The “clock is ticking”. “Little time left”. The “Starkest Warning Yet”. The “Final Warning”. Just four of the headlines from around the world of yesterday’s UN report on climate change.
oil industry outlook
Oil “Glut” Signals Trouble for Shale and Tar Sands
There has been a huge amount written over the last few days about the plummeting oil price. One British newspaper is warning of an “oil war” as the price of Brent crude “tanks” on the back of oversupply in the market.
Beware the Shale Gas Bubble
Is the fracking boom set to go spectacularly bust?
Oil companies continue to profit at the expense of our future
If you believe the press reports, you’d think that the oil industry was hurting of late, what with the headlines coming out of the most recent quarterly earnings reports saying things like, “Exxon and Shell Earnings Disappoint,” and “Occidental quarterly profit lower”, and “Chevron 2nd-Quarter Profit Off 6.8%; Upstream Earnings Fall”. These headlines paint a … Read More
Bye, Bye Peak Oil
Contrary to what most people believe, oil supply capacity is growing at such an unprecedented level that it might soon outpace consumption. This could lead to overproduction and a steep dip in oil prices. That is the startling conclusion from Leonardo Maugeri, a former senior executive with Italian oil giant ENI, who is currently a … Read More
Report: Exporting Energy Security: Keystone XL Exposed
Keystone XL will not lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil, but rather transport Canadian oil to American refineries for export to overseas markets.
What if the Carbon Bubble Bursts?
For many years now, a number of activists and analysts have argued that if we are serious about tackling climate change then the reserves of oil and gas in the ground need to be seen as liabilities and not assets. At the moment an oil company is judged by investors by the strength and size … Read More
Always read the small print
Investors may have poured their cash into the rogue’s gallery that is the new venture by Tony Hayward and “Nat King Coal” Rothschild called Vallares. As I blogged yesterday, Vallares was over-subscribed raising just over $2 billion to buy assets in the oil and gas sector. Investors were said to be reassured by Hayward’s knowledge … Read More
Hayward and “Nat King Coal” Launch Oil Venture
This could be a toxic mix: take Deepwater-disaster man, Tony Hayward; the new coal baron, Nat Rothschild, and bankers Julian Mertherell and Tom Daniel, the former from discredited Goldman Sachs. Together you have someone who was ultimately responsible for America’s worst ever environmental disaster; someone who obviously does not care about climate change having invested … Read More
Gas is No “Panacea” For Climate Change
As the old saying goes “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.” And if it smells like a fossil fuel and is produced by the fossil fuel industry, then it probably is a fossil fuel. So despite the best efforts by the oil … Read More