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Shell Oil president says energy abounds
Man-made obstacles are key problem, he adds
Bill Virgin, Seattle P-I
The challenge in meeting increasing demand for energy isn’t coming up with new sources of supply, Shell Oil President John Hofmeister believes.
“There’s plenty of energy to be had,” Hofmeister told a Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Washington Athletic Club Wednesday. That energy will come from current and emerging-technology options ranging from offshore oil and gas deposits to Canadian oil sands, Western U.S. oil shale, coal-derived synthetic gas, biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells, wind and solar, he said.
But Hofmeister warned, “The obstacles to getting it are man-made.”
Hofmeister, who is on a 50- city speaking tour to discuss energy security, said the primary obstacles are the battles on everything from allowing oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf to siting terminals for importing liquid natural gas.
The information-age economy still depends on industrial infrastructure to deliver energy to make it run, he said. “Without energy there’s no entertainment,” he said. “Without energy, there’s no servers running the Internet.”
Hofmeister said the country needs a major educational effort so that people understand the crucial role energy plays in the economy and what’s necessary to provide it.
“We have to come to grips in a democracy with the fact that energy is the sustaining enabler of our lifestyle and our economic prosperity,” he said.
(1 Feb 2007)
Strange that Shell president Hofmeister should use the word “enabler” – “energy is the sustaining enabler of our lifestyle”. In popular psychology, an enabler (or codependent) makes it possible for an addict to continue his destructive behavior.
On the positive side, Shell’s stand on energy is more enlightened than Exxon, though not as enlightened as most of us would like. -BA
Exxon and Shell see profits rocket
Terry Macalister, Guardian
Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Shell ran into protests from both climate campaigners and the car lobby today after unveiling record profits off the back of spiralling oil prices and increased production.
Exxon, which is the world’s largest oil company, unveiled profits of $39.5bn (£20bn) for 2006 – setting a new record for the highest-ever profit reported by an American company.
At Shell, annual profits jumped by 21% to $25bn (£12.72bn), which means the oil giant earned $70m a day of pure profit from its global network of production platforms, refineries and petrol stations.
(1 Feb 2007)
