Photo: skinr, Creative Commons, Flickr While the U.S. is busy trying to govern Iraq and keep the peace, China has settled a deal with Iraq allowing it to be the first international oil company to develop a rather large discovered oil field in one of the areas of Iraq considered "new" in terms of oil…
Photo: sarowen, Creative Commons, Flickr ConocoPhillips (COP) has joined the ranks of Big Oil companies getting out of the retail gasoline business. The Houston Chronicle reports that COP is looking for a business model that is more sustainable:
There are a number of ways to harness the energy of oceans, from simple tidal generators to more complex tidal barrages. Some researchers are even imitating Nature to come up with new designs.
Photo: blucarbnpinwheel, Creative Commons, Flickr There are a lot of thoughts out there about alternative energy, especially now that oil prices are going up again. And one of the latest forays into alternative energy is being conducted by Google (GOOG). Google, through its charitable arm Google.org, has offered almost $11 million for research on geothermal…
Photo: baboon™, Creative Commons, Flickr Remember the 1987 sci-fi movie Innerspace (with Martin Short, Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), where test-pilot Quaid is miniaturized and travels inside Short’s body?
In what is likely to be the biggest expansion of renewable power, Souther California Edison (EIX) plans to put solar panels on warehouse roofs. The move is expected to provide about 250 megawatts of power — all of it from renewable energy. Such a plan would be expected to accomplish two things:
One of the big issues right now — even though oil and gas prices are dropping — is fuel efficiency. Many automakers are trying to come up with more creative ways to improve fuel efficiency in cars. In a way, this is a smart move. After all, even if oil prices do make it back…
BP (BP) is one of those Big Oil companies that has invested a great deal of advertising money into convincing people that it is diversifying in the name of the earth (you know, "beyond petroleum"). BP seems especially interested in biofuels. The company has been known to invest in jatropha, as well as biofuel ventures…
As most people now realize, come February of 2009 many US televisions will no longer be able to deliver the majority of network programming because they are designed to accept an analog, rather than digital, signal.
Last week, with an announcement of a new record for Royal Dutch Shell‘s (RDS-B) quarterly profits, analysts were hoping for a record quarter of $13 billion in profits for Exxon Mobil (XOM). However, with "only" profits of $11.6 billion (a figure that RDS-B had), the analysts were disappointed. And, as a result, Exxon’s share price…
Photo: JamSki, Creative Commons, Flickr If, as an environmentally-friendly investor, your main concern is global climate change, the latest trend in socially responsible investing may work for you. Many socially responsible funds are starting to include nuclear holdings in the mix. Why? Because nuclear can be considered "alternative," in that it is carbon neutral. No…
Photo: urbanjacksonville, Creative Commons, Flickr With the race to launch the world’s first commercially viable zero-emission vehicle now in full swing, it would be kind of fun to take a short trip down memory lane to see the genesis of this race and how we can formulate our expectations going forward.
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It is time for Quarter 2 earnings reports from a variety of companies, among them Big Oil. Quarter 1 Big Oil earnings were rather spectacular, but that didn’t include the amazing oil prices seen in Quarter 2 of 2008.
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Photo: dfbarrero, Creative Commons, Flickr The U.S. government estimates that a fifth of the world’s recoverable and undiscovered oil and natural gas are in the Arctic.
Photo: HTB, Creative Commons, Flickr Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?
In order to compete with gasoline, hydrogen fuel cell technology needs $200 billion.
Judith Warner wrote the most interesting thing in the New York Times last week: This is a story of selfishness and greed, of self-centeredness, envy and the ignorant folly of a person too short-sighted to realize she should count herself lucky because her college education didn’t have to be paid for with the milk of…
Exxon Mobil (XOM), operates leases that it purchased more than 30 years ago from the gas and oil rich Point Thomson field in Alaska – leases that have never been developed. Now, though, Exxon is ready to move forward. The snag is that XOM, along with other lease partners BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX), are…
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International oil companies like Total (TOT) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) may be pulling out of Iran, but there are plenty of other deals to be had in other Middle Eastern countries. Just ask ConocoPhillips (COP). In an effort to diversify further into natural gas and to expand its global holdings, ConocoPhillips recently inked an…
Photo: seccad, Creative Commons, Flickr For the most part, French companies haven’t been overly concerned with what others are doing. If there’s profit, often that’s good enough. And that seemed to be the case with regard to a recent deal in the works between the French supermajor, Total (TOT), and Iran. Total was going to…