Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
John W. Schoen With oil prices hitting new highs, proponents of so-called “peak oil” argue that the world may be approaching the point where production can’t keep up with demand. And innovations, like 3D, are at the center of a debate over whether technology can help replace the world’s known oil supplies before they are depleted.
Booming China, with its voracious appetite for oil and urgent need for oil security, is considering a China-Myanmar oil pipeline and one through Thailand. These are among 10 recent proposals on alternative strategies to secure China’s energy supplies.
For 15 years, retired geologist Colin Campbell has warned of the approaching end of the age of oil and the dire consequences for the world should that happen. Although experts hotly debate the issue, it has drawn little attention from the average consumer.
The United States’ Current Account deficit is now $60 million AN HOUR! This unprecedented trade imbalance has created extraordinary disequilibrium in the global economy.
Andrew McKillop argues that up to a point, high oil prices can stimulate economies. However, ways must be found to rapidly decrease oil demand as leaving it to the market will necessarily lead to a new ‘Great Depression’.
Alarm is spreading that President Bush may seek a military draft, or mobilize more of the National Guard and Army Reserve, to obtain enough combat troops to wage his bogged-down Iraq war.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank believe that, after 2008, almost half the opportunities for oil companies will be in LNG, GTL and the Venezuelan and Canadian oil sands, with deep water projects making up another quarter of the expected openings. But oil companies diverge on the need to get into such projects.
BHP Billiton will consider spinning off its oil and gas division if the market continues to undervalue the business, according to Chip Goodyear, chief executive of the Anglo-Australian group.
One of the reasons for the crippling food shortage is a radical change in the pattern of cultivation, from wheat – the country’s staple commodity – to poppy.
Shell Canada outlined $4 billion worth of expansions and de-bottlenecking at its Athabasca Oil Sands Project yesterday. The work will eventually bring the project to 500,000 barrels per day in production.
Testifying before a House Small Business subcommittee on behalf of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Missouri farmer Hal Swaney said increased energy costs over the 2003 through 2004 growing season have cost farmers more than $6 billion in added expenses to produce the food and fiber for this country.
Almost anytime is a good time for Alan Greenspan and other presidents or directors of central banks in Europe and Japan to remind the faithful that “extreme oil prices” act as a kind of energy tax, and in official central banker mythology ‘can only reduce economic growth,’ and of course raise inflation.
