Images in this archived article have been removed.

  • OPEC’s decision to resist new supply cuts laid the ground not just for cheaper oil to help heal the economy, but for warmer relations with the world’s biggest energy consumer. Two days after U.S. President Barack Obama called Saudi King Abdullah, OPEC said it would stick to existing supply targets, even though fuel inventories have swollen and oil prices are much lower than it would like. (3/16, #4)
  • Kuwait‘s government will cancel a $15 billion oil refinery project, which met opposition in parliament.  The Audit Bureau’s report on the refinery was not made public, but according to media reports, it had concluded the project was not feasible. (3/16, #7)
  • Brazil may join OPEC, but an entry makes sense only after Brazil becomes an oil exporter, the country’s Energy and Mines Minister Edison Lobao said Wednesday. (3/19, #10)
  • Deep water drilling ventures that were planned as of August would have added 6.3 millions barrels a day to global oil supplies, but so far projects that would have provided 2.4 million barrels have been canceled or delayed, analysts with Morgan Stanley reported. (3/20, #5)
  • Angola‘s oil production capacity hit 2.1 million barrels per day, but the country has intentionally scaled back output to 1.7 million b/d in order to respect OPEC-mandated production quotas. (3/20, #7)
  • Mexican oil production fell 9.2% last year and is down 21% from peak levels in 2004.  (3/20, #8) Pemex also said crude oil reserves last year fell for the 10th straight year. (3/19, #11)  Exports are down 12% from one year ago. (3/21, #8)
  • Venezuela is considering hiking its extraordinarily cheap domestic gasoline price as it copes with the global crisis. After having kept prices at the pump frozen for the past 13 years, gasoline in Venezuela costs about 16 cents a gallon. (3/18, #9)
  • The head of Canada‘s biggest energy lobby is pushing his industry to pursue exports to Asia out of concern that the new US administration will bring in environmental rules that could restrict cross-border exports from the oil sands. (3/19, #15)
  • Nigeria has about 606,500 barrels per day of oil shut in due to sabotage to oil facilities, according to oil companies and trading sources. The outage volume represents about 25 percent of the African country’s installed output capacity of around 3 million bpd. (3/18, #7)
  • As the Obama administration outlines its energy plans, it is caught between oil companies, who are reminding the president of his campaign pledge to allow offshore drilling on off-limits areas, and environmental groups, who are demanding a reinstatement of the drilling ban that Congress lifted in September. (3/18, #11)
  • Alaska lawmakers are rethinking the state’s support for a $30 billion natural gas pipeline amid sharply lower gas prices and concerns about availability of financing for the massive project.  (3/20, #14)
  • Natural gas, opposing views:  1) Falling global gas demand, production continuing to outpace demand, and the likelihood of greater gas imports to the US from Canada and from LNG could combine to send US gas prices into a collapse in 2009, according to a study from Energy Solutions. (3/18, #14)  2) Natural gas drillers from Devon Energy Corp. to XTO Energy Inc. are idling rigs at the fastest pace since 2002, setting the stage for this year’s worst commodity to almost double as supplies drop faster than demand. (3/16, #12)
  • The emergence of the global market in natural gas is about to take a giant leap. The world’s capacity for liquefied natural gas exports of 200 million tons a year will increase by 25 percent with the completion of six new plants in Qatar, Russia, Indonesia and Yemen, totaling $48 billion in investments. The supply excess should hold prices down. (3/21, #16)
  • The US EIA and the IEA should make official statements about peak oil production in 2008 to renew the focus on oil conservation and alternative energy sources. Peak oil has passed and new oil projects can only serve to slow the production decline rate.  (3/18, #15)
  • Russia has proposed sending a permanent envoy to the OPEC Secretariat in an effort to coordinate policies, again declining membership in the group.  (3/17, #3)  Russia will cut oil exports and increase domestic oil consumption in a bid to stabilize world oil prices amid the ongoing financial crisis, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Sunday.  (3/16, #4)
  • Saudi Arabia‘s oil minister said Monday that petroleum-producing countries need a price of at least $60 a barrel to bring more energy resources on the market. (3/17, #6)
  • Saudi Arabia‘s oil production capacity will be 12.5 million barrels a day by June, according to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.  He was referring to the nation’s ability to produce oil, not its actual production. (3/16, #6)
  • Chinese companies have been on a shopping spree in the past month, snapping up tens of billions of dollars’ worth of key assets in Iran, Brazil, Russia, Venezuela, Australia and France in a global fire sale set off by the financial crisis.  The deals have allowed China to lock up supplies of oil, minerals, metals and other strategic natural resources it needs to continue to fuel its growth. (3/17, #12)
  • At its Perdido project, Shell has completed installing the drilling and production platform atop a 555-foot cylindrical spar floating in about 8,000 feet of water 200 miles from Houston in an isolated sector of the Gulf of Mexico. It is the deepest such facility in the world. (3/17, #17)
  • Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said last Tuesday. It plans to invest more in developing a new generation of biofuels which do not use food-based crops and are less harmful to the environment. (3/19, #19)
  • Growing world population will cause a “perfect storm” of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government’s chief scientist is warning. (3/19, #18)
  • Spending on travel and tourism declined last year for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, the Commerce Department said Thursday, as Americans canceled vacations, a strong dollar kept foreigners away and businesses slashed travel budgets. (3/20, #15)
  • US motorists cut back on driving for a record 14th straight month in January as Americans pared travel and spending with unemployment on its way to the highest in more than 25 years.  Vehicle miles traveled fell by 3.1 percent, from January 2008. (3/21, #20)
  • Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way to charge lithium ion batteries in seconds, instead of hours, that could open the door to smaller, faster-charging batteries for cell phones, cars and other devices. (3/18, #20)