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«Denying the imminence of Peak Oil is a Tragic Error », says ex- IEA petroleum expert
Matthieu Auzanneau, Oil Man blog
What is there in the report published by Leonardo Maugeri that justifies the announced “revolution” which, according to the former director of the Italian group ENI, will make the impending specter of decline in the production of ‘black gold’ vanish?
Nothing at all says Olivier Rech, who was in charge of prospective petroleum strategy at the IEA from 2006 to 2009. His response follows, laid out in seven points, all supported by his historical analysis of the rate of decline in existing petroleum production, presented here for the first time.
Today Mr Rech is the Director of Energy Funds Advisors, a consulting company providing expertise for La Française AM, a major Parisian asset management firm. He has already predicted on this blog that a decline in the production of oil and its substitutes will occur somewhere between 2015 and 2020…
Translation by James Anglin
(9 July 2012)
Link to French original
Oil prices could be rigged by traders warns G20 report
BBC Online
A report commissioned by the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies has warned oil prices could be vulnerable to a Libor-style rigging scandal.
According to the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the current system of oil price reporting is “susceptible to manipulation or distortion.”
Benchmark prices are compiled by price reporting agencies. The biggest, Platts, says “there is absolutely no similarity” between Libor and oil.
Trillions of dollars of securities and contracts are based on these oil and gasoline prices…
(16 July 2012)
Link to paper
Shell’s Arctic Drilling Venture Stumbles Toward Reality
Tom Zeller Jr, Huffington Post
Royal Dutch Shell, the global energy giant, has already invested more than $4 billion in its Arctic drilling venture, but that was apparently not enough to purchase proper mooring in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor and avoid a subsequent public relations mess.
Precisely what happened is still being sorted out. Official accounts had the Noble Discoverer, one of two massive drilling rigs that Shell had parked midway up the Aleutian Island chain, dragging anchor in stiff winds over the weekend before coming to a halt 100 yards offshore.
Locals, including a shutterbug harbor captain, disputed that scenario and lit up Twitter and Facebook with photographs showing the rig all but on the beach.
“There’s no question it hit the beach,” Kristjan Laxfoss, the harbor captain, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “That ship was not coming any closer. It was on the beach.”…
(17 July 2012)
