Empire on the edge–betting on LNG
Dave, The Oil Drum
** — Or, Everything You Wanted Know about LNG but Were Afraid to Ask
Liquified natural gas (aka LNG) involves cooling the gas to minus 160 degrees (Celsius). That shrinks it to about 1/600th of its original volume, allowing significant quantities of this LNG to be loaded aboard tankers for shipment overseas. When the gas reaches its destination at an LNG terminal, the gas is reheated (regasification) and shipped through pipelines to end users.
As most regular TOD contributors and readers know, the natural gas situation in North America is precarious and getting more so. HO has done a number of posts–for example The problems of natural gas supply– on this subject over the last couple months spelling out various aspects of the situation. This crisis is due to five related factors.
…So, given the greater dependence on foreign sources for a very important energy source and all the market & technical difficulties mentioned above in this post, it would appear that depending on LNG to meet the US natural gas demand/supply gap is very risky business and unlikely to be smoothly successful in the future. Congratulations if you’ve read this post and made it this far. In conclusion, these are the LNG prospects as far as I can see. The facts do not inspire confidence that LNG supplies of natural gas in North America–and particularly in the US–will meet demand in any timeframe we are concerned about. I see many years of hardship as we go forward in time.
(23 January 2006)
As the editors at The Oil Drum said, “Dave’s really put together an amazing post here.”
Blair warned on ‘rush for nuclear’
Gaby Hinsliff and Ned Temko, The Guardian
A senior cabinet minister has warned the Prime Minister that controversial proposals to build new nuclear power stations across Britain have hidden costs and consequences for climate change.
Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland and Welsh Secretary, said the nuclear industry must prove it was a better bet than wind and wave power, arguing that its process – touted as better for the environment than dirty coal-fired stations – actually produced high amounts of carbon, which is linked to global warming.
(22 Jan 2006)
UK: Privatised nuclear clean-up ‘will cause accidents’
Rob Edwards, Sunday Herald
PLANS to privatise the £56 billion clean-up of Britain’s ageing nuclear sites will cause serious accidents, one of the industry’s most senior figures has warned.
Brian Watson, former director of the UK’s largest nuclear site at Sellafield in Cumbria, has accused ministers of pursuing “erroneous dogma” that could result in costly mistakes. His warning comes as Prime Minister Tony Blair prepares to launch his long-awaited energy review this week. The review is widely expected to launch a new programme of nuclear power stations and is set to provoke bitter arguments.
Watson thinks that the introduction of competitive tendering for decommissioning nuclear plants, to begin later this year, could be “disastrous”. He fears the “loss of control” could be similar to that of Railtrack, the private rail company that collapsed in 2001.
(22 Jan 2006)
Exxon Mobil to exit Azerbaijan fields
Bloomberg
Exxon Mobil Corp. will pay a $50 million claim after refusing to continue drilling at two offshore fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea.
Exxon Mobil will pay $32 million to exit exploration of the Zafar-Mashal deposit and $18 million to stop work at the Nakhichevan deposit, an official at the press office of the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan said Monday. The official declined to be identified in line with company policy. Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Vafa Asadova confirmed Monday that the Irving-based company had reached settlements with Azerbaijan over the fields.
Exxon was scheduled to drill second wells at both blocks after the first wells didn’t discover commercially viable reserves. London-based BP, Europe’s biggest oil company, leads a group that includes Exxon Mobil and is developing the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field, the biggest source of oil in Azerbaijan. International companies are exploring the Caspian Sea, which may have oil reserves second only to the Middle East, after oil prices doubled in the past five years.
(24 January 2006)
China to build world`s first “artificial sun” experimental device
Angola Press
A full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, which aims to generate infinite, clean nuclear-fusion-based energy, will be built in March or April in Hefei, capital city of east China`s Anhui Province.
Experiments with the advanced new device will start in July or August. If the experiments prove successful, China will become the first country in the world to build a full superconducting experimental Tokamak fusion device, nicknamed “artificial sun”, experts here said.
(21 Jan 2006)
How to beat the high cost of gasoline. Forever
Adam Lashinsky, Fortune Magazine
Ethanol is the answer to the energy dilemma. It’s clean and green and runs in today’s cars.
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General Motors will take the occasion of the Winter Olympics in Italy to begin telling Americans about a topic that has nothing to do with skiing or bobsledding. Believe it or not, the once-great automaker will stake its position as a friend of the environment and as a promoter of ethanol, specifically a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline called E85.
One could question GM’s timing on a lot of things. Pay attention to the message though. GM is onto something really big, namely how we as a country can finally begin weaning ourselves off gasoline.
Sure, ethanol calls to mind images of Jimmy Carter in a cardigan. But things have changed since the 1970s, when an oil-shocked president turned to agribusiness to create a homegrown alternative to gasoline. Instead of coming exclusively from corn or sugar cane as it has up to now, thanks to biotech breakthroughs, the fuel can be made out of everything from prairie switchgrass and wood chips to corn husks and other agricultural waste.
(24 January 2006)
Well, it’s better than touting SUVs and denying that there’s an energy problem! Unfortunately, this article is a classic example of inadequate analysis and techno-fantasy (albeit a green techno-fantasy). Symptoms:
- The assertion that any one solution will “solve” the energy problem “forever,” as the headline says.
- Cheerleading rather than analysis. The full article does have one short paragraph devoted to skeptics, but they are quickly dismissed.
- The definition of “energy crisis” as the prospect that cheap fuel will no longer be available for US automobiles.
- A techno-industrial solution that promises no inconvenience for consumers and handsome profits for business.
The article appears in two versions: Summary | Full . -BA
Alternative energy sources: Food, and fuel, for thought
Oliver Duff, Independent
Vegetable oil has emerged from the larder as a cheap, eco-friendly alternative to dwindling fossil fuels. But its supporters are outraged at new tax hikes that may stop them in their tracks
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The bottle of vegetable oil has had a mundane existence up to now. Relegated in the popular imagination to the greasy task of frying chips, it hardly seems the likely source of an environmental revolution set to change the way we drive.
Yet thousands of British motorists have chosen to abandon garage forecourt pumps and run their vehicles on waste vegetable-oil from pubs and restaurants, or pure oil off the shop shelf.
The logic behind this apparent madness is that using the oil cuts a vehicle’s carbon emissions. If widely practised, it might slow global warming. It is cheaper than diesel, supports local entrepreneurs (by keeping fuel money in Britain) and reduces our reliance on fast-dwindling petrochemical resources. The politically minded “veg-oily” also boasts of how he has “opted out of George Bush’s war for oil” in Iraq.
The practice took off during the winter 2000 fuel crisis, when truckers and farmers barricaded fuel depots in protest at rising prices. Unbeknown to the Government, a handful of campaigners took it upon themselves to break motoring convention and fill their tanks with the yellow liquid. Fuel crisis over, they saw no reason to stop the cheap and green experiment.
(23 January 2006)
