Prompted by a renewed search for oil, an old geopolitical conflict is beginning to heat up again.
The place: the windblown Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The protagonists: the far away UK (which …
‘Energy & Utilities’ Archive
The Tower of Power
by Stuart Hampton, February 9, 2010, 9:17 amDon Quixote tilted at windmills.
Today, some green energy advocates have another quixotic dream involving wind turbines and solar power — the large scale generation of electric power through solar energy regenerators.
Imagine the scene: a …
Houston, we have a problem. Oil spill in nearby Port Arthur.
by Stuart Hampton, January 26, 2010, 2:06 pmEver since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 dealt a punishing public relations blow to Exxon Mobil, the company has been working hard to improve safety and prevent other oil …
Global warming and the methane nightmare
by Stuart Hampton, January 14, 2010, 9:13 amIn a horror movie I saw as a young man, there was a scene in which a large cargo ship sailed across a patch of ocean water that suddenly became pockmarked with bubbles. The bubbles …
All’s well that ends in oil wells. The Saudis are bullish on the future of oil.
by Stuart Hampton, December 31, 2009, 2:38 pmCap and trade talk, green energy expansion, new, unconventional oil and gas reserve exploration, and economic recession notwithstanding, Saudi Aramco is confident that the future will entail a growing …
The Oyster and the Anaconda — A Story of Waves and Tides
by Stuart Hampton, December 15, 2009, 9:11 am
The Oyster and the Anaconda is not one of Grimm’s fairy tales, or an Edward Lear nonsense story. Neither grim or nonsense, the Oyster and the Anaconda herald the good news …
Worse things happen at sea — another oil tanker hijacked
by Stuart Hampton, November 30, 2009, 3:28 pmA few days ago Somali pirates hijacked the 300,000-ton, Greek-owned oil supertanker Maran Centaurus about 800 miles off the coast of Somalia. The ship was fully laden with 2 million barrels of oil on …
Not just a Shell game — an alternative energy strategy
by Stuart Hampton, November 18, 2009, 2:21 pmIt’s easy to stereotype Big Oil companies (BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, and others) as old-school oil and gas producers, with a long history of pushing dirty, …
A ripping yarn and some crazy new energy ideas.
by Stuart Hampton, November 2, 2009, 4:07 pmIn WWII when British boffin Barnes Wallis suggested to the top brass of the British military that the best option for destroying some major dams in Germany was to drop a number of bombs that would …
It’s not easy being green when you’re Big and Oily
by Stuart Hampton, October 20, 2009, 2:45 pmAccording to Newsweek, Big Oil managed to put only 4 percent of total 2008 profits into green energy investment. Now when you note that the top 15 oil and gas companies have a collective market capitalization …
