Crude oil prices were lower in afternoon trade Friday as September contracts for West Texas Intermediate Crude dropped 34 cents to trade at $78.96 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude had also dropped 34 cents at last report to trade at $77.48 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Prices

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Scientists: Oil plumes definitely from BP’s well TAMPA, Fla. — Researchers in Florida say they have the first scientific proof that two plumes of oil beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico came from BP’s broken well. University of South Florida scientists said Friday they linked the oil to BP’s well based on chemical tests of two plumes…

This thread is being closed. Please comment on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6773 . With all activities shutting down around the Deepwater well due to the projected path of Tropical Storm Bonnie, as it has now become, it is appropriate to quote the Press release from Admiral Allen Thursday. Due to the risk that Tropical Storm Bonnie poses to the safety of the…

This thread is being closed. Please comment on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6771 . This is a second copy of this post, with 5:30 update and new tropical storm information. Previous comments can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6766 . Update 5:30pm EDT : BP has received approval to leave the well capped indefinitely. New hurricane update by Chuck Watson at end of post. Unfortunately,…

One Person’s Oil Addict is Another’s Intelligent Consumer In the last few weeks, rhetoric about America’s oil addiction has resurfaced, years after being pushed by former President George W. Bush. It is meant to explain the inability of Americans to become energy independent or at least to significantly reduce consumption. The implication is that consumers are either foolish or…

The price of crude oil was a bit lower in midday trade in New York on Wednesday as the US Energy Information Administration reported that stockpiles were unexpectedly higher last week. The EIA said that US inventories of crude oil were up by 400,000 barrels in the week ending 16 July, to 353.5 million barrels, against

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The Peak Oil Crisis: Thinking About China Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency announced that China was now the world’s largest consumer of energy (oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear power and renewables), surpassing the U.S. for the first time. With 1.3 billion people, China is unlikely to reach current U.S. energy consumption per capita for some time, if…

Because of the number of comments, this is a new thread. The previous thread was http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6754 . Update 2:30 pm EDT : Original leak on the pipe has been sealed, but there are two major leaks on the stack now. One is at the bottom of the new “cap” and the other is on both sides of the BOP…

Crude oil prices were higher as the National Hurricane Center said a new storm beginning to brew near Puerto Rico could strengthen and pose a threat to oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. At about half an hour before the close of floor trade, August contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up 99 cents

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This is a guest post by Rod Adams, author of Atomic Insights Blog . Rod’s Oil Drum name is atomicrod . Rod earned his initial atomic knowledge while serving as an engineering officer on US nuclear powered submarines throughout the 1980s. He founded Adams Atomic Engines, Inc. in 1993 to produce small modular reactors, but put that company to…