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Money spent on tar sands projects could decarbonise western economies
Terry Macalister, the Guardian
The £250bn cost of developing Canada’s controversial tar sands between now and 2025 could be used to decarbonise the western economy by funding ambitious solar power schemes in the Sahara or a European wide shift to electric vehicles, according to a new report released today.
The same amount of investment would also help the world to hit half of the Millenium Development Goals in the 50 least-developed countries, says the research from The Co-operative and conservation group, WWF, which is released to coincide with a new film, Dirty Oil, being premiered in 25 cinemas around the UK today. It is a hard-hitting documentary narrated by Canadian actor, Neve Campbell.
The moves are all part of a concerted effort to put shareholder and public pressure on BP and Shell which are at the forefront of extracting oil from the carbon-intensive tar sands of Alberta…
(15 March 2010)
You can access the report here
China’s oil demand increase ‘astonishing’, says IEA
BBCnews
China’s demand for oil jumped by an “astonishing” 28% in January compared with the same month a year earlier, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.
The body added that demand for oil in 2010 would be underpinned by rising demand from emerging markets, with half of all growth coming from Asia.
But the IEA predicted demand in developed countries would fall by 0.3%.
The IEA has increased its global oil demand forecast for 2010 by 1.8% to 86.6 million barrels a day…
(12 March 2010)
OPEC sticks to its guns, demand rising
Amena Bakr and Alex Lawler, Reuters
OPEC ministers agreed not to change oil output targets they are already exceeding, anticipating that demand will pick up later in the year to mop up extra barrels.
But with economic recovery still fragile as powerhouse China considers curbs on credit, members discussed on Wednesday their adherence to production levels set in December 2008 to keep supply at 24.84 million barrels per day (bpd).
OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said the producers would next meet on October 14 in Vienna, pushing back slightly from the usual September slot.
“Good demand, reliable supply, beautiful prices — we are very happy,” Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said just before entering the meeting.
Benchmark crude futures traded at over $82 per barrel — in the area that OPEC’s biggest exporter considers appealing to both consumers and producers alike, despite overproduction by OPEC.
A nascent recovery in the global economy in the last year and rising prices have encouraged revenue-hungry OPEC members to pump more oil and in February they were making just 53 percent of promised cuts of 4.2 million bpd…
(17 March 2010)
