...rs to stall court proceedings into oblivion and disabling opponents from continuing their cases. Whereas admitting defeat would set an important precedent and could inspire innumerable other groups with grievances against Big Oil to launch similar cases, Chevron’s opting instead to invest a couple million dollars a year to pay legal fees and keep the case from closing is rational; the company makes billions in profits every year and, ultimately,...
National entries into international commerce have always made for risky business. For over a century, foreign oil companies and nations have fostered the growth of joint-ventures in which foreign investors and the government of an oil rich nation would go in league together in order to maximize profits for both parties. The nature of this relationship was simple—traditional multinationals would provide the technology and capital necessary to sta...
Bad news for Big Oil is thrilling for consumers – oil prices are plummeting amid economic uncertainty in Europe and the United States. Oil is now selling below $80 a barrel, and gas prices are coming down as well, which will surely be helpful to many a summer vacationer. The recent increase in domestic oil production, actually at the highest level ever, also contributes to the falling prices; the increased production is due to Bush-era leases f...
...secure new supplies around the world, even if it means trekking as far as the Antarctic for resources. In this regard, many environmental analysts argue that, by 2048, Antarctic hydrocarbons will no longer be of interest for oil-consuming powers since affordable, renewable energies will have been developed and democratized. Such a desirable outcome requires carbon-based economies, like Germany and Iceland, to turn their national industrial strat...
...wn war in Afghanistan. But despite the overwhelming focus on the Middle East, noticeably absent from the debate was any explicit discussion of the resource that defines the importance of the Middle East in the global economy: oil. Much of the national discussion over oil in the past year or so has centered on domestic, offshore, and Canadian production. The boom in domestic oil production is of particular interest to politicians and has global ec...
...alley” being Fargo. “I don’t think people realize how much we’re driving technology development,” remarked Senator John Hoeven. What is driving Fargo’s, and the state of North Dakota’s, rapidly improving economic prospects is oil. And lots of it. North Dakota’s oil reserves are concentrated in the northwest of the state, in the Bakken shale rock formation, and are currently estimated to contain up to 24 billion barrels of oil. If current estimate...
...rice for a gallon of gas ever – $3.83 a gallon. The price spike is the result of a witch’s brew of calamities: Increased tensions in the Middle East (you’d think the market would be used to it by now…), a massive explosion at oil giant Venezuela’s largest refinery, a severe fire at a Chevron refinery in California, and Hurricane Isaac, which has briefly frozen almost all oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. High gas prices always hurt middle-inc...
Last Sunday, February 19, I opened the New York Times homepage to check in with the rest of the globe and found the startling headline: “Iran Halts Oil Exports to Britain and France.” Agog, I anxiously clicked the link and hurried through the article, eager to hear of the potential ramifications of Iran’s bellicose ruse and anticipating the many possible reactions from the West. What I found, however, were not flared passions or irate diplomats,...
...the Santos Basin; within the deep shale formations in the United States in the Bakken, Utica, and Marcellus regions; trapped in sand in Western Canada; and in ever deeper water where more shallow wells were already producing oil, most notably in the South China Sea. These finds have shifted the dynamic from discussions of “peak oil” to a future in which traditional energy resources appear to be plentiful and can come from very different places. ...
...pen its economy to foreign investment, kill corruption at the intermediary level, and recreate a solid manufacturing base beyond the few government-supported ones that exist at present. Under this framework, the revenues from oil and natural gas production would fund massive infrastructure and military investments and, in return, these investments would continue to strengthen Russia’s hold on the hydrocarbons. In other words, the stronger the mil...
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