Energy

• New LENR Machine is the Best Yet

  The new leader is Brillouin Energy with a new process named the Hot Tube Boiler.  Sterling Allen at PESN interviewed Brillouin’s Robert W. George II, CEO; and the inventor, Robert Godes, the Chief Technology Officer.  Mr. Allen learned Brillouin has had two significant independent validations of their scientific model and claims. One of those was by Los Alamos National Laboratories. The other was by Dr. Michael McKubre of Stanford Research International (SRI), who subsequently joined their board of advisors.What puts Brillion out in front first is the temperature output.  Brillouin expects the test of the new Hot Tube model at…

• Rickshaws Run on Compressed Natural Gas Could Help Delhi's Pollution Problem

  Looking to be a little greener for Earth Day? Ride in an auto rickshaw (if you happen to be in India)!These small vehicles offer a way to quickly duck and dash around other automobiles while being a little bit kinder to the environment. Generally characterized by a sheet metal body or an open frame resting on three wheels, auto rickshaws have a small cabin in the front of the vehicle for the driver, and seating space for up to three passengers in the rear.Source: blog.travelpod.comA Greener Option/A Needed OptionAccording to National Geographic, many years ago, Delhi began increasing their supply…

• UK Govt. Seismic Fracking Report Certain to Sharpen Debate

  The process of hydraulic fracturing is a mining technique which uses injected fluid to propagate fractures in a rock layer to release hydrocarbon deposits that would otherwise be uncommercial. Developed in the U.S. and first used in 1947 for stimulating of oil and natural gas wells, the use of “fracking” soared in the past decade as thousands of wells have been drilled into the Marcellus Formation, also referred to as the Marcellus Shale, a deposit of marine sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. While initial environmental protests of the technique centered around its possibility of polluting underground water aquifers as…

• Afghanistan Priority: Energy Security

  A lot has happened in Afghanistan in recent days intrinsic more to geopolitics than to Afghanistan itself: Russia-US joint anti-drugs operations are in being put in full swing, Russia has offered up Ulyanovsk for NATO’s Afghan transit needs, and both Beijing and Moscow have been asked to contribute financially to Afghan security forces. Following a two-day NATO-Russia summit that ended on 19 April, Russia agreed to allow NATO’s ISAF troops to use its rail network and air transport running through the town of Ulyanovsk to send supplies in and out of Afghanistan. Specifically, the deal would allow for the opening…

• Let the Azeri Gas Race Begin

  The consortium behind the Shah Deniz natural gas field in Azerbaijan announced this week it was ready to move ahead with Front End Engineering and Design. That means the consortium is getting ready to pick a transit network to carry natural gas from Azerbaijan through Turkey and onto European markets. European energy officials, at least since 2009, have been waiting for saviors in Baku to come to their rescue to ease the Russian grip on the energy sector. While the race is officially on for the so-called Southern Corridor, there's still a full marathon ahead. Bob Dudley himself, BP's chief executive…

• WestLB is the First Bank to Refuse Finance to Offshore Oil Rigs in the Arctic

  WestLB will not provide finance to any offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, according to a new environmental policy that is understood to be the first of its kind. In an eight-point statement relating to financing offshore drilling, published this week, the German bank says that “the oil rig (or vessel etc.) may not perform any exploration or production activities within the 10°C-isotherm, both at the beginning and throughout the life of the financing.” The 10°C-isotherm is the area where the average temperature for the warmest month is below 10°C.This is the first time a bank has explicitly…

• The Problem with Banning Oil Speculation

  Joseph P. Kennedy II, former Congressional Representative from Massachusetts, and founder, chairman, and president of Citizens Energy Corporation, has a proposal to make energy affordable for all. All we have to do, Kennedy claims, is "bar pure oil speculators entirely from commodity exchanges in the United States." Writing in the New York Times last week, Joseph Kennedy (D-MA) explained why he believes that speculators are responsible for the high price that we currently have to pay for oil: Today, speculators dominate the trading of oil futures. According to Congressional testimony by the commodities specialist Michael W. Masters in 2009, the…

• Stung by the Keystone XL Debacle, Canada Looks Eastwards

  Given that the Keystone XL pipeline is apparently dead in the water at least until after the next presidential election, Canada is seeking new export markets in Asia for its booming oil and natural gas production. Few Americans realize it, but according to the U.S. Energy Administration, the United States total crude oil imports now average 9.033 million barrels per day (mbpd), with Canada sending 2.666 mbpd southwards to the U.S., making it America’s top source of oil imports. In 1988, Canada and the United States signed a free trade agreement that was supposed to ensure Canada would never prevent the…

• Make It So - Energy Science Fiction Becoming Science Fact

  It's no secret that Gene Roddenberry's venerable "Star Trek" metaseries has inspired the imagination of millions since it first debuted in 1966. Strange worlds, compelling characters, and more techno-babble than you could shake a stick at have always been hallmarks of the series. But Star Trek has also been noted on many occasions throughout the series for seemingly predicting (or perhaps inspiring) the progression of technology.While we're certainly not cruising the galaxy in starships trying to pick up green women, a lot of Trek tech seems to have not only become commonplace but in some cases even obsolete and antiquated.…

• Gazprom-Vietnam: All Hands on Deck in South China Sea

  A deal struck earlier this month between Russia’s state gas giant, Gazprom, and Vietnam’s state oil and gas group, PetroVietnam, has geopolitical underpinnings aimed at China’s prowess in the South China Sea. The 6 April Gazprom-PetroVietnam deal grants the Russian gas giant two licenses to explore the Moc Tinh and Hai Thach fields in the South China Sea off the Vietnamese continental shelf and gives Gazprom a 49% stake in the fields, which translates into some 55.6 billion of cubic meters of natural gas for Russia.While the fields are in Vietnamese waters, the deal comes as China’s ongoing territorial disputes…