Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-The most recent economic downturn is a peak oil recession
-Oil: future world shortages are being drastically underplayed, say experts
-Oil reflects dollar moves, not market dynamics: Yergin
-Is the world awash in oil?
A weekly review including:
– The day of the whistleblower
– A New focus for the World Energy Outlook
– Production and prices
– Oil and the recovery
– Quote of the Week
– Briefs
I decided to write another rather basic level article because there are so many people I meet who have heard a bit about the oil situation, and it is hard to point to one single article to give an overview of some of the current issues. Regular readers will find many repeats of graphs. There are some new ones, as well, from the Denver ASPO-USA conference. Because there is so much to tell, the story gets a little long.
As I watched the recently released film about Amelia Earhart, I couldn’t help thinking about parallels between her journey and ours as an industrial culture.
As peak oil sets in while the world is growing thirstier for oil, what benchmark should be used to assess if you are weaning yourself from oil?
A front page report November 9, 2009 in The Guardian tells us that “Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower.”
The IEA 2009 World Energy Outlook, the report which informs energy policy for 28 nations, was released on Tuesday in London. The report’s key focus this year was climate change…
This is part 2 of my post on oil demand. This time I look at the Non-OECD demand and how it may impact global oil demand. Based on data from the 2009 BP Statistical Review, the OECD oil consumption in 2008 decreased by -3.2% while demand within emerging economies increased by +3.1%. The report also indicates that oil production from OECD countries has been declining since 1997 and is now below 23% of the world production.
Last week, two remarkable events at World Oil magazine raised the decibel level about shale gas. First, WO columnist Art Berman’s latest shale piece, intended for the November issue, was yanked prior to publication. Berman immediately resigned…Fischer, the magazine’s editor for 11 years, reports that he fought the column’s cancellation, then took two days off. “When I returned I was fired,” Fischer relates. “I wasn’t told why, but neither was I surprised.”
-IEA Whistleblower Claims Agency Has Downplayed Looming Oil Shortage
-“It’s Really Bad” – Oil Supplies Intentionally Overstated
-Looming oil crunch played down: IEA whistleblower
-Did the US pressure the IEA over oil supply forecasts?
The claim that market forces will inevitably take care of energy shortfalls due to peak oil is common enough these days. Unfortunately for such optimistic notions, there’s reason to think that in an environment of economic contraction caused by geological limits to energy, market forces may well push money away from any investments that could help the situation.
On the eve of the International Energy Agency’s release of its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), a whistleblower at the IEA claims the agency “has been deliberately underplaying a looming [oil] shortage for fear of triggering panic buying” in the world markets.
