The World Petroleum Council: How to Finish the Race with Limited Gas

There is this saying that if you fuel your journey with fear and doubt, you are surely going to run out of gas. But fret not, the road is just sometimes fraught with uncharted terrains and bumps.

This month’s issue features an exclusive Q&A interview with Dr. Pierce Riemer, Director General & CEO of World Petroleum Council. He tackled some very important issues such as the challenges in the petroleum industry, the future of fossil fuels, and the latest disruptive technologies in the field. Also, learn more about his organization as he discussed the mission and the successes of the organization, as well as his personal profile. The World Petroleum Council (WPC) has invested its efforts in facilitating strategic alliances between and among various stakeholders. With this, it is therefore crucial to enable all sectors to gain access to resources.

With the rapidly changing technology available in the market, the use of this kind of alliances enables conditions for more established channels of distribution. Thus, benefitting everyone in the long run. Indeed, sustainability is a key in this industry. Dr. Riemer goes on to explain the future of fossil fuels, saying that the challenge lies on providing energy for all and the future of this planet in a sustainable way. With the ever increasing world population, fossil fuels may soon run out, even with the staggering increase in the share of renewable energy.

The future seems scary for the petroleum industry, as lamented by the CEO of WPC, but there is hope. They are currently challenged to think of developing new technologies in harnessing clean energy for all. Lastly, he stresses that “Our job is to keep our planet livable”. And by that, he really meant it. On the other hand, as a bonus for this month’s release, we are to give you a peek featuring different facets of the life of an engineer—starring hard facts in the professional work environment, life hacks and useful leadership guide.

In contrary to what most people think, engineers around the globe also face massive layoffs from the workforce of various industries. Finding a new job may not be as easy as it seems, but here, we present you solutions that will definitely increase your chances to survive your first week in a new engineering job. Truth be told, no matter how promising a new job can be, you will always encounter inconvenient truths especially in engineering careers.

The profession is not perfect per se but definitely it is worthy of your investment. Here you will also read that with the right people around you coupled with perseverance and strong determination, all will fall into its proper place. But again, there is no formula to success. Still, cheers to you, engineer!

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5 Comments on "The State of Fossil Fuel According to World Petroleum Council"

onlooker on Fri, 3rd Aug 2018 4:25 pm 



“Our job is to keep our planet livable”
That should have been if not the job, the interest and intent of everybody on this planet. Sadly, we all shirked that responsibility

twocats on Fri, 3rd Aug 2018 5:43 pm 



a mad-lib of buzzwords and meaningless phrases. if you are waiting for the engineers to save us we are screwed – they are virtually worthless except when directed to very specific, narrow, achievable tasks.

and anyway – the industry isn’t run by engineers but the executive officers and their boards – who demand profits.

Antius on Sat, 4th Aug 2018 5:55 am 



Why lithium ion batteries are practically useless for long-term energy storage.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611683/the-25-trillion-reason-we-cant-rely-on-batteries-to-clean-up-the-grid/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2018_07_30&utm_campaign=the_download

These things are close to replacing peaker plants, but are wholly unsuitable for longer term electricity storage.

Davy on Sat, 4th Aug 2018 6:54 am 



This is why I call the renewable revolution a transformation not a transition. Renewables can and are transforming the grid. They have a wonderful place in sweet spots where they can be utilized in highly productive locations. We should try to find all these sweet spots and fill them as best we can but that is about it. A 100% renewable transition is just nonsense from people who think they can have their cake and eat it. These people are usually the most affluent like California or Northern Europe. They want to have their affluence and be 100% green and independent. This twisted attitude is not all bad because it will drive grid changes. The high end or these policy proposals for renewable penetration will likely never happen but they still will drive these areas to a maximum of what is possible considering economics and physical limitations of technology.

The real changes to take renewable penetration further into higher penetration numbers would be behavioral. It would revolve around living with intermittency and practicing extreme efficiency along with demand management. Conservation would be on everyone’s mind. This would be taught from kindergarten on up. People would have to change their on-demand discretionary lives. The feel of this would be more like Soviet or Chinese communism used to be where you had to ask permission to go on a trip or move your residence for example. In this case maybe a smart meter would regulate what appliance you could use according to the grid condition. Bad behavior and wasteful behavior would be rooted out of people’s daily lives by a central authority. This kind of behavior changes are much different than today’s laissez-faire living choices based on price and incomes. This would have a knock on effect to food choices and consumerism.

The big question is if the economy could absorb these destructive changes. These are economically disruptive changes that will effect economic activity and the resulting health of the economy. Maybe if this process were slow enough an alternative economy of less affluence but more social cohesion might develop. This is all likely fantasy because today’s populations almost everywhere are spoil and mostly want affluence and independence whatever the cost. The rich of the world are the worst. A struggling middle class individual might consider it but the rich love their riches. They do not want to be told what to do with their personal life. People don’t even agree there is and energy and climate problem.

I don’t see how a real energy transformation revolution can happen anywhere except in ideal locations. Maybe some areas of Northern Europe will take it a little further to the limits of the economy and technology. The reality is we might change the grid to having high renewable penetration along with fossil fuel back up and other exotic storage technology but a full transition is fantasy. The economy is bumping up to all kinds of limits, resource and with systematic conditions like debt and unfunded liabilities. Political and social cohesion is compressing. This all leads one to believe that in some areas renewables will help take the pressure off energy decline. We will have sweet spots where renewables make sense that might be occupied and contribute to a diversified grid. Fossil fuels will remain dominant because we have no choice.

The ship is sinking but these measures will lengthen out the tail of the descent. We can and should take technology to her limits but there are still limits. Maybe we can change behavior if there is a crisis or near crisis. It usually takes crisis for real changes to occur. We have had amazing changes occur over the last 30 years but these changes are different because these changes were the creative destruction of technology and affluence doing what they do in a market based capitalistic liberal democratic world. These type of amazing changes don’t work with destructive changes brought on by physical and systematic limits to growth and development. That is a whole other animal we have yet to slay. This effort requires loss of freedom and sacrifice. This animal will likely eat us instead of the other way around. We can take our civilization further out in time but this is likely it. Let’s at least acknowledge energy end game case might be our future and consider the possibilities. This means healthy scientific and social discussions of our death as moderns. Maybe this will drive more change and any change away from what we are doing now is good change. It is also the case the longer we go without changing the more danger that change will never be possible.

Cloggie on Sat, 4th Aug 2018 7:13 am 



Why lithium ion batteries are practically useless for long-term energy storage.

In any credible design of a 100% renewable energy system, batteries play a small role:

https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/blueprint-100-renewable-energy-base-for-germany/

Power-to-Gas (H2, CH4, etc) – 179 TWh
Batteries – 9 TWh
Pumped hydro – 7 TWh

The economy is bumping up to all kinds of limits, resource and with systematic conditions like debt and unfunded liabilities.

Fine, the more the economy crashes (if that happens, I’m not convinced), the less fossil fuel needs to be replaced. At some point an equilibrium will be reached.

Currently Britain has overtaken everybody else in Europe in the race towards a clean energy system:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/01/30/uk-beating-eu-race-clean-energy-system/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/22/uk-hits-clean-energy-milestone-50-of-electricity-from-low-carbon-sources

If you can reach 50% clean electricity in 2016, you can reach 100% a decade or 2-3 later, although some serious storage facilities will need to be built in the process (hydrogen, pumped hydro). Especially Britain has a lot of potential for the latter, in Scotland, sufficient to cover it all and then some:

https://deepresource.wordpress.com/2017/11/19/world-record-pumped-hydro-storage-for-scotland/