New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's scheme to charge drivers $8 per vehicle to drive in lower Manhattan during business hours was attacked by drivers, the trucking industry and eventually was shot down by the New York State legislature in Albany.   But the combination of $4.50 per-gallon gasoline and the slowing American economy has produced the same effect: fewer vehicles clogging...

Occidental Petroleum plans to spend $1.1 billion to extract oil from the aging Texas Permian Basin.  For this purpose Occidental is teaming with natural gas (NG) producer SandRidge Energy to build a gas processing plant, separating a high CO2 content for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and sell the NG to the market.

Sarah J. Wachter in Seoul, South Korea reported in the June 30 issue of the International Herald Tribune that the government is becoming concerned about crude oil supplies. Over 97% of purchases are on the open market. High fuel prices recently caused thousands of truck drivers to strike. Korea’s economy is in trouble because of a 60% rise in the cost of oil imports this year. The nation’s economy...

The next round of dislocations finds the industry not yet recovered from the pervious mess called 9/11.  The people costs we saw last time will be much worse this time.

Pipeline Editor Christopher E. Smith reported in the June 23 issue of the Oil & Gas Journal that the tanker market during the half year ending March rose 14.1%. Clarkson Research Services Ltd gave the reasons behind these movements and forecast the future direction of the market. Included are Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), Suezmax, Aframax and product carriers. Average daily rates were $34,771/day....

  America’s commercial airlines have grounded aircraft causing thousands of cancellations over a difference in interpretation of long standing airframe inspection rules. The process of regulatory oversight of the nation’s airlines has a far reaching impact and despite a successful program of self disclosure, appears to be in need of repair. Problems we have identified include;...

Indian Government provides tax incentives for discovering oil, but does not do the same for the discovery of gas. Differential taxation policy for discovering oil or gas is illogical and will discourage foreign investments in this sector.

Private Equity (PE) firms have invested in Indian companies as long as they have confidence in original entrepreneurs/promoters (Emcure Pharmaceuticals-Pune: Blackstone Gr.; Granules India- Hyderabad: ISP Investco, Ridgeback Capital Investments). Many of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and Pharmaceutical companies have been producing API and generic drugs before India joined WTO. These...

Who has decided that we can continue our economic miracle by becoming a service oriented society cooking hamburgers for each other using imported beef, imported vegetables, etc.; suing each other, and selling insurance & junk bonds to each other, but definitely not manufacturing or creating anything that we can sell as export goods, or that we can consume instead of importing the products that...

This article is right on the money as the developers who leveraged all their financing on selling the whole community got caught in a down turned market. I don't think communities will become "ghost towns" as this will be an opportunity for large developers to buy at a reduced price.