The 2007 Fortune 500 list of the most profitable companies has 3 American Oil Companies making the top 10 rung. Exxon Mobil was the most profitable company in the US as it came in no. 1 with an income of $39 B. The 7th spot was occupied by Chevron which had an income of $17.1B followed by ConocoPhillips in the 8th spot which made $15.5 Billion last year.
Read the rest of this entry »
South Africa took the first step in developing their Biofuel industry by passing a Biofuel Strategy Draft which will be fine tuned further with the help of member of industry. Initial provisons call for a 8% blending of Ethanol with gasoline and 2% of biodiesel with PetroDiesel.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas(USA) released their Peak Oil Review for 2006. A copy of the article was posted on the EnergyBulletin. You can also download directly from ASPO-USA here (registration required)
Read the rest of this entry »
One of the items to be tackled by Democrats next year in the US Congress is to get the money from Oil companies and use it to fund Renewable Energy Projects as well as Energy Conservation. This will most likely be done by removing tax breaks issued to oil companies as well as investigating royalty payments being made by Oil companies to the country. The present Administration also seems to be behind the Democrats move to repeal some of the tax breaks (but not the ones related to inventory).
Shades of the failed Proposition 87 I say. I hope they get more success out of this venture, the difference being that this is more of a political movement than that of a people movement.
Original Article here
On Dec 15, Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke piloted a B-52 bomber from Edwards Airforce Base, on a test flight powered by synthetic fuel. The fuel is a 50-50 blend of Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel. The fuel is derived from Natural Gas via the Fischer-Tropsch method.
Part of the test flight involved checking fuel consumption as well some operational manuevers : Simulated bomb runs, aerial refueling, speed-down maneuver and some throttle bursts.
Officials said the eight-engine test further demonstrates the Air Force’s commitment to using alternate fuels and is the next step in the testing and certification process before the fuel can go into widespread use.
Next steps to be taken are testing the fuel if it can start at cold temperatures. This will happen around January-February next year.
Article here via Airforce Link
