THE price of a barrel oil went past $68 during the day on Monday June 1st, the highest level in seven months. Although this remains less than half the peak of last July, prices are likely to remain above the norm of the past few decades, lifted with every bit of cheery economic news and [...]

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“Nothing was actually done by Congress to put an end to the problem of excessive speculation,” said Masters, referring to the jump in oil prices last year. “As a result, there is nothing to prevent another bubble in oil prices in 2009. In fact, signs of another possible bubble are already beginning to appear.”
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The story in photos behind the fight for Nigeria’s oil wealth.
During a scene in the Leonardo DiCaprio film “Blood Diamond,” an elderly African man surveys a village destroyed in Sierra Leone’s vicious civil war and laments the violence tearing his country apart as rebels and government forces fight for control over access to diamonds and [...]

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As soon as the world economy starts growing again, the theory runs, demand for oil will once again outstrip the industry’s ability to supply it. The seemingly ample cushion of inventories and spare capacity will quickly be exhausted, sending prices soaring. In other words, the global recession has only interrupted the “supercycle” of which many [...]

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The Russia-lobbied project could hamper European Union plans for a separate pipeline that would carry gas from the Caspian Sea westward and reduce EU energy dependence on Moscow.
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Fatih Birol talks the talk on peak oil
In this 40 minute exclusive interview for the film “PetroApocalypse Now?”  Andrew Evans interviewed Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the IEA about reserves, the USGS, technology, demand and recession, solutions and peak oil.
The interview is in 5 clips at youtube:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bA_F5j97z7E - Reserves, discovery and new technology
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BhXZzNaVLJw - Decline [...]

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Russian leaders tell us that it is no banana republic, but notice that we DO need to be reminded of that fact or we might forget.
The article below lumps Russia together with Venezuela and Iran. I’m wondering if Russia has more in common with OPEC countries than the West?
Don’t gloat over the economic problems [...]

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Production at the world’s oil fields will decline faster in coming years, putting more pressure on future oil supplies, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
As current fields fade with age and the industry moves offshore and into smaller fields, decline rates will accelerate, the agency found, and more investment will be required to make [...]

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As the price of oil roared to ever higher levels in recent years, the leaders of Venezuela, Iran and Russia muscled their way onto the world stage, using checkbook diplomacy and, on occasion, intimidation.
Now, plummeting oil prices are raising questions about whether the countries can sustain their spending — and their bids to [...]

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Iran’s looming financial crisis
In 2006, Iran was the fifth largest oil exporter in the world. How is it possible that by the middle of the next decade its exports could fall to zero?
In a paper published in January 2007, Roger Stern, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, predicted that Iranian oil exports would drop to [...]

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Reports have begun to circulate in Moscow that Russian oil companies are under orders from the Kremlin to prepare for a supply cut to Germany and Poland through the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline. It is believed that executives from lead-producer LUKoil have been put on weekend alert.
“They have been told to be ready to cut off [...]

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Drivers unlikely to see gas prices retreat to levels enjoyed for a generation
The two events, half a world apart, went largely unheralded.
Early this month, Valero Energy in Texas got the unwelcome news that Mexico would be cutting supplies to one of the company’s Gulf Coast refineries by up to 15 percent. Mexico’s state-owned oil enterprise [...]

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With its tail between its legs, Britain’s biggest company is being all but chased out of Russia. BP will try to put a brave face on the retreat of Bob Dudley, still nominally chief executive of TNK-BP, to the safety of St James’s Square. But it does not look good. When you wish to assert [...]

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In yet another skirmish over oil rights in the South China Sea, China has fired a stern warning shot across the bow of ExxonMobil Corporation. China is miffed that Exxon is seeking to enter into a deal with PetroVietnam to explore for oil in waters surrounding the disputed Spratly and Paracel island chains.
China has warned [...]

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As China’s energy demands grow at a rate much faster than any other country in the world, so too have its relationships with the oil-producing nations in the Middle East. With half its oil imports from the region, China’s Middle East policy is on the verge of a “great leap forward.” Chinese strategy for securing [...]

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Some autocratic governments are challenging U.S. policies and silencing domestic dissent. But their increased spending raises the risk of inflation, which could erode popular support.
But some of the most obvious effects are in countries whose leaders are most hostile to the United States: Venezuela’s populist President Hugo Chavez, Iran’s stringent Islamic rulers and Russia’s growing [...]

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Venezuela’s proven oil reserves are among the top ten in the world. Oil generates about 80 percent of the country’s total export revenue, contributes about half of the central government’s income, and is responsible for about one-third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Increases in world oil prices in recent years have allowed Venezuelan [...]

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The rapid increase in oil prices and the rise in metal and mineral demand worldwide have made the Russians overconfident. Their annual cash income in the last four years has grown fourfold. The economic crunch of the 1990s is behind them. Thus the Russians have become somewhat politically belligerent, visible in the opposition they have [...]

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Growing competition for oil may escalate to something as hot and dangerous as nuclear proliferation
The geopolitical implications of this gathering crisis for world oil supply 2010-15 are immense. The risk of further military interventions and conflicts in the Middle East is clearly high. Total world oil reserves are estimated at 2.5-2.9 trillion barrels, of which [...]

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