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How will Iraq turmoil impact the oil price?
Stefanie Heerwig Natural ResourcesSpeculations have run rampant about the impact of the Iraqi attacks on international oil prices. Will we face another 2008 oil price shock? By how much will the prices rise? However, you never know what is going to happen on the oil market, and the market will deal with it anyway.
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Can natural gas help Greece find its place in Europe again?
Lucy Wallwork Natural ResourcesLike so many other words, we have the Greeks to thank for the origins of the word petroleum; 'petro' means rock in ancient Greek. In fact, today there is little petroleum to extract from Greek rock formations; contemporary Greece has a negligible oil production and no exports. Instead it is natural gas, and its transport – rather than production – that some are hyping as the savior of the Greek recovery.
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Wind energy processing technologies steadily advancing
Don Rosato EngineeringWind energy designs increasingly depend on plastics processing and design technologies. Plastic parts and components are extensively used in all major sectors of wind energy, and processing developments in blade manufacturing and service are advancing rapidly.
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Why gas analysts say the Appalachian is ‘biggest, baddest basin there…
Sasha Viasasha Natural ResourcesThere is definitely something big hiding beneath the Appalachians, but it might not be what you'd expect. The Wall St. Journal reported last October that the Marcellus Shale region under Pennsylvania and West Virginia is producing more natural gas than all of Saudi Arabia. It's pumping out 12 billion cubic feet per day, six times the production rate of five years ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
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No need to fear the Russia-China gas deal
Lucy Wallwork Natural ResourcesThe announcement of a 30-year, $400 million gas contract between the Russians and the Chinese is the news that Western policymakers had been dreading. During the final hours of Vladimir Putin's visit to Shanghai on May 21, the two countries came to a historic agreement that has been a decade in the making. It appears the "greater diplomatic effort" I prescribed before the deal was summoned.
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Highlighting novel material advances in wind energy
Don Rosato ManufacturingWind energy provides significant growth opportunities for advanced composite resin and reinforcement materials. Wind energy developments hold much promise to help meet the growing global energy demand, and innovations in plastics and composites will play a key role.
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Unconventional oil — Is it really worth it?
Stefanie Heerwig Natural ResourcesCapital expenditure (capex) by oil companies has been rising to astronomical heights over the past decade. According to Bloomberg, capex by major oil companies is now five times higher than in 2000. Morgan Stanley estimates that the largest oil companies require an oil price of over $95 per barrel for 20 to 25 percent of their future projects.
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Could Venezuela open the door once again for Big Oil?
Lucy Wallwork Natural ResourcesWhile international eyes have been glued to the Ukraine, the increasingly violent trajectory of the protest movement farther south in Venezuela has suggested that President Nicolás Maduro may finally be losing his legitimacy as leader. Discussion of sanctions against the Venezuelan regime make the West's discontent clear, but even at home Maduro's approval ratings are reaching historic lows.
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Market and technology trends driving wind energy forward
Don Rosato EngineeringAmong the various sources of alternative energy, wind has the highest rate of return and is attracting new "players" into the energy sector, which is a key wind-energy market driver.
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New corrosion technology could save time, money and lives
Curtis Fease EngineeringThe current method of detecting corrosion in underground pipes can be quite expensive, and in reality, a person would be hard-pressed to even refer to these methods as "technology." Present corrosion detection methods usually only allow corrosion problems to be discerned after a pipe wall's thickness has suffered 30 percent damage.
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