Wednesday, 05th May 2010, by whistleblower, Huffington Post

Whistleblower Claims That BP Was Aware Of Cheating On Blowout Preventer Tests

As the federal and congressional probes continue into the causes of the Gulf oil rig explosion, new information is coming to light about the failure of a key device, the blowout preventer, to shut off the gushing well, which could have prevented the growing catastrophe. ...
And new questions are being raised about the testing of the preventers. At today's hearing before a House subcommittee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., revealed that the blowout preventer had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. And at a hearing in Louisiana on Tuesday, the government engineer who gave oil giant BP the final approval to drill admitted that he never asked for proof that the preventer worked. ...
"These oil interests are very powerful -- they will stop at nothing to stop you."... (read more)

Sunday, 10th April 2010, by Bob Hughes, Gisbonherald

Oil production . . . Britain’s crude awakening

It came as a surprise that last month Britain’s Energy Minister summoned a meeting of business leaders to discuss the Government’s response to a decline in global oil production should it actually be imminent.

Just last summer, the UK Government formally rejected the notion that the demand for oil would soon overtake available supplies leading to much higher prices and global economic disruptions.  ...

Albert Einstein once said: “We cannot solve our problems by using the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them.”

That goes for our planet and all it’s future, too. A wave of change is upon humanity.

There are changes to the the way we live and even think.

Heads are coming out of the sand.    ... (read more)

Monday, 22nd March 2010, by Vincent Fernando, Business Insider

U.S. Government Exposes Its Own Oil Supply And Demand Data To Be Completely Flawed

The Department of Energy has just released a study that found 'critical shortcomings' in U.S. oil inventory data.
The documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, expose several errors in the Energy Information Agency's weekly oil report, including one in September that was large enough to cause a jump in oil prices, and a litany of problems with its data collection, including the use of ancient technology and out-of-date methodology, that make it nearly impossible for staff to detect errors. ....
The agency faces an uphill battle just to maintain its current level of accuracy, SAIC said. ... (read more)

Friday, 19th March 2010, by PublicService UK

What will a post-peak world be like? We might be about to find out...

Over the coming weeks petrol prices could be at their highest level ever, experts have warned. In an exclusive preview article, Jamie Spears of the UK Energy Research Centre considers the social and economic implications of dwindling oil supplies
We have walked out of our burning house and we are now headed off the edge of a cliff. Beyond that cliff is an abyss of economic and political disorder on a scale that no one has ever seen before. ... (read more)

Tuesday, 16th March 2010, by Wole Soyinka, The Independent UK

Nigeria is falling apart, says Nobel prize-winning author

Nigeria is close to breaking up and its leadership has descended into a "theatre of the absurd", according to the Nobel prize-winning playwright Wole Soyinka, who has been leading protests against the nation's political crisis. ...
"If nothing changes, I cannot guarantee what recourse the people will take," the writer said. "The level of anger has peaked. I don't rule out Nigeria breaking up. That's what can happen to a failed state." ...
He defended the "real militants" in the Niger Delta, whom he said had a right to take on the government over decades of neglect, rights abuses, environmental crimes and theft of resources. He called Mend "a small, well-organised and resourceful militant group" that could choke the government's lifeline of oil. Yesterday, Mend launched its biggest attack since last year.   ...(read more)

Tuesday, 16th March 2010, by Reuters

Coming Soon: Economic Growth Without Oil

The world may soon achieve something long dreamed of by governments and policymakers: higher economic growth without using more oil.
Rising efficiency, conservation and substitution are steadily reducing the amount of oil needed to fuel an increase in the goods and services produced around the world. ...
But it does mean global oil use will eventually peak and start declining—and "oil-less growth" may not be far away. ...
"This is the market at work," said Mike Wittner, global head of oil research at Societe Generale. "The very high prices we have seen recently are driving consumers away from oil." ... (read more)

Tuesday, 16th March 2010, by Pete Browne, GreenInc

Africa’s Largest Wind Project Advances

Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power project – set to become Africa’s largest wind farm – looks to be back on track after securing financing through a new shareholding structure.
... The 300-megawatt, $625 million project is expected to begin providing 50 megawatts of power to the Kenyan national grid by June 2011. Once in full operation, the project could provide roughly a third of Kenya’s current peak demand of 1,089 megawatts.
... Kenya’s electricity distributor has agreed to purchase power from the wind farm at a government established rate of less than 10 cents per kilowatt-hour — the cheapest source of power in the East African country.
 ...(read more)

Sunday, 14th March 2010, by David DeGraw, AxisOfLogic

The Most Powerful Destructive Corporate Business Club Most Americans Have Never Heard of

“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes… As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong it’s reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” – Abraham Lincoln ...
The Roundtable’s first year of operation was 1972, which coincided with the beginning of the CEO salary explosion, and has been the driving force behind the unprecedented concentration of wealth since their inception. Their dominance over the US economy and government is unparalleled. Their members are a Who’s Who of everything that is wrong with our economy. Here is a ... (read more)

Sunday, 14th March 2010, by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews

Gender-Bender Chemicals are Turning Boys Into Girls

The government of Denmark has released a 326-page report affirming that endocrine disrupting chemicals are probably continuing to the birth of fewer males and the "feminization" of existing ones. ...
Many hormone-mimicking chemicals build up in the body and resist environmental degradation, meaning that they are now widely distributed across the planet.
... "There is very little, if anything, individuals can do to prevent contamination of themselves and their families," ...(read more)

Friday, 12 March 2010, by Kevin Hayden, TruthIsTreason

Oil? We’re Here for the Heroin! (at $19,923,200 per barrel!)

The recent article about Russia criticizing US and NATO forces (attached below) struck a chord with me because just a few weeks ago, I discussed how and why I believed US and NATO forces to be the world’s largest drug cartel. ... In that article, I asked why US and NATO forces have not begun destroying the opium fields, salting the region or even engineering a Monsanto-like gene to sterilize the plants.
... In response, I received multiple emails talking about the “poor farmers who have nothing else to do” and how many people would starve if we destroyed the poppy fields. ...
Will we step up and begin distribution of all this opium still being grown?  If we kill or arrest all of the druglords and terrorists and yet allow the heroin to still be manufactured, who is left to process it?  Package it?  Transport it?  The ones with the biggest guns, of course! ...(read more)

Wednesday, 10th March 2010, by MIchael Bernstein, EurekaAlert

World crude oil production may peak a decade earlier than some predict

In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil and intensify the search for alternative fuel sources, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014 — almost a decade earlier than some other predictions. Their study is in ACS' Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal.
They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves are being depleted at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest. ...(read more)

Wednesday, 10th March 2010, by Keith Shaefer, SilverBearCafe

Fracking Fluids

A Controversy Coming to an Energy Investment Near You

The controversy surrounding fracking fluids is getting louder. Websites and media savvy organizations are getting more press on this issue, using a very simple and powerful pitch - are the chemicals used in fracking fluids in oil and gas wells contaminating our drinking water?
"Fracking" is sending a specially designed fluid down an oil or gas well at ultra-high pressure. The fluid, usually water - but can contain some chemicals with very long names - gets blown out into the reservoir rock, creating cracks and channels to allow the oil & gas to get to the well.
But the fracking-fluids-potentially-contaminating-water issue has legs - which really surprises ...(read more)

Wednesday, 10th March 2010, by Michael Economides, SilverBearCafe

China Global Oil Shopping Spree

While China has been praised by some Western politicians and pundits, including Al Gore for the country's miniscule non-hydrocarbon activities ("... we will trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy"), it is China's global pursuit of oil and gas that has grown to a crescendo. The Chinese refer to their recent purchases as global acquisition and diversification. But amidst the maelstrom of global warming rhetoric, their aggressive moves are getting precious little attention.
China's latest purchase came last month when PetroChina paid $1.7 billion to buy a 60% stake in a Canadian oil sands operation from ...(read more)

Wednesday, 10th March 2010, by John Townsend, SilverBearCafe

A Storm Is Brewing

Apparently the powers that be have learned nothing from this near death experience because they are back at it again, printing, printing, printing in another vain effort to create prosperity with the printing press. I dare say the average 6th grader can understand that the act of putting ink on paper does not create wealth. It's too bad our elected officials can't understand this. ...
Witness the strange resilience of oil at $80 despite a very strong dollar the past 3 months. Gold has been holding over $1100. Sugar is at multi-year highs. Copper is less than 15% from all-time highs. ...
The commodity markets are now poised to unleash a massive inflationary storm. I think there's a very good chance that storm will strike this spring. ...
Unfortunately, I think it's probably too late to stop the storm. Let's face it, you don't start turning the Titanic when it's 100 yards from the iceberg. By then it's too late and the ship is doomed. ...
The storm is brewing. It's time to batten down the hatches.
That means gold and silver!  ...(read more)

Behind the Matrix

How Goldman Sachs (Rothschild's) took over the world

Well they are the most powerful firm on Wallstreet but actually they are an outlet of the Rothschild's who have spread their power under different names into this century and the prior one. They create new entities to hide the web the have created of which the Bilderberger is one and Soros is another. ...
Rockefeller's,Ford the Bush family belongs to them as the Clinton's work for them. One very easy proof is the remaining official Rothschild's fortune is petty cash compared to my calculation how much the fortunes of them should be worth easily in the trillion league. Compared to the pathetic list Forbes publishes every year about Gates and Buffett who are also members of the Club. Imagine it like the middle ages with kings and lords who share one big interest and we are close to the real picture. The idea of democracy is the Matrix cover to run their business as it is easier to screw with people as long as they think they have a saying to what is going on. ...(read more)

Monday, 01stMarch 2010, by Bernhard W. Miltenberger, Cumberland Times

Chinese fluoride is a homeland security matter

The Pure Water Committee of Western Maryland Inc. was formed in 1960 as a grass roots network of citizens with a 50-year-old mission to educate the public of the complete fraud of the practice called water fluoridation. The material safety data sheets from Solvay fluorides shows that a teaspoon amount of 5 grams of sodium fluoride can be fatal to an average size man of 70kg. ...
In toxicological information section, chronic toxicity by oral route may cause skeletal and dental fluorosis, thyroid, testes, kidney, liver, ambiguous carcinogenic and mutagenic effects, fetotoxic and fertility effects. ...
I have explained to them that the warning label on fluoride toothpaste states, that if you swallow more than a pea size amount of paste or .25 milligrams of fluoride, which is the equivalent dose of 8 ounces of fluoridated water, you should contact the poison control center immediately. ...(read more)

Thursday, 25th February 2010, by Edmund Conway, Telegraph UK

We must arm ourselves for a class war

In 1995, the economy was in recovery. With the deficit past its peak, the great transformation in macro-economic management had already taken place, when the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism forced Britain to start targeting inflation rather than exchange rates. ...

Today, the economy is in a far more damaging spiral. The first leg of the financial and economic crisis, which stemmed from excessive private borrowing and the subsequent collapse of the banking industry, is over. The second leg, characterised by a crisis of sovereign debt in even the richest economies, is only just beginning ...
The poorest today are, in absolute terms, less destitute than before, able to afford food, shelter, even satellite TV. But the disparity between them and the richest has risen. ...
The Spirit Level, that this damages health and encourages crime; in times of austerity, inequality can tear apart the social fabric. Take Greece, where the most frequent chant in this week's riots was: "Make the plutocrats pay!" ...(read more)

Weishaupt :
A reign of terror 
(is) to be spread
over the whole earth,
and...

By Johnny Silver Bear, SilverBearCafe

The Illuminati and the House of Rothschild

The "Illuminati" was a name used by a ... German sect that existed in the 18th century. ...
In an attempt to document the origins of an secret organization which has evolved into a mastodonic nightmare, successfully creating and controlling a shadow government that supercedes several national governments, and in whose hands now lay the destiny of the world, one must carefully retrace its history. The lengths to which this organization has gone to create the political machinery, and influence public sentiment to the degree necessary to propel its self-perpetuating prophecy, are, quite frankly, mind boggling. Yet the facts provide for the undeniable truth of its existence. ...
By 1810,The House of Rothschild not only had a substantial stake in the Bank of the United States, they were quietly gaining control of the Bank of England. Although foreign owners were not, by law, allowed a say in the day to day operations of the Bank of the United States, there is little doubt that the American share holders and directors were, if not affiliated, complicit in the aims and goals of the Illuminati and their central bankers. ...
"I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply." ...
By the end of the 19th. Century, the Rothschilds had controlling influence in England, U.S., France, Germany, Austria and Italy. Only Russia was left outside the financial sphere of world domination. England, through the Bank of England, ruled most of the world. ...
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, brought about the decimation of the U.S. Constitution and was the determining act of the international financiers in consolidating financial power in the United States. Pierre Jay, Initiated into the "Order of Skull and Bones" in 1892, became the first Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. A dozen members of the Federal Reserve can be linked to the same "Order." ...
The last Presidential election in the United States provided its citizenry with a choice between two known members of a the same ...(read more)

Sunday, 07th March 2010, by Heading Out, TheOilDrum

Test results from nuclear stimulation of oil and gas reservoirs

The Gasbuggy shot, in 1967, used a 29 KT device at a depth of a 4,240 ft deep shaft, and created a cavity that was 80 ft wide and 335 ft tall, when one included the chimney. It also fractured the light shale around the opening. Anticipated dimensions were 165 ft with a 350 ft chimney. ...
However our purpose is to look at the development of reserves and their contribution to the marketplace within the foreseeable future--particularly within the next fifteen years, when we can assume that the shortages of supply will become evident, it can, I think, be realistically assumed that there can be no use of nuclear devices to enhance oil shale recovery out West. ...(read more)

Sunday, 07th March 2010, by GABRIEL S. MABUTAS, ManilaBulletin 

Gov’t urged to consider putting up nuke plant

An opposition lawmaker urged the government Sunday to seriously consider putting up nuclear power plants that could generate sufficient power supply to Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, saying it could be the ultimate solution to the recurring energy crisis in the country. ...
“Contrary to old beliefs, nuclear technology is far safer now than it was since it was first developed half a century ago. Today, many countries are shifting to nuclear power generation because it is safer, cheaper and considered to be more environment-friendly than coal-fired power plants,” he said. ...
“If we go nuclear, we will not experience the same problems again. We will have an abundant energy source especially if we put up one nuclear power facility in each of the country’s major islands,” he said. ...
“I will continue working for this until we become energy sufficient. I believe we should now set aside our indifference and embrace the benefits and beauty of nuclear power. It is the only solution to all our energy problems,” he said.  ...(read more)

Saturday, 06th March 2010, by Ding Cervantes and Antonieta Lopez, PhilippineStar

Several towns in state of calamity due to drought

MANILA, Philippines - Local officials of several towns in Luzon and the Visayas plan to declare a state of calamity in their areas after agricultural crops and livestock were wiped out by the current dry spell brought by the El Niño phenomenon. ...
“No less than 3,000 families of farmers in my district will starve if their crops fail due to lack of irrigation,” Bondoc said as she noted that the farmers harvest only once a year. She said that families have yet to make up for heavy losses from the floods spawned by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” last year.  ...
“At least 25 percent of the terrace rice farms have already been affected by the dry spell. (We fear) that our terraces will all be affected if the situation will continue for four more months,” he said.  ...(read more)

Saturday, 06th March 2010, by Roger Mason, TheSilverbearcafe

Silver is the best investment in the world

We feel silver has bottomed at the $16 level and it's time to back up the truck. It just does not matter if you buy silver at $14, $16, or even $18 when it goes to $200 and keeps going. Silver is the best investment in the world. Buy bullion and store it yourself. Do NOT buy paper silver of any kind, or let anyone store it for you.  ...
There isn't that much silver available for sale. Any large sales would make the price rise dramatically. Silver is a very tiny market folks, and this is one reason it is going to go ballistic. ...
A little child knows you cannot spend your way out of debt. You cannot spend your way into prosperity. Obama and the gang keep telling us their Stimulus Program will spend our way into recovery and prosperity. ...
Hyperinflation is your future, serious Weimar-style and Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation. Only silver and gold will protect you from this, and silver is four times better than gold. ...
BACK UP THE TRUCK AND BUY SILVER BULLION

Keep it yourself and hide it creatively even if you live in an apartment. Bury it and plant a garden over it, or put a concrete patio over it.   ...(read more)

Friday, 05th March 2010, by Farrah Cole, Today'sTrucking

Expensive oil to shorten supply chains: Top economist

TORONTO -- World-renowned economist Jeff Rubin says unless supply chains are willing to pay for triple-digit oil prices, they’d better start thinking closer to home.
“Unlike in the 1970s and 1980s, there no longer are undiscovered fields of cheap, conventional oil,” Rubin says. “That oil has long been burned. So yes, we can get more (oil). But that new supply is going to come at an ever-increasing price tag on it.” ...
The survey challenges supply chains to become more flexible in their distribution methods as unanticipated events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods can affect the flow of merchandise. The ability to adapt quickly or work around these unplanned events can make a big difference in a competitive market, the report says. ...(read more)

Thursday, 04th March, by Robert Campell, Reuters

Losses wipe out equity of Mexico's Pemex

The equity in Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex was wiped out in the final quarter of 2009 as losses on refined product sales, lower crude output and high taxes offset higher crude prices.
Pemex PEMX.UL said on Monday it lost 16.6 billion pesos ($1.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2009, pushing the full year loss up to 46.1 billion pesos. ...
The government relies on Pemex to fund about a third of the budget, forcing the company to rely on borrowing to pay for its capital investment program as it tries to reverse a five-year slide in oil production.  ...(read more)

Thursday, 04th March, byJason Bradford, TheOilDrum

Food Security and Peak Oil: A Message to Local Citizens and Leadership

My presentation has 4 parts. First, I will connect what is going on in the economy right now with natural resources and the environment. Second, I will explain why oil is an especially important resource and what is meant by peak oil. Third, I will discuss the implications of economic decline and peak oil for the food system. And fourth, I will suggest what families and society can do given our predicament. ...
Oil is highly energy dense and easily portable. A gallon of oil contains enough energy to do the work of hundreds of people simultaneously or a single person for hundreds of hours. You can drive a 4000 lb car at great velocity for tens of miles on a gallon of gasoline. Try pushing a car that distance (but before doing so, ask your doctor if that’s okay). ...
Okay, so what does this have to do with food security?
1. Globalization and cheap energy led to the development of centralized processing and distribution channels, with what is termed “just in time delivery systems.” The typical grocery store, for example, only has a 3 day supply of food on the shelves, and relies on daily trucking from distance warehouses to restock basic supplies. An oil supply shock would disrupt getting food to stores. ...
Primarily we need to recognize that the environment is our primary form of wealth. Bank of Nature, not Goldman Sachs or the Federal Reserve, is our master....(read more)

Wednesday, 03rd March 2010, by Mike Adams, BlacklistedNews

Why pharmaceuticals might be called Weapons of Mass Prescription

What if a nation wanted to reduce its own civilian population but do it covertly? The way to accomplish that would be to slowly poison the civilian population through exposure to toxic chemicals, heavy metals, hormone-disrupting molecules and nerve toxins.  ...
And as any terrorist can tell you, the most covert way to accomplish that would be to inject such chemicals into the everyday products that people routinely consume: Water, food, personal care products and medicines. ...
Interestingly, the fluoride dumped into public water supplies was originally an offshoot of the enrichment processing facilities for uranium to be used in nuclear weapons. These days, however, fluoride is usually just the toxic waste from fertilizer manufacturing factories or the waste from smokestack scrubbers of coal-fired power plants. Either way, it’s not good for your teeth: The entire fluoride agenda largely a convenient, low-cost way to dispose of industrial waste chemicals while calling it a public health program. ...
poisoned by heavy metals like mercury thanks to the highly toxic practices of modern dentistry — an industry which astoundingly has still failed to admit to the obvious toxicity of a heavy metal its practitioners continue to install in people’s mouths as “silver fillings” (which actually contain more mercury than silver).
Population control is the obvious answer… not only because pharmaceuticals kill so many people but also because pharmaceuticals cause widespread infertility. By dumping so many chemicals onto civilian populations, the population can be suppressed in the long term through chemically-induced infertility. ...(read more)

Tuesday, 02nd March 2010, by Maggie Fox, Reuters

Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday.
The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world.
EFFECTS ON HUMANS?

Whether the effects translate to humans is far from clear. Frogs have thin skin that can absorb chemicals easily and they literally bathe in the polluted water.

The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. The finding may add pressure to the United States to more closely regulate the chemical, used widely in agriculture.   ...(read more)

12th March 2009, Henry Lamb, World News Daily

Welcome to Global Governance

For more than a century, the idea of a world government has persisted. From Cecil Rhodes' vision of a global British Empire, to Woodrow Wilson's vision of a League of Nations, to Franklin Roosevelt's creation of the United Nations, this dream of a world government has advanced. In Berlin, Barack Obama announced that he is a "citizen of the world." He and his administration are about to pay homage to that global citizenship.
The people who created the League of Nations for Woodrow Wilson were behind-the-scenes advisers. In the United States, Wilson's advisers were known as Edward Mandell House's "Inquiry." In England, the government was advised by Alfred Milner's group called the "Chatham House Gang," created by Cecil Rhodes in 1891. These two groups drafted the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War and created the League of Nations. ...
Before he left office, President Bush called a meeting of the G20 to set the agenda for an April meeting in London. They hope to create a global system to finally control the global economy. Whatever the structure that comes out of the meeting, it will likely be empowered to control the global economy and to connect economic actions with ecological and social justice issues as well – just as prescribed by the Commission on Global Governance. ...(read more)

Tuesday, 02nd March 2010, by Rick Hampson, USA Today

New ghost towns: Industrial communities teeter on the edge

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — When Henry Kaiser arrived 55 years ago, this place was no place — "a rural problem area," the government called it, so poor and isolated that the population had dropped 15% since 1940.  ...
The difference is that people could leave a ghost town — miners to work new veins, farmers to till fresh land, merchants to move closer to road or rail.

Today, Tim Shumaker sees no such options. In past layoffs, he always found work somewhere; now there seems to be none anywhere.

So, like almost everyone else here, he's staying put, wondering whether Ravenswood could become a new kind of ghost town: a place where people stay, because they have nowhere else to go.  ...(read more)

Monday, 01st March 2010, by EI, TheOilDrum NZ

Govt must get serious about peak oil

John de Bueger looks at the implications of "peak oil" and suggests New Zealand should be getting serious about it.
Given human greed and frailty, it isn't surprising that the majority of the world's population remain utterly indifferent to the looming energy crisis, but one might have hoped that an Energy Minister would know better. ... The International Energy Agency expects the crunch - when oil supply won't be able to meet demand - to hit by 2013.

This isn't far off, but no-one seems to care less, or even show the slightest inclination to address it.

The fall-out from peak oil will start slowly and just get worse and worse; lay-offs, riots, and resource conflicts.

Some authorities believe peak oil production has been passed, and that we are already on the way down.

Given the gravity of the looming energy situation, and the relatively minor returns likely to be achieved by mining in the national parks, instead of poking a stick into a hornet's nest, it would make more sense if the Government set up a similar review body to fully analyse the implications of peak oil on this country.  ...(read more)

Monday, 01st March 2010, by Michael Mc Carthy,TheIndependentUK

Bees take flight to the city after fall in rural hive numbers

The buzzing of bees, part of the essence of rural life, may soon become a city sound. A new army of urban beekeepers is being recruited as part of an ambitious project to halt the worrying decline in British honeybees. ...
The Plan Bee campaign has also sponsored an investigation into the population status of Britain's native version of the honeybee, the black bee, which was replaced in many hives by the Victorians with an Italian bee strain, on the grounds that the native insect was too aggressive and did not produce enough honey. But it is possible that the black bee may be able to survive conditions in the 21st century better. ...(read more)

Monday, 01st March 2010, by Ben Webster, TimesOnline

Green fuels cause more harm than fossil fuels, according to report

Using fossil fuel in vehicles is better for the environment than so-called green fuels made from crops, according to a government study seen by The Times.
Yet the study shows that palm oil increases emissions by 31 per cent because of the carbon released when forest and grassland is turned into plantations. Rape seed and soy also fail to meet the standard. ...
The EC hopes to protect its biofuel target by issuing revised standards that would give palm plantations the same status as natural forests. Officials appear to have accepted arguments put forward by the palm oil industry that palms are just another type of tree. ...
Clearing rainforest for biofuel plantations releases carbon stored in trees and soil. It takes up to 840 years for a palm oil plantation to soak up the carbon emitted when the rainforest it replaced was burnt. The expansion of the palm oil industry in Indonesia has turned it into the third-largest CO2 emitter, after China and the US. Indonesia loses an area of forest the size of Wales every year and the orang-utan is on the brink of extinction in Sumatra. ...(read more)

Sunday, 28th Febrary 2010, by Lisa Dowd, SkyNews

Young People 'Needed To Save UK Farming'

It is feared the UK's farming industry could suffer a critical shortage in skilled labour if younger people aren't attracted into the profession.
"Driving tractors is one of my main skills", says Paul Worrall, 24, from Penkridge, Staffordshire. "I hedge cut, plough, mow, milk, it's quite intense really. They're very important jobs as well."
The challenge for this ageing profession is to show that it's now a modern and progressive industry.

It invests more in training than any other major sector, and it's hoped that will draw in a new generation of farmers. ...(read more)

Sunday, 28th February 2010, by Laura Elder, GalvestonDaily

Refiners facing tough times

TEXAS CITY — Last year was a dark one for the refining industry. This year isn’t going to be much better, industry observers said. ...
“It’s going to be a low-margin business for a while,” Day said. ...
Travis Hill, owner of Zachry Construction Corp. in Texas City, said times are slow.
The company, which does maintenance at refineries, was forced to lay off about 100 employees, bringing its total work force to about 325. ...
“I just believe there are better days ahead,” Sokol said. ...(read more)

23rd June 2004, John Rapport, NoMoreFakeNews

The World Death Organization

From Reuters: GENEVA – “The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday sounded the alarm about the unregulated and often unsafe use of alternative medicines ranging from acupuncture to herbal medicines and food supplements.”
Dear WHO, I am sounding the alarm about YOU.
You are the people who have done next to NOTHING despite your mandate, to stem the tide of widespread death in the Third World from contaminated water, starvation, and vaccines given to millions of people whose immune systems are already shut down. These vaccines maim and kill.
You are the people who floated the transparent SARS scam, based on a purported virus never proven to cause any disease condition at all. You are the people who headed up the campaign to label recycled cases of traditional flu and pneumonia “the new disease called SARS.” You are the people who thereby wreaked economic havoc in the specific economic free zones of China, and in Toronto, bringing about the loss of untold numbers of jobs and the bankruptcy of businesses with your travel advisories. ...(read more)

Friday, 26th February 2010, Times Online

Consumerism 'doomed', investment forum told

Western governments may not realise it yet, but consumerism as we know it is doomed and resource war with China inevitable, the world’s biggest fund managers were told yesterday.
The unsettling message, which focuses on the potentially destabilising shortfall of the rare “technology metals” used in everything from mobile phones to guided missiles, was issued in Tokyo yesterday at the close of one of Asia’s largest annual investment forums.
Jack Lifton, an expert in rare earth metals, said that many of the green ambitions of governments around the world — particularly ones involving wind farms and other high-tech responses to climate change — would be thwarted by upstream supply issues.
Particularly troubling, he said, is an impending inflection point that may arrive within the next couple of years when China becomes a net importer of rare earth ores. ...
"But the level of ignorance about the upstream of metal supply is just out of this world. When you talk to governments about how they are going to secure the supplies of the rare metals their voters are using more of every day, they say that they could only justify the cost of financing a new mine at a time of war. Well, we are at economic war already.”  ...(read more)

Saturday, 27th Febrary 2010, by Richard K. Moore, GlobalResearch

Prognosis 2012: Towards a New World Social Order

Historical background – the establishment of capitalist supremacy
... bankers were the leading capitalists. ...
Nations and populations are but pawns in their games. Millions die in wars, infrastructures are destroyed, and while the world mourns, the bankers are counting their winnings and making plans for their postwar reconstruction investments. ...
The power of the banking elites is both absolute and subtle...

  "Some of the biggest men in the United

States are afraid of something. They

know there is a power somewhere, so

organised, so subtle, so watchful, so

interlocked, so complete, so pervasive

that they had better not speak above

their breath when they speak in

condemnation of it."         -- President Woodrow Wilson
The focus on control over consumption, resources, and distribution is implicit in the emphasis on energy limits, is latent in the geopolitical situation, as regards depletion of global resources, and is indicated by the need for a new unifying paradigm, as the growth paradigm is no longer viable. ...
The limited role of national governments, being primarily allocators of mandated budgets, has been clearly signaled by long-standing IMF policies in the third world, and by the way the bankers have been dictating to governments, in the wake of the over-extended bailout commitments. The carbon entitlement budgeting paradigm accomplishes the same micromanagement in a much more direct way, and is the natural outcome of the push toward hard carbon limits. ...(read more)

Saturday, 27th February 2010, by Kurt Nimmo, InfoWars

Louisiana Cops Plan for “End of the World” Scenario

Police in Louisiana’s Bossier Parish are training for an “end of the world” scenario, according to the Shreveport Times. The program is dubbed “Operation Exodus,” inspired in part from the Book of Exodus in the Bible.
Deen’s plan is to protect Bossier Parish’s vital resources, like food and gasoline, in the event of a catastrophic event, such as war or a terrorist attack. Deen said he had been thinking of the plan since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, reports Drew Pierson.
Under Deen’s plan, the police will use volunteers, supplemented with active public safety personnel, that will be dispatched to vital areas in Bossier to protect them from looters and rioters. Deen listed as examples grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals and other public meeting places.

Instead of normal riot equipment such as shields and batons, the volunteers will be armed with shotguns and have access to a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a vehicle dubbed “the war wagon.” On February 20, the volunteers were trained in hand-to-hand combat techniques. ...(read more)

Monday, 01st March 2010, Reuters

Asia buys record volume of W.African oil in Q1

LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Asian buyers are taking record volumes of West African crude oil this year as fuel consumption rises in India, China and other East Asian countries, a Reuters survey of trade sources showed on Monday.
Imports of cargoes of unrefined oil from Nigeria, Angola and other African producers via Atlantic ports averaged around 1.79 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, up from about 1.53 million bpd in the fourth quarter and close to 1.1 million bpd a year ago.
In the first three months of this year, Asia consumed about 40 percent of all the West African crude produced, up from around 25 percent in Q1 2009, the Reuters survey shows. ...(read more)

Friday, 26th February 2010, by Scott Wright, Zeal

Global Gold Supply

Last week the World Gold Council (WGC) released its highly-anticipated Gold Demand Trends (GDT) report for Q4 and full-year 2009.  GDT reports contain analysis of independent data compiled by GFMS Limited detailing supply and demand trends in the global gold market.  They are jam-packed with key fundamental reads that undergird gold’s secular bull.

Generally only select groups of industry stakeholders and traders are the ones who anticipate these reports.  Most people couldn’t care less what they say, and if you mention WGC they’ll think you’re talking about golf.  But with gold gaining mainstream popularity in recent years, GDT reports are now a lot more relevant.

The concept of “peak gold” is an idea that has been tossed around ever since this 2003 apex.  And there is certainly a compelling argument for it.  Gold is after all a finite resource and there is only so much of it in the earth’s crust.  Prospectors have been scouring the planet for thousands of years in search of this metal for kings, and the majority of the easy gold could well be extinct.
A big proponent of this “peak gold” theory is the CEO of the world’s largest gold miner, Barrick Gold.  Now it might seem a bit self-serving for a gold mining executive to support a theory that would keep the price of his primary product high.  But Aaron Regent brings up some good points....(read more)

Friday, 26th February 2010, by Byron King, DotConnectorUK

Could Namibia Be Ten Times Better Than Brazil for Oil?

I logged 9,814 air miles. Took four different flights. Spent a total of 54 hours traveling. All to meet with a man they call “Mr. GO Deep…”
The man I’m talking about is Marcio Mello — the always-ebullient Brazilian geochemist and CEO of Brazil’s HRT Petroleum Co.
“The Namibian offshore is analogous to that of Brazil,” Marcio stated, with slides and hard data to back it up. Then he showed his proprietary research into natural offshore oil seeps off Namibia, and the geochemistry that demonstrates immense hydrocarbon potential. As for the reservoirs, he showed a slide of proprietary seismic data. “And look at this turbidite stuff,” he ...(read more)

Wednesday, 24th February 2010, by Vincent Fernando, BusinessInsider

Economist Rogoff Who Predicted The U.S. Crisis And A European One, Now Predicts A China Collapse

Harvard economics professor Ken Rogoff is throwing some serious bear punches again.

For China not to crash would be an extremely unusual historical precedent, he argues ...
“We would learn just how important China is when that happens. It would cause a recession everywhere surrounding” the country, including Japan and South Korea, and be “horrible” for Latin American commodity exporters, he said.   ...
Real estate values in Shanghai and Beijing have “taken a departure from reality,” said the economist, co-author of “This Time is Different,” ...(read more)

Wednesday, 24th February 2010, by Mike "Mish" Shedlock, GlobalEconomicAnalysis

Commercial Real Estate Apocalypse in 2011-2012

Over the next few years, a wave of commercial real estate loan failures could threaten America’s already-weakened financial system. The Congressional Oversight Panel is deeply concerned that commercial loan losses could jeopardize the stability of many banks, particularly the nation’s mid-size and smaller banks, and that as the damage spreads beyond individual banks that it will contribute to prolonged weakness throughout the economy. ...
The combination of negative net absorption rates and additional space that will become available from projects started during the boom years will cause vacancy rates to remain high, and will continue putting downward pressure on rental prices for all major commercial property types. Taken together, this falling demand and already excessive supply of commercial property will cause many projects to be viable no longer, as properties lose, or are unable to obtain, tenants and as cash flows (actual or projected) fall. ...
There appears to be a consensus, strongly supported by current data, that commercial real estate markets will suffer substantial difficulties for a number of years. ...(read more)

Friday, 22nd February 2010, by Walid Shihabi, The National AE

The other strategic petroleum reserves

Gulf oil producers are moving on innovative deals to establish stockpiles of their oil in the major consuming countries in Asia, which offer significant benefits. Walid Shihabi writes
In December, Abu Dhabi delivered the first shipment of oil to a new Japanese strategic petroleum reserve.
The crude is being stored in facilities that the Japanese government borrowed last year from Nippon Oil, the national petroleum company, then offered to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The UAE company aims to use Japan as a base for Asian oil trading. In return for providing storage, however, Tokyo has priority purchase rights to up to 4 million barrels of immediately accessible crude in the event of an energy crisis....(read more)

Friday, 22nd February 2010, by Niall Ferguson, InformationClearingHouse

Complexity and Collapse - Empires on the Edge of Chaos

Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice.
Although hardly anyone reads Spengler or Toynbee today, similar strains of thought are visible in contemporary bestsellers. Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers is another work of cyclical history -
a shift in expectations about monetary and fiscal policy could force a reassessment of future U.S. foreign policy. There is a zero-sum game at the heart of the budgetary process: if interest payments consume a rising proportion of tax revenue, military expenditure is the item most likely to be cut because, unlike mandatory entitlements, it is discretionary. A U.S. president who says he will deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and then, in 18 months' time, start withdrawing them again already has ...(read more)

Monday, 22nd February 2010, by A E Berman, TheOilDrum

ExxonMobil’s Acquisition of XTO Energy: The Fallacy of the Manufacturing Model in Shale Plays

Most analysts believe that the ExxonMobil acquisition of XTO Energy (XTO) represents a dramatic shift in strategy by the premier exploration and production (E&P) company, and a validation of shale plays. It is neither. The move represents a considered and deliberate choice that acknowledges diminished opportunities for the oil giant to add and replace reserves. The acquisition acknowledges that natural gas is the only viable short-term solution to North America’s energy needs, and that demand will grow. It implies that ExxonMobil believes that higher natural gas prices will be part of that energy future. It presumes that the company can improve on the flawed manufacturing model that has dominated the way that U.S. shale plays have been pursued.
The widespread belief that there is 100 years of natural gas supply in the U.S. because of shale plays is incorrect. Claims that shale gas has resulted in 100 years of supply are based on circular references without underlying documentation, and also do not take high decline rates or anticipated future demand growth into account.
The mainstream belief that shale plays have ensured North America an abundant supply of inexpensive natural gas is not supported by facts or results to date. ...(read more)

Monday, 22nd February 2010, by Leo Lewis, Times Online

'Buy farmland and gold,' advises Dr Doom

The world’s most powerful investors have been advised to buy farmland, stock up on gold and prepare for a “dirty war” by Marc Faber, the notoriously bearish market pundit, who predicted the 1987 stock market crash.
One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.
China and emerging Asia, meanwhile, face the uncertainty of supplies that must travel from the Middle East through winding sea lanes and the Malacca bottleneck. ...(read more)

Saturday, 20th February 2010, by Big Gay, The OilDrum Aussie/NZ

Is There Enough Food Out There For Nine Billion People ?

Science has a paper on the changes to the current global food system required to support the expanded global population we'll see in a couple of decades time, noting that radical changes to agriculture will be required to support 9 billion people - ...
A threefold challenge now faces the world: Match the rapidly changing demand for food from a larger and more affluent population to its supply; do so in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable; and ensure that the world’s poorest people are no longer hungry. This challenge requires changes in the way food is produced, stored, processed, distributed, and accessed that are as radical as those that occurred during the 18th- and 19th-century Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions and the 20th-century Green Revolution.
Given that the amount of new land that could be brought under cultivation is limited (especially when competition for other uses already poses a threat to some existing agricultural land, as do losses of land due to desertification, salinisation, soil erosion, and other consequences of unsustainable land management), the report focuses on ways of increasing food production from existing land (and the oceans). ...(read more)

Friday, 19th February 2010, by Aaron Task, Yahoo-Finance

"Crisis of Confidence": Yes, Risks of U.S. Default Are Very Real, Charles Ortel Says

With America facing $1 trillion annual deficits and debt-to-GDP ratios on par with those of Europe's so-called PIGS, some are asking what was once unthinkable:Is the U.S. at risk of defaulting on its debt?
... Total gross U.S. debt is now $50 trillion or 12 times the nation's total gross income, according to Ortel, whose debt calculation excludes unfunded mandates such as Social Security and Medicaid but does include corporate debt which he says are "potentially eligible for bailouts."
... Ortel says the U.S. is facing a "crisis of confidence" among global investors and recommends ...(read more)

Thursday, 18th February 2010, by George Mobus, QuestionEverything

How Will People Live in the Future (assuming they are wise)?

The picture that emerges is one of a small farming community roughly resembling those of two hundred to four hundred years ago. But the resemblance is largely superficial for the simple reason that modern people have much more knowledge than did people of old.
... Travel depends on energy. If people did travel they would likely do it by horse and buggy. But horses eat food that would take photosynthetically-fixed energy away from the community along with soil nutrients that would be dropped on the road!
... The Internet will be a distant memory. You won't be able to Google what you need to know. Wikipedia will be relegated to the annals of once-upon-a-time. Therefore the only way to prevent an all out Dark Ages will be to collect and preserve the necessary knowledge in book forms in some kind of library. There is a global effort now to preserve seeds of plants from all over in the event that some global cataclysm wipes out vegetation
... The food system will be the biggest single subsystem of work and energy capture in the community. In all likelihood every member of the community will be engaged in some activities supporting this subsystem....(read more)

Monday, 15th February 2010,by John Vidal, The Guardian UK

EU biofuels significantly harming food production in developing countries

EU companies have taken millions of acres of land out of food production in Africa, central America and Asia to grow biofuels for transport, according to development campaigners. The consequences of European biofuel targets, said the report by ActionAid, could be up to 100 million more hungry people, increased food prices and landlessness.
... Biofuels are estimated by the IMF to have been responsible for 20-30% of the global food price spike in 2008 when 125m tonnes of cereals were diverted into biofuel production. The amount of biofuels in Europe's car fuels is expected to quadruple in the next decade.
... The ActionAid report says Europe is just one region now greatly increasing the amount of biofuels in transport fuel. Analysis of US farm data last month by the Earth Policy Institute in Washington showed that one-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars. The grain grown to produce the fuel in the US in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels.  ...(read more)

Saturday, 13th February 2010, Reuters

Petronas ships 'Reliance gasoline to Iran'

Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas is shipping a gasoline cargo produced by Reliance into Iran, despite the Indian refiner instructing traders not to supply its fuel to Tehran, trade sources said.
Petronas would be the second firm that shipping data obtained by Reuters has shown ignoring Reliance's destination restriction. Shipping data showed Kuwait's fuel supplier IPG making similar deliveries last year.
'Our gasoline export contracts with the buyers explicitly prohibits Iran as a destination. No other refiner in the region, that we know of, puts any restriction to sell to Iran like us,' a Reliance company spokesperson told Reuters....(read more)

Saturday, 13th February 2010, Charles S. Brant, Casey-s EnergyReport

Will Obama Destroy Any Hope of U.S. Energy Independence?

The U.S. consumes nearly three times the amount of oil that it produces domestically on a daily basis. How can this statistic get any worse, you might ask?
Imagine in 2010 the Obama administration persuades Congress to pass a budget that results in a reduction of domestic oil production by 10% - 20%, making the supply/demand imbalance even more lopsided. Foreign oil companies will gain a distinct advantage over American domestic operators as an unintended consequence of these proposals.
Sound farfetched? It's closer to reality than you may think… If it comes to pass, it will likely be the biggest structural change in the U.S. domestic oil and gas industry in decades and have far-reaching implications for investors and for the entire country.
.. It’s also almost guaranteed the market will overreact and punish any U.S. company that has anything to do with oil and gas, whether or not it’s fundamentally justified. However, once the initial panic subsides, expect to find some screaming bargains among the surviving companies.
.. Energy prices across the board will explode upwards and stay high until the production void left by oil and gas can be replaced by renewable energies, nuclear, or coal. The coming energy crisis will present you with plenty of opportunities to profit if your portfolio is correctly positioned.   ...(read more)

Sunday, 07th February 2010, by HeadingOut, The OiDrum

The THAI process for bitumen and heavy oil

This is the post on THAI – Toe to Heel Air Injection for the recovery of heavy oils, which is part of the ongoing technical post (tech talk) series that I write on Sundays. It is a subject that has been described several times in the past at The Oil Drum. I first mentioned it back in 2006 when the first underground test was underway at White Sands.
... Once the wells are in position steam will be injected and circulated for a period of 3 months to bring the sand and bitumen up to around 100 deg C, then air will be injected to start combustion. The part of the bitumen that burns as the process develops is the residual asphaltene that is left after the lighter fractions are either evaporated, flow away at reduced viscocity or are cracked by the high temperature (> 400 deg C). The residual material, apparently about 10% of the OOIP, provides the fuel, driving some 90% of the fuel into the production well.

To sustain production after ignition and flame front stabilization has occurred, the wells will carry some 4.4 million cf/day into the formation, and about the same amount of a mix of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbon gas will be released.
... Looks as though things are going quite well....(read more)

Good Oldie, 16th October 2005, Matthew Stein

Waiting for the lights to go out

We've taken the past 200 years of prosperity for granted. Humanity's progress is stalling, we are facing a new era of decay, and nobody is clever enough to fix it. Is the future really that black, asks Bryan Appleyard
It's been said before, of course: people are always saying the world will end and it never does. Maybe it won't this time, either. But, frankly, it's not looking good. Almost daily, new evidence is emerging that progress can no longer be taken for granted, that a new Dark Age is lying in wait for ourselves and our children.
... Microsoft is always working on a better version of Windows. Today's Nokia renders yesterday's obsolete, as does today's Apple, Nike or Gillette. Life expectancy continues to rise. Cars go faster, planes fly further, and one day, we are assured, cancer must yield. Whatever goes wrong in our lives or the world, the march of progress continues regardless. Doesn't it?
... Almost certainly not. The first big problem is our insane addiction to oil. It powers everything we do and determines how we live. But, on the most optimistic projections, there are only 30 to 40 years of oil left. One pessimistic projection, from Sweden's Uppsala University, is that world reserves are massively overstated and the oil will start to run out in 10 years. That makes it virtually inconceivable that there will be kerosene-powered planes or petroleum-powered cars for much longer. Long before the oil actually runs out, it will   ...(read more)

Thursday, 04th February 2010, by 'ACE', The Oildrum

World Oil Capacity to Peak in 2010 Says Petrobras CEO

Mr. Gabrielli, the CEO of Petrobras, gave a presentation in December 2009 in which he shows world oil capacity, including biofuels, peaking in 2010 due to oil capacity additions from new projects being unable to offset world oil decline rates.
... Gabrielli states in his presentation that the world needs oil volumes the equivalent of one Saudi Arabia every two years to offset future world oil decline rates.
Additional constraints on world oil production are weaknesses in the production, refining and logistics systems. In addition, Gabrielli points out that refineries need to be matched to the type of oil being produced. Recently, world oil production is becoming heavier and more sour which requires suitable refineries. The construction of these refineries can take several years. Limitations of known reservoirs are an additional constraint as many existing fields are very old and cannot produce more oil easily. Mexico's Cantarell field is in decline and Kuwait's Burgan field has passed peak production.
... Gabrielli's concerns about peak oil capacity in 2010 and future declining world oil capacity should be taken seriously.
... In other words, the world does not have enough future Saudi Arabia equivalent capacity additions to stop world oil production from declining, causing an inevitable supply crunch within the next few years.

Well, Duh, uh! ...(read more)

Wednesday, 03rd Febrary 2010, by Ferdinand E. Banks, SeekingAlpha

Saudi Oil Flows East: China's Ever InSaudi Oil Flows East: China's Ever Increasing Appetite for Oil

One more measure of China’s growing global clout – so much Saudi oil is flowing China’s way that it may soon replace the U.S. as the leading market for the world’s largest oil exporter.
A report from oil-industry consultant PIRA says Saudi Arabia accounted for 11 percent of total U.S. oil imports last year, down from 18 percent in 2003. Over the same period, China’s shipments of Saudi crude increased from 16 percent of total imports to 20 percent.

In just the past two years, Saudi oil imports to China have increased 60 percent, reflecting the rocketing demand for energy to fuel economic growth. Xinhua, China’s official news agency, says crude oil imports could surge more than ...

... In contrast, the U.S. continues to rollback its refining capacity while neglecting to invest in new infrastructure.

China’s ever-increasing appetite for oil will continue to play a major role in the country’s foreign relations with both partners and allies. Any disruption could cause volatility for oil prices.   ...(read more)

Wednesday, 03rd February 2010, Gail the Actuary, Campfire

Does it Make Sense to Move to a New Location because of Peak Oil?

Some reasons one might want to move:

1. To be closer to family. If times get tough, economically or otherwise, it is can be better to be near kin-folk.

2. To own a piece of arable land in an area with good weather. If one actually plans to operate the farm by oneself, one would need the skills to use the land productively.

3. To be closer to energy sources that are likely to continue. This could be as simple as being near wooded areas. It could also be to be near hydroelectric, or some other form of energy (coal, oil, geothermal, wind turbines, etc.).

4. To leave an area with inadequate water supply. Los Vegas and Phoenix come to mind as examples.

5. To be in a better place for ...

Some reasons not to move

1. Have friends, family, and a job where you are now. It would be impossible to move everyone, and find jobs for everyone, in a new location.

2. Not customary to move. In the USA, we think nothing of people moving to a new state every few years. But in many parts of the world, people customarily stay put. Moving is not really an option.

3. Not welcome in the new area. If the new area is a close-knit community, it may be difficult to make new friends.

4. Not enough money. It costs money to relocate. Buying several acres for a farm, plus equipment, is likely to be prohibitively expensive for most.

5. Devil you know is better than the...(read more)

Tuesday, 02nd February 2010, by Skilet Licker, LATOC Forum

"Think you're really ready for when TSHTF?

We loaded up on food and try to call our friends to come and pick us up (none of us had mobiles then).  No-one bloody answered the phone, so we hoof it back and crash with full bellies at about 5am, as we could see the sun coming up.  We did try half-heartedly that morning to make a go at the fishing / hunting, but it was lame and we simply wanted to go home - back to our beds and the comforts of home.  I finally walked back down to the store, and called to get picked up.

Yes, I know we wussed and I also know we had bad luck.  We didn't even make it 3 days!  It was quite a shame to live through in a small town.  20 yrs later, I look back at that memory with the relatively new awareness of our global situation and when SHTF I started a list here of the following lessons I learned from that dreadful trip:

1.  Real Survival is NOT easy, and it is not fun after a few hours when things don't go as you optimistically predict.  Survival is not the LL Bean catalog, with the latest Leatherman, sipping Earl Grey tea.  It can get quite scary (I can't imagine what it would be like if my family now was depending on me at 43 yrs old, for food).2.  All of the heavy equipment and expensive gadgets, guns, and equipment doesn't always put food in your mouth like You think it will.  You cannot necessarily 'buy' survival.

3.   We all have breaking points and hunger dramatizes the reaction upon reaching this point.  Your friends or family may have longer or shorter breaking points, and You may not know until it is too late.

  ...(read more)

Monday, 1st February 2010, by Jade Davenport, MiningWeekly

Rare earth demand rises, no supply increase seen outside China

Demand for rare-earth metals was increasing "exponentially", primarily driven by demand for new technology, independent consultant and commentator Jack Lifton said on Monday.

He told delegates attending the 2010 Mining Indaba in Cape Town that 2010 was already shaping up as the year of rare metals.

Rare-earth metals are critical technology metals used in the manufacturing of hybrid cars, super alloys used in the defence industry, cellphones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors.

Lifton said that rare-earth metals were the "newest great interest" amongst investors, primarily the result of growing demand.

... Significantly, Lifton predicted that there would be no increase in rare-earth metal production outside China. The Asian giant currently accounted for 95% of rare earth-metal production. ...(read more)

Monday, 01st February, by Viola Gienger & Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg

China, Iran Spur U.S. to Develop Air-Sea Battle Plan

... The U.S. military is drawing up a new air-sea battle plan in response to threats such as China’s persistent military buildup and Iran’s possession of advanced weapons, according to the Pentagon’s latest strategy review.
“We have learned through painful experience that the wars we fight are seldom the wars we planned,” Gates said. “As a result, the United States needs a broad portfolio of military capabilities, with maximum versatility across the widest possible spectrum of conflicts.”
... U.S. officials have often called on their Chinese counterparts to provide explanations and assurances that their moves are purely defensive. The two countries resumed military talks last June, then China halted visits again over the Defense Department’s Jan. 29 announcement of a new arms sale to Taiwan. Gates said today he still plans to visit China this year.
“We see an extremely complex environment with a multiplicity of challenges,” she said. “And we can’t afford to ignore any of them.”   ...(read more)

Sunday, 31st January 2010, Gail the Actuary, The OilDrum

Men's Response to Shifting Roles after Peak Oil

One of the things we’re talking about right now in our “Finding Your Place” class are issues specific to men and women. The women’s issues often seem to focus on material and physical discussions

... what comes up for many of the men in the discussion is how difficult it is to deal with shifting roles, and the prevalence of anxiety, depression and over-reliance on drugs and alchohol.

Have you had this experience, either personally or for someone you cared about? None of us want to see the rates of suicide rising. None of us want to watch the guys in our life struggling. None of us want them to turn to drugs and drink to dull a sense of loss. Of course, many men won’t. In many cases, it is the women who struggle with these issues. But overwhelmingly history suggests that the psychological trauma of watching your world transformed often strikes men, particularly men of ...(read more)

Friday, 29th January 2010, Upstream Staff, Upstreamonline

'Petronas chief should come from within'

The next Petronas chief should be selected from within the Malaysian national oil company to ensure continuity of its operations, Malaysia’s ex-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told journalists.

There would also be resentment from within the company if an outsider were appointed to the position, he said in an interview with the Star newspaper.

Asked by the Star newspaper to comment why Petronas has not extended the contract with its existing chief executive officer, Mahathir said it could be due to the fact that Hassan had reached retirement age.   ...(read more)

Sunday, 27th Novermber 2005, Mike Adams, NewsTarget

The Mass Poisoning  Of Humanity An Exploration Of Human Stupidity

The mass poisoning of humanity: an exploration of human stupidity As human beings, we're the only species stupid enough to actually poison ourselves. As part of modern living, we create a wide variety of chemical toxins that go into the ecosystem through rivers and streams, the air, the soil and so on. Not only that, we actually synthesize toxic chemicals and then inject them directly into the food supply -- knowing full well that they are poisonous and are major contributors to the epidemic rates of chronic disease we are experiencing today.

What are these chemicals I'm talking about? Well, you're about to get a whirlwind tour of humanity's toxic chemicals. And if you look at toxic chemicals, you have to start in the realm of dentistry, because in no other profession (save medicine) will you find the use of so many toxic chemicals that are deliberately prescribed to patients or injected into their bodies. We're talking about, of course, mercury fillings and fluoride dripped into the public water supplies.

Wednesday, 27th January 2010, by Jonathan Elinoff, NWOReport

33 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True, What Every Person Should Know...

Most people can't resist getting the details on the latest conspiracy theories, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.  At the same time, many people quickly denounce any conspiracy theory as untrue ... and sometimes as unpatriotic or just plain ridiculous.  Lets not forget all of the thousands of conspiracies out of Wall Street like Bernie Madoff and many others to commit fraud and extortion, among many crimes of conspiracy.

To many, conspiracy theories are just human nature.  Not all people in this world are honest, hard working and forthcoming about their intentions.Certainly we can all agree on this.So how did the term “conspiracy theory” get grouped in with fiction, fantasy and folklore?  Maybe that’s a conspiracy, just kidding.  Or am I?

In fact, if one were to look into conspiracy theories, they will largely find that thinking about a conspiracy is associated with lunacy and paranoia. Some websites suggest it as an illness. It is also not surprising to see so many people on the internet writing about conspiracy theories in a condescending tone, usually with the words "kool-aid," "crack pot," or "nut job" in their articulation. This must be obvious to anyone that emotionally writing about such serious matter insults the reader more than the conspiracy theorist because there is no need to resort to this kind of behavior. It is employed often with an "expert" who will say something along the lines of, "for these conspiracies to be true, you would need hundreds if not thousands of people to be involved. It's just not conceivable."
... 15.Gulf of Tonkin  ...(read more)

Wednesday, 27th January 2010, by Sakerfa, MetropoleHaiti

Haiti’s Oil, Gold & Iridium Resources Explains the Post Earthquake Occupation/Invasion

Haiti’s oil reserves are larger than Venezuela’s, Haiti also has huge resources of Gold & Minerals like Iridium

Oil, Gold and Minerals resources like Iridium would explain why the post earthquake occupation/invasion has taken place in Haiti by the UN and US forces primarily. The EU is now also sending Police to Port-au-Prince.  ...(read more)

Wednesday, 27th January 2010, Charles Hugh Smith, Oftonwinds

Demographics and the End of Cheap Oil, Jobs and The Savior State

Um, has anyone at the U.N. heard about soil depletion, drought, peak oil and falling water tables? There are plenty of reasons short of catastrophic climate change to reckon that the planet is already past carrying capacity and that any relatively modest disruption in global grain or fossil fuel supplies in conjunction with existing drought/ water shortages could trigger widespread starvation.

The entire premise of limitless growth of oil, grain and other material wealth is so detached from reality that it qualifies as a form of psychosis/insanity.

What will change is the developed-world's expectations of retiring at 55 and lounging around for 30 years on the golf course and cruise ships, breaking up the endless leisure with numerous visits to medical specialists paid for by the Savior State.

The entitlement programs in all developed nations are doomed regardless of what modifications are made to taxes and benefits; the End of Work simply hastens the collapse of the Savior State.

The fantasy of working for 30 years and then retiring for 30 years, all expenses paid, is now toast, for structural reasons which are only partially demographic.

Mondday, 25th January 2010, by Kevin G. Hall, McClathy News

It only gets worse this year for commercial real estate

Commercial real estate is expected to remain a drag on the U.S. economy through 2010 and beyond.

"You do see stress in the market. We've seen delinquency rates increasing; we've seen by a whole variety of measures increased stress in the commercial real estate market," said Jamie Woodwell, the vice president of commercial real estate research for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Commercial real estate encompasses everything from shopping malls and storefronts to industrial parks and hotels. Delinquencies on bonds backed by pools of commercial real estate loans continue climbing to record levels.  ...(read more)

Sunday, 24th January 2010, John Mauldin, GoldSeek

Thoughts on the End Game

As I wrote in my 2010 forecast, this year is a waiting game. There are so many choices we must make, and the paths we will take from those choices vary wildly. But make no mistake, we are coming close to the end game. Some countries and economies are closer to that point than others, but the entire developed world is lurching, in almost drunken fashion, towards our economic denouement.

Over the next several months, we are going to start to explore various aspects of the end game. Whither Japan?

Are they actually, as I think, a bug in search of a windshield? What does that mean for the world? How safe is the euro? Everyone over here seems to think Germany will bail out Greece. A breakup seems unthinkable to the people I've been talking to (so far). But what about Spain? Italy? Can you spell moral hazard?

Presently, we view the inflationary environment as benign because: 1) the U.S. economic system is overleveraged and academic research confirms that this circumstance leads to deflation; 2) monetary policy is, and will continue to be, ineffectual as efforts to spur growth are thwarted by declining asset prices, loan destruction, and adverse regulatory influences; 3) the federal government's spending spree will necessarily cause taxes and borrowings to rise, further stunting any economic growth. These factors ensure that inflation will be quiescent. Interest rates easily can and do rise for short periods, but remaining elevated in a disinflationary environment is contrary to the historical experience. We are owners and buyers of long U.S. Treasury debt  ...(read more)

Thrusday, 19th January 2010, by Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge

Is Silver The New Gold?  SILVER LININGS 

How well known is that up until 1968, silver certificates were redeemable for an equivalent amount of silver?

Since that time, these have been replaced by the Federal Reserve Notes declared as being official Legal Tender and backed by a printing press (now operated by none other than Ben Bernanke, who in four years has managed to create out of thin air 60% of the entire monetary base of the country since the United States was established 233 years ago). And how well known is it that the Coinage Act of 1965 removed all the silver from newly-minted quarters and dimes?

The difference between precious metals and fiat money is that the latter is not backed by any physical asset and as such has no intrinsic value whatsoever – a medium of exchange, perhaps, but backed by nothing except its ‘legal tender’ status. Keep that in mind when you flip through your wallet (the term 'dollar', as an aside, was not a made-in-U.S.A. development but in fact was adopted from the Spanish dollar which itself was a silver coin from a Bohemian mine).

given the much more stable supply outlook for silver (all the low-cost shallow mines on the planet have already been gutted) and where it trades relative to gold, not to mention what little attention the metals grabs and how under-owned it still appears to be, exposure to silver, whether it be in bars, coins, ETFs or mining companies, is likely going to be prove to be a very attractive investment in coming years.  ...(read more)

Friday, 15th January 2010, Marin Katusa, FinancialSense

Cheap Oil is Gone, and That's Good News

Over the next year or two, you will likely find yourself paying a LOT more at the gas pump. Big changes are taking place in the oil industry. With increased global demand and declining supply, easy oil is not so easy anymore.

And that's exactly why the International Energy Agency just released its annual World Energy Outlook, clearly rejecting the possibility that crude output is now in terminal decline. Their attitude seems to be, what you don't know won't hurt you. For now that is.

The Guardian reports, "The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit."

This comes from a whistleblower inside the International Energy Agency who states the fear of triggering panic buying has caused them to intentionally underplay the inevitable shortage.

Shrinking supply and ever-growing global demand are creating the perfect storm for oil prices.
The current price of crude could be the bargain of the century. Understand this and every increase at the pump will give you   ...(read more)

Sunday, 10th January 10th, by Bee Wilson, Telegraph UK

Is this the end of food as we know it?

In this uncertain world, we can no longer take our food supply for granted. For years, academics such as Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, gave warning that we were "sleepwalking" into a future where our food security was likely to be seriously undermined, whether by natural disasters, rising fuel costs, climate change or the massive pressures placed on the global food system by a rising population. We shrugged it off, setting off in our cars for another wasteful trolley of ready-meals.

Look at fruit. In 1963, we grew around 30 per cent of our own fruit; now it is closer to 5 per cent. Compare this with France, which in 1963 grew enough fruit to feed 90 per cent of the population and still produces enough to feed 80 per cent; or  ...(read more)

Thursday, 07th January 2010, XinHua / ChinaView

Shell optimistic for Malaysian oil, gas industry

World's oil giant Shell will continue to expand its investment in Malaysia in view of the potential of its deepwater fields.

    Malaysia is a key country for the Shell group so that it will continue to invest in the country to sustain and strengthen its position as a leading international oil and gas company here, local newspaper New Straits Times quoted Shell Malaysia's former chairman Saw Choo Boon as saying here on Thursday, before he resigned from the post.

    Saw said that Malaysia's oil and gas industry was still robust in the medium term as some deepwater fields can hold some reserves, while mature fields can yield more oil and gas.

He noted that Malaysia still exported more oil and gas than it consumed currently, though it would hard to maintain given the increasing energy usage from a bigger and richer population and the reduction of easily accessible oil and gas.

However, he added, the situation might occur some years off as there was still quite some potential for deep waters off East Malaysia's states of Sabah and Sarawak, which  ...(read more)

Sunday, 03rd January 2010, by Mike Ruppert Blogspot dot com

"Something Evil Comes This Way"

As I write, the world is falling apart.  Military forces from all major powers are flooding the Gulf of Aden, using piracy and terrorism as a pretext. This is all jockeying in anticipation of a major, and possibly total, war in and around the Persian Gulf -- where 60% of the planet's known oil is. Pakistan is imploding. Within days it will face a "worst possible" energy crisis and, according to Pakistani news sources, trigger massive civil unrest. Pakistan has failed. An Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran is now, no longer unthinkable.

Sovereign default is a threat throughout Europe and especially in Greece and the United Kingdom. There are signs that the U.S. economy has started to implode.

President Obama has just ordered massive governmental preparation for a biowarfare attack. Something evil this way comes, and it will be worse than 9-11. Those who have followed me regularly over the years know that I have never gotten excited about any of a score of rumors of another attack.

I recommend that you make a small investment in potassium iodide tablets for yourself and your family. It's time to start running faster than the other campers.  ...(read more)

Saturday, 02nd Janurary 2010, The Independent UK

An elemental challenge for China and the world

Beijing would be foolish to hoard supplies of rare earth materials

Though rare earth elements are not, geologically speaking, all that rare, they are still largely unknown to the general public. That, however, could be about to change. The likes of lanthanum and holmium could soon be names as familiar to us as gold and oil. The explanation is scarcity.

Global demand for these materials is booming, tripling over the past decade from 40,000 to 120,000 tonnes. Rare earth elements are used in a host of technologies from iPhones, to fibre-optic cables, to missile guidance systems. And they are also essential for a swath of low-carbon technologies from catalytic converters, to nuclear power rods; a market that is set to expand exponentially over the coming decades as nations seek to reduce their use of fossil fuels.

Yet one country has a virtual monopoly on the production of these materials. China provides 97 per cent of the global supplies of rare earth elements, most coming from a single mine in Inner Mongolia. By 2014 global demand for rare earth materials is forecast to hit 200,000 tonnes a year. But for several years China has been steadily reducing the amount of material it makes available for export. And as we report today, supplies of Chinese-produced terbium and dysprosium – irreplaceable elements of magnets used in the batteries of hybrid cars and wind turbines – are likely to be cut sharply in the coming months.

In theory, the global free market should ...(read more)

Thursday, 31st December 2009, by PressTV IR

Mahathir: US preparing for attack on Iran

The former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has warned that the US is preparing to launch an attack on Iran with the help of Israel.
"Obama is preparing for a (military) offensive on Iran with the help of his ally, the Israeli regime," IRNA quoted Mohamad as writing on his weblog.
Mahathir said that President Barack Obama, who had received the Nobel Peace Prize, did not fulfill his promises regarding.
Mahathir went on to say that the US is expected to launch the war on Iran on the pretext that the Islamic Republic was seeking to build a nuclear bomb.
He said that the US will introduce "forged evidences" showing Iran aims to "start a nuclear war against the world."
Tel Aviv and Washington have never ruled out the possibility of a military strike against Iran, which is accused by the US, Israel and some European countries of aiming to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian nuclear program. ...(read more)

Thursday, 17th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Moody’s downgrade rating outlook for Petronas

Moody's Investors Service (Moody’s) downgraded the outlook on Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) A1 senior unsecured rating to negative from stable yesterday. Moody's also downgraded the outlooks for the A1 senior unsecured ratings on Petronas Global Sukuk Ltd and Petronas Capital Ltd to negative from stable. The changes in Moody's outlook stem from Petronas winning four bids in the latest licensing round for oil fields in Iraq.
Moody’s indicated that the four Iraqi projects add to the company's business risk given the high geopolitical risks in Iraq compared to the company's existing operations. The outlook was also influenced by the potentially high investment costs involved in ramping up production from these projects, which are all at initial development stages. The rating agency said that total investment costs have not been confirmed by Petronas, but substantial development investments are expected given the low current production levels of these oil fields. ...
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given the declining profile of global reserves which is likely to lead to a supply crunch in the longer term.   ...(read more)

Wednesday, 16th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Petronas bags 4 Iraq oil field developments

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), together with foreign consortiums, has secured four of the five bids submitted to develop oilfields in Iraq. The four fields comprising Majnoon, Halfaya, Badra and Garraf, will raise Petronas’ international crude oil reserves by 3.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) to 5.8 billion barrels. This exceeds current domestic crude oil reserves of 5.5 billion BOE.
Petronas will take 60% in the Garraf oil field development while Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) will take the remaining 40%. This JV had requested US1.49/ barrel of oil extracted from the reservoir and projected output at 230,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).
Petronas did not indicate what would be the total level of investment or capital expenditure required for the Iraq projects. But The Edge quoted Tan Sri Hassan Merican today as saying that Petronas has fully taken into consideration its domestic and international capital requirements, including the Iraq oil fields....
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given declining profile of global reserves which is likely to lead to a supply crunch in the longer term. ...(read more)

Monday, 14th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Bredero Shaw clinched main PNG pipe-coating job

Wah Seong Corp (Wah Seong) has lost its bid for in a tender for Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) liquified natural gas (LNG) main pipe-coating contract. ShawCor Ltd’s pipe coating division, Bredero Shaw, has secured the US$170mil contract from Mitsui & Co Ltd to provide pipeline coatings and related services for the PNG project- operated by Esso Highlands Ltd. Contract will be executed at Bredero Shaw's facilities in Kabil, Indonesia and Kuantan, Malaysia.
The contract involve coating 900km of pipeline that will be protected with a three-layer anticorrosion or dual layer fusion bonded epoxy coating and SureFlo internal coating together with Rock Jacket mechanical protection and concrete weight coating. ...
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given declining profile of global reserves.  ...(read more)

Thrusday, 10th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Awards start to roll out for LNG project in PNG

ExxonMobil has started to award a series of contracts for its Papua New Guinea (PNG) liquified natural gas (LNG) project. Upstream reported yesterday that ExxonMobil and partners gave final approval for the PNG LNG project - with construction expected to be completed in 2013.
Recall that the PNG LNG project, expected to cost US$15bil for phase 1 by 2015, is an integrated development that includes gas production and processing facilities, onshore and offshore pipelines and LNG plant facilities. ...
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given declining profile of global reserves.  ...(read more)

Wednesday, 09th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Petronas’ 1HFY10 earnings down but capex up

Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) 1HFY10 net profit fell 48% YoY to RM20bil in tandem with a 38%
decline in revenues to RM98bil due to lower crude oil prices and lower production of oil & gas.
Lower domestic production stems from: (1) Implementation of its Reservoir Management Plan
(RMP) and flaring reduction efforts; (2) Higher maintenance activities such as facilities rejuvenation
and pipeline replacement activities. RMP involves strategies to maximise economic value of a
reservoir by optimizing recovery of hydrocarbons while minimizing capital investments and
operating expenses....
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given the declining profile of global reserves. ...(read more)

Monday, 07th December 2009, by Alex Goh, AmResearch Sdn Bhd

Sinopec takes up 32% of PNG LNG output

Exxon Mobil Corp announced last Friday that project participants for its Papua New Guinea (PNG)
liquefied natural gas (LNG) project have entered into a Heads of Agreement with China Petroleum
& Chemical Corp (Sinopec) to supply 2 million tonne per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) over
20 years. As Sinopec will be taking up to 32% of the PNG LNG project’s expected annual production
of 6.3 billion tonne - PNG LNG project operators will be conducting exclusive discussions to supply
major Asian LNG customers for the rest of the project’s full capacity.
Malaysian companies keen on jobs from the PNG project include Wah Seong Corp (Wah Seong),
KNM Group and Kencana Petroleum. ...
We continue to be positive on the oil & gas sector given declining profile of global reserves which
is expected to lead to another supply crunch over the long term.  ...(read more)

Tuesday, 08th December 2009, by Reuters

Schlumberger CEO lifts stake with options exercise

* CEO Gould buys 1.2 mln shares after selling 550,000

* Spends $29 mln after banking $36 mln from sale

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd (SLB.N) Chief Executive Andrew Gould has increased his stake in the company by exercising more than $29 million worth of options after selling 42 percent of his holding last week.

On Dec. 4, Gould bought 600,000 shares at $20.648 and 600,000 more at $27.873 under a few different options schemes, according to a filing on Monday, increasing his stake in the world's largest oilfield services company to nearly 1.96 million shares, out of 1.2 billion total.

That was three days after Gould sold 550,000 shares for about $36 million, in a move that weighed on Schlumberger's shares. [ID:nN01520235] (Reporting by Braden Reddall, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)   ...(read more)

Monday, 01st December 2009, by Newswires

Gould dumps Schlumberger shares

Schlumberger boss Andrew Gould plans to sell 42% of his stake in the world's largest oilfield services company for $36 million, a filing with US regulators said today.
Gould, whose view of energy markets is closely watched due to his company's size and reach, was ...(read more)

Monday, 01st December 2009, by Upstream Staff

Indonesian Crude Output Slides

Crude production slipped to 824,200 barrels per day in November, from 828,400 bpd in October.

But Indonesia's condensate output rose to 129,000 bpd in November from 120,000 bpd in the previous month.

"Most of Indonesian oil wells are old and we cannot avoid falling production. The new wells cannot compensate for the fall in output," said an official at BPMigas, the country's energy watchdog, to Reuters.

Indonesia has offered new exploration rights and has said it will offer new incentives to oil and gas investors, including more favourable tax treatment and production split, in order to encourage exploration and stem a steady decline in production.

But industry players have said the incentives are not enough.  ...(read more)