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all eggs, no bacon .....

all eggs, no bacon .....

Oil climbs peak, economies plumb depressions and the future will not imitate the past

To maintain any modicum of modern life, countries and individuals will increasingly turn to electricity generated from renewable sources. There is no way to dramatically increase the world’s oil production, now or in some dreamy future. All the major fossil fuels will be in declining supply by 2025 or sooner if we ramp up use of coal or natural gas to replace crude oil. 

Those are three of the conclusions in a new book from Wiley. The title summarizes the thesis: Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century. The 20th Century was the century of oil-based energy and materials. The 21st Century will be the century of After-Oil. I got a chance to speak today with PROFIT FROM THE PEAK co-author, Chris Nelder. 

Nelder spent years studying the world’s energy use and supplies before he became involved in this book project which just focused his efforts even more. From a background of technology writing, solar energy and software businesses, Nelder brings a critical eye to the theories and data used to bolster whatever argument fits the arguer’s goal. 

Oil Climbs Peak, Economies Plumb Depressions & The Future Will Not Imitate The Past

Iraq war for oil...

July 3, 2008
Committee Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal
By JAMES GLANZ and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded.

The conclusions were based on e-mail messages and other documents that the committee released Wednesday.

United States policy is to warn companies that they incur risks in signing contracts until Iraq passes an oil law and to strengthen Iraq’s central government. The Kurdistan deal, by ceding responsibility for writing contracts directly to a regional government, infuriated Iraqi officials. But State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show.

The company, Hunt Oil of Dallas, signed the deal with Kurdistan’s semiautonomous government last September. Its chief executive, Ray L. Hunt, a close political ally of President Bush, briefed an advisory board to Mr. Bush on his contacts with Kurdish officials before the deal was signed.

In an e-mail message released by the Congressional committee, a State Department official in Washington, briefed by a colleague about the impending deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government, wrote: “Many thanks for the heads up; getting an American company to sign a deal with the K.R.G. will make big news back here. Please keep us posted.”

The release of the documents comes as the administration is defending help that United States officials provided in drawing up a separate set of no-bid contracts, still pending, between Iraq’s Oil Ministry in Baghdad and five major Western oil companies to provide services at other Iraqi oil fields.

In the no-bid contracts, the administration said it had provided what it called purely technical help writing the contracts. The United States played no role in choosing the companies, the administration has said.

Disclosure of those contracts has provided substantial fuel to critics of the Iraq war, both in the United States and abroad, who contend that the enormous Iraqi oil reserves were a motivation for the American-led invasion — an assertion the administration has repeatedly denied.

Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, has condemned the Kurdistan deal as illegal because it was not approved by Iraq’s central government and was struck without an oil law, which has still not been passed.

heist of the century

Big Oil's Iraq deals are the greatest stick-up in history

The country's invaders should be paying billions in reparations not using the war as a reason to pillage its richest resource

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly rightwing media hosts had to prove their populist credibility by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: "disaster capitalism." It usually goes well - until it doesn't.

For instance, "independent conservative" radio host Jerry Doyle and I were having a perfectly amiable conversation about sleazy insurance companies and inept politicians when this happened: "I think I have a quick way to bring the prices down," Doyle announced. "We've invested $650bn to liberate a nation of 25 million people, shouldn't we just demand that they give us oil? There should be tankers after tankers backed up like a traffic jam getting into the Lincoln Tunnel, the stinkin' Lincoln, at rush-hour with thank-you notes from the Iraqi government ... Why don't we just take the oil? We've invested it liberating a country. I can have the problem solved of gas prices coming down in 10 days, not 10 years."

There were a couple of problems with Doyle's plan, of course. The first was that he was describing the biggest stick-up in world history. The second that he was too late. "We" are already heisting Iraq's oil, or at least are on the brink of doing so.

desperately seeking ratings...

Unreal TV

There’s an oil boom in west Texas and that means big risk, big reward and big characters drilling for crude. The oilmen risk their fortunes. It costs millions to drill two miles into the Earth. But this exhausting, dangerous work demands the young roughnecks risk something more valuable – their lives. Not only do they have to contend with the elements on the rig like scorching heat and sudden lightning storms, there’s heavy iron all around and the constant risk of a lethal blowout. But the oilman’s putting up nearly a hundred grand a day to drill the well, so that bit has to keep turning. At the end of each episode, we’ll see the moment of truth – did they strike it big or drill a dry hole?

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