Tag: oil

The US can shed its longstanding dependence on Saudi Arabian oil within the next decade, redrawing the world's political systems and potentially leading to runaway global warming.

Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark in 1973 but left in 1985 due to quarrels over commercial fishing regulations. With Greenland facing new export potential and possible independence from Denmark, the EU must play a pragmatic and constructive role to secure the island’s development, Damien Degeorges says in an interview with EurActiv.

The European Commission’s intention to improve safety in offshore oil and gas across Europe by using the UK’s best practices should be welcomed. However, the form of legislation proposed would have the opposite effect and undo decades of established regulatory experience - putting the safety of workers at risk, writes Malcolm Webb, chief executive of Oil & Gas UK.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched three-day drills yesterday (2 July) to test missiles capable of hitting targets as far away as Israel, one day after the European Union put into effect its embargo of Iranian oil.

As the world turns against nuclear power and the prices of fossil fuels rise, Russia is proactively expanding its oil and gas projects through tax cuts and cooperation with Western companies, says Ivan Matiyeshyn.

Norway’s Statoil has made a second big oil discovery in the Barents Sea in less than a year and predicted more discoveries to come in the region.

The European oil industry rang the alarm yesterday (20 September) on the impact of EU energy efficiency legislation on oil refining activities, warning of the end of the sector in Europe.

Once Saudi Arabia and Russia eventually run out of oil the 'political no hopers' of today will need to become the major producers of tomorrow, bringing with them a whole new political risk cycle that Europe will come to regret, argues Matthew Hulbert, lead columnist at the European Energy Review.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich plans to take his modern and dynamic country much further down the path to becoming a "proud member of the European Union," he revealed in an editorial for the Wall Street Journal.

More oil and gas drilling, biofuels, the abandonment of climate change ambitions and perhaps more fuel-efficient vehicles: this is the United States' recipe for energy in the next decade, writes Eberhard Rhein in a post on Blogactiv.

Libya's humanitarian crisis is starting to affect vulnerable people across the world, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said yesterday (28 February), warning that the effects of rising oil prices were already being felt in the food sector and threatening to push millions into hunger.

US-based ExxonMobil, the biggest privately-controlled oil company in the world, will make a new investment in Russia for the first time in over a decade as Moscow seeks to thaw its frosty investor climate and keep its oil flowing.

BP agreed on 14 January to form a joint venture with Rosneft to develop three massive offshore exploration blocks that Rosneft owns in the Arctic territory of Russia. US lawmakers, the UK's opposition Labour party and environmentalists blasted the deal, which has been dubbed 'Bolshoi Petroleum'.

The Italian prime minister's economic strategies may have prevented dramatic falls in his popularity in the short-term but will eventually backfire, writes Tito Boeri, professor of economics at Bocconi University in Milan.

The European Union should consider a moratorium on new deepwater drilling for oil until a probe is completed into the causes of BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Europe's energy chief said on yesterday (7 July).

In the aftermath of the BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, Food & Water Watch, an environmental consumer organisation, has called on EU authorities to tighten inspections of oil production facilities to avoid similar disasters in European waters. The European Commission has already held preliminary talks on the issue with industry representatives.

''The Burgas–Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, which according to plans will be fully operational in 2014, is one of the most strategically important projects for the EU's energy policy. Its construction will lead to the creation of a new, reliable and environmentally safe route for transportation and supply of crude oil to European markets, thus strengthening European energy security'', writes Plamen Rusev, director of the Bulgarian branch of the Trans-Balkan Pipeline (TBP).

While Russian gas giant Gazprom is drawing up long-term plans to strengthen its grip on Europe with pipeline projects backed by the Kremlin, the EU's response strategies are only in the early stages of development.

Russia started building a $4 billion oil pipeline on 10 June to cut Belarus from a key supply route to Europe, as tensions grow between the ex-Soviet allies over warming ties between Minsk and the European Union.

Energy, trade, investment and security will be at the heart of EU-Russia partnership negotiations, according to Russian academic Andrei V. Zagorski. The expert, from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview that he expected progress to be slow, but expressed optimism that the outcome would be successful.

Europe must reduce its oil demand by over half within the next forty years to tackle climate change and address growing difficulties in securing access to fossil fuels, an EU consultative body argued last week (9 January).

"A long-festering conflict over Kirkuk and other disputed territories is threatening to disrupt the current fragile relative peace in Iraq by blocking legislative progress and political accommodation," argues the International Crisis Group (ICG), an NGO, in an October report.

Surging demand in developing countries and global fossil fuel supply constraints are creating volatility in energy markets and will keep prices up over the long term, BP's Chief Economist Christof Rühl told EurActiv in an interview.

Despite environmentalists' warnings against drilling for oil and gas in such a fragile ecosystem, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said guaranteeing Europe's energy security justified further exploration of the North Pole.