Crude oil rises on winter demand, OPEC output risk

Crude oil rose for a second day in New York, from a six-month low, on speculation fourth-quarter supplies may be tight as OPEC weighs output cuts and heating demand rises. Oil rebounded after failing to close below $60 a barrel. Crude oil for November rose 0.7% to $62.02 a barrel.

There is a 50 percent chance OPEC will cut production, Fat Prophets' Wendt said. Even if they don't, the risk they may will support prices, he said. "We're expecting prices to head back toward $70 a barrel again based on a cut in supply and also the northern hemisphere winter."

Oil reached a record $78.40 a barrel on July 14. Prices have fallen the past two months as U.S. fuel stockpiles rose and a United Nations deadline for Iran to stop its nuclear research passed without sanctions being imposed.

Nigeria runs out of jet fuel

peakoil.com -> news24.com :

A shortage of aviation fuel in Nigeria has caused airlines to cancel or delay hundreds of domestic flights over the past week. Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but because of a lack of refining capacity the state-run Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) has to import huge amounts of refined products, including dual-purpose kerosene (DPK) for use as cooking fuel by millions of Nigerians. A PPMC source said the kerosene was being diverted towards the aviation industry by middlemen who were selling it to airlines at a huge profit. The PPMC has started being more stringent in ensuring that the cooking fuel goes to people, not planes, and that is why the marketers are no longer able to supply airlines with enough kerosene.

The managing director of a private petroleum products marketing company said part of the problem was corruption. He said many marketers were linked to influential figures in business and politics who could put pressure on PPMC officials to grant them allocations of lucrative kerosene.

(2006-09-22 13:36:06 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

US DOE Releases Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan

greencarcongress.com -> climatetechnology.gov :

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has released the Climate Change Technology Program (CCTP) Strategic Plan, which details measures to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of new and advanced technologies that avoid, reduce, or capture and store greenhouse gas emissions.

The CCTP Strategic Plan organizes roughly $3 billion in federal spending for climate technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase economic growth. Technologies emphasized for development are hydrogen, biorefining, renewable power generation, clean coal and carbon sequestration, nuclear fission and fusion.

- $3 billion here, $3 billion there, it's starting to add up to a pretty big chunk of money.

(2006-09-22 00:20:02 SGT) [Env] Permalink

Branson commits $3 billion to fight global warming

news.yahoo.com :

Billionaire British businessman Richard Branson is committing $3 billion over the next 10 years to combating global warming. "We are very pleased today to be making a commitment to invest 100 percent of all future proceeds to the Virgin Group from our transportation interest, both our trains and airline businesses, into tackling global warming," Branson told a news conference at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

Institutional investors warned about peak oil and climate change

energybulletin.net :

A major report warns institutional investors to pay attention to the dangers of climate change and peak oil. The fourth Carbon Disclosure Project report is the result of a collaboration of 225 institutional investors with combined assets of $31 trillion. Winston Hickox, Senior Portfolio Manager of Environmental Initiatives at CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the United States with over $211 billion in assets under management writes :

"The world that lies ahead is highly likely to be significantly different as compared to the world we see in our rear-view mirrors. A changing climate will require different risk models, beginning with insurance companies and extending to the entire structure of our global economy. Energy pricing and the need to rethink our sources of energy will be equally significant as drivers of change in the global economy.

Fiduciary duty requires that institutional investors make every effort to understand and quantify risk, as well as mitigate and find opportunity in its wake. Climate change and peak oil are extremely large-scale external forces bearing down on the global economy that plain and simply REQUIRE focused study followed by measured reaction on the part of investors."