Brazil is making a national commitment to develop energy resources located far offshore in the South Atlantic. Indeed, no nation has ever advanced such an ambitious plan for long-term comprehensive offshore development. And it's being bankrolled by China. Much of Brazil's South Atlantic development will require drilling wells in waters up ...read more

James Howard Kunstler has eloquently argued in The Long Emergency that cheap oil makes globalism possible.  Transporting goods across the globe costs energy, and, when energy costs enough, local production becomes more economical than global. For now and the near future, however, it still costs not only less money, but ...read more

When most people think of oil, they think of light, sweet crude that comes up out of little holes in the ground. You describe oil by its API gravity. For example, oil like Brent crude or West Texas Intermediate has an API gravity of 38-40. The oil that Col. Drake ...read more

Something like a week remains before General Motors is reduced to lunchmeat on industrial-capital's All-You-Can-Eat buffet spread. The wish is that its deconstructed pieces will re-organize into a "lean, mean machine" for producing "cars that Americans want to buy," and that, by extension, the American Dream of a Happy Motoring ...read more

I was in Houston this month, attending the Offshore Technology Conference. I have to confess that I’m humbled. Really, for as much as I think I know about the energy biz after a mere 30-plus years… a walk (a LONG walk, to be sure) around the packed floor of the ...read more

It's a curious symptom of the consensus trance zombifying the American public and its auditors in the media that something like a "recovery" is now deemed to be underway. And, as events compel me to repeat in this space, it begs the question: recovery to what? To Wall Street booking ...read more

For many years, we in the West have worried about Iran closing the Straits of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic.  An abrupt closure would instantly spike oil prices well into three-digits, and immediately change the energy equation of the world.  Indeed, many geostrategic scholars believe that closing the Straits of ...read more

I think Dr. George Doddington was eloquent, sincere, and convincing in his March 23rd piece "A Net-Positive Gas Tax" where he supported the immediate implementation of Charles Krauthammer’s "net-zero" gasoline tax.  I also think he was wrong. Let’s suppose for a moment that a charismatic Democratic President of socialist bent and ...read more

Can you believe that winter is officially over? Wow, it was a cold couple of months. Makes you want to say, “So much for global warming.” Except it’s not global warming anymore. Now it’s called “climate change.” Y’see, the cold winter wasn’t a sign of warming. It was a sign of ...read more

I don’t know about you, but 2008’s oil spike made me angry. Back in the middle of the year oil was sitting around $140 a barrel and gas was $4.50 a gallon. It took me about $50 to fill up the tank of my Corolla -- which really got my blood ...read more