Marseille Oil Port Strike Extends to 14th Day, Halting Ships, Refineries

A strike by workers at the French port of Marseille’s oil terminals entered its 14th day, stranding 53 ships and forcing a refinery to begin shutting down.

Total SA’s La Mede refinery began shutting down this morning because of a lack of crude oil supply, a process that takes a few days, said Florent Segura, a spokesman for the company. Total’s Feyzin refinery could also be affected if the strike continues, Segura said. He didn’t have a date on which Feyzin might begin shutting down.

Qatari Oil Minister Says Crude Oil Price Rise Partly Due to Speculation

The recent increase in oil prices is “partly due to speculation,” Qatar’s oil minister said.

Flying Fewer Planes, Airlines Find Stability

The airlines tried repeatedly in the past to maintain such capacity restraint, but each time, their efforts fell apart as new competitors sprang up and vied for market share. But this time has been different because of a unique set of circumstances — a result of both the weak economy and the repeated shocks the industry has suffered in the last decade.

The steep jump in oil prices, starting three years ago, forced the airlines to slow orders of new planes. Then, as the recession hit, more than a dozen airlines went out of business, and higher financing costs made it harder to establish new ones. A string of mergers among the big carriers further shrank the number of players. And even low-cost airlines, which once provided the most feisty competition, lately have shown signs of caution.

Review: Chevy Volt delivers on GM's promises

The revolution will be electrified.

It's early, and the price tag is high — $33,500 after a federal tax credit — but the Chevrolet Volt appears to be the breakthrough General Motors promised when the unique extended-range electric car debuted as a concept at the Detroit auto show in 2007.

How to tour New York City by bicycle

NEW YORK — In his essay Taming the Bicycle, Mark Twain cautiously recommended bicycling: "You will not regret it, if you live."

That has always gone doubly for biking in New York.

But the city has undergone a two-wheeled makeover. In the last four years, the New York City Department of Transportation has added more than 200 miles of bikes lanes. The number of cyclists has increased 80% in the past decade. The city's goal is 1,800 miles of total bike lanes by 2030.

Work begins on OMV's gas-fired plant in Turkey

OMV, the Austrian energy group partly owned by Abu Dhabi, has started building a large gas-fired power plant in northern Turkey that was on the drawing board for three years. The €600 million (Dh3.06 billion), 870-megawatt development near the Black Sea port of Samsunis OMV's first electricity project in Turkey, where the company already has a presence in the petroleum and gas sectors.

Uganda gives in to Kenya’s new rules on fuel

Landlocked Uganda has adopted the open tender system for importation of petroleum products as required by Kenya, whose new rules also affect Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fee Dispute Hinders Plan for Reactor

WASHINGTON — Constellation Energy said on Saturday that it had reached an impasse in negotiations for a federal loan guarantee to build a proposed third nuclear reactor at its Calvert Cliffs site near Washington.

A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

8) Try to live near a subway entrance

In a world of crazy-expensive oil, it's the only real estate that will hold its value, if not increase.

9) The suburbs are doomed, especially those E.T., California-style suburbs

This is a no-brainer, but the former homes will make amazing hangouts for gangs, weirdoes and people performing illegal activities. The pretend gates at the entranceways to gated communities will become real, and the charred stubs of previous white-collar homes will serve only to make the still-standing structures creepier and more exotic.

Would national speed limit work?

If most drivers accept the speed limit as reasonable, and if that leaves the police with a reasonable number of people to catch breaking the limit, then we've got a workable traffic law. A national speed limit wouldn't accomplish that.

Syriana: Yours to stream or download

This Saturday, don't miss the chance to watch the politically-charged Syriana, courtesy of blinkbox.

(Offer good through Tuesday. Only in the UK, it appear. Perhaps in the rest of the EU as well. Not good in the US, alas.)

Global warming’s implications for energy world in focus

The issue of global warming, the consequent climate changes, the perceived role of fossil fuels in this entire process and its implications for the energy world are coming to fore now.

There is a growing realization that the world is currently on an unsustainable path and that it needs to mend its ways. No one can argue that.

The Greening of Hezbollah: Nasrallah Fights Climate Change

With a shovel in hand, Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah appeared on television screens, planting and watering a small tree outside his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut. His message to the whole world was save the environment: go green.

Hezbollah's Jihad al Binaa foundation has led a campaign to plant one million trees in Lebanon. Sayyed Nasrallah's tree was the millionth.

Russia Needs $60 Oil to Guarantee Sustained Economic Recovery, Kudrin Says

Russia needs oil to average more than $60 a barrel next year to ensure a sustained recovery from its record slump in 2009, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. That’s 21 percent less than this year’s average price.

Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, and other emerging markets face a better outlook and less uncertainty than developed economies, Kudrin told reporters late yesterday in Washington, where he’s taking part in the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting.

World oil output in focus as OPEC prepares to meet

LONDON — OPEC, which pumps 40 percent of the world’s oil, meets in Vienna this week to assess member output levels against a backdrop of steady prices and a huge jump in Iraq’s estimated reserves.

OPEC sees sluggish global growth

WASHINGTON: OPEC is seeing evidence of sluggish economic growth reflected in the demand for petroleum, and views weakness likely to persist into 2011, the cartel’s top official said Saturday.

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, speaking to global economic officials gathered in Washington, said there are signs global growth is sputtering now that many countries are ending their stimulus efforts.

Gulf states vow to stabilise oil market

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Oil ministers of the world's leading producers in the Gulf wound up a joint meeting on Sunday by vowing to achieve price stability on the international markets, ahead of an OPEC meeting.

"The oil market has witnessed many developments that obliged us as major producers to counter more challenges in the way of achieving stability of the oil price and markets," Kuwait's Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah told the gathering.

Fossil fuel will be civilization’s engine for long

All sorts of opinions can now be heard, hampering the very sentiments and psyche of the market. There are voices, and influential ones, emphasizing on absolute independence and moving away from the Middle Eastern oil. There are others talking of environmental considerations and the necessity of switching away from fossil fuel to alternatives. At the same time, the echo of ‘Peak Oil’ fails to die down. This all is despite the fact that most now acknowledge that the world needs fossil fuel, and in abundance, for many more decades to come. This uncertainty now is a cause of concern to all.

Unclear signals create chaos

Yet in the medium to long run, pressure seems to be building up on crude and a number of factors are contributing to it. That is not a good omen for the overall health of the industry.

Despite the fact that the global crude spare capacity is touching almost the six-million-barrels-a-day mark and new crude frontiers appear in plenty all around, resulting in a glut like situation in the market, the “Peak Oil” debate fails to die down. This is frightening!

Peak Oil Warning Gains DC Traction

Baldauf is a Texas-based oil executive, lifelong environmentalist and the key leader of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, USA (ASPO-USA). The group took a giant step forward in raising the visibility of its warnings this week by holding its first Washington, DC-based convention, plus a packed congressional briefing.

Algeria's LNG output falls in September Join our daily free Newsletter

(MENAFN) Waterborne LNG said in its latest report that Algerian liquefied natural gas production fell to a year low of 40.6 billion cubic feet (bcf) in September, half the country's production capacity of 81 bcf, Reuters reported.

According to the report, the fall to new lows coincides with the start-up of the Medgaz natural gas pipeline connecting Algeria to Europe's top LNG importer Spain.

Pakistan reopens Afghan border crossing NATO uses

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan reopened a key border crossing to NATO supply convoys heading into Afghanistan on Sunday, ending an 11-day blockade imposed after a U.S. helicopter strike killed two Pakistani soldiers.

The closing of the Torkham crossing to NATO vehicles stranded many fuel tankers at parking lots and on highways where they were vulnerable to militant attacks. More than 150 trucks were destroyed and some drivers and police were wounded in the near-daily attacks.

China eyes new Silk Road to Europe amid political rift

(ATHENS) - China is laying the groundwork for a new Silk Road to Europe, holding out the promise of lucrative investments to a continent limping to economic recovery -- despite the ideological gulf with the West.

America moves on from spill; coast feels abandoned

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- About 800 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Dave Edmonds is struggling to remind people about the BP oil spill.

There aren't many magazine covers with photos of oil-drenched birds now that BP has capped its massive gusher at the bottom of the sea. People aren't looking online for information about the historic spill like they were a few weeks ago.

Spill hasn't risen to campaign forefront

In political circles, the oil spill has become the dog that didn't bark, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

"Even in the Gulf Coast states, I can't think of one race where it's really having an impact," Sabato said. Instead, with the successful capping of the well in mid-July - and its permanent sealing in September - public attention has drifted away from the issue.

Canadian Oil Sands Provide Economic Boom with Environmental Risks

U.S. politicians often speak of reducing the nation's demand for imported oil from unfriendly nations. But the biggest foreign supplier of oil to the United States is Canada, a friendly nation on the northern border. Much of the 1.4 million barrels of petroleum Canada sends south each day comes from the so-called "oil sands."

Time for long play on UAE stocks

He noted that the upside for the UAE is that it is a high-growth oil economy and the approach of Peak Oil means that oil prices are going to go higher, and stay high.

Morningstar to Host Fifth Annual Stocks Forum for Investors Nov. 3-4 in Chicago

Other first-day sessions include a macro-economic outlook from Bob Johnson, Morningstar's director of economic analysis; a stock strategist session with Paul Larson, Morningstar equities strategist and StockInvestor newsletter editor; a dividend stock investing session with Josh Peters, equities strategist and DividendInvestor editor; as well as breakout sessions on opportunistic investing, peak oil, and investing across asset classes.

Hungary Official Calls Sludge Reservoir Wall `Unsalvageable,' MTI Reports

The red sludge reservoir in Hungary that burst last week is “unsalvageable” because of its cracked walls, said Zoltan Illes, a state secretary for the environment, according to MTI news service.

“The tragedy may occur within a day or within a month,” Illes said, MTI reported. Authorities are building a dike through a nearby village to prevent the sludge from spreading after a possible burst, he said, according to the Budapest-based news service.

Thomas L. Friedman: An X-Ray of Dysfunction

I still find it amazing that with all the climate, security, health and financial interests America has in reducing its dependence on oil, our Congress could not work out an energy bill over the past two years — especially when China, Japan and the European Union are all hurdling ahead on clean-tech. The fact that we failed to pass an energy bill — cap-and-trade, a carbon tax, efficiency standards, I don’t care which — is actually a reflection of a broader U.S. power failure. It is the failure of our political system to unite, even in a crisis, to produce the policy responses America needs to thrive in the 21st century. As the Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib once noted: “America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so. A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”

Carbon penalties said route to $100 bln aid

OSLO (Reuters) - More penalties on greenhouse gas emissions could raise $100 billion a year from 2020 to help poor nations slow global warming, despite austerity in many rich countries, Norway's prime minister said.

Jens Stoltenberg, who will co-chair a U.N. advisory group about climate financing in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, said raising $100 billion a year was "feasible" but one of the hardest issues in talks on a new U.N. climate deal.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Casts for Collaboration in Its New Climate Change Response Plan

Climate change is a real, complex and widespread challenge that calls for a "new era of collaborative conservation." That's the message of a new strategic plan for dealing with the effects of global warming, released last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The blueprint is part of the U.S. Department of Interior's overarching framework for climate change response, established by a September 2009 order from Sec. Ken Salazar.

Rivers will die of thirst as the arguments get wetter

It was 11 years ago this month that The Advertiser in Adelaide reported that by 2020 water from the Murray River would be unfit to drink two days out of five. Then, only 20 per cent of the water that entered the river made it to the mouth at Goolwa. Over-allocation to irrigators by parochial state governments trying to hold on to rural seats, combined with wanton land clearing, robbed it of water and increased the salinity. And that was before the drought.

Since that report by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, no meaningful improvement has been achieved. The same selfish, parochial considerations that killed the river, by governments of all hues, have prevented it being fixed.

More sea-level monitoring needed: report

More thorough sea level monitoring is needed to protect $1 trillion worth of the world's infrastructure threatened by climate change, a leading ocean scientist says.

In the book Understanding Sea-level Rise and Variability, released on Sunday, CSIRO oceanographer John Church says the best way to predict the impacts of climate change is to look at the sea.

"The oceans are absolutely central to climate change," he told AAP.

China glaciers set to shrink

TIANJIN - THE average area of glaciers in western China might shrink by about 30 per cent by 2050 because of global warming, damaging crop production and worsening droughts.

The dire prediction came Friday in a report released at the UN climate talks in north China's Tianjin Municipality.

The "Climate Changes and Poverty -- Case Study in China" report was jointly released by organizations including the Institute of Environment and Social and Sustainable Development in Agriculture with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.