Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Worries over winter natural gas supplies for US Gulf of Mexico area
H.J Hebert, Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. — It may take months to resume full natural gas production after Hurricane Katrina, top Bush administration officials said. They’re worried about shortages in the coming cold weather because, unlike with heating oil and gasoline, the country lacks the ability to make up the difference with imports. …
Norton said that 58 percent of Gulf oil production remains shut down, as does 38 percent of the region’s natural gas production.
Both Cabinet members are worried about coming supplies of natural gas. About one-third of the Gulf’s natural gas production was disrupted by the hurricane.
Bodman said “there is less known” about the extent of damage to underwater natural gas pipelines, and it is uncertain when those facilities will be up in full operation. He said it could be several months before the region’s natural gas system recovers. …
(14 September 2005)
Have read rumours that the natural gas shortage will have a big impact on nitrate fertiliser production and export, be interested in any media seen on this.-LJ
Panic buying begins as motorists fear petrol blockades
Sandra Laville and Ashley Seager, Guardian
Customers began panic-buying petrol in some parts of the country yesterday, with long queues and anger on the forecourts as fears grew of fuel blockades.
Drivers were caught in hour-long queues in London, Yorkshire and Essex, while in the West Country and the Midlands some fuel stations ran out of petrol temporarily.
The stockpiling came after protesters predicted a fierce battle with the government as they prepared for three days of blockades outside refineries.
The protesters from the Fuel Lobby, including farmers and lorry drivers, have given the government until 6am tomorrow to meet them or face protests. They are demanding that the chancellor, Gordon Brown, cut tax on petrol by 10%. But Mr Brown will use a speech to the TUC’s annual conference today to emphasise the global nature of the problem.
(13 September 2005)
Related stories in the Guardian:
Who is to blame for the petrol panic?
They protest too much
Panic buying as consumers fear repeat of 2000
The global car industry – Extinction of the predator
How merger mania has been a disaster for the world’s great car manufacturers
Economist
THE star of the huge Frankfurt Motor Show, which opens on September 12th, may well be the latest luxury Mercedes-Benz S-class, the model on which the German company is relying to repair its faded reputation for superior quality. But the more significant event at the show will be the presence on display for the first time of three different vehicles made in China by local firms and destined for export. Already the first Chinese cars for Europe’s roads are being unloaded in Rotterdam. Plans are well under way for Chinese models to be sold in America as well.
Today’s controversies over high petrol prices and fuel-guzzling SUVs in the huge American market offer only a partial picture of the future facing the industry as a whole. It may well be fully mature in markets such as North America, Europe and Japan, where over-capacity continues to sap profitability. But globally the industry is set for huge expansion with the motorisation of China and India. Within a few years China will replace Japan as the second-largest national market after America. Some experts predict that over the next 20 years more cars will be made than in the entire 110-year history of the industry.
Garel Rhys, director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University in Britain, says this growth will create the need for 180 new factories, each producing 300,000 cars (and light trucks) a year—in effect, almost doubling the production capacity of the global industry to over 110m units annually.
(8 September 2005)
If the auto industry is a key cause of the energy crisis and global warming, then the predictions of massive growth are worrisome news. (The rest of the article is about trends in auto manufacturing.) -BA
Brown calls for oil market change
BBC
Chancellor Gordon Brown is expected to call for changes to the oil market in a speech to trade unionists – but he will not offer to cut taxes on petrol. On the eve of expected protests about fuel duty, Mr Brown will call on Opec countries to boost oil production.
Mr Brown will tell the TUC conference he understands the plight of hauliers, farmers and motorists.
Fuel protesters angry at increases in the price of petrol and diesel hope to stage three days of protests this week. In 2000 blockades of oil refineries by protesters caused widespread shortages and there has already been panic-buying this week by some motorists.
…BROWN’S FIVE POINT PLAN Opec to increase oil supply Opec to open books to show reserves Windfall from high oil prices to be diverted to funding new production New World Bank fund to help developing countries invest in alternative sources of energy New IMF facility to support poor countries hit by shocks in oil and commodities markets
…Sir Jonathan Porritt, chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, said the last thing the government should do was cut fuel duty. Fuel prices needed to be kept high to drive changes in consumer behaviour and drive investment in new energy efficiency technology.
But DeAnne Julius, non-executive director of BP, said high prices prevented consumers spending money on other things and could add to the fragility of the world economy over the next six months. (13 September 2005)
Toyota Says It May Put Gas-Electric Engines in All Its Vehicles
Bloomberg
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s second-largest automaker, said all of its vehicles may eventually be run by hybrid gasoline-electric motors, as record fuel prices curb demand for conventional automobiles.
(13 September 2005)
British Energy confirms to extend Dungeness B life to 2018
AFX News via Forbes
LONDON – British Energy Group PLC confirmed it will extend the useful life of the ageing Dungeness B nuclear power station by ten years until 2018. …
( September 2005)
Contributor Darran P. notes: This is not unexpected since around 70% of all UK Nuclear plants were due to be decommissioned by 2010.
EnCana selling Ecuador oil assets to Chinese group
Jeffrey Jones, Reuters
EnCana Corp. is selling its oil assets in Ecuador to a Chinese consortium for $1.42 billion in a deal it said on Tuesday more reflects its own plans to concentrate on North American energy than the Andean country’s political instability.
EnCana, North America’s biggest independent oil explorer, said the price is near the middle of its target range, and equal to the net book value of the production and pipeline business. It had been on the block for more than year.
(13 September 2005)
Branson talks of oil refinery
Deepa Babington, Reuters
THINK you are upset about high gas prices? Maverick British entrepreneur Richard Branson is so furious he wants to build his own oil refinery. Like the rest of the airline industry, Mr Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways has been stung by higher jet fuel prices and was forced to raise fuel surcharges for the second time in four months. …
“If we don’t start now to get more refineries built then fuel prices could literally rocket to $US100-$US200 (per barrel of oil) and the world economy would come to a grinding halt,” Branson said in an interview on financial news network CNBC overnight.
Mr Branson did not say where he wants to put his refinery, but some analysts said he should not look to the US, where no one has built a refinery in 29 years. …
But building a refinery to ease high fuel prices would be far from a quick fix: any refinery would take at least four or five years to build, if not longer.
And according to Energy Security Analysis’ Flemming, another refinery would not ease record high crude oil prices as Branson suggests, since it would not increase actual crude oil production. (14 September 2005)
