Tag Archives: Oil

“Peak” Oil:  Self-Limiting or Open-Ended?

The Age of Oil started around 1800, when drilling techniques started to become available to extract oil from the ground. Figure 1 shows the oil price changes normalized to a constant US$ (2014) from the American Civil War until 2015. … Continue reading

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Fog of War: A Dark Sky

 (Source: EverEdge) Unsurprisingly, this blog will be a continuation of last week’s post, focusing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As with almost all wars (I took part in a few) the “fog of war” has already taken over and … Continue reading

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Russia: The Large Gas Station With Nuclear Weapons

The current situation between Russia and Ukraine started in November 2021, when the Russian army began encircling Ukraine. It was about two months before the Winter Olympics were scheduled to start, and President Putin had promised President Xi that he … Continue reading

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Petrostates

Right now, in the energy transition, there is an emerging weaponization of energy. Russia’s confrontation with the West over Ukraine is the present focal point. The following two publications provide some details: “What Happens if Russia Cuts Off Europe’s Natural … Continue reading

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Back to the Energy and Population Transitions: Electrification and Brain Drain

In this blog, I will look at the ongoing global energy transition and the declining populations of rich countries around the world. I am specifically interested in attempts to redefine sustainable energy sources, as well as the ways in which … Continue reading

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The American Commitment

COP26 ended with a unanimous decision on how to accelerate the global effort to mitigate climate change. This included plans to assist developing countries in their adaptation efforts and to monitor progress in these areas on an annual basis. It’s … Continue reading

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Conclusions From COP26

This semester, I am teaching two courses directly related to climate change. I start both with an exploration of the basic science involved. It’s a multidisciplinary topic that requires using first principles to address the overlap of the physical, natural, … Continue reading

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Managing the Energy Transition: Specifics

Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, may have asked, “what good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?” (September 21, 2021) but this week, in the context of COP26, the current CEO of Exxon expressed a different … Continue reading

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Managing the Energy Transition on a Global Scale

Figure 1 Figure 2 I have been (starting on September 21st) focusing on energy companies’ transitions away from fossil fuels; many are finally realizing that such global shifts are necessary if we cannot implement an acceptable way to capture the … Continue reading

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Universal Hydrogen Economy: Part 2

This week, we’re back to our discussion about the hydrogen economy. The Economist published a great summary of the related challenges we’re facing right now: Today’s hydrogen business is, in global terms, reasonably small, very dirty and completely vital. Some 90m … Continue reading

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