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IEA output forecasts are ‘outside reality’: peak oil proponent
Platts
In a direct shot at the most widely followed estimates of future oil
flows, a leading peak oil proponent said the International Energy Agency’s
supply projections are significantly inaccurate.
In the keynote address to the Platts “New Challenges for Crude Oil”
conference in Geneva, Swedish physics professor Kjell Aleklett said his
research team’s analysis differs significantly from the IEA’s.
The reason for the different conclusions is narrow but significant: a
large difference in estimating the rate of depletion of both fields that are
to be developed, and fields that have yet to be discovered but will be by
2030. There are other factors widening the gap between the two, but it is this
difference in approach that provides most of the gap.
Aleklett is not just a researcher; he also is president of the
Association for the Study of Peak Oil. But his latest work, which has yet to
be peer reviewed, was done in his role at Sweden’s Uppsala University.
The gap between his work and that of the IEA is huge. IEA projections of
liquids supply puts total output at 101.5 million b/d by 2030. Aleklett’s
research sees it at a little more than 75 million b/d.
(28 May 2009)
Exxon Mobil CEO tells shareholders that fossil fuels have long future
Jack Z. Smith, Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)
Exxon Mobil Chairman Rex Tillerson issued a ringing defense of the oil titan at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday, where 11 shareholder proposals, all opposed by management, were roundly defeated in a spirited gathering at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Tillerson praised Exxon’s record-breaking financial performance in 2008, its handsome returns to shareholders in recent years, technological advances that have greatly enhanced oil and natural gas recovery, and its efforts to reduce the environmental harm of its far-ranging operations. He defended the company’s large buybacks of company stock, saying that they have increased value to shareholders.
In comments at the meeting and a news conference afterward, Tillerson said U.S. gasoline consumption has probably peaked and will slowly decline as a result of increased fuel economy and a growing reliance on low-sulfur diesel fuel. But he said the world isn’t anywhere close to reaching “peak oil,” the point at which oil production will crest and then begin an irreversible decline as a result of dwindling petroleum deposits. A full-scale transition from fossil fuels could be “100 years away,” he said.
(27 May 2009)
Western world is faced with the crude reality of rising oil prices
Liam Halligan, Telegraph
Oil prices averaged $94 a barrel in 2008. So far this year, they’ve averaged less than $50.
Cheaper crude has delivered the world’s oil-importers – not least the major Western economies – an annualised windfall saving of $1,600bn (£1,000bn). That’s more than all the heralded fiscal stimulus packages announced by the US, UK and eurozone for both this year and next.
The current situation is bad, but how bad would it be if Western firms and consumers faced rocketing energy prices?…
…Oil traders are now realising “demand destruction” arguments have been overdone.
Across the big emerging markets, now accounting for around half of the world’s total oil use, consumption is still rising fast, despite the credit crisis…
(25 May 2008)
Blogger Conference Call with Robert Ryan, VP of Global Exploration, Chevron
David Murphy, The Oil Drum
This post is a summary of a conference call for bloggers hosted by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Friday, May 15th, 2009, from 12 to 1 pm. The conference call was set up as a Q & A session where questions from numerous bloggers were fielded by Robert Ryan, the Vice President of Global Exploration at Chevron.
(30 May 2009)
