The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel...

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Demand for oil will hit an all-time high this year, the International Energy Agency has forecast.

The agency also warned that increased global consumption, fuelled by a near-20 per cent leap in demand in China, could choke off economic recovery in the UK and continental Europe...

The International Energy Agency bolstered its 2010 supply outlook for countries outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as production rose in Canada, the U.K. and Russia.

Non-OPEC producers, accounting for about 60 percent of the world’s supplies, will raise output by 600,000 barrels per day this year to average 52 million barrels a day, the IEA said in its monthly market report today. That’s 220,000 barrels a day more than estimated last month. The agency left its forecast for global oil demand in 2010 little changed, 30,000 barrels a day higher than in last month’s report...

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained a cautious view about world oil demand and gave no indication it might pump more crude to damp the recent rise in oil prices.

Since early March, oil has closed above $80 a barrel for all but a handful of days, leading analysts to question whether OPEC is getting more comfortable with a higher oil-price plateau. That view has gained traction following comments from some OPEC ministers in recent days that the group may stand pat even if crude-oil prices move north of $90 a barrel...

OPEC would consider raising crude output if the oil price rose to around $90 to $95 a barrel, delegates from the producer group said on Tuesday.

Crude oil futures traded at around $83.80 a barrel on Tuesday, above the $70-$80 mark that OPEC's top producer Saudi Arabia and other members have described as fair for both consumers and producers...

Crude oil fell for the sixth time in seven days as unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped to a two-month high and industrial production improved less than anticipated, signs energy demand may be slow to recover.

Oil fell as much as 0.7 percent as the Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose 24,000 to 484,000 in the week ended April 10. Warmer weather caused utility use to drop the most in four years, limiting the rise in March industrial production to 0.1 percent, according to the Federal Reserve...

Oil major BP Plc on Thursday easily beat off challenges to a Canadian oil sands project and to its executive pay policy.

Europe's largest oil company by market value said 94 percent of shareholders who voted in advance of the annual meeting rejected a call to review its Sunrise project to squeeze crude from Alberta's bitumen-drenched soil. A group of shareholders including California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), ethical investor Co-operative Investments and a raft of environmental groups tabled the resolution...

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the second-biggest source of global oil demand growth after China.

Higher oil consumption in the Arab world’s biggest economy is forecast to account for 11.7 per cent of global expansion this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said...

Crude oil will probably exceed this year’s peak of $87 a barrel and may rise as high as $94 in New York, according to technical analysis by Barclays Capital.

Crude futures have retreated 2.2 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange since climbing to an 18-month high of $87.09 a barrel on April 6. Prices are set to rise again, Barclays forecasts, as the commodity is drawn toward the halfway point in its slump from an all-time high in summer 2008 to a four-year low in December of that year...

Iran, OPEC’s second-biggest crude producer, expanded the number of supertankers being used to store surplus oil, echoing a program that contributed to a tripling of freight rates two years ago.

At least nine such vessels are idling in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman and to the south of Egypt’s Suez Canal, according to data from the ships collected by AIS Live Ltd. Two months ago, there were three. Their depth in the water indicates they are loaded, with as many as 18 million barrels of oil being stored, almost enough to supply Europe for a day...

Construction of the controversial Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to western Europe under the Baltic Sea has been officially launched.

Gazprom holds 51% of Nord Stream, which will run from the Russian port of Vyborg to Germany's Greifswald...

OAO Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural-gas producer, said an “abnormal” gap between spot fuel prices and long-term contracts is threatening investments in new fields and pipelines.

Spot gas prices slumped last year as the recession slowed consumption, while U.S. success extracting the fuel from shale rock added to supply. The output increase in the U.S. diverted some liquefied natural gas cargos to Europe and led Gazprom’s traditional customers to demand lower contract prices...

Renewable energy in Europe should be generated and distributed on a continental scale to make the greatest contribution toward reducing greenhouse gases, according to a report that raises significant challenges for a fragmented region.

The report, to be released Tuesday, was compiled by the European Climate Foundation, a group financed by philanthropic organizations, using studies carried out by McKinsey, a consulting firm...

Wind power currently meets eight percent of national energy needs. Much of that comes from huge turbines at wind farms, but experts are now predicting major growth in a diminutive version of the same thing.

Small wind turbines are defined as those which produce up to 100 kilowatts of energy per hour, and the fact that a summit was recently held in their name goes some way to highlight their future importance. But the path towards integrating them into the popular mindset is not without hurdles...

Hundreds of offshore wind turbines could be suffering from a design flaw that makes them sink into the sea.

Energy company engineers are urgently investigating the extent to which their offshore wind farms are affected, after flaws were discovered on a Dutch wind farm last autumn...

A BATTERY able to match the output of those used in cellphones from 1/20th of their electrode area may have you dreaming of more talk time.

But putting it in your pocket would be a bad idea - it's full of molten metal. Instead, its inventors hope it will provide much-needed storage capacity for electricity grids...

Britain’s three main political parties all have a £30bn hole in their manifestos that will have to be plugged with huge tax rises or spending cuts after the election, according to Financial Times calculations based on their policy pledges...

"A weak currency arises from a weak economy which in turn is the result of a weak government." It was a simple equation trotted out by now-Prime Minister Gordon Brown when in the opposition party during the 1990s.

Now, in the run-up to an election, with the pound looking sickly against the dollar and the cost of imports comparatively rocketing, he and Lord Mandelson have been furiously trying to stop their enemies "talking down" the currency...

A permanent rise in the oil price would leave the UK economy in better shape than other importers such as the eurozone, Japan and the US...

China's economy revved into high gear during the first quarter of 2010, growing 11.9 percent over a year ago, a spokesman for the National Statistics Bureau said Thursday.

The nation's gross domestic product -- a broad measure of economic output -- also gained 1.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009...

China has recorded its first monthly trade deficit in almost six years.

Officials blame the $7.2bn (£4.7bn) deficit on rising volumes and prices of the raw materials the country needs to import to power its economy...

China is being privately reassured that its supplies of oil would be guaranteed in the event that it supports tough new UN sanctions on Iran, its third largest supplier of crude.

Western sources at the nuclear security summit Washington confirmed "talks have been going in that direction" with China. Such an agreement, designed to clear a major obstacle to consensus on new measures against Iran, may also have been discussed by President Barack Obama with Hu Jintao, the President of China, at bilateral talks this week at the White House...

The Obama administration said on Wednesday it would probably take Iran three to five years to make a nuclear weapon, a statement that provoked incredulity from Senator John McCain, the former presidential candidate...

The eurozone area and wider European Union is now “on the brink” of disintegration unless Germany steps up and provides loans at below-market rates to Greece, George Soros, the hedge fund manager, has warned...