Neighbors Challenge Energy Aims in Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales’s leftist government, which has asserted greater control over some of South America’s most coveted natural gas reserves, is facing a challenge as neighboring countries move to achieve energy security by cutting their dependence on Bolivian gas supplies.

New gas projects in Brazil and Argentina have come on line at a time when Mr. Morales is winning plaudits for a strong economy. It grew 3.7 percent last year, enabling him to consolidate control over energy resources, including natural gas, South America’s second-largest such reserve after Venezuela’s, and huge lithium deposits.

But even as Mr. Morales has emerged as one of the region’s strongest leaders, bolstered by a landslide re-election victory in December, concern is surfacing here over Bolivia’s long-term financial underpinnings as its neighbors start importing gas from distant sources like Qatar, and not so distant ones, like Trinidad and Tobago.

The reorganization of South America’s energy relationships is being closely followed by countries trying to limit their reliance on energy-rich nations that are in political flux or that use their resources as a political lever, as Russia’s state energy company has bullied former Soviet republics and Europe.

Afghanistan: only the first move in the grand chess game for control of Central Asian resources

Though not being reported in the mainstream American press, there is a very intense struggle going on between the U.S. and China to determine which nation will emerge as the dominant presence in Central Asia. These two economic giants, the U.S. declining and China rapidly growing, know full well that their economic future depends entirely on their ability to acquire critical resources; in the case of the U.S., it's primarily oil, while with China it's both oil and natural gas.

Iraq to finalise oil deals later this month

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Oil Ministry will finalise deals later this month with foreign energy firms for its Majnoon, Gharaf, Qayara and Najmah fields, a ministry official said on Sunday.

Sabah Abdul Kadhim, the head of the legal section of Iraq's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, said the ministry would sign a final service contract for super giant Majnoon, which was awarded to Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas in a December energy auction, on Jan. 17.

Alaskans should get fair share for oil

Last month, 15 members of the State House's Republican-led majority wrote the governor calling for a review of whether we should rewrite our 2007 oil tax reform law (known as ACES) and roll back the oil revenue the state receives for our resources. If that debate proceeds, it's important for Alaskans to understand some of the generous investment incentives in Alaska's current law, which have spurred new North Slope development, but are rarely mentioned by those seeking tax breaks.

Russian oil flows to Belarus despite talks failure

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil continues to flow to Belarus and via Belarus to the European Union despite a failure by Moscow and Minsk to clinch a new oil supply deal at talks on Saturday, an Russian energy ministry spokeswoman said on Sunday.

A Disobliging Update on the Price of Oil

There still seems to be a deplorable uncertainty about the future price of the most important commodity in the world. A few months ago Philip Verleger – now apparently guest professor at the University of Alberta (Canada) – predicted an oil price of thirty dollars a barrel (= $30/b) for the end of the 2009, and now Mr Chris Watling – chief executive for Longview Economies – forecasts a sharp drop in the oil price (2009). He bases this forecast on an increased oil supply by Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait – who together have about 38 percent of the global oil reserves – and he also envisages an unchanged or increasing oil production by Canada, Brazil, Angola and Kazakstan.

I won’t waste my time with Verleger’s failed prediction, since instead of $30/b, the year end price for oil was closer to $75/b. But I will say that Mr Verleger has been on the oil conference circuit at least as long as I have, and he should understand the intricacies of the oil market as well as I do. Mr Watling however seems to have an information problem, by which I mean that he has received too much of that theoretically valuable commodity. He is a victim of what might be called a Greshham-type law: bad information driving out good.

'Monster' well in Arlington is top producer in Barnett Shale

A natural gas well with the nondescript name "Day Kimball Hill #A1" was the seventh Barnett Shale well drilled by Chesapeake Energy at a site in Arlington in far southeast Tarrant County.

The first six wells drilled there have been average or above average in production, said Dave Leopold, Chesapeake’s operations manager for the Barnett Shale. But Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon has a more dramatic description for the seventh well.

"It’s a monster!" he told the Star-Telegram in a recent telephone conversation.

Dozens of Qaeda militants 'hiding out in Yemen'

SANAA (AFP) – Dozens of Al-Qaeda jihadists are hiding out in a remote area of Yemen, a top official said, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday urged militants in the conflict-ridden country to lay down their arms.

Al-Qaeda fighters, among them Saudis and Egyptians, have streamed in from Afghanistan and have joined local members of the jihadist network in lairs carved out in the rugged Kour mountain in southern Shabwa province, said provincial governor Ali Hasan al-Ahmadi.

Three Gorges' underground power station to start operation in 2011

YICHANG (Hubei) (Xinhua) -- The first underground turbine of the world's largest hydropower project is expected to be put into operation in 2011, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC).

N.C. utilities thinking big with solar power

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Thousands of panels are soaking up the winter sunshine as Duke Energy launches its solar rooftops program under North Carolina's new green energy law.

For the first time, Duke and Raleigh-based Progress Energy will have to make a smidgen of their electricity this year from the sun.

By Landing Fleet, Small Port Sets Off a Storm of Envy

NEWPORT, Ore. — Fishing and timber are not what they once were, and the recession has slowed the rush for second homes. So it seemed the fate of this small port was clear: more struggle.

Then Newport, with fewer than 10,000 people, pulled off a stunning economic upset. Last summer, it outbid and outmaneuvered three ports in Washington to become the home, beginning in 2011, of the Pacific Fleet of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. economy in trouble and why

"The U.S. represents 4.8% of world population. We use 25% of the energy produced on earth and 30% of the materials produced on the planet. Some of those people who represent the other 95.2% of the global population are beginning to want their share and are getting a little testy about the whole thing.

"Over our lifetimes we consume 75% more than our European counterparts and more than 1000% of that of the folks in 3rd world nations. The U.S. hit peak oil in 1970 and today we use 40% more oil and produce 40% less than we did in that pivotal year.

Heavy Rains End Drought for Texas

HOUSTON — The worst drought to strike Texas in the last 50 years has broken, ending a year-and-a-half dry spell in which farmers and ranchers suffered devastating losses, climatologists and agronomists said this week.

Heavy rains since September have replenished reservoirs, filled stock tanks and quenched huge expanses of parched earth across Central and South Texas, where state officials estimate that farmers and ranchers suffered losses of around $4 billion.

John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist, said that while some pockets along the Gulf Coast and in the Panhandle remained drier than usual, most of the state had recovered.

“The back of the drought is broken,” Mr. Nielsen-Gammon said. “It’s still lingering in a few areas, but there aren’t any places right now feeling acute drought.”

The rains came too late for many ranchers in South Texas, who were forced to send to market most of their cattle, including breeding stock. Cotton farmers suffered, too. In Kleberg County, the entire cotton crop failed for the first time since 1904. The yields in two other nearby counties were barely 5 percent of normal.

Ben Bova: Are we doomed to dither and deny as Earth grows warmer?

Despite the desire for peace, despite the appeasement, despite everything, the war came. More than a hundred million people were killed in World War II. Much of Europe and Japan were smashed into rubble. The war cost trillions of dollars.

Are we going through the same dangerous routine in dealing with global warming? Are we dithering when we should be acting? Are we clinging to the hope that it will go away if only we ignore it? Are we denying that the danger is real?

I fear we are.

The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable': New report says we must embrace a basic future to survive

Almost seven billion people are demanding ever greater quantities of material resources, decimating the world's richest ecosystems, and dumping billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

And any actions taken by governments, or scientific advances to deal with climate change, are doomed to failure unless individuals get back to a basic way of life, concludes the report – which recommends things like borrowing books and toys from libraries instead of buying them, choosing public transport over the car, and growing food in community gardens. In addition, all products should be designed to last a lifetime and be completely recyclable.

A seismic shift in thinking is needed, according to senior researcher Erik Assadourian, project director of the report: "Making policy and technology changes while keeping cultures centred on consumerism and growth can only go so far. To thrive long into the future, human societies must shift their cultures so sustainability becomes the norm."