Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The world’s supply of petroleum is finite. Demand is increasing rapidly. And discoveries of new oil fields are declining. These three trends chart a collision course for the world’s most crucial commodity and its economy. But experts disagree about when the crunch will hit. Get this: Some say seriously the peak of global oil production is close at hand.
The U.S. “already has” a lock on Canada’s energy in the form of a stupendously dumb NAFTA agreement signed in the early 90s.
China may not have a flamboyant oil tycoon like Russia’s Yukos ex-boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky but Beijing is embroiled in a similar, albeit smaller, court battle over oil and money as the Kremlin.
China’s oil giant Sinopec Group has signed a $70 billion worth oil and natural gas deal with Iran; China’s biggest energy deal with the No. 2 OPEC producer.
Nobody disagrees that production eventually will peak, because the amount of oil in the Earth is finite. It also is clear that population increases and rapid economic growth, particularly in the United States, the world’s wealthiest nation, and China, the world’s most-populus nation, will continue to drive up demand.
With crude oil prices reaching the $50-plus per barrel mark last week, Louisiana farmers are facing an unsettling outlook for energy and other inputs as they look ahead to the 2005 growing season.
Energy production through oil and gas has already peaked and ‘depletion of resources cannot be solved just by switching over to alternative sources’ said M S Srinivasan, India’s additional secretary of the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
As the Russian government moves to reassert its sway over
the country’s lucrative energy business, the British oil and gas
giant BP would seem to be an obvious target. The company’s 50-50
Russian venture, called TNK-BP, is posting record profits, and now
pumps one of every five barrels of BP’s worldwide oil supply.
MEXICO CITY — While record-high oil prices have filled the coffers of Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, experts say the good times mask a looming problem in the country’s energy sector.
The Cantarell oil field in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico’s biggest, is running low. Exactly when it will run out, nobody knows.
ROYAL Dutch/Shell yesterday raised fears that it may have to write down its reserves by more than 1.5 billion barrels — 10 per cent of its total reserves — after the Anglo-Dutch oil company admitted that it was considering its fifth “volume adjustment” this year.
While Delta, like other airlines, cut about $600 million in costs between 2001 and 2003, its fuel costs at the same time went up by about $120 million. Given that oil prices have increased by roughly three-quarters in a year, the fuel expense for 2004 will be much worse.
Climate change will impact every one of us. For this reason, governments all over the world are making moves to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. Geosequestration is the new kid on the block in energy technology research. It has become very popular politically, so much so that Australia’s Howard Government, following the lead of the US, is investing heavily in it. But at what cost?
