Washington (UPI) Aug 13, 2007 - Although a recent deal to transport Iranian natural gas to Europe through Turkey could undermine U.S efforts to isolate Iran's oil and gas economy, it may also provide an attractive alternative to European reliance on Russian supplies.
Washington (UPI) Aug 13, 2007 - In Tehran, Iranian and Iraqi oil officials signed a deal to send crude to a refinery in Iran, which would send the products back to Iraq. A document produced by National Grid, responsible for the country's pipeline system, has generated concern by a member of Parliament because it would duplicate a pipeline that has already irked Welsh officials and residents. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, said U.S. opposition to two U.S. allies doing business with Tehran will not squash the pipeline.
London UK (SPX) Aug 13, 2007 - As oil becomes scarce, the world needs new transportation fuels. As new fuel options develop we need means of assessing which are most effective at replacing petroleum. So far many scientists have used a measure called 'net energy'. However, Professor Bruce Dale from Michigan State University claims, Net energy analysis is simple and has great intuitive appeal, but it is also dead wrong and dangerously misleading - net energy must be eliminated from our discourse.
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 12, 2007 - Japan plans to invest in emission-curbing projects in developing Asian nations in exchange for credits that add to its own anti-global warming effort, a press report said Sunday.
London UK (SPX) Aug 12, 2007 - Second generation biorefineries - those making biofuel from lignocellulosic feedstocks like straw, grasses and wood - have long been touted as the successor to today's grain ethanol plants, but until now the technology has been considered too expensive to compete. However, recent increases in grain prices mean that production costs are now similar for grain ethanol and second generation biofuels, according to a paper published in the first edition of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining.
Berlin (UPI) Aug 10, 2007 - Germany's special energy relationship with Russia threatens energy security in Europe, critics say. Others argue Europe's largest economy needs to build up strong ties with Europe's biggest energy importer. Energy security has become an increasingly important topic in European politics of the past years; domestic resources of oil and gas were scarce to begin with, and they are dwindling as consumption increases.
Austin TX (SPX) Aug 10, 2007 - Devices made from plastic semiconductors, like solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), could be improved based on information gained using a new nanoparticle technique developed at The University of Texas at Austin. As electrical charges travel through plastic semiconductors, they can be trapped much like a marble rolling on a bumpy surface becomes trapped in a deep hole. These traps of charges are known as deep traps, and they are not well understood.
Tallahassee FL (SPX) Aug 10, 2007 - A collaboration between the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University and industry partner SuperPower Inc. has led to a new world record for a magnetic field created by a superconducting magnet. The new record -- 26.8 tesla -- was reached in late July at the magnet lab's High Field Test Facility and brings engineers closer to realizing the National Research Council goal of creating a 30-tesla superconducting magnet.
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 10, 2007 - France's Total and U.S.-based Chevron have secured an agreement to work together on projects in Iraq -- a move that signals an interest that Western energy companies are preparing to enter the country. According to an article in Le Figaro, Total and Chevron have signed an agreement for the exploration and development of some of Iraq's biggest oil fields. Collaboration will commence with the Majnoon oil field, which has an estimated output of 50,000 barrels per day.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 09, 2007 - Belarus has fully paid its $460 million debt for Russian natural gas supplies, ending a dispute between the country and Gazprom, the state-controlled gas giant said Wednesday. Gazprom today received the last installment of debt payment for Russian gas supplied in the first half of the year, company spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said. Gazprom threatened last Wednesday to slash gas supplies to Belarus by 45% over the debt, accumulated since Russia more than doubled the price it charges its ex-Soviet neighbor for gas. Minsk caved in to pressure, paying an installment of $190 million towards the debt, prompting Gazprom to extend last Friday's deadline by one week.
Manila (AFP) Aug 09, 2007 - A global shift toward renewable energy could jack up food prices by up to 80 percent as crops and farmland are diverted to producing biofuels, an international agricultural think-tank warned Thursday. Joachim von Braun, director-general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, said further crop yield improvements and increased efficiency of these alternative fuels were required if a global price shock were to be avoided.
Washington (UPI) Aug 09, 2007 - Russia's recent effort to claim unilaterally its northern seabed to the North Pole has highlighted the race to divide the globe's remaining waters for nation's benefits. Besides the Arctic, these include Antarctica and the Caspian. Of the three, the Caspian is the most hotly contested, as extraction efforts are already under way, and the battle involves not only the riverain powers Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, but behind them, massive Western investment thirsty for access to the region's hydrocarbons.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 09, 2007 - All contracts concluded by foreign oil companies with Saddam Hussein's regime and the Kurdistan authorities will be reviewed in line with Iraq's new legislation, the Iraqi oil minister said Wednesday. A draft oil law stipulates that any contract concluded with the previous regime or the Kurdistan autonomy must be reviewed and brought in line with the new law, Hussain al-Shahristani said on arrival in Moscow.
Tokyo (AFP) Aug 09, 2007 - Japan will study turning inedible crops such as straw into biofuel to run cars amid concern that the growing popularity of ethanol is inflating food prices, an official said Friday. Biofuels are seen as alternative clean energy resource which can reduce the dependence on Middle Eastern oil and lessen the impact on global warming.
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 09, 2007 - Investigators from Russia's Interior Ministry said Wednesday they had seized on a court order 100% of private oil group RussNeft's securities. The seizure had been requested by the Interior Ministry, whose investigators are conducting a tax evasion and illegal business probe against the company's CEO. On July 31, Moscow's Lefortovo district court upheld a motion to seize 100% of the company's securities, the investigating committee said. A spokesman for a different Moscow court said August 6 that the court had refused an order for the seizure, but declined to give a reason for the decision.
Miami (UPI) Aug 08, 2007 - Efforts to nationalize Venezuela's oil and gas sector have increased government revenue by $5.8 billion a year since 2004, according to President Hugo Chavez. In a national address last week, Chavez said, You can't have a socialist economist model - without including oil, a reference to his recent efforts to wrest greater state control of the country's petroleum sector. On May 1, Venezuela's state-run energy company Petroleos de Venezuela SA assumed majority control of the Orinoco River oil reserve, a move that added an additional $800 million to state coffers, Chavez said.
