www.enreport.com

The following Reuters news is interesting.
French bank Societe Generale claims : "European gas demand will remain below 2008 levels until 2017 and the weak outlook could force suppliers like Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil to reduce their gas prices"....
It also adds : "SocGen said in a research note that it expected year-on-year demand for gas to grow by 2.5 percent in 2012, compared with a record 9.5 percent drop in 2011."
But the interesting thing is here:
"We believe Statoil could end up further reducing the assumed 75 percent oil-indexation for continental buyers in order to boost medium-term demand for gas (as a fuel for power generation). We suspect that after tough negotiations, it could be reduced to 55 percent from October 2012."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/03/europe-energy-gas-idUSL6E8C30QW20120103

Sometimes, people ask me about the complete procedure for building and licensing power plant projects in Turkey. So far, the best resource has been the Turkish State Owned Electricity Company EÜAŞ's diagrams.
Check these websites from www.euas.gov.tr :

Construction of new thermal power plant by private sector

Construction of new hydro power plant by private sector

As the trust towards paper money decreased, I am wondering whether the oil is priced with gold... After checking several statistics, there is a Beta distribution of Gold price/WTI price ratio.
So far 15-17 is a ratio between gold and wti. Therefore in the following month (August,2011), numbers point to oil prices of 110$ (WTI), and 130$ Brent.

Note on 5 August 2011: I expected the panic to start by end of August. However seems like it has been already started.. So the recent panic has broken the relation. Gold is on the rise, oil is down..... This is a typical ringing bell of a recession... Next time I should state "ceteris paribus":)
One thing to watch is the base price level of oil...
www.barissanli.com

Recently I have completed a study on the effect of Carbon prices on Turkish electricity prices. Here is my result (Electricity supply curve MW vs $cent/kWh)

Previous SPR's effect (During Katrina)

On the 23rd June 2011, IEA has decided to release 60million barrels from its 28 members' reserves.
IEA members have 4.1 billion barrels of stocks, some 1.4 billion barrels is for emergency.
They will release 2 million barrels/day for the initial 30 days.

The question is whether this reserves can be traded freely like a normal reserve? Buyers of SPR may not sell it to overseas (Platts)

• "The auction for 30 million barrels of light sweet crude starts at 1 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, with deliveries occurring between August 1-31."
• ""No, you cannot sell to Latin America or China," DOE said in an explainer posted to its website. "SPR petroleum may be exported only with an export license and in connection with the return of refined products to the US.""
• "The US share [30 million barrels] represents 4% of its current stockpile of 727 million barrels"
• U.S. holds (56 percent) while Japan (24 percent), Europe (14 percent) and Korea (6 percent) of the SPRs.(321 energy)
  

Ref:
http://www.iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=418
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/6229240
http://321energy.com/editorials/holmes/holmes0062811.html

Platts has this news item with lots of useful numbers:
In India

• 80000 MW of coal plants under construction
• Target of adding 100000 MW in the next 5 years
• Environmental problems for local coal prevented 203 mines that can fuel 130000 MW
• Coal India produces 80% of national production
  

Reference
Platts, http://www.platts.com/NewsFeature/2011/CoalFired/index

Manouchehr Takin from Center for Global Energy Studies has a brief summary of oil production capacity costs here.
Here is a summary. Remember that the units is per peak daily barrel. That is if you want to build a 100.000 barrels per day peak capacity for Haradh III, you have to invest $2,500*100.000 = 250 million dollars at least."

Saudi Arabia
- $2,500 (per peak daily barrel) for development of the Haradh III zone of the supergiant Ghawar oilfield
- $10,000 for the massive Khurais et al development a
- $17,500 for the Manifa field

-$40,000 heavy oil projects of Iran
-$85,000 supergiant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan

"

Ref:
The cost of Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity, Manouchehr Takin, http://www.cges.co.uk/resources/articles/2011/06/21/the-cost-of-saudi-arabia%E2%80%99s-oil-production-capacity

Ernst&Young has an interesting indice that you can find from here:
http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Power---Utilities/Renewable-energy-country-attractiveness-indices
The report also includes one page review of some countries including China, UK, Poland and Chile.

Country Attractiveness Indices:
http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Oil---Gas/Oil_Gas_Renewable_Energy_Attractiveness-Indices

Recent Index
http://www.ey.com/GL/en/Industries/Power---Utilities/Renewable-energy-country-attractiveness-indices