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Government can help the natural gas vehicle industry to gain a foothold in the market, but isn’t likely to work as a stimulus in the long run because many executives distrust its abilities to sustain support, according to the head of a leading maker of natural gas engine technology.

David Demers, chief executive of Westport Innovations said incentive programs are always fragile because they are subject to shifting political winds, and can cause serious disruption if they are withdrawn, so business leaders are more inclined to build their models on the basis of market forces. Keep reading →


The global fleet of ultra-deepwater oil rigs was increasing steadily until April 2010, when regulatory aftershocks from BP’s Macondo disaster slowed its overall growth rate. But now, two years after the Gulf spill, there are indications that drilling in the ultra-deep could be poised for a long-term surge.

One of the key indicators is rig demand. And a Barclays equity research report says oil companies are clamoring for rigs designed to operate in water depths of 7,500 feet or more – the generally accepted threshold for the ultra-deep space. Keep reading →


All politics is local, the old saying goes, and that is particularly true with energy. Energy has become a major issue in the US elections, and how voters perceive energy issues is often influenced by the infrastructure they see around them.

As the US economy continues to measure the impacts of the shale gas and oil boom, new investments are being made in everything from pipelines to transportation fueled by natural gas to proposed data centers lying atop burgeoning gas fields. The transformational effects of the investments on local economies is obvious, but the debate over everything from water quality to truck traffic continues to grow in volume too. Keep reading →


Shell’s plans to build the world’s first oil sands carbon-capture storage facility in Alberta, Canada will make only a modest reduction in that project’s overall carbon emissions but could set an important precedent in establishing the credibility of CCS worldwide, analysts said.

The oil giant said Wednesday that the US$1.36 billion project will create underground storage starting in late 2015 for more than 1 million tones a year of C02 produced in the processing of bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands, one of the world’s largest reserves of crude oil. Keep reading →


Royal Dutch Shell plans to spend at least $1 billion a year exploiting China’s potentially vast resources of shale gas, the firm’s top China executive said, part of an aggressive strategy to expand in the world’s biggest energy market.Shell in March secured China’s first product sharing contract for shale gas, hoping that getting in early will allow it to be a big beneficiary from the sort of boom in shale that has transformed the U.S. energy market. Asked if the firm remained committed to a plan to invest $1 billion a year in China’s shale gas over the coming few years, Lim Haw Kuang, Shell’s top China executive, said in an interview: “Yes, yes and yes.”


Summers in a Pennsylvania steel mill might seem like an unlikely place to find the future president of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers association, but that’s where Charlie Drevna got his start. Now, it seems prescient as energy and manufacturing become ever more closely linked in the US.

When Drevna was working the mills, they were manufacturing drill pipe for oil and gas production in Oklahoma and other parts of the country where conventional hydrocarbon resources were being produced in volumes that many expected were in terminal decline. Keep reading →

Marvin Odum: Relationships between business, government, and society are broken.We need collaboration for sustainable solutions. Shell_US


America’s oil refiners are preparing to intensify efforts to press the federal government to drop mandates to encourage the development of advanced biofuels and counter the Obama administration’s “war on fossil fuels.”

The Renewable Portfolio Standard requires that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended with petroleum-based products by 2022 under the Bush-era Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Keep reading →


In retrospect, it isn’t surprising that there is a market for writing that fits nicely into the niche between the analytical musings of the Economist and the heart-thumping pace of a Jason Bourne thriller.

A little bit populist and much faster paced than traditional writing about current events, while still retaining a seriousness of purpose but steering clear of the polemics of a Michael Moore documentary, the idea for this generation books is fact that reads like fiction. Perhaps it is “a thriller for the CNN generation” or, given reading patterns in the US, just as likely an “Agatha Christie for the CSPAN generation.” Keep reading →


Natural gas could reach the status of a globally priced and traded commodity within five years if sufficient shipping capacity is developed.

The use of natural gas in transport has the potential to change the role of energy infrastructure, politics and investing, but without the right mix of government policies and business commitment fuel consumption patterns will lag broader shifts that include a shift in consumption power to emerging economies. Keep reading →

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