The energy department will sign an agreement with the International Energy Agency on Monday that will help drive energy efficiency in South Africa.
The current frank discussions internationally and in South Africa on the role of biofuels are both timely and welcome, writes <b>Emile van Zyl</b>.
Concern about the risk of climate change is growing. It requires action by governments, industry and consumers to reduce carbon emissions.
Evidence that greenhouse gas emissions last year were the highest in history has put pressure on South African negotiators.
Report highlights path to efficient structures.
Using energy more efficiently is the best solution to the triple challenge of increasing the global supply of energy.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a catastrophe caused by human error that could have been avoided, the International Energy Agency has said.
As the world recovers more rapidly than forecast from recession, oil demand is also expected to rise more quickly than foreseen, the IEA says.
The world may escape an oil supply crisis for the next five years because a slow recovery from the economic downturn would hold down growth of demand.
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/ 16 February 2009
The UN called on Monday on rich nations to forge a deal that puts climate change and poverty reduction at the heart of efforts to reboot the economy.
It is too soon to call an end to the oil price crisis that has engulfed global energy markets in the past year, the West’s oil watchdog has warned.
Oil prices rose further on Friday amid tensions over crude producer Iran and at the end of an extremely volatile week of trading.
Africa’s electricity supply problems result from poor governance and not lack of capital, the head of a union of producers and distributors said.
High global oil prices and cuts in fuel subsidies in some countries will slow growth of oil demand this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast on Tuesday, also reporting a surge in supply in May.
The rise of biofuels is not only adding to the global food price crisis but also poses a risk for peasants, pushed off their land to make way for energy crops, a report prepared for this week’s food summit said. The use of food such as maize, palm oil and sugar to produce fuel has been blamed in part for record high commodity prices.
The price of oil rocketed to a record high point of $127,43 per barrel on Friday, as United States President George Bush prepared to urge Saudi Arabia to pump more crude. New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, beat the previous all-time peak of $126,98 set on Tuesday owing to worries about tight supplies.
Record oil prices and a slowdown in advanced economies are set to curb global oil demand despite growth in China and the Middle East, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast on Tuesday, saying stockpiling was a key factor. Demand from emerging economies might be set back if and when governments decide that fuel subsidies are unsustainable, the IEA said.
Oil prices eased from recent highs in Asian trade on Monday after international finance ministers warned that near-term global economic prospects had weakened. In afternoon trade, New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, fell by 29 cents to ,85 per barrel.
World oil demand will rise much less than expected in 2008 because of slower economic growth in the United States and other industrialised countries, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. The IEA, adviser to industrialised countries, also pointed to a drop in oil inventories.
Oil prices were close to $109 in Asian trade on Wednesday, underpinned by the United States dollar’s dive to a new low against the euro and supply concerns, dealers said. In late morning trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, traded briefly at $108,90 a barrel, up 15 cents from its record closing high of $108,75 on Tuesday.
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/ 13 February 2008
The world oil market could be set for a lengthy slowdown, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday, signalling a sharp shift in the climate that pushed the oil price to $100 last month. "Just as the demand shock of 2004 shaped the oil market for the next three years, so too could the pending slowdown," the IEA said in its monthly review of oil trends.
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/ 13 February 2008
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stopped oil exports to Exxon Mobil on Tuesday, escalating a multibillion-dollar fight with the United States company two days after threatening to cut off all supplies to America. The anti-US president’s retaliation for Exxon’s legal offensive pushed oil prices higher in late trading.
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/ 29 January 2008
Opec is widely expected to resist consumer calls for more oil when it meets on Friday, worried by a slowing United States economy and the onset of seasonally lower demand in the spring. Oil has fallen to around a barrel from a record ,09 on January 3, easing pressure on Opec to pump more.
Oil at a barrel should give exporters every incentive to pump more, but their difficulty in doing so shows the world is struggling to sustain production. A growing number of leading industry figures now question mainstream forecasts for supply, suggesting the era of ”plateau oil” is nearer than many had admitted.
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/ 30 November 2007
India might be painted as a pollution-spewing, global-warming economy of one billion people but it is also one of the world’s biggest wind power users, part of a focus on renewable energy mostly unnoticed in the West. Years of tax incentives have helped make India one of the fastest-growing markets for wind power, a major component of renewable energy.
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/ 13 November 2007
Oil prices dropped on Tuesday after a key Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member left open the possibility the oil cartel will increase output to curb rising prices, and following the strengthening of the dollar overnight. Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell by six cents to ,56 a barrel.
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/ 7 November 2007
Oil prices jumped to a new trading record above $98 a barrel on Wednesday amid expectations of declining United States supplies. The weak dollar and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’s apparent reluctance to pump more crude into the market also boosted prices.
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/ 22 October 2007
World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report that also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown. Global oil production is currently about 81-million barrels a day — the report expects that to fall to 39-million by 2030.
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/ 15 October 2007
Oil prices surged above a barrel on Monday for the first time after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said crude production by non-Opec countries is falling even as global demand for oil is rising. Prices were also supported by concerns Turkish forces will pursue Kurdish rebels into Iraq.
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/ 30 September 2007
Oil output in Nigeria has plunged by a quarter since the start of 2006 in the face of political unrest in the Niger Delta, reducing the country’s influence in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and limiting the effectiveness of Opec itself.
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/ 12 September 2007
Oil hit a record high of nearly $79 a barrel on Wednesday, after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’s (Opec) modest output increase failed to allay winter supply concerns and ahead of United States inventory data. US light crude for October delivery set a record high of $78,99 a barrel.
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/ 12 September 2007
Oil prices slipped on Wednesday after finishing at a record close in the previous session on worries about tight supplies. Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell six cents to ,17 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore.