January | 2012 | The Price of Oil

Posts in January 2012

Pssst! Don’t tell anyone…Big Oil Makes Money!
Steve Kretzmann
Jan18
Pssst. I’ve got a secret. The oil industry is in it for the money. I know how shocking this must be for many of you. But it’s true. Literally. The duty of Big Oil’s executives to their shareholders is to maximize their profits. There’s nothing wrong with that, in theory. They are in fact, quite…
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Keystone XL Does Not Enhance U.S. Energy Security
Elizabeth Bast
Jan18
New report by Oil Change International and Natural Resources Defense Council finds Keystone will increase price of oil in the Midwest.
A Road Map to Renewal or Ruin?
Andy Rowell
Jan18
The oil boys from Houston must be wriggling with delight after President Obama’s official jobs council called for an “all-in approach” to energy policy that includes expanded oil-and-gas drilling as well as more pipelines. “We should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands,” argued the President’s Council on Jobs…
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$New-York-anti-fracking-protest$
Fracking Causes Blowouts too
Andy Rowell
Jan17
Another day and yet another reported problem with fracking. Canadian regulators are now investigating the possibility that fracking could have caused a blowout in a neighbouring well which was producing oil several hundred metres away. The country’s Energy Resource Conservation Board was alerted last Friday after a landowner saw black fluid spraying fifteen metres into…
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British LNG Imports at Risk in Gulf Crisis
Andy Rowell
Jan16
More on the growing Iranian crisis. Brent crude is rising this morning due to worries over serious disruptions to the supply of crude after Iran warned its Arab neighbours of “consequences” if they raised oil output to replace Iranian loses through international sanctions. As the US has increased diplomatic pressure on countries that import Iranian…
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Keystone XL: playing the Iran card, ignoring the facts
Lorne Stockman
Jan11
The American Petroleum Institute, along with Senator Lugar (R-IN), has grasped the recent threat of a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz as the perfect opportunity to peddle its misinformation about Keystone XL and U.S. energy security. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel of ocean between Iran and Oman through which some 17…
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Keystone XL and Dirty Energy Money
Steve Kretzmann
Jan11
This morning the Guardian carried a story from Maplight about the influence of oil money over the July vote in the House of Representatives on the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s a classic story about the influence of campaign money over policy that will surprise few but bears repeating often. We ran a similar story about…
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“It would be the end of our history”
Andy Rowell
Jan11
Since the beginning of the year there has been a concerted campaign by the oil industry and Canadian government to convince people that the debate over the Northern Gateway project will be hijacked by environmental groups. Instead of trying to demonise legitimate international organisations, the Canadian government should start listening to the voices of its…
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British MPs to Examine Arctic Drilling Risks
Andy Rowell
Jan10
So the Arctic oil rush gathers apace. The Norwegian oil firm Statoil has made a second big oil discovery in the Barents Sea in less than a year. Statoil confirmed that the new oil find, called Havis, might contain some 200 to 300 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. If you add these to the…
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Oh the Canadian hypocrisy..
Andy Rowell
Jan09
For over two years now the Canadian and Albertan governments have engaged in one of the most extensive public relations campaigns ever seen at the EU. They have been trying to undermine European efforts to tackle climate change through the Fuel Quality Directive. They even set up a secret task force to push their pro-tar…
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