claim to have blown up for a second time a recently repaired oil pipeline operated by US petroleum giant Chevron. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the country's most prominent armed group, said it destroyed the pipe around 1900 GMT on Friday (5am AEST Saturday). The pipeline was first hit in May. "Our fighters revisited the recently repaired Chevron pipeline linking Alero creek through Abiteye to the Chevron export terminal in Delta state and destroyed it again," the group said. Nigeria's main rebel group, which claims it's fighting for a greater share of the...

Surfers splashed with organic chocolate "oil spills" and environmentalists dressed as jellyfish and furry polar bears gathered in San Francisco on Thursday and gave a theatrical message to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar: Don't start new drilling off California's coast. In the fourth and last stop on Salazar's national tour to hear public comment on his agency's proposal to open up more than 1 billion acres for petroleum development off the nation's coasts, he heard a resounding "no." A panel of congressional delegates, along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Resources Secretary Mike Crisman, coastal county political leaders and citizens told Salazar they...

If the United States took the time to exploit our resources in the Gulf of Mexico we would generate 63 BILLION Gallons of Oil, 186 TRILLION Cubic Feet of natural Gas, generate $1.4 TRILLION dollars of government income, reduce our reliance on foreign energy by 42% and add countless jobs and other tax revenue to the economy. Gee Whiz, talk about a stimulus plan that will generate long term jobs, and bolster the economy. And that's just the Gulf. If all of our resources were used we could add $1.7 TRILLION to the economy and reduce imports by 80%. Source....

NEW DELHI -(Dow Jones)- India's Reliance Industries Ltd. (500325.BY) on Thursday said it has started operations at its new 580,000 barrels a day refinery in western India and expects to reach full capacity "shortly." The new refinery, along with Reliance's neighboring 660,000-barrel-a-day refinery, will form the world's largest refining complex in Jamnagar in western India with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. "We, at Reliance, continue to be committed to the long term potential of the refining sector," Chairman Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest man, said in the statement. Reliance has been looking at the European market to export...

NEW DELHI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries (RELI.BO) is set to double its capacity by starting up its new 580,000 barrels per day plant (bpd) this weekend, creating the world's biggest refinery just as global oil demand collapses. The $6 billion project will make the oil complex in Jamnagar in western Gujarat the world's single biggest supplier of fuels to the global market, pumping out 1.24 million bpd of ultra-clean fuels to Europe, Africa and the United States. The project is a triumph for Chief Executive Mukesh Ambani, who helped break India's heavy reliance on imported fuel a...

Several Corpus Christi, TX area gas stations are reporting prices under $2.00/gallon. Also a couple in the Oklahoma City area.

Your responses are still in pouring in from last week’s “Return of FDR” series. Many of them are excellent. We’ll look at those -- and take a hard look at the dollar and gold, as promised -- on Wednesday. But today I want to talk about a situation that feels like a ticking time bomb -- a time bomb that could go off sooner rather than later.After climbing to nearly $150 a barrel earlier this year, the price of crude oil has fallen. A lot. Crude’s big drop is good news for consumers, who won’t have to spend as much...

The largest petroleum joint venture of the planet will be set up by Venezuela and Russia, Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez told reporters on his arrival at Moscow airport on Thursday. Chavez, said that Venezuela and Russia will sign shortly an agreement for the conformation of an energy consortium, the consortium will by headed by PDVSA and Gazprom, and will operate in Venezuela and later in the rest of Latin America. Chavez added "this is going to be the largest petroleum consortium of the planet". During a recent visit to Venezuela by Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin both governments evaluated various...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citgo will be allowed to pull 250,000 barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because of its inability to secure crude in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. Venezuela's government-controlled Citgo Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday that supplies to its refinery in Lake Charles, La., were cut off when the Calcasieu Ship Channel closed. http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/03/news/international/citgo_reserve.ap/?postversion=2008090311

The last few days have seen left wing anti-energy Democrats scrambling to find a survivable position. When we first launched the Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less petition drive at American Solutions, left wing anti-energy Democrats were deeply and decisively opposed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she was "saving the planet" by stopping drilling. Senator Obama made fun of drilling and announced that inflating your tires would increase energy availability as much as drilling. Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO), a hard line environmental extremist and anti-energy Democrat (and the author in the House of the ban on developing oil...

Congress suffers from a crude sense of timing when it comes to oil. When it was time to act, it did nothing for decades. Now it’s desperate to be seen doing something at the precise moment when the time has come to do nothing. On October 1, the congressional ban on extracting oil from the 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf will expire. The ban has been renewed annually for decades. If Congress simply does nothing, the ban will expire, uncorking significant new supplies of oil and gas, and sending a message to world energy markets that the...

WHILE oil prices have declined somewhat of late, the volatility of the market and the political and religious unrest in major oil-producing countries has Americans worrying more than ever about energy security. But they have little to fear — contrary to common understanding, there are robust stockpiles of oil around the globe that could see us through any foreseeable calamities on the world market. True, trouble for the world’s energy supplies could come from many directions. Hurricanes and other natural disasters could suddenly disrupt oil production or transportation. Iran loudly and regularly proclaims that it can block oil exports from...

The Perdido spar will bring production in from three fields—Great White, Silvertip and Tobago—with a production design of 130,000 boe/day. The Shell-operated Perdido Regional Development Spar has arrived in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and is currently being secured to the seafloor in 7,816 ft (2,382 m) of water, a process that will take about one month. Perdido will be the deepest oil development in the world, the deepest drilling and production platform in the world and have the deepest subsea well in the world to date. Other partners in the joint venture are BP...

Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. [Photo Credit: Argonne National Laboratory] WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of the InteriorÂ’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States. In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act...

T. Boone Pickens has a series of commercials running so often on TV and radio that you can’t avoid them. The basic idea he is selling is to replace gasoline in cars with natural gas, and replace natural gas in electricity production with wind farm produced electricity. The idea won’t work, but Pickens will reap more millions from government subsidies until America figures that out, just as we have figured out that Biofuels made from foodstuffs was a very bad idea.

<p>Nigerian rebels claimed Monday they had sabotaged two Shell pipelines in Nigeria's main oil producing region, sending the price of crude climbing on international markets.</p> <p>The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) claimed "heavily armed" MEND fighters had attacked the pipelines in the southern Rivers state operated by Shell.</p>

From Mexico to India to China, governments fearful of inflation and street protests are heavily subsidizing energy prices, particularly for diesel fuel. But the subsidies — estimated at $40 billion this year in China alone — are also removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel. The oil company BP, known for thorough statistical analysis of energy markets, estimates that countries with subsidies accounted for 96 percent of the world’s increase in oil use last year — growth that has helped drive prices to record levels. In most countries that do not subsidize fuel, high prices have caused oil demand...

Highlights The spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil increased from $122 per barrel on June 4 to $145 per barrel on July 3. Global supply uncertainties, combined with significant demand growth in China, the Middle East, and Latin America are expected to continue to pressure oil markets. WTI prices, which averaged $72 per barrel in 2007, are projected to average $127 per barrel in 2008 and $133 per barrel in 2009. Regular-grade gasoline is expected to average $3.84 per gallon in 2008, more than $1 per gallon above the 2007 average price. The U.S. average regular-grade gasoline...

Strategic Petroleum Reserve I have wondered if any single Representative in Congress could possibly be as dumb as all of them. Every once in a while I get my answer and the answer is yes. I have listened to the Democrats inform us that increasing the supply of oil by drilling will not alleviate the problem of high energy cost. I hear them expound relentlessly why building more refineries will not be helpful. Nuclear energy is out of the question they preach. Wind power might be acceptable as long as Senator Kennedy can’t see them. Some insist energy prices are...

The Guardian claims to have a confidential World Bank report which concludes that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — more than the IMF estimate of 20-30%, and far more than the US government’s claims that biofuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. The Guardian and the New York Times suggest the World Bank report is being held back to avoid conflict with the US, though bank chief Robert Zoellick has been vocal about the problem.The Guardian’s reporting on this is fairly shoddy, throwing around percentages without a time frame. Nevertheless, it is fairly clear...

I also realize that the greatest advances in the human condition came about when the energy contained in fossil fuels, especially petroleum, was harnessed. Until then the vast majority of human beings lived short lives of drudgery, poverty and despair – in contrast to the very few members of royalty or the society of the very rich. Perhaps younger generations who were born to 75 year old lifetimes and great abundance cannot fathom what life could have been like for most of the billions of people who were born and lived prior to the 20th century.

With the cost of crude oil surging to record highs, a heated battle of blame is in full swing, with a lineup of suspects that includes the oil industry, Congress, commodity speculators, environmentalists and developing countries in Asia. Meanwhile, predictions that we've reached a peak in oil production or will very soon — dismissed only a few years ago as being alarmist and without merit — are receiving more serious consideration. The problem is, nobody really knows how much oil is down there. The only thing that's certain: Dead organisms produced a limited amount of oil long ago, and eventually...

Recent crises have reenergized the population control movement. Worried about food shortages?  Reduce the number of babies born, its advocates argue.  Concerned about global warming?  Contracept or sterilize more women.  Want to bring down gas prices?  Promote abortion around the globe.  As “Going Green� columnist Bryan Walsh puts it in the latest issue of Time magazine (June 2, 2008), “Population is the essential multiplier for any number of human ills.�Not so long ago, the population controllers would have been embarrassed to openly promote such ideas.  After all, they have cried wolf so many times that most sensible people have stopped...

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela's state petroleum company, PDVSA, increased petroleum imports by nearly 150 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the same period this year, bank statistics show. A report by the Venezuelan Central Bank this week demonstrated that petroleum imports reached US$1.5 billion (€964 million) during the first quarter of 2008. The imports — which include diesel oil, gasoline and chemical additives for gasoline products — are the country's highest in more than a decade. A spokesperson for PDVSA said the company had no immediate comment on the issue. Economist Gustavo Garcia, a professor at a Caracas business...

...Many banks and investment firms have come out to defend the rise in oil prices, saying that it is based on fundamentals and that prices could rise much further. While they go on saying this and prices move upward, open interest in crude futures contracts has been moving steadily downward since a high of 1.58 million last July to 1.36 million now. What’s more, in the recent oil spike, open interest actually fell 8% in a week as oil moved up over 2.6%. Could this be a sign of a short squeeze, with small traders who had shorted oil closing...

...Particularly dramatic in this growth has been China, whose petroleum consumption between 1990 and 2006 increased at a 7.2% annual compound rate. It's always amusing to project these impressive exponential growth rates. If that rate of growth were to continue, China would be using 20 million barrels a day by 2020, about as much as the U.S. is today. By 2030, China would be up to 40 mb/d, twice the current U.S. consumption. ...Are such projections plausible from the point of view of potential demand? During 2006, China used about 2 barrels of oil per person. For comparison, Mexico used...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators hauled company executives in to testify Wednesday to ask what's behind the recent runup. The Senate Judiciary Committee called the hearing to explore the skyrocketing price of oil, which topped $130 a barrel earlier in the day. The committee is set to question executives from Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500), ConocoPhillips (COP, Fortune 500), Shell Oil Co. (RDSA), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and BP (BP). "Normal supply and demand says prices should be around $55 to $60 a barrel," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman...

The world's premier energy monitor is preparing a sharp downward revision of its oil-supply forecast, a shift that reflects deepening pessimism over whether oil companies can keep abreast of booming demand. The Paris-based International Energy Agency is in the middle of its first attempt to comprehensively assess the condition of the world's top 400 oil fields. Its findings won't be released until November, but the bottom line is already clear: Future crude supplies could be far tighter than previously thought. A pessimistic supply outlook from the IEA could further rattle an oil market that already has seen crude prices rocket...

Bowing to pressure from Congress, the Energy Department said Friday that it would temporarily suspend a program to fill the nation’s strategic oil stocks. But the move, which some analysts and politicians had hoped would help break the rally in oil prices, failed to sway the market. Crude oil prices hit another record Friday. The decision on the oil stocks came the same day that Saudi Arabia announced a modest increase of 300,000 barrels a day in its oil production as President Bush visited the oil-rich kingdom. But oil traders dismissed the news from Washington and Riyadh and focused instead...

FOR years, waves of inexpensive imports helped to keep inflation at bay in the United States. But those days are over, and now many imports are bringing inflation with them. Some of that inflation comes from soaring oil prices — the government reported this week that oil imported in April cost 67 percent more than oil imported a year earlier — but the trend is clear even if energy prices are ignored. For all nonpetroleum imports, prices in April were up 6.2 percent from a year earlier. That is the fastest rate of gain in almost 20 years, reflecting increases...