Econintersect:  There may be as much as 87 million barrels of oil in Afghanistan.  Of course U.S. oil companies will get as much of that oil as they got from Iraq.  According to AFP (posted at Google hosted news) the government of Afghanistan has agreed… more »

Econintersect:  The world is in a frantic competition to see who can access the vast oil reserves believed to be trapped beneath the North Pole’s icecap which covers the Arctic Ocean.  The “coast line” of the Arctic Ocean is shared by Russia (approximate… more »

The conflicts in the Western Pacific will not necessarily involve combat. Rather there may be just a series of incidents where naval vessels engage in confrontations that fall short of an actual “shooting” engagement. Not surprisingly, much of future incidents in the South China Sea will depend on how extensive future oil reserves discoveries there turn out to be. more »

Fuel consumption in China rose by 7.2% year over year in the first half of 2011, according to Shanghai Daily. The increase in natural gas usage dominated the growth, up 21%. Domestic natural gas output increased to 50.5 billion cubic meters and imports increased to 14.1 billion cubic meters. This was a full doubling of imports from the first half of 2010. Most of the gas was imported from Central Asia. The increase in refined oil products increased 7.2%, much less than the number for natural gas, according to Reuters. more »

Econintersect:  A number of sources have warned that global oil supplies are rapidly approaching the point at which demand will not be met.  The U.S. Energy Information Agency made such projections for the problem to be manifest within the next year or two. Other estimates are sooner. more »