Energy / Energy-General

• Megrahi's Death Only Beginning in Libyan Oil Saga

  Scottish authorities this week said the death of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi puts an end to conspiracy theories surrounding his controversial release in 2009. Scottish authorities insisted his release was on compassionate grounds because of a terminal prostate cancer diagnosis. Megrahi died this week at his home in Tripoli of cancer. Given the series of suspicions surrounding not only former Libyan officials, but also the role of European energy countries in Libya, Megrahi may have taken a few national secrets with him to the grave. Shortly after the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, U.S.…

• The Facts about Fracking Fluid and its Disposal

  At a recent shale gas symposium in South Africa a question was asked “if hydraulic fracturing is so safe, why do drilling operators working in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Play dispose the backflow out of state in Ohio.”  The question was satirically proposed by a rather uninformed anti-fracking environmentalist. His point was to show that even a natural gas producing state wants nothing to do with the disposal of the hydraulic fluid’s flowback (chemical-laced wastewater).This discussion addresses the attendees question from a chemical perceptive. It is not intended as a review of the relationship between wastewater injection wells and earthquakes. Let…

• Iran Oil Sanctions After the Baghdad Talks

  SituationIran tentatively agreed on 22 May to allow the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to launch inspections of nuclear facilities, while Iran and P5+1 countries began negotiations in Baghdad over Iran’s nuclear program on 23 May, where the West put forward a new proposal for Iran’s consideration. DynamicsThe current heavy-handed US-led sanctions are taking their toll on Iran. Sources on the ground in Iran tell Oilprice.com that the situation is not as grim as US media is depicting it; however, inflation is soaring, the rial has lost 60% of its value and unemployment is at about…

• China Warns Australia to Choose "Godfather" - China or U.S.

  It is rare in diplomatic circles for governments to speak bluntly, particularly in the Orient, where manners are highly prized.The exceptions to this rule are retired military officers, who are often able to voice sentiments too impolitic for other channels.One of the more startling pronouncements in this vein occurred last week when Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People's Liberation Army, warned that Australia cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and "Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later. Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be…

• Kurdish Oil Pipeline Could Split Iraq

  Nearly 10 years of oversight from the U.S. military in Iraq has done little to erase simmering sectarian issues in Iraq. A trilateral democratic government composed of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders was expected to keep Iraq self-contained and out of trouble. Many of the initial sectarian issues left over from the early stages of the U.S.-led conflict are still on the table, however. Though oil production is gaining ground, the country still lacks a comprehensive hydrocarbon law. Now, Kurdish leaders in the semi-autonomous north aim to defy Baghdad by exporting oil to Turkey through a new pipeline by 2013.…

• Is a Carbon Disaster Brewing in The Pacific Northwest?

  Optimists and politicians like to remind us that U.S. exports are booming. Unfortunately, so are imports.The trade deficit in March, from Calculated RiskAn increasingly large part of the "rosy" exports picture centres around our energy exports, which means coal exports. I was pleased to see Worse Than Keystone by Alyssa Battistoni, which appeared in Salon last Friday. Alyssa actually did some research, and provided some useful links, which always makes me happy.Environmentalists are focused oil and gas, but a bigger carbon disaster may be brewing in the Pacific NorthwestCoal is without question our dirtiest fuel source: When burned, it dumps…

• New Fuel Injection System to make Petrol Engines as Efficient as Hybrids

  Delphi is developing an engine fuel injection technology that could improve the fuel economy of gas-powered cars by 50 percent, potentially rivalling the performance of hybrid vehicles at less cost. Their test engine based on the technology is similar in some ways to a highly efficient diesel engine, but runs on gasoline.Delphi’s approach, called gasoline-direct-injection compression ignition combines a collection of engine-operating strategies that make use of advanced fuel injection and air intake and exhaust controls, many of which are available on advanced engines today.Delphi Fuel Injection Engine Lab Test Rig.The researchers found that if they injected the gasoline in…

• Energy in the Time of Elections: Claims and Counterclaims

  Where there's oil and gas, there's milk and honey. That is the thrust of the American Petroleum Institute's report to the platform committees of the Republican and Democratic parties. It was previewed in Washington on May 15 by API President and CEO Jack Gerard, the oil industry's man on Earth, known for his tough attitudes to just about everything, but the Obama Administration in particular. In unveiling the report at the National Press Club, Gerard declared that the recommendations were without political slant and were delivered to both parties’ platform committees without favor; although it is generally known that the…

• Why the Smart Grid is More Than Just Smart Meters

  Richard Ford doesn’t like the term smart grid. “It means different things to different people,” says the manager of grid solutions at Toronto Hydro. “The term has become overused. It gets in the way.” Many hydro customers in the city associate the term with the smart meters in their homes and the time-of-use pricing they enable. Some imagine a smart home or building equipped with intelligent appliances and lighting systems that interact with each other and can be remotely managed by software to reduce energy use. Others think of a kind of energy Internet made up of millions of users…

• Cyber Update: Pipelines, China and Lax Security Standards

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified China as the possible origin of an ongoing cyber attack targeting US gas pipeline companies, and specifically a group that managed to hack into RSA security in 2011.   The cyber attack could be a continuation of the “Night Dragon” attack in February 2011 on McAfee computer security firm, which was also traced back to China. The objective of that attack was to obtain financial data from oil and gas companies.  Chinese officials deny that there is any evidence that the cyber attack is coming “directly” from China.At the same time, US officials…