Petroleum Review – Editorial – March 2005

Was 2004 demand so exceptional?
…
With quite limited spare capacity, any incremental demand in 2005 will largely have to be met by new capacity coming onstream. In fact, significant volumes of new capacity are due onstream this year, with four out of the 22 major new projects due for start-up in 2005 already onstream. However, although the gross capacity additions in 2005 are quite large, the IEA’s view is that net capacity additions will be just under 1mn b/d for non-Opec and up to 1mn b/d for Opec, of which 440 kb/d will be from NGLs.

Energy Institute

Andrew McKillop: Fundamentals in the oil-pricing game

The net read-out from this is: rising prices and the dusting off of energy conservation and renewable energy development strategies. Both of these, we can add, are sorely needed to limit adverse climate change, now at least better understood … and feared.

Vheadline

The oil factor in Bush’s ‘war on tyranny’

In recent public speeches, President George W Bush and others in the US administration, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have begun to make a significant shift in the rhetoric of war. A new “war on tyranny” is being groomed to replace the outmoded “war on terror”. Far from being a semantic nuance, the shift is highly revealing of the next phase of Washington’s global agenda.

Asia Times

US DOE Commissions Voyage of Discovery for Vast New Resource

Aboard the Uncle John — When this semi-submersible drilling vessel enters the Gulf of Mexico later this month it will embark researchers on a 35-day voyage of discovery that is part of an effort to map a virtually inexhaustible supply of energy – the methane hydrate that may represent up to 200,000 trillion cubic feet […]

Solar Catalyst Group Outlines 10 Year Plan

For Immediate Release March 1, 2005 REPORT PROPOSES AGGRESSIVE PLAN TO REGAIN U.S. LEADERSHIP IN MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR SOLAR PV MARKET Solar Catalyst Group Outlines Ten-Year Public-Private Partnership to Create Jobs, Economic Opportunity, and Energy Security Washington D.C./San Francisco, Calif. – A new report, by Co-op America’s Solar Catalyst Group and Clean Edge, Inc., proposes a […]

Protests over Indonesian fuel rise

Hundreds of Indonesian students have held rallies around the country to protest against rising fuel prices.

BBC

Pemex Says Cantarell Field to Begin Decline in 2005

March 1 (Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state oil monopoly, expects production at its largest oil field to decline this year and will seek to make up for the shortfall at other fields, said Vinicio Suro, planning director for Pemex’s production and exploration unit. Cantarell, which accounted for more than 60 percent of oil production […]

THE AGE OF IGNORANCE

To the vast majority of us ignorant to the lessons of history, conditioned by an extended period of prosperity and technological advancement this is not welcome news. The callous reality is that we are staring down the barrel of the next Great Depression not because we are “running out of oil” but because the truism of perpetual economic growth fuelled by a seemingly endless growth in the supply of oil is about to be reversed.

PowerLess NZ

After nuclear arms, is energy next?

The struggle between global energy haves and have-nots is nothing new—1970s oil shock, anyone? But in recent years, a range of factors has shoved access to energy up the geopolitical agenda of many countries, supplanting the nuclear arms race as the dominant driver of geopolitics.

Slate

Carbon Nanotube Structures Could Provide More Efficient Solar Power

Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) scientists have demonstrated an ability to precisely grow “towers” composed of carbon nanotubes atop silicon wafers. The work could be the basis for more efficient solar power for soldiers in the field.

azonano.com

Last Orders For The US Dollar?

“Last orders” is the cry one usually hears at closing time in an English pub. The beer spigots are turned off and the party’s over. One had a similar sense of finality for the US dollar last week following the announcement that the Korean central bank, which has some $200 billion in reserves, would “diversify […]

Bring Back Democracy to America

A great blight of our democracy today is that most congressional and state legislative elections are noncompetitive. Thanks to sophisticated computer technology, politicians can now draw district lines that virtually guarantee the reelection of incumbents or preserve seats for particular parties. The districts often resemble a Jackson Pollock painting or a bowl of spaghetti thrown […]

Exxon Mobil to Sell Stake in Co.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. oil company, is selling its entire stake in China’s biggest oil refiner for up to US$1.4 billion (euro1.1 billion), Dow Jones Newswires reported Tuesday. Exxon Mobil – the last of three international oil investors in China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec – is selling 3.17 billion shares in […]

China fuels energy cold war

A notable feature of 2004 was the volatility in oil prices – New York light sweet crude prices reached a peak of US$55.67 on October 25, ending the year up 33.6% at $43.45 per barrel. While a number of supply-side and supply-chain factors have contributed to this situation, the most significant long-term factor contributing to […]

Opec may give more weight to heavy oil

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries will next month consider a change in the composition of its oil price index to reflect the true value of Middle East oil exports, as a first step to raising its price target, Opec officials said. The present oil index, or Opec basket, has been labelled “unrealistic” as its […]

Exxon Mobil predicts 50 percent more demand by 2030

DALLAS – Exxon Mobil Corp. said today that it expects global energy demand to rise 50 percent by 2030 with oil, natural gas and coal remaining dominant because they are the only fuels abundant and versatile enough to meet growing needs. ADVERTISEMENT Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company, said it expected oil and gas […]

Playing chicken with the Chinese

President Bush’s monetary and fiscal policy is borrowed from Sheriff Bart in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” who, faced with an angry mob, whips out his gun and points it at his own head, then drags his hostage inside the jail.

The United States, which buys most of the world’s industrial output, is the debtor who is too big to fail. By running a huge deficit and allowing the dollar to decline, the president is playing chicken with the Chinese.

Berkshire Eagle

Sailing off to a better environment?

For several weeks last summer, a team of German engineers sailed back and forth across the Baltic Sea playing with a large inflatable kite. The engineers, from the Hamburg company SkySails, were testing the potential of high-tech kites to pull a ship across the ocean by hitching a ride on winds high above the waves.

The idea isn’t to propel a ship by wind alone – a conventional diesel engine will help it along on days when the wind is blowing from the wrong direction, is too strong or dies away entirely. But since the kite reduces the need to use engines, the team at SkySails believes it can halve the amount of fuel a ship burns.

New Scientist.com

Germany calls for transparent oil prices

Schroeder: Oil prices must become transparent

28 February 2005

RIYAHD – German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has kicked off a Middle East tour by urging further Saudi reform and reiterating his wish to see more transparency in oil prices, including in the speculation of markets.

Speaking at a business forum in Riyadh Schroeder said that a topic at the upcoming G8 summit of industrial nations in Great Britain will be how information can be better exchanged over oil “supply and demand”.

As a reliable supplier and exporter of oil Saudi Arabia has a special responsibility, and has thus far done well in its role as the world’s most prominent oil exporter, according to

Schroeder.

Expatica

Sasol’s study on synthetic fuels for China ready soon

SASOL, the world’s largest syn thetic fuels producer, could commission two plants that converting which would convert coal into liquid fuels in China as soon as 2010 or 2011, executive director Pat Davies indicated said yesterday. Businessday (Africa) 01 March 2005 Sasol’s study on synthetic fuels for China ready soon Carli Lourens – Trade and […]

Malaysia, Indonesia governments cut fuel subsidies

Malaysia : Malaysia yesterday moved to ease the burden of fuel subsidies on state finances, announcing a 6 per cent jump in the regulated price of diesel … caught between high oil prices and a pledge to slash the budget deficit, the government had little choice but to take the politically unpopular decision to cut […]

Energy Chemical industry’s gas warning

Longer term worries over gas supplies to the UK will be voiced by the trade union Amicus today at a conference entitled Energy in Crisis. The union will warn that within the next 15 years some 75% of Britain’s electricity will be generated by gas-fired power stations and that Britain will become dependent on supplies […]

Energy Chemical industry’s gas warning

Longer term worries over gas supplies to the UK will be voiced by the trade union Amicus today at a conference entitled Energy in Crisis. The union will warn that within the next 15 years some 75% of Britain’s electricity will be generated by gas-fired power stations and that Britain will become dependent on supplies […]

« Previous Page

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy