German literature knows the expression “Schlaraffenland”. A rough and dirty translation into English would be “the land of milk and honey”. German literature and fairy tales used it to describe a fictional land. Everything exists in excess in this land. …
In May 1969, almost exactly 50 years ago, the Soviet space program made history. The planetary exploration probe Venera 5 sent a lander into the atmosphere of the planet Venus. It was not the first such lander as they tried…
I was a bookish child. While others honed their skills on the round leather, I devoured encyclopedias. You read right. I thought I had to read a certain number of pages from the biggest encyclopedia daily. One day, I would…
I was 18 years old when Robin Williams hit my awareness level with “Good Morning Vietnam”. He was an instant superstar, not only for me. At the time we still had to go fetch clunky VHS videotapes. That’s a plastic…
What comes to mind when thinking of ancient civilizations? Yes, that’s right. It’s the Romans or classical Greece with its many city-states. But what was ancient to the old Romans? What do they see when they look far back? The…
Oscar Wilde once observed that there are two tragedies in life: Developers of new, unsanctioned US-based LNG terminal projects are in a bind. And I don’t blame you if you harbor some concern for them. The US Gulf Coast and…
15 years ago, North America was any LNG seller’s wet dream. It was the biggest payday ever. North American gas production was going down. The market needed Natural gas like a breath of fresh air. A huge number of LNG…
In 1906, the North American Review published Mark Twain’s “Chapters from My Autobiography”. Therein, he ascribed the phrase “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” to the British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. The phrase has come to…
About 180 years ago, the great Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen published the last of his Fairy Tales Told for Children. “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. There was no Facebook or Instagram at the time. Yet the storyline could not have…
In 1920, an Italian immigrant tricked thousands of New England residents. He made them invest in a postage stamp speculation scheme. He promised that he could provide a 50 percent return in 90 days. He’d use funds from follow-up investors…
The International Monetary Fund released a new report on fossil fuel subsidies. They say that the world spent 5.200 billion USD on them in 2017. According to this report, the US alone spent a whopping 649 billion USD. More than…
The funny battle against so-called zero-emissions vehicles In Austria, we have a funny saying. When someone misses every opportunity that comes his way, we say that he sleeps in the pendulum clock. It’s a cute mockery of someone who has…
Anyone following the current flurry of activity in the Asian LNG marketplace must be startled. The casual LNG observer might have the impression that it’s some contractual clauses that are at the heart of the problem. And that their modification…
About two years ago I was deeply involved in some LPG project concepts for Africa. Already then I had pointed out to my clients that I would go for LNG straight. But they had their reasons to stick with LPG…
Yeah, I know what you are going to say when reading the title. Now he has gone completely nuts. Russia has the biggest gas reserves on this planet. How on earth would imported US LNG ever make sense? For the…
Lads, it’s crazy. I have always asked myself why there is so much diesel-electric but there is so little gas-electric. Ever since I have discovered the great potential of LNG (CNG) as fuel at least. Do you need an economic…
This is my last post for this year as I go into Christmas recess. I will be back on January 9th, 2017 with tons of fresh analysis poured onto the fabric of global energy. It’s going to be a fantastic…
Some time ago, I wrote about the LPG tidal wave that hits us mostly from the US and how it shakes the world in its foundations. LPG (Propane and Butane in whatever mixing proportion you like) is already a pretty…
So, OPEC has finally shown that they mean business and decided that they would reduce oil supply to prop up prices. I don’t want to belabor the futility of this gesture as I believe that no reduction any OPEC member…
Dear President-elect Donald J. Trump, This letter might be a little odd for you as I am not an American citizen – neither am I a resident of the United States. I live in Europe. However, the problems afflicting this…
This blog post was written a long time ago and it was sort of sitting on my computer all this time. As I was asked how LNG works for a small flare to LNG to power project, I undug it,…