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a community peak oil portal
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| As Food Prices Rise, Fertilizer Shortage Now Threatens World's Farms |
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 (NaturalNews) The world is faced with a global fertilizer shortage, experts say, placing even more strain on food prices.
In the last few decades, an increasing reliance on industrial fertilizers has led to surging demands for the largely fossil-fuel-based products. Between 1996 and 2008 alone, fertilizer increased by 56 percent in less industrialized nations and 31 percent worldwide.
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| UK: Limited storage forces importers to give away gas |
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| The price of gas collapsed over the weekend as warm weather and full storage tanks forced importers to give away gas for - literally - nothing.
At one stage on Sunday, the within-day delivery price for wholesale gas fell to 0p per therm as suppliers were forced to give away surplus fuel in order to balance the system.
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| Lithium Counterpoint: No Shortage For Electric Cars |
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 mos6507 writes: In this world, it’s easy to argue that one can never be too neurotic about our future, as our species has repeatedly shown a lack of foresight into the consequences of its actions. However, in this case, I must argue against his views on lithium’s sustainability. Lithium-ion batteries will only be superceded by superior technology, not by lithium shortage.
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| Gasoline Prices Drop 22%; Further Declines Are Seen |
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| HOUSTON -- U.S. gasoline prices have skidded 22% from their highs and may fall further as the economy slows and as refinery operations disrupted by hurricanes return to normal.
A gallon of regular gasoline cost on average $3.206 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge Report. Since hitting a peak of $4.114 on July 17, prices in many places have slid below $3 a gallon.
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| The curse of living in interesting times |
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 ...The second big problem we face remains energy supplies.
Oil prices have continued dropping because of reductions in demand as a result of increased prices. This oscillation in price is likely to happen a number of times as the global economy lurches through the period of peak oil and gas production. This may give false summits, but it will will cause considerable disruption.
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| A 'Green New Deal' can save the world's economy, says UN |
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| Graeme writes: Top economists and United Nations leaders are working on a "Green New Deal" to create millions of jobs, revive the world economy, slash poverty and avert environmental disaster, as the financial markets plunge into their deepest crisis since the Great Depression.
The ambitious plan – the start of which will be formally launched in London next week - will call on world leaders, including the new US President, to promote a massive redirection of investment away from the speculation that has caused the bursting “financial and housing bubbles” and into job-creating programmes to restore the natural systems that underpin the world economy.
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| My Interview with George Soros: End of Financial Crisis Could Be in Sight |
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| Carlhole writes: ...But then, I'm afraid, there is the fallout in the real economy, which is now gathering momentum. At this point, repairing the financial system will not stop a severe worldwide recession. Since, under this circumstance the U.S. consumer can no longer serve as the motor of the world economy, the U.S. government must stimulate demand. Because we face the menacing challenges of global warming and energy dependence, the next administration should direct any stimulus plan toward energy savings, developing alternative energy sources and building green infrastructure. This stimulus can be the new motor for the world economy.
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| Heinberg: The Magic Market |
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| As the world finance system disintegrates and the price of oil wafts below $80 a barrel, we are about to see yet another instance of Market Magic.
Demand for oil is falling as world economic activity sputters. Many analysts are now forecasting that the barrel price could go as low as $50 to $60 in the next few weeks.
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| Kunstler: The Nausea Express |
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| The G-7 world, the club of "developed" western nations plus Japan, has commenced an ordeal of suddenly waking up much poorer. All the desperate work-arounds being engineered by governments and central banks on an al fresco basis are intended to overcome this stunning basic fact, and none of them will. The benchmarks of everything are in flux -- stocks, bond values and yields, commodity prices, most especially currencies -- but these tend to disguise the basic fact of growing and spreading impoverishment. Is oil priced at $80 a barrel this morning? That's nice. Except if the company that employs you is about to fold up and you face a holiday season of driving frantically around Atlanta in search of another job, which the odds are against you find finding. Or if you're living on a retirement fund that's just lost 37 percent of its value and it's time to fill the heating oil tank.
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| Time is right to raise taxes on gasoline |
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| GRAND RAPIDS -- While motorists celebrate lower gas prices, a former U.S. Department of Energy official sees an opportunity: Raise fuel taxes to help end America's dependence on foreign oil.
"Unfortunately, it's high prices that cause people to be careful about energy use," said Jay Hakes, who lived in Grand Rapids as a child and is director of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.
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| Goldman faces limits in Platts oil window - sources |
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 DUBAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs, the biggest oil trader on Wall Street, has been restricted from making a market in price assessment agency Platts' daily oil trading window as counterparty anxiety grows, two sources familiar with the move said on Monday.
Goldman is the latest in a series of major investment banks to be placed under a so-called "review" by Platts, which has said it may sometimes need to limit the activities of some companies in its half-hour price-discovery process if their acceptability by counterparties threatens to distort benchmark prices.
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| Sept. OPEC oil output down 340,000 b/d to 32.47 million b/d |
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 The 13 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped an average 32.47 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil in September, a Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials showed today. This is down 330,000 barrels per day from August and reflects output declines in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Angola.
Excluding Iraq, the 12 members bound by production agreements produced an average 30.18 million b/d, the survey showed. This is 230,000 b/d less than the August output of 30.41 million b/d and exceeds the so-called OPEC-12 output target of 29.673 million b/d by 507,000 b/d.
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| China's independents to sue oil majors over fuel |
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| BEIJING (Reuters) - Frustrated by an unsteady trickle of overpriced fuel, China's independent oil firms hope to sue the country's two energy giants Sinopec and PetroChina under a new anti-monopoly law, Chinese media reported on Monday.
The companies have crushed their smaller rivals as they fought to protect their own bottom line from the impact of unprofitably low state-set fuel prices, the Beijing News reported.
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| While The World's Economies Are Reeling OPEC Wants Us To Pay More For Oil |
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| In November of 1999, in a speech to the Houston Oil Forum, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi bragged that the "all inclusive" cost to the Saudis to produce a barrel of oil was less than $1.50 a barrel. Costing $1.50 then you can make your own extrapolation as to what it may cost today. My estimation is is less than three dollars today, and probably a lot less. My reason for putting forward this tidbit of information is to give one a comparative benchmark of production costs of other OPEC member states be it Libya, Kuwait, Iran, Algeria, etc. All would be comparable to Saudi production costs. As to the argument that todays oil price reflects a rapidly declining resource, this post has long argued that OPEC's and especially Saudi Arabia's reserrves have been purposely understated and are vastly greater than we have been led to believe (among other posts please see "Peak Oil" RIP. Official Obit Front-paged In the New York Times" 3.8.07)
With the current rout of speculators pulling in their horns from the commodity markets and the economy's impact on oil and oil product consumption, and finally the growing and widespread realization of the enviromental and national security dangers inherent in fossil fuel consumption, the price of oil is collapsing. Or is it?
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| Icelandic Shoppers Splurge as Currency Woes Reduce Food Imports |
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| (Bloomberg) -- After a four-year spending spree, Icelanders are flooding the supermarkets one last time, stocking up on food as the collapse of the banking system threatens to cut the island off from imports.
``We have had crazy days for a week now,'' said Johannes Smari Oluffsson, manager of the Bonus discount grocery store in Reykjavik's main shopping center. ``Sales have doubled.''
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