Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil.
Profits were up at the supermajors again in Q2 as high oil prices offset the rising cost of new production. Shell’s Peter Voser said that high prices were having an effect on demand for oil, especially in Europe — this could be seen reflected in flat UK growth figures and weak numbers even for major German manufacturing companies. As fears grow of a double dip recession there are few easy efficiencies left for companies to make. Continued high oil prices are likely to really hurt.
Looking into the results statements of the oil companies it is apparent that, while there is still plenty of money in this game, raising oil production is becoming increasingly difficult. More and more companies are relying on barrels of oil equivalent, by way of gas, to fill their balance sheets. Shell and Exxon which both increased production relied heavily on gas, Shell with investments in Qatar and Australia, and Exxon via its purchase of unconventional gas producer XTO. In the meanwhile the pressure to allow drilling for oil in the Arctic and other environmentally sensitive areas grows.
Much of the optimism around gas comes from the potential to expand production via fracking, and increased use of Liquefied Natural Gas to allow a more flexible market. Mark Leftly wrote an extremely gung ho article in the Independent this week based on an interview with Centrica’s Chris Watson on the prospects for unconventional gas in Canada. A report commissioned by the European Parliament‘s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety department by contrast is extremely circumspect about the prospects for the industry in Europe, concluding that “The present privileges of oil and gas exploration and extraction should be reassessed in view of the fact that the environmental risks and burdens are not compensated for by a corresponding potential benefit as the specific gas production is very low.” The ever more risky trade-offs necessary to keep the gas tanks filled tells its own story.
Oil
Crude Oil Falls, Heads for Weekly Decline, on U.S. Debt Ceiling Dispute
Oil fell, headed for the first weekly decline in five, on concern a failure to reach a deal on raising the U.S. debt limit may cause the nation to default, threatening the economy of the world’s biggest crude consumer.
Futures dropped as much as 0.8 percent after House Speaker John Boehner delayed a planned vote on debt-limit legislation as Senate leaders stood ready to kill the measure should it get to their chamber. Prices also declined before a report forecast to show the world’s largest economy grew at the slowest pace in a year. U.S. crude stockpiles rose for the first time in eight weeks last week, Energy Department data showed July 27…
Shell, BP say high oil price erodes demand
High crude prices have dented global oil demand in the second quarter, oil majors said this week, in a trend likely to be repeated in the second half of the year if prices stay high.
Oil majors BP , Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and ConocoPhillips all said they witnessed signs of demand rationing in the second quarter, which saw Brent oil prices LCOc1 spiking to $127 per barrel, close to their all-time high of $147…
Exxon Mobil’s profit sapped by natural gas
Before its purchase of so-called unconventional gas producer XTO Energy in 2010, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s oil-equivalent production grew at an anemic single-digit percentage rate.
In the first full quarter after it closed on the XTO deal in June 2010, Exxon Mobil XOM -2.08% registered a 20% increase in production…
Shell Profit Almost Doubles as Surging Oil Price Counters Production Drop
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s biggest oil company, said second-quarter earnings almost doubled on higher oil prices and project startups in Qatar and Canada.
Net income rose to $8.66 billion from $4.39 billion a year earlier, The Hague-based Shell said today in a statement. Excluding one-time items and inventory changes, profit matched analyst estimates…
BP disappoints with dip in production
BP has sought to reassure shareholders about its strategic direction following worse than expected second-quarter profits.
Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive, declared that the board of the oil major felt “a great sense of urgency” to unlock value for shareholders following the company’s lacklustre financial performance this year…
UK crude oil output fell 11% in May on month to 1 million b/d
UK crude oil production fell 10.9% month-on-month in May to 1 million b/d, the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said Thursday.
The output figure was also down 20.2% on May 2010, the data showed, due to maintenance-related outages at North Sea crude oil fields…
Saudi oil exports set to fall in long term
Saudi oil exports are set to fall sharply in the long term as domestic consumption claims an increasing share of the output, Jadwa Investment said in a report.
The Saudi investment firm said the kingdom could face a serious revenue crisis within the current decade as it cut exports to meet rising demand…
Gas
Shale gas set to supply half of America’s gas needs within 10 years
Shale gas is energy’s “game-changer”.
According to Chris Weston, president and chief executive of Centrica’s direct energy unit, this single source of energy has grown so much in North America that it is bigger than the UK’s entire gas production. Some experts believe shale gas will account for half of all North American production by the end of the decade…
Rising energy costs move up political agenda
Higher energy costs are likely to become one of the most sensitive issues in British politics, according to analysts, after Scottish and Southern Energy became the third utility in quick succession to announce a big increase in customer bills.
SSE’s decision on Thursday to increase gas and electricity charges by 18 and 11 per cent respectively will leave a typical dual-fuel customer paying £1,265 a year. The company acknowledged that this burden, amounting to over 6 per cent of the UK’s median post-tax salary, will cause additional hardship…
Quakes Push Arkansas to Limit Gas-Waste Wells
Arkansas regulators are expected Tuesday to order the closure of some underground storage facilities that natural-gas drillers use to dispose of contaminated water because of concerns they are causing earthquakes.
The ban would only affect part of the state and wouldn’t stop drilling in the Fayetteville Shale gas field there. But it highlights how water issues—including the disposal of waste tied to the controversial hydraulic fracturing process—have emerged as a major challenge for the oil and gas industry across the U.S…
Fracking Pioneers Pierce Europe
Mark Miller was hoping to lead an energy revolution in the U.K. Then, earthquakes intervened.
Mr. Miller, an oil-industry veteran from Pennsylvania, is one of a small band of pioneers seeking to replicate North America’s shale-gas boom in Europe. His company, Cuadrilla Resources, has imported a technology used to great effect in the U.S. to try to turn Blackpool, a seaside resort on the west coast of England, into a new Klondike for gas…
Nuclear
City presses Centrica to cancel plans for building nuclear power plants
Centrica is being urged by the City to withdraw from a £4bn commitment to build new nuclear power stations in partnership with Electricité de France (EDF) amid soaring costs and delays at a prototype reactor at Flamanville in France.
The call comes days before the company will reignite the row over high domestic energy prices by reporting six-monthly operating profits at its British Gas Residential Energy division of £300m even before its latest price rises…
Why the UK must choose renewables over nuclear: an answer to Monbiot
Why must the UK choose between nuclear and renewable energy? That was the question George Monbiot asked recently in a blog that challenged me to answer four questions. Here is a concise version of my answers: the full version of my answers will be posted on my website…
Areva warns future unclear after Fukushima
Areva, the world’s biggest maker of atomic reactors, has warned that it remains “extremely difficult” to assess the long-term impact on the industry of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster but said orders were only €1bn ($1.4bn) lower than before the event…
Renewables
UK sails ahead in offshore wind power generation
The UK has sailed ahead in offshore wind power generation in the past six months, building more offshore windfarms than any other country in the world, and accounting for almost all of the turbines erected in European waters this year.
Of only 108 offshore turbines built around Europe’s coastline from January to June, a whopping 101 were built around the UK, with only six built in Germany, and a single one in Norway, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the trade body European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)…
RWE abandons ‘world’s largest’ wave energy project
The future of the world’s largest wave energy project has been thrown into doubt after RWE npower renewables withdrew its backing for a planned 4MW scheme on the Scottish island of Lewis.
RWE confirmed this week it will no longer proceed with the Siadar project, which aims to deploy 10 wave generators provided by Inverness-based Voith Hydro Wavegen off the Western Isles…
Biofuels
Tequila gives new biofuel crops a shot
The desert plants used to distil tequila could cut emissions from transport by providing an important new biofuel crop, according to new research.
“Agave has a huge advantage, as it can grow in marginal or desert land, not on arable land,” and therefore would not displace food crops, said Oliver Inderwildi, at the University of Oxford…
UK
MPs call for energy doorstep mis-selling compensation
Energy companies should compensate customers who have been mis-sold gas and electricity deals on the doorstep, an influential group of MPs has said.
The Energy and Climate Change Committee said the problem of such mis-selling should have been dealt with years ago…
Green taxes fall, despite pledge to step up environmental levies
Green taxes fell as a percentage of the UK tax burden in 2010, despite government promises to increase receipts from environmental levies.
New figures from the Office of National Statistics released late last week show that taxes such as fossil fuel duty, air passenger duty and landfill tax raked in £41.4bn last year…
Chris Huhne orders inquiry into fossil fuel lobby influence over Tory MEPs
Chris Huhne has ordered a private inquiry into which fossil fuel lobbyists “got to” the Conservative MEPs who defied David Cameron and voted down an ambitious carbon emissions target in the European parliament on 5 July.
“I have asked for a full analysis of what happened,” said the energy and climate change minister, speaking at an event in parliament. “We thought the vote was going to be close, but it was not close. We want to see which lobby groups managed to get to the MEPs.”…
Climate
Republicans step up assault on US environmental regulations
The world’s eyes may understandably be on the White House’s efforts to reach agreement with Congress on raising the US debt ceiling, but another partisan row over the future direction of America is also intensifying this week as House Republicans prepare to table a highly controversial new bill designed to roll back environmental protections.
The House of Representatives yesterday debated the GOP’s Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Related Agencies spending bill, known as H.R. 2584, which marks the latest attempt by Republicans to slash funding to the EPA and axe a raft of environmental regulations, ranging from emissions and pesticide rules to protection for endangered species…
Transport
Electric car motorway charging network opens in the UK
Electric car drivers in the UK are being offered the chance to break free of the city and hit the open road.
Green energy firm Ecotricity has launched the world’s first national motorway charging network for electric vehicles…
London cycle hire scheme to expand west
London’s mass cycle hire scheme is to expand into new parts of the city following a first year of operation which saw more than 6m journeys using the distinctive, blue-and-grey bikes.
The expansion was announced by London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, at an event before this weekend’s anniversary of the scheme, modelled on similar systems in Paris and elsewhere, and the biggest public cycling project in the UK…
U.S. and Europe Battle Over Carbon Fees for Airlines
Sharply divergent climate change policies on opposite sides of the Atlantic are setting off political fireworks as European environmental regulators prepare to extend their reach across the ocean. Starting Jan. 1, the European Union will require all carriers entering or leaving its airports to either reduce their emissions or pay a charge — whether the airline is United, Air France or Lufthansa.
American Airlines announced this month that it had bought more than 250 new planes from the European manufacturer Airbus, citing their high efficiency as a big factor…
Ryanair warns over fuel cost impact
Budget airline Ryanair highlighted the pressure of rising fuel costs on the industry today after posting flat profits for its spring quarter.
The carrier, which has a fleet of 272 planes, said its fuel bill rose by 49% or 140 million euros (£123 million) on a year ago to 427 million euros (£375.8 million ) in the period between April and the end of June, depressing growth in first quarter profits to 1% at 139.3 million euros (£122.6 million)…
Economy
Siemens, Volkswagen and BASF see shares fall
Several German industrial giants have seen their share prices fall after reporting disappointing results.
Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering conglomerate, reported a drop in third-quarter profits, sending shares down 1.5%…
