Jean Laherrère: Comments on BP Statistical Review 2012

Digest The BP Statistical Review has the merit to release every year free and convenient updated historical data on energy. These data are recopied from what is reported by national agencies, avoiding diplomatic conflicts. Despite the heterogeneity of the data, the report displays a ridiculous high number of digits, in contradiction with the real accuracy […]

ONGC makes huge oil discovery off West coast of India

ONGC on Saturday said it has made a huge oil discovery off the West coast that will help the state-owned firm raise its sagging oil output. The new discovery was made in the currently producing D1 oilfield. The find “will catapult D1 to become the third largest field in western offshore after prolific Mumbai High […]

Reflections: The Death of Gallium

I mourn for the dodo, poor fat flightless bird, extinct since the eighteenth century. I grieve for the great auk, virtually wiped out by zealous Viking huntsmen a thousand years ago and finished off by hungry Greenlanders around 1760. I think the world would be more interesting if such extinct creatures as the moa, the […]

Is The Inclusion Of Natural Gas Liquids In The Definition Of Oil Plausible?

A new debate has emerged in recent days around the new definition of oil. In a commentary published on July 16, 2012 on Peak Oil Review, Kurt Cobb argues that the idea that global oil production has been spinning around 88 and 89 million barrels per day (mbpd) this year is wrong. This is because […]

Chavez touts Venezuela’s huge nat gas reserves

Venezuela has proven natural gas reserves of 200 quintillion cubic feet, placing them among the largest in the world, President Hugo Chavez said. “We have proven that we have some of the most important gas reserves on the planet, and we are at 200 quintillion cubic feet and we will continue discovering more,” Chavez said […]

DOE sees vast energy resource in Permian basin residual oil zones

Billions of barrels of oil that could increase domestic supply, help reduce imports, and improve US energy security may be potentially recoverable from residual oil zones, according to initial findings from a study supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy. The recently completed study, conducted by researchers at the University of […]

EIA Revises Estimates Of America’s Energy Bonanza

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) updated its estimates of America’s proved reserves of oil and natural gas for 2010.  Here’s a summary of the key findings: 1. Proved reserves of both oil and natural gas in 2010 rose by the highest amounts ever recorded in the 35 years EIA has been estimating […]

Abiotic Oil and Gas: A Theory That Refuses To Vanish

In the West it is almost universally held that all oil and gas is derived from fossils. This is not the case elsewhere, particularly among Russian and Ukrainian scientists who have, over several generations, tenaciously propounded the notion that oil and gas are abiotic, can be found deep below the surface of the earth in […]

6 Of The Biggest Untapped Oil Fields In The World

Whether or not you ascribe to theories of peak oil, there is no doubt that there are some massive untapped oil fields around the world. Some aren’t reaching their potential in terms of oil extraction for political reasons. Others present difficult technological challenges that haven’t quite been figured out yet. These oil fields have the […]

Chris Nelder: Is peak oil dead?

Is peak oil dead? One might think so, judging by a slew of optimistic new forecasts for oil production. Even George Monbiot, notable for his thoughtful previous coverage of peak oil in The Guardian, threw in the towel with his July 2 mea culpa, “We were wrong about peak oil. There’s enough to fry us […]

Kazakhstan hopes uranium, oil and gas will fuel its future

The featureless plains of Kazakhstan belie what riches lie buried beneath them. The country has an abundance of natural gas and oil that if developed could more than double the country’s crude output in the next decade to 4 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency. That would make it one of […]

Oil: Only part of the Arctic’s massive resources

When Royal Dutch Shell sinks five wells off Alaska — slated for next month — it will be the first drilling in U.S. Arctic waters in decades. Yet it will be just the latest in a slow-moving but steady push to tap the Arctic’s vast natural resources. Encouraged by high commodity prices and shrinking sea […]

Nigeria Has Great Potentials In Oil Resources

CONTRARY to fears that the country could run out of crude soon, Managing Director of Conoil Producing Limited, a frontline petroleum exploration company, Dr. Ebi Omatsola, says large volume could be lying in different parts of Nigeria. Omatsola, who spoke in Lagos, last week, at a technical session organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum […]

Denying the imminence of Peak Oil is a Tragic Error

Olivier Rech, former officer at the International Energy Agency, takes down the Maugeri report, according to which peak oil is no more than a chimera. With new and exclusive data to back up his arguments. Peak Oil Reloaded – part 2/2 (lien vers la version française déjà publiée) Peak Oil Reloaded – part 1/2 What […]

How Much Natural Gas Do We Have Left?

President Obama proclaimed that the US has 100 years of natural gas (UNG) supply. Do we really have 100 years of natural gas (NG) supply? Why did Chris Nelder claim that we have only 11 years or less NG supply left? The Potential Gas Committee, the EIA and the USGS gave different estimates of US […]

The Treasures of the Arctic

2012/07/10 BERLIN (Own report) – Foreign policy experts in the German capital are demanding that Berlin obtain access to the deposits of Arctic natural resources through close cooperation with Greenland and Canada. According to these experts, “rich mineral deposits” for example, rare earth and other important resources, can be found in the High North. At […]

‘Peak Gold’ – Gold Production Collapse Continues In South Africa

South African Gold Production Continues To Plummet After initial falls in Asia, gold traded sideways and then gradually ticked higher later in the Asian session and has seen further gains in European trading. Gold is currently set to finish the week marginally lower in dollar and sterling terms but higher in euro and Swiss franc […]

Response to Leonardo Maugeri’s Decline Rate Assumptions in “Oil: The Next Revolution”

The 76 page Belfer Centre pdf can be downloaded here. This critique by Sorrell and McGlade first appeared in the ODAC newsletter here. Commentary on: Oil: ‘The Next Revolution: The Unprecedented Upsurge of Oil Production Capacity and What it Means for the World’ – Leonardo Maugeri, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University […]

How Many Years Of Oil Do We Have Left?

Probably in excess of 50 years before oil production drops below half what is currently. Counting natural gas in total hydrocarbons, probably 90 to 140 years before total hydrocarbon use drops to below half what it is currently. It is likely that this will be enough time to transition to renewables, nuclear, and biomass, with […]

Energy Quest and ‘Britain’s Atlantis’

A couple of fascinating reports detail discoveries at the bottom of the North Sea that some scientists say indicate the existence of “Doggerland,” an area that connected modern-day Great Britain to continental Europe until about 7,000 years ago. CBS News reports that fossilized evidence of mammoths and other large game, harpoons, flint tools and suspected […]

Peak theories ‘trashed’

PEAK theories – peak phosphorus, peak oil, peak potassium – are, in the words of Mick Keogh, being “trashed by the cold, hard and ruthless rules of economics”. In a blog post, the Australian Farm Institute’s executive director argued that these peaks were projected on questionable statistics, “and ignore some some basic economics”. “A number […]

New views of oil supply

en years ago, analysts ran fevers over expectations about global oil consumption. A forecast would appear from, say, the US Energy Information Administration indicating oil demand in 2020 at 119.6 million b/d, and many of them would pop their safety valves. They’d see no way to meet demand of 120 million b/d of oil when […]

Everything You Missed At The Big Peak Oil Conference In Vienna

ASPO is a no-budget loose association of people interested in studying Peak Oil. It was formed in 2002 (10th anniversary this year) by Colin Campbell and Kjell Aleklett, both petroleum geologists. The term Peak Oil (which often creates confusion – I don’t know how many times I had to say “no, not Pig Oil – […]

How Much Oil is There in the World?

This video explores the current state of the worlds oil resources and the likely scenario of depletion. It also goes into the alternative theories of oil creation and the distortion of the oil data.

Highlights of the 2012 BP Statistical Review

Last week the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy was released. I always look forward to the release, because the data represent the most comprehensive, publicly available database on energy consumption and production statistics. I have now read through this year’s report, picking out what I believe are important trends and data points. In this […]

Ugo Bardi: Peak oil: has it arrived?

Last week, at a public meeting, I was asked several times if this famed “peak oil” has arrived or not. People who have heard of peak oil seem to be becoming impatient, but I am afraid we’ll have to wait a little longer. Peak oil is not here yet, at least if we intend it […]

Peaking at Peak Oil – Kjell Aleklett

Kjell Aleklett speaks at ASPO 2012

The Math Behind the 100-Year, Natural-Gas Supply Debate

When President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union speech this year that the United States has a supply of natural gas that can last nearly 100 years, he was using a quick-and-dirty, back-of-the-envelope computation that is nonetheless rooted in recent geological research. Even the nation’s top petroleum geologists, who typically measure natural […]

Venezuela Overtakes Saudis for Largest Oil Reserves

Venezuela surpassed Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest holder of proven oil reserves, a resource that President Hugo Chavez promises to tap if he gets re-elected in October. The South American country’s deposits were at 296.5 billion barrels at the end of last year, data from BP Plc (BP/) show. Saudi Arabia held 265.4 […]

World oil reserves up 8 pct, supply fears persist

The world’s store of oil and gas jumped 8.3 percent last year, as exploration rose and record crude prices made marginal projects commercially viable, yet supplies will struggle to meet demand due to political factors, oil giant BP said on Wednesday. BP said in its annual calculation of global oil and gas reserves – considered […]

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