Chief Scientist & Professor of Exploration Geoscience, Heriot-Watt University
Assistant Professor, Durham University
Chair of Urban & Regional Planning and Director of Canberra Urban & Regional Futures, University of Canberra, Visiting Professor, University of Warwick
Associate Professor in Biophysics, University of Pretoria
Production
BP: crime-scene cameras cut costs
BP says it is using police technology designed to document crime scenes to build virtual replicas of its oil and gas rigs that can help cut costs. The firm said the 360-degree imaging techniques were being used across the majority of its rigs after successful testing on its North Sea rigs. The technology was developed […]
Transmission
Coal use rises amid gas price hike
High gas prices across Europe have triggered a resurgence in electricity generation from coal as it becomes the cheaper option, endangering commitments made under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Imperial College London reported that the UK could see its first increase in carbon emissions in six years if coal-fired power plants continued to undercut gas […]
Storage
Study reveals liquid battery design
Electric vehicles could be fitted with liquid batteries that are roughly 10 times more energy-dense than existing models, according to Professor Lee Cronin at the University of Glasgow. “A normal electric vehicle has a solid battery, and when that runs out of charge you have to recharge it by plugging it into a power socket. […]
Consumption
Does the West Owe its Rise to Fossil Fuels?
Human agency enjoys the pole position in explaining historical phenomenon. From the genius of Napoleon, Churchill, and Roosevelt to the Enlightenment philosophers and scientists who brought us rationalism, empiricism, secularism, and new technologies, the West has no shortage of heroes. These great men harnessed the resources of the nation state, birthed a liberal economic order […]
Policy
Kiev celebrates Swedish gas ruling
Ukrainian Naftogaz is to take legal action to seize Russian gas giant Gazprom’s European assets after a Swedish appeals court lifted its suspension on the enforcement of its Stockholm arbitration ruling. The Svea court decision this week means Naftogaz can move forward in its attempts to recover US$2.6 billion, from the US$4.6-billion transit arbitration award […]
Environment
Protesters join fight to save Hambach
Around 4,000 protesters have marched on western Germany’s Hambach forest as police arrested activists trying to prevent RWE extending its opencast lignite mine (pictured). Some activists put the number of protesters yesterday (Sunday) at 9,000. Police said they had detained 34 environmental activists hidden in trees and tunnels at the North Rhine-Westphalia state forest. Meanwhile, […]
Industry
Iran looks to restore hidden oil trade
Iran appears keen to keep 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of its oil exports flowing after US sanctions are in November. Iranian oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran would find “other ways” to keep its crude oil trading while oil exports have already fallen to the lowest level since March 2016. Before sanctions were […]
Opinion
Does the West Owe its Rise to Fossil Fuels?
Human agency enjoys the pole position in explaining historical phenomenon. From the genius of Napoleon, Churchill, and Roosevelt to the Enlightenment philosophers and scientists who brought us rationalism, empiricism, secularism, and new technologies, the West has no shortage of heroes. These great men harnessed the resources of the nation state, birthed a liberal economic order […]
Is Washington Trying to Bait Iran into Closing Hormuz?
Crude oil transit is the wild card of the global energy system. Oil producers and consumers act in mostly predictable, economically explainable ways, but when oil needs to be transported over pipelines or seaborne chokepoints, states can act in malleable, murky ones. This summer’s renewed threat that Iran will close the Strait of Hormuz, its […]