High fuel prices hit BA’s profits

British Airways has blamed high fuel prices for a 40% drop in profits. Reporting its results for the three months to 31 December 2004, the airline made a pre-tax profit of £75m ($141m) compared with £125m a year earlier. www.bbc.co.uk

Labour Party Secretly Plans Nuclear Expansion

The Telegraph reports that the Labour party plans to publish a white paper proposing several new nuclear power plants in the UK should they win the upcoming elections.

Oil Crisis Down Under

While Australia’s natural resource-based economy has enjoyed tremendous growth along with the rebound in commodity prices worldwide, the country’s oil production continues to decline at a staggering pace. The country’s production peaked at 805,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2000 and only averaged 490,000 bopd in the first 10 months of 2004 (Source: […]

Marine General Counseled for Comments

WASHINGTON – The commandant of the Marine Corps said Thursday he has counseled a senior subordinate for saying publicly, “It’s fun to shoot some people.” Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, an infantry officer who has commanded Marines in both Afghanistan (news – web sites) and Iraq (news – web sites), made the comments Tuesday while […]

Motley Fool: Airlines A

Or, “Why I Won’t Invest In Airlines. The standard litany of high oil prices, unsustainable labor agreements, and unredeemable frequent flyer miles are pushing even well-run airlines to the edge. The government won’t indefinitely subsidize the industry, and so somebody’s gotta go …

New non-lethal weapon lets troops microwave hostile crowds

The United States has developed a non-lethal microwave weapon for use in Iraq. The Active Denial System uses millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy that can be directed at targets at a range of 1 kilometer. Officials said the vehicle, termed Sheriff, would contain the Active Denial System. The system uses millimeter-wave electromagnetic energy that can be directed […]

North Sea oil, gas treaty sealed

“The two energy ministers are in agreement that projects may be initiated without having to wait for the formal conclusion of the Treaty,” Norway’s energy ministry said.

The treaty covers future construction and operation of pipelines carrying oil and gas from Norway to the UK, joint exploitation of reservoirs straddling the border line and the joint use of infrastructure, the Norwegian ministry said.

aftenposten

WINTER SMOG ALERT IN MID-WEST

Minnesota officials warned that air in the Twin Cities was unhealthy for anyone Wednesday, and Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, this week had their first-ever winter air alerts, warning of unhealthy conditions for people at risk.By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer MINNEAPOLIS – Air pollution built to unhealthy levels around the upper Midwest, a wintertime rarity […]

No Windfall Tax For Oil Fat Cats

No windfall tax on oil companies
Thu Feb 3, 2005 12:29 PM GMT

LONDON (Reuters) – The government says it does not intend to impose any form of windfall tax on oil companies despite high levels of profit.

Reuters UK

Downturn in UK oil and gas production

The decline in oil production continued a trend that was seen throughout 2004, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland oil and gas index. UK oil production averaged 1.73 million barrels per day, up 6.4% on the month, but down 14.8% on the year. Gas production averaged 10,395 million standard cubic ft per day, […]

China blasts threatened US deadline on yuan as wrong way to handle issue

China said a threatened US bill giving it six months to revalue its currency, the yuan, would be the wrong way to handle the sensitive issue. A least a dozen US senators are said to have agreed to co-sponsor the bill which would give China “a window of 180 days” to revalue the yuan or […]

Shell cuts oil reserves for fifth time

Shell has fuelled further concerns over its oil stocks by slicing 10 per cent from its reserves and admitting that it replaced in finds as little as one-sixth of the hydrocarbons it extracted last year. The oil giant announced a 38 per cent rise in profits for 2004, to £9.32 billion ($17.6bn), a record for […]

Global warming: scientists reveal timetable

A detailed timetable of the destruction and distress that global warming is likely to cause the world was unveiled yesterday. It pulls together for the first time the projected impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, food production, water resources and economies across the earth, for given rises in global temperature expected during the next hundred years. […]

Crops face extinction in global warming

Australia faces an ever-shrinking water supply, the extinction of plant and animal species and the loss of billions of dollars from a less productive agriculture sector, says a submission to an international global warming conference. A joint presentation by the Australian Greenhouse Office, the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO said the 2002-03 drought cost […]

Down the path of confrontation

As President George W Bush has renewed his confrontational rhetoric toward Iran and Syria during his State of the Union speech, four major questions loom over the horizon of the Middle East. Three of those questions are about Iraq’s near-term future, and the fourth one is about Iran and Syria. www.atimes.com

US bill aims to shake China off the peg

If China does not ease controls on its currency within six months, it will face a 27.5% tariff on all exports to the US under legislation to be introduced in the Senate on Friday. According to Wes Hickman, a spokesman for Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Caroline Republican who is sponsoring the bill, along with […]

Shell Cuts Oil Reserves Again

Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said he was confident the company would not have to make further reserves cuts.

“We have taken the steps necessary to close out the reserves issue,” van der Veer said.

Nonetheless, he reiterated that his head was on the block over the matter. He said the restatement would have only a minor impact on earnings in recent years.

The company stuck to its target of 100 percent reserve replacement over the period 2004-2008, adding that the biggest impacts would come at the end of this period.

Shell, the world’s third-largest oil group by market capitalization, got off to a bad start in 2004, hitting a replacement level of between 45 and 55 percent.

Reuters

Andrew McKillop:

Iran bombing … playing with elasticity numbers or road to ruin? — For all these reasons, therefore, Iran bombing must be seen as pure madness, a flirt with total economic and financial meltdown, and not just one more ‘regime ‘change’ party for bombing freaks and war criminals. VheadlineAndrew McKillop: Iran bombing … playing with elasticity […]

An Open Letter to BusinessWeek on Hydrogen

Since oil and natural gas depletion are a reality that will impact our economy and our culture over the next 25 years, energy production and consumption has become a critical issue for every BusinessWeek reader. However, before BusinessWeek publishes another article on hydrogen as a fuel, I would encourage your editors to do their homework […]

Bush, Iraq and the Hydrogen Economy

Whatever your doubts about nuclear power, the hydrogen economy might at least be cheaper than occupying the Middle East indefinitely. Using a cost estimate of $1,200 per KW for the reactors, those 4,000 reactors would cost about $1,500bn.

The direct costs of the peacekeeping, if that’s the term I’m looking for, in the Middle East, are about $100bn a year. Over 20 years, that’s $2,000bn. Throw in the deferred military capital costs, not to mention the survivors’ benefits, and nuclear powered hydrogen becomes quite competitive. The real hurdle with nukes is the capital cost. Maintenance, fuel and operation add up to less than 1 cent per kwh, and total energy content in a kilogramme of hydrogen or a gallon of gasoline is about 50 kwh, which would mean operating costs of about 50 cents a gallon.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/020205G.shtml

Shell reports UK record profits

The Anglo-Dutch giant Shell today reported the biggest-ever profits by a UK company, revealing that it had made $17.5bn (£9.3bn) – or £25m a day – last year, despite being plagued by a reserves scandal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1404798,00.html

CO2 gases may be buried at sea

Plan to seal off carbon dioxide in offshore oil wells.

The [UK] government is considering giving tax concessions to oil companies to pump carbon dioxide from coal-fired power stations into nearly exhausted oil and gas wells in the North Sea to help solve global warming.

The government chief scientist, Sir David King, revealed yesterday that he had had talks with the oil companies to launch the scheme, which could cut UK emissions by 25%.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1404711,00.html

IP Week – a networking opportunity

However, no mention of IP Week could ignore the Annual Dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel on the evening of 16 February. This year the Guest of Honour and Speaker is Lee Raymond Chairman and Chief Executive of ExxonMobil. His company has over recent years been, publicly, very clear about the challenges facing the industry and his speech promises to be most interesting.

Petroleum Review – Editorial – February 2005

Antarctic Glaciers

Via New Scientist: The massive west Antarctic ice sheet, previously assumed to be stable, is starting to collapse, scientists warned on Tuesday.Antarctica contains more than 90% of the world’s ice, and the loss of any significant part of it would cause a substantial sea level rise. Scientists used to view Antarctica as a “slumbering giant”, […]

2.37 Million More Cars in China This Year

China’s demand for domestically-made sedans may only grow by a modest 2 percent and 5 percent in those years, respectively, to 2.37 million units in 2005 and 2.42 million in 2006, he said.

CBS Marketwatch

China Faces Oil Production Shortfall Next Year

CNOOC Cuts Output Target on Delay in Developing Biggest Field

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — CNOOC Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, cut its forecast of growth in production from 2006 to 2010 because of delays in developing what is expected to be the largest field off the country’s coast.

Output may increase by between 7 percent and 11 percent a year during the period, down from an earlier range of between 8 percent and 12 percent, Chairman Fu Chengyu said in Hong Kong today. A project off northeastern China, estimated to contain higher reserves than any of CNOOC’s other fields, won’t reach full capacity until 2012, two years later than expected, he said.

Bloomberg

The Axis of Oil

Wednesday, February 2, 2005 by In These Times The Axis of Oil By Jehangir Pocha China and India are locked in an increasingly aggressive wrangle with the United States over the world’s most critical economic commodity: oil. More than any other issue, this tussle will shape the economic, environmental and geopolitical future of these three […]

America stymied as governments bid to control oil

American Account: America stymied as governments bid to control oil By Irwin Stelzer CONCENTRATION on fluctuations in oil prices has detracted attention from the fundamental changes occurring in world oil and gas markets. Let’s start with President Bush’s inaugural address, in which he promised to support democratic reformers in the Middle East. “Very brave, Mr […]

China’s Big, Dirty Secret

Economic juggernaut, factory of the world, emerging superpower: When it comes to China’s ascendancy, the journalistic cliches come fast and furious. And there’s no denying that China’s hypergrowth wave is a wondrous thing. But another, darker dimension to China’s prosperity exists. The country is fast becoming an ecological wasteland, home to some of the world’s […]

Bush Budget to Scrap Subsidy for Amtrak

If W wants to make Amtrak more like the highway and aviation systems, does that mean he’s going give $2+ billion a year for railroad traffic controller salaries and maintenance (ala the air traffic control system, funded out of the federal treasury BTW), set up a user-financed, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure trust fund for railroads, remove the […]

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