more Peak Oil news - ODAC Newsletter

DTM

Thanks for posting these, especially the last one an the relationhship of Carbon and the Economy.  If the Canadians think Kyoto targets are "impossible" that doesn't bode well.

Heres a chart of US oil consumption by transportation

http://www.secureenergy.org/site/page.php?node=366&id=29&topic=8

Cars and light trucks consume 8 million barrels a day. If we could make all these vehicles run on electric then that easily cuts US consumption of oil down by 45%. The electricity can be generated in the deserts of the world, such as the mojave which is super dry, has a lack of dust storms, and has radiant sunshine all year long. Peak oil is a problem but i dont like how the doom and gloomers think that it will bring disaster upon the world economy. Humans can adapt when they are put to the task. By replacing oil with solar power, that will leave the US with at least 12 million barrels to consume for aviation, heavy truck, and industrial purposes.

Damnthematrix,

 I know you have a penchant for verbosity but could you possibly come up with an abridged version of your posts.  Not all of us have as much time on our hands as you may believe.

 

Your friend Gadfly. 

I'd like to echo David Lachman's sentiments while respectfully disagreeing with Gadfly. I think these articles are both vital and fascinating, while, most importantly, acting as a permanent resource that can be accessed by users of this website for some time to come. Lastly, on a technical note, DTM is not guilty of verbosity with regard to this particular post since he simply reproduced a number of articles and actually wrote nothing himself, aside from the fact that verbosity means unnecessarily lengthy as opposed to simply lengthy.

Oil

Oil Falls From Six-Month High After Fed Warning on U.S. Economy

Grant Smith and Christian Schmollinger, Bloomberg, 21 May 2009 View original article

Crude oil fell from a six-month high after the Federal Reserve said that recovery may fail to take root in the U.S., the world’s largest energy consumer.

Oil declined after minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on April 28-29 showed that some members want the central bank to boost its purchases of assets to revive growth. Total U.S. daily fuel demand in the four weeks ended May 15 fell 7.6 percent from a year earlier, an Energy Department report showed yesterday.

“The market has been getting overheated,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London. “The demand picture hasn’t justified the recent gains, and now that equity markets are pulling back traders are taking profits in oil as well.”

Crude oil for July delivery dropped as much as 87 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $61.17 a barrel, and was at $61.21 on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 9:46 a.m. in London. Yesterday, oil rose $1.94, or 3.2 percent, to settle at $62.04 a barrel, the highest closing price since Nov. 10.

Stocks in Europe and Asia retreated and U.S. index futures dropped. The MSCI World Index fell for the first time in four days, losing 0.3 percent at 8:03 a.m. in London, while futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.3 percent to 897.5.

Refinery Rates

Crude oil may be poised to fall further, based on technical indicators used by traders. The 30-day relative strength index has climbed to 60.58 today. The last time it was near this level, at 60.90 on July 14, the oil price started a 22 percent drop from $145.18 a barrel to $112.87 on Aug. 18.

“We really haven’t seen any improvement in demand,” said Toby Hassall, a research analyst at Commodity Warrants Australia Pty in Sydney. “I just don’t think the fundamentals of the oil market can support prices up around the early $60s.”

U.S. refineries operated at 81.8 percent of capacity, down 1.9 percentage points from the prior week, the Energy Department report showed.

Flint Hills Resources LLC planned to restart a gasoline- making unit at the Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery yesterday after shutting down the unit a day earlier because of a fire.

Fizzling Rally

Federal Reserve officials, who see possible signs of “stabilization” in the U.S. economy, signaled they’re not convinced those improvements will persist.

Policy makers saw “significant downside risks” to the outlook for the economy, with the global financial system still “vulnerable to further shocks,” minutes of the session released yesterday said.

Crude stockpiles dropped 2.11 million barrels to 368.5 million in the week ended May 15, the Energy Department said. A 400,000-barrel decrease was forecast, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

Gasoline supplies plunged 4.34 million barrels to 204 million. A 1.2 million-barrel drop was forecast, according to the median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Brent crude for July settlement fell as much as 84 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $59.75 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.

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Recovery in oil prices ignores the fundamentals

Javier Blas in London, Financial Times, 20 May 2009 View original article

Take a quick look at the oil price and you would think the market is rapidly returning to health. Yesterday, the market's main benchmark - West Texas Intermediate - jumped to a six-month high of $60.48 a barrel, up 85 per cent from February's low of $32.7.

Dig deeper into the world of physical oil and another picture emerges, however: the fundamentals of supply and demand are weak - much weaker than current prices imply.

Traders - some of the top executives at the world's largest oil companies - say the recent rise in oil prices is due to investor flows and bets about long-term supply and demand, rather than any improvement in the near-term physical market.

"It is difficult to reconcile the fundamentals with the surge in the prices," a senior executive at a large trading house says, reflecting a widely shared view. "The move from $50 to $60 was not based on fundamentals," adds another top executive at an important bank which trades physical oil.

To be sure, traders are not forecasting a return of the lows of the year of $30 a barrel. But many reckon prices need to fall $10 in order to align with fundamentals.

Most analysts agree. Adam Sieminski, chief energy analyst at Deutsche Bank in Washington, says: "Oil prices have been supported by rising sentiment in the equity markets."

Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs in London, says, while oil investors have been pricing-in the improving economic outlook, "the market can only do this as long as there is room to store the oil and bridge the gap between the currently weak demand environment and the anticipated stronger forward fundamentals.

"With inventories already at record levels, the risk is that oil inventories [will] breach storage capacity and force spot prices lower," he adds.

However, some analysts - and a few traders - disagree. They believe the surge does not represent any violation of fundamentals. On the contrary, Costanza Jacazio, an oil analyst at Barclays Capital in New York, reckons the rise is the result of "one of the most important" fundamentals, namely that prices at $40-$50 leave the market "dangerously far from equilibrium" in the long term.

The conflicting views suggest next week's Opec meeting in Vienna could be even more difficult than usual, with ministers caught between bearish near-term physical fundamentals and a bullish futures market.

Opec - with a vested interest in talking up the market - agrees with the downbeat physical traders' view, downplaying the sustainability of recent prices. In its latest monthly report, published last week, the cartel said oil prices "have remained above $50 a barrel due more to market sentiment than [to] fundamentals".

"Considerable risks remain as oil market fundamentals are far from balanced due to the persistent contraction in demand and growing supply overhang," it said.

Demand is contracting at its fastest pace since 1981. The International Energy Agency, the western countries' oil watchdog, forecasts a fall in consumption of 2.6m barrels a day this year compared with 2008. Such a fall would wipe out five years of demand growth, pushing average oil consumption this year to 83.2m b/d, the lowest since 2004. Traders say although demand appears to have hit a bottom - in part due to the seasonal pick-up in demand as the summer's driving season arrives - there is little sign consumption will rise substantially in the near-term.

The supply front is even more worrying for the oil bulls. After eight consecutive months of Opec production cuts, the cartel marginally lifted its production in April and it appears certain another increase will follow this month. Nonetheless, overall compliance with the cuts - at 80 per cent of the promised 4.2m b/d - is still impressive by historical standards. At the same time, non-Opec production has held up better than expected in spite of mature oil fields in areas such as the North Sea, Alaska and Mexico and lower investment elsewhere.

Overall, global oil production increased last month for the first time since October, rising 230,000 b/d to 83.6m b/d. With demand this quarter estimated at only 82.3m b/d, more oil was forced into storage, bringing inventories to record levels.

Developed countries' onshore inventories surged counter-seasonally in the first quarter and preliminary data suggest they increased further in March and April. Measured as days of demand, OECD total inventories are today enough to cover a massive 62.4 days of consumption, much more than the traditional range of 50-55 days. Although developing countries' statistics on inventories are, at best, sketchy, traders reckon they also increased in the first quarter, notably in China.

What is more, a record amount of crude oil and oil products is floating at sea in tankers.

Traders estimate about 100m barrels of crude and about 25-30m barrels of oil products - mostly distillates such as diesel and kerosene - are sitting in tankers waiting for a pick-up in demand.

That would represent a 40 per cent increase uponfloating storage levels in late March.

"Taking in account supply, demand and stocks, we should see oil at $40 rather than $60," one senior oil trader estimates.

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Are we moving towards a new oil crisis?

Andris Piebalgs, Andris Piebalgs European Commission blog, 08 May 2009 View original article

One of the few good pieces of news in the current economic crisis (maybe the only one) is that oil prices have gone from the 147$ a barrel of July 2008 more than 100$ down to less than $50 a barrel on the international markets. However, in the last days we have seen oil prises rising and reaching the price of $58 a barrel for the first time in nearly six months. Nevertheless low oil prices are also good news for gas, since gas prices are normally linked to those of oil. If we remember the difficulties that European fishermen and truck drivers had last year we can imagine what their problems with be if in the middle of an economic crisis they had to deal as well with prices over 100% a barrel.

However, we should not be under any illusion. The current fall of oil prizes is just the consequence of an even more dramatic fall in demand due to economic crisis. I add to that the fears in the financial markets you will understand why investments in futures of any commodity except the safest ones (gold, for instance) are so rare. But the fundamentals that drive the energy markets have not changed. Once the economic crisis is over demand for hydrocarbons will soar again, particularly in the developing world. And some countries are preparing for that.  For example the Chinese government has granted a credit to Russian State owned oil companies Rosneft and Transneft $25 bn. against daily supplies of 48,000 tonnes of oil for the next 20 years.

The world is aware that the production of the existing oil wells is decaying and that new discoveries are more scarce and more expensive. Some experts consider that global oil production may have peaked at 94 million barrels a day. The current economic crisis can make the situation worse. The lower prices that we are enjoying now can be in fact bad news. At this price oil producers have been forced to postpone many necessary investments in new production capacity. These investments take decades to be accomplished. In consequence, if the current economic crisis finished and demand recovers we could be facing huge shortage of supplies that can lead to extremely high prices.

How high? According to the Secretary General of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Nabuo Tanaka, oil prices could go up to as much as 200$ a barrel in the next 4 years. A quick look back on the situation of last year when prices were at a mere 147$ a barrel maybe gives an idea of what the consequences may be if the prices goes a 25% higher.

The current relatively low oil prices give a respite to prepare for the coming new oil crisis. We have to reduce our dependency in all those areas in which black gold is not indispensable, such as heating, or electricity production. For those areas which will have to continue to depend on it, like transport, we need to accelerate the research for alternatives, like biofuels, electric cars or hydrogen. And in all sectors, we have to accelerate our efficiency being aware that every barrel of oil that we are using is one of the last.

It is difficult to forecast when the next oil crisis is going to come. As Nobel Price Niels Bohr once put it “prediction is very difficult, particularly about the future”. But one thing is certain, one day we are going to run out of oil, and to prepare for that day we may be running out of time.

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IHS CERA: Canada has world's second largest recoverable reserves

Energy Saving Trust, 20 May 2009 View original article

Advances in technology have allowed Canada to overtake Russia as the world's second largest holder of recoverable reserves, a new report claims.

According to the team at IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA), the breakthroughs made in oil sands extraction has put Canada on the global stage as a key player in future oil supply, with reserves thought to be second only to Saudi Arabia.

The study claims that oil sands have moved from a fringe energy source and are now playing a central role in the global energy debate.

Ongoing development of the oil sands has made Canada the primary foreign supplier of oil to the US, with growth projections set to firmly establish an integral alliance between the two countries in the coming decades.

In March, IHS CERA offered its latest assessment of the effects that low oil prices have had on global supply growth, with the group warning that shortfalls in investment could lead to a supply aftershock as the world pulls out of recession.

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Brazil Turns to China to Help Finance Oil Projects

John Lyons, Wall Street Journal, 18 May 2009 View original article

Brazil's oil industry is turning to China for cash in the latest sign of how Beijing's clout is growing amid the global economic downturn.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was set to arrive in Beijing Monday to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is expected to unleash billions of dollars of credit to help Brazil exploit its massive oil reserves. Brazil will return the favor by guaranteeing oil shipments to Chinese companies.

The nations are being thrust together by the global financial crisis. Brazil's state-controlled oil giant, Petroleo Brasileiro SA, wants to spend $174 billion over the next five years to elevate Brazil into the major leagues of oil-producing nations. With international capital markets on life support, China is among the few remaining sources of cash.

Petrobras, as the company is known, is turning to China at a time when China's appetite for raw materials has lifted economies across commodity-rich Latin America, blunting the impact of the global downturn. In March, China passed the U.S. as Brazil's biggest trade partner.

Terms of the arrangement had yet to be finalized before the Brazilian leader departed, a senior Petrobras official said, although a broad outline of the talks was announced by Petrobras earlier this year. On the table is a $10 billion loan in exchange for as many as 200,000 barrels per day. China's chief goal, however, is to use the loans to win deals to provide services and equipment at a time when Brazil is becoming tougher in dealing with foreign companies, industry experts said.

Even before a deal is done, the months-long negotiations between Chinese and Brazilian officials have illustrated a competitive advantage for China's government-backed companies at a time when credit markets are dry. Underscoring China's importance as a lender of last resort, Brazil engaged China even though many of its past investment initiatives with the nation have ended in disappointment.

"The U.S. has a problem," Sergio Gabrielli, chief executive of Petrobras, said recently when asked about the loan talks. "There isn't someone in the U.S. government that we can sit down with and have the kinds of discussions we're having with the Chinese."

Mr. Gabrielli was referring to the fact that Chinese government banks are willing to extend huge foreign loans to further China's long-term energy-security goals: ensuring diverse global supplies and winning entree into competitive regions for its oil companies. A string of recent oil loans to Russia, Kazakhstan and others has pushed China's total commitments to more than $45 billion.

Such direct government lending is an increasingly powerful tool in an era when three-quarters of the world's oil reserves are in the hands of state-controlled oil companies. By dealing directly with governments in oil-supplier nations, China can use its wealth to reduce the role of big oil companies -- the traditional intermediaries between oil producers and oil consumers.

"What you are seeing is the new geopolitics of oil, where deals start from a political understanding and cut out the international oil companies," says Roger Diwan, a partner at PFC Energy, a Houston-based consultancy.

To be sure, international oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have important advantages in technology and managerial know-how over state companies. Brazil's most tantalizing oil reserves lie miles beneath ocean, rock and unstable layers of salt. Getting it out likely will require the expertise and muscle of the industry's top companies.

What's more, China's willingness to fund oil projects should ultimately help the U.S. consumer, experts say. Most of the world's oil is sold on the international spot market to the highest bidder. China's willingness to extend credit to oil producers should keep prices from rising simply by increasing the global supply of oil.

Brazil's Petrobras, which is controlled by the government but operates with a free-market ethos and has shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange, is in an unusual position for the global oil industry after notching major oil and gas finds. The company is sitting on far more reserves than it has people and money to pump.

Brazil hatched an ambitious plan to change that, and it has vowed to make it happen even in the downturn. "It's willing to do deals where necessary," says Matthew Shaw, a senior Latin American analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a Scotland-based oil consultancy.

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U.S. Reliance on Oil an 'Urgent Threat'

Steve LeVine, Business Week, 17 May 2009 View original article

A group of retired senior U.S. military officers has concluded that the country's reliance on fossil fuels undermines its capacity to defend itself. Citing a "serious and urgent threat to national security," the group has urged the Pentagon to take the lead in shifting to a new age in energy.

The dependence on oil-based fuels left the U.S. military seriously over-extended in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the officers' report, issued on May 18 by CNA, a military think tank based in Alexandria, Va. The 62-page report asserts that the true cost of fuel, including logistics and the military protection of sea lanes, can run to hundreds of dollars a gallon.

"Our energy posture is not sustainable. It can be exploited by those who want to do us harm," retired Air Force Lieutenant General Larry Farrell, a co-author of the report, said in an interview. Finding a suitable alternative fuel and scaling it up to the size of the U.S. economy "is a 30-year project," Farrell said. "We've got to get started now."

The report, called "Powering America's Defense: Energy and the Risks to National Security," was written by CNA's military advisory board, comprised of 12 retired generals and admirals. It's a follow-up to a 2007 report by the advisory board called "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change."

Retired Admiral John Nathman, another of the co-authors, said in an interview that the board deliberately tried not to inject itself into the debate over climate change, instead accepting the view that temperatures are rising. Yet the report coincides with a fierce debate in Congress over so-called cap-and-trade, a proposal to control greenhouse gases by parceling out the right to emit them.

A New Senior Pentagon Post for Energy
The report also coincides with an elevation of economics and specifically energy in debates over U.S. national security. Nathman said the Pentagon is in the midst of assigning a senior officer to study the energy challenge; the officer would serve under Ashton Carter, an undersecretary of defense for technology and acquisitions. Already, Nathman added, each of the military service arms has assigned a three-star general to study how they are using energy. Plus, Jim Jones, President Barack Obama's national security adviser and a former marine general, is expected to create a new senior slot on the National Security Council for global energy.

In addition, the report discusses the U.S. electricity grid, which it says is "unnecessarily vulnerable." It cites a 2003 cascading blackout that affected 50 million people in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest and Ontario as evidence of how a fragile power grid can leave huge areas without working gas stations, rail service, and cell-phone coverage. While a threat to the country overall, the frailty of the grid is specifically a peril to the military, the report says. "An extended outage could jeopardize ongoing missions in far-flung battle spaces," it concludes.

Reliance on oil, however, is the report's focus. It estimates that refueling military jets in flight raises the cost of each gallon of fuel to $42; on the ground the cost ranges from $15 a gallon to as much as hundreds of dollars a gallon depending on how much security and logistics are required to get the fuel to where it needs to be.

Wasted Fuel, Heavy Batteries
A full accounting of the cost of fuel would include the U.S. Navy's protection of sea lanes, the maintenance of military bases in countries such as Bahrain, and the stationing of massive numbers of troops abroad, according to the report and interviews with its authors. In Iraq, just 10% of fuel used for ground forces went to heavy vehicles such as tanks and amphibious vehicles delivering lethal force; the other 90% was consumed by Humvees and other vehicles delivering and protecting the fuel and forces. "This is the antithesis of efficiency," the report says.

Another problem is batteries. In Afghanistan, each U.S. soldier is burdened by carrying 26 pounds of batteries, which "hinders their operational capability by limiting their maneuverability and causing muscular-skeletal injuries," the report says.

The retired generals urge the Pentagon to take the lead in developing new technologies to take the place of fossil fuels and making these technologies economically reproduceable on a large scale. It notes the Pentagon's role in creating and incubating nuclear power as well as the Internet. It also points out that the military has served as an incubator for cultural change, such as integration, a fact that could prove crucial if the country needs to make a dramatic lifestyle shift because of a disruptive technological change surrounding how it powers itself.

"People will see that if it works for the military, it will work for a lot of other things as well," Farrell said.

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Nigeria’s Oil Output Drops to Less Than Half Capacity

Dulue Mbachu, Bloomberg, 21 May 2009 View original article

Nigeria’s oil output has fallen to less than half capacity because of militant attacks in the main producing region over the past three years, Petroleum Minister of State Odein Ajumogobia said.

The country is pumping 1.2 million barrels a day out of a total capacity of 3.2 million barrels a day, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s onshore fields worst affected by the insecurity, Ajumogobia said in remarks broadcast by the state-owned Nigerian Television Authority today.

Nigeria, the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports, holds Africa’s largest hydrocarbon reserves of more than 36 billion barrels of crude and 187 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Armed groups, including the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, have attacked oil plants and pipelines in an upsurge of violence since 2006. MEND claims to be fighting for the poor in the Niger Delta region, saying they’re yet to share in its oil wealth. Criminal groups also hijack vessels and kidnap oil workers for ransom.

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Tide of opinion turns against Shell

Ed Crooks and Michael Steen, Financial Times, 20 May 2009 View original article

Jeroen van der Veer has won widespread praise for the way he has steadied the ship as chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, after the reserves misreporting scandal that threatened to sink the company when it was exposed early in 2004.

The message from shareholders at Shell's annual meeting yesterday was that however great his achievement might be, it did not deserve to be rewarded as generously as Shell's remuneration committee believed.

The decision to pay bonuses to executives even though performance targets had been missed has made Shell a lightning rod for anger about executive pay.

As Martin Simons, a British retail investor who spoke to the meeting in The Hague via video link from London, put it: "What really troubles me about the board is you have not had the nous to realise the general public concern about the behaviour of large companies. The gravy train has got to stop."

At first glance, Shell seems an unlikely flashpoint for anger. Post-tax profits for 2008 were $31.4bn, and even though they fell 58 per cent in the first quarter, they were still a healthy $3.3bn. The decline was in line with Shell's leading rivals BP and ExxonMobil.

In recent years, while Shell's performance in terms of total shareholder return has been at or near the bottom of its peer group of the five "super-major" oil companies - the others being Exxon, BP, Chevron and Total - the remuneration committee is right to point out that the difference between Shell in fourth place and Total in third for 2006-08 was very small.

And while Mr van der Veer's pay rose sharply last year, it is still much lower than the rewards paid to rival chief executives.

Shell's problem is in part that its huge profits last year were seen as unde-served. If you are producing more than 3m barrels of oil and gas per day when commodity prices hit record highs, you do not require any special brilliance to make a lot of money.

More particular, however, is the sense it conveys that shareholders' concerns are not taken seriously.

Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life Investments, who described Mr van der Veer's award as "not acceptable", said his company had not supported a vote on Royal Dutch Shell's remuneration report since 2003.

Speaking after the meeting, Sir Peter Job, former chief executive of Reuters who is a non-executive director at Shell and has chaired the remuneration committee since 2007, said Shell "takes the outcome of this vote seriously".

However, he also said the discretion used by the remuneration committee in making incentive payments, which was the focus of shareholder opposition, had been explicity approved in the 2005 vote.

His offer to shareholders was merely that "we will be discussing the implications of this vote with them".

Shell is introducing new rules for its incentive plans, which it says follow consultation with shareholders. However, by introducing operational performance measures as criteria, it risks further blunting the focus on shareholder return.

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www.odac-info.org Read newsletter online ODAC Newsletter - 12 June 2009 Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil. Oil demand will fall less in 2009 than previously forecast according to reports by both the IEA and EIA this week. This, along with news of a further reduction in US oil stocks, and a weak dollar saw prices soar above $70/barrel for the first time this year. The price is now close to the $75/barrel which oil producers have been saying is required for investment, at the same time however the increase threatens to dampen the fragile economic recovery. Last year’s oil data came under the spotlight this week with Wednesday’s release of the BP Annual Statistical Review. In 2008 global proved oil reserves fell by 3bn barrels, global oil consumption fell for the first time since 1992, the year also marked the first time that oil consumption in the developing nations outstripped that of the OECD. CEO Tony Hayward acknowledged a “year of truly unprecedented developments”, before summarising optimistically that reserves were enough for decades to come and that challenges to supply growth are above ground and human rather than geological. These human and above ground challenges are however exactly the problem. Tony Hayward is correct in saying that large amounts of oil reserves still exist (albeit that new discoveries are drying up), the problem is that the remaining reserves are no longer those which are easy to exploit. For insightful analysis on the report and its release see ODAC Trustee Richard Miller’s Guest Commentary. In the UK it has been a torrid week for the government with cabinet resignations and disastrous local and European election results for Labour. There was one piece of good news for Gordon Brown this week as the National Institute for Economic and Social Research asserted on Wednesday that the UK economy is actually growing. Brown’s one shot at success now is a quick economic recovery; such a short-term political focus however threatens to stack up problems for the future. As Vince Cable of the UK Liberal Party wrote this week “Long-term thinking is difficult in the current political crisis, when most politicians are obsessed by tomorrow's headlines,...but our future as a country depends much more on our ability to plan ahead for the next oil shock and the post-oil world.” Join us! Become a member of the ODAC Newsgathering Network. Can you regularly commit to checking a news source for stories related to peak oil, energy depletion, their implications and responses to the issues? If you are checking either a daily or weekly news source and would have time to add articles to our database, please contact us for more details.

Oil

IEA raises 2009 oil demand forecast

Joe Brock and Alex Lawler - Reuters, arabianbusiness.com, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

World oil demand will contract by less than previously expected this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday as it raised its 2009 demand forecast for the first time in almost a year.

The agency, which advises 28 industrialised countries, said the upward adjustment followed stronger-than-expected demand early in the year in developed countries. The increase in the estimate for 2009 is the IEA's first since August 2008.

"These revisions do not necessarily imply the beginnings of a global economic recovery, and may only signal the bottoming out of the recession," the IEA said in its monthly Oil Market Report.

Global oil demand is expected to fall in 2009 by 2.47 million barrels per day (bpd) to 83.3 million bpd. The IEA's previous forecast was for demand to contract by 2.56 million bpd.

The IEA joins the US government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) in nudging up forecasts for oil demand. The EIA raised its 2009 estimate by 10,000 bpd earlier this week, following months of downward revisions.

While oil stocks both on land and in floating storage remain "abnormally high," the IEA said inventories were lower expressed as days of forward demand.

Oil inventories in developed countries fell to 62.0 days of forward cover at end-April, a measure closely watched by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which considers 52-53 days comfortable.

Higher oil output in May reduced OPEC's compliance rate with its pledged supply curbs to 74 percent, compared with compliance in April of an average of 76 percent, the IEA said.

The IEA raised its forecast for supply from countries outside OPEC by 170,000 bpd for 2009 on higher-than-expected growth from new Russian fields, more robust North Sea production and stronger crude output in Columbia.

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Oil Climbs Above $72 as China Imports Rise, U.S. Supplies Drop

Ben Sharples, Bloomberg, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

Crude oil rose for a third day, climbing above $72 a barrel for the first time in seven months, after China’s net imports jumped to a 14-month high and U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly fell.

China, the world’s second-biggest energy user, increased its net crude purchases to 16.62 million metric tons in May, or 3.9 million barrels a day, according to data released by customs on its Web site today. Oil was also supported by a 4.38 million barrel drop in U.S. stockpiles.

“China’s oil import number should be seen in a positive light for the oil price,” said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. “That’s pretty strong. I think that will be a supportive factor.”

Crude oil for July delivery gained as much as 85 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $72.18 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $71.63 at 3:42 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, the contract rose $1.32, or 1.9 percent, to close at $71.33, the highest settlement since Oct. 20.

U.S. oil stockpiles dropped to 361.6 million in the week ended June 5, the Energy Department said yesterday. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News said supplies would rise by 100,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories slipped for a seventh week.

China’s increase in net crude-oil imports in May was second only to a record of 16.9 million tons in March. Imports rose by 5 percent to 17.09 million tons from a year earlier and exports stood at 470,000 tons, up from 150,000 tons last year.

China’s diesel market is showing signs of tight supply, Jin Anyao, the deputy head of PetroChina Co.’s sales department, said at a conference in Beijing today. China may import more than 50 percent of its crude oil needs this year, he said.

China Investment

China’s spending on factories, property and roads surged a more-than-estimated 32.9 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said today, helping to drive a recovery in the world’s third-largest economy and drive up demand for fuel.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will only consider increasing output when the price of crude rises to $100 a barrel, according to Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed al- Abdullah al-Sabah. OPEC is scheduled to meet on Sept. 9.

U.S. fuel demand in the past four weeks averaged 18.3 million barrels a day, down 6.9 percent from a year earlier, the Energy Department said. There was a 7.7 percent deficit in the week ended May 29. Gasoline use averaged 9.2 million barrels a day during the period, up 0.4 percent from a year ago.

Fuel imports to the U.S. dropped 379,000 barrels a day to 2.55 million, the department said. Crude-oil imports slipped 676,000 barrels to 8.97 million.

Gasoline Stockpiles

Stockpiles of gasoline fell 1.55 million barrels to 201.6 million, the Energy Department report showed. A 750,000-barrel increase was forecast, according to the median of 14 estimates by analysts surveyed before today’s report.

“The big news last night was the bigger than expected decline in stockpiles,” said Toby Hassall, a research analyst at Commodity Warrants Australia Pty in Sydney. “That’s somewhat of a fundamental justification for this rally continuing in the short term.”

Gasoline supplies last week were 3.9 percent below the five-year average for the period, according to the department. There was a 13 percent surplus in the week ended May 22.

Gasoline for July delivery gained 1.47 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $2.03 a gallon at 3:34 p.m. in Singapore. Yesterday, it rose 4.86 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $2.0153 a gallon in New York, the highest close since Oct. 9.

Brent crude for July delivery rose as much as 75 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $71.55 on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract was at $71.08 a barrel at 3:39 p.m. in Singapore. Yesterday, it settled at $70.80, the highest since Oct. 20.

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BP's Tony Hayward warns of dwindling demand for oil

Robin Pagnamenta and Carl Mortished, The Times, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

It used to be the nightmare scenario that the world would run out of oil and civilisation would grind to a halt. Not so, Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, said yesterday: global oil production will decline, but because of dwindling demand, not because of a scarcity of supplies of crude.

Gains in energy efficiency will lead, ultimately, to falling oil demand, he said. Indeed, consumption of oil in the developed world fell by 1.6 per cent last year, the largest drop since 1982, and the decline is set to continue.

Mr Hayward’s prediction of weakening demand came as the energy company unveiled its annual review of energy trends. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy showed that, for the first time, total energy demand in poorer countries, including China and India, exceeded the hunger for power and fuel in wealthier nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

According to BP, non-OECD energy consumption accounts for 51 per cent of the total. Demand for energy in the emerging world economies continued to rise in 2008, but among the developed nations energy demand fell by 1.3 per cent.

“The world will be able to deliver the oil demand required,” Mr Hayward said. “BP is unlikely to sell more gasoline to Americans than it sold in the first half of 2008. Energy efficiency means demand from OECD countries will continue to decline.”

BP said that there were 1.258 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves left in the ground, enough to supply the world for 42 years at present production rates. It said that reserves of gas were sufficient for 60 years and coal for 122 years. “Our data confirms that the world has enough proved reserves . . . to meet the world’s needs for decades to come,” Mr Hayward said, adding that constraints on production were “human, not geological”.

Will Whitehorn, an executive with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, who chairs a UK industry task force on peak oil and energy security, called the findings overoptimistic. He said: “Many of the reserves figures are overstated.”

BP’s report showed that total global oil consumption in 2008 had slipped by 420,000 barrels a day to 84.4 million barrels, compared with 84.8 million barrels in 2007. It added that demand in the 30 industrialised countries of the OECD had slipped by 3.5 per cent, or 1.5 million barrels, representing the third consecutive annual decline. That fall was led by a 6.4 per cent slide in the US oil market of nearly 1.3 million barrels per day. Nevertheless, consumption in the emerging economies of Africa, China and the Middle East continued to expand briskly.

The closely watched annual study from BP reflected an unprecedented year in the global oil market, during which prices soared to a record high of more than $147 a barrel last July before plummeting to slightly more than $30 in December as demand evaporated amid an intensifying global recession.

Oil prices exceeded $71 a barrel — a seven-month high — yesterday after figures from the US Government indicated that American stockpiles of crude were falling faster than expected. The price of a barrel of London Brent crude rose after the US Energy Information Administration said that oil stocks had slipped by 4.4 million barrels last week.

Although demand for oil faltered, the BP report showed that global coal consumption had risen by 3 per cent last year to a total of 3.3 billion tonnes. “For a sixth consecutive year, coal was the fastest-growing fuel, with obvious implications for global carbon dioxide emissions,” Mr Hayward said. The gains were led by consumption in China, where dozens of new coal-fired power plants are being built every year to feed the country’s growing demand for electric power.

However, China plans to significantly increase its use of wind and solar power and aims to generate as much as 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice-chairman of China’s national development and reform commission, said.

Raw material prices sink

• BHP Billiton has agreed a 58 per cent price cut for coking coal, a raw material used to make steel. The new price will be about $128 a tonne

• Collapsing demand for steel has forced miners to accept much lower prices for their raw materials this year. Rio Tinto said last month that it would cut the price of iron ore sold to Japanese and Korean steel producers by about 33 per cent

• Vale, the Brazilian miner, said yesterday that its iron ore contracts with Asian producers would be priced at between 28 per cent and 33 per cent below last year

• Iron ore producers have yet to agree new prices with Chinese producers, which are seeking hefty price cuts of 40 per cent to 50 per cent

Guest Commentary: Dr. Richard Miller - ODAC Trustee

BPs annual Statistical Review of World Energy for 2009, its 58th, was published this week, a collection of valuable statistics accompanied by press briefings and the regular anodyne platitude.

According to BP, 2008 experienced a small decline in global annual oil consumption of 0.6% (which, despite the Independent’s claim, was by no means the first in 15 years). There was, however, a slim rise in production, so stocks have presumably built up a little. Although OECD countries still account for more than half of consumption, they burned 3% less than they did in 2007, while emerging economies burned 3% more. Oil production outside OPEC fell by 1.4%, the largest decline since 1992; step forward USA, Canada, Mexico, Norway, UK and Russia (for the first time since 1998), with a total decline of almost 800 thousand b/d. A production decline, when world prices were at a record, is a real decline. OPEC’s share of global production rose by 2.7% to nearly 45%. Will OPEC grasp us by the hand or by the throat, we wonder?

“Proved” reserves did something interesting too; they fell, for the first time (in BP’s view) since 1998. The drop was just 3 billion barrels, or 10% of global annual production, and OPEC’s claims concerning proved reserves have long been challenged anyway, but all the same it is an interesting development. Even Saudi Arabia registered a tiny fall. The Guardian blamed this on reduced investment, but we disagree, because that investment reduction didn’t bite hard until this year. OPEC now owns 76% of the world’s proved reserves, up from 75.5%, making it that little bit harder for BP and its cousins to maintain their place in the oil world.

The accompanying narrative from Dr Tony Hayward, BP’s Group Chief Executive notes the probable role of energy prices in precipitating the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. 2008 was the seventh successive year when the annual oil price rose, a first; BP reportedly needs a price of about $55/bbl to avoid increasing its debts. Renewables are still a very minor and still-subsidised player in the global energy scene, but Hayward sees the beginnings of a significant impact. Ethanol production rose by 31%.

Then comes the platitude: “The world has enough proved reserves of oil…to meet the world’s needs for decades to come.” ODAC repeats now what we have said before and will doubtless still be repeating when the peak is finally recognised, which is this: the quantity of oil is not the problem, it’s the rate at which it can be extracted, given that most fields are already in decline, and the rate of new oil discovery is nowhere near the rate of production.

Hayward’s spoken comments to the press are also interesting. For example, he observes that the developing world will require more energy as it industrialises, but oil demand in developed countries may have peaked. Dr Hayward believes that BP sales of conventional petrol peaked forever in the US in the first half of 2008. The reason given is increased energy efficiency and the growth of biofuels, but we wonder whether the higher cost of crude oil is also a factor. Are we approaching the point where expensive oil will still be available but the west can’t afford the price? UK oil production is in for a torrid time, with annual falls of at least 5%, or even more if investment is with-held.

Furthermore, if, as Hayward notes, renewables are becoming globally significant, what is his company’s position? BP is reported to be cutting investment by one to two thirds this year, and losing the division’s chief executive, Vivienne Cox. The company is abandoning wind power outside the US and closing many solar power manufacturing facilities. There are also doubts about BP’s joint venture with D1 Oils for producing biodiesel from jatropha. Doubtless these cuts will all be good for BP’s shorter term bottom line, but perhaps not so healthy for BP or anyone else if it means a misplaced, longer-term reliance on dwindling fossil fuels.

The Review can be downloaded from BP’s web-site, or, to order a printed copy, go here.

Dr. Richard Miller is an Independent Consultant, and former geochemist for the BP Exploration Department

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Global Oil Reserves Fell in 2008 on Russia, Norway, Says BP

Rachel Graham and Alexander Kwiatkowski, Bloomberg, 10 Jun 2009 View original article

Global proved oil reserves fell in 2008, led by declines in Russia, Norway and China, according to BP Plc.

Oil reserves totaled 1,258 billion barrels at the end of 2008, compared with a revised 1,261 billion barrels a year earlier, BP said in its annual Statistical Review of World Energy posted on its Web Site today.

“Declines in Russia, Norway, China and other countries offset increases in Vietnam, India and Egypt,” BP said.

Major oil companies are struggling to replace reserves as their access to new deposits becomes harder and older fields in places like the U.K. and Mexico become depleted. Russia passed a law last year that limits foreign ownership in some of the country’s biggest energy and metals deposits.

Saudi Arabia’s reserves, the world’s largest, stood at 264.1 billion barrels, little changed from 264.2 billion a year earlier, BP said.

None of the biggest international oil companies have replaced output through new discoveries or extending fields in the past six years, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said in an April 2 report.

Companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalization, are looking at acquisitions to boost reserves, Bernstein said.

BP said the estimates in today’s report are a combination of official sources, OPEC data and other third-party estimates. Oil reserves include gas condensates and natural gas liquids, as well as crude oil.

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Oil demand falls at fastest rate since 1982, says BP

Sarah Arnott, The Independent, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

Global oil demand dropped for the first time in 15 years in 2008, falling at its sharpest rate since 1982, according to the industry-leading BP statistical review published yesterday.

Total worldwide consumption dropped by 0.6 per cent – equivalent to 420,000 barrels per day (bpd) – and demand from developing economies, particularly China, outstripped that from OECD countries for the first time. As the developed world curtailed its appetite for oil by 1.5 million bpd – spurred first by eye-watering prices and then by sharply braking economic growth – non-OECD countries also registered slower growth in demand at just 1.1 million bpd.

But the big story last year was China, and not just with regards to oil. Global energy consumption grew by just 1.4 per cent in 2008, its smallest rise since 2001. And China accounted for three-quarters of it.

The US is still the world's most energy-hungry nation, gobbling a whopping 20.4 per cent. But demand was down 2.8 per cent last year, the biggest contraction for a quarter of a century. Meanwhile, Chinese energy usage shot up by 7.2 per cent, its slowest rate for five years but still enough to take the rapidly industrialising nation to a 17.7 per cent share. No other country is even in double figures.

Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, said: "The centre of gravity of the global energy markets has tilted sharply and irreversibly towards the emerging nations of the world, especially China."

The shift is not likely to reverse, according to Mr Hayward. "This is not a temporary phenomenon but one that will only increase still more over time," he said. "It will continue to affect prices and bring with it new challenges over economic growth, energy security and climate change."

The short-term effect on prices has been significant – most notably for oil. After a run of price rises unprecedented in the oil industry's 150-year history, the average oil price rose for the seventh consecutive year to hit $97.26 per barrel last year, up 34 per cent from 2007. But it was enormously volatile – soaring to the all-time $147 per barrel high in late July before plummeting to below $40 by the end of the year. Prices are now back on the rise, more than doubling so far this year already (see below).

Gas and coal prices have followed a similar trajectory. Overall gas consumption grew more slowly in 2008, below the decade average at 2.5 per cent. Again the fastest rise was in China, with consumption up by 15.8 per cent, compared with just 0.6 per cent in the US and 3 per cent in the UK. Even though last year's 3.1 per cent rise in coal usage was below the 10-year trend, it is still the fastest growing fuel source. Some 43 per cent of global demand for coal is from China, as was an 85 per cent share of last year's growth. With prices rising faster than for any other fossil fuel, demand grew by a measly 0.6 per cent outside the Middle Kingdom. Inside China, it was up 6.8 per cent.

Despite lower demand for oil, production rose by 0.4 per cent – equivalent to 380,000 bpd – as Opec, the 12-strong cartel of oil-producing countries, tried to cash in on the high prices. Opec production grew by 2.7 per cent, almost 1 million bpd, last year, largely thanks to big increases in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia boosted its output by 400,000 bpd and Iraq by 280,000.

Worldwide proven oil reserves, excluding the controversial Canadian tar sands, stand at 1.26 trillion, enough for another 42 years of production at last year's rates. There is enough gas for another 60 years and enough coal for another 122, says BP.

The oil price bubble: Up, up and away

The steadily rising oil price broke through yet another psychological barrier yesterday, breaking $70 per barrel for the first time since October.

So far this year, oil has nearly doubled and members of the 12-country Opec oil producers' cartel have made the first hints that supply could increase if the price keeps rising.

After an all-time high of $147 last July, the price fell through the floor as the world slid into recession, dropping below $40 by the end of December.

Opec has cut 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from production since the autumn to try to halt the collapsing price. But at the group's meeting in Vienna last month, it decided that rising demand obviated the need for further cuts.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest Opec member, is thought to favour a price upwards of $80 per barrel. The Kuwaiti oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah, intimated a similar target yesterday. "At $75 [Opec] will not increase output, but if it reached $100, then maybe," he said.

Meanwhile, Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, is supporting calls for a new Global Oil Agency to stabilise prices while ensuring investment and avoiding future spikes.

Alexei Miller, Gazprom's chairman, said: "It is only by ensuring a reliably high oil price that we will be able to support investment programs of producers and to launch real projects to increase energy efficiency among consumers."

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Price of crude ‘right’ in $60-$90 range

Ed Crooks, Financial Times, 10 Jun 2009 View original article

An oil price of $60-$90 is arguably the “right sort of level”, BP’s chief executive said on Wednesday, while warning the actual price could easily go either higher or lower than that range.

Tony Hayward said most countries in Opec, the oil producers’ cartel, needed oil to be higher than $60-$70 per barrel to be able to fund their social programmes while investing in their production capacity.

In addition, sources of new oil such as Canada’s tar sands needed a similar level to be commercially viable.

As a result, that price would be an effective floor for the oil price, below which supply would start to shrink quite rapidly.

Meanwhile, prices of $100 per barrel or higher had been shown to have a significant effect in choking off demand, he said. So the equilibrium range for oil would be between those two points.

Christof Rühl, BP’s chief economist, said the collapse in oil prices last year had come as demand fell at its fastest rate since 1982, while Opec’s production rose following increases decided in the first half of the year as prices rose.

The recovery in the oil price this year had been supported by Opec’s production cuts agreed in the second half of last year, helped by a steep fall in non-Opec production last year, from countries such as Mexico, the US and the UK.

Opec members’ compliance with those agreed cuts, he said, had been “solid” by historical standards.

However, he added that those production cuts had created large spare capacity in Opec, of perhaps 5.5m barrels per day, which could keep a lid on the oil price in the future.

While that spare capacity persists, there seems to be little danger of a “supply crunch” that would send prices soaring.

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Shell CEO warns next oil spike 'may already be in the making'

Platts, 08 Jun 2009 View original article

Oil and gas players are slashing spending on new projects amid the current recession, but as energy demand climbs over the long term, "the next [oil] price spike may already be in the making," the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, warned Monday.

The steep slide in oil prices from their historic peak of July 2008 was "only a dent in a graph that goes up all the time," van der Veer said in an address to the 14th Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Citing the International Energy Agency's estimate of a 20% drop in oil and gas project investment this year compared with 2008 and a 40% slump in renewable energy sector investment, van der Veer said the current overcapacity in the market would disappear as in the long term, energy demand was bound to climb.

As the world's population increases from 6 billion to 9 billion by 2050, "energy demand, even taking into account energy saving, will double," he said.
Oil and gas would not be able to supply the incremental demand, "in what I call more of the same," van der Veer said. "You need renewables, unconventionals and conventionals."

LONG LEAD TIME

The Shell executive, who retires at the end of this month after 38 years with the oil and gas giant, reminded delegates that construction of oil and gas projects, be they in the LNG sector, refining, or the proposed development of oil reserves in the Arctic, takes "at least four to five years" after the final investment decision. "The system is very slow to react," he said.

While Shell itself plans to maintain investments "at a relatively high level" in 2009, the same might not be true for the whole sector, van der Veer said.

The Shell chief also underlined the importance of curbing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. The role of the oil companies, he said, "was not to try and second-guess" the scientific community on the effects of emissions, but to see how it could provide "green energy."

Shell estimates renewables could meet around 30% of global energy demand by 2050, but that means the remaining 70% would still come from fossil fuels and nuclear energy, van der Veer said.

As a result, it is important to focus on fossil fuels to address the climate change challenge, he added. Renewable energy still needs technological breakthroughs to lower costs, he said.

The executive also called for better targeted reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. For instance, it is far more easy to reduce CO2 at a power station than from cars on the road, he said. "So get carbon dioxide reduction with the lowest price."

Calling for carbon capture and storage at power plants, especially the coal-fired ones, van der Veer said Shell itself was also in favor or
cap-and-trade schemes.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS

However, governments, not producers, ought to lay down the rules on whether power plants should be fitted with CCS or not, the executive said.
Efforts in this direction need to be "on an international scale," he added, so that oil companies are assured a level playing field.
Similarly, it is the role of governments to decide the ideal energy mix for a country, van der Veer said.

The energy mix in the US, for instance, would be different from the combination in Malaysia. "There is no need that it be the same," he said.
Oil and gas being a highly capital-intensive industry also needs fiscal stability, he said. "Every future barrel of oil, cubic meter of gas, will need more investment."

Companies would feel confident to invest only if governments ensured fiscal stability, he added.
Van der Veer also called upon oil companies to become energy-efficient in their upstream and refining operations, employ enhanced oil recovery to squeeze out more output from existing fields, and forge partnerships for new projects.

National oil companies and international oil companies will need to partner, especially if they are to go after unconventional oil and gas, such as in the Arctic, the executive added.

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Brazil readies oil reserves law

Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo, Financial Times, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

The Brazilian government is preparing legislation that will set new regulations for the country's enormous off-shore “pre-salt” oil reserves, discovered in 2007.

International oil companies have been anxiously awaiting the regulations as they cover some of the world's few big unexploited oil reserves, which industry leaders say will be as significant as the North Sea discoveries of the 1970s.

But the proposed legislation has caused alarm among many in the industry, who fear it may be open to political interference and give unfair advantage to Petrobras, Brazil’s government-controlled but publicly traded oil company.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Edson Lobão, mines and energy minister, said international oil companies should “prepare their treasury reserves” as the government would introduce regulations in time to auction new concessions in the pre-salt fields next year.

The statement surprised many in the industry, who had expected the process to take longer.

The ministry confirmed on Wednesday local press reports, saying three bills were being prepared to go before Congress. They would create a new, 100 per cent state-controlled oil company to take ownership of the fields and award concessions; production sharing agreements in the fields, in which oil companies would give part of the oil they produced to the government, replacing the existing concession system in which companies take ownership of whatever oil they discover; and a fund to channel proceeds from the fields to social spending.

Several concessions in the fields were sold before their potential became clear. Almost all are controlled by Petrobras, in partnership with foreign companies.

Those concessions will not be affected by the new rules and are likely to keep Petrobras and its partners busy for several years.

But because about 60 per cent of Petrobras’s capital is held by private investors, the government has been keen to create a new company to secure ownership of the remaining pre-salt fields for the Brazilian state. Government officials estimate that pre-salt concessions already granted could contain more than 50bn barrels of oil; the remaining area is likely to be much larger.

The proposed new structure is based on that in Norway, where Petoro, entirely controlled by the state, oversees the industry in which StatoilHydro, controlled by the state but with private investors, plays a dominant role.

Brazil’s ministry said the new regulations would follow the Norwegian model, including measures that allow the new state company to grant concessions without putting them out to tender – a move widely seen as protecting Petrobras from being squeezed out by wealthier foreign competitors.

“This is worrying,” said Eric Smith of the Tulane Energy Institute in New Orleans. “There is likely to be a lot less transparency in Brazil than there is in Norway. This could allow for political interference and favours.”

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Iraq unveils foreign oil contract shortlist

Alice Fordham, Baghdad, The Times, 10 Jun 2009 View original article

Three British companies have been shortlisted to bid for contracts to work on Iraq's oil and gas fields, pitting themselves against 32 other non-Iraqi companies in a televised, two-day bidding procedure revealed at Baghdad's Oil Ministry.

BP, which provided technical assistance to the Iraqi state oil company in 2004-2006, BG International and Premier Oil were among the 120 companies who put themselves forward in June last year, and which now appear on the shortlist of 35 companies who are invited to submit proposals for consideration by a panel of experts at the Ministry.

Along with other oil majors including Exxonmobil and Total, they are due to present proposals on June 29 and 30 to work on one of six oil fields and two gas fields. It will be the first major foreign investment in Iraqi oil for 40 years, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves but needs massive foreign investment to resurrect the country's energy infrastructure.

BG International, however, told The Times that it was unlikely to submit a proposal. "Iraq does not currently form part of BG Group's plans," a spokeswoman said.

The oil and gas fields are already operational. The agreements due to be awarded are service contracts, whereby companies provide technical assistance to increase capacity, and are paid according to how much production of oil or gas increases, rather than production contracts, where revenue is shared.

Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani gave Iraq's current oil output as 2.4 million barrels per day, the highest since 2003, and anticipated that after this round of contracts is awarded, production would increase to 4 million barrels per day.

The country has reserves of 115 billion barrels, but poor security and bureaucratic stalemate have stalled its exploitation. The country's controversial hydrocarbon's legislation, which was proposed in February 2007 but mired in disagreement about how to distribute oil revenue, remains in doubt.

However, Mr al-Shahristani offered his assurances that companies' concerns about operating without legislation would be addressed, as all proposals would be given cabinet approval.

“If it is going to be delayed for any reason, then the existing laws allow the oil ministry to approve these contracts,” he said. While concerns still exist, the bidding companies have largely given tacit approval to working in this way, and also to strict conditions including a 35 per cent corporate tax.

This flexibility on the part of foreign investors has been attributed to the falling oil prices. "Given the size and attractiveness of the reserves," Robert Foulkes, associate with advisory firm Critical Resource, told The Times, "and the fact that the companies are looking beyond the recent oil price slump when making new investments, they will do what they need to to get access."

Three fields in this round of bidding are in Basra, two in Kirkuk in the north, and one in Maysan, also in the south. The two gas contracts are for sites in Anbar and Diyala provinces.

There are none in Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern region where revenue from resources is heavily disputed. However, Mr al-Shahristani slammed the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), who began exporting oil at the beginning of this month, calling the deals "illegal" as they had not been seen by the Iraq Oil Ministry.

"The KRG has signed some contracts and created a backlash," he said, adding that the revenue from the oil would go directly to central government, who would not pay firms who signed independent deals with the KRG.

The KRG would continue to receive 17 per cent of oil revenue, he said, and no more. Companies, including Norway's DNO International, Toronto-listed Addax Petroleum and Turkey's General Enerji who signed independent deals with the KRG must be paid by the KRG, he said, adding that, "we will not discuss any compensation for these companies under any circumstances."

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Senate Panel OKs Expanded Oil and Gas Leasing in Eastern Gulf

Ben Geman and Greenwire, New York Times, 09 Jun 2009 View original article

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved expanded oil and gas leasing today in the eastern Gulf of Mexico in a bipartisan vote that would upend a 2006 compromise with Florida senators that provided their state at least a 125-mile buffer in most areas until mid-2022.

The committee voted 13-10 in favor of Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-N.D.) plan to allow leasing as close as 45 miles from Florida's coast. It also allows leasing in a gas-rich region called the Destin Dome off the Florida Panhandle that is even closer to shore.

The drilling amendment vote was part of the committee's ongoing markup of a broad energy bill.

Dorgan said the measure should be part of a bill that also addresses alternative energy and efficiency. "I am interested in doing this to increase production," Dorgan said.

But Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said wider drilling in the eastern gulf would endanger Florida's environment and tourist economy while failing to reduce gasoline prices. "This continues our dependency and at the end of the day just helps the oil industry," he said.

Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson slammed the plan in a prepared statement, arguing it could hamper military training, while blaming prices at the pump on financial speculators.

"Congress ought to be looking at that and at a real alternative energy program, instead of trying to put oil rigs off the world-class tourist spots all along Florida's coast," Nelson said.

Nelson vowed to block the effort in remarks to reporters after the vote. "We will have a bunch of senators filibuster this if we have to to protect the interests of the United States military," he said.

Environmentalists oppose Dorgan's effort. "The Dorgan amendment would threaten Florida's coasts with oil spills and pollution while increasing our dependence on oil and increasing global warming pollution," said Anna Aurilio, director of the Washington office of the group Environment America, this morning.

But American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard praised the action after the vote. "By allowing greater access to oil and natural gas leasing in promising areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Senator Dorgan's amendment stands to help the American people by creating new jobs, adding new energy resources and providing new revenues to federal, state and local governments," he said in a prepared statement.

After a long debate, the committee rejected, 10-13, an amendment by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to provide states with offshore production in adjacent federal waters with a 37.5 percent share of revenues, while steering 50 percent of their revenues to federal deficit reduction and 12.5 percent to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

A 2006 gulf leasing law created a revenue-sharing program for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. Landrieu's plan would have provided this share to Alaska and to states that might have offshore leasing in the future, which she calls a critical state incentive for allowing oil and gas drilling in the outer continental shelf.

Landrieu also argued that revenue-sharing compensates for the impact of infrastructure for offshore development on coastal states, and she also cited the conservation funding in an effort to corral support.

But revenue-sharing opponents said the OCS is a national resource and cited future losses to the Treasury if a large share of leasing and royalty payments is directed to coastal states.

Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the Interior Department has estimated that total future federal losses from revenue sharing could be between $653 billion and $790 billion dollars. "We are not in a position as a country today where we can give away $653-$790 billion in future revenue," Bingaman said.

Several lawmakers said they will look to revisit the revenue-sharing issue to seek a compromise as the bill proceeds toward the Senate floor.

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Coal

U.S. Foresees a Thinner Cushion of Coal

Rebecca Smith, Wall Street Journal, 08 Jun 2009 View original article

Every year, federal employee George Warholic calculates America's vast coal reserves the same way his predecessors have for decades: He looks up the prior year's coal-reserve estimate, subtracts the year's nationwide production and arrives at a new official tally.

Coal provides nearly one-quarter of the total energy consumed in the U.S., and by Mr. Warholic's estimate, the country has enough in the ground to last about 240 years. A belief in this nearly boundless supply has led officials to dub the U.S. the "Saudi Arabia of Coal."

While there is almost certainly as much coal in the ground as Mr. Warholic's Energy Information Administration believes, relatively little of it can be profitably extracted. Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey completed an extensive analysis of Wyoming's Gillette coal field, the nation's largest and most productive, and determined that less than 6% of the coal in its biggest beds could be mined profitably, even at prices higher than today's.

"We really can't say we're the Saudi Arabia of coal anymore," says Brenda Pierce, head of the USGS team that conducted the study.

No one says the U.S. is facing a coal shortage. But the emerging ranks of "peak coal" theorists argue that current production levels may be unsustainable and, if anything, create a false sense of security. David Rutledge, an electrical-engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology who has studied global coal production, figures the U.S. has about half as much recoverable reserves as the government says, which would work out to about 120 years' worth.

The Energy Information Administration, part of the Department of Energy, says it is reassessing its coal tally in light of the new Geological Survey data. It intends to create a new coal baseline from which it will begin its annual subtraction "as soon as we can," says William Watson, a member of the energy analysis team at EIA in Washington, D.C.

In the field, challenges are becoming more apparent. Mining companies report they have to dig deeper and move more earth to extract coal from aging mines, driving up costs. Utilities have grown skittish about whether suppliers can ship promised coal on time. American Electric Power Co., the nation's biggest coal buyer, says it has stepped up its due diligence to make sure its suppliers can make deliveries after some firms missed shipments last fall. It even bought a mine to lock down supplies.

"We are very much concerned, and it's getting worse," said Tim Light, senior vice president for AEP.

Coal mines began appearing in America in the early 1740s in Virginia. A century later, as the nation's railroads branched out, coal provided fuel for steamships on the Mississippi and blast furnaces that made steel. The U.S. came to rely on abundant coal to generate electricity, too. About half of the electric power in the U.S. still is produced by coal combustion, more than in most other industrialized nations.

The country's coal supplies have been seen as a bulwark of energy security. In 1979, as the U.S. was reeling from an oil shock, President Jimmy Carter pushed for projects to create liquefied gas from America's vast coal reserves. Today the U.S. produces 1.1 billion tons of coal annually, more than any nation but China.

Concerns about supplies are out of the spotlight now, masked by what could be a short-term lull in the appetite for coal.

Recession has reduced demand from the two biggest users of coal, electricity producers and steelmakers. A proposed law capping greenhouse-gas emissions could make coal-generated electricity -- currently one of the cheapest power sources -- significantly more expensive. At the same time, the country has found itself awash in cleaner-burning natural gas after recent big discoveries, prompting some power companies to pull the plug on proposed coal plants and shift toward gas-fueled power generation.

Experts expect coal production to drop this year by 5% to 10%, or as much as 100 million tons. Prices for coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin are down nearly 30% from a year ago, to about $8.50 a ton. (Prices of Eastern coal, which burns hotter and typically doesn't have to be transported as far to customers, have also fallen.)

Coal is down but hardly out. It remains the electric-power industry's dominant fuel. Emerging "clean coal" technology could help improve coal's environmental profile. And coal remains an energy ace in the hole, available to substitute for other fuels if shipments are disrupted.

Some in the coal industry believe concerns about future supplies are overblown. Coal advocates argue that improved technology could increase the amount of coal that can be extracted profitably. Coal "is certain to remain an enormously competitive energy resource by virtually any conceivable measure," says Kim Link, spokeswoman for Arch Coal Inc., which produced about 12% of the nation's coal last year.

The U.S. isn't the only nation employing improved drilling data and computer modeling to reassess its supplies. Germany cut its proven hard-coal reserve estimates by more than 99% in 2004 as it explored reducing mining subsidies, which would make coal more expensive to extract. Overall, assessments of total world reserves dropped by half from 1980 to 2005, according to a study by Energy Watch Group, an independent group based in Germany.

The U.S. Geological Survey, the Department of the Interior's science agency, attempted to get a clearer picture of the nation's coal supplies beginning in 2004. Its full study of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana will be completed next year.

The agency began with the Powder River's rich Gillette coal field, an 80-mile-long strip in northeastern Wyoming that contains the nation's 10 top-producing mines. About one-third of all coal in the country is produced there. Some 1.2 million short tons leave the field daily, a river of coal filling more than 75 trains of 125 to 150 cars each.

For the Gillette study, USGS engineers, geologists and economists spent three years analyzing data from 10,200 drill holes, the most comprehensive study ever attempted of the region. The team concluded there are 201 billion short tons of coal in the Gillette field. Environmental rules and physical challenges put much of that out of reach, leaving what they figured were 77 billion short tons of recoverable coal.

Little is presently worth mining. Analyzing coal beds that contained 82% of the Gillette deposits, the team determined that with coal selling for $10.50 a ton, the prevailing price two years ago, less than 6% of the coal could be extracted profitably enough to leave mining companies an 8% rate of return.

If Powder River prices were to hit $60 a ton in current dollars, as much as 47% could be extracted. But at that price, coal would have a tough time competing with other fuels and technologies.

By adding an economic component, the study broke ground. Jim Luppens, an industry veteran who is now chief of the coal-assessment project for USGS, says policy makers often confuse the total coal resource -- which he describes as the "blood, guts and feathers" number -- with coal reserves, which he likens to the edible meat. "They mix up the R-words," he says.

The findings are percolating through the coal and power industries. "USGS made a leap forward with this study," says Vic Svec, spokesman for Peabody Energy Resources, the U.S.'s biggest coal company. He adds that when his company plugs in prices as the USGS study did, it reaches similar conclusions.

Modern estimates of the U.S. coal resource began in 1907, with field geologists reporting on outcroppings -- places where coal stuck out of the ground -- and mines. Based on consumption at the time, the USGS concluded there were three trillion tons of coal, enough to last 5,000 years. By the 1950s, armed with more mining data, the USGS and the now-defunct U.S. Bureau of Mines reduced their estimate of the total resource to 500 billion tons.

The federal method for calculating U.S. coal reserves has changed little in 35 years. In 1974, the Bureau of Mines established a baseline reserve level, considered good for its era. Each year since, the government -- currently, the DOE's Energy Information Administration -- has subtracted each coal region's production and mine waste to get a new estimate of what's left in the ground.

In 2007, the EIA said the U.S. had a "demonstrated reserve base" of nearly 500 billion tons of coal. It regarded 267 million tons of that as "economically recoverable," enough for 240 years.

Even Mr. Warholic, the EIA analyst, says he's skeptical about the results. "It's kind of crazy" to postulate how long U.S. reserves will last, he says. "It could be 110 years or 225 years or something completely different. It all depends on your assumptions."

After many decades of mining, some of the country's coal fields are showing their age. "What's left to mine is not as easy as what we mined even 10 or 20 years ago," says Janine Orf, spokeswoman for Patriot Coal Corp. in St. Louis. "The seams are getting thinner and there are more limestone intrusions."

Even at the Gillette field, where surface mining started around 1924 and production still is buoyant, obstacles are emerging.

Coal at its Gillette's eastern edge lies mostly close to the surface but the seams generally slope downward in a westerly direction, forcing miners to dig progressively deeper to extract it. At Arch Coal's Black Thunder mine, five pits are moving westward and will intersect the main Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad line at some point. Arch then will have to move heavy equipment to the other side of the tracks and dig a new pit down several hundred feet, which it says could cost $100 million or more.

Coal's big buyer, the power industry, has grown increasingly nervous about securing reliable suppliers for power plants that often have a useful life of 50 or 60 years. Plants fine-tune their equipment to burn the coal they expect to receive and to remove its particular pollutants from the waste stream. That makes it problematic to switch suppliers.

Last fall, production problems caused some coal producers in the East to struggle to fulfill contracts. Utility executives say the delays were a wake-up call.

American Electric Power has 9,100 railroad cars and 2,480 river barges dedicated to keeping its power plants furnished with coal. In May, AEP, together with a partner, Cleco Corp., bought a coal mine in Louisiana after a coal source faltered that had been furnishing fuel to a power plant they own together.

Buying the mine outright, says AEP's Mr. Light, was the best way to understand -- and control -- how much coal the power company could expect to receive. "We don't know what the future holds," he said.

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Renewables

China makes renewable power play to be world's first green superpower

Jonathan Watts, Guardian, 10 Jun 2009 View original article

A game-changing moment could be upon us. In recent years, the world has grown used to condemning China as a climate criminal. But over the next few weeks and months, don't be surprised if you hear the same nation being hailed as the planet's first green superpower.

The State Council, China's cabinet, will soon release the details of a staggeringly large "new energy" programme that could propel the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter past Europe and the US into a global leader in renewable energy and low-carbon technology.

This is no short-term economic boost or sop for climate change negotiations; it is a long-term investment aimed at making China a dominant force in the global low-carbon economy for decades to come. Power plays do not come much bigger.

The size of the energy stimulus has not yet been revealed, but reports in the domestic media and from foreign diplomats suggest between 1.4 trillion (US$200 bn) and 4.5 trillion yuan (US$600bn) will be invested over the next ten years in nuclear power plants, solar and wind farms, hydroelectric dams, "green transport", "clean coal" and super efficient electric grids.

The consequences will be staggering. If the bigger figure proves correct, China will be spending the equivalent of its 2009 military budget on "new energy" for each of the next ten years. Even the smaller figure would mean that China, which represents just 6 per cent of the global economy, would exceed the amount the entire world invested on new power generating capacity last year, including fossil fuels.

China already makes most of the world's solar panels and wind turbines. Its carmakers, such as BYD, are pushing ahead faster than established Japanese and American rivals to mass produce electric vehicles. Its carbon capture technology and high-efficiency "ultrasupercritical" coal plants are close to the global cutting edge. With the new package, the government will commit itself to developing domestic markets for these "sunrise" industries.

The speed at which the country can move has already been shown in the wind sector, where installed capacity has been doubling every year. According to Changhua Wu, director of the Climate Group's China operations, the pace will be quicker for solar. "They are learning from best practice. It took 15 years to do it in the wind sector. They want to go more quickly now."

The government's targets for wind power have already risen threefold, solar is likely to go up two to fourfold and nuclear sixfold. Overall, China will raise its target for renewables from 15 per cent of total energy by 2020, possibly even surpassing Europe's goal of 20 per cent by that date. By that time, China should also have a super high voltage grid.

If a substantial amount of the new package goes on renewables and efficiency, Julian Wong, an energy analyst at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC, says the potential is enormous.

He says: "If those expectations are fulfilled, China could emerge as the unquestioned global leader in clean energy production, significantly increasing its chances to wean [itself] off coal, and at the same time ushering in an era of sustainable economic growth by exporting these clean-energy technologies to the world."

This is not being done because of international obligations, but as an investment in national security. Renewable energy eases China's dependence on foreign fuel supplies, which are a growing concern. In an age of soft power, asymmetric warfare and carbon anxiety, an investment in solar and wind energy will help the country to stake a claim to the moral high ground.

Todd Stern, the top climate change envoy for President Barack Obama, recently warned that the US could fall behind.

"We need to recognise that if we aren't careful, we may spend the next few years chasing China to do more, but then spend all the years after that chasing them," he said before heading to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterparts this week.

The US team is pressing China to do more in terms of slowing the growth in emissions. They are right. Regardless of the massive "new energy" investment, the country will remain dependent on coal and pump out more greenhouse gas than other nations for decades to come. True to its ability to produce superlatives and contradictions, China is likely to be both a black and a green superpower at the same time.

But the new energy plans may change the perceptions and parameters of the climate debate. While a proper assesment must wait until the details are released, the stimulus package ought to force Europe and the US to be more ambitious. The world might finally start to see a race to the top rather than the bottom.

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BP's grim warning over growing cost of North Sea oil

Sam Fleming, The Daily Mail, 11 Jun 2009 View original article

British production in the North Sea is set to drop to levels not seen since the late 1970s, BP statistics suggested.

Chief executive Tony Hayward said output will fall by at least 5 per cent a year in the coming years, and if investment is not stepped up the declines could be even steeper.
Just 1.54million barrels of oil were produced in 2008, compared with a peak of 2.9million in 1999, and continued declines will leave output at its weakest since 1978. Combined oil and gas production has fallen to 2.6million barrels a day.

'The North Sea is a mature and declining province,' said Hayward. 'It will decline for sure at 5 per cent per year, and if the investment doesn't go in - and this year it is not going in - it will probably decline at a faster rate.'

The report is grim news for the Treasury, which expects to generate almost £7billion of tax revenue from the North Sea this year alone.

At the current rate of production, the UK has six years of oil left and just under five years of gas, BP's annual Statistical Review of Energy showed.

Making matters worse, the credit crunch is likely to lead to a halving of North Sea investment in 2010 compared with last year, according to industry lobby group Oil and Gas UK.

A spokesman said: 'The UK has been producing for 40 years and it's a mature basin. The challenge is to slow the decline to make it as flat as possible.'

Across the world, proved oil reserves fell by 3billion barrels to 1.26trillion last year, BP said.

Global oil consumption fell 0.6 per cent in 2008, the largest drop since 1982, as the recession eroded demand and high prices encouraged Americans to cut back.

But Hayward was upbeat about future world output, saying many of the impediments to oil production were political rather than geological.

Overall there are 42 years of proved reserves left around the world, BP's figures showed.

And the lifespan of our remaining resources has held above 40 for the past decade as explorers uncover additional fields.

As such, the long-term oil price should remain at between $60 and $90 a barrel, Hayward said.

Russia's state gas champion Gazprom offered a rather less optimistic outlook, however.

Chairman Alexei Miller reiterated forecasts that crude prices could spike an unprecedented $250 a barrel.

The cost of a barrel exceeded $147 last summer, before falling dramatically back into the $40s this year as the recession bites.

Yesterday it continued its recent rally, as Brent crude advanced 2 per cent to $71 a barrel - the highest since last November.

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Heat capture technology could save UK 10m tonnes of carbon a year, says study

Alok Jha, The Guardian, 03 Jun 2009 View original article

The UK could save 10m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year if the waste heat from some of the country's biggest power stations was diverted to warm homes and offices, according to a study by engineers.

They say attaching heat capture technology to stations such as Kingsnorth and Drax would meet 5% of the UK's heat requirements. And in future, any new big power stations should be built to capture and distribute heat as well as electricity. In addition, new housing developments should be designed and built with small local combined heat and power (CHP) plants.

Heat accounts for around 49% of all primary energy needs in the UK. This is mainly fuelled by gas – in 2006, the heat sector used 735 TWh compared with 653TWh and 393TWh used by transport and electricity sector respectively.

Currently, coal and nuclear power stations are around 35% efficient which means that, for every 1,000MW of electricity the stations produce, around 2,000MW of heat is dumped into the atmosphere via the cooling towers. Theoretically, if half of that energy could be captured for domestic or commercial heating, it could meet 25% of the UK's current heat demand, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Southampton and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

The study acknowledged that attaching CHP equipment to all of the UK's power plants and then building the piping infrastructure needed to distribute it would not be practical for all the current power stations. One practical problem is that many nuclear and coal stations are built in remote locations, far away from places that could usefully need their heat.

But the report did identify some power stations that are near to population centres: the region around Drax, Ferrybridge and Eggsborough near Leeds and the Kingsnorth and Tillbury power stations near London. The installation of heat recovery schemes in these power stations could meet 5% of the UK's demand for heat and cut CO2 emissions by 10m tonnes.

Keith Tovey of the Institution of Civil Engineers' energy panel said that, although installing CHP would make a power plant produce less electricity, because it would produce useful heat, its fuel efficiency could more than double from 35% to around 80%.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Tovey said: "What we need to do is look closely at introducing district heating networks in areas surrounding viable existing power stations in the UK and ensure we assess potential heat capture possibilities for any new facilities."

District heating networks would replace the need for boilers in homes and offices. Residents would use whatever heat they needed from the mains and it could be metered in the same way that electricity is now. Dr Patrick James of Southampton University said that such scheme would remove the need for householders to pay upwards of £2,000 for gas boilers, along with the associated servicing and repair costs.

Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: "We're pleased to see the growing recognition that our inefficient, centralised electricity grid is losing over half of its energy in waste heat. At a time when profligate energy use is threatening our survival, this makes less sense than ever."

"However, once the problem has been recognised, we need to be more ambitious than just shaving a few per cent off the waste with bolt-on additions to a badly designed system – we need a decentralised grid where the power stations are sited in the correct places to make efficient use of the fuel they burn, not a continuation of the current model with some small token improvements. CHP should be at the heart of our planning, not an afterthought."

Tovey said that, in the longer term, the UK should consider the potentially huge benefits that decentralised CHP could bring to the UK. "With the current generation of thermal power stations coming to the end of their lifespan, there is a real opportunity to vastly improve the efficiency of our energy sector and drastically lower its carbon footprint."

According to the ICE report, the most efficient method for using heat is a decentralised CHP and district heating network, of the kind routinely found in Scandinavia and other parts of Europe, where small power stations are located close to the centre of population. In addition the engineers encouraged places such as hospitals and universities to use small CHP stations for their energy needs.

Tovey acknowledged that delivering the kind of decentralised CHP across the UK that the ICE report recommended would require significant new infrastructure and a large reorganisation of the sector. "But if we are to guarantee security of supply, whilst meeting tough carbon targets, radical change may be what is needed."

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Kitchen bin war: tackling the food waste mountain

Rachel Shields, The Independent, 07 Jun 2009 View original article

An ambitious "War on Waste" campaign to tackle Britain's mountains of food-based rubbish with a range of radical new measures is to be launched tomorrow.

The programme will scrap "best before" labels on food, create new food packaging sizes, build more "on-the-go" recycling points and unveil five flagship anaerobic digestion plants, to harness the power of leftover food and pump energy back into the national grid. The government hopes that its plans will reduce the 100 million tons of waste the country produced last year, which included 20 million tons of food waste and 10.7 million tons of packaging waste.

On Tuesday, Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, will announce plans to dispense with "best before" labels, in an attempt to reduce the estimated 370,000 tons of food that is thrown away despite being perfectly edible. The latest government research into food labelling showed that the British are very cautious when it comes to eating anything that has passed its "best before" date: 53 per cent of consumers never eat fruit or vegetables that has exceeded the date; 56 per cent would not eat bread or cake; and 21 per cent never even "take a risk" with food close to its date.

"One of the things we found in our research is that confusion over date labelling is one of the major reasons for throwing food away. Often people don't realise the difference between 'best before' and 'use by'," said Richard Swannell, director of retail and organics at Wrap, the Government waste watchdog. It is working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and leading retailers to get rid of the "sell until", "display until" and "best before" tags, which confuse customers, causing them to throw away edible food.

"It is an issue that we want to address, but there has to be a balance, as we have to protect consumer safety," said an FSA spokesman. "Not eating out-of-date food is one of the simplest ways of preventing food poisoning."

Ahead of the launch, Mr Benn said: "It's time for a new war on waste. It's not just about recycling more – and we are making progress there – it's about rethinking the way we use resources in the first place.

"We need to make better use of everything we produce, from food to packaging, and the plans I'm setting out over the next few days will help us to achieve that. We all have a part to play, from businesses and retailers to consumers."

The minister added: "Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we're not sure, we're confused by the label, or we're just playing safe. This means we're throwing away thousands of tons of food every year completely unnecessarily. I want to improve labels so that when we buy a loaf of bread or a packet of cold meat, we know exactly how long it's safe to eat."

On Tuesday, the Government will also unveil plans for dealing with packaging, including increased glass collection from pubs, clubs and restaurants, a huge expansion of "on-the-go" recycling points for aluminium cans, and new packaging sizes for supermarkets.

In addition to tackling food waste and packaging, the Government will reveal plans to use the waste we do produce as fuel. Tomorrow Mr Benn will announce the location of five new anaerobic digestion plants, built with the help of £10m in state funding. The facilities compost waste in the absence of oxygen, producing a biogas that can be used to generate electricity and heat.

Mr Benn said: "We need to rethink the way we deal with waste – to see it as a resource, not a problem."

The UK produces 100 tons of organic waste a year. If processed anaerobically this would produce enough energy to power two million homes, or Birmingham five times over. Anaerobic digestion plants are widely used across Europe, and are already being used by high street retailers such as Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer to tackle their food waste.

Michael Warhurst, senior waste and resources campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "This should be happening across the country, instead of councils still putting money into building incinerators. They are the technology of the past – this is the future."

Don't read the label: 'If it looks old, cook it for longer'

Edmund Luxmoore, 39, from London, hates waste and never pays any attention to "best before" dates:

"I get most of my vegetables from the supermarket near my house, picking up bits and pieces throughout the week. I get the heavy stuff delivered. We plan meals, making lots of lists. I like to cook and we make curries and lots of other dishes.

"I'm a vegetarian, and I suppose if I was eating meat I would be more wary about eating off food, but a dodgy potato probably isn't going to do much, is it? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Just look at it and see if it's OK: if it looks a little bit old, cook it for longer.

"I totally understand the difference between the 'best before' and the 'use by' dates. I've certainly got friends who will bin just about anything. Money used to be a factor in not wasting stuff in the days when I had a lower income but now it's just a personal choice. I intensely dislike waste – I think that is a family tradition. My dad used to make us stop the car by the side of the road to pick up plastic bags and clean up the countryside!"

Cautious eater: 'I don't want to poison my mother'

Julie Andrew, 48, from Wakefield, is nervous about eating food that is even approaching its "best before" date:

"I must admit that I'm a bit wasteful. I throw things away when they are near the date. If it's in the fridge and it passes the best-before date I throw it out, even if it's just one day over. I always check both the 'best before' and 'use by' dates in the supermarket and know the difference, but when I get home I just throw things in the bin if they pass any date on the packaging. I do end up throwing out a lot – day-old yoghurts or the end of Flora pots. If I have meat and it looks at all suspicious, I put it straight in the bin.

"With ready meals I worry about the date too and if I've had them in the freezer too long I chuck them out. I had food poisoning once and since then I've been more careful. I try to not be as wasteful because I know there are starving people out there, but I just like to know the food we eat is OK. I live with my mother, who's in her 70s, and I don't want to poison her."

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Politics

Oil - the next shock waiting in the pipeline

Vince Cable, The Daily Mail, 06 Jun 2009 View original article

While Gordon Brown is playing musical chairs on the deck of the Titanic, normal people are worrying far more about paying their bills.

Motorists will have noticed that we are back up to £1-a-litre for unleaded petrol at many garages.

We may have not yet reached the heady heights of last summer, but the trend is unmistakable.

Even in a recession, there is the danger of inflation for some essential products such as petrol.

Stagflation is back - and perhaps, not too far off, another 'oil shock'.

Most of the pump price is made up of tax, so motorists don't see the full effect of the dramatic changes in the price of crude oil.

It rose steadily from a low of about $25 a barrel before the Iraq war to a peak of $140 last summer.

The world economy then crashed in the 'credit crunch' and crude fell back to $45 a few weeks ago. Prices at the pump also fell, but British motorists didn't get the full benefit.

One reason was that, until very recently, our currency was falling heavily against the dollar.

This meant that oil prices in pounds fell much less than in dollars.

But, still, prices were generally falling, giving some relief at a time when workers' pay and pensioners' living standards were being squeezed. No more.

While the boys in the City get excited over a recovery in share prices, the rest of the population sees altogether less welcome news on other prices.

But why should we have to worry again about high oil prices? It doesn't seem to make sense.

The United States, Britain, Europe and many other countries are still experiencing recession.

There is less demand for oil: fewer company cars travelling to work, fewer lorries on the road, fewer flights. The price should be falling, but it is doing the opposite - rising to $65 a barrel last week.

One reason is that the big Asian economies - China and India - haven't been too badly hit by the global slowdown.

China has offset its decline in exports to the West by launching vast infrastructure projects, sucking in more oil.
And anyone who has been to an Indian city recently will have been struck by the explosion of middle-class car ownership on top of the millions of scooters.

Yet, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, the main oil-producing countries are unable or unwilling to produce more to meet demand.

There is violence (Nigeria, Iraq until very recently), nationalism (Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Iran) and depleted supplies (the UK).

We squandered our oil reserves in the Eighties and Nineties when prices were very low.

There is still plenty of oil in the world but it is very expensive to produce - as in the vast Saudi-sized fields recently found off the coast of Brazil - or very dirty and polluting, like the Canadian 'tar sands'.

Private companies such as my former employer, Shell, and BP are investing in these new fields, but they will make money only if prices are even higher than today's.

So with rising demand in developing economies, rising production costs and restrictions on supply, it is clear where prices are heading - up.

Exporting countries are tempted to squeeze supply even more to profit from any speculative spike.
We must think about how to cope with another surge in oil prices, even while we struggle with recession and rising unemployment.

Motorists would look to the Government to lower taxes. But the budget deficit is now so dire that there is simply no money to pay for tax cuts.

It might be possible to help people in the more remote rural areas where there is no alternative to a private car, as they do in France. But don't expect tax breaks for motorists in general.

It is more obvious than ever that the future lies with fuel-efficient and low-carbon cars.

Those who are able to switch now will save a lot of money. The Government should therefore be more intelligent when it comes to helping the car industry.

Labour's scrappage scheme for old bangers is largely a waste of taxpayers' money.

It would be more useful to concentrate on swaps for the new generation of hybrid cars or others offering economical mileage or new British technology.

Last week, I criticised Lord Mandelson's offer to underwrite a deal 'saving' Vauxhall, which risks becoming a handout to Russian billionaires.

Help for new technology for the whole UK car industry to get greener would make far more sense than a dodgy deal with Deripaska.

Long-term thinking is difficult in the current political crisis, when most politicians are obsessed by tomorrow's headlines, our Prime Minister is powerless and he clearly has no confidence in his Chancellor.

But our future as a country depends much more on our ability to plan ahead for the next oil shock and the post-oil world.

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www.odac-info.org Read newsletter online ODAC Newsletter - 26 June 2009 Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil. Further attacks on oil pipelines by Nigerian militants along with a fall in US inventories helped reverse oil price declines from earlier in the week and bring prices back to over $70/barrel by Thursday. According to European Commissioner Andris Piebalgs speaking at a Tuesday meeting between the EU and OPEC, the current price does not impede economic recovery. So far however the price doesn’t appear to be enough to restore energy investment either. Fatih Birol told Reuters that investment may have fallen even further than the 21% or $100-billion cited in the IEA’s May report. Speaking in New York, Nabuo Tanaka of the IEA warned that a resumption of world economic growth in 2010/11 to around 5% could cause a supply crunch by 2014. José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission this week warned vulnerable countries to create contingency plans against the real possibility of further gas disruption due to the dispute between Russia and Ukraine. With the Ukrainian Presidential election now announced for mid January the political games around the disagreement are only likely to intensify. Next week will see the release of a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research on UK gas security. Allegedly the report calls for an urgent increase in storage capacity to reduce vulnerability and calls for public money to be invested. With UK public debt at what Mervyn King this week called “truly extraordinary” levels, money may be hard to find. Gordon Brown’s attention currently appears to be on oil rather than gas. This week he apparently demanded an emergency plan to stop a rising oil price from wrecking economic recovery, and is pushing for an international agreement to monitor prices - as if that will make any difference. It's only the latest in a series of futile interventions by the PM, such as the 'oil stability' summit he held in London last December, since when the price has more than doubled. What Mr Brown fails to grasp, it seems, is that oil is becoming more energy intensive and costly to extract while demand is likely to increase inexorably - if and when the economy starts to grow again. The only real protection is to reduce our reliance on crude before the going gets really tough. But in a week when Mr Brown was forced to perform multiple hand-brake turns on the Iraq inquiry, it is clear his government does not have the political strength to deliver such a policy - even if it wanted to. Join us! Become a member of the ODAC Newsgathering Network. Can you regularly commit to checking a news source for stories related to peak oil, energy depletion, their implications and responses to the issues? If you are checking either a daily or weekly news source and would have time to add articles to our database, please contact us for more details. Oil Oil, Gasoline Rise After Attack on Shell Pipeline in Nigeria OPEC, EU say regulation needed to stop oil bubble Energy investment to lag further: IEA IEA says potential for oil supply crunch by 2014 Total granted go-ahead to expand in Russia China quenches thirst with £4.4bn Addax deal Gas European gas war looms as Ukraine seeks cash to pay Gazprom for July deliveries UK must expand gas storage for security -think tank UK Europe warns Britain of dangers of rising debt Brown demands emergency plan to stop oil wrecking recovery Refinery workers plan Paris demo UK's National Grid outlines power future Business BP chooses Ericsson chief as new chairman Drax raises £108m in new shares to fight debt Transport Rail freight operators feel the strain Stagecoach attacks ‘chaotic’ DfT Lord Adonis sees demise of short flights Lord Adonis launches electric car trials Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment Disclaimers Oil IEA says potential for oil supply crunch by 2014 Reuters, Finanacial Post, 23 Jun 2009 View original article Oil markets may face a supply crunch by 2014 if global GDP growth hits 5% in the coming years, the head of the International Energy Agency said Tuesday. "If economic GDP growth gradually rises through 2011 and 2012 ... then oil demand will come back and by 2014 you will maybe have a supply crunch," Nobuo Tanaka said at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in New York, noting economic growth would have be around 5%. The global economic crisis has battered fuel demand, knocking crude off record peaks near US$150 a barrel hit last July and causing inventories to swell. Prices have rebounded from below US$33 in December - trading around US$67 on Tuesday - on signs of an economic recovery that could lift oil consumption. Mr. Tanaka said that if the global economy grows at a slower rate, any oil supply crunch could be delayed. "If GDP only grows 3% we will probably see a postponing of the supply crunch until after 2014," he said.   Europe warns Britain of dangers of rising debt Gary Duncan, The Times, 24 Jun 2009 View original article Brussels turned up the heat on Britain yesterday over the Government’s plunge into the red as a result of the recession and the banking crisis. In a fresh warning shot at the Treasury over its soaring budget deficit, the European Commission classed Britain alongside the struggling Irish Republic and stricken Latvia as the European Union economies whose national finances had been most dangerously hit by the costs of the crisis. Alistair Darling was again urged to take more urgent and radical measures to bolster the UK’s budgetary position, which Brussels said was set to be even worse next year than the Chancellor has forecast so far as the recession bites harder than the Treasury expects. “Taking into account the probability of a worse-than-expected deterioration in the UK’s budgetary position in the near-term, and the heightened risks to fiscal sustainability, there is a need for a more ambitious consolidation effort in the medium-term,” a Commission report found. Brussels forecasts that the Treasury will have to borrow 12.75 per cent of GDP next year — more than £10 billion higher than Mr Darling predicts. It said that the Chancellor should take significant steps to raise taxes or cut spending, starting in the 2010-11 financial year, and set out plans for a longer-term financial improvement.   Back to top Brown demands emergency plan to stop oil wrecking recovery Heather Stewart and Larry Elliott, The Guardian, 21 Jun 2009 View original article Gordon Brown has ordered top ministers at the Treasury and Department of Business to draw up plans to cope with rising oil prices and a lending drought for UK companies, amid fears that the nation's economic recovery risks being derailed. Brown is seeking an international agreement to tackle the rising cost of crude, which rose to almost $72 a barrel on Friday. With Gulf economies including Saudi Arabia at risk of plunging into recession later this year, according to private forecasts by the International Monetary Fund, western governments fear Opec producers will have a powerful incentive to restrict oil production and force prices even higher. Whitehall officials are examining proposals for handing the IMF the task of monitoring oil prices as part of the Washington lender's new beefed-up role as guardian of the global economy. The plan could form part of Britain's agenda for the next summit of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh, in the US, this autumn. Brown believes that the G20 meeting in London in the spring missed an opportunity to put in place measures to stabilise the oil price, after it fell from a peak of $147 a barrel to less than $35 early this year. The concern now in Whitehall is that higher commodity prices will spark inflation and tempt the Bank of England to tighten policy before the economy is fully back on its feet. The Treasury's confidence in the Bank's ability to manage the delicate job of withdrawing the massive stimulus package at the right time was dented by Threadneedle Street's reluctance to slash interest rates last year as the economy nose-dived. Downing Street is also nervous that the failure of banks to turn on the lending taps could leave Britain's businesses unable to invest for recovery. Bank figures revealed last week that lending to businesses actually fell in April, by the highest amount in nine years. Ministers have ordered officials to conduct an in-depth probe of recent lending figures in order to see whether the problem lies with weak demand from industry or a reluctance by banks to lend. Some firms have been able to exploit a rising stockmarket to raise money from share issues, but the government is worried about small- and medium-sized companies that rely heavily on banks for their finance. The chancellor pointed to the perils of high oil prices in his Mansion House speech to the City last week. He said a $25-a-barrel rise in oil prices over the past three months was a growing concern. "A sharp spike in commodity prices could slow down the recovery. We must act - together with other countries - to reduce price volatility," he said. Hinting at the government's policy agenda, Darling said Britain wanted improved transparency in oil markets, the removal of barriers to energy supply and better energy efficiency. The government believes the current oil price is not justified by the weakness of the global economy and that international action could bring it back down to a fairer level. Tentative green shoots have begun to emerge in the UK over recent weeks, with the housing market stabilising and industry surveys beginning to suggest the worst is over - but the prime minister is keen to rein in hopes of a rapid return to business as usual.     Back to top Transport Rail freight operators feel the strain Gill Plimmer, Financial Times, 22 Jun 2009 View original article UK rail freight traffic has fallen sharply in the past quarter, according to new figures that show the effect of the recession on the industry is deepening. Falling demand for consumer goods, building materials and cars has led to an 8.6 per cent drop in the volume of freight moved on the rail network in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period last year. The decline has doubled since the previous quarter to Christmas last year, according to the Office of Rail Regulation, the industry’s spending watchdog. Freight is often considered a bellwether industry, as demand rises and falls according to wider spending patterns in the economy. Shipping, road and air cargo traffic have also been hit by the collapse in the international goods trade and manufacturers cutting back on components. The biggest fallers were metals, including steel, which declined 50 per cent to 240m net tonnes; international container goods, down 16.3 per cent; and construction, down 13.6 per cent. However, coal freight increased 8.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Analysts said the figures suggested green shoots had yet to take hold. “It’s not a good sign,” said Douglas McNeill of Astaire Securities. “It suggests no improvement in international trade flows.” The decline in train cargo volumes could undermine government attempts to shift haulage from the roads to rail to ease congestion and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Rail accounts for 12 per cent of UK freight, and Network Rail, the not-for-profit infrastructure owner, said this could more than double by 2030. In April it slashed track access charges 35 per cent in an attempt to increase take-up. But the price cuts may have come too late, according to John Manners-Bell, analyst at Transport Intelligence, a consultancy. Road hauliers have taken market share from rail during the past six months because they have fewer fixed costs and are better placed to compete on price. Lorry drivers’ core business of delivering to local British markets has proved more resilient than the import-dependent rail freight market. While retailers have been exhausting existing supplies rather than ordering new goods from Asia, consumers are still buying, albeit at a slower rate. This means the next quarter will be crucial, according to Mr Manners-Bell. Four operators have dominated the market since privatisation in the 1990s – Freightliner, Direct Rail Services, First GB Railfreight and DB Schenker. All have parked up wagons or cut jobs. Tony Berkeley, chairman of the Rail Freight Group, said prices were being squeezed. “It’s a service industry; it relies on what customers want and the market will go where the downturn goes,” he said. “Still, no one has gone out of business, yet. They are waiting for the upturn.”   Back to top Lord Adonis sees demise of short flights Steven Swinford, The Times, 21 Jun 2009 View original article THE new transport secretary, Lord Adonis, believes a 200mph high-speed rail network in Britain will spell the end for domestic flights and short flights to Europe. In his first interview since joining the cabinet, Adonis said the market for internal flights would collapse within the next 20 years as the train becomes the preferred mode of travel. The proposed high-speed rail network would cut journey times from London to Manchester to 1hr 22min and Glasgow to 2hr 42min. Adonis envisages that it could use French-style TGV trains. He said high-speed rail would also replace flights from Britain to destinations including Amsterdam, Brussels, Cologne, Lyon and Rotterdam. He believes the rise of high-speed rail will help to cut carbon emissions and offer passengers more comfortable and enjoyable journeys than travelling by plane. “High-speed rail is not only important for providing additional rail capacity between our biggest conurbations. I would like to see domestic and short-haul flights largely replaced by high-speed rail over the next 20 years,” he said. “The evidence internationally is that passengers want to have the choice of making these journeys by train rather than plane, because [trains offer] greater convenience, comfort and [are] much less hassle than going through airports. This is not about the government dictating to people how to travel, but the free choices that people make when they are offered a viable and attractive alternative to flying.” The proposed high-speed rail network, due to be completed by 2020, would initially run from London to Birmingham and eventually extend to Manchester and Glasgow. Detailed plans are being developed by a government-backed company. Early estimates indicate that the line will cost up to £30 billion. The government will make its final policy decision in early 2010. “We have a very exciting agenda for transport investment over the next 10 years and I believe that will be a central part of our manifesto,” Adonis said. Rail is already gaining at the expense of air travel. Domestic flights have been in steady decline in recent years, with the number of passengers falling from 26.1m in 2005 to 24.3m last year. The number of passengers travelling from London to Manchester by air has fallen from 1.94m in 2003 to 1.35m last year. The number of railway passengers has increased over the same period, from 2.1m to 3.3m. According to Adonis, by 2029 many European cities will be within 3½ hours from London by train, which he sees as the tipping point at which people switch from air travel. By the end of the year a new high-speed link from Brussels to Amsterdam will help to cut journey times from London to Amsterdam from five hours to 3½. Another new line will cut journey times from London to Cologne to four hours. Adonis believes the success of high-speed rail in Europe will provide a template for Britain. “Air France has stopped flying between Paris and Brussels because of high-speed rail, Lufthansa has stopped flying between Cologne and Frankfurt,” he said. “Since the high-speed line opened between Madrid and Barcelona, the proportion of people [in Spain] travelling by train compared to plane has risen from 16% to 68%.” The Department for Transport believes high-speed rail could reduce the number of passengers on domestic and short-haul flights at Heathrow by 9.4m, equivalent to 14% of all flights from the airport. However, Adonis remains committed to a third runway at Heathrow, insisting the extra capacity will be needed because of an increase in long-haul flights. He wants to improve access to Heathrow by public transport, either with a high-speed rail hub or new interchanges. “Heathrow is currently running at 99% capacity and, given the projections for long-haul traffic over the next 20 years, an increase in airport capacity in the southeast is needed,” he said. Adonis is a self-confessed train lover rather than a motoring enthusiast. He owns a Vauxhall Vectra, which he rarely drives, while his ministerial car is a Toyota Prius. “When I say I drive a Vauxhall Vectra, I drive it a few miles every weekend to do the shopping and take the children to their events. Virtually all my long-distance journeys are made by train,” he said. He is, however, anxious not to antagonise the motoring public. In the interview he ruled out a national road pricing scheme, and committed the government to relieving congestion by opening up the hard shoulders on motorways to traffic, despite concerns among some motoring groups over safety. Work is under way on hard shoulder schemes on stretches of the M6, M1, M25 and M4. “Hard shoulder running produces a big increase in capacity but at a fraction of the cost of motorway widening and much less of an environmental impact. It has no impact on safety whatsoever,” Adonis said.     Back to top Lord Adonis launches electric car trials The Daily Telegraph, 23 Jun 2009 View original article Driving a Smart car, he was joined by Lord Drayson, the Science minister, who drove a Mini E model. The Mini E will be tested in Oxford, in one of eight trials in Britain in which members of the public and businesses will be invited to take part. Other areas where tests will take place include Glasgow, Coventry, Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Oxford. Cars being tested include a Ford Focus battery electric vehicle, Nissan vehicles and Peugeot electric cars. The Government is putting £25 million into the project which is being organised by the Technology Strategy Board. Lord Adonis said: "People have doubted that electric and ultra-low carbon vehicles would come on to the market soon but they are available and the public will be able to drive them. "We hope it will only be a short period of time before these vehicles come on to the market. We want Britain to be at the forefront of ultra-low carbon automotive technology, blazing a trail for environmentally friendly transportation." Lord Drayson said: "This is the world's largest ever trial of electric vehicles." He added that it was important that hard data on just how the vehicles worked and were driven was gathered in. "If we can make the UK the best place to do the research and development into these vehicles, we can help secure the future of the UK motor industry," he said. Iain Gray, the Technology Strategy Board chief executive, said: "The journey towards low-carbon transport will not be easy but the demonstrator programme which we are launching is a major step in the right direction." Edmund King, president of AA said the announcement was "a great leap forward on the road to a lower-carbon future", while Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders chief executive Paul Everitt said ultra-low carbon vehicles were "now mainstream business for the motor industry".     Back to top Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment Duncan Graham-Rowe, The Guardian, 19 Jun 2009 View original article The project will use electric car batteries to store excess energy and feed electricity back into the grid when the weather is calm Cars could be the solution to the intermittent nature of wind power if a multimillion European project beginning on a Danish island proves successful. The project on the holiday island of Bornholm will use the batteries of parked electric cars to store excess energy when the wind blows hard, and then feed electricity back into the grid when the weather is calm. The concept, known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is widely cited among greens as a key step towards a low-carbon future, but has never been demonstrated. Now, the 40,000 inhabitants of Bornholm are being recruited into the experiment. Denmark is already a world leader in wind energy and has schemes to replace 10% of all its vehicles with electric cars, but the goal on the island is to replace all petrol cars. Currently 20% of the island's electricity comes from wind, even though it has enough turbines installed to meet 40% of its needs. The reason it cannot use the entire capacity is the intermittency of the wind: many turbines are needed to harness sufficient power in breezes, but when gales blow the grid would overload, so some turbines are disconnected. So the aim of the awkwardly named Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks Project – Edison for short – is to use V2G to allow more turbines to be built and provide up to 50% of the island's supply without making the grid crash. Each electric vehicle will have battery capacity reserved to store wind power for the island rather than for travelling. This means it acts like a buffer, says Dieter Gantenbein, a researcher at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory. IBM is developing the software needed for the island's smart grid, and will showcase its work next week. When the cars are plugged in and charging their batteries, they will absorb any additional load the grid cannot cope with and then feed it back to power homes when needed, he says. "It's never been tried at this scale," says Hermione Crease of Cambridge-based Sentec, which develops smart grid software. There are plenty of smart grid trials already under way, usually involving the use of software to monitor and manage supply and demand, for example, by temporarily switching off industrial cooling units during periods of peak load, she says. But unlike these so-called "negawatt" approaches, proving that cars can be used as part of the grid has yet to attempted. Andrew Howe of RLTec in London, another smart grid technology firm, says many important questions need answers. It is not clear, for example, how the cost and lifetime of batteries will influence the economics of such a system. These are the kinds of issue the project seeks to shed light on, says the project manager Jørgen Christensen of the Danish Energy Association, which with technology companies Siemens and Dong and the government are running the scheme.     Back to top

Here's a short list of what's made with oil.....

Adhesives, air-conditioners, ammonia, anti-histamines, antiseptics, asphalt, aspirin, balloons, bandages, boats, bottles, bras, bubblegum, butane, cameras, candles, car batteries, car bodies, carpet, cassette tapes, caulking, CD/DVDs, computers, chewing gum, combs/brushes, condoms, contact lenses, cortizone, crayons, cream denture adhesives, deodorant, detergents, dice, dishwashing liquid, dryers, electric blankets, electrician’s tape, non-natural fabrics, fertilizers, fishing lures, fishing rods, floor wax, footballs, glycerin, golf balls, guitar strings, hair coloring, hearing aids, heart valves, heating oil, house paint, ice chests, ink, insect repellent, insulation, jet fuel, life jackets, linoleum, lip balm, lipstick, loudspeakers, mascara, medicines, mops, motor oil, motorcycle helmets, movie film, nail polish, oil filters, paddles, paint brushes, paints, parachutes, paraffin, pens, perfumes, petroleum jelly, plastic furniture, plastic wrap, plastics, refrigerators, roller-skate wheels, roofing paper, rubber bands, rubber boots, rubber cement, running shoes, saccharine, seals, shampoo,shoe polish, shoes, shower curtains, solar panels, solvents, spectacles, stereos, sweaters, table tennis balls, tape recorders, telephones, tennis rackets, thermos, toilet paper, tyres, TV cabinets, umbrellas, upholstery, vaporizers, vitamin capsules, volley balls, water pipes, water skis, wax, wax paper, etc. etc.etc. etc. etc.etc. etc. etc.etc.

www.odac-info.org Read newsletter online ODAC Newsletter - 7 August 2009 Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil. In an interview with the Independent this week Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the IEA bemoaned the ignorance of the governments he serves: "Many governments now are more and more aware that at least the day of cheap and easy oil is over... [however] I'm not very optimistic about governments being aware of the difficulties we may face in the oil supply". As if to prove his point, Britain published ‘The Wicks Report’ on energy security, from former Minister of State for Energy Malcolm Wicks. Mr Wicks scarcely acknowledges the very real global risks to oil supply, despite forecasts of a renewed supply crunch early in the next decade from the IEA and many others, instead presenting Britain’s ever-deepening import dependency as simply another chapter in a long history of changing fuel mixes. Peak oil is dismissed in a couple of paragraphs rich in ignorance, untruth and irrelevance. Non-OPEC peak is conceded but played down on the basis that there’s lots left in OPEC and the Canadian tar sands, blithely ignoring the well-founded doubts that either can make good the deficit. Mr Wicks seems to imagine high oil prices will save the day. But the fact is there is no correlation between the oil price and discovery of oil. Even if there were, we are now in an era of intense oil price volatility, which will do as much to discourage as encourage investment: 2 million barrels of daily production capacity has been deferred or cancelled since the collapse from last year’s peak of $147 per barrel. Worse, the marginal barrel is now the Canadian oil sands, and these are never likely to make good the fast-depleting “easy oil”. One gushes, the other must be wrung out of sand, demanding massive application of capital, energy and water, all of which are constrained. Since the oil supply is evidently not an issue, Mr Wicks concentrates on gas and power generation, and proceeds to recommend the government carry on with its current policies. His widely reported conclusion that markets cannot deliver energy security is banal, and only echoes what Ed Miliband said shortly after becoming Climate and Energy Secretary. His demand for more gas storage is – as the Tories correctly pointed out – a massive admission of failure. Mr Wicks was himself Energy Minister in 2006 when the Russians first cut off the Ukraine, and Britain’s vulnerability was made plain. His “aspiration” to increase the share of nuclear power to 35-40% of electricity generating capacity by 2030 – alongside increased efficiency, coal with carbon capture, and renewables – is meaningless without any hint as to how this might be achieved. The report received a fairly dismal reception in the energy industry, which criticised its failure to acknowledge threats to the oil supply, or the inadequacy of the current carbon price. The Wicks Report rightly contends that energy security should be a ‘national priority’, but the document displays astonishing ignorance and complacency. With echoes of Jim Callaghan and the Winter of Discontent, Wicks declares “There is no crisis”. A more egregious case of famous last words would be hard to find. Link to the ODAC Reports & Resources page Join us! Become a member of the ODAC Newsgathering Network. Can you regularly commit to checking a news source for stories related to peak oil, energy depletion, their implications and responses to the issues? If you are checking either a daily or weekly news source and would have time to add articles to our database, please contact us for more details. Oil Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast Jeremy Leggett: Another crunch is coming – but will the world act? Crude Oil Falls as Equities Decline Renews Fuel-Demand Concerns OPEC’s Production Rose a Fourth Month in July, Survey Indicates Shell takes to high seas to escape oil gloom Clinton Seeks U.S. Africa Gains as China Expands Oil Purchases Nigerian militant amnesty starts Iran: New confrontation looms UK's watchdog silent after oil industry meeting US regulator steps up pressure for limits on oil futures trading Gas EU reaches gas deal with Ukraine UK Call for more intervention on energy UK should lock in gas contracts as supply wanes, says PM's aide Malcolm Wicks Tories warn on nuclear power plans Ofgem says electric companies must spend £6.5bn upgrading network Climate China hints at softer line in climate talks India sets out ambitious solar power plan to be paid for by rich nations Economy Bank to inject extra £50bn in drastic move to end slump Signs point to Britain being on the cusp of economic fightback China moves to internationalise its currency Buoyant markets lead to renewed fears of commodity speculation Disclaimers

I've had years to not only get used to the idea of Peak Oil, but also all its ramifications. So if you are new to the idea, I can understand your jumping to the conclusion that switching to 'electric' will solve the problems of transport. Unfortunately.... it ain't that simple!

Peak Oil puts two major constraints on society: rising cost, while at the same time less energy is available. This is the complete opposite to the past... we built EVERYTHING around you with ever MORE oil, which was, until recently, getting comparatively cheaper.

Now, we need to replace the ENTIRE oil infrastructure (which was built one brick at a time, as and when it was needed) in no time flat (we have VERY LITTLE time left to deal with this - in fact, should have dealt with this THIRTY years ago!!).

So, we need a new fleet of cars..... all done with oil.
We need new power stations, which regardless of whether they are nukes/solar/wind ALL need oil to build.
We need more distribution lines as well..... the current one is getting old too, and much of it needs replacing. All made with oil.
All the roads need maintaining.... all done with oil. The roads are MADE of oil!

Now putting that aside..... where's the money to do all this coming from? Your office copier?

And I haven't even touched the food supply......

The solutions abound mind you..... relocalise, and Transition Towns. That's a good start at least.