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Economic Brief: E.U. Plans for Alternative Energy’
Federico Bordonaro, Power and Interest News Report (PINR)
On September 12, a group of European deputies announced the creation of a broad platform designed to find the quickest way to a European hydrogen-based economy, thus ending the E.U. countries’ dependence on fossil energy.
Italian liberal-democrat deputy Vittorio Prodi recently told the press that given the high price of oil and the widespread worries about peak oil and an energy crisis, it was time for action in order to ensure energy independence for E.U. member states through the exploitation of renewable, ecology-friendly alternatives to oil and gas. The initiative followed those of the 2002-2004 period, all of which concentrated on the use of hydrogen as the primary energy source. Previous initiatives, however, led to very few concrete results.
For nearly three years, the concept of a hydrogen-based economy has become an axis of the E.U.’s energy strategy, designed to guarantee the highest rate of energy security and independence to the Union’s member states in the coming decades. It is striking how in E.U. literature the idea of hydrogen energy progressed from a “remote alternative” to a “prospect for the future.”
At the heart of the matter is the belief that the era of fossil energies will soon come to an end; however, no in-depth study has been able to indicate precisely how many decades of intense oil usage are left. Therefore, “soon” is a relative term. In spite of this lack of assurance about the future of oil and natural gas, the ruling elites in Europe perceive such a future as both uncertain and ecologically unmanageable.
(13 October 2005)
Mentioned by Starvid at peakoil-dot-com.
Investing in uncertainty – the challenge of meeting expanding energy demand
Malcolm Brinded, Shell Oil
Speech given by Malcolm Brinded, Executive Director Exploration & Production to the Oxford Energy Seminar, Oxford, 8 September 2005
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Global demand for primary energy is likely to grow substantially, and must largely be met by oil, gas and coal. Developing capacity to keep pace with this growth will be challenging, requiring very large investment in complex, costly and technologically demanding projects. Although energy prices are high, project costs are also rising in tight markets for equipment and skills. At the same time, responding to climate change will require a radical transformation of how energy is supplied and used. Meeting these challenges will depend on our ability to foster and fund technological innovation in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Key areas of technological development include – maximising recovery from existing fields, accessing more difficult and unconventional resources, developing more efficient ways of producing energy and cleaner fuels, and curbing emissions from energy processes. There are many technological possibilities, which could have a far reaching impact. What matters is our ability to develop and deploy them quickly enough.
Investing in uncertainty – the challenge of meeting expanding energy demand (PDF, size 474Kb) – opens in new window
(16 Sep 2005)
Submitted by ldcdnd.
USA expresses interest in Iran-Armenia pipeline
REGNUM
On Wednesday, Energy Minister of Armenia Armen Movsisyan met U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman in Washington. As MFA of Armenia press office informs, Armen Movsisyan expressed his high assessment of the US assistance to Armenian power engineering. Concerning the upcoming deactivation of Armenia’s only nuclear power plant, Movsisyan said it could be shut down only if there were other energy-generating facilities
available to replace it.
He also noted that Armenia hopes to keep the US assistance in the process of the power plant deactivation and development of other energy-generating facilities.
In his part, Samuel W. Bodman expressed his readiness for negotiations over the ways of development of Armenian power engineering and interest in construction of Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.
(12 October 2005)
Dr. Robert M. Cutler recommends two of his own articles for understanding the significance of this article:
www.cacianalyst.org/view_article.php?articleid=38
www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntc10240.htm
Oilfield Glossary
Schlumberger
We were recently reminded of the Schlumberger oilfield glossary (cheers Ilan), a very handy website providing readable definitions of every and any term relating to oil extraction and refining. An enquiry to Schlumberger brought us the following background information..
“The Oilfield Glossary serves a wide-ranging audience of seasoned employees, trainees, customers, investors and government and academic personnel. Several unique features set this web-based glossary apart from standard reference works. More detailed than dictionary entries, but more concise than encyclopedia articles, full-color photographs and illustrations supplement many definitions, while links direct the reader to related terms.
Winner of Awards of Excellence from the Business Marketing Association and the Society for Technical Communication, the glossary currently contains more than 4500 terms. New definitions are added to the glossary on a regular basis, with the goal of ultimately covering all aspects of hydrocarbon exploration, development and production. Disciplines represented by the glossary include: Geology, Geophysics, Drilling, Reservoir Characterization, Production Enhancement, Well Testing and Formation Evaluation, to name a few.
The glossary was created for Schlumberger by Gretchen Gillis, Martha Dutton and Martin Koistinen in 1997, beginning with a module on geological terminology. Over the years, other technical specialists have shared their expertise, adding definitions of terms specific to their disciplines. Schlumberger experts review these definitions to eliminate ambiguities found in many glossaries and to make the definitions suitable for non-specialists.
Since its launch in 1998, more than two million pages of the Oilfield Glossary have been viewed. The number of hits tells only part of the story, however. Direct feedback from readers has guided the project since its inception. A Schlumberger customer wrote, “Some of the new hires were just asking about such a dictionary. [It’s] like you were reading our minds.” “
(October 2005)
A New Push to Mix Oil and Water
Jad Mouawad, NY Times
DEEPWATER MILLENNIUM, Gulf of Mexico, Oct. 8 – About 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, an oil drilling ship the size of two football fields with a wide hole in its hull and a 200-foot derrick on its deck is back in operation.
Thanks to its ability to perform in waters as deep as 10,000 feet, the Deepwater Millennium is considered the Cadillac of oil and gas exploration, allowing companies to find energy resources in remote or deep locations that were, until recently, considered out of reach.
But even as oil companies push out into the gulf’s deeper waters, two devastating recent storms have raised questions about the wisdom of placing so many energy bets in this high-risk region.
The gulf’s entire output – more than a quarter of domestic oil and gas supplies – was interrupted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and still remains far below prehurricane levels.
Oil companies, however, are not walking away. In fact, they’re planning just the opposite.
“The gulf’s potential is well worth the risk,” said Stuart Strife, the manager of gulf exploration for the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which has hired Deepwater Millennium from its owner, Transocean Inc., to drill in the eastern gulf. “It’s the premier exploration frontier in the United States.”
But the Gulf of Mexico is not the only region the industry wants to tap. Oil companies are pushing for the right to drill in areas that have been off limits for over two decades, reigniting a debate over whether to lift a federal ban on drilling along most coastlines.
(14 October 2005)
Mystery still surrounds Earth’s oil supply
Scientists trade theories on how petroleum arises
Ker Than, MSNBC
Nature has been transmuting dead life into black gold for millions of years, using little more than heat, pressure and time, scientists tell us.
But with gas prices spiking more than $1 per gallon in the United States this year and some experts predicting that the end of oil is near, scientists still don’t know for sure where oil comes from, how long it took to make, or how much there is.
A so-called fossil fuel, petroleum is believed by most scientists to be the transformed remains of long-dead organisms. The majority of petroleum is thought to come from the fossils of plants and tiny marine organisms. Larger animals might contribute to the mix as well.
“Even some of the dinosaurs may have gotten involved in some of this,” says William Thomas, a geologist at the University of Kentucky. “I think it would be quite rare and a very small and insignificant contribution.”
Another theory holds that more oil was in Earth from the beginning than what’s been produced by dead animals, but that we have yet to tap it.
…The idea that petroleum formed from dead organic matter is known as the “biogenic theory” of petroleum formation, and was first proposed by a Russian scientist almost 250 years ago.
In the 1950s, however, a few Russian scientists began questioning this traditional view and proposed instead that petroleum could form naturally deep inside the Earth.
This so-called “abiogenic” petroleum might seep upward through cracks formed by asteroid impacts to form underground pools, according to one hypothesis. Some geologists have suggested probing ancient impact craters in the search for oil.
Abiogenic sources of oil have been found, but never in commercially profitable amounts. The controversy isn’t over whether naturally forming oil reserves exist, said Larry Nation of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. It’s over how much they contribute to Earth’s overall reserves and how much time and effort geologists should devote to seeking them out.
(11 October 2005)
The article finishes on the main point about abiotic oil – it is not currently making any significant contribution to the volume of oil we burn daily, nor set to do so in the near future. -LJ
