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Light tight oil does not diminish the importance of Middle East supply, IEA says in latest World Energy Outlook
Press Release, International Energy Agency
Technology and high prices are opening up new oil resources, but this does not mean the world is on the verge of an era of oil abundance, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2013 edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO-2013). Although rising oil output from North America and Brazil reduces the role of OPEC countries in quenching the world’s thirst for oil over the next decade, the Middle East – the only large source of low-cost oil – takes back its role as a key source of oil supply growth from the mid-2020s…
Link to the executive summary of the World Energy Outlook 2013
(12 November 2013)
IEA warns of future oil supply crunch
Ajay Makan and Neil Hume, Financial Times
The International Energy Agency has sounded the alarm about a potential oil supply crunch and higher prices as key Gulf producers delay investment in the face of surging US shale output…
(12 November 2013)
Oil crumps: Libya, Iraq ‘pay the price for chaotic Western intervention’
OpEdge, RT
Libya’s oil production has now ‘virtually stopped’ as the country struggles to recover from western intervention that saw Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall, Mamdouh G. Salameh, oil consultant to the World Bank, tells RT…
Over the weekend, a separatist Libyan region announced the establishment of an independent oil company after taking over several commercial sea ports. Protesters shut off the country’s only natural gas export line to Italy on Monday. The port in question is operated by Libya’s National Oil Corp and the Italian energy company Eni. The protesters have been given ten days to clear the facilities… RT: We understand that the oil industry in Libya was crippled by the war back in 2011. Do you think that Tripoli needs to take action and regain control of its supplies and maybe even require foreign help to intervene?
Mamdouh G. Salameh: Of course, Tripoli needs to take action to prevent the separation of the Eastern part of Libya from the central government of Tripoli. As you appreciate since the foreign intervention in Libya, Libya’s oil production has virtually stopped. It used to produce 1.6 million barrels a day from which it used to export 1 and a quarter million barrels mostly to Europe. Nowadays Libya is hardly able even to satisfy domestic consumption and I guess that overland Libya will stop to be an oil exporter for quite a while, until stability is returned to the country. That is the price countries like Libya and Iraq have paid for the chaos inflected on them by western intervention…
(11 November 2013)
North Dakota’s Salty Fracked Wells Drink More Water to Keep Oil Flowing
Patrick J. Kiger, National Geographic
So while the water first pumped down the hole to crack rock formations and release the underground oil and natural gas typically totals 2 million gallons (7.5 million liters) per well, each of North Dakota’s wells is daily drinking down an average of more than 600 gallons (2,300 liters) in maintenance water, according to recent calculations by North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).
Without water, salt buildup forms and restricts the flow of oil.
Over the life of the well, which authorities presume will be 30 to 40 years, maintenance water needs could add up to 6.6 million to 8.8 million gallons (25 to 33.3 million liters)—or more than three to four times the water required for the initial fracking…
(11 November 2013)
Alabama Oil-Train Derailment Raises Questions About Crude Shipment Safety
Anna Louie Sussman, Reuters via the Huffington Post
The second explosive oil-train derailment this year, which has finally burned out in rural Alabama, may raise new questions about the safety of the crude-by-rail boom, pointing to problems beyond those that surfaced following the earlier tragedy in Quebec.
Within hours of the accident early Friday morning, operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc had already ruled out many of the factors cited in the deadly Lac Megantic disaster, where a runaway train careened into the center of town, bursting into a fireball that killed 47 people and levelled buildings…
The Alabama incident may draw attention to other risks of rail transport. The derailment occurred above a wetlands area, which was quickly cordoned off by booms to contain the spill.
This was likely to provide ammunition to environmental groups who don’t see crude-by-rail transport as a safe option, said Eurasia’s McGovern, and would "contribute to the debate over the relative safety of pipelines versus rail."…
(11 November 2013)
Oil barrel drip image via shutterstock. Reproduced at Resilience.org with permission.
