Peak oil – Mar 25

March 25, 2008

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are availa through the Energy Bulletin homepage


Oil Firms ‘In Liquidation,’ Says ‘Peak Oil’ Advocate Simmons

CNBC via Yahoo Finance
The “peak oil” debate continued to rage with one of its principal proponents, energy sector investment banker Matthew Simmons, appearing on CNBC Tuesday to insist that major oil firms are “actually in liquidation.”

Simmons’ assessment of major oil companies’ fate is the “grim reality,” he says, of the firms even as they insist that vast potential remains from unconventional sources. Among those untapped reserves are the “tar sands” or “oil sands” of Canada – naturally occurring mixtures of earth, water and oil found largely in Alberta.

… Simmons said it’s “convenient” for major oil firms like Shell to book reserves, such as its oil sands project in Alberta, but doing so amounts to an exercise in “turning gold into lead” because of the vast energy and potable water resources needed there to produce low-quality oil.
(25 March 2008)
Also at Yahoo Finance.


Yergin and Hubbert on the same side US Govt video 1979
(video)
US Department of Energy (DOE) via YouTube
Daniel Yergin tells us we [in the United States] are past peak and are running out of time. Also features M King Hubbert.
(25 March 2008)
Submitted by aceditor. Yergin expresses much more concern about oil than CERA currently does. Playful cartoon about peak oil in the middle of the clip. -BA


Peak Oil vs. Global Warming

Jamais Cascio, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies IEET)
Will we avoid the worst ravages of global warming because we run out of oil?

Not since King Kong vs. Godzilla have we seen a monster fight of this magnitude. Disaster vs. Disaster, Category I Apocalypse vs. Category I Apocalypse. Best of all, NASA’s James Hansen serves as referee.

… In the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the “business-as-usual” scenario, which posits that society keeps going as it has, and fossil fuel consumption continues to grow at its current pace, results in an atmospheric CO2 concentration of over 950ppm by the end of this century. It won’t happen, of course-the effects of global warming (sea level rise, drought, pandemic disease, dogs and cats living together, etc.) would make such steady growth untenable. Technology change would play a role, too, as would shifts in population. But the biggest reason why it won’t happen is a simple one:

There isn’t enough petroleum in the ground, in any form, to make it possible.

That’s the argument that James Hansen and his colleague Pushker A. Kharecha make in a new article …

… The difference between Hansen & Kharecha’s business-as-usual and the other scenarios points to the importance of limiting coal and other greenhouse gases-that is, making major changes to how we live. Peak oil isn’t going to save us from global warming by itself.

But it will help. That doesn’t lessen the threat that peak oil could pose-while the “doomer” peak oil scenarios seem to me to be overwrought and simplistic, it’s true that our society is thoroughly dependent upon fossil fuels, and an abrupt reduction in availability would be traumatic. This connection does mean, however, that we have all the more reason to move away from fossil fuels as energy sources as rapidly as possible, that solutions in one arena will often help in the other.

Peak Oil vs. Global Warming… and both can be defeated by Innovation and Action.

Jamais Cascio is a fellow of the IEET, and a professional futurist. He writes the popular blog Open the Future.
(25 March 2008)


Fundamentals of Peak Oil

Dr. Krassimir Petrov, Google (Video)
A 60 minute university lecture on Peak Oil? What is it, what are its causes, consequences, alternatives and solutions.
(posted 22 February 2008)
According to this web page, Krassimir Petrov is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the American University in Bulgaria. Dr. Petrov wrote: The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse

Noted by “River” at The Oil Drum, who writes:
“A basic introduction to PO, at the economic site Financial Sense. … The lecturer is speaking to an investment club although the lecture is listed as a college presentation. The lecture goes a bit beyond an introduction imo, and I believe it to be a good tool for those that are having difficulty communicating the concept of PO to friends and relatives. Recording date is listed as Oct, 2007.”

-BA


The slide in Mexico continues

John Kingston , The Barrel (journalist’s blog at Platts)
There isn’t really a need for much editorial comment. The numbers tell the whole story.

Bottom line: it isn’t getting any better in Mexico.

Earlier today, Pemex, the country’s state owned oil company, reported that its crude production fell by 6.9% year-on-year in February to 2.929 million b/d, while crude exports plummeted by 19.4% to 1.429 million b/d.
(24 March 2008)


Tags: Fossil Fuels, Industry, Oil