China's Faltering Oil Appetite
A lot of people who forecast the future tend to draw a straight line forward from existing trends. That's why people forecast a continuation of the breakneck increases in Chinese oil consumption. There...
View ArticleThe Energy Debate From Abroad
Listening to the presidential debate last night, I couldn't help wondering what it must sound like to foreign ears. First, here is the world's biggest energy hog struggling to get its oil and coal...
View ArticleA New OPEC for Gas?
Russia, Iran and Qatar held talks in Tehran yesterday about forming a cartel for natural gas that would resemble the OPEC cartel for oil. But the structure of the natural gas business makes it unlikely...
View ArticleOPEC'S New Challenge
Oil prices move faster than consumers can adapt to them. But once consuming nations change gears, it's hard for oil producers to stop the crumbling of the oil market.
View ArticleA Turn of Fortune in Russia
Wall Street's troubles have rippled through to Moscow's Arbat Street as well as Main Street. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Russian government let the Alpha Group, controlled by tycoon...
View ArticleThe Last Minute Obama-McCain Coal Debate
The U.S. coal industry was up in arms today over a comment Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made about the future of coal, and it became one of the last-minute issues in an effort to swing votes in...
View ArticleObama's Energy Department
Let the speculating begin. Not oil speculation, but job speculation for the new Obama administration. Here's what I'm hearing, and thinking. First, the Energy Department is an odd beast. Thirty six...
View ArticleOPEC in a Fog
We call OPEC a cartel, but if it really had control over prices, how could it let them swing so wildly? The answer is that even a cartel has to deal with market forces. With prices down about...
View ArticleForecasting (or Guessing) the Price of Oil
What will the price of oil be at the end of next year? Or next month? It's hard to say and I generally try not to. That's why we're asking you, dear reader. But first, some background. A comment on my...
View ArticleUkraine, the Real Crisis on Russia's Doorstep
Last month NATO allies met in Bucharest and talked about the membership applications from Ukraine and Georgia. It was the latest episode in an 11-year-old courtship between the Western military...
View ArticleExxon Chief Embraces Carbon Tax
It says a lot about the changing climate in business circles and in Washington that Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson yesterday came out in favor of a carbon tax in a speech at the Woodrow...
View ArticleObama's (Gas) Taxing Problem
Goodness knows, President-elect Obama has his legislative hands full. Maybe that explains why he has taken the idea of increasing gasoline taxes off the table, saying that Americans had enough economic...
View Articlewill.i.am and Energy Efficiency
There was no red carpet at the Green Inaugural Ball at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture on Monday night. Only a green - well, somewhat olive - colored swath near the...
View ArticleChina's Oil Demand Tanks
More evidence is emerging that oil demand in China is fizzling - and that China's economy is fizzling too. The oil analyst Paul Ting emails that China's December oil demand declined by 4 percent. This...
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