The Oil Drum

Latest articles from The

• Former IEA Oil Expert: Oil Production Could Begin to Decline in 2015

  Published 09 January 2012 | viewed 15,717 times

  The following interview is a guest post by Matthieu Auzanneau, a freelance journalist living in Paris. This article previously appeared in Le Monde.Olivier Rech developed…

• Massive Oil Field Discovered in the North Sea

  Published 28 December 2011 | viewed 16,431 times

  With relatively little fanfare on the international stage, Lundin Petroleum and Statoil (and partners) have just recently jointly discovered one of the largest oil fields…

• A Sobering Look at the Bakken Oil Boom

  Published 15 December 2011 | viewed 35,221 times

  “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”…

• Possible Implications of an Iranian Oil Embargo

  Published 06 December 2011 | viewed 8,922 times

  Does Thursday's announcement that the EU is considering to ban oil imports from Iran epitomise the draining of power from west to east? The big…

• Limits to Energy Return On Investment Calculations

  Published 28 November 2011 | viewed 9,905 times

  Hall and Day (2009) report that the EROI for coal might be as high as 80 and that for hydropower, EROI is 40. Does this…

• This is no Normal Recession: Are we Prepared for $100 Oil

  Published 18 October 2011 | viewed 18,284 times

  David Cameron describes the economic downturn as "no normal recession" UK Prime Minister David Cameron to party conference, 5th October 2011. This is the fourth…

• Creating a Sustainable World: Can it be Done?

  Published 21 September 2011 | viewed 11,960 times

  It is clear there are limits to the pollution a given ecosystem can absorb, the level of resources that can be depleted, and debt that…

• Low Carbon Strategies and Economic Growth

  Published 29 August 2011 | viewed 11,550 times

  At the intersection of global energy depletion and concerns about human impact on the environment lie some serious and oft overlooked issues. Largely gone from…

• Large Scale Energy Storage and the Renewable Energy Problem

  Published 12 August 2011 | viewed 10,353 times

  As we look to transition away from fossil fuels, solar and wind are attractive options. Key factors making them compelling are: the inexhaustibility of the…

• The Smart Energy District: Solar Technology and Sustainable Design & Development

  Published 04 August 2011 | viewed 13,520 times

  This is a guest post by Raymond Kaiser, LEED AP, Director of Green Building Services for Stewart Engineering Consultants. Mr. Kaiser has considerable experience in…

• Peak Coal and Chinese Economic Growth

  Published 06 July 2011 | viewed 10,706 times

  This is a guest post by Dr. Minqi Li. Dr. Li was a political prisoner in China from 1990 to 1992. He received a PhD…

• The Strategic Importance of Bahrain to Saudi Arabia

  Published 29 June 2011 | viewed 25,816 times

  The small archipelago nation of Bahrain can't seem to stay out of the news lately, as the government continues its containment of civil protests that…

• Shells Floating LNG Project – A Game Changer for the Energy Industry

  Published 07 June 2011 | viewed 9,864 times

  Shell recently announced that their Prelude floating LNG project off northwest Western Australia has passed another milestone, with the $US12.6 billion ($11.8bn) project receiving final…

• Solar Power in Space: Power Satellites

  Published 06 June 2011 | viewed 26,359 times

  Power satellites are an idea that has been around since the late 1960s but not developed commercially because we don't know how to build an…

• Why Recession always Follows Oil Price Increases

  Published 02 June 2011 | viewed 30,067 times

  Over the past 50 years, when oil prices moved up sharply, causing inflation, or remained high with annual average price around $100, recession has followed…

• Market Fundamentals and the Problem With Oil Prices

  Published 31 May 2011 | viewed 7,093 times

  It has been a tumultuous month when it comes to oil and fuel markets. As of the writing of my Oil and Fuel column in…

• Peak Oil and the Collapse of the Soviet Union

  Published 30 May 2011 | viewed 12,812 times

  Synopsis: The causes of the fall of the Soviet Union are thought to be inefficiency and the Soviet response to the Reagan Administration’s military buildup…

• Cold Fusion: Have we Just Taken a Giant Step Forwards to Abundant Clean Energy?

  Published 22 May 2011 | viewed 25,036 times

  Back in 1989, during the craze of the “cold fusion” announcement by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, a colleague of mine told me about the…

• Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?

  Published 17 May 2011 | viewed 16,300 times

  The Post Carbon Institute undertook this report in order to examine three widespread assumptions about the role that natural gas can and should play in…

• Why Falling Resources and Rising Prices Demand a more Thoughtful Energy Policy

  Published 02 May 2011 | viewed 11,215 times

  Below is an essay by Jeremy Grantham, the Chief Investment Officer of GMO Capital (with over $106 billion in assets under management they are one…