Oil on the boil to $50

Could oil hit $US50 a barrel oil this week? It all depends on the weather. Last week, markets in the United States and Australia were held hostage by the oil price. When oil surged to a 21-year high of $US49 a barrel on Wednesday, New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 185 points and Australia's market's record breaking month-long streak faltered.

Barreling Toward Disaster

The Washington Post has a front page story about how the Bush administration has encouraged the energy industry to loot public lands, regardless of the impact on the environment. Even Westerners who used to support the energy industry are appalled. So, has it helped? No. This article from Bloomberg has some sobering information, hidden in the dry financial language.

Oil: The beginning of the end?

A retired geologist's 'peak-oil' theory finds a new audience as some worry reserves are drying up Ireland - As he sat last month in his book-lined study, Colin Campbell got a phone call that made him shriek with joy. 'Holy Mother!' he yelped after he put down the receiver. 'The good ol' moment's arrived!' The call had brought word that the price of crude oil was shooting up - a climb that, in the days that followed, would take it to near $50 a barrel. To Campbell, a 73-year-old retired oil-industry geologist who lives in this coastal Irish village, this was sweet vindication. It meant that the 'moment' he had been predicting for about 15 years - the beginning of the end of the age of oil - might finally be at hand.