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API blogger conference call on hurricane preparedness
American Petroleum Institute (API), Energy Tomorrow
…MS. VAN RYAN: Great. Thanks, Chris. Okay, here’s who I have so far and we may have some others that’ll be joining us late. I’ve got Chris Miller from Oil Drum. I’ve got Carter Wood from ShopFloor, Alan Drake from Oil Drum, Craige Moore from Platts’, and Byron King from the Daily Reckoning. Is there anyone else? All right, well thank you all for coming.
Let me tell you who I have in the room today. Our main spokesperson today, of course, will be API’s president and CEO, Red Cavaney, who just this moment returned from a news conference about hurricane preparedness that was held over in the Minerals Management Service auditorium. You all have received some materials about that. You have the statement; you have a news release that we put out this morning. And in addition to that, we also sent you earlier a PowerPoint presentation and an article from API Insight magazine and a link to a news article by John Porretto at AP regarding hurricane preparedness. So I hope I haven’t buried you in materials, but I thought all of that might be useful for you as we start this conference call today.
The topic once again is hurricane preparedness. If you have other questions that you want to ask and we have the right people in the room to answer them, we’ll be happy to take those questions as well. You know the ground rules. This is very open and transparent. We’re going to try to have a reasonable conversation and we expect all the participants to respect one another on the call.
(1 June 2007)
The audio is online at energytomorrow.org/media_center/events.html
GAO: U.S. gives oil firms good deals
H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
When it comes to taking oil and natural gas from government land and waters, the oil companies are getting a good deal, says a congressional report.
The Government Accountability Office said Friday that the U.S. government gets less for letting private companies take oil and gas from its land and coastal waters than a half dozen states and many foreign countries.
The GAO said five studies it examined showed the U.S. government consistently is near the bottom when compared with other countries and energy-producing states such as Alaska and Louisiana in the revenue cut it gets from oil or gas pumped under government leases.
…The GAO acknowledged there is a “potential trade-off” between trying to collect more revenue and seeing a drop in oil and gas production. It said the challenge will be “striking a balance between meeting the nation’s increasing energy needs and ensuring a fair rate of return for the American people from oil production on federally leased lands and waters.”
(1 June 2007)
Reliance on foreign gasoline is growing
U.S. refineries are unable to meet surge in demand
Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle
As domestic refineries hit their limit and gasoline demand continues to rise, oil companies are importing more gasoline from beyond U.S. borders to keep America driving.
Gasoline shipped in from abroad now accounts for more than 11 percent of the total gasoline used in the U.S., roughly double the share of imports a decade ago, according to Energy Information Administration data.
Importing energy to power the world’s biggest economy is nothing new. The U.S. already brings in more than 60 percent of the crude oil it uses to make gasoline, diesel fuel and other products from rubber tires to plastic bags.
But the sharp growth in imported gasoline is a relatively recent phenomenon.
(1 June 2007)
Baghdad Burns, Calgary Booms
Naomi Klein, The Nation
The invasion of Iraq has set off what could be the largest oil boom in history. All the signs are there: multinationals free to gobble up national firms at will, ship unlimited profits home, enjoy leisurely “tax holidays” and pay a laughable 1 percent in royalties to the government.
This isn’t the boom in Iraq sparked by the proposed new oil law–that will come later. This boom is already in full swing, and it is happening about as far away from the carnage in Baghdad as you can get, in the wilds of northern Alberta. For four years now, Alberta and Iraq have been connected to each other through a kind of invisible seesaw: As Baghdad burns, destabilizing the entire region and sending oil prices soaring, Calgary booms.
Here is how chaos in Iraq unleashed what the Financial Times recently called “north America’s biggest resources boom since the Klondike gold rush.” Albertans have always known that in the northern part of their province, there are vast deposits of bitumen–black, tarlike goo that is mixed with sand, clay, water and oil. There are approximately 2.5 trillion barrels of the stuff, the largest hydrocarbon deposits in the world.
It is possible to turn Alberta’s crud into crude, but it’s awfully hard. One method is to mine it in vast open pits: First forests are clear-cut, then topsoil scraped away. Next, huge machines dig out the black goop and load it into the largest dump trucks in the world (two stories high, a single wheel costs $100,000).
(1 June 2007)
Another version is at AlterNet: Turning Tar into Oil: An Economic and Environmental Disaster Looms.
Exxon Mobil could get an earful
Kristen Hays, Houston Chronicle
Shareholder proposals up for vote today address emissions, renewables
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Exxon Mobil Corp.’s reticence to invest in renewable and alternative energies beyond research in the short term could dominate its annual shareholder meeting today.
Shareholder proposals up for votes include investment in renewables and adopting goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Management opposes both as unprofitable or redundant, recommending shareholders reject them as they have similar proposals in past years.
“The corporation’s traditional business areas remain critical and promise far greater value than renewables, which currently lack the scale and economic competitiveness of our core business opportunities,” the company said in its annual proxy statement.
Exxon Mobil cites its $100 million investment in renewable and alternative energy research at Stanford University when asked about lack of spending on such initiatives.
It does so in the proxy responding to the climate change-related shareholder proposals.
But the Stanford Board of Trustees Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility, which oversees the university’s endowment securities, is voting for the greenhouse gas shareholder proposal.
(30 May 2007)
