Australia, despite being deeply committed to curbing greenhouse gas emissions (GGEs), is nonetheless experiencing a fossil fuel surge. The growth comes despite a carbon tax, due to be implemented later this year, which is deeply unpopular with the country’s mining industry. According to the government agency Geoscience Australia, in fiscal year 2011 coal exploration spending in Australia surged by 62 percent, with investment in exploration for new coal deposits reaching $520 million, with spending on exploration surging faster than any…

Read more…

The Falkland Islands, a British windswept archipelago in the southern Atlantic off the coast of Argentina, last had its moment in the media spotlight two decades ago, when the two nations fought a brief but vicious conflict after Buenos Aires invaded the islands, providing a PR boost to Argentina’s ruling junta. But, Argentina lost, and the 11-week conflict claimed more than 900 lives, leaving Britain in control of the islands. UK analytical firm Edison Investment Research is now reporting that the Falklands’ oil industry…

Read more…

Beijing for years has relentlessly projected a benign image in its foreign policy, but as its maritime neighbors are discovering, China’s pacifist representations do not extend to energy issues, most notably in the disputed South China Sea. Now, Chinese “imperial” overreach may bring U.S. naval forces once again into the western Pacific, as Beijing’s southeast Asian neighbors feel increasingly threatened by China’s overarching territorial claims in the South China Sea. China currently contends sovereignty of the Spratly…

Read more…

The inability to penetrate a major 50 percent price level at $95.13 helped form a new bottom at $95.81 on the April Crude Oil weekly chart. With two main bottoms in place at $93.27 and $95.13, momentum shifted to the upside, triggering a slight breakout above a pair of main tops at $103.08 and $104.10. This trading action reaffirmed the uptrend and has set up the market for a breakout to the upside. A late session rally on Friday drove the market into its first upside objective at $103.59. A follow-through rally through this downtrending Gann angle…

Read more…

Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979 demand of oil from Saudi Arabia fell from ten million barrels per day (bpd) to three million bpd. As a result of the reduced production many small oil wells were closed down, including the Dammam oil field, home to Saudi Arabia’s oldest wells. Sadad al- Husseini, once the executive vice president for exploration and development at Saudi Aramco, said that, “we simply didn’t need small fields like Dammam, and in fact shut in fully or partially many other fields including Khurais, Khursaniya,…

Read more…