Selling the world on a less dependent lifestyle

About 5 miles from Truckers International, a local contingent of this fringe community meets once a month at the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Waterville.

Members of the Peak Oil Group subscribe to the prediction made by the late M. King Hubbert, a geologist with Shell Oil Co., that oil production will reach its worldwide peak as soon as this year — hence the term “Hubbert’s Peak.”

There’s not an SUV to be found among the 10 in the group.

Morning Sentinel

Debt Trap Dynamics: Time To Think The Unthinkable

With the government and external deficits both so large and the private sector so heavily indebted, it is said that satisfactory growth in the US cannot be achieved without a large, sustained and discontinuous increase in net export demand. After perusing the trade data from last year, it is doubtful whether this will happen spontaneously […]

Oil prices could surge again in ‘05, energy agency warns

After last year’s record-breaking rally, crude oil prices might surge again this year if global demand does not slow, because the world still lacks sufficient production and refining capacity, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report. Consumption this year is expected to grow 1.7 percent, about half of last year’s 3.3 percent growth. […]

Indonesian Students Protest Fuel Price Hikes

… As Indonesia’s domestic crude production declines, domestic demand increases and international crude prices remain high the need for removing fuel subsidies becomes more essential for the national economy. Indonesian students don’t see it this way as they have recently mounted protests against fuel price increases. Is this a harbinger of oil scarcity induced social […]

Pakistani oil diplomacy at a crossroads

…
The Indian cabinet decision on February 9 authorizing the Petroleum Ministry to commence negotiations over the US$4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project poses a dilemma for Islamabad that goes beyond the issues of energy security or trade ties with India. A Hobson’s choice faces Islamabad: it has to balance public opinion on cooperation involving Iran and India with Washington’s approval of the project.

Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said while announcing the government decision in New Delhi, “The ball is very firmly in Pakistan’s court. It is now for them to respond to my letter of October [2004] which said that we hold a ‘conversation without commitment’ on cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and the Iran-India gas pipeline through Pakistan.”

www.atimes.com

Myanmar’s gas riches attract Asian investors

…
Politically and economically isolated for more than a decade, Myanmar is being thrown a lifeline by its Asian neighbours, which are jostling to spend billions of dollars to tap the country’s energy resources.

Slightly smaller than the US oil state Texas and bordering the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, little explored Myanmar is estimated to hold 13-15 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, 7 per cent of total proven reserves in Southeast Asia.

Aggressive state companies from China, India, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, undaunted by US and European sanctions, are looking to invest their big cash piles to develop Myanmar’s gas fields and build pipelines and hydropower dams.

www.independent-bangladesh.com

The Global Nutcracker Called Peak Oil

Essay on the consequences to the world’s economy when the realization finally strikes home that global oil production has begun its inevitable decline

EV World

EU wants OPEC to raise oil output

…
The European Union is talking with oil producers in the hope of persuading them to raise production and reduce oil costs, EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Friday.

“We will continue a dialogue with the producers to increase the supply”, he told reporters after talks with Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser in Vienna.

Asked if he wanted the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to increase production in order to bring oil costs down, he replied: “It would be useful.”

www.jang.com.pk

Oil majors keen on magnetic mapping

…
WHEN you are drilling for oil deep down on the ocean floor, how do you know if the reservoir you’ve found is full of fossil fuels or soaking in salt water?

The answer for big oil companies, who waste millions of dollars drilling into so-called “dry holes”, is an up-and-coming technology called electromagnetic mapping to pinpoint hydrocarbons, the main constituents of oil and natural gas.

Until recently, companies relied almost exclusively on seismic surveys, which use acoustic waves generated by explosions, to scour the sea floor for the right geological formations where oil and gas are mostly found.

The MY Star

Chavez: Kill me and oil stops

“If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States, George Bush,” Chavez said on his weekly radio programme, Hello, Mr. President.

“If, by the hand of the devil, those perverse plans succeed… forget about Venezuelan oil, Mr Bush,” he said.

News 24

Shipping largest risk in Arctic oil exploration

…
By Daniel Frykholm
HELSINKI (Reuters) – A major oil spill from a tanker is the main danger to the Arctic environment if oil exploration increases in the region, not drilling which is increasingly clean, the author of an eight-nation survey said.

“Shipping has always had risk associated with it, mariners have known that for centuries. There is no such thing as a safe ship — the Titanic was one,” said Dennis Thurston, one of two lead writers of the study, due to be published next year.

“The fear is that an increased search for oil is going to impact the Arctic, but the experience we’ve had is that activity has already peaked,” he told Reuters in an interview Friday.

Reuters

Exxon now most valuable private company

US oil giant Exxon Mobil has overtaken General Electric as the world’s most valuable public company. The firm, which last month made a record $25.3bn (£13.4bn; 19.4bn euros) profit for 2004, has been buoyed by rising profits from booming oil prices. Exxon Mobil passed General Electric to become the largest corporation by stock market value. […]

Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels

by M. King Hubbert, Chief Consultant (General Geology)

Exploration and Production Research Division, Shell Development Company, Publication Number 95, Houston, Texas, June 1956, Presented before the Spring Meeting of the Southern District, American Petroleum Institute, Plaza Hotel, San Antonio, Texas, March 7-8-9, 1956.

Oilcrisis.com

Soros: Dollar tied to oil

Moves by Middle East oil exporters and Russia to switch some revenue from dollars to euros lie behind the U.S. currency’s weakness, and a further rise in crude prices could prompt more declines, the billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday. Soros told delegates to the Jeddah Economic Forum that the dollar’s fall should help […]

Rating shows how green your car is

A new scheme is being launched to tell drivers and car buyers how environmentally friendly vehicles are.
Cars will be rated on a scale from A to F, based on their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions – the same system already used for fridges.

Only electric vehicles get an A grade. Smaller cars score a C while 4×4 vehicles, such as Land Rovers and Range Rovers, score an F grade.

BBC News

Spiralling polymer prices due to escalating oil prices

Spiraling polymer prices are causing great concerns to plastics processors as well user and allied industries, and have been the hot topic of discussions over the last few months. Escalating oil prices have been blamed for the rise in feedstock prices, which in turn have led to rising polymer prices, currently lingering at record peak levels….

See http://www.plastemart.com/upload/lit/77art/77_art_polymer.asp

Big Oil Steps Aside in Battle Over Arctic

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 – George W. Bush first proposed drilling for oil in a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska in 2000, after oil industry experts helped his presidential campaign develop an energy plan.

The major oil companies are largely uninterested in drilling in the refuge, skeptical about the potential there. Even the plan’s most optimistic backers agree that any oil from the refuge would meet only a tiny fraction of America’s needs.

New York Times (free registration required)

NZ Govt. looks to attract oil and gas exploration investment

Seismic survey for petroleum exploration

Energy Minister Trevor Mallard today launched a major project by the government aimed at attracting oil and gas exploration investment in New Zealand – the first ever seismic survey off the North Island’s East Coast.

“This is an incredibly significant project. We are at a crossroads for exploration in New Zealand. As a “frontier” destination for exploration, competing against well-established petroleum economies in the Middle East and Africa, New Zealand had to take some innovative steps to attract exploration investment,” Trevor Mallard said.

New Zealand Government Press Release (via scoop.co.nz)

The Nation That Debt Built

America has become a country of risk-takers – and it’s not solely homeowners and investors taking these chances…”trusted” government officials have made promises they can’t – and never intended to – keep. So what happens when this all comes to a head? Dan Denning takes a look…

Financial Sense Online

Wall St Week Ahead: Inflation, Rates Eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks could show some weakness this week as earnings season winds down, while inflation and interest-rate worries stoke investors’ concerns about future profits. Oil prices around $48 a barrel could also keep up the pressure on the markets, strategists said. Yahoo NewsWall St Week Ahead: Inflation, Rates Eyed Sun Feb 20,10:30 […]

Spain Gives Overwhelming ‘Yes’ to EU Constitution

As Bush arrives in Europe, he’s presented with a clear message: the EU is becoming a united block, strengthening its geopolitical power. A fact which we can no longer ignore. MADRID, Spain (CNN) — Spanish voters gave overwhelming support for the European Union constitution Sunday, voting for ratification by a more than 4-1 margin in […]

Oilsands industry faces challenges

CALGARY (CP) – Aggressive plans to boost Canadian crude oil production by at least 50 per cent in the next decade to 2.3 million barrels a day are expected to be carried on the shoulders of the rapidly expanding northern Alberta oilsands.

But a series of high-profile incidents, explosions and shutdowns have shown that the complex process of squeezing oil out of the cold, gluey sand is fraught with setbacks and risk.

continued…

Canoe.ca

Asia’s Energy Grab – good Flash Presentation

The New York Times has an excellent flash presentation on Asia’s energy grab. Put your volume up, as there’s an audio stream.

Freely accessible, here:

Flash Presentation

Peak oil maybe now: Simmons

As oil stubbornly refuses to fall below $45 a barrel, a major market mover has cast a worrying future prediction. Energy investment banker Matthew Simmons, of Simmons & Co International, has been outspoken in his warnings about peak oil before. His new statement is his strongest yet, “we may have already passed peak oil”Arguments are […]

ChevronTexaco Opens California Hydrogen Fuel Station

ChevronTexaco Corp. Friday opened a hydrogen fueling station in Chino, Calif., the first of six pilot stations in a federal program to promote the study of the fuel’s potential.

TBO.com

Peak oil in a nutshell

The end of abundant, affordable oil is in sight, and the implications are colossal. About now in our hydrocarbon phase of human history, we have pulled out of the Earth approximately half of the available petroleum (crude oil and natural gas). The other half still in the ground is harder to extract and may not – as assumed – fuel the global economy or even provide a transition to another phase.

BlueGreenEarth

An interview with George Draffan

When I look at the news about Peak Oil and energy issues in the corporate-owned media, I am assured that I have nothing to worry about. If I look deeper, I might hear that there may be problems a few decades from now, but that the “experts” will have solved the problems by then.

In The Wake

Wind: Quite Simply Not Reliable

“We see it as a resource that you can call on when the wind is blowing but it isn’t necessarily dispatchable. When you need electricity, you need it immediately. And if the wind stops blowing, you won’t get it,” said Dennis Lopez, a spokesman for Idaho Power.

MSNBC

A wimpier shade of green

US activistists largely indifferent to Bush’s position on Kyoto

Salon

US Experts Ponder Future Crises

The consensus reached in the report U.S. Energy Scenarios for the 21st Century is that humankind will have to make a concerted effort to avoid both energy shortages and the climate change many scientists believe is caused by burning fossil fuels. The report, prepared for the Washington-based Pew Center on Global Climate Change, explores three possible scenarios for the next 30 years.

Voice Of America

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