Accelerating global energy efficiency means fuel use is rising far slower than prosperity, largely because Chinese industrial development is increasingly energy efficient, a study by oil company BP Plc found.
In its annual Outlook 2030 report, BP predicts a 36 percent increase in energy use between 2011 and 2030. That outstrips forecast population growth of 18.5 percent to 8.3 billion but comes as world income is expected to roughly double in real terms………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investment in clean energy projects dipped 11 per cent last year, according to new figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which confirmed the $268.7bn invested still made 2012 the second most successful year on record for the global clean energy sector.
The analyst firm also revealed the rapid expansion of China’s clean energy market continued last year, with investment rising 20 per cent to $67.7bn, allowing China to re-take the top spot from the US………………………………………..Full Article: Source

While oil and gas producers were busy watching for the evolution of prices and supply and demand fundamentals for their commodities, coal fortunes have been on the rise and are likely to continue so. This is contrary to expectation due to the complex environmental problems of burning coal and the usually higher investment required for its use.
Between 1965 and 1972 world coal consumption rose by hardly 6 per cent while oil and gas consumption rose by almost 70 per cent each. The world seemed to be getting out of coal………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Energy policies can strengthen economies of the Middle East and North Africa and help the regions make the best use of fossil fuels and renewable resources.
That’s the view of the International Energy Agency (IEA), which is offering its “experience and knowledge” to help the regions tap energy efficiency and renewable energy for economic and political change………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

Moderate and slow recovery of the global economy will only allow for a modest increase in energy demand this year, the United Arab Emirates’ governor for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednesday.
“This modest economic growth will continue and will provide a little room for large increase in demand for energy. This year, the global oil market is expected to grow by just 800,000 barrels per day,” Ali Obaid al-Yabhouni said in a speech in Abu Dhabi. “The global demand is expected to grow by just 900,000 barrels per day….mainly from non-OECD countries,” he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Some industry veterans believe it’s the biggest development in the energy game since 1859, when the first US oil well gushed from beneath the earth in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
In changes that would have been unthinkable just five years ago, the US is set to become a net energy exporter in the next few years, thanks to the controversial process of fracking that is re-wiring geopolitics and the world of energy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Despite a relatively down year with respect to investment and production capacity expansion, the biofuels industry grew modestly in 2012, continuing a shift from first generation facilities to next generation, advanced biorefineries.
Although it was a year of challenges for corn starch ethanol production in particular, the industry proved its mettle against persistent drought across the U.S. Midwest that led the UN to call for a scale back of biofuel production mandates……………………………………….Full Article: Source

More than 8,000 jobs have been stripped from Australia’s coal sector in the past 6 months and heading into 2013 the industry continues to feel the pressure. Australian coal companies are struggling to compete on the global stage, facing increasing competition from the United States, a drop in coal prices, a high Aussie dollar and rising operation costs.
However, some are hoping that India’s crippling energy problems and hunger for coal will bring Australia’s coal industry out of these dark days………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Why is the world’s most harmful fossil fuel being burned less in America and more in Europe? In a high-tech world, dirty black lumps of coal might seem like an anachronism. Yet coal is far from a thing of the past. However whizzy your iPad, your wall-mounted television or your electric car, the chances are that it is powered by the stuff. Coal-fired power stations provide two-fifths of the world’s electricity, and there are ever more of them.
In the doubling of the world’s electricity production over the past decade, two-thirds of the increase came from coal. At these rates, coal will vie with oil as the world’s largest source of primary energy within five years. As recently as 2001, it was not much more than half as important as oil……………………………………….Full Article: Source

In OPEC’s recent World Oil Outlook, published in November 2012, over the period 2010-2035 primary energy demand in the reference case increases by 54 per cent. In terms of oil, demand increases by over 20 mbd for the period 2010-2035, reaching 107.3 mbd by 2035. The region of developing Asia is expected to contribute 87 per cent of this increase.
Allow me to highlight a few other numbers from the World Oil Outlook. In terms of the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions, crude oil exports from the former to the latter are expected to increase by six mbd between 2011 and 2035………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Billionaire US investor Warren Buffett is taking a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) bet on solar energy, acquiring what is set to become the largest photovoltaic development in the world. MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of Mr Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment company, has struck a deal with SunPower to acquire and build two projects in California’s Antelope Valley.
The deal, which will see MidAmerican pay between $2bn to $2.5bn, marks the third time in little over a year that Mr Buffett has ploughed cash into solar energy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

After last year’s warm winter, here are 3 ways to take advantage of a chillier season. This past year was dominated by inclement weather that left United States Natural Gas Fund reeling; natural gas futures have been all across the board.
Despite making an impressive 70% run during the summer, this commodity still managed to end the year with losses topping 20%. With this past year set to be one of the warmest (if not the warmest) in U.S. history, it should come as no surprise to see the commodity struggle, as the winter months are key for demand and consumption………………………………………..Full Article: Source

After a year of tumultuous weather and global change, it should not be surprising that 2012 proved to be a transformative period for public opinion on energy.
Changing attitudes on the most hotly debated topics matter a great deal because they set the course for future policy decisions. Taking a closer look at trends over the past 12 months hints at what to expect in several key areas of the U.S. energy landscape in 2013………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Many people trot out their predictions for the coming year right about now. I’m generally allergic to predictions and think rather in terms of probabilities. Naturally, the world we live in is far too complicated to yield anything approaching certainty concerning such matters as the future price and supply of energy, future economic conditions, and future political developments. In the end, the future is simply unknowable.
So, I’ve tried to think of some developments which conventional wisdom has judged rather unlikely and which would therefore significantly alter our lives and perceptions should they occur–precisely because we are not prepared for them………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The nation’s energy boom shows no signs of slowing in 2013, and that’s great news for consumers, job-seekers and most businesses. Residential electricity costs will fall 2.2 percent next year after adjusting for inflation, predicts the Energy Information Administration. Already low natural gas prices for consumers will be flat, the EIA forecasts.
Gasoline prices will drop more than 5 percent this year and rise less than inflation for the next decade, the EIA estimates. Perhaps the angst of $5-a-gallon gasoline will have to wait………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report 2012 coal will rival oil as the world’s top energy source by 2017.
Although the growth rate of coal usage will slow from the “breakneck” pace of the last decade, the IEA forecasts global consumption in 2017 at 4.32 billion metric tons of oil equivalent (BTOE). The projection for oil is 4.40 BTOE………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The European Commission announced yesterday that it was putting ¤1.2bn ($1.56bn) into renewable energy demonstration projects but had found no carbon capture ventures to back.
EU Climate Change Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said the funding came in part from the EU’s carbon trading system, so that in effect polluters were paying, while the private sector would provide another ¤2bn investment. “This will help the EU keep its front-runner position on renewables and create jobs here and now, in the EU,” Hedegaard said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Agency predicts further rise in coal use due to fall in price and failing EU emissions trading scheme, threatening green targets. Coal is likely to rival oil as the world’s biggest source of energy in the next five years, with potentially disastrous consequences for the climate, according to the world’s leading authority on energy economics.
One of the biggest factors behind the rise in coal use has been the massive increase in the use of shale gas in the US………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal will nearly overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and only a drop in world gas prices could curb the use of the dirtier fossil fuel in the absence of high carbon prices, the International Energy Agency said.
China will use more coal than the rest of the world put together, while India will overtake the United States as the world’s second-largest consumer and become the biggest global importer, the IEA forecast in its annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report, released on Tuesday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global coal demand will rise 2.6 percent annually in the next six years and challenge oil as the top energy source, according to the International Energy Agency.
Coal consumption will climb to 4.32 billion tons of oil equivalent by 2017, compared with about 4.4 billion for oil, the Paris-based agency said today in its first Medium-Term Coal Market Report. Usage will rise in all regions except the U.S., where cheap natural gas has damped demand, the IEA said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

India is likely to be the second largest consumer of coal, surpassing the United States, in the next five years, says a report. “China and India would lead the growth in coal consumption over the next five years…While India will become the largest seaborne coal importer and second-largest consumer, surpassing the United States,” according to a report by International Energy Agency (IEA).
The report further said that coal demand is expected to increase in every region of the world except in the US, where coal is being pushed out by natural gas………………………………………..Full Article: Source

David Coolidge may still be the king of U.S. natural gas hedge fund managers but his $2 billion Velite Capital has made less than half of last year’s money while one of his biggest rivals is headed for a loss in an unusually tricky year for traders.
Andy Rowe, former trader at Citigroup’s Smith Barney, also has a much smaller profit to show for this year than in 2011 at SandRidge Capital, another gas-focused fund in Houston……………………………………..Full Article: Source

After a decade of tight energy markets and rising commodity prices, the global economy is entering a new era marked by rising oil production at high prices. Yet, the prospects of U.S. energy independence, on the back of the “shale revolution,” a move toward cleaner energy, and slowing growth across the emerging world suggest longer-term oil prices should trend downwards.
Going into 2013, crude oil will remain range-bound, with the potential to fall on sub-par global GDP growth and the prospects of positive supply shocks. Goldman Sachs sees Brent averaging $110 next year while Raymond James’ chief economist suggests U.S.-benchmark WTI could fall as low as the mid-$60s………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

The International Energy Agency provided a characteristically mixed bag of monthly oil market indicators this week, with key themes of an outlook for higher oil demand running parallel to apparent market oversupply.
The report’s headline forecasts of higher than expected oil demand in Q4 and next year were tempered with comments of continued “sluggish” global economic growth. Next year’s oil demand expectations were raised by 110,000 b/d to 90.5 million b/d. Meanwhile, Q4 demand was hiked by 435,000 b/d more than forecast last month. By way of contrast, the IEA had previously slashed its Q4 oil demand estimate by combined 800,000 b/d since June………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

Coal companies here in the United States have had a rough go of it over the past 18-24 months due to natural gas, warm winters, and EPA regulations. Many of them are hoping for a pickup in their international business to carry them through this domestic lull.
With a senior analyst at the International Energy Agency claiming that Europe could be at the beginning of a “Golden Age of coal,” along with Chinese and Indian projections for higher needs of the fossil fuel, these markets could help turn the tide for Arch Coal and competitors like Peabody Energy and Alpha Natural Resources………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

India’s estimated proved coal reserves of 118 bn tons are expected to last for over hundred years. Coal production planning closely follows the projected demand for coal.
However, in view of various constraints coming in the way of enhancing coal production during the XI five year plan, the gap widened between projected demand and domestic availability – stated Pratik Prakashbapu Patil- Minister of State for Coal, in a written reply in the upper house of Indian Parliament (Rajya sabha) on Monday………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Jim Rogers, the legendary commodity investor speculates that he may have a knowledge gap when it comes to shale gas but points out the fact that “ the number of drilling rigs for shale gas (in US) has gone down 75 percent in the last 18 months or so.”
The wells are generally short-lived, he said: “they’re great for the first 30 days. But by year three or four, they’re very expensive to maintain.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

The Obama Administration has only approved one terminal to export natural gas so far, apparently waiting for an economic study before deciding whether or not to release more outlets for exporting the gas. The delay in deciding the fate of natural gas may soon be coming to an end, however.
A study released by the government on Wednesday confirms that the exporting of natural gas would be financially beneficial to our country - enough to offset the rise in prices that exporting may pass onto those who use natural gas domestically for things such as heating………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

With supply expected to grow by about 1.4 Bcf/d y/y through the winter (Dec 2012-Mar 2013), natural gas needs to be deep within the coal stack in the Eastern power markets for the gas market to balance, assuming normal weather. “This keeps a lid on gas prices despite tightening market fundamentals.” Barclays said in a report.
In December, unless weather patterns return to normal or become colder, there could be further downside to prices, as the y/y short fall in nuclear generation is due to more than halve in the month, lending less support to power burn………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

With oil and gas demand shifting to eastern economies, the IEA said China could account for as much as 40 percent of the global renewable energy growth. China has a five-year development plan to limit coal production and use by 10 percent of 2011 levels by 2015. The International Energy Agency said China aims to double the amount of natural gas it uses by 2015.
The official Xinhua news agency this week reported that China’s development plan through 2015 calls for the addition of 123 trillion cubic feet of proven conventional natural gas reserves. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

The need for a more sustainable global energy system is more urgent than ever, energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency warned on Monday as UN climate talks went into a second week.
“As international climate negotiators enter their second week of talks … in Doha, the need to rapidly transition to a more secure, sustainable global energy system is more urgent than ever,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in statement………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The flurry of coal-to-gas switching among utilities is likely to slow in response to rising gas prices, which will give coal demand a boost next year, according to a new report from the Energy Information Agency.
The EIA projects coal production will rise to accommodate a 6 percent increase in demand from the electric power sector in 2013. This year, low natural gas prices forced coal to the side and plummeted its price………………………………………..Full Article: Source

OPEC member Qatar will ask firms to tender for a 1,800 megawatt (MW) solar energy plant in 2014 costing between $10-20 billion as the world’s highest per capita greenhouse gas emitter seeks to increase its renewable energy production.
“We need to diversify our energy mix,” said Fahad Bin Mohammed al-Attiya, chairman of the Qatari organisers of climate talks in Doha. The United Nations-led summit is being held among almost 200 nations from November 26-December 7………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Britain is considering exempting industrial users from extra costs arising from landmark energy reforms announced on Thursday while consumers face higher bills as the country replaces ageing capacity with low-carbon power.
Britain’s Energy Bill, introduced to parliament on Thursday, aims to ensure the EU’s second-largest economy can keep the lights on and diversify its energy mix in view of legally binding carbon targets………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Considering this year’s rather volatile performance, one thing can be agreed upon by almost all investors – commodity investing is essentially a crap shoot. This year’s unprecedented summer drought and escalated geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have wreaked havoc on commodity markets, leaving some lucky investors with profitable returns and others with steep losses.
Overall, however, commodities have been experiencing a steady uptrend for quite some time, as global demand has continuously inched higher despite the recent economic slowdown. In a recent statement, global head of commodities research at Citigroup Edward Morse warned that the “commodity super-cycle” is over and that “no longer will a pure long-only strategy bring the returns expected in 2002 to 2008, nor will conditions approximating those of the last decade return anytime soon”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Rarely does the release of a data-driven report on energy trends trigger front-page headlines around the world. That, however, is exactly what happened on November 12th when the prestigious Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) released this year’s edition of its World Energy Outlook. In the process, just about everyone missed its real news, which should have set off alarm bells across the planet.
Claiming that advances in drilling technology were producing an upsurge in North American energy output, World Energy Outlook predicted that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the planet’s leading oil producer by 2020………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal-dependent Poland is set to host next year’s U.N. talks on slowing climate change after OPEC member Qatar in 2012, a move dismaying environmentalists who say both oppose action to reduce use of fossil fuels.
Poland formally submitted its offer for Warsaw to host the talks on Wednesday to almost 200 nations at this year’s meeting in Doha. No other countries made an offer at a planning session on Wednesday, making its selection pretty much automatic………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A new report hails a crucial shift in the global economy. If current trends continue, the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer by 2020. This development will not only transform the world’s energy picture, but geopolitics as well.
A new energy landscape has powerful implications for global political and economic power. The International Energy Agency (IEA), the top advisory body for the developed economies, notes in its authoritative annual report, “World Energy Outlook,” that changing U.S. production and consumption patterns will redraw the global energy map. A surge in U.S. production means that “by around 2020, the United States is projected to become the largest global oil producer.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

Clean tech jobs to power green growth is considered a no-brainer by progressive policy makers, NGOs and businesses, and the idea forms the core of the UN’s Year of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL). But some economists, academics and environmental thinkers increasingly question its central premise.
Critiques of ‘green growth’ have often been articulated by business lobbies opposed to climate action, but also by environmentalists and socialists, who argue that infinite growth is impossible in a finite natural world. One EU official speaking to EurActiv on condition of anonymity said that achieving the emissions cuts needed to contain global warming to the UN’s 2 degrees Celsius target, while maintaining growth was an “outlandish” notion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

To be sure, rumours of the impending death of oil are exaggerated and anticipate trends - but since 2001 the trend continues. Using IEA data, in 1973 the OECD countries sourced 53% of their total energy supply from oil, underlining that the post-2001 trend is anything but new.
What comes next is the real question. This decline of oil in the global economy easily explains why the weak rebound of global fossil energy demand since the 2008 debt-and-deficit or financial-economic crisis has given wings to, and grown legs along the world’s powergrids. These are increasingly fed by renewable-source power supplies………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

The IEA in late November published the 2012 edition of its flagship annual study, the World Energy Outlook, but with now-admitted “treading of a fine line”, between its mandate, and its recent and present policy interests, fantasies, or foibles.
The Agency (IEA) describes itself, in each issue of the WEO, as an “autonomous agency established in November 1974″ with its its primary mandate, which it says it continues to pursue, being two-fold: to promote oil supply security amongst its now-28 member countries through “collective response to physical disruptions in oil supply”, and also to provide “authoritative research and analysis on ways to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy” for its exclusively OECD member countries………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal, the longtime king of America’s energy supply and a leading agent of climate change, is in rapid decline in the U.S. Four years ago it produced 50 percent of our electricity; by the end of the decade that may drop closer to 30 percent.
Another 353 coal plants may be as good as dead. But don’t write the obituary yet — coal is booming in India and China will continue to do so for decades to come………………………………………Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

When forecasters struggle to know if we’re heading for a triple dip of recession, and the risk of falling off a fiscal cliff next month, a much more distant horizon has been scanned this week.
This one gets less reliably predictable the further out you go, but allowing for that, the view is both fascinating and alarming. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its annual World Energy Outlook, and it’s hard to think of any time when there’s been more change under way……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The IEA’s 2012 World Energy Outlook has spurned many a headline since its release on Monday, which should be none too surprising given it is 688 pages long. The executive summary of the report can be viewed here (which is 676 pages less than the full version), while through even more distillation here are ten points I have gleaned from it in the past few days:
1) The number of vehicles on the road is set to double to 1.7 billion by 2035. Increasing demand for road freight is responsible for almost 40% of the increase in global oil demand. 2) US oil production is set to surpass that of Saudi Arabia by 2020 to become the largest global oil producer (caveat: this will only likely be until the mid-2020s, when Saudi takes back this accolade)………………………………………Full Article: Source

Strong evidence that the price of gold tends to follow the price of oil was given in the Seeking Alpha article titled, “Oil Will Drive Gold Prices Even Higher”. The relationship between oil and gold prices is primarily caused by two factors: higher oil prices cause increased inflation and also leads to expansion of the trade and fiscal deficits in the United States, the world’s largest oil importer.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has recently issued a report predicting the U.S. will become the world’s largest oil producer, and may even begin exporting by the year 2030. The obvious question then becomes: will increased U.S. oil production kill the bull market in gold prices?………………………………………Full Article: Source

Received wisdoms in global energy are falling like downed skittles as the world lurches into the biggest-ever U-turn in energy history. The US gas story shows the most dramatic and rapid changes. From the late 1990s until the past 2 years, billions of dollars were spent by developers of LNG regasification facilities in the United States, as well as most other OECD countries and by China and India.
The received wisdom was that world gas resources were limited and depleting fast. The gas outlook for the US seemed especially dire: it was resigned to a future of declining domestic natural gas production, needing rapid growing LNG imports to fill a looming supply-demand gap. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

Global gold demand dropped 11 percent in the three months to September from record levels seen in the same period last year, dampened mainly by fading Chinese fervour as its economy slowed, with stronger Indian demand stemming a larger fall, the World Gold Council said.
Chinese gold consumption fell 8 percent in the July to September period to 176.8 tonnes, the WGC’s quarterly demand trends report showed on Thursday, with both jewellery and investment demand hurt by a slowing economic growth………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries expects world energy demand to climb by 54% over the 2010 to 2035 period, with oil remaining the energy type with the largest share, the cartel said in its World Oil Outlook report released Thursday.
Towards the end of that time period, however, coal’s share of energy demand will likely reach similar levels as that of oil, with oil’s share of energy demand falling to 27% by 2035 from 35% in 2010, the report said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Play - Download this article

|

Play - Download Full Briefing

|

Subscribe to the Podcast Feed

Britain will need to invest 330 billion pounds in its energy sector, excluding networks, by 2030 and return its economy to growth to meet carbon emissions reduction targets, the London School of Economics said in a report on Thursday.
Britain aims to cut carbon emissions by 34 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, but does not have a binding target for 2030………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dealers on Europe’s energy market commonly trade coal, gas or power at a loss to push up profits on futures prices, industry sources say, a practice that regulators want to stop.
Uneconomic or loss-leading trades are explicitly banned in the United States where British bank Barclays has been accused of using them to rig California’s electricity prices………………………………………..Full Article: Source