by copious.abundance » Fri 17 Jul 2009, 23:20:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AirlinePilot', '[')b]List of cancelled/delayed oil and gas projects
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsN ... 9620090716 July 16 (Reuters) - Following is a list of some of the oil and gas projects and oil refinery expansion plans that have been delayed or cancelled so far in 2009. The global financial crisis, falling oil demand, a slide in prices and poor general market conditions have prompted many in the industry to scale back spending and delay projects.
I had a feeling you might post this. This list is a great example of why I think all this talk about curtailment of energy projects is one of the most over-hyped things in recent memory.
* June 15 - Natural gas project. Yawn. The world is awash in the stuff and prices have tanked and stayed there.
* June 1 - Delays over a land dispute. Oh well. I'm sure they'll get it straightened out eventually.
* May 22 - An
aromatics project. This isn't even an energy project! The delay of this project means the world will be using
less oil, not more.
* May 14 - An underground (cavern) oil storage project in Singapore. Wow, we must be doomed!
* May 12 - All this one says is that the Chinese company which was going to build the project will rely on Chinese feedstock instead.
* April 24 - A delay of an oil project in Peru by 2 years. If this delay consists of the entirety of
this project, it means the world will see a 2-year delay of 100K bpd from the remote jungles of Peru. Oh well.
* April 13 - Delay of a Saudi refinery. There is a surplus of refining capacity in the world right now. Another yawn.
* March 24 - Another delay of a refinery, this time in Qatar. See reply above.
* March 21 - Delay of a natural gas field in Qatar. See June 15 response.
* March 20 - Scrapping of a refinery project. See replies above about other refinery projects.
* March 17#1 - Delay of an oil/gas project in the GOM by maybe several months. Wow! Several months! Doom!
* March 17#2 - Delay by 1 or 2 years of a couple projects in Nigeria. One or two years. Oh well.
* March 17#3 - Delay of a refinery expansion by 2 years. See above reply about surpluses of world refinery capacity
* March 17#4 - Delay of a GTL plant in Qatar by several months, maybe a year. Yawn.
* Feb 3 - Delay of a 15,000 bpd refinery expansion in Detroit by a couple years. Another refinery yawn.
* Jan 28 - Delay of upgrade projects at 2 unspecified refineries. Maybe if I yawn at enough refinery project delays/curtailments the message will sink in.
* Jan 27 - Valero - a refiner - is cutting capital expenses. Maybe if I yawn at enough refinery project delays/curtailments the message will sink in.
* Jan 22 - Another refinery project, "placed under review." See previous refinery yawns.
* Jan 20 - Suncor delays an oil sands expansion project. This was announced in January, when oil was in the $40's. I have since posted articles about oil sands projects being put back on the front burner. With oil back up to $60 I have a sneaky feeling Suncor is taking another look at this. But time will tell.
* Jan 19 - A power and water project in Bahrain being delayed. Maybe electricity demand in Bahrain isn't growing anymore. Now, WTF does that have to do with world oil supplies?
* Jan 17 - A pipeline project that would have supplied Montreal refiners with oil sands oil instead of imported oil. Sounds like a money-losing idea anyway.
* Jan 13 - I have a feeling this one is no longer "threatened."
* Jan 9 - Delay of an ethanol plant in Ontario by 2 years. Yawn.
* Jan 8 - Vague delays to Ecuadorian oil and gas projects. Again, this was back in January when the financial crisis was at its worst and oil was in the $40's.
* Jan 8 - Delay of some Korean petrochemical plant due to slack oil demand.
This is just a petrochemical company - they do not produce energy products, they produce petrochemicals used in plastics, solvents and other industrial uses. Delay of this project will result in
less consumption of oil, not more.
* Jan 5 - Delay of a North Sea gas pipeline. Given the recent news about natural gas supply issues in the UK I will give this one half-credit for being noteworthy.
So, out of 26 projects, we have 5 specific projects - all merely
delays - which actually would produce oil out of the ground. Two others on the list are unspecified delays or "threats" to oil and gas projects in 2 nations (Russia and Ecuador). And both those were in January at the height of the crash. All the others on the list are either natural gas projects, refinery projects, or petrochemical projects. The GTL project in Qatar I might also give half-credit, but once again it is merely a delay by up to a year.
Citing lists like this as evidence of some upcoming oil crisis is proof, in my book, that peakers are very low on the critical-analysis-skills scale. All you had to do was read over the list to determine that most of them don't even have anything to do with the production of oil - and a few of them could very well mean that
less oil will be consumed because they aren't even energy projects.
*sigh*
