Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
I’m writing you today about Tim de Christopher. For you that don’t know his name, here’s a short story: In its last days, the Bush administration was selling off 77 parcels of federal land totaling 150,000 acres for drilling, a last round of favors to the oil and gas industry. The leases were on wilderness areas, including some areas next to national parks. Business as usual. Then a student at the University of Utah named Tim de Christopher showed up.
-The Invisible Food Crisis
-Food prices reach record highs
-Climbing fuel prices trigger alarm
-Caught in the Food Pirates’ Trap
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
It was heartbreaking to be at Camden Council last night. Because of the government-imposed cuts libraries, playgroups, breakfast clubs and after school care are being swept away in a borough that has always prided itself on its public services, especially for the young. Protests outside the council turned into chaotic and ugly scenes and the police prevented demonstrators entering the building on public order grounds. A few made it in and loudly berated councillors for cutting services. Council had to be adjourned at one point.
The call reportedly arrived from Cairo. Pizza for the protesters, the voice said. It was Saturday, February 20th, and by then Ian’s Pizza on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin, was overwhelmed. One employee had been assigned the sole task of answering the phone and taking down orders.
– Protests in Oman Spread
– The Price of Food is at the Heart of This Wave of Revolutions
– The Arab Democratic Revolt
– Gorbachev: The US Must Take Blame for Fanning Islamic Fundamentalism
– The destiny of this pageant lies in the Kingdom of Oil
– Saudi Arabia: A Brief Guide to its Politics and Problems
– Libya celebrates as Gaddafi’s remote strongholds rise against him
– Building a new Libya
– Britain and Libya: “No line in the sand”
– The Vacuum After Qaddafi
Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s threat to fight to the death rather than cede power set off a rising tide of violence this week which has seen hundreds, maybe thousands killed. The future of the regime and the country still hangs in the balance. The growing chaos has also spread to Libya’s oil industry as companies shut down production and foreign workers flee.
Social, political, demographic, and other conditions in Libya are significantly different than in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain or elsewhere, so it is not surprising that the progress of the revolution has differed too.
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-Saudi ruler offers $36bn to stave off uprising amid warning oil price could double
-Political unrest casts a shadow over Desertec energy project
-All eyes on Bahrain as Gulf tremors frighten oil markets
-Iran’s ‘silent’ protests
In truth, the spare capacity that the world cares about — that the oil futures market cares about — is not the inventory level. But rather, actual production capacity that can be brought on immediately. You can see the problem, from a price standpoint. If the world loses Libya’s 1.5 mbpd production for 90-120 days, and starts drawing down above-ground inventories, this only makes the inventory cushion that much thinner for any new supply disruptions. The question on the mind of the oil market therefore is not Mr. Fyfe’s 1.6 billion barrels of crude, but whether countries like Kuwait, the U.A.E. and especially Saudi Arabia or even Russia can lift supply. Immediately.
