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Petroleum engineer on peak oil
Janice Mason, Estes Park Trail-Gazette
… Local resident Dr. Paul Newendorp will present “The World Energy Situation,” focusing on the current oil supply/demand issue, called “peak oil.” …
Newendorp has a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from the University of Oklahoma. His 30-year career began in 1959 working in the petroleum exploration division of Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. He worked in the U.S. and on temporary assignments in 22 oil-producing countries around the world. His petroleum engineering assignments involved the engineering aspects of oil and gas fields, drilling and recovery. His professional affiliations during his career include the 45,000-member Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG). He is a frequent speaker on energy and climate change issues.
“We are at a world oil production rate right now, which is essentially the peak oil rate and following this point the world’s oil production rate will start a gradual irreversible decline,” said Newendorp.
…From an engineering perspective, Newendorp clarifies the peak oil concept further. He emphasizes that the world is not running out of oil, rather that the oil industry is evenly producing the same amount that is being consumed.
“Most all of the primary oil exploration areas like the Middle East, the North Sea, the U.S. and Mexico have already been drilled up and are on production,” he said. “What we are having to look at – to find new oil – is less productive areas that don’t have the prospects of finding big amounts of oil.
“When you balance this against the world’s future demand – where China and India’s economy is growing like gangbusters – right now the world is producing about 85 million barrels a day capacity and we are consuming about 84 [million barrels]. So we are right at the point, right now, where for the first time in 149 years history of the oil industry, that the demand will exceed the supply.
(29 February 2008)
April 20. Updated the URL, since the previous one had become stale. -BA
Congressman Bartlett Peak Oil Speech (Feb 28)
Rep. Bartlett website
Washington, Feb 28 – Congressman Roscoe Bartlett gave a one-hour Special Order speech about peak oil on February 28, 2008. Copies of the transcript and charts used are posted on the website. A link to a live video download of the speech is here
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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker’s announced policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I believe that this is the 38th time that I’ve come to the floor to talk to my colleagues and, through the miracle of television, to the American people about a phenomenon that is becoming more and more apparent and more and more important to us. This phenomenon is what we call peak oil. When I first started talking about this, I wasn’t even sure what we were going to call it, the great rollover at that point in time when we’ve reached our maximum production to produce oil and we’re rolling over to slip down the other side of that slope, or peak oil. We decided to call it peak oil, and now that is a pretty well-known terminology around the world. [Time: 12:30]
When I first started talking about this, oil was $40 a barrel. Now oil is over $100 a barrel. In our Frederick News Post, a local paper, a headline today says: “Oil Spikes Above $102 a Barrel for the First Time.” As I left my office, oil was above $101 a barrel and going up. The euro was, I think, $1.51; gold was about $960.
And America doesn’t seem to be responding. I asked one of my colleagues why, and he said, well, it’s a problem of addiction. We’re addicted to oil. The President appropriately said that in one of his State of the Union messages. He said, when you’re addicted, what it costs really doesn’t matter. If you’re addicted to alcohol or cocaine, if it costs you your marriage, your job, your house, meeting the demands of the addiction is the important thing.
The chart that I have here I think shows the problem.
(28 February 2008)
Transcript (PDF)
Slides (PDF)
Video
Intro to Satellite Sleuthing 101: Finding Haradh III
JoulesBurn, The Oil Drum
Everybody talks about the Saudi Arabian Oil Miracle, but most seem to be saying the same things. And those things usually consist of quotes or statistics provided by Saudi Aramco. This presents us with the following dilemma: if we believe what they say, why don’t we just quit worrying about whether or not their oil will continue to flow? Or, if we don’t believe what they say, why do we bother making future oil supply projections based on “production capacity” figures by them — figures which can never be verified because their production levels always remain below capacity? What we need is some independent verification of the things they tell us. Hence the birth of Saudi Satellite Sleuthing using Google Earth. Following a brief introduction, I will show how Google Earth can be used to shed some light on the Haradh III Megaproject brought onstream in 2006.
This project began early last year with a crude effort to map out Saudi oil fields using Google Maps. I soon discovered that recent releases of Google Earth facilitated this at a much higher level. After being inspired by the work of Stuart Staniford, Euan Mearns, and other TOD contributers on Ghawar, I persisted and was soon sucked in beyond the point of no return. This finally resulted in the creation of Satellite o’er the Desert where I will try to relieve the backlog of what I have learned (and am continuing to learn). It is planned that many articles will be posted here as well for discussion.
(29 February 2008)
“JoulesBurn” – my nomination for best nom de web. -BA
Olduvai 2008 – the movie
Luís de Sousa, The Oil Drum: Europe
As an addendum to the Olduvai 2008 post there’s a movie available that digests the main ideas presented there.
This was an original idea of Nate Hagens and Chris Vernon to somehow broaden the TOD readership spectrum to people with busy schedules and/or short attention spans. This new Olduvai assessment seemed a good place to start, although in the future the objective is to have more concise and direct movies, targeted for people who are not so savvy on fossil fuel depletion.
The budget was €0 [zero Euros], so this piece of media is far from perfect, to which we ask for your understanding.
You can watch the movie using these links:
YouTube (part 2)
(29 February 2008)
